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Chapter-2- Heeding the Call

Friday December 10, 2049 - day time South Pacific ...

Conner squinted."It's not Pendleton or his son. It's some sort of armed guns for hire."

James pushed his hand against his forehead. "God. We have nowhere to take cover out here."

Conner shrugged. "Under water. Bullets don't travel very far under water. Just a few feet. But without being able to breathe, I say we keep that as a last resort."

"Very funny." James peered through a week-old bullet hole in the hull. "They're armed to the teeth. This isn't going to go well."

"Those guns are computer locked," said Conner. "They can't operate until they make a positive match with the person wearing the gloves. The gloves don't work without the person's palm print matching the palm inside the glove."

James sounded worried. "Conner, they're coming up onto the damn sandbar, man."

"They can't fire their guns," Conner said firmly. "I'm blocking the interface, because they're on a Bluetooth connection with their HUD mask things."

"You can interface with their gear?"

"I'm doing it right now. I put the safety on. If a weapon has a means for me to interface wirelessly, I can do it."

James licked his lips. "So they only have hands and knives?"

"And hammers with nearly useless bullets," Conner said. "You want to get that pessimism out of my face?" Conner grinned. "Then we'll have ourselves a small powered craft."

"That dinghy is inflatable and will sink after one gun..."

"No pessimism," Conner reminded.

"Alright. Let's do this."

Conner smiled. "That's what I want to hear, Uncle Jaye."

They came back-to-back, staffs aloft and at the ready.

The soldiers flanked either side of the wreckage, approaching from both sides. Conner hissed, "Now!"

James dove towards two men.

Conner thrust his left palm up against the closest weapon. The barrel struck the gunman's face. He used his other hand to reach his cane downwards, snagging the second attacker's ankle.

Conner grunted. He grasped the weapon in his left hand and kept a firm grasp on the cane in his right. He pulled back, using the attackers as leverage, and kicked his right foot straight up in the air, bowling back both men.

Using his leg as a counterbalance, Conner flipped backwards, and leveraged his grasp on the gun and cane to pull the attackers off balance.

He landed on his feet with a rifle in his left hand and his cane in his right. Both men were lying in the shallow water.

Conner swung his cane from right to left, which caught both men in their faces. Their HUD masks cracked.

Conner glanced back over his shoulder. His uncle completed a roundhouse that brought both attackers to the ground. He watched as James finished the two men, rendering both unconscious.

Conner turned to James and said, "We have a problem."

"What's that?"

"We leave them out here, they starve or drown as the tide comes in. And before that happens, they'll continue to create more trouble for us."

James frowned. "Are you asking if we should put them out of their misery?"

"They know where the island is, now. I hate to sound like an asshole but we're doing the world a favor if this money stays locked up."

James twirled his cane the way he'd seen his nephew do so many times in the past. "Not to sound like the guy who stayed on the island with us for a few months, but a proper good guy would come up with a better way solve this situation. They would do whatever they had to, to make sure murder was a last resort."

"Evan," said Conner. "The guy's name was Evan Balmoral. Black dude, mid-forties and nerdy, right?"

"Yeah. Him." James shrugged. "I respect that guy."

"Okay, fine. You're right. Maybe we should offer them more money than the Pendleton boys."

"You mean bribe them for loyalty? We'd be watching our backs if they get into the vault."

"Yeah, you're right. But I'm trying to think of something here. You're the writer with the big imagination."

James nodded. "They're out cold. That's a start. Let's get to the island."

Conner peered around the wreckage. He grimaced. "More guys. And it's getting worse. I can see two more black inflatables full of guys coming from the island."

"Great." James made his way around the wreckage to one of the inflatables. There were two men on the small boat.

The two remaining mercenaries lifted their weapons and pulled their triggers but nothing happened.

James used the base of his staff to knock away one gun, and swung it downwards, in a chopping motion, to knock the other rifle away from its owner.

James followed through with the downward motion of the cane. It struck the water with a splash.

Conner felt a rumbling beneath his feet. The vibrations intensified dramatically. He got down to his hands and knees so as not to stumble.

