Ghost Ship (NUMA Files 12)

He pulled the freestanding microphone closer to his mouth. “Keep searching,” he said. “Be meticulous. This is no longer a recovery mission. It’s now a crime scene.”

Duke replied quickly. The call from Gamay was a little garbled.

“Say again, Scarab One?”

This time Paul heard even less. A burst of static came from the speaker and then a squeal, sharp enough to hurt his ears.

Paul clicked the transmit button. “Gamay, do you read?”

He waited.

“Gamay? Elena?”

He called across the control room to another member of the team. “Oscar, do you have their telemetry?”

Oscar was flicking through screens of his own. “Nothing,” he said. “I’m getting a signal from the buoy, but no data from Scarab One.”

Paul grabbed the microphone again. “Duke, do you read me?”

“Loud and clear.”

“We’ve lost telemetry from Elena and Gamay. It might just be the wire, but can you get over there and check?”

“On my way” came Duke’s firm reply.

Paul tried not to worry. The filament linking the buoy to the Scarab was extremely thin, and the connectors often had problems, but he didn’t like losing contact with his wife when there was eight hundred feet of crushing water between them.

Paul drummed his fingers on the desk as he waited. He tapped the refresh key on the computer, hoping the data from Gamay’s sub would pop up once again. It didn’t.

“Come on, Duke,” he whispered to himself. “Let’s not dawdle.”

A flutter ran through the screen, and Paul hoped the image was about to reappear. Instead, the screen froze and went black.

“What in the world . . .”

At the same time, the overhead lights went dark. All around, the little green LEDs on the computer towers and keyboards went out. And Paul could hear the sound of the ventilating system shutting down.

&

nbsp; A group of battery-powered emergency lights came on.

“What’s happening?” Oscar called from the other side of the console.

Paul looked around. Without the fans blowing, the air went still. He clicked the microphone transmit button a few times, but to no avail. “Looks like someone forgot to pay the electric bill.”

With the AC units off, it got stuffy in the tiny control room very quickly.

Paul stepped over to the intercom, but it too was dead. He cracked the door. The gangway was dark. “Stay here,” he said to Oscar. “I’m going to find out what’s going on.”

Paul slipped through the door and down the hall. Aside from the emergency lights, every compartment was dark. The engines were off. The ship was dead in the water.

He climbed a ladder amidships and entered the bridge. Only the helmsman was there.

“What’s going on?”

“Power’s out all over the ship.”

“I can see that,” Paul said. “Does anyone know why?”