Page 127 of Tides of Fire

Before opening the bay, he had stripped down and donned a set of scuba gear: an air tank and buoyancy vest, along with a mask and fins. He had been prepared to make the swim without them, but he had found the equipment stored in a neighboring locker. It was likely kept there in case someone needed to dive down and troubleshoot an anchoring problem.

It was a small bit of good fortune.

And I’ll need every bit of it.

From the open hatch, Monk stared out at the dark water, illuminated by the muted lights of the yacht. Waves washed a few yards below, covered in a thin layer of ash. He hoped it was enough to hide his passage. He eyed his target. The amphibious LCAC floated three hundred yards away, resting atop its huge pontoons. Its water jets idled to hold its position.

Past it, the Kermadec Islands blazed with distant fires.

With a deep scowl, he searched for the Chinese submarine. The attack boat could have submerged after their helicopter landing dock had arrived in these waters. Or it could be cruising on the far side of the yacht.

He leaned out and peered past the ship’s stern.

A large city glowed a quarter mile away. The helicopter dock—which he had learned was named theDayangxi—was a formidable sight. It stretched half the length of an aircraft carrier. Since arriving, it had hung back. Like its hunter-killer counterpart, it seemed to be only serving a support role, a backup for the autonomous net that had snared theTitan X.

As Monk studied the threat, a bolt of lightning cut across the skies, bright enough to drive him back into hiding. He waited for the flash to pass, for the world to fall darker, especially to any eyes peering his way.

Now or never.

He crossed to the hatch, sat down at its edge, and dropped smoothly into the water, trying to minimize any splash. He fell beneath the waves into a black abyss. He quickly adjusted his buoyancy vest and stopped his descent at three meters. He dared go no lower—and for very good reason.

I’m not alone down here.

In the darkness, the ocean hummed with the deep-throated burble of the idling LCAC. Sharper pings and eerie caterwauls reminded him of the UUVs and AUVs that also plied these waters.

As Monk set off, he hoped he would register on any sensors as normal sea life, just a wandering dolphin. Though, if that were the case, maybe scuba gear wasn’t the wisest choice for this mission. The hunters could be drawn by the metal of his air tank. Still, even if he had swum naked, he would’ve had to haul steel with him. He wasn’t about to raid the other ship unarmed.

He had a QBS pistol secured in a waterproof pocket of his vest and an assault rifle hanging from his chest.

With no other choice, he continued a slow swim, using the sound of the LCAC’s engines to guide him toward his target. He tried not to stir or thrash too much. He also prayed that the frequent volcanic booms,the electrical discharges in the sky, and the persistent electromagnetic surges would cover his passage.

It proved to no avail.

He had barely crossed a hundred yards when a sharp ping struck him from below. It was loud enough to stab his ears and pound his chest. Something had detected him. He pictured a lurker in the depths under him.

One of the steel sharks had found him.

2:27P.M.

Daiyu tried to comprehend what lay around theQianliyan. The bathyscaphe slowly dropped through a dead forest of coral. The towering field was a shattered ruin of branches and broken trunks, as if stamped through by a giant.

Through the darkness, she could make out glimmers of a shining forest off in the distance. Earlier, as theQianliyanhad descended toward the bottom, she had observed the breadth of the coral field. Beyond an irradiated zone, its shimmering brilliance had been breathtaking. It had rippled with iridescent cobalts, flaming crimsons, glowing jades.

As she had stared, she had flashed to her childhood in the city of Mohe, at the northernmost tip of the province of Heilongjiang. On rare occasions, her father would take her to the rooftop of their apartment, away from the squalor and bluster below. Those winter nights had been frigid, with snow underfoot and icicles hanging like glistening daggers. In the skies, the aurora borealis had swirled in great waves of shimmering emerald fire and shining eddies of glowing blues.

At those moments, her father would take her hand and whisper to her, using her pet name—Xiao Hu. He seldom called her hislittle tigeranymore, but he always did then. He declared the skies were on fire for her and had promised that they heralded a great destiny.

Daiyu squeezed her hands together now. Though far from superstitious, she took the sight of the glowing corals to be further evidence of that future destiny. It was as if the aurora borealis had descended here to remind her of her father’s promise.

Lieutenant Yang had a more prosaic take on it all, showing little interest beyond his personal stake. “The radiation levels are steadily climbing.”

Daiyu dismissed his fear. “We’re adequately insulated. And those we hunt are three thousand meters deeper. Yet, we’re still picking up their sonar pings. They clearly have not succumbed.”

She had ordered Yang to keep their descent silent. They had already closed the distance significantly due to their swifter plummet in the heavier vehicle. The others—believing they were alone—made no effort to hide themselves. In addition, theQianliyan’s onboard systems used their target’s pings to reveal the landscape below, piggybacking on their bathymetric soundings. The other submersible—which she knew was named theCormorant—acted like a flashlight in the dark, leading the way.

For now.

As theQianliyancontinued its descent, the coral forest vanished outside, replaced by sheer cliffs and broken rock. They had entered the fissure.

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