The water lifted up into the sky, throwing the inflatable upside-down on the sandbar.

The water curled up to the left and right, thirty feet above the sandbar. It split at the center, creating a misty spray of salt water.

Conner squinted his eyes. Water roared all around them, creating an enormous wall on the left, and another wall on the right.

Several sepia-hued fish flew into the air. Some landed back in the sea wall, some flopped about as sand and rock began to emerge between the two walls of water.

Conner stood up, careful to keep his balance. The two mercenaries crawled out from beneath the overturned inflatable boat.

Everyone remained silent.

James kept perfectly still. The two walls of water parted away from one another. As they opened further, dozens of fish flopped about. Some made their way back to the walls of water and disappeared within.

James stared at the flopping fish. He licked his lips. "Are you ... I mean, is this...?"

Conner picked up one of the flopping fish. A Bigeye Scad. It wiggled wildly in his hands. He tossed it into the ocean wall. It was thrown clear into the air and disappeared, somewhere in the sea.

"Jesus Christ," James said.

Conner moved close and spoke so that his uncle would hear over the roar of the water. "You figured out how to do the Moses thing."

"It was an accident!"

"Let's make the most of it. We need to get to shore and this is the best way."

"How can you be calm about this?!"

Conner held his hands up. "I'm not! But I sort of had to talk to this big-ass angel to get this thing for you, remember? He said not to use it to take a life. I've seen buildings fall on me; I've seen them fall next to me."

James stared at the enormous walls of water, and the narrow trail between.

Conner continued. "I've seen so much crazy shit in the last year that this is about par for the course, Uncle Jaye! So let's make the most of it and move!"

James turned to the two remaining mercenaries on the shallow sandbar. "Well?! Aren't you two going to try something?"

The mercenaries glanced from one another, to the enormous walls of water, and back at James. Neither said or did anything.

Conner gave his uncle a push. "It doesn't take a bible scholar to know that people who mess with Moses drown. Just don't directly kill anyone with the stick. That's what the big angel guy told me."

James looked back at the parted walls of water, towering over them. "I'm just..." He shook his head, unable to find words.

Conner gave James' shoulder a gentle shove. "Let's move. You're amazing now, okay? And you're the only one who can do that. So let's just get moving."

James stepped down, off the sandbar. He carefully made his way down a slopped section. The seabed wasn't flat. It was hilly in some parts and consisted of sudden sloped sections in other areas.

The first jagged floor bottom area they came to, Conner darted towards it. He put his foot into the water wall, which rushed upwards, against gravity, on the left and right. The rising water propelled his foot up, lifting him a few feet into the air.

Conner somersaulted over the seabed object in his way.

James joined in a similar fashion.

Ahead of them, a stretch of the seafloor was surprisingly flat and calm. Fish flopped in occasional spots, separated from their school.

Conner looked around the area. He called over to his nearby uncle, speaking over the roar of the water. "Okay, this is definitely way more epic in scale than some of the other things I've seen. This is up there with the Celestial Realm kind of stuff."

"I'm so high on adrenaline right now, I'm going to be exhausted after this."

"At least you slept on your way here."

"Yeah. Lucky me." James replied. "I just hope I can figure out how to turn it off when we get across."

"I don't have service or I'd look up the bible verses to see if there's anything in there."

James grimaced. "I seem to remember that Moses movie remake from a few years ago - he had to somehow turn back to the water and force it closed. I don't know if that was part of turning this thing off, or if he did it to take out the Egyptians."

"I'm surprised those last two guys didn't put up a fight when they saw you part the freaking ocean."

"Yeah." James climbed over an ancient log lying on the sandy seabed. There were several more strewn about, some half-buried in the sand up ahead. Jaye glanced back to see how far they'd walked.

The two soldiers that were still conscious refused to follow.

Conner rubbed his hands together. Both of them were soaked with water spray. "This is pretty impressive," he said, mostly to himself.

X

X

Meanwhile Romania...

Rufus glanced down from his spot in a tree. "The cops and some sort of military group seem to be giving these guys grief."

