Deaderick’s eyes went wide. “Can they even do that? With a gun that big?”
“They’re going to try,” Cly predicted. “Those things are heavy as hell. I don’t know if they’ll be able to brace it off the side of the boat, down at us. Do you have any idea if this thing can take a hit like that?”
“No idea at all. I’d say it’ll depend on how far away we are, and what caliber they’re shooting. ”
“Tell Troost to get down from there. We’re going to drop, and I don’t want to drown him or blind him. ”
Early said, “The turret is sealed. He’s in more danger of getting shot off the top than of running out of air. ”
“Fine, then let him stay. ”
Then Early second-guessed himself. “But if he does get blown off the hull like a wart off a frog, we won’t be able to sink again—not without taking on water. ”
“Son of a bitch. You’re right. It’s not worth the risk. We’ll close it up and rely on the depth charges. Troost!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Get back down here, now!”
Whether or not Troost heard him, he couldn’t say—but the engineer didn’t reply, except with another thread of bullets. Their kick rocked Ganymede gently, but it worried the captain. “Huey, go drag him out of that turret, would you? Drop the scope for a minute and run. Early, you got coordinates on that patrol boat?”
“Setting them up. Josephine, Ruthie, line up two in a row—these guys are coming in right on top of us!”
“Oui, darling!”
“Fire when ready!” he yelled at them, and ready meant “right now,” for that’s how quickly the charge was sent slamming out of the chute and up to the Texian boat. It hit home, right at the seam under the prow, and when it exploded, the patrol boat dipped down, dragging water into the hull with every foot forward. “Fire a second one, do it now!”
They did, and this one hit beside the hole the first charge had made, effectively turning the boat into matchsticks that billowed underwater in a cloud—so fine, they looked like filthy smoke, or a blotch of dumped diesel murking through the water.
Houjin returned with Troost, who was covered in gunpowder or soot, but smiling from ear to ear. “Hey, I got to shoot something!”
“That you did,” said Cly. “You seal that thing shut?”
“Locked it down, yes, sir. Early, you’d better keep my seat. ”
“I was planning on it. ”
The captain said, “Anyone been watching a clock?” When no one answered, he said, “By my best guess, it’s been something like half an hour—and I know Early’s men said we have more than that, but like Huey said, we have more people on board this time. It’s getting warm in here, and close. I can’t be the only one who feels it. ”
“You’re not,” Early assured him.
“We’ll need to pull over and crank that hose up, and do it soon. ”
Houjin asked, “Why?”
“What?” the captain asked. “What do you mean, why?”
“Why do we have to pull over? Can’t we just stick the thing up above the surface and let it pull down air as we retreat?”
Deaderick Early hemmed and hawed. “It’s possible, but it’s dangerous, too. You turn that generator on and the air starts sucking … that’s fine. But if we dip, or drop—or lose the ballasting loads, or anything like that … if the generator starts drawing in water, we’re in trouble. ”
Cly said, “I see why it worries you, but we’ve got two other things to worry about right now. For one, they’ve damn well seen us and they know we’re here. They don’t know what to make of it yet, but it won’t be long before someone starts dropping bombs out of an airship, trying to knock us to the bottom of the bay. So we have to get moving. ”
“What’s the second thing?” Houjin asked nervously.
Cly lied. “I can’t remember the second thing. But I want you to shove that tube up over the waterline and start the generator. They’ve seen us—and that’s fine, so long as we hightail it out of here. I don’t much give a shit if they watch us leave. Even if they follow us, we’ll lose them in the Gulf, once we’ve drawn down enough air to keep us down low and safe for a while. ”
The second thing Cly had not wanted to say aloud was that he was fairly sure it’d been nearer to an hour—forty-five minutes at the bare minimum. They were running lower than he wanted to say. He could feel it in the press of the breathed and rebreathed air on his skin, and in the moist warmth of every breath he drew. A glance over at Deaderick Early told him that Early suspected the same but was determined to ignore it.
As for the rest of them, Cly saw no reason to worry them. Not when they only needed motivating, not frightening. Frightened people breathe faster, harder, heavier. They burn up air even quicker, and that wouldn’t help the situation.
The boy said, “Yes, sir, I’m on it. ” And he fixed the scope in a downward position, running to the air tube and its generator, deploying the one and starting the other with a pull of a crank.