Leviathan

The first sensation for all inside was the feeling of free falling, as the seawater around her started running faster than Leviathanherself. The second sensation was that of the great boat flipping over as if it were a twig caught in a flashflood. The shock wave tore free the directional ring acting as the main rudder for Leviathan. Then the same heated wave assaulted the jet-thruster housing, causing the main seal to fail. The shaft that sent high-pressure water outward from the main engines, giving the submarine her thrust to the four water jets, backwashed and forced the rubber seals to melt, and then fail, allowing seawater to enter the pressurized hull with tremendous force.

Jack was thrown to the deck, and then it was as if he were on a sheet of ice as Leviathanmade her run for the bottom of the Ross Sea. Then the detonation effects actually made the centrifugal force of the submarine faster than Jack's fall, and he found himself free-floating above the deck.

Tyler wasn't as lucky. He seemed to hit every engineering console in the compartment on his slide down the ever-increasing steepness of the deck. Just before he was crushed in the final fall toward the bulkhead, the same strange force that halted Jack's fall stopped Tyler in midair. Then, almost as soon as the floating effect started, it ceased, as Leviathanagain caught up with the speed of the rushing seas.

Both men started free-falling toward the bulkhead at crushing speed as the inner hull was breached in engineering. Tyler landed at bone-crushing speed, and Jack landed on top of him.

As Collins was trying to figure out if he had any broken bones, Tyler moved from under him.

"Help ... me," Tyler whispered.

Collins tried to turn to hear what Tyler was saying, but the automatic damage-control system was pumping compressed air into the compartment to push back some of the flooding covering both men, as the submarine was still in a nosedown attitude. Water soon covered Tyler as Jack quickly thought about his options. Decided, Collins raised Tyler's head from the bulkhead until it was just free of the rising water. Tyler spit and tried to clear the saltwater from his mouth and throat.

"Don't let me drown," the broken Tyler said as loud as he could.

Jack remembered the people at the Event Complex lost, and all the people Tyler was prepared to kill for the sake of money and power. The nuclear strikes would have caused the deaths of millions of innocents. Then the thought of Sarah, Lee, Alice, and those children so callously abandoned at Ice Castle made his decision for him.

"Sorry," Jack said as he took Tyler by the shoulders and slowly pushed him back into the water.

As the level of the flooding rose, Jack had to crane his neck to keep it above the water while he held Tyler down. He stayed that way until the large Irishman's struggling ceased. Collins turned away and floated until he was as far away from his deed as he could get.

The restraining belts were holding the crew in their seats, with the exception of Everett, who was dangling from the navigation console.

"Engines all back!" Heirthall yelled over the sound of the flooding alarms--the effort causing a large flow of bright red blood to fill her mouth. "Blow all ballast tanks. Give me full rise on the planes!"

"Captain, we have serious flooding in engineering--it's a major hull breach!"

"That will not affect power. All back!"

Leviathanstarted to bring her already-flooded bow up, but her speed was so great she continued to fall toward the bottom.

USSMISSOURI(SSN-780)

Jefferson knew that the flooding was overwhelming Missouri's ability to pump it out. The forward weapons room had to be abandoned, and all the ballast he could send out to the sea had already been pumped out.

"Captain, we are about to lose the reactor--we're losing her," Izzeringhausen said, holding onto the nav table.

"Maintain revolutions! Launch the rescue buoy!"

Izzy did as he was ordered, but knew no rescue buoy in the known world would allow anyone to reach them almost three miles down; they would soon be crushed to death in a quarter of that depth.

Missouri

had lost her fight for survival.

LEVIATHAN

Jack felt the deck straighten, but knew through his stomach that Leviathanwas still sinking at incredible speed. He struggled toward the intercom and smashed his hand against the button.

"Conn, this is Collins in engineering!" he screamed. "We have a massive breach open to the sea!"

"Abandon the compartment, Colonel ... seal the area!" Heirthall responded.