Denton sprinted away from the control room, wiping tears from his eyes. He regretted telling Gabi about the fate of his family. The words had just come tumbling out of his mouth at Gabi's hesitation to try to save Jarell, without concern for her feelings. There was no need for her to know that his father had been responsible for the death of his own family. Once said, there was no taking them back. He had panicked.

He ran past several open doors that revealed dark offices and conference rooms, his footsteps echoing off of the hallway walls like hammers. He burst through the door at the end of the hallway and slammed into the opposite wall, then slid to the floor with a groan.

After a couple of deep breaths, he got to his feet and looked around, his hand against the wall as support. A smile spread across his face as he realized he had stumbled right into the passageway that led to the underwater module, the same hallway he had explored when he first arrived at the complex. That meant he was close. He took a deep breath and did his best to ignore his aching body, then retraced his prior path to the module airlock.

When he stepped into the room of the airlock, a bright red light above the airlock door flashed a continuous rhythm, once every second. He had no idea what the flashing meant, but he suspected it had something to do with the imminent departure of the module. His eyes went to the walls on each side of the airlock door. The emergency abort had to be nearby. 

A recessed handle inside a rectangular square on the wall caught his eye. That had to be it. He reached for a small handle, pulled it and then promptly stumbled backward as the handle broke off and fell out of his hand and hit the floor.

He muttered words not appropriate for anyone's ears as he instinctively reached for the broken handle and stared at the flat piece of metal that just moments ago had been the solution to his problem.

The door behind him flew open, and Gabi burst through the door. She froze in her steps as she absorbed the scene of Denton standing in front of the hatch, the broken handle in his hand.

"What did you do?" she said and grabbed the handle from his hand, turning it in her hand.

"It just came off," Denton said and slammed the palm of his hand against the wall in frustration, a move he immediately regretted as pain shot through hand and arm.  With a grunt, he leaned back against the wall and let out a sigh.

Gabi look at him, eyebrows raised. "It just came off?"

"Yes. I reached for it to open the hatch and it just broke off," he said and pointed towards the broken remains of the handle sticking out at an awkward angle. "That's the emergency abort, right? It's the only hatch I see."

Gabi nodded and leaned in closer to examine the hatch. She grabbed the remains of the handle with her fingertips and pressed the bottom edge of the panel with the index finger of her other hand. A faint click inside preceded the hatch swinging open. Behind it, the red emergency abort handle came into view.

"How did you..." Denton started but shut his mouth as Gabi pointed to the four black letters that spelled PUSH on the hatch, right next to the remains of the handle. He held up a hand before Gabi could say anything. "Don't, ok? Just pull the handle."

Gabi looked at him with a smirk and nodded. She reached for the handle, twisted it counter-clockwise and then pulled it out and down. A small green light illuminated above the switch and a whining sound started up somewhere behind the walls.

Above the airlock door, the red flashing right changed to flashing orange.

"Is it working?"

Gabi nodded. "It is. The orange flashing light tells us that the module's descent has been interrupted and its direction reversed. It's coming back up."

"Good, good." Denton looked around the small room. "We need weapons."

"Weapons? For what?"

Denton turned and looked at Gabi over his shoulder. "He's got a gun, remember?"

"Yes..."

"We have to be prepared, don't you think?"

"Of course, but..."

Gabi was interrupted by a loud clanging sound. She froze, and her eyes widened as the light above the hatch changed from orange to green. Denton nodded towards the light.

"Does that mean what I think it does?"

"It's here," she said and nodded.

"Ok, I guess gun or not, we'll have to try to take him out. Maybe we can at least surprise him. One on each side of the door. Hurry!"

Gabi nodded and stepped over to the right side of the airlock door while Denton pressed himself against the wall on the other side. 

"Wait for my signal," he said. Gabi nodded and crouched slightly, ready to spring forward as soon as Jarrel came through the airlock.

Several minutes passed, but nothing happened. The airlock door remained closed, and they heard nothing from inside. Denton felt his legs cramping from half-crouching against the wall.

"What's going on?" Gabi whispered.

"No idea. Maybe we need to go inside."

"Go inside?" Gabi's eyes grew large, and her mouth fell open. "Are you out of your mind? Did you forget about the gun?"

"Yeah, but what other choice do we have?"

Just then, Carter and Leah stepped through the door into the airlock room.

"Did you stop it?" Carter asked as his eyes scanned the room and eventually landed on the emergency stop.

Denton nodded. "Yes, the module has returned to the surface."

"So where's the creep?" Carter said, his fists balling as he glared at the airlock door.

"He hasn't come out yet."

Carter took a step towards the airlock. "In that case, I'm going in."

"Listen, Carter, that's not a good idea," Denton started while Gabi turned and looked at him, eyes wide, mouth wide open.

"Denton, I don't care. I'm going in. That was my father."

"Carter, I know," Denton said and stepped in front of Carter, his hand on his chest. "We don't need anyone else to die."

"He needs to pay for what he did."

"Or drop him to the bottom," Gabi muttered as she glared at Denton.

"We're not dropping him to the bottom," Denton said and shot Gabi an angry look. "We're bringing him to justice. He'll pay for his crimes the old fashioned way."

"You just said we were going in," Gabi said, pushed her brother out of the way and stabbed her finger against Denton's chest. "Until they came in."

Carter looked at Denton, an eyebrow raised. "What, you're going in?"

"Whoa, whoa, just a second, ok?" Denton said and pushed Gabi's finger away from his chest. "Neither of you should be going in there right now."

"Why not?" Gabi demanded.

"Because you'd go in there and kill him. I want him alive."

Carter sighed and shook his head as he threw his hands in the air in a frustrated gesture. 

"I think Denton and I should handle this," Leah said and stepped forward. "We're trained for these kinds of situations, after all."

"Hang on a second," Gabi protested, an angry glare thrown in the direction of Leah.

"She's right," Denton said and raised his hands. "We already know he's dangerous. It's better if you two stick around here, in case something happens. You know how to operate the equipment, and you know your way around this place better than we do. We need you two as our backup, in case something happens."

"I don't believe this," Gabi