Beyond the Ice Limit

37

BY THE TIME Glinn and Gideon arrived in the control center, it was a hive of activity. Glinn took his position at the central command console and Gideon stood to his right, at the secondary console. Chief Officer Lennart came up smartly, carrying an iPad.

“Brief me,” Glinn asked quietly.

“Very well. About twenty minutes ago, the surface sonobuoys began to register some unusual sounds coming from below. They were very similar to the types of P-waves that come from small temblors on the ocean floor, around one point five to two on the Richter scale. When we mapped the sources, we found they were clustered around the Baobab, but not coming from it.”

“Is it on the ship’s net? Bring it up.”

Lennart hit some keys on the console keyboard and a seismic map appeared.

Glinn frowned, staring at it, Gideon looking on. “Seems to form a roughly circular pattern around the creature.”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell how deep the temblors originate?”

“Shallow. At least, by seismic standards: a few hundred feet below the seafloor. But as we monitored, we noticed the temblors appear to be going deeper, and occurring farther away from the creature—basically, in a spreading and deepening ring.”

“As if the thing was extending its root system?”

“Perhaps. And that’s not all. As you know, we dropped a camera and anchored it to the seafloor, trained on the Baobab, monitoring it in green light. We’ve seen no unusual activity—until now. We’ve just begun to see some movement of the creature itself.”

“What kind of movement?”

“A swaying motion in the branches. Very slow. And the mouth, or suction hole, has extended itself several times while inspiring and expelling large amounts of seawater. The amplitude of the two-hertz sound it emits has gone up.”

“I want a detailed analysis of the temblors,” Glinn said. “With three-D mapping in real time.”

“Very good.”

There was a sudden commotion to the right, and a technician came running up. “A DSV, George, has just gone missing.”

Glinn frowned. “Missing? Aren’t they under lock and key—and alarmed?”

“The thief evaded electronic security.”

“Who was it?”

The technician spoke into his headphones, then listened. “They’re not sure, but it might have been a lab assistant named Frayne.”

“Frayne?” Gideon asked. “Isn’t he in the brig?”

The man listened for another moment. “He never arrived at the brig. They’ve had a detail looking for him, but it seems he managed to sneak down to the DSV hangar. They’re reviewing security video now…yeah, it’s definitely him.”

“Was he still drunk?”

“They don’t seem to have information on that. Wait…They’re saying he smelled of liquor.”

“How did Frayne get the DSV in the water?” Gideon asked. “It takes a crew to launch.”

“He seems to have had help. We’re still figuring that one out. Again, they’re reviewing the tapes, trying to determine exactly what happened.”

“Where’s he taking the DSV?”

“Straight down, it seems. Fast. No response on any frequencies.”

“Prepare John right away,” Glinn said. Then he turned to Gideon. “Get over to the hangar deck. You’re going down after him.”