Page 53 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest
“Venturi tube outlet nozzle…port-side fin…port-side stabilizer—all down,” Max said, studying his engineering panel.
“Full stop,” Juan ordered as the Melara continued booming overhead.
“Aye,” Stoney said, killing the engines.
“Hull damage?” Juan asked.
Max pressed his headset harder against his ear, listening to his engineer’s report.
“No breaches reported. All good.”
Before Juan could give the order, Max dashed for the engine room. The propulsion system was his baby. He’d run into a fiery building to save it if it came to that.
But Cabrillo’s fear was that the invisible hunter might be closing in for the kill.
“Wepps?”
“Nothing on my screens.”
“Sonar?”
“No screws in the water, shipborne or otherwise.”
Every other station reported “All clear” as well.
“Maybe we hit him,” Stoney said.
“ ‘Maybe’ can get us killed.” Juan scanned the wall monitors. His team was right. No more threats presented on the screens. They seemed out of harm’s way—for now.
“Everyone stay alert. Hali, kill the Klaxon, but stay on battle stations.”
“Aye.”
Juan unbuckled his harness and approached Linda’s station.
“Anything pops up—you know what to do.”
She nodded. “I guess there really was a demon ghost ship after all. Just not the holographic type.”
“That wasn’t any ghost. And for whatever reason, he was pulling his punches.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Those AI torps he threw at us? Too small to sink us, but clearly designed to select damage points to stop us in the water. If they have that kind of advanced tech, I guarantee you they’ve got even bigger and nastier arrows in their quiver.”
“Then why not use them and send us to Davy Jones’s locker?”
“Dunno. Maybe he wanted to avoid satellite detection of a larger launch. He clearly doesn’t want to be seen. He’s hiding something.”
“I wonder what?”
“We’ll have to ask him when we find him.”
“Ifwe find him. What do we do now?”
“We wait for Max to give us our marching orders. Can’t finish our snipe hunt until we get our girl fixed up.”
Linda stood. “I’ll head over to the boat garage and get the ball rolling.”