Rama smirked. "That makes sense."

Rufus blinked at his son, down below. "How so? I thought Falcon's people had all the connections."

Rama folded his arms, looking up at his father. "There is a war between Turkey, Syria and Iraq over water right now."

Rufus blinked. "What? Water? They got plenty of water. Black Sea, Mediterranean, the Caspian, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf - what's the deal? That region been fighting over something-or-other for ten thousand years. But damn, man - over water?"

"Yeah. People have been bringing guns into Turkey from all sides of the Black Sea, pops. Now the surrounding countries are demanding peace. The tensions are bad. There's a ban on the public having assault rifles and high powered weapons in this area, because people keep trying to smuggle them from Russia to Turkey."

Rufus grinned and peered back out through the clearing in the forest. "Russia selling weapons to whoever has their hand out - some things never change, no matter how long you's away from the surface."

"What about those guys in those suits we saw earlier?"

Rufus shrugged. He dropped down from the branch and landed on all fours between Rama and Aimee. "Well, kids, if we keep headed south, we'll be in Bulgaria within the hour."

"Then we should keep heading south," Rama said. "I know people in Greece. If we can keep going, we'll be okay."

"I hope you can read Cyrillic, brother. I got Euros and I got dollars. But I ain't got any ... whatever Bulgaria uses."

"Euros. They haven't used Lev since ... several years before I was born," Rama said. "Just relax, pops. We got this. We'll make it to Greece. All we really need is to find a small town with a rental car agency or a bus."

"Let's find a place in Bulgaria, then," said Rufus. "What's the next closest city?"

Rama glanced at a waterproof map taken from one of the mercenary soldiers that the trio had fought over the past few hours. "Ruse. We'll pass through a town called Giurgiu, cross the Dunarea, and pass into north Ruse. It also says it's called 'Pyce' on this map."

"Let's hope they's friendly at the crossing," Rufus mused.

Aimee grinned in amusement and said, "This map says it's called the Friendship Bridge. Does that make you feel better, Mr. Darken?"

"Yeah, darlin'. For some reason, it does. Okay, we got our exit laid out. Let's hope those yuppie morons don't decide to head north when the cops chase'em off."

Gunshots rang out down in the valley. Rama, Aimee and Rufus hurried towards the tree line, following the sound of gunfire.

Within several minutes, the group made it to the perimeter, looking down on the exchange of weapon fire down in the valley.

Police and a small group of Romanian soldiers were clocked in to a firefight against the mercenaries.

Rufus growled softly. "God dammit! Those moron soldiers have no idea what they're doing!"

Aimee grimaced. "They're defending themselves against the mercenaries."

"But those goddamn merc-bastards got a hostage!"

A bright orange light streaked through the air and struck one of the Romanian military transport vehicles. The round struck one of the rear wheels and lifted the vehicle up in the air. It slammed back down in the snow, burning wildly from a ruptured gas tank.

Rufus rubbed his face in frustration. "No, no, no!"

Rama watched in horror as the military returned fire with a high power volley of explosive rounds.

The mercenaries spread out. With few options left, the mercenaries with the fancy armored suits poured out of their hiding spots in an armored carrier.

Both sides opened up with small arms fire. Burning vehicles created a great deal of smoke, making it difficult for the group up in the forest to see what was happening next.

Aimee put her paws on each Darken's shoulder. "No. I know how much Ulfey means to you both, but running down there in the middle of a firefight is not the way to help!"

Rama and Rufus exchanged glances and remained in place at the tree line. No one spoke.

X

X

South Pacific Ocean...

Conner boosted his uncle up.

James put a foot on Conner's shoulder and made his way over an enormous embankment. He straddled the crest and reached for Conner's hand.

Conner adjusted his holster so that he could put his cane on his back again. He took his uncle's hand and pulled himself up.

They dropped back down into the soft sand. There was a puddle of standing water on the other side.

They hurried up towards what appeared to be a mountain in the distance.

It took several minutes of jogging. The two came to the base of the beach. It sloped up at too steep of an incline.

