Jack watched her go for a moment. “We pack the raft with everything we need or even might need… and break the doors off the pod; they’ll be our extra oars.”

Cate turned her head slowly, looking from Abby, to the huge cliff wall. The cave drawings were lost in the darkness now, but she remembered all the bodies that seemed to float beneath the monstrous shark.

She then looked out over the steaming sea. There was nothing here for them now. “The least bad option it is then. Ready when you are.”

“Let’s do this,” said Greg, reaching down to grab one side of the raft. He turned to the lone figure of Abby. “Abby, c’mon babe. All a-boooard.”

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 18

The Bering Sea, ten miles west of the Baker-Shevardnadze Line

– 168° 58’37”

The Russian drill ship, the Viktor Dubynin, groaned and tugged against its sea anchors. The six wrist-thick cables whipped tight in the air, flicking spray and causing even their best seamen to grab railings, table tops, anything, as the powerful vessel jerked sharply in the rough water.

Captain Boris Gorkin exhaled blue smoke into the bridge room, as chief engineer Olaf Kozlov bent over a computer screen that showed a graphic representation of the seabed below them.

“We are through the shell and into the source liquid. As we expected, it is sea water.” He lifted his radio to speak furiously to his rig team for a few seconds. “Okay, capping now…”

Kozlov gritted his teeth, leaning in at the screen as the numbers spiked. “Ach, we have instability in the crust.”

Gorkin turned, his eyes half lidded. From Brogidan Yusoff’s perspective, it was his responsibility for breaching the crustal coating over the subterranean liquid bed, attaching the extraction pipes, and then waiting for the package to be in place. His success bonus would be six figures. But only if everything went to plan. If anything went wrong, he’d damn well make sure it wasn’t his head that was on the block – literally.

He watched closely as Kozlov grunted at the screen, his teeth still bared, and veins now popping at his temples. “Easing.” He started to nod, his face relaxing. “Stabilizing...” He straightened. “…and capped.” He plonked down in his seat and grinned. “Ready and awaiting object extraction.”

“Everything okay now?” Gorkin lumbered over, looking over the man’s shoulder at the screen.

Kozlov shrugged. “Sometimes the skin over the bed is weaker in some places more than others. You can’t know until you start drilling. This area’s crust layer must be particularly shallow… and brittle. Not ideal.” He cracked his knuckles. “But all good now, we have a cap, and a firm seal. Ready to start pumping when they’re in place.”

“Will it hold?” Gorkin watched the man closely.

“Of course it will hold.” He grinned, his brows up.