They couldn't believe how easily Robbins had given his life for them. Then again, they never knew that all the doctor had thought before making his final decision was the question, What would Captain Everett do?

"He died well, give him that--you owe him that," Farbeaux said as he pulled the Zodiac up and out of the wave's way. "Now, get the children inside the boat. We must head for the grounded section of shelf."

LEVIATHAN

As the captured Event Group was pushed, shoved, and slapped to the deck, and then up against the starboard bulkhead, Jack saw Tyler step forward and then lash out with his booted foot, catching him on the side of his head. Jack fell backward as Mendenhall and Ryan tried to stand.

"At ease, lieutenants!" Jack called out, shaking his head to clear it.

"You are a pain in the ass, Colonel. I knew we were asking for trouble letting you go the first time. Well, that situation is finally about to be remedied, isn't it?"

Jack looked up into the Irishman's face, not responding at all. His expression was blank, which made Tyler uneasy.

Alvera turned away from the scene, as she was slightly disgusted at Tyler's bullying ways.

"Why don't you just kill them?" she asked, staring at Tyler.

"He knows where the captain is, and as long as she is alive, she's a danger."

"Strange, I think I told you that very same thing a few hours ago." She turned away and raised the 1mc microphone. "Sonar, conn, what is the status of Missouri?"

"Sonar is still scrambled from the EMP effect. It is just now clearing, it looks as if we have no--"

Alvera heard the words catch in the sonar operator's throat as she attempted to explain why the sonar suite went offline momentarily during the effects of the electromagnetic pulse--an electrical field that shorted out all nonshielded electronics in modern weapons platforms by a nuclear detonation. The yeoman became concerned very quickly. As Leviathancame out from under the now-broken and free-floating Ross Ice Shelf, she noticed one red blip speeding toward them as it came up on her holographic display.

"Conn, we have a single torpedo in the water and it is actively seeking--no, it has acquired Leviathan, and is tracking!"

"Helm, hard-right rudder, take us down to three thousand feet--"

"Sensors are picking up a nuclear trace element!"

Jack raised his brows and looked at Everett, then at Tyler, who was also taken aback by the news.

Alvera froze. Missourihad somehow managed to get off a snap shot as she started going down, and it was not only a torpedo, but a nuclear-tipped one.

Alvera looked at the blip as it closed. The order for countermeasures caught in her throat as she realized her training never fully prepared her for this.

"Weapons, prepare to launch vertical tubes one through thirty for deep submergence launch. Helm, take Leviathandeep. Launch a full spread of countermeasures!"

"Yeoman, did you know that Sergeant Tyler was planning on selling Leviathanand her technology to the highest bidder?" Collins said, finally utilizing the paper Farbeaux had passed him from Heirthall's medical file.

Alvera, shaken, turned and looked down at Collins.

"What?" she asked, looking from Jack to Tyler, who only smiled and raised his automatic to silence the pest before him once and for all.

Tyler froze when one of the midshipmen who had been seated at the closest console silently stood and placed a gun to the back of his head.

"He's lying--my intention is to fulfill our bargain. Leviathanwill protect the trench syms."

"The task of maintaining something as daunting as Leviathanis far beyond the scope of a mercenary, Yeoman. She would soon succumb to her own age, or the nations of the world would track Tyler down and destroy him because this idiot couldn't sail her--just as the Missouritracked her to this point," Jack said, nodding toward the red blip speeding right at Leviathan.

"Call the doctor to the conn, we'll ask him," Alvera said, never letting her eyes leave Tyler's.

"You can't. He was found dead in the observation compartment. It had to have been a stray bullet," said Jack.

"That's very convenient." Alvera turned and studied the oncoming weapon, then looked back at the sergeant.

"After all of our planning, you are going to actually listen to this outsider?" Tyler asked as he felt the pistol push into his head.

"My breast pocket. You'll find a little notation from Heirthall's medical file, written by someone who wasn't an outsider."

Alvera reached down, plucked the paper from Collins's pocket, and looked at the open entry.

"I suspect with your intelligence you'll recognize Dr. Trevor's handwriting?"

Alvera read the scribbled notation outlining Tyler's real plan, which included the doctor, and then looked up angrily.

"Trevor says that you never had any intention of using Leviathanfor our protection. You were going to sail her into the nearest port after our return to the sea and--"

"Sell her off, system by system," Heirthall said from the darkness of the companionway. "Avarice--mere money. If he had known where the Heirthall treasure had been hidden, he would have taken that also."

Alvera watched as security surrounded Captain Heirthall and Virginia, who was assisting the captain in remaining upright as they came into the light of control. She locked eyes with Jack and nodded her head ever so slightly.

"Yeoman, you have been betrayed, just as you and the others have betrayed me and my family," Alexandria said as she was helped into her chair, guns still pointing at her.

Alvera threw the paper at Tyler, striking him in the face.

"Have your men stand down, Sergeant," Heirthall ordered as she slumped in her raised chair. "Or I will allow the yeoman's misguided maneuvering in evading Missouri's strike to stand. You can't outdive that weapon, Yeoman," she said as she opened her eyes and smiled.

The security men lowered their weapons. Jack and the others stood and rushed forward to take them, but several midshipmen rose from their seats and pointed handguns in their direction.

"Colonel, they will shoot to kill," Alvera said.

Alvera swallowed as she saw the red blip getting closer to the diving Leviathan. She gestured for the midshipmen to return to their stations, but to keep aware of Collins and his three men.

"Captain, I am still launching the strike. We as a species have no other choice. We tried to do it without loss of life, as you had planned so thoroughly with the help of your symbiant--"

"You mean with a little coercion ... and brainwashing from Dr. Trevor's invasive procedures," Alexandria said, her eyes partially closed in pain.

"Yes. You would never have allowed such a plan against the world's navies in a normal state of mind. Your family's influence over us ends today."

Heirthall sat motionless in her chair. "You will do what you have to do, Yeoman."

Alvera nodded, then walked to the weapons station. She raised the protective cover over the red flashing button. She looked at the other midshipmen operating their stations, each doing their duty, and then she pushed the button.

A brilliant flash of light burst from every manned station in the control room. Midshipmen didn't have time to scream or move before twenty thousand volts shot through their bodies. A few of them who weren't touching any metal on their consoles rose in shock when they saw what happened to the others around them. Jack and his men quickly subdued them. He looked at the frozen Alvera. She was still touching the weapons console and was clearly dead, lying across the panel as the short-lived electrical strike ended. All around them, midshipmen lay dead against their stations.