A glass wall jutted from the sand about ten feet above their head. James held his hand out again. "Ready?"

Conner climbed up with his uncle's help and used the hook in his cane to latch on to the strange glass wall extending out of the temporary God-made ocean canyon.

The teen tried putting one foot in the sand but it didn't hold. His other foot stayed on his uncle's shoulder. "I can't get up the side."

James held his hands up. "Step up."

Conner looked down and put his left foot on his uncle's palms and boosted himself a little higher. He couldn't make purchase on the glass structure sticking out of the sand.

"God!" shouted Conner in frustration." There is nothing to grasp and the sand is too loose, even though it's wet and packed!"

James pushed the base of the Nehushtan into the soft, wet sand. "Here, I'm going to try and support myself on this and maybe I can boost you up a little further!"

Conner nodded. He pushed his own cane base into the wet sand. It took a moment of pushing and twisting to get it to sink into the wet sand, but once it was in, Conner put some of his weight on the cane.

James began to pull himself up on the Nehushtan.

Conner's cane, buried in the sand, gave him an idea. The teenager firmly grasped the end with the hook. He took a deep breath and tensed up. Electricity gushed into the surrounding sand, turning a section to glass.

The sand, above them, began to shift. James looked up, eyes wide. "Conner??"

"Sorry, I just thought ... I'm sorry!" The sand shifted hard, coming towards them.

James clenched his hand around the Nehushtan.

Conner tried pulling his cane free of the shifting sand.

A small avalanche of wet sand rushed over them, leaving both half-buried to their waist.

"Conner, we're supposed to be a team," James exclaimed. "You have to tell me when you're going to try ideas so we can act on it together! We could have been killed!"

"I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. I didn't think it was going to do that! I thought I could just make little glass cone holes in the sand, so we could use our canes like stepping stones or something! I'm sorry, Uncle Jaye, I just..."

"Conner, stop!"

Conner grew quiet.

James pointed up. "What is that?"

Conner lifted his gaze. Above them, sticking out of the remaining slope, was a large glass wall and a huge grey dome.

They looked at one another and back up at the large grey metal dome. It jutted out of a sandy wall several feet above their head.

James climbed out of the sand mound and pulled his staff free. "Conner, try it again."

"What?"

"I'll get further back. Try it again. Seriously. Whatever that thing is, if you try dislodging the sand around it, we might be able to use it to boost ourselves up to the beach."

Conner nodded and made his way over the newly created hill of wet sand. He climbed up and shoved the base of his metallic cane into the wall of wet sand beneath the large grey metal dome object.

James moved back and nodded. "I'm ready."

Conner tensed up and electrified his cane. The sand shifted again. It came tumbling forward, rushing over Conner's body.

In mere seconds, Conner was buried beneath the sand, several feet under. The earth stopped moving around him and everything became dark and silent.

Conner groaned softly. He tensed his left hand, clenching the family cane. The hooked end incandesced, several inches from his face.

He couldn't tell if he was facing up or down. He saw his right hand directly in front of his face and pushed it away from himself. The sand shifted but the pocket in front of his face remained in place.

Conner's heart pounded his chest. He spit a wad of saliva. It ran down his right cheek, in the direction of gravity.

Clued in to the direction he needed to go, Conner released the staff and pushed his left hand upwards, away from his body. He took a deep breath, exhausting the last of the air from the small pocket around his face.

His hand broke free but he couldn't pull himself from the sand and he couldn't breathe.

A firm hand grasped his left hand. It relaxed him, if only slightly.

Sand caved in, over his face. Conner couldn't move his head or shift his weight. It stung his eyes, nose and mouth.

Conner had flashbacks to when Joe Pendleton brought the warehouse down over him. He struggled to keep himself calm. His heart raced with fear.

The teenager couldn't take a breath, he couldn't move, and he couldn't help himself.

And then, all at once, the sand cleared from his face. A pair of hands came to either side of his head. They dug furiously, adjacent to him.

Conner felt the pressure of the wet sand. After a few more seconds, it was drawn away from his face and he was free to take a breath ... but he couldn't.

