Shadow Zone Read Free Page A

outlets.
    Those subs were positively conventional compared to this new design, Hannah thought. It was a round pod with winglike structures on each side. Each wing featured a retractable mechanical arm and hand that had become a trademark of her research-sub designs, manipulated by a pair of controller gloves in the pod.
    She was still amazed that she had ever been able to get such a ridiculous-looking little sub built. Its wings, exotic curves, and retro lighting panels looked more like something out of Jules Verne than a product from one of the world’s largest defense contractors. The design was adventurous even by her usual standards, and it had been the source of much controversy ever since she had submitted her preliminary sketches over three years before. Many within the AquaCorp company had ridiculed her concepts as impractical, but the craft’s speed and maneuverability had silenced most of the critics in the past few weeks.
    Josh stared in awe at a statue garden even though he had seen it a dozen times before. “This was all under a hundred feet of silt?”
    “Most of it. And it would still be there if—”
    “Shit!” Josh pulled back the stick, and the minisub veered hard to the right.
    Hannah’s gaze flew up to see that the dark superstructure of an inactive light tower, fallen on its side, now filled the entire front window. “Pull up,” she yelled. “Pull up!”
    “I’m trying!”
    Before she could brace herself, Conner One spun to the right, struck the remnants of a building, and brought down a pile of debris. A dull roar sounded in her ears, and the hull of the submersible shook as it was carried along by the debris.
    Piercing alarms sounded, and Hannah heard her own voice—a temporary audio track—repeating “Collision imminent!” over and over again.
    “Any thrust?” Hannah called over the rumbling and alarms.
    Josh struggled with the control stick. “I got nothing!”
    She felt as if her teeth were vibrating out of her mouth. After over a minute of the sliding, rumbling, and the sounds of groaning, twisting metal, they finally slowed to a stop.
    She looked out the window ports. Total darkness. They had been carried away from the light towers, and the silt further cloaked them.
    She turned toward Josh, whose face was covered by a glaze of perspiration, despite the fact that the minisub’s interior was now quite cold. Condensation from his rapid breathing frosted on the instrument panels in front of him. “What’s the power situation?” she asked.
    He pulled back on the stick, and Conner One ’s thrusters whined weakly. “I guess that’s your answer.” He tapped the button on his headset. “I’ll call for help.”
    “Save your breath.” She was staring at her diagnostic screen. “The antenna system is damaged. No A/V communication, no GPS beacon, no lifeline to the surface.”
    Josh shook his head. “This keeps getting better.”
    “You don’t know the half of it. The aft oxygen tank has also ruptured. We have maybe forty minutes left.”
    “Tell me you’re making some kind of sick joke.”
    “No joke.”
    “Dammit, we shouldn’t even be here. This expedition should have been finished a week ago.”
    “You volunteered to stay on. You believed in what we were doing here. We all believed.”
    He managed a rueful smile. “Sorry, Hannah. I guess I’m believing a whole lot less right now.”
    She glanced around the small compartment, which was illuminated only by the glow of the panels in front of them. Beyond the instrument panels were two forward-facing window ports.
    And beyond that, Marinth.
    Josh shook his head. “This is my fault. I hit that wall like a bulldozer. I tried to spin away before it came down on us, but I wasn’t fast enough.”
    “It wasn’t your fault. There isn’t a soul on earth who’s better at piloting this thing than you are.”
    “Except you.”
    “I designed it, but that doesn’t mean my reflexes are better than yours.” Hannah flipped