***** Vol.1 Chap.39 Launching the submersible *****

After both guards disappeared down the stairs. Kristin seized the opportunity. She turned off the communication link to the control tower because she did not want the officer at the control tower to be aware of what was happening. She powered up the sub and checked all the gauges. The power cells were fully charged and all oxygen tanks filled.

So far, so good.

Now comes the crucial moment. She must launch the sub into the water. In the dark, she fumbled for the remote control and started the launch sequence. Uh oh! As soon as the crane began to move, a red light flashed and a loud siren blared throughout the deck. She kicked herself. She forgot to disable the safety features of the flashing light and the alarm. The installation were necessary to alert standbys to steer clear for moving crane.

Well, unknowingly, she just advertised to the entire world where she was and what she was about to do.

As soon as the crane had barely lifted the sub off its pad, she resorted to controlling the crane’s operation directly from her remote box. Without waiting for the sub to clear the railing first, she commanded the crane to swing the sub overboard. No time to lose. Every second counted towards success or total failure.

Guards appeared on the lower deck in seconds. One guard almost tripped and fell. Search lights came on. She tapped her fingers on the sub, but she must wait for the crane’s work. She had to wait for the crane to finish moving the sub to a position that completely cleared the stern of the ship.

More guards poured out of every stairway onto the deck. Some guards sprinted towards the crane control. The situation was critical. She activated the crane to lower the sub little by little.

One of the two guards who first ran towards the sub jumped up and caught one of the appendages of the sub. The other guard missed and fell on the deck. More guards poured out of the stairs. All the deck lights are on now. Pandemonium like a wild fire spread on the deck. Guards yelled at one another.

The PA system came on, “Whoever is on the sub, turn back immediately or suffer dire consequences.”

The guard who caught the sub appendage climbed to the top of the sub in an attempt to reach the hatch. She ordered the crane to drop the sub a bit more, and he slipped sideways.

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A few more feet and the sub would clear the ship. But she still had to wait. Another guard jumped onto the sub from the deck. Both guards tried to make their way to the hatch. No way was she going to allow the guards to come into the sub. She grabbed a crowbar and jammed it into the turn wheel to prevent the wheel from turning. The two guards tried turning the wheel to open the hatch, but the crowbar held. She was safe for the time being.

At the front of the sub, she peered out of the porthole. Another guard arrived at the crane control and intently tried to unlock the crane’s remote control operations. She turned on the searchlights of the sub. From the cameras, the sub was almost over the water. She looked at the guard at the crane control who was punching buttons like crazy.

No, you don’t. She exclaimed. If I go down, the sub is going to go down with me!

She was not about to let a guard foil her escape after all this planning; not when she was so close.

Immediately, she issued the command remotely for the crane to drop the sub. The magnetic suction cups obeyed and released the hold on the sub instantly. Like a rock, the sub fell, first hitting the handrail at the stern and then falling sidewards. The two guards who hung on at the top of the sub were thrown overboard from the fall. The sub hit the water a few seconds later followed by a loud thud on the top of the sub. Something, perhaps a guard, might have fallen on top of the sub. She did not care anymore.

The sub bopped up and down several times on the surface of the sea. She had no time to check for damages. From the porthole, she saw some guards trying to climb the railings to jump on top of the sub. She swung the sub around away from the ship and set the sub on an emergency dive. To make it harder for the guards to locate her, she turned all the sub’s searchlights off and all active sonar off. In addition, she dived in a circular pattern underneath the Mayflower to confuse the guards looking for her topside.

She kept diving to evade any scuba divers who were easy to avoid as they could not go as deep as the sub. The deep divers in the Mayflower needed a fair amount of time to get suited up with the atmospheric diving suits. She would use the time to get as far away from Mayflower and as deep as possible to avoid them.

With her knowledge of the topography of the ocean floor and sonar images from the previous unfortunate event, she set the sub to head toward the ridge. Knowing that Jonas would use the latest 3D sonar array to track her whereabouts, the ridge would be the best place to hide. Setting a course towards the ridge, she made her way to the only place where she could hide.

Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief. It is now time to say goodbye to the ship. She raised her left hand and saluted the Mayflower. Actually, not to the ship itself, and certainly not to its captain, but to the one person in particular on that ship, George. Then she placed her hand over her heart and sincerely sang the national anthem, not mockingly, but in a truly patriotic tone. She was at last serving her country in whatever she was called to do, even though she did not know what she was called to do.