Conner tried. He tried to breathe but was unable. He tried to open his eyes but could not. Everything felt fuzzy, distant, and strange. Had more sand fallen and buried him? He couldn't be sure of anything, nor could he feel the wetness and the pressure against his body anymore.

Pain and displeasure rushed back into Conner's body. His chest hurt and his throat burned, but the shallow breath felt so good.

James sat up, knelt at Conner's side. "Jesus Christ, I thought you were a freaking goner."

Conner tried to reply but, instead, he coughed hard.

James turned his head away and spit sand out of his mouth. "I had to dig that shit out of your mouth with my fingers."

"I couldn't breathe," Conner panted, followed by another round of coughing.

"Yeah, I figured that out," said James. "I dug that crap out of your mouth and you were dead."

"What?!" Conner's outburst caused another round of uncomfortable coughing.

"You were under there for a long time. I saw your hand stick out and I started digging, but you were in there at an angle. By the time I got your face out of that crap, you weren't responsive anymore."

"That doesn't mean I died, I was just..."

"Conner, I couldn't get you to take a breath. I pulled you the rest of the way out and laid you on your back. There was no pulse. Look around. You're not in the pile anymore."

Conner swiveled his head. The coughing subsided. He looked up at the shifted pile of sand. There was a body imprint fifteen feet away. "Did I really ... die?"

"I had to do CPR. Be glad my stepfather was in the US Government. He was all about making sure everyone he knew was taking a CPR class. He made me take my first class when I was fifteen."

Conner grimaced. "Ew, you kissed me? Like, on the lips?"

James smirked. "No, I bruised your ribs and forced air into your sandy mouth. Don't say the word 'lips' like that. It sounds ... no."

"Gay," Conner said. He turned away and spit. As his head cleared, he could taste the gritty sand in his mouth, irritating his gums. He spit again, followed by a third and fourth time. "This stays between us. Do not tell anyone."

James grimaced. "This is not the part where I, as your uncle, tell you 'this is our little secret.' Gross."

"God," Conner spit again. He stuck his hand into the wall of nearby water and winced at the water pressure. With his finger cleaned of sand, he put his fingers into his mouth and tried to get at the sand in the hard-to-reach places. "Ugh."

"Sorry, bad joke."

"Yeah," Conner said in a muffled tone over his fingers. He withdrew his fingers and spit again. "Thanks for saving my life."

James' sour expression changed into a tired smile. "Yeah, man. No problem."

Conner looked up at the sandy wall. The front of an old submarine stuck out from a thick glass birth. Most of the sand gave way enough that it was, for the most part, free of its sandy prison.

Conner got to his feet. He felt dizzy at first.

James got up and put a hand on Conner's shoulder. "Steady, man. Don't rush it."

"Yeah." Conner looked around at the walls of water. He spit again. "If this sort of crap keeps happening, I'm going to be claustrophobic by the time we get to Falcon's base."

"I'm surprised you're not already."

"Let's hope not." Conner looked back up at the old submarine. "Because if I am, I'll be really uncomfortable in that thing."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right." James ran up the angled hill of wet sand. He pulled himself up into the glass birth around the sub. James turned around, got on his knees and reached his free hand down to Conner. "Let's get moving."

Conner hyped himself up. He jumped in place a few times, coughed a little, and spit twice. He pushed his tongue into the hole in his molar with a wince. There was sand down in the hole and he couldn't get it out with his finger or his tongue tip.

The teen sheathed his cane and licked the outer part of his teeth and gums, then spit out more sand.

Conner ran towards his uncle, up the hill of sand, and leapt for the hand.

James pulled Conner up into the glass birth with the sub. They got to their feet together and climbed up the side of the submarine.

A layer of sand coated the submarine. James opened the hatch and climbed down inside. Conner joined.

Inside, the air was stale.

James made his way to the front, took a staircase up, and entered the control section.

Conner followed, using his cane to illuminate the immediate area. "Those are torpedoes," he murmured, glad to be away from the loud sound of water, which he'd grown used to hearing over the last hour.

