Zero Hour

  Joe’s plan was in full bloom now. He’d set up a pulley system, running the cable from the front of the last Jeep, around the tubular steel brush guard on one of the SUVs, and attached it to the tail end of another SUV.

  His plan was simple: push the hooked vehicle into the water and over the edge. As it dropped, the cable would drag the Jeep forward rapidly enough for Joe to pop the clutch and get the engine going.

  Ready to go, he checked on Bradshaw once more, crossed his fingers, and moved to the SUV he was using as a deadweight. He couldn’t open the windows without power, so he smashed them in. He opened all the doors and the tailgate and even popped the hood. Anything to let air out and water in to help the SUV sink faster.

  He put the transmission in neutral, released the brake, and then hopped out. Digging his feet hard into the sand, Joe began pushing. Little by little, the SUV began to move, its pace quickened as it reached the firmer soil at the water’s edge. With a last great shove, Joe pushed it off and stepped back, almost losing his balance and tumbling into the toxic soup.

  The SUV rolled out and began to fill with water. It nosed over just like the first vehicle had, then stopped as the wire cable pulled taut.

  Joe ran back to the Jeep and hopped in. He made sure the key was turned and released the brakes. It began to move forward, slowly at first, but then picking up speed as the sinking SUV pulled on the cable.

  Joe waited as long as he could and then popped the clutch.

  The engine surged, stuttered, and then fired up. He pressed in the clutch and held it as he hit the brakes. The Jeep stopped a few feet shy of ramming the pulley vehicle.

  Foot still on the clutch, he gave the Jeep some gas, revving the engine. After a few seconds, it began to hum nicely, and when he finally let off the gas, it went into a steady idle. With the parking brake firmly set, Joe got out and moved to the winch at the front of the Jeep.

  He put a hand on the release lever and yanked it downward. The jaws of the drum parted, releasing the metal cord. It flung forward under great tension and whiplashed across the pulley car, shattering the windshield, before sliding across the sand and following the sinking SUV down into the lake.

  Joe gave a salute to the departing vehicle and climbed back into the Jeep. He put the radio on the charger and watched as the red light lit up.

  He glanced at his own reflection in the mirror. “You’re good, Zavala,” he said to himself. “You’re very good.”

  Guessing it would take several minutes for the radio to store up enough power to be useful, Joe decided to check on his patient.

  He jumped out of the idling Jeep and moved quickly to where Bradshaw lay. The man was unconscious, but he was still breathing.

  “Hang in there,” Joe whispered.

  Out on the lake, the water began to stir. A slight bulge was forming near the center, halfway between the shore and the floating truck. Something was moving beneath the surface, like a killer whale charging the beach.

  For a second, Joe hoped it might be Kurt in the speeder. But the object broke through and revealed itself as a twenty-foot-long submersible with a wide, rubber-skirted bottom. The reason for that design became clear seconds later as the sub rose up out of the water and began racing across the surface, leaving a wide swath of foam beneath and behind it.

  “A submersible-hovercraft,” Joe marveled. “That’s even better than a truck that swims.”

  For twenty seconds, the hovercraft traveled northward along the surface, then it turned slightly to the east, raced out of the water on the far side of the pit and up onto the ramp.

  Joe realized he was witnessing the group who’d ambushed the ASIO making their escape.

  “I don’t think so,” he said. He rushed to the idling Jeep and climbed in. He paused for a second, considering Bradshaw. There was nothing he could do for him. But as soon as the radio was charged, he’d call for help.

  He jammed the transmission into gear and stomped on the gas pedal. The tires spun in the gravel as he tore off after the fleeing hovercraft.

  • • •

  DOWN IN THE EMPTY STATION, Kurt continued to look for Hayley. He climbed and checked two additional levels as quickly as he could before finally pushing through the uppermost hatch and coming out in some kind of control room.

  In the far corner, two figures sat bound and gagged on the floor. Kurt ran over to them and pulled the gag off Hayley’s mouth.

