“Counteract it,” Thero said.

Even as he spoke, a second alarm went off.

“Modulate the field.”

The Pakistani began tapping the keys on his computer. Out in the cave, the monstrous, gyroscope-like construction began to pivot in the huge rig. It turned slowly like a giant telescope, trying to align itself with a specific section of the sky. As it moved, the second alarm shut itself off. Only a flashing yellow marker on the oscilloscope-like screen continued.

The giant array of pipes locked itself into place. Ghosts of electromagnetic energy chased one another around the interior and across the polished walls of the sphere. The whole setup continued to glow as if it were covered in St. Elmo’s fire.

“The counterbalancing pulse is in effect,” the Iranian man said. “It should be tuned perfectly, but there is still a slight distortion.”

Thero was furious. He was ready to exterminate whoever had failed him. A slight distortion at low power would be fatal at higher energy levels. It would render his threat impotent.

“Explain the failure!” he demanded.

The engineers and technicians pored over their individual screens, checking and rechecking for any sign they’d missed. They chattered among themselves trying to understand what they were looking at.

“Well?!”

“It’s not us,” the German woman said finally. “Our energy output is balanced perfectly.”

“Then what is occurring?”

The Chechen youth spoke hesitantly, as if he were unsure. “Something out there is reading our signal, absorbing part of it. It’s creating an interference pattern, upsetting the balance.”

“Reading our signal?” Thero’s mind whirled.

“Yes,” the youth replied. “I think I can counteract it and restore…”

Understanding came to Thero suddenly, hitting him like a hammer. “No,” he said. “Shut it down. Shut everything down!”

“What?” someone asked. “Why?”

“They’re probing us. Waiting for us to power up and homing in on our signal. Shut the system down!”

Thero went to switch the system off himself, when an arm barred him. He turned to see his son, George.

“How dare you stay my hand!” Thero shouted.

“It’s too late,” his son told him. “Like radar, we’ve already been painted. There’s no point in shutting it down now.”

“That may not be true,” Thero charged.

“You know it is,” George said.

“Then we must stop them,” Thero blurted out.

He looked over to the engineers. “If they can detect us, then we can find them. Pinpoint the origin of this distortion. Quickly.”

The Korean and the two Iranians sprang into action, glancing up at Thero nervously, gawking at him as he conversed with his son.

“Do not raise your eyes to us!”

They looked back down at their work, made a series of calculations, and came up with a solution.

“Typing the location in now,” the Iranian woman said.

A map appeared on the monitor above the Plexiglas viewport. It displayed Thero’s location, his island of Tartarus. It also displayed the waters of the Southern Ocean and the southwestern tip of Australia. A flashing dot indicated the location where the offending distortion was located. Almost due east, only nine hundred miles from the island.

“How could they be so close?” he gasped. “Traitor. There must still be a traitor among us!”

“It must be a ship,” the Korean said.

“Of course it’s a ship!” Thero bellowed.

“Perhaps we should shut down,” Thero’s son suggested.

“Now?!” Thero barked. “I think not! Like you said, it’s too late. Prepare to destroy them.”

“It’s not wise to risk full power without testing.”

The crew continued to gawk at the argument between father and son. The embarrassment enraged Thero even further. “No more questions!”

“The system isn’t ready!” his son pleaded.

“Silence!”

With that, Thero’s son retreated, and Thero gazed out at his crew.

“Set the machine for a short impulse,” he ordered. “Align the dislocation to occur directly in their path. The distortion alone should swallow them whole.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Kurt and Joe were still on the bridge, waiting for a printer to churn out the latest weather map, when it jammed midpage and wouldn’t restart.

“What’d you do?” Joe asked.

“I didn’t touch it,” Kurt said.

Joe stepped to the computer to restart the printing process. “That’s weird.”

“What?”

“No signal.”

“Telemetry’s down,” Captain Winslow told them. “It’s been in and out all day. Something to do with solar flares messing up our satellites.”

Kurt remembered hearing how that would be a problem this year, the sun was entering the most active phase of its eleven-year cycle. Sunspots and flares were stirring up powerful electromagnetic storms in the upper atmosphere, creating incredible displays of light over both the northern and southern poles.

Kurt glanced out the windows. If they weren’t socked in under a thick blanket of clouds, the aurora australis, or southern lights, might have been a treat to see.

“I’m going to get some air,” Kurt said. “Let me know when the link is reestablished.”

He opened the bulkhead door and stepped outside. A chilly blast hit him, chasing away the cobwebs that had been creeping over him. The wind from the ship’s motion whistled past, biting his exposed skin. He pulled his coat tight and shoved his hands into its pockets.

He stepped to the rail and stood there, enjoying the solitude, until a bulkhead door opened behind him.

He glanced back to see Hayley coming out onto the deck. “Kurt,” she shouted, “I think we’ve found them. I think we’ve found Thero.”

She moved toward him, eyeing the rail cautiously. A couple sheets of paper fluttered in her grip as the wind tried to pull them loose.

Kurt took them from Hayley, and she grabbed on to the ship’s rail with both hands.

He looked down at the printouts. On top was a map with arcs and lines drawn on it. They angled off to the west. It looked like nothing but open ocean. On the edge of the page was a numerical bearing to the target.

“They’re on that line somewhere,” she said. “Without a second sensor operating, I can’t get a precise fix, but they’re on that line somewhere.”

“Are you sure?”

“I did the calculations three times,” she said. “I checked everything. There were no errors. Something in this exact direction is disturbing the zero-point field.”

She looked up at Kurt, positively beaming. Then she stretched up and gave him a quick kiss.

“Just trying out the spontaneity thing,” she said.

Kurt smiled. “I like it.” He reached toward her, slid a hand behind her head, and pulled her toward him for a proper kiss.

“Okay, I like yours better,” she said. “Can we try that again?”

“Let’s talk to the captain first.”

“Do we really need his permission?” Hayley asked. “I know it’s his ship, but…”

“About the map,” Kurt said. “And our new heading.”

“Oh… all right,” she said.

He took her by the hand and stepped toward the hatch, stopping as a flash on the horizon caught his eye.

He turned and gazed directly into the night but saw nothing but darkness.

“Did you see that?” he asked.

“See what?”

“That flash.”

“No,” she replied. “I didn’t see anything.”

As they stood and gazed into the darkness, like two people waiting to see fireworks go off, a strange feeling began to creep over Kurt. He could sense the hair on the back of his neck standing up.

Finally, another flicker of light appeared. This time, Kurt saw it plainly, but it wasn’t a flash on the horizon like a strobe light or even a definable bolt of electricity, it was more like heat lightning in the summer, covering the whole horizon, flickering dimly. Only, it wasn’t coming from the sky. The sea itself was flashing, as if the whole of the ocean were bioluminescencing.