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Eddie tapped the steel door with the butt of his flashlight Rather than return a sharp echo, it rang with a dull thud He tried higher up and finally got the results he wanted “The ship’s sunk to within two feet of the top of the door,” he reported “When I open it, this roo to flood”
“Will we be able to get out,” Janni asked breathlessly
“No problem” Eddie smiled to reassure her “Once the inside and outside pressure equalize, we’ll be able to say And the beauty of it is, our suits will keep us afloat”
“I’ll go downstairs and close off the door we ca that, in order for Eddie’s plan to work, the boat garage had to be isolated fro in
“Thanks,” Eddie said He positioned Jannike away fro so she could hold on as the room flooded
The door was operated by a small electric winch but had a mechanical handle to crank it up or down in case poas ever lost When Hux returned and was standing next to Janni to help hold her in place, Eddie bent and grabbed the handle As soon as he put pressure on it, the door crept up a quarter inch and water started to enter the chamber in a flat rush He was off to the side of the door but could still feel water sweeping by his lower legs as he cranked it higher
The sea cascaded through the opening in the floor in a thundering waterfall
Eddie had the door a quarter of the way open when the handle jae He looked at the door and sahat had happened The force of water pressing against it had buckled the uide wheels off their tracks Even as he watched, the door distorted further, bending in the iant hand
He shouted a warning to Janni and Julia that was lost in the roar of water as the door failed completely It tore free froh it were a piece of paper Free of the constraint, the ocean exploded through the opening in a green wall
Julia and Janni were far enough to the side to be spared the brunt of the onslaught, but, as the rooe of water Had it not been for Hux’s presence, Jannike Dahl would have been lost in the tumult
Shock waves continued to reverberate through the water, sending debris, including a Jet Ski, floating dangerously by It was only when the water settled that Eddie was able to let go of the stanchion he’d been clutching He i Like a cat in reverse, he flipped himself around as he sailed upward, to land on the roof on his hands and knees, his flashlight still gripped in his hand He adjusted the airflow into the hazmat suit to reduce the pressure, and, thus, his buoyancy Otherwise, he’d re and immobilized
He worked the light to spot Julia and their young charge, hanging on to a railing with their feet pointing up, the air in the suits ballooning the fabric around their legs He crawled over to theo and float free She did and rose up to join him He did the same for Janni, and turned down the airflow fro across to the open door but felt Julia resisting his help She tapped him on the shoulder and pressed her visor to his
“I lost the sample case,” she shouted, the vibration of her voice transferring through the plastic so he could hear the words “We have to find it”
Eddie looked at the e: towels, life jackets, notebooks, bottles of sunscreen and water, coolers It could take hours to find the case, and if it had been sucked back out the door it was already falling to the seafloor, some ten thousand feet below the ship
“No time,” he said back to her