She put her hand on his leg, and his eyes popped open. “Dr Meltzer, where exactly is the Viva Silva in relation to Baranof Island?”

His eyes bulged slightly, as he looked from her hand to her face. “Very close actually, only about fifty miles. It’s closed now, but—”

“Thank you.” Sonya was up and out of his office before he could say another word.

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 21

The booming thump made everyone freeze on the drill ship. Captain Boris Gorkin’s round eyes jumped to his Chief Engineer, Olaf Kozlov, and saw that the man’s face was drained of color. Both men knew what the sound could mean, but still they waited, perhaps hoping it was anything but what they feared most.

The next sound was like the tearing of a titan’s sailcloth, and its vibrations passed through the ocean, the ship, and then tickled the soles of their feet. It was immediately drowned out by the seismic alarms competing with the drill-shaft stability warnings from the control room.

Kozlov shook his head. “It is breaking apart.”

“It has to hold; it has to.” Gorkin spoke through hard-gritted teeth. He moved to grab Kozlov in one huge hand and shake him. “Fix it… do something.” The man was supposed to be his expert, and was paid a fortune. Now he wanted to freeze up when he was needed the most. Gorkin shook him again.

Kozlov grabbed at Gorkin’s hand, twisting. “Drop the shaft rods; we need to get out of here.” He looked about to scream and his eyes were round and wet. “The seabed is collapsing for miles; there is nothing we can do. We’ll be swamped.”

Gorkin erupted, shaking the man until his eyes rolled in his head. “Bastard! I’ll lose everything.” His turned left then right, indecision wracking him. He held onto to his engineer’s shirtfront. “No, we’re staying, we’re miles from the penetration site.” He grimaced. “We drop those shafts and we’re finished.”

Senchov’s mouth worked and then twitched up into an insane grin. “Concrete… we can pump concrete down to plug it; create a seal.”

The next sound was like a thousand thunderstorms just over the horizon. But both men knew the storm was coming from somewhere much closer – beneath them. The Viktor Dubynin was tugged hard in the water as if its wrist-thick anchor cables were like fishing lines that had each hooked a massive fish.

The drill shaft snapped then, like a cannon shot, making every alarm, horn and bell scream, ring and roar in warning and compete for the honor of splitting the eardrums of the entire crew.