Chapter 10 - The Final Ascent
The heavy outer hatch of the countermeasures tube hissed open, letting in a blinding rush of deep-blue seawater and ambient sunlight filtering down through the hull.
"In! Go, go, go!" Miller shoved the first group of civilian survivors into the narrow metal cylinder, sealing the inner door behind them as the automated pressure valve began to whine.
"Mercer, now!" Sarah yelled, grabbing my tactical vest and dragging me backward toward the tube as Vance and his security detail breached the sonar chamber doorway, their rifles raised to fire.
I whipped around, firing my remaining rounds directly into the overhead emergency fire suppression control box. With a deafening pop, a massive deluge of high-pressure foam and freezing seawater burst from the ceiling pipes, crashing directly over Vance and his men, blinding them in a swirling vortex of white foam.
"Get in the tube!" I shouted to Sarah, diving headfirst into the cramped metal cylinder just as Miller slammed the inner hatch shut and locked the manual dogs into place.
"Flooding tube!" Miller yelled over the roar of the machinery, punching the emergency launch sequence button.
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The heavy exterior hatch blew open with a muffled concussive thud, and the sudden, violent rush of ocean water swept us out into the open Pacific like torpedoes fired from a dying beast.
As we shot upward toward the distant surface light, tumbling through the blue void, I looked back down into the dark abyss. Below us, the massive gray hull of the USNS Resolute gave one final, shuddering groan, tilted vertically toward the ocean floor, and plunged headfirst into the darkness, carrying Colonel Kane and his secrets down into the quiet pressure of the deep sea.