Conner followed his uncle into the conning section. "This is amazing, but will it even start?"

James shrugged. "I'm not sure if diesel goes bad. But I don't think it does. It's different from gas because of the way the engine ... whatever, I probably don't know what I'm talking about. But I don't think diesel goes bad. If it does, it probably takes a long time. Let's find out how we can charge the batteries."

"Leave that to me."

Conner nodded back the way they came. "I think those big boxy things on either side of the ladder - those are the engines. We just need to find where we can charge the batteries."

"I hope they hold a charge after so long."

"Yeah." Conner frowned. "Yeah, it would suck if they are shot."

James motioned for Conner to move. "Let's go. The sooner we get air going in here, the sooner we close the hatch, and the sooner I can figure out how to close the waves before those guys find our shiny new submarine."

Conner smirked. They made their way down the steps, back through the heart of the sub and stopped adjacent to the engines.

Silence.

Conner climbed up the ladder and to the hatch. He used his cane to illuminate the immediate area.

After a moment Conner called back down into the sub. "Hey! This glass birth is pretty amazing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!" Conner shouted back. "There's ductwork made out of glass up here. The sand is on the sub, yeah, but only the front. I think the sand got into the front of the birth over time, like from the tides and such. The waterline is even with the starboard side. But there's no water on the port side."

"What's that supposed to mean?" James climbed up the ladder to the hatch. He looked around the inside of the birth, now illuminated by the glow of Conner's cane.

Sure enough, there was ocean water on the right side of the submarine. But the wall of ocean water, which James parted an hour ago, only affected half of the submarine's enormous glass birth.

"See that ductwork above us?" James said.

"Yeah. That means this place was built like a bunker. If the water goes back to normal, we'll still be able to breathe. And look, back here." Conner gestured for his uncle to follow him to the aft section of the sub. A glass staircase went into a glass wall at the back of the birth. "This is how we can get to the surface."

James rubbed his chin. "I wonder where it comes out."

"God only knows," Conner murmured. They made their way back to the hatch. Conner went down first.

James sat on the sub, looking out at the partially uncovered trench of water, leading out to the massive canyon where the two had spent the last hour walking.

"Hey! C'mere!" Conner shouted from within the sub. "Quick! Check this out!"

James made his way down the ladder and headed towards the aft section.

Conner put his hands on orange piping on one side and red piping on the other. "Okay, now look down here." He knelt and motioned to a section of grated flooring. Beneath was a blue pipe.

James rubbed his face. "What'cha find?"

"Okay, these signs say 'ventilation intake to battery well," and over there is, 'battery exhaust connections.' I'm in the right place."

"Okay. There's a water line on the glass birth up there."

"Yeah, I noticed it."

"It means the birth is designed so the water never goes higher than the top of the sub."

Conner nodded. "Right on."

"I'm going to try and figure out how to make the water go back to normal. Let them hunt for us and think we drown or something."

"I'm okay with that idea. You're sure it won't flood in and cover the hatch?"

"I'm sure." James walked back into the dark, leaving Conner to work.

Conner made his way down beneath the access panel in the grated deck. He wiggled down into a small space and took a deep breath.

He didn't know what to expect. Conner thought, at first, he would freak out with claustrophobia. But it never happened. He was uncomfortable, but only because of the small cavity under the deck plate.

The sub groaned softly and shifted weight. Conner pushed his tongue tip into the hole in the side of his molar. He felt the grittiness of sand but there was nothing he could do about it. He took a deep breath.

The shifting submarine calmed. He found a positive terminal and stared at it for a moment. "Could it really be this easy?" he asked.

Silence.

Conner stared at what he assumed was the positive battery terminal. He peered down into a small hole, where the plate disappeared. It smelled of chemicals he couldn't identify.

Something else caught Conner's eye. He reached for something in the wall and pinched his fingers over the white thin object. He pulled an instruction manual free. "Are you serious?" he murmured.

Inside, there was an explanation of how the submarine's battery worked. It was difficult to follow in some sections. Something about a '520kW' charger and different types of batteries.

