“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.