Two
hours later the Captain announced that the submarine was entering the harbor at
Devonport. He announced the British were requesting a formal docking ceremony so
all off duty and nonessential submariners would have to be in dress uniform for
an above deck presentation. This
meant the main officers would be on the conning tower observation area and the
line of sailors standing at ease on the sub deck aft of the conning tower. An entrance like that was always very
impressive whether it was a submarine or an aircraft carrier. No doubt the Brits would have a marching
band to play the Israeli national anthem.
It
probably would be on the news that this was the sub that captured the now
notorious Sir Terrance Lutts.
Lutts
would be kept on board under lock and key until after the ceremony and then he
would be secretly ushered out of the sub where British Intelligence would have
their chance to see if they could get anything out of him. No doubt the Princess, the Monsignor and
Frank would also have to be debriefed by MI-6.
While
waiting the three fighters for religion sat in the Captain’s small conference
room. For much of the time they
tried to sleep. When the Captain
gave the order over the PA system they all woke up with a jolt.
Yawning,
the Princess said, “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
“Where
will you go?” Frank asked.
“I
suppose back to the castle at Maidstone.
I assume the staff will still be there and I sure as hell don’t feel like
dealing with the press. No offense,
Frank.”
“None
taken. Will you be safe with all
those Luttses about?”
“I’m
sure I can get some protection from Scotland Yard through my connections with
the Royal family.”
“Must
be nice to have a direct line to the powers that be.”
“As
a matter of fact, it is. Could you
come with me, Frank?”
Frank
only took a second to think it over and said, “Sure. Who would be crazy enough to turn down
Cinderella?”
That
brought on a smile to the Princess’s face.
The first he had seen in a long time. It had been a stressful ride trying to
save religion and their lives.
“How
about you, Monsignor, where are you going after they let you go?” the Princess
asked.
“Back
to the Vatican. I am sure his
Holiness has a lot of questions. Plus we are not out of the woods
yet.”
Just
as soon as the Monsignor had finished his sentence there was a piping noise and
then the Captain ordered all crew members who were part of the docking ceremony
to go to their places. You could
hear countless steps coming from the hallway and odd noises as several hatches
were opened to let the men above.
“I
wish we could go up and watch. I
would like a bit of fresh air,” the Monsignor continued.
“Maybe
if we all had uniforms we could,” Frank quipped, “You could start a new fashion,
Princess, by being seen in naval dress blues.”
The
Princess started to laugh, but stopped very abruptly when the room suddenly was
shook and all of a sudden chairs started to fall over. We could feel the entire submarine was
being raised at an angle. What we
found out later was that as the submarine was coming toward the dock which was
still about a mile away, the commercial salvage ship, Agamemnon, from Greece was
leaving port. Both ship and sub
were going only about 3 knots each which was the speed limit allowed by the
Harbor Master. Weather conditions
were lovely and the waves were minimal in the harbor. The salvage ship would pass on the
starboard side. Each vessel was
progressing to where they would pass with a safe 100 yards between them. In fact, it was reported some of the
Agamemnon’s crew had waved at the sub’s crew while they were approaching. Although the sub’s crew were facing port
side and did not see the waving.
Only a couple of the officers noted it on the conning tower.
Suddenly
the Agamemnon picked up speed and steered towards the submarine. At the same time it swung its giant
crane over the sub. At the end of
the crane’s cables was a large superconducting magnet used to pull up sunken
ships. When it was swung over the
magnet knocked over eight sailors standing in the deck presentation line. No sooner than it was over the submarine
deck than the power must have been switched on and the powerful superconducting
magnets literally pulled the sub’s aft section out of the water. Then the crane rose raising the sub’s
aft section higher and higher. Soon
all the sailors of the presentation line were in the water. The officers in the conning tower at
least had something to hold onto, but then the angle became so extreme the
conning tower started to be submerged.
The security cameras in the harbor caught all the chaotic action. Soon the officers were forced to
jump. The attack came so quickly
and the angle was so extreme they could not get the hatch closed. Water came gushing into the bridge and
we could hear the submariners screaming.
Outside the Captain’s door we could hear water flowing. The three humans looked in a panic liked
trapped rats on a sinking ship.
Just as sudden as the salvage ship started this unwarranted giant swirly
then the submarine felt as if it was in freefall. The magnet had let go of the sub and the
aft came crashing down into the water.
At the same time the forward part of the submarine came up. The conning tower was once again high
and dry, but there was not one officer left on the conning tower area. They were struggling in their heavy
uniforms in the cold water to stay afloat.
Frank
was the first to get to his feet and then he helped the Princess get up. The Monsignor was back on his feet, but
still bracing himself against the wall.
Of course, I heard it first, but the sound of robotic soldiers could be
heard entering the two open hatches on the submarine. Mixed in with their clattering sound I
could hear men still screaming and one junior officer barking orders in the vain
hopes of bringing order to this mess.