Each page had a different entry regarding types of batteries, leaving no immediate clue as to which one he would be dealing with.

One battery mentioned in the manual had something written about not going beyond a forty-five degree dive angle. It had information about hydrogen, and lead and electrolytes and sulphuric acid in distilled water.

Another page mentioned solid state batteries, and something about '480V, 60Hz.' He couldn't follow it.

The last page showed how to charge the submarine batteries from an external source. That made sense to him - to charge the batteries by plugging into an outside power source, when moored at a dock.

He studied the images on the page and climbed back out of the small cavity. Conner replaced the deck plates, took his cane, and headed back to the hatch.

Conner climbed up to the back of the sub and paused. Water was starting to fill the side of the berth.

He hurried down to the end of the sub and reached the hooked end of his cane down to an exposed terminal on the side of the hull.

"What're you trying to do?" asked James.

"There's a place where you plug in if you're docked. It keeps power to the sub, but I don't know if the water will cover it." Conner placed his cane's metallic hook against the terminal clamp and charged the staff by tensing up.

"You'd better hurry," James said. "The water level is rising on that side."

"Yeah," Conner murmured. The cane became bright. The water continued to rise.

The water climbed up the side of the outer hull. After a few more minutes, Conner pulled the hook away just as the water became even with the terminal. He grumbled to himself and turned to his uncle. "Well, I don't know if it did anything. A wire would keep the connections dry but ... I don't want to send a charge into the water."

"It's salt water. I don't know if it would be that big of a deal."

"Let's not experiment." Conner approached James. They made their way into the hatch, headed to the front of the sub, took the stairs up, and found their way back to a dimly illuminated conning tower.

Several LEDs illuminated multiple panels, showing various functions on several computerized panels. Conner used his cane to brighten the area.

James looked at various controls. He flipped a switch and started a computer. Its small screen bathed the control room in various colors with a logo image displayed on the LCD panel. It came up and took twenty-to-thirty seconds to boot to the command screen.

Conner folded his arms, briefly, and then laughed. "It has Bluetooth!"

"What?"

"Uncle Jaye, it's looking for a control accessory. It's trying to pair to an auxiliary control panel."

"What does that mean?"

Conner shrugged. "I guess you can control this sub from your quarters, using a tablet computer. It's broadcasting Bluetooth stacks to try and pair to, like, maybe an iPad or Android tablet or something."

"This definitely is not a military submarine."

"But it has torpedoes."

"Yeah," James agreed. "But it was designed by a privatized ship builder. The computer interface suggests you could run it with a single person in control. The military uses crews to run a ship. The controls are set up around a single cushioned seat."

"I've never seen anything like this," Conner admitted. "It's not a bridge, that's for sure. Everything is run through a computer."

James sat in the driver's seat and fooled around with the computer interface. After several moments, he found his way to a logbook. The text files opened up on a flat LCD panel adjacent to the cushy chair.

James read the short log entries. "Holy shit."

"What's wrong, Uncle Jaye?"

"This sub came from 'New Atlantis.' It was made by Aris Falcon's people."

"Holy shit," Conner said, repeating his uncle. "How do you know for sure?"

"It_says so_ in the log entries, Conner. The log entries start in May of 2023 and go through fall. Then, in December, the log entries abruptly stop. I think someone stole this sub and brought it to this island."

"Evan may have made the glass birth," Conner surmised. "But why didn't he say anything about it when he was staying here on the island a few months ago?"

James shrugged. "He didn't say anything to me, at least not directly. So ... we have a submarine with torpedoes."

Conner grinned. "I hope they have warheads."

"I have no idea. So you can interface with the computer?"

"Yeah," Conner said.

"Turn on the air. Get some oxygen in here. I'll close the hatch. Then, we should get some sleep."

Conner frowned. "Sleep? Are you serious?"

"Damn right I'm serious," James said. "We need to be well rested before we go fighting those people. And you know I'm right. Because in your training, you always encouraged me to be well rested."

Conner frowned. "Yeah. I guess one extra day won't make that much difference for Pendleton and his asshole kid. I swear, if Junior stabs you again..."

