The Project 02 - The Lance

in his hands.
    "Found what was probably the log book. It's no good, turned to slime." He dropped it on the floor. He turned away from the periscope column.
    "Now I'm looking at the captain's corner. There's still a piece of the curtain left."
    Selena felt a vibration . She glanced outside. Sediment swirled around the sub.
    " Lamont, the current is picking up."
    " Roger. Hold your station." She saw him grasp a bulkhead and disappear from view as he moved into the captain's alcove.
    Lamont shone his light around the confined space. A disjointed skeleton lay on the floor. Fragments of dark cloth clung to the bones. The empty sockets of a narrow skull gaped up at him, the lower jaw fallen away. The legs still wore high leather jack boots, turned a soggy, brownish green. Something poked through the white bones. Lamont reached down and pulled it out, brushed silt aside. It was a brown oilskin pouch. He placed it in the bag hooked on his belt.
    T he sub moved. The delicate balance keeping U-886 in place for so many years had been disturbed.
    " Lamont, the sub's moving. Get out!" Selena tried to keep the fear out of her voice.
    " Roger."
    The submarine groaned and tilted. Selena braced against the movement. Pipes broke away from the ceiling and Selena saw one strike Lamont on the head. A sudden, thick cloud of particles blocked her view.
    " Lamont. Lamont, talk to me."
    There was no response.
    "Selena, what's going on?" Nick's voice came over her headset.
    " The sub moved. Lamont's hurt. He's not answering. I'm going in after him."
    " For Christ's sake, be careful. Talk to me, Selena. Let me know what you're doing." Fear flooded her body and her heart began thumping in her chest. She forced herself to slow her breathing. With more than two hundred feet of water above her, too much breath could be fatal.
    " I'm going in. I can't see much, too much stuff in the water. I can't see Lamont yet. There are pipes and cables down, but I can get past them." She pushed a tangle of wires aside, death traps moving about in the murk like slime covered spiders reaching for her.
    "Talk to me." Nick's voice was calm, soothing. "Take your time. Lamont's gear will keep him alive. Don't rush."
    " A couple of pipes came down in the corridor, but I think I can get through them. Wait one."
    Selena pushed one of the pipes aside and s wam past. She swam through the hatchway. In the swirling silt she saw Lamont pinned against the deck, a pipe across his chest. His eyes were closed behind the mask, his mouth open.
    " Lamont's unconscious. There's a pipe across him, not too big." She reached down with both hands and lifted the pipe away. She heard a strange groaning, an eerie, low, metallic moan. She felt the sub moving. She wanted to get out of there. She fought her panic, concentrated on Lamont.
    Selena started back through the passage, pulling Lamont behind her. The sub groaned again and began to vibrate. The water inside was filled with clouds of silt. She could see nothing at all in the murk. She worked by touch and instinct through the fallen pipes, dangling wires and cables, praying she wouldn't get snagged. She reached the opening in the hull and pulled Lamont out. The wreck was beginning to move away under her feet. Grasping him under one arm, she backpedaled toward the mooring line.
    The sub picked up speed as it slid down the steep slope. Roiling clouds of silt churned out from under the stern, as if the huge engines had come back to life. The black swastika and white shield gleamed like a demon's eye in the ocean light as the long, narrow shape moved away. Streams of seaweed trailed from the conning tower. They look like flags, she thought. Flags, on a ship of the dead.
    The submarine went over the edge of the cliff.
    For a brief moment she held her course, as if a ghostly hand was at the helm. Then the bow nosed down and the wreck disappeared into the black depths. A thick cloud of particles billowed up from the sea floor.
    " Nick, I've got him, I'm coming up. The sub's gone." She looked at Lamont's oxygen meter. Still safe.
    "Roger. Remember your stops."
    Selena began the ascent. She watched her depth meter. She felt the cold weight of what seemed like miles of water above her.
    Lamont 's eyes fluttered, opened. He looked at Selena, her mask next to his as she swam upward. She saw him open his eyes.
    " I've got you. You're okay. Your meters are good."
    " What happened?" His voice was hoarse.
    " You got knocked out. We're going up. At one