Page 180 of You Only Love Twice
Russia.
"Can we take the other submersible?"
He started toward it, just as an enormous fireball suddenly bloomed within the belly of the beast. The impact launched him off his feet and slammed him into a nearby wall.
When he came to, thick black smoke roiled through the docking bay and flames licked at the timber deck. Gemma knelt beside him, her fingers pressed to his pulse.
"Thank God," she whispered, when his eyes blinked up at her. Slipping an arm under his shoulder, she helped him to his feet. "There goes that plan."
Obsidian looked up. Cracks snaked through the glass above them. Steel shuddered and groaned behind them. Herbert had promised he could bring the Core down if they gave him enough time.
"Gemma." He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Gemma, we have to get out of here. This entire building is about to collapse."
"What about Malloryn?"
The look on her face almost gutted him. "He's gone, Gemma. Dido's taken him with her."
"No!" Gemma shoved away from him, striding toward the ruin of the kraken submersible. She stared at it intently, as if pure determination could resurrect its steel carcass from where it sank into the depths. "I amnotgoing to let that bitch get out of here with him!"
An explosion rocketed through the building nearby, flame spewing along the hallway. Obsidian threw himself into her, carrying her to the ground as fire gushed over the top of them.
"We don't have a choice!" he yelled. "We can't rescue him if we're both dead."
Water began hissing through a crack in the wall, spraying across them. Obsidian looked up into the welling darkness above them.
"We're going to have to swim," he yelled, tearing one of the motorized propulsion packs from the wall and slipping it over his shoulders. They'd been hung there for years for precisely this situation. He'd never expected to have to need one of them.
Gemma paled.
And he suddenly remembered her fear of drowning.
"I'll stay with you," he said, slipping the second pack onto her back and strapping it into place. "I promise. We have to escape, Gem, and there's no other way."
"I can do this," she whispered.
"I won't let you go."
Another gush of water suddenly sprang through the wall supports. The groan of the glass above them sounded like some sort of hungry beast. Grabbing the small mouthpiece that was attached to the oxygen canister on the propulsion pack, he settled it over Gemma's mouth, and lashed them together with a small tether.
"There's enough oxygen in there to last three minutes. Are you ready?"
He strapped his mouthpiece into place as Gemma nodded, and held up three fingers, folding them down one at a time.
Three. Two. One.
They both leapt down into the water where Dido had vanished. Kicking hard, he hauled her into the narrow tunnel that led out to sea. The entire world around them was black. Charlie had clearly managed to take out the power grid, so not a single gaslight illuminated the darkness. He was swimming blind.
Flipping the switch on his propulsion pack, he felt the engine kick. None too soon. The world shuddered around them and a wave of water suddenly propelled them forward. He felt Gemma smash into him, and they were buffeted along. The glass dome must have shattered, spilling all its water into the docking bay.
Ears popping with pressure, he tried to hold them steady. The tether between them stretched and pulled, and the mouthpiece was torn from his lips.
A stream of bubbles escaped him.
No air. Bloody hell.
Obsidian's lungs were burning. He had no idea how much further it was, or what condition Gemma was in. All he could do was hope.
Then a light appeared ahead of them.
