Polar Shift (NUMA Files 6)

"What happened?" Gant said.

"A slight diversion," Margrave said. He wiped the nervous sweat from his forehead, and he smiled as he again powered up the dynamos.

As the ship rose higher in the air, the water around the vessel began to boil. The ocean liner was twenty feet in the air, then thirty.

"Stop this from happening," Gant said.

Margrave killed power again but the ship continued to rise.

Fifty feet.

"You fool! What have you done?"

"The computer models-"

"Damn the computer models!"

Margrave left the control panel and rushed to one of the big windows wrapped around the observation platform. Her stared with horror at the sea.

The ship was at the top of a huge, fast-rising column of water.

Austin had seen the whirlpool grow until it was around ten miles wide. Now he watched in fascination as the vortex leveled out, changed into a seething pool of white steamy water, and began to mound into a watery cyclone.

The mountainous mass sprouting from the center of the vortex grew in height and width as it spun like a whirling dervish.

The plane was coming around for another pass. Austin dashed up to the cockpit.

"Bring us up as fast and as high as you can. Get away from this area."

The pilot put the 747 into a steep climb.

The water column reminded Austin of photos he had seen of the nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.

A panicked voice was crackling over the radio. "Mayday! Mayday! Come in, anyone! Mayday!"

Austin borrowed the radio microphone. "Mayday received."

"This is Gant on the Polar Adventure." He had to shout to be heard over the rumbling in the background.

"Looks like you're in for a roller-coaster ride," Austin said.

"Who is this? Where are you?"

"Kurt Austin. We're a couple of thousand feet above your head. Take a quick look because we won't be around much longer. Dr. Kovacs sends his regards, though."

After a pause, Gant said, "What the hell is going on, Austin?"

"We've given you a dose of the polar shift antidote. I'd say that you and your partner are all washed up."

Gant's angry reply was unintelligible, lost in a thundering clamor.

Austin peered out the cockpit window. The ship was at the top of the water column, where it spun like a top. Austin could only imagine the panicked scene on board. But he had no sympathy for Margrave and Gant, who had sown the seeds of their own destruction.

As the plane altered course and began to bear off from its target like a great lumbering whale, it encountered turbulence generated by the powerful forces that had been unleashed, but it was nothing compared to the earlier wind blasts. The plane continued to climb without incident to around twenty-five thousand feet, where it leveled off.

Karla had her face glued to the window even though there was nothing to see other than the normal cloud cover. She turned to Austin, a dazed look in her eyes.

"What happened back there?" she said.