James smirked. "I'll be able to handle myself this time. You're a good teacher, Conner. If Joe Jr. comes at me with another dagger, I'll make him eat it."

Conner grinned. "Nice. Well, according to the computer, we have thirty hours of idle power. We have ninety minutes of underwater travel, and enough power to turn over the diesel engines. And doing that will charge the batteries so ... yeah."

"Wow, all that, that fast? You only charged the little prongs for two minutes."

Conner shrugged. "They're designed to charge quickly. Apparently, filtering oxygen and running the central air doesn't take a lot of power if we're above water."

"Yeah, you did say, we only have ninety minutes of run time. Does it tell you an over-all charge percentage?"

"Nine percent battery power," Conner said. "Enough to fire up the engines. And there's enough gas to get to somewhere with fuel. Samoa, Kiribati - I don't know if they'll have diesel. Fiji maybe."

"Hawaii is too far?"

"We've got three-eights of a tank," Conner said. "We might be able to get to New Zealand if we're lucky, but Hawaii is too far north."

"I don't think New Zealand would let a submarine just show up. At least not one with torpedo capabilities."

Conner shook his head. "No, it would attract attention. The Cook Islands might have diesel. Well figure it out later. Right now, let's try and do what you suggested - we'll get some rest and whip the Pendletons' asses tomorrow."

"I'm leaving the Nehushtan aboard this sub. You said I can't kill with it right?"

"Yeah, the angel guy said not to do that."

James nodded. "Then it's safe here."

Conner rubbed his chin. "Alright. Well, let's go and see what kind of sleeping quarters we have available to us. This is a big sub for being a private vessel."

He stared at the computer for a moment. Conner stretched and side-nodded. They left the conning tower.

LED lights illuminated the hallways throughout the submarine. Conner and James made their way down the stairs to the forward torpedo room.

Conner checked the torpedoes but there were no warheads, and nothing that had explosive warning labels in the immediate area. They headed back through the lower part of the sub, past the engines, and to the sleeping quarters.

The back of the sub had three decent officer's rooms with nice beds and comfortable layouts.

Conner opened the door to the Commander's bedroom. "Wow, these are pretty nice."

"I'll take this one," said James. "You can control this thing, and you figured out how to charge it. You take the Captain's quarters."

Conner chuckled. He stepped back into the hall and gestured to the door leading into the Commander's room. "It's all yours, Uncle Jaye. Hey, uh, look..." Conner shrugged somewhat. "Thanks again for, you know, doing the CPR stuff."

"Yeah, man. Tamae would have had a fit, and Tamamo would have been pissed off at me if I didn't save your butt. Seriously, two Japanese women - one of which is a goddess? I don't need sword-wielding ninja girls being mad at me."

Conner chuckled. "I just hope I can sleep after all that."

"You're exhausted," said James. "You are. I can see it in your eyes, Conner."

"Yeah. Look, you've already, uh, kissed me - you don't have to look in my eyes, too, okay?"

James laughed. "I'm glad you can have a sense of humor about dying."

"I ... yeah. What else does one say about that stuff?"

"It's okay to deflect."

"Yeah. I've been around Karla so much that I should be a master at deflecting by now. Literally and figuratively. Anyway, good night."

"Yeah, you too." James stepped into the Commander's quarters and pulled the door shut.

Conner headed further up the cramped hallway to the Captian's quarters. He traced his fingers over the decorative carvings on the door. Conner took a deep breath and walked into the room. He pulled the door shut and set his cane on a comfortable-looking leather chair, lying it across the cushion and ottoman.

"This has to be the largest section on this whole sub," he said softly to no one in general.

Quick to pull off his shirt, Conner went into the adjacent private bathroom and tried to turn on the shower. Water dribbled from the shower head but it didn't smell right.

With a huff, Conner turned the shower knob back to 'off' and made his way to the queen mattress at the center of the room. He dropped onto the mattress and closed his eyes. It smelled of dust, but was remarkably comfortable.

---

Next chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/865070