Chapter 31
“Ineed comms back online,” I said when I found Wong in the control room.
His brow wrinkled. "I'm sorry. It's just not possible. You heard Tristan. We've retracted the buoy. It's too risky to leave it at the surface. We could permanently lose satellite communication, and that would inhibit the rest of the mission.”
“This is an emergency situation.”
Wong exhaled an exasperated sigh, then shrugged. "Hey, it's your show now. If you want the satcom buoy up, I'll put it up. But it's your responsibility if something happens to it.”
"I'll take that responsibility."
Wong manned the controls and surfaced the buoy. The monitoring screen lit up. "I'm telling you, this is a bad idea. It’s pushing the tether beyond tolerances. It’s pretty rough up there.”
The bandwidth of the AquaLink was too low to send video files. You’d be lucky to get a long text out. In this weather, it was unreliable and probably wouldn’t work. The DSV was already en route back to the island. The farther it got away, the weaker the connection.
Once the satellite buoy had reached the surface, I sent a quick text to Isabella, forwarding the proof of life video.
Then I sent it to the sheriff. He’d have to handle this.
There was no way for me to deal with this at the moment.
I typed a text back to the kidnappers, but the signal went dead before I could send it.
An alarm sounded, and red lights flashed on the command console.
Wong glared at me. "I told you this was a bad idea.”
I knew what happened. I didn’t need to ask. "We lost the buoy.”
“It severed from the tether. Congratulations. Now we have no satcom.”
My jaw clenched with frustration.
I connected via Bluetooth to the command console.
The AquaLink would relay the message to the gateway on the DSV.
From there, it would go out over their internet connection.
That was the hope, anyway. I sent a reply to the kidnappers, but I wasn’t sure it would ever get to them.
In these conditions, the AquaLink was highly unreliable.
"You want to tell me what's going on?" Wong said. "You want to tell me why we’re risking the mission and our lives?"
"I'm dealing with two situations. One of them, I can talk about. One of them, I can't. One of them is a kidnapping. And for now, there's nothing I can do about it.”
The disclosure surprised Wong. A solemn frown played on his face.
"Is the mini-sub fully recharged?" I asked.
"Should be. How far are you going?”
"I don't know. What’s the effective range?”
"'You've got 8 to 10 hours of battery time, depending on usage, with roughly 24 hours of auxiliary power for scrubbers and life-support systems. Plan accordingly."
JD and I hurried through the habitat to the moon pool.
Trask approached us along the way. “Is everything okay?”
“Sure.”
“All this cloak and dagger stuff. Wong seems pretty upset. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. There’s just been a situation that we need to deal with.”
“What kind of situation?”
I told him about the kidnapping. I figured it might placate him for a bit.
“That’s terrible,” he said. “And now comms are down.” He shook his head. “What are you going to do?”
I didn’t have time for chit-chat. “I’m not sure. If you’ll excuse me.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” he said, backing off.
JD and I reached the moon pool and gathered supplies—drysuits, wetsuits, rebreathers, bail out bottles, a plasma torch, and a few spear guns just in case. We climbed aboard the sub, and Jack started running diagnostic checks. I looked over the gear and made sure everything was in working order.
Elana climbed into the sub with us. “Where are you going?"
"For a little cruise," I said.
With a worried brow, she said, "You're in no condition to go anywhere."
"I feel great," I said, lying through my teeth.
"You look like shit."
"Thank you, it's a new style I’m cultivating. It's very popular these days.”
She frowned at me. "I don't understand. Why do you have to go out now? What's happening? Wong looks upset.”
"I wish I could tell you more, but I can't.”
She rolled her eyes. “What are you two, secret agents now?”
I smirked. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”
Her lips scrunched in the cutest way, and she exhaled through her nose. “Well, I’m going with you.”
I laughed.
“No. You’re not. Sorry.”
“Well, I'm not leaving," she said, folding her arms.
"You want me to forcibly remove you?"
"I'd like to see you try.”
I stared at her. "This is cute, but I'm serious. We've got work to do.”
"I'm serious too.”
"Newsflash, right now, you’re still a suspect in a murder."
She gave me a flat look.
"We’re dealing with a national security issue. That's all I can say.”
Her brow wrinkled with confusion. "National security?”
"I’ve said too much already.”
"Now I'm really intrigued."
"Then you’re going to have to stay intrigued.”
She frowned at me. "Do you really think I’m a killer?”
"The jury is still out."
She sneered at me playfully. After a huff, she said, "Okay. Fine. You're on your own.”
She started to go when I said, “Which sub did Weyland take before he died?”
Confusion tightened her brow. “This one, I think. Why?”
“Pull up the nav history. I want to see where they went.”
Her eyes narrowed with curiosity, then she moved to the helm. Elana pulled up the history, and JD and I hovered around the screen.
Elana squinted. “It looks like it’s been deleted.”
I shared a look with Jack.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”