"Mr. Kyle, I need twenty degrees down angle on the planes. Bring Leviathanto flank speed, please, make your heading two-six-zero degrees, make your depth ... a thousand feet. Order all hands to brace for collision."
"Aye, Captain--ma'am, we are losing the main collision shield in the forward observation compartment, and reactors two and three are in meltdown."
"You're full of good news ... this morning. Mr. Kyle, would you like to maneuver Leviathanon her last mission? I want to be someplace ... else when we surface for the last time."
"It would be my honor, Captain."
The escape pods broke the surface of the sea near a large patch of broken ice. One after the other the pods shot into the air from the great depths from where they had been ejected. Just twenty miles away, HMS Longbow, a Royal Navy frigate, saw them on radar and sonar, and began to make its way toward the bobbing escape modules.
As ladders were thrown over the side and British frogmen assisted the survivors from the pods, Jack had a vision that made him close his eyes and thank whatever God was watching over them. Perhaps it was the sea god Leviathanafter all. Standing at the fantail of the Longbow, wrapped in blankets, was Sarah. She stood in front of Niles Compton, Alice Hamilton, and Garrison Lee. Sarah ran forward and with no shyness at all threw her blanket off and hugged Jack under the warmth of the sun for the first time in months. Lee, Niles, Alice, and his men gathered around.
"Dr. Robbins?" Everett asked looking around.
Lee nodded and took Carl by the arm.
"You would have been proud of him, son. He saved us all in an unselfish act of heroism."
"He didn't make it?"
Lee patted Everett on the back and left him alone to his thoughts.
Jack allowed the hug to continue for as long as Sarah wanted. He locked eyes with Niles Compton and nodded. Then Sarah let him go with one last squeeze.
"Mr. Director," Jack said.
"Just a handshake will do, Colonel," Compton said smiling.
"We seem to be missing Colonel Farbeaux."
They grew quiet and Jack could see it in their eyes. Farbeaux was lost, and they were actually feeling bad about it. He only nodded slightly at their nonanswer, and then turned as the crew of HMS Longbowwent to general quarters. Horns blared and men ran about the deck. Jack ordered his men to secure the children.
A half-mile away the sea began to erupt in a widening circle that boiled and bubbled as if the entire area were exploding.
"Jesus, the madwoman did it--look at that!" Lee said, tossing his cane over the side of the ship.
"All hands, we have a submerged object rising off the port quarter--stand by, main armament."
"No!" Collins shouted as he waved his hands toward the bridge of the frigate.
The Event Group and children of Leviathanwere quickly surrounded by a squad of royal marines and moved away from the railing.
The frigate didn't have time to pull out of the way as she rolled with the tremendous force surfacing beside her. As she settled, giant bubbles and arcs of water flowed over the much smaller surface vessel, and then, as if by the last magical prowess of the sea gods that protected her, Leviathanslowly came up from the depths. The damaged sail was the first to shake free of the cold water and ice. And then, to the amazement of all, it wasn't Leviathan's hull that came next.
"Oh, my God--she did do it!" Virginia screamed, tears flowing down her face as she wrapped her arms around Senator Lee.
"Amazing--just bloody amazing," was all Senator Lee could mumble.
Sitting precariously on Leviathan's massive foredeck was the damaged USS Missouri. Her entire stern quarter was now missing, and there was massive damage throughout her hull. As they watched, and with water bubbling around both vessels, the hatches started opening on Missouriand submariners started assisting the wounded from its bowels.
Jack smiled when he saw Captain Jefferson and Izzeringhausen emerge from the sail's escape trunk. He was shouting orders when he leaned over and spied Collins. He gave his head a shake and then saluted, yelling for his men to get over the side. Then, with a last glance at the great conning tower of Leviathanlooming far over his head, he gave the strange vessel his second salute, and followed his first officer over the side into the freezing waters.
Leviathanwas starting to lose her fight with the pull of the sea--she was starting to go down. As the Event Group watched, the sail hatch opened and three young sailors came out. They reached in and assisted Captain Alexandria Heirthall out from the conn.
Virginia ran over to the railing, leaning over as far as she could as Leviathanslowly sank back into the sea. Missouri'sprecarious hold on the foredeck of Leviathanfinally let go, and she slid off into the cold waters--claiming her for their own.
Virginia Pollock was crying as Niles grabbed her and held on.
"Alex, jump, get free, you have time! Please, get as many of your people off as you can--please," Virginia screamed as Alexandria smiled for the last time.
They watched Captain Alexandria Heirthall look at the faces just above her as Leviathanslowly sank. Then her men assisted her back down into the sail hatch.
With the children crying along with Virginia, the great Leviathanslowly sank with only the fanfare of the hissing sea around her.
The quarter-mile-wide iceberg, which had for two hundred thousand years been the center portion of the Ross Ice Shelf, covered the sound of a small motor as the Royal Navy frigate pulled away to the north, heading for Australian territorial waters. The occupant of the lead boat, which was riding low in the water, was shivering with cold as he maneuvered the large rubber boat through the smaller pieces of ice covering the Ross Sea. The man figured he would zigzag his way between the newly created icebergs until he reached the newest Antarctica seaside town of McMurdo Station, the American weather platform, where he could charter a flight out.
Colonel Henri Farbeaux had to smile as he guided two other large rubber Zodiacs behind the first. They too were riding extremely low in the water. Tarps covered the load he had hurriedly removed from Ice Palace with not a second to spare. He didn't know what amount of treasure he had recovered, but the sheer warmth he was feeling from the three loads made his smile widen.
With a fraction of the mythical gold and jewels of the Count of Monte Cristo in his possession, Henri Farbeaux slowly made his way to the south.
EPILOGUE
"The world can be such a wondrous place--so full of awe and mystery that it boggles the mind of any thinking person--but one has to realize that the beauty and wonder can be so easily lost by the arrogance of our kind. I and my family have given to you the responsibility of another sentient being, brothers and sisters of the earth who are helpless to our ways of defiling our own world. They need us, and we--most assuredly--need them."
-- Captain Alexandria Heirthall, humanist
THE GULF OF MEXICO
The presidential yacht was riding lazily at anchor in the Gulf of Mexico. Senator Lee, looking dapper with his captain's blue cap and even more regal with Alice sitting next to him, were conversing in low tones about her retirement, which was only months away.