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"Heirthall is nearly dead; the others with her will be located soon by the syms. No, Sergeant, these people are no threat." She looked at Tyler and briefly smiled. "As easy as it was for them to escape you and your men, they won't be so lucky against my family. My family will find them and kill them all. Now, let's get under way, shall we?"

"Sonar, conn, anything close aboard?" she asked over the intercom.

"Inconclusive contacts at this time. The movement and instability of the ice shelf above us may be masking any potential threats."

Alvera looked down at the chart and made her final straight line from under the Ross Ice Shelf.

"You seem worried," Tyler said.

"That American Virginia class submarine could be lurking in open water, and we wouldn't know it until she put two torpedoes into us."

"Leviathancan take anything Missourican throw at her."

"That vessel is a Special Operations platform--do you understand what that means? Let me enlighten you, Sergeant--they are stealth capable. They can sit for hours and we wouldn't know they were there unless we put our laser web on them. Here's one more fact for your files, since you seem to have missed the captain's classes on the subject of American capability. She may have nuclear weapons onboard, and unless Leviathanis protected by depth, it is possible that they can destroy her. It would take a lucky shot, to be sure, but it's still possible."

"Then we rely on your ability to evade. After all, you were personally trained by the captain."

Alvera ignored the false compliment by Tyler. "Watch officer, make your depth six hundred feet, course heading three-three-zero degrees at fifty knots," Alvera ordered. "Weapons, load tubes one through twenty with Mark sixties, activate and warm up vertical tubes one through thirty with SS-twenties--special war shot."

"Aye."

Alvera reached for the dive alarm and looked at Tyler one last time.

"All hands prepare for dive." She hit the horn. "Dive--dive!"

Leviathanspewed more than a million gallons of seawater straight into the air as she started sliding beneath the trapped inland sea. What remained of the now-stranded Event Group, along with Robbins and Farbeaux, watched from a distance, behind a wall of calved ice.

"Good luck, Jack," Niles Compton said as Sarah joined him at the edge of the ice.

She looked around and then above them. The ice looked even more unstable than it had an hour before.

"Look at this," Lee said, making Sarah and Niles turn away from the view of the giant Leviathandisappearing underneath the Ross Sea. As they did, they saw ten of the children emerge from one of the carved-out ice buildings. They reached Henri Farbeaux first as they gathered around the group.

"Some of them made it out," Alice said.

"I'm afraid their escape may be for naught, my dear Mrs. Hamilton," Farbeaux said as he looked beyond the children who gathered around him.

Compton and the others turned to see the clear-skinned hand of a symbiant taking hold of the ice and starting to pull itself up.

"Get the children inside," Sarah said. "We don't stand a chance out here."

As they turned to herd the children back, more syms swam to the surface and started making their way ashore.

The Group's only hope now was that the few hurt and tired men, women, and children left aboard Leviathancould somehow stop the missile launch and then return to save them.

It was now all in the hands of Captain Heirthall and Jack Collins.

USS MISSOURI (SSN-780)

"Conn--sonar--we have a possible disturbance under the shelf."

"What have you got exactly?" Jefferson asked, nodding for his sonar officer to rejoin his department.

"Possibly the same water-release noise picked up in the Bering Strait. Leviathanmay be moving out from under the shelf, Captain."

Jefferson thought a moment. His boat was as ready as it could be. All hands were at battle stations-torpedo, and Missouriwas as quiet as they could make her.

"Keep tracking her and calling out the position of the target," he said, then hung up.

"What are you thinking, Captain?" Izzeringhausen asked.

The captain continued to study the chart. "We do nothing but sit and let that big bitch come to us." He tapped the chart of the Ross Ice Shelf. "The shortest distance to the sea is the way they came in--to the north--and that's exactly where we'll be waiting, Izzy."

"Good plan."

"Hell, it's the only plan. Send an ELF message to National Command Authority."

Izzeringhausen removed a pen from his coverall and waited for his captain to speak.

"Inform the president: Missouriis preparing to engage Leviathan."

LEVIATHAN

Everett and Virginia were frantically looking for the command bypass on the main auxiliary control panel. Alexandria was sitting in her chair in the control suite and trying to explain to Everett what he was looking for just as they both heard Leviathansound her diving alarm. A few moments later, she felt her stomach leap as the giant ship slipped beneath the surface.

"Leviathanis starting to make a run for the sea," she said. The only good news thus far was that Tyler's men hadn't discovered them in the auxiliary control suite--yet.

Everett let out a whoop when he finally found what he was looking for. He quickly threw a switch, and the holographic controls lit up, coming to life with a myriad of colors.

For the first time in weeks, a true and meaningful smile crossed the red lips of Alexandria Heirthall.

She now had access to her element--the brain of Leviathan.

Heirthall smiled at Virginia as she once more took her place in the elevated command chair and turned on the holographic controls for her personal hologram. It failed to illuminate.

"They have cut power to my command hologram, but I will still give Tyler and Alvera the ride of their lives," she said as she reached into a compartment on the side of the command chair and removed a small case. "Captain, get to control and assist Colonel Collins. Kill Tyler and Alvera, and anyone else you can. Without Tyler and the yeoman, the rest won't launch. I'll do my best to keep Leviathanunder the ice."

Everett started to turn when Alexandria stopped him, taking his arm. It seemed the captain had regained some of her strength and determination.

"I will sink her ... if I have to."

"Understood."

Everett left the control suite. If he had lingered, he would have beheld a new Heirthall.

Alexandria Heirthall had chosen a side--her human side. Virginia smiled at her friend, then strapped herself into her seat.

ICE PALACE

"There have to be more weapons and good cover here someplace," Niles said as the last of the children filed into the large ice building.

Henri Farbeaux turned away from the large group and limped across the composite floor. For the moment he was just grateful for the warmth of the carved-out interior, but he knew their time was short. All the syms had come out of the water.