Leviathan

"You're going to try and take the command bridge?" Virginia asked, looking from face to face.

Mendenhall and Ryan answered by slamming home magazines into their weapons.

"No other choice."

"Look, Jack, Tyler has both ends of that sealed passageway covered. You'll be fighting in a blind alley, and he has reinforcements he can call up; you don't."

"We will have to--"

"Jack, Alex had a plan. She made me strip this wiring from auxiliary control before we evacuated. I just don't know what it was."

Collins looked at the coiled wire. He tilted his head in thought.

"Shock ... electric shock--under control center."

Virginia knelt and listened, but Alexandria had blanked out once more.

Jack heard the captain, and then he knew what her makeshift plan consisted of.

"Virginia, I need you to pull off that engineering stuff you're so fond of bragging about," Jack said as he reached down and took the wiring. He then explained that she had to return to the crawlspace.

Everett, Mendenhall, and Ryan watched as Jack detailed his plan to Virginia. They all raised their brows when they heard it, but they knew it would be their only chance without losing a lot of the people. Virginia nodded and accepted the task.

"Leave the captain here with her people. They aren't trained to take on people like Tyler, plus the captain may need them if this damn thing works. Doctor, you have to rig this thing in five minutes."

Tyler waited with fifty of his men at the forward access companionway into the control center. He was angry, as he knew he had lost a chance after finally breaking through into the auxiliary control suite, only to find that Heirthall had vanished. They had emptied weapons into the crawlspace beneath the deck, but he now knew that that woman had nine lives. He surmised that attacking the control center was the only logical move for the captain. Thus far, he had to give Heirthall and that damnable Collins credit--they had thwarted him at every juncture in trying to subdue them. However, he now knew their only choice was to come through him and his men.

ICE PALACE

Farbeaux formed a plan in a split second. His mind started clicking just as it had before the death of Danielle, his wife. It felt good to have purpose once more.

As the sea crashed against the carved buildings, the salt deteriorated the walls, and the giant halves of the ice shelf separated for good. The sky one mile above the ancient ice hit the sea for the first time in two hundred thousand years. Ice Palace was floating, and its ice shores were only thirty feet from the cresting swell of sea.

"Sarah, get the children in order. This section of ice will be unstable in the next few minutes."

"What?"

"He's right, look!" Niles called out.

Sarah and the others looked around and saw that the building had a decided tilt to its foundation. The children were starting to lose their footing as the giant ice floe started to tilt backward.

"I believe this shelf is now what is called an iceberg, dear Sarah. It is going to flip over. The Ross Ice Shelf is no more. If we don't do something, we'll be thrown into the sea, and with my injured hip, I don't think I could swim to McMurdo Station."

Sarah responded quickly, gathering the children together with the help of Lee, Alice, and Robbins.

"I hope you have a plan," she said.

"As a matter of fact, the answer to our situation is right in the lower rooms of this enclosure. Now, we need everyone to go down and assist in taking the items we need." Farbeaux started down first, followed by Sarah just as the enclosure tilted to thirty degrees. The stable half of the remaining shelf was starting to drift farther away.

They had but moments remaining before the section they were riding would flip over into the freezing sea.

LEVIATHAN

As the second group of Tyler's mercenaries waited, Collins caught them off guard from behind when he cleared his throat. He and Everett stood facing the men with their hands up. Ryan and Mendenhall were standing behind them, angry at having to surrender without a fight.

As Tyler's men rushed forward to take them into custody, Everett looked over at Collins.

"Ballsy, Jack, I'll give you that."

"Yeah, but can you think of a better way to get into the control center without getting everyone shot to hell?"

As they were pushed out of the companionway toward the rest of Tyler's men, Everett had to smile.

"It is good to have you back from the dead, Colonel. My life would have been as boring as hell without you."

ICE PALACE