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Nelinha frowns at the dolphin, then at me.
‘What’s going on?’ she asks. ‘You okay?’
My hands are shaking. ‘None of us are okay. I think theAronnaxhas found us.’
My announcement douses the class’s spirits more effectively than theNautilus’s hose-down.
For a few chaotic moments, the entire class mills around asking ‘What? What?’ while I try to explain why I’m so sure we’ve been found. For some reason, ‘The dolphin is telling me so’ doesn’t clear up the confusion. Meanwhile, Ester and Top try to interview Socrates, but that isn’t going well. The dolphin is highly agitated. Judging from his body language, his only message isLeave now.
Finally, Ophelia restores order. She gives each house a different assignment: Sharks to check the island’s defensive grid; Cephalopods to send out drone reconnaissance; Orcas to monitor communications and LOCUS; Dolphins to sweep theVarunaone more time for tracking devices.
‘And the four prefects,’ Ophelia says, ‘stay with Luca and me.’
Our hosts lead Franklin, Tia, Gem and me aboard theNautilus.
This time, the bridge controls light up as soon as I step into the room. Luca strides over to the comm station and manipulates the LOCUS sphere. He’s able to turn it just by holding his handson either side. Three days using LOCUS aboard theVarunaand I never even thought to try that.
‘I see nothing,’ he announces.
‘Check again,’ Ophelia says. ‘Set the LOCUS to maximum radius.’
‘Of course I have set the LOCUS to …’ Luca falters. He adjusts a dial on the control console. ‘There. I have set the LOCUS to maximum radius. Still nothing.’
‘We’re in the middle of a mountain,’ Gem says. ‘That’s got to affect theNautilus’s sensors.’
Luca smiles thinly. ‘Not as much as you might think. Even through hundreds of metres of solid rock, these instruments are still more sensitive than anything else in the base.’
‘But if theAronnaxhas dynamic camouflage,’ I say, ‘which it probably does –’
‘We should see thermal variations, nevertheless.’ Ophelia frowns. ‘But perhaps not until it gets closer.Tooclose. Tia, are the drones online yet? You should be able to check with the nav console.’
‘Uh …’ Tia fiddles with a few knobs. She spins the LOCUS sphere. Even for a brilliant Cephalopod, it takes a few seconds to learn a new interface. ‘I don’t … Wait.’
She hits a toggle. A swarm of purple dots appears on the holosphere. ‘Yeah. They’re fanning out in a search perimeter. But, if theAronnaxis out there, won’t the drones give away our position?’
‘If theAronnaxis out there,’ Luca says grimly, ‘they already know we’re here, and we have much bigger problems.’
I clench my fists. I hate the idea that we might have led our enemies to this sanctuary. ‘How could they have tracked us? We swept theVaruna. We were camouflaged and silent. We did everything Dr Hewett told us …’
Even as I say that, my conviction evaporates. Hewett could’vebeen working for Land Institute after all and set us up to fail. Or maybe somebody else on board was the traitor, and they sent a communication we didn’t detect. Just thinking about it makes me nauseated.
‘We can’t know,’ Luca says. ‘Clearly, LI has managed to keep a lot of their advances secret. Theodosius warned us of his designs for theAronnaxwhen he first came to HP. He claimed his sub would rival theNautilus, but he didn’t believe LI would actually be able to build it for at least another decade or two. If they’ve done it so quickly, without us even being aware …’
Gem shoulders his collection of rifles. ‘But Lincoln Base is well defended, right? We saw the turrets on the way in.’
‘We have defences, yes,’ Ophelia says. ‘We can fend off almost anything a regular navy could throw at us. But we can’t be sure what theAronnax’s capabilities are. We have to assume the worst.’
Franklin laces his fingers nervously. The blue streak in his hair has turned violet in the glow of the bridge lights. ‘We saw what theAronnaxdid to HP. What happens if one of those warheads hits this island?’
‘Wait,’ Tia says. ‘Drones six and seven just went dark.’
Ophelia hurries to her side. ‘Did you try rerouting –?’
‘Yeah. Sending drones five and eight to sweep that grid … Nowthey’vegone dark, too.’
‘EMP weapon, maybe?’ Gem asks.
‘Perhaps,’ Luca says. ‘Four drones malfunctioning at once is unlikely. Something in that grid does not wish to be seen.’