  “Explosives,” she blurted out, not even uttering a hello. “Under the panel.”

  Kurt cut her loose and left her with the knife as he rushed to the panel and slid beneath it. He found the blocks of plastic explosives and the timer. It read 01:07 and was counting down by the second.

  He took out the wire cutters as Hayley freed the guy beside her. He was about to snip one of the wires when they rushed up behind him, crowding him more than he would have liked.

  “Either of you know anything about explosives?” he asked.

  They shook their heads.

  “We should get out of here,” Hayley said, gulping.

  The clock hit 00:59. They had less than a minute. Kurt shook his head. “We’ll never make it.”

  The guy from the ASIO reached for the timer. Kurt slapped his hand. “Press the wrong button and you’ll blow us to bits.”

  He pointed. A tiny lock symbol was illuminated at the top of the screen. If Kurt was right, they would need to enter a code to stop the countdown.

  “We can’t just sit here,” the guy said.

  “Forty seconds,” Hayley mentioned.

  Kurt studied the detonator. It was a standard industrial design, not a bombmaker’s toy. He’d used similar devices scuttling a few ships. If he was right, it should fail-safe instead of fail-deadly. It was connected to two wires, red and blue.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  The ASIO guy bumped Kurt, trying to get a better look.

  “What’s your name?” Kurt asked.

  “Wiggins.”

  “Back up, Wiggins,” Kurt said.

  “Twenty seconds,” Hayley said stressfully.

  “What good will that do?” Wiggins asked.

  “It will get you out of my space.”

  They eased off of him a bit, and Kurt opened the wire strippers as wide as possible.

  “Ten seconds,” Hayley said. “Nine . . . eight . . .”

  Kurt didn’t wait for her to hit seven. He reached out and snipped both wires as emphatically as he could.

  Nothing happened. No fire, no explosion, nothing. The timer stopped at 00:00.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Hayley said.

  Appearing ready to collapse, she put her arms on Kurt’s shoulders and lay her forehead against his back.

  “Great job,” Wiggins said. “Did Bradshaw send you?”

  “Not exactly,” Kurt replied. Before he could explain, a rumble shook the structure, followed by several concussions in rapid succession. It sounded like distant thunder. The floor tilted slightly and then came back to level. The whole station swayed and creaked like an old tree in the wind.

  “The dome,” Hayley said. “They were going to blow that too.”

  Another round of explosions went off, and this time the shock wave hit like a sledgehammer. The sound of snapping cables followed. Moments later, the crunching impact of a collision knocked all of them to the floor.

  Kurt remembered that the dome was above them and anchored to them, and he could only imagine what its destruction would do to the dilapidated laboratory. The sound of metal sliding on metal and the appearance of pinpoint jets of water blasting across the room gave him his answer.

  Joe was racing across the desert in a V-8 Jeep Wrangler. With its big knobby tires, powerful engine, and high centerline clearance, the Jeep’s off-road capabilities were among the best in the world. But they didn’t compare to the ability
of a hovercraft to cross rugged terrain.

  Joe had to work hard to keep the Jeep upright as it scrambled through ravines, across uneven ground, and around patches of scrub too thick to drive through. The hovercraft simply flew over them and continued in a straight line.

  He was losing ground fast until he came to a smooth section that reminded him of the Utah Salt Flats. Out on the level terrain, Joe began to catch up. As he closed the gap, the light on the handheld radio finally turned green.

  Joe snatched it off the charger and pressed the talk switch.

  “ASIO, do you read?” he said, assuming that’s who was listening. “Anyone out there?”

  A scratchy reply came back. “Bradshaw, is that you?”

  “Negative,” Joe said. “Bradshaw has been injured. You have several agents down.”

  “Who is this?” the voice on the other end of the line asked.

  Joe explained the best he could, and also explained that he was chasing the suspected shooters westbound through the desert.

