Michaela uttered a piteous cry as her arm slammed the hatch rim. Then she was out, on her feet on the wet and pitching hull. Kel helped her make it to where the launch was tied alongside. Kevina, who’d been standing at the wheel, reached out as Michaela braced her butt on the gunwale and swung her legs over into the launch. From there, with Kevina’s help, it was a quick drop to the cushions on the back seat.

“That’s a lot of blood,” Kevina said darkly as she pulled the first-aid kit from its bracket and began scrubbing at the matted blood on the side of Michaela’s head. She could feel the cloth pull in the coagulated mess on her cheek.

“Where’s Jaim and Varina?” Michaela squinted against Capella’s light as she glanced around. There should be another bright yellow submarine bobbing in the blinding light. They’d blown ballast first. Should have beaten Michaela’s craft to the surface. The second sub should have surfaced within meters of theirs. But there was nothing but rising and falling waves in any direction. Just the big white Pod a couple hundred meters away.

“That thing took them,” Kevina said bitterly.

“Took them?”

“We lost any kind of telemetry when it grabbed their sub. We’re still waiting. Yosh is watching the instruments. When that thing gets finished doing whatever it’s doing, they’ll pop up. Jaim blew the ballast. The sub’s got positive buoyancy, so it’s just a matter of time. That creature can’t hold them underwater forever.”

“How can it hold them underwater? They’re in a submarine, for God’s sake.” Michaela tried to make her wounded brain work. Thoughts kept slipping away.

“Despite as mean and strong as that thing looked,” Kevina told her shortly, “it can’t crush the hull. Given the possible biomechanics, Odinga figured out the theoretical crush capacity of those claws. He thinks the beast can mangle the mounting hardware for the cameras and mechanical arm, but those pincers can’t come close to putting a dent in the sub. They just have to wait it out.”

Wait it out?

At the hatch, Kel helped Casey out, walked the woman to the side of the launch, and steadied her as she climbed aboard. Then he closed and dogged the sub’s hatch. He paused for a moment, taking in the damage to the ballast tank where a valve had been bent and broken. Next Kel tried to get a glimpse of the trashed propeller guard before giving it up as a lost cause until they could get the vehicle out of the water.

He swung over the launch’s side and took charge of the line tied to the sub as Kevina cast off and throttled up, easing the launch out as the tow line came taut.