Chapter 38 - The Crush Depth
The submarine dipped sharply by the stern, throwing Claire, Dante, and Leo against the steel bulkheads.
"The scuttle charges weren't tied to the missiles!" Dante yelled, catching Claire with his good arm before she could hit the deck plates. "Sterling had a secondary timer!"
"The rear compartments are flooded!" Claire looked at the ballast telemetry. The green indicators for compartments five through eight had turned completely black. "We're taking on water faster than the main pumps can displace it! We're sinking down the trench wall!"
The hull groaned—a deafening, screeching howl of metal buckling under incomprehensible hydrostatic pressure. Rivets began to pop along the ceiling conduits, shooting across the bridge like high-velocity bullets. A jet of freezing, high-pressure seawater erupted from a burst pipe in the overhead, filling the bridge with a freezing mist.
Leo began to shriek again, terrified by the screaming metal and the ice-cold spray.
"The escape sphere!" Claire shouted, pointing toward the forward companionway. "The *Leviathan* has a deep-sea atmospheric escape capsule mounted behind the bow sonar dome! It’s rated for four thousand meters!"
"Will it hold all of us?" Dante demanded, his voice strained as he hauled her upright.
"It has to!"
They fought their way out of the bridge, battling gravity as the submarine tilted forty degrees down by the stern. The corridor was now a steep, slippery incline of steel. Seawater was already rushing up the companionway, reaching their knees—freezing, black, and relentless.
Dante took point, using his massive strength to haul Claire and the baby upward against the rushing torrent. His boots slipped on the wet decking, but he dug his fingers into the conduit tracks, dragging them inch by inch toward the bow.
"Almost there!" Claire shouted.
At the end of the forward corridor stood the circular titanium hatch of the escape sphere. The status light glowed green: **CAPSULE SEALED. READY FOR LAUNCH.**
Claire scrambled inside the cramped spherical compartment, securing Leo into the padded central survival harness. "Dante, get in! Get in!"
Dante pulled himself up to the hatch threshold, his face pale as ghost sheet. He gripped the outer dogging wheel, preparing to pull himself inside.
Suddenly, a massive shudder ripped through the *Leviathan*.
The bulkheads behind them buckled inward. A wall of pressurized seawater blasted through the forward corridor, knocking Dante backward off the ladder.
"Dante!" Claire screamed, lunging toward the hatch opening, catching Dante’s wrist with both hands.
Dante was hanging over the flooded companionway, the freezing water swirling around his waist, threatening to drag him down into the submarine’s flooded grave. His grip was slipping through her bloody, wet fingers.
"Claire," Dante whispered, looking up at her with clear, peaceful eyes. "Take the boy. Launch the pod."
"Shut up!" Claire roared, her muscles tearing as she hauled him with every ounce of military will she possessed. "You don't get to die, Dante Moretti! You don't get to leave this boy alone! PULL!"
With a scream of sheer defiance against the ocean itself, Claire Ellison hauled the mafia boss up through the hatch.
Dante tumbled into the sphere, landing on the steel deck plates.
Claire slammed the heavy circular hatch shut and spun the locking wheel until the mechanical dogs engaged. She threw herself into the pilot seat and hammered the manual launch lever:
**EMERGENCY JETTISON ACTIVATED.**
Explosive bolts sheared the capsule’s mooring struts.
With a violent, bone-rattling kick, the escape sphere shot outward from the disintegrating bow of the *Leviathan*, rocketing upward through the black abyss of the San Lorenzo Trench.
May you like
Behind them, through the capsule's tiny thick viewport, the massive silhouette of the *Leviathan* groaned one final time before collapsing inward under the immense pressure of the deep, vanishing into the eternal dark.
***
