Echoes of the Fourth Magic Read Free Page A

from the sub, but they, too, were absorbed into the blackness, never to return.
    “We must be within twenty feet,” Billy said nervously. “I don’t know how much closer I can get.”
    “Stop her, then,” Mitchell said. Then to Del, “Have you got anything?”
    “Nothing,” Del replied. “The equipment seems to be working, but I’m not getting any signals at all.”
    “Damn!” Mitchell growled under his breath.
    “We should back off and study the situation,” Ray Corbin suggested. “We don’t know what we’re up against.”
    “It would seem prudent,” Reinheiser agreed, realizing the futility of a visual examination without supporting information from their instruments. He clicked away at the computer as he spoke, but that system wasn’t receiving enough information from the exterior sensors to offer back any answers.
    Mitchell closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face. “Take us up a hundred feet.”
    Del’s sigh of relief was audible.
    “Mr. Corbin,” Mitchell continued, “have everything inspected and bring me a complete status report as soon as possible.” He turned to Reinheiser. “I’d like your evaluation the minute you get a chance to study all of the data.”
    And so the
Unicorn
hovered in the eternal gloom, a mere forty yards above the unexplained void. On the surface, a mighty electrical storm vented its fury in spasms of untempered violence, but the men of the
Unicorn
couldn’t know that.
    Not yet.
    The ship came off alert before an hour had passed. Delfound himself in command of the helm again as Mitchell and Corbin held a conference with the scientists. Most of the crew went to their barracks, trading rumors and trying to get what they figured might be their last rest for quite a while.
    “These indicators are acting strange again,” Billy said to Del a short time later, using the informal tone that marked their friendship. As the only black man on the
Unicorn
, Billy’s own hesitance prevented him from having many friends on board. He had heard the quiet references to “NUSET’s token black,” an insidious thought that often crept into the back of his own mind. Del knew better, though, and his sincerity toward Billy had proven a great comfort to the man.
    “It acts like there’s something going on just above us,” Billy explained as Del approached. The needles jumped and a blip appeared on the tracking grid for just a second, then was gone. “See? There it goes again!”
    “Can we get a look above?”
    “We can try.” Billy clicked on the camera icon, then dragged the mouse to the indicated point on the grid. The forward viewing screen darkened as its camera turned away from the illumination of the forward searchlight.
    “That should be about right,” Billy said, moving the pointer to another icon, one for the floodlights. “Now, if I can get some light up there …” As he began the drag, a bright arc cut a blinding line across the forward screen. Seaman McKinney, working the sonic booth, cried out and flung the crackling headphones to the floor. The screen flashed again.
    “Jesus, it looks like a thunderstorm!” Jonson cried.
    “Sounds like one, too,” McKinney added, rubbing his ear.
    “Yeah, but underwater?” Billy questioned. He looked blankly at Del. “I think you’d better get the captain.”
    But before Del could move, the lights, the screen, even the hum of the reactor, shut down. Dread drifted in with thesilence and blackness, inundating all aboard in the knowledge that they were utterly helpless, freezing them with the certainty that something terrible was about to happen.
    Then the storm hit.
    It struck amidship, by the crew’s quarters, attacking with a raw power that mocked the sophistication of the
Unicorn
. Steel beams and hydraulics that had held back the pressure of thirty thousand feet of water bent like rubber in the face of its strength. Bolt after bolt of lightning blasted against the sub, scorching and searing her sides.