  “What road are you on?”

  “I’m not on any road,” Joe said. “We’re heading cross-country, due west from the flooded mine. Right into the sun.”

  A garbled reply came back, and then the radio cut out once again. Joe slammed it back onto the charger. Ahead of him, the hovercraft was turning, skidding sideways. It ended up rotated 180 degrees and pointing right at him.

  Joe began to swerve, but it was a little too late. Something flashed, as much in his mind as in his eyes, and Joe’s world went instantly dark.

  • • •

  “WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE,” Kurt shouted, ushering everyone to the ladder.

  Hayley went first, Wiggins in the middle, and Kurt bringing up the rear.

  Another impact jarred the structure, and Kurt almost lost his grip. He grabbed the hatch above and pulled it down, but it wouldn’t seal. Like a door that couldn’t be closed because the frame had swollen, the hatch would not pull flush.

  “The impact must have warped the deck plates,” Wiggins suggested.

  Kurt gave it one more try, putting all his weight on it, but the tiny gap remained. Water began to run down the inside of the ladder well, water that Kurt had no interest in touching.

  “Go,” he said to Wiggins.

  The two of them slid to the bottom level and soon made it to the airlock. Hayley was already there, pulling on her helmet. They were wearing dry suits. With gloves and full helmets, they theoretically wouldn’t be exposed to the toxins of the lake.

  Water was now pouring down, accompanied by the creaking and groaning of metal stressed to the limits. The station would implode in moments.

  “We can’t go straight up,” Kurt said. “You’ve both been down here for too long. You’ll end up with the bends like the courier did.”

  “We have to get away,” she said.

  “Grab on to the handholds,” Kurt said. “I’ll tow you as far away as we can go.”

  She nodded and sealed her helmet.

  Kurt climbed onto the speeder and then closed and locked the canopy. The lights went out as Hayley and Wiggins were pulling on their tanks. Kurt switched on the headlight of the speeder so they could see.

  With their air supplies attached, Wiggins gave Hayley the thumbs-up. She returned the gesture.

  “Here we go,” Kurt said to himself.

  They pushed the speeder back into the immersion pool and dropped in after it. As soon as they’d grabbed on, Kurt expelled all the air from the flotation tank, and they began to sink.

  They cleared the bottom of the portal in three seconds.

  “Hold on!” Kurt yelled, hoping they could somehow hear him.

  He twisted the throttle slowly, and the water jet that powered the speeder began to thrust. He accelerated slowly, but to only about half speed. Any faster and his passengers would be pulled off.

  With the headlights blazing, Kurt stared through the rose-tinted water. He dove a few feet to avoid one of the guide wires and continued forward. Compressional explosions came from behind as compartments of the station gave way.

  A group of flashes traveled up and down the vertical collection of pipes that hung from the center of the damaged dome. More explosives being triggered.

  Each flash backlit the structure the way lightning might silhouette an abandoned building. What was left of the dome had already collided with the station and slid off to the side. It scraped downward and lodged against a seam, an act which proved to be the last nail in the coffin for the lab.

  The hull plating buckled, and the water crushed it inward, mashing it like a giant foot stepping on a tin can. A surge of light and air blasted outward, sending a shock wave across the flooded pit. Hayley and Wiggins were actually sucked backward toward the station for a second before being thrown violently forward as clouds of sediment exploded out of the dark.

  As the concussion wave hit, the speeder was tossed around like a child’s toy. Kurt banged his head against the canopy as it tumbled. He spun around and caught sight of Hayley and Wiggins just as the churning waves of silt swallowed them whole.

  The noise reached Joe through the fog of sleep. At first, it sounded like a sprinkler irrigating a field, repetitive and sharp, only slower: chih-chih-chih-chih-chih . . .

  Joe’s mind wandered to the stretches of farmland he’d grown up around in New Mexico and the high-pressure irrigation that was used to bring the desert to life. Somehow, even half asleep, he knew he wasn’t in New Mexico.

