Page 150 of Tides of Fire

He hunched over his controls, tweaked some toggles, then yanked on the control yoke. A shadow rose to the left. The wing lifted on that side. The sudden drag, especially in the rapidly ascendingCormorant, threw the vehicle sharply toward the tree line. Bryan fought the thrusters to maintain their trajectory.

Adam gulped in Phoebe’s ear. “I think it’s working.”

“Don’t jinx us,” Phoebe warned.

They all held their breath for the last twenty seconds—until theCormorantshot into the forest like an injured bird with a broken wing.

Adam announced the inevitable. “Torpedo’s still locked on us, following us.”

Bryan tucked the wing again, fearful of it being ripped off if the vehicle swayed too close to one of the coral trees.

Phoebe leaned on her window. Lit by theCormorant’s exterior lamps, the irradiated woodlands spread around them in a black colonnade. Bryan glided them swiftly through the forest. He adjusted buoyancy and thrusters to keep them weaving through the trunks.

“Torpedo just entered the forest,” Adam reported.

The pinging had fluttered for a spell, but now it steadied.

“It’s still got us tagged,” Adam said. “We bought some time, but as it speeds up, it’ll start closing on us again.”

“Where do we go?” Datuk moaned.

Phoebe pointed ahead, where the forest shimmered and shone. “If nothing else, I want to see what’s out there before I die.”

They all settled in, except for Bryan, who continued to work hismagic. The dark forest swept around them. A few branches scraped and scratched at their outer shell, like the claws of the dead.

After a few minutes, it was clear that Adam had been right. The torpedo gained on them—first at a steady pace, then ever faster.

Phoebe stared at the glowing expanse beckoning ahead. By now, the radiant hues had brightened, differentiating into swirls and eddies of bioluminescence. It was as if they were sweeping from the dark fields of Kansas toward the splendor of Oz.

But they would never make it.

Trapped by the press of trees and branches, Bryan had no room for some clever last-minute maneuver. All they could do was keep going, driving across the forest. She remembered the lone creature sweeping through the coral trunks, desperate, terrified.

She felt the same way now.

That poor—

She jerked straighter in her seat.

“What’s wrong?” Adam asked.

She turned to Bryan. “Blink all our lights. As rapidly as you can. Raise the lamp pole, too.”

He frowned at her, clearly busy.

Right.

She set about doing it herself. Adam helped. So did Datuk.

In moments, the exterior lights strobed the darkness. The lamp pole extended, flaring brightly with its twenty thousand lumens.

Despite the blinding brilliance, Bryan kept them moving. But the Aussie was not Phoebe’s intended audience.

Earlier, the lone creature who had fled through the dark forest had been drawn by their lamps. Phoebe prayed their lightshow now might do the same for the denizens of that radiant glade.

She waited and watched.

Adam concentrated on the sonar screen. “Torpedo is closing fast. It’ll be on us in under a minute.”