Frank
yelled to the other two, “Lets get the fuck out of here.”
I
spoke up and said, “Sir, the submarine is being boarded by robotic
soldiers. I suggest we stay
put.”
After
I made that observation Frank slammed the table against the door and the
Monsignor joined him in piling up the chairs. I continued to monitor the ingress of
soldiers. Quickly the number of
human voices started to diminish.
When it comes to hand to hand combat with a robotic soldier it is 99%
certain the human will lose. After
all, the robot is never unarmed.
They have their flying mini-drones they can deploy. Hopefully, they only rendered the
submariners unconscious, rather than terminate them. It was literally seconds
after I heard the last human voice when I could tell the robotic soldiers were
making their retreat. Mixed in the
sounds of the retreating robots I could hear some low frequencies common to the
hovering blades of a helicopter as well as some higher frequencies of transport
drones that could carry a single soldier – either human or robotic. That is exactly what the harbor cameras
would show. They would also show
one single human being escorted by several robotic soldiers to the small robotic
helicopter. No sooner than the
invading force had taken to the skies then there were explosions inside the
salvage ship. Black smoke and soon
red flames would start to envelop the ship. The Israeli sub was dead in the
water.
Meanwhile
we were still holed up in the Captain’s conference room. Slowly, I started to hear the moans of
the crew waking up. All around the
ship there were footsteps and finally over the PA system came an order to any
able bodied personnel to go up on deck and help rescue their brothers and
sisters in the water. It was then
that Frank told the Monsignor to help him unblock the door. No sooner had they put the room in order
than there was a strong knock at the door.
It was the Colonel. Frank
opened the door and let the very wet Colonel Mann in. On the side of his right face his temple
was bleeding, but he acted as if that was the least of his
concerns.
The
Colonel’s first words to us when he saw our faces was, “The bastard's
gone.” I could tell he was not in a
happy mood. His face was flushed
and I don’t think it was from the blow he had taken. “Son of a bitches fucked us,
royally. The damn Brits didn’t do a
thing to stop them.” Finally, he
calmed down enough to take a good look at the three and ask, "You all
okay?”
“Better
than you,” the Monsignor answered as both Frank and the Princess nodded in the
affirmative.
Then
the Colonel went back into his anger mode and said, “That’s twice that asshole
has wiped our asses. I don’t like
that. Next time I get hold of one
of those Luttses I will shoot him between his fucking
eyes.”
“Stand
in line” Frank said.
“Sir,
I hear other vessels approaching” I interjected.
There
were three vessels that were approaching – one fire boat and two tugs. The first tug came along and helped fish
out the Israelis and then secured a tow line to bring the crippled sub to the
dock. The second tug secured lines
to the now smoldering Agamemnon and kept her from floating towards any other
vessels. Off in the distance I saw
a light frigate of the Royal Navy slowly coming towards us. I was not sure what good they could do
us now. Once I was on deck and
reconnected to the world-wide Internet I could see the entire event was being
watched world-wide. The awe in the
voices of the news reporters sounded like Sir Terrance was the biggest anti-hero
the world has ever seen. One called
him, ‘Sir Super Terror Lutts.’
Frank
was not allowed to go to bed until it was three in the morning by MI-6. Even then, he stayed up another two
hours writing his article revealing to the world what Sir Super Terror was up
to. Once he had me send the article
along with my photographs, it only took the Wall Street Journal twenty minutes
to have it on their web page and headed towards the presses. Frank realized there was a risk that
Lutts might accelerate his doomsday schedule, but he thought it highly
unlikely. This guy had his own
schedule and very little could stop it now.
The
Brits were able to track the helicopter that took Lutts away. It landed in a hangar with a retractable
roof at a private air strip. Once
the roof was closed ten different vehicles came out and went in ten different
directions. They made frequent
stops inside other buildings and often two or more vehicles came and went
afterwards. Within an hour the
equation of Sir Terrance's escape looked like (1x3x3x2x3x3x3)x10 = 2430 possible
moves. Many of the buildings had
connections to other buildings as well, which meant Sir Terrance could have
walked away and been any of the many humans leaving those buildings. Granted the United Kingdom is only
second in street security cameras, but it would still take time to try and track
where he really went. He would not
be the first or last person to slap on a woman’s wig and walk by a bobby.
MI-5
asked to interview the Princess and her two escorts in the morning. It was not until three o’clock that
afternoon that the Princess was able to call a cab to take her and Frank to
Maidstone castle. She was assured
that by the time she got there a security perimeter manned by a mix of Scotland
Yard and MI-5 would be there. She
would be able to have the peace and quiet she sorely needed. The Monsignor had finished about an hour
earlier and caught a leased plane sent by the Vatican that flew directly to
Rome. To his surprise he had to
share the jet with another dignitary from the Vatican.
“Your
Holiness, this is a surprise.”
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