"Here they come," Sarah said, looking out of one of the shuttered wooden windows embedded in its ice frame.

Farbeaux went to the first room in the great building of rooms. He opened the door and found a comfortable meeting area, complete with long mahogany table and Queen Anne chairs. He shook his head and closed the door. He went to the next and opened it. It was a supply room--no firearms, only ice spikes, spearlike devices. The rest were ropes, ladders, boots for ice walking, and other cold-weather gear. Lined along the far wall were self-inflating, Zodiac-style rubber boats--only these were of a size Farbeaux had never before seen. They could easily seat one hundred and fifty adults. He also knew that they would do them no good one mile down in the Ross Ice Shelf. Farbeaux grabbed ten of the long, spiked poles and left the room.

"These are all we have," he said, handing them out to Niles, Sarah, Alice, Robbins, and Lee. "They may stop them better than bullets. I will check the last room. When I return, the senator, Dr. Compton, Dr. Robbins, and I will stand our ground at the front of the building. Young Sarah, you and Mrs. Hamilton will take charge of the children. I do not expect mercy from these creatures--do you understand?"

Everyone nodded. Henri turned and walked as quickly as his wound would allow to the back of the large building. He found the last door and saw a small staircase that went down into the ice. The composite material, resembling rubber, was scarce, unlike the rest of the building. He started down, hoping it might be an armory. When he reached the bottom, he stopped suddenly. He couldn't believe what he was looking at.

"My compliments, Captain Heirthall and Roderick Deveroux," he whispered.

At the lowest level of the building, in a special vaultlike room that was sealed against the harsh environment and lined in rubber for protection against the sea, was the Heirthall treasure--at least a thousand tons of gold, silver, and crates of jewels, a few of which were broken open and spilling their contents across the ice floor. Golden weapons; Saracen swords; golden shields from the time of Christ, and suits of armor from the Crusades. As he studied the room's design, he knew it would possibly be an area capable of a last stand against the enemy lurking outside.

Farbeaux shook his head at the discovery of the treasure--wondering what its true value would be, not only in terms of what it would bring on the open market, but in the prestige of owning some of the artifacts arrayed on the shelves. Henri looked upon the richest treasure in the history of the world and smiled.

"Colonel, here they come!" Sarah shouted.

"Ah, nothing is ever easy," Farbeaux said, turning away from the find of a lifetime, and he made his way back up the carved staircase. "How many, little Sarah?"

"Uh, all of them, I think."

When he looked through the open doorway on the main level, the first awful scream of a sym sounded. Niles Compton scored the first blow for the defense by jabbing the long, spearlike pole into the right eye of the first creature that came at them.

"Yes, nothing is ever easy," he repeated as he came forward, spike at the ready.

LEVIATHAN

Captain Heirthall took the handgrips of the two toggles. Without rudder control, she could only use the bow and tower planes. She knew it might be enough to cause Leviathanto slow, or at the very least announce to whomever was listening that Leviathanwas coming their way. This last point she kept to herself.

Heirthall removed a large pair of holographic glasses from their case and put them on. They resembled the visor of a pilot's flight helmet. She needed to utilize these because of the power loss to visuals. She flexed her fingers as the visor came to life. Leviathan'sdepth was close to a mile and a half, or a quarter of a mile under the deepest pressure ridge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The great vessel was only sixty miles from breaching the open sea. In the lower-right corner of the visor, she patched in to sonar, and could clearly see open water in front of her. She knew that didn't mean anything. As a matter of fact, she was guessing that Missouriwas there--somewhere.

"Ginny, if I pass out or die on you, take the right plane control and pull back to its stops. Ram Leviathaninto the bottom of the ice and keep her there. Give Colonel Collins and Captain Everett time."

"Can ice sink this damn thing?"

"I don't think so, but we can tear her up enough to slow her down, possibly causing enough damage to make her stop the missile launch."

Alexandria took hold of the hand grips, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She pulled the right toggle control all the way back, at the same time pressing a small red button on the top, releasing control of the submarine from the command bridge. Her brainchild was once again hers.

Leviathanresponded.

Yeoman Alvera made her final calculation for launching the missiles. A straight, deadly red line ran straight toward the center of the surface of the Ross Sea.

"Acting chief?"

"Aye," said the sixteen-year-old girl standing between the helm seats.

"Make ready to adjust depth and course in three--" Alvera almost bit her tongue off as Leviathansuddenly went nose up and shot for the bottom of the shelf. The yeoman watched the navigation hologram as the symbol for the submarine was speeding at fifty knots toward a series of jagged pressure ridges.

"Down planes--down planes, engines to slow!" Alvera yelled as she wiped blood from her mouth.

"Planes are nonresponsive," the helmsman said loudly.

Tyler picked himself off the deck and then looked at the hologram with fear in his eyes.

"We are receiving conflicting impulses from the computer, we are being overridden!"

"Captain Heirthall!" Alvera said, looking directly at Tyler. "Engines all back. Helm control, make sure she cannot, I repeat, cannot gain rudder and ballast access! Sergeant Tyler, obviously the captain is not stranded at Ice Palace. May I suggest you start your search in auxiliary control?"

Tyler angrily turned away and went to communications.

Alvera turned and studied the hologram, for the first time becoming frightened herself.

"Sound the collision alarm," she shouted as Leviathan'sengines went to full-reverse power. "Give me twenty thousand gallons of ballast in the forward tanks only!" The collision alarm started sounding throughout the boat. "Close all watertight doors, close the observation shields." Even as she gave the order, she knew it was too late.

Leviathanstarted to turn her bow down but was still rising at an incredible rate of speed. With her reactors screaming at more than 120 percent power, it wasn't enough to avoid the unavoidable.

The midshipmen braced themselves as the conning tower of Leviathanhit a large pressure ridge, tearing it free from the bottom of the shelf. The tower shook in its mountings, but held firm as the bow came up and struck another spikelike ridge, crushing the starboard observation shield and pushing it inward by three feet. The combination acrylic/nylon glass cracked and then gave way, creating a cascade of pressurized water that shot a hundred feet into the compartment.

"We have an outer and inner hull breach in the forward observation lounge!"

"Are we showing hatch integrity of the compartment in the green?"