Joe smiled. “Can we tow them out?”
“Looks like we’ll have to,” Kurt said. “Use the hook.” Behind him, Joe activated the controls for the grappling system, and a panel on the right wing of the Barracuda opened. A folded metallic apparatus emerged. Once it was locked into place, it unfolded into a long metallic arm with a claw on the end.
Even as the claw extended, Kurt realized they were drifting away from the XP-4.
“Get me closer,” Joe said.
Kurt nudged the thrusters again, and the Barracuda angled toward the rear section of the XP-4 to a point where a handle extended from its hull. On the surface, the XP-4’s mother ship would lock onto this handle with a crane to hoist the sub out of the water. Kurt and Joe would try to do the same down below.
“Maybe this could help our salvage grade,” Joe said.
“Just grab the sub,” Kurt said.
The claw extended and missed. Kurt adjusted their position, and Joe tried agai
n and missed again.
“Something’s wrong,” Joe said.
“Yeah, your aim,” Kurt said.
“Or your driving,” Joe said.
Kurt didn’t want to hear that, but it was true. And yet each time he adjusted for the current, the Barracuda seemed to get pulled off-line again. He glanced outside at the sediment in an attempt to get the best read on the current.
“Ah, Kurt…?” Joe said.
Kurt ignored him. Something definitely was wrong. Unless his eyes had been damaged somehow, the Barracuda was drifting in the opposite direction of the current. And, strangely enough, the XP-4 was moving as well, albeit at a slower rate as she was dragging along the bottom.
“Kurt,” Joe said with more urgency.
“What?”
“Look behind us.”
Kurt turned the sub a few degrees and craned his neck around. The sandy bottom gave way to darkness. They were drifting toward a cliff of sorts. On the charts it appeared as a deep circular depression with a rise in the middle: the caldera of a volcano that had once been active here thousands of years before.
Thoughts of the damaged XP-4 tumbling down the edge of that caldera with two men trapped inside were enough to make Kurt forget about the strange movements of both subs. All he wanted to do was grab the XP-4 and get out of there.
He pressed forward until they were nose to nose with the other sub. Joe stabbed at the small handle with the grappling claw but could not catch it. Sediment began to stir up around them as Kurt goosed the thrusters.
They’d reached the point where the ground had started sloping away.
Whatever was going on, they were being dragged toward the caldera. Kurt used main power, blocking the XP-4, pumping the throttle, in an attempt to hold them back.
The XP-4 began to swing, pivoting against the nose of the Barracuda. It was being pulled past her. The caldera yawned behind them.
“It’s now or never, Joe.”
Joe grunted as he worked the controls. The arm extended, and the claw locked on.
“Got him,” Joe said.
The XP-4 had reached the edge and was tumbling; Kurt had no choice but to let the Barracuda fall with it for a moment. If he gunned the throttle, the arm would bend and snap under the load.
They slipped off the edge, drifting backward and out into the dark. Kurt turned the nose of the Barracuda away from the XP-4. The grappling claw pivoted until it was pointing to the rear, and the two subs fell sideways as Kurt brought the main thruster slowly up to power.
Slowly, the Barracuda pulled the XP-4 away from the caldera’s wall and began to level off. Both vessels were still sinking, still being strangely drawn toward the center of the volcano.