Chapter 27
"Okay, yes, I went in there shortly before the accident,” Marston said when we caught up with him in the control room. “But I did not sabotage anything!”
"You didn't think that would be a necessary thing to mention when we first interviewed you?"
Marston’s jaw tightened. "I didn't want to incriminate myself.”
"And withholding information doesn’t?"
Through gritted teeth, he said, "I am not guilty. I went in there to check on the recharge station. That's it.”
"Funny, that's the area you’ve been having problems with since day one," Jack said.
"Which is exactly why I went in there. I knew they’d be returning from their excursion, and the mini-sub would need to be recharged. I was just trying to make sure the system was functioning properly."
We both looked at him with skeptical eyes.
"Did you see anyone else in the area?”
Marston hesitated a moment. He looked around, then pulled us aside, into a neighboring passageway. "I didn't want to say anything earlier. But on my way in, I saw Elana coming out. I'm not sure what she was doing in there. That's not part of her functional area."
We both regarded him with skepticism. He’d say anything at this point.
"Can you think of any legitimate reason why she would have been in there?”
"No. I can't.”
This wasn’t a good look for him.
JD and I left the passageway and set out to find Elana.
She was in the moon pool, about to depart on a mission in one of the mini-subs. I shouted to her as she was climbing down into the vessel. "Elana!”
Her eyes snapped in my direction.
"Hold up for a moment. I need to talk to you.”
Wong stood at the edge of the moon pool and gave me an annoyed look. "Can this wait? She has a mission to perform, and we are on a timetable.”
“Why don’t you ride along, and we can kill two birds with one stone?” Elana shouted, her voice echoing off the bulkheads.
Seawater sloshed in the moon pool.
“I’ll stay here and hold down the fort,” JD said. “Be careful with that one.”
I hustled around the waters edge, climbed onto the top of the sub, then descended into the tiny space. I pulled the hatch shut behind me and sealed it, then took a seat at the helm.
Elana took her chair and powered up the vessel. After the safety checks, we exited the moon pool into the open ocean.
Elana worked the controls like a pro.
We cruised through the inky water, the massive floodlights illuminating the area just in front of the craft. Sonar mapped the sea floor and created a 3D image of the terrain ahead. It helped with navigation.
"What's the mission objective?” I asked.
"Inspect the satellite and solar buoy anchors.”
"Were you scheduled to go on this mission alone?"
"I'm not alone anymore, am I?”
"I guess not.”
"We’re required to do a certain number of solo excursions. But I don't mind the company.”
"All part of your immersion therapy," I said.
"You could say so.”
"This is definitely a tight space.”
"Somehow I find this liberating,” she said. “I feel like I'm in control of my own destiny when I pilot this thing.”
"So it's a control issue?”
She lifted an intrigued eyebrow. "Could be.” She thought for a moment. “Yes, I think a certain degree of control soothes me. It's a lack of control that I find problematic. The helplessness. You’re very perceptive, Deputy.”
“It’s my job.”
“And how is your job going? Are you any closer to the killer?”
“Perhaps,” I said with a grin.
She smirked.
"What if I told you control was an illusion?”
"I’d say something dismissive, then cling to my illusion.”
I chuckled.
"So, what is it I can do for you, Deputy?”
I got right down to business. "Why did you go into the engineering compartment before the incident?”
Elana gave me a curious look. "I went in there as part of a routine inspection. It's protocol to survey vital habitat processes when we come on our shifts. It helps us catch something before it becomes a problem.”
"Apparently, you didn't catch the problem with the breaker.” Then I added, “Or maybe you did?”
Her eyes narrowed at me. "Are you suggesting I sabotaged the breaker in order to kill Commander Weyland?”
"That's what I'm trying to figure out.”
"I went in there and took a quick look around. I didn't notice anything unusual. There were no alarms, no red lights flashing. I ran a diagnostic looking for faults, then returned to my station. That was three hours before the accident.”
“That’s not what Marston says.”
“What does Marston say?”
"Isn't that Quinn's job? Isn't she your technical officer and systems analyst?”
"Like I said, the operational readiness of this facility is everyone's responsibility.”
"Why didn't you mention that during our initial interview?”
"I thought I did. I guess it slipped my mind.”
"A lot of little details are slipping people's minds. Makes me feel like not everyone's been truthful.”
"It was three hours prior,” she repeated with emphasis.
“I've been nothing but truthful with you.” Her face scrunched as she thought for a moment, reconsidering it. “I don’t know. It’s easy to get disoriented.
Lose track of time. Maybe it wasn’t quite three hours. I don’t know. It’s kind of a blur.”
She was backtracking.
Another tremor rumbled, and a wave jolted the mini-sub.
The bulkheads rattled, and power cut out.
Propulsion stopped, and the vessel drifted forward, slowly sinking in the darkness.
We’d been hovering a few feet off the sea floor.
We didn't have far to sink. These mini-subs had a negative buoyancy in case of such power failure.
Usually, smaller submersibles had positive buoyancy and returned to the surface in case of emergency.
But a return to the surface under these conditions would mean death without adequate decompression.
The backup auxiliary power kicked on. It was enough to supply minimal lighting, the CO2 scrubbers, and some instrumentation. Not enough to power the thrusters.
We were dead in the water.