  When he opened his eyes, the world was a blur. He tasted something salty and put a hand to his mouth, it came away red with blood. Blood that was trickling from a gash in his forehead, running down his nose and onto his lips.

  His vision began to clear, and he realized he was in the driver’s seat of a motor vehicle. The windshield in front of him was smashed in a starburst pattern that lined up with his head. The nose of the vehicle was pointed down at a sharp angle, like he’d driven into a ditch.

  Even as his other symptoms cleared, the strange noise continued. It even became more distinct, sounding for all the world like a giant fan turning at moderate speed.

  Shouts from outside the Jeep reached his ears.

  “Over here,” someone said.

  “Get a crowbar.”

  The door beside him moved. Fingers appeared around the edge and wrenched it several inches. A face appeared in the gap.

  “Are you okay, mate?” a man in army fatigues asked.

  Joe put a hand to the gash on his forehead. “I’ve been better.”

  “Sit tight. We’re gonna get you out.”

  The soldier went to work on the bent and twisted door, helped by another soldier who’d brought a crowbar. Together, they forced the door wider an inch at a time.

  As they worked, Joe’s memory returned. He was in Australia. He’d been chasing after another vehicle. He tried to peer around the starburst in the windshield for any sign of the hovercraft, thinking for a moment that they might have hit head-on. He saw only the dirt wall of the gully he’d gone into.

  The door beside him finally broke loose, and the soldiers reached in to help him. With care, they pulled him free of the mangled wreck. As one of them searched the Jeep, the other led Joe out of the ditch and toward a tan-colored NH90 helicopter with Australian military markings.

  Now Joe realized where the odd sound had been coming from. The rotors above the big transport were still turning.

  A stern-looking man in a black suit met him a few feet from the helicopter’s door.

  “Are you the one who called us in?” the man asked. “On Bradshaw’s radio?”

  Joe nodded. “What happened?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The guys I was chasing,” Joe explained, “did you catch them? They were in a hovercraft.”

  The man raised an eyebro
w. “Hovercraft?”

  “I know it sounds crazy,” Joe said, “but that’s what they were driving. Afraid I can’t give you a make and model.”

  The man shook his head glumly. “Whatever they were in, we didn’t find them.” He motioned toward the open door of the helicopter. “We have to debrief you. This bird will take you back to Alice Springs.”

  “What about Bradshaw?” Joe asked.

  “He was medevaced out thirty minutes ago.”

  “Thirty minutes ago?” Confusion swept over Joe. He felt like he’d made the call no less than thirty seconds ago. Even given his few minutes of unconsciousness, they couldn’t have gotten to Bradshaw that quickly.

  Only then did he realize it was nearly dark. The sun had been dropping toward the horizon during his chase, but it was long gone now. Only a faded orange glow lingered in the darkening sky.

  The helicopter blades began to accelerate above them as the pilot spooled up for liftoff. “It took us a while to find you,” the man explained.

  “What about Kurt?”

  “Who?”

  “Kurt Austin.”

  “I don’t know that name,” the man said. He took Joe’s arm and ushered him toward the door. “Please, we have to go.”

  Joe shook loose from the man’s grasp. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened to my friend. He went down into the mine to rescue your divers.”

  The official made a strange face. “There was an explosion,” he said. “If your friend survived, he’s been flown out. But no one’s left at the lake now except the dead.”

  With a sick feeling in his heart, Joe climbed aboard the helicopter and strapped himself in. As he flew, night tightened its grip on the land. By the time he arrived at the Australian military base outside Alice Springs, the sky was like black cloth punctured by some of the brightest stars Joe had ever seen.

  He was taken to the infirmary first. A young doctor looked him over and tested for signs of chemical or metal poisoning. After informing Joe that he’d live, the doctor left and an even younger nurse came in. She stitched up the gash in his head where he’d smashed it into the windshield.