THE EXTRACTOR - MISSION: OCEAN RESCUE: The World's Largest Cruise Ship has Just Been Hijacked . . . by J.T. Brannan

Author:J.T. Brannan [Brannan, J.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grey Arrow Publishing
Published: 2020-07-15T22:00:00+00:00

11

The altimeter was absolutely vital at night – NVGs had never been very good at depth perception, and even on a clear day with the sun in the sky, landing in the ocean was harder than many people thought. With a huge blue canvas stretching as far as the eye could see, it was extremely difficult to judge where the surface actually was – you could be sailing down toward it, thinking you were still hundreds of feet above the water, and then smash, your legs would hit and you’d realize that you’d badly misjudged it.

With the altimeter though, Lee was able to trace his progress all the way down, connecting the digital readout on his wrist computer with what he was seeing beneath him. There were just a thousand feet to go now, and Lee stripped off the NVGs and stowed them in a waterproof bag as he saw the waves below him looming larger, in muted hues of grey and black, rushing up toward him.

He felt the line his kit was attached to go slack, and knew that it had hit the water, knew that he would hit next, just a moment –

He felt his feet hit the top of a wave, then an instant later he was under the water, the sudden cold and the force of the impact taking his breath away. He started kicking back to the surface a moment later, detaching the parachute rig as he popped up at the top of a wave. He pulled off the oxygen mask he’d used for the jump, swapping over immediately to the Draeger rebreather that was attached to his chest, slipping on his diving mask and blowing it clear, and then slipping the flippers on over his boots. As the chute drifted away on the waves, he pulled in the kit that was bobbing about on the line, as the water crashed around him. The swells were four feet, the water not as calm as he’d hoped but at least manageable, and he hauled his gear in quickly, fixing the waterproof backpack via the cord to his waistbelt, while unpacking the underwater propeller.

As he bobbed around on the waves, he was suddenly hit by a feeling of terrible isolation, a fear that struck him to his very core; it was something elemental, terrifying beyond explanation. He was alone, completely alone, adrift on the open sea, exposed and unprotected, as vulnerable as the day he was born. He felt cold and empty, and scared, so scared . . .

Normal protocol was to only dive with a dive buddy, both in the civilian and the military environment. As a PJ, he would never have been allowed to do this alone; there were always a minimum of two people, and normally several pairs. One would navigate, while the other would act as an observer, constantly assessing the conditions and looking for obstacles. And if something went wrong, you would know that there was someone there for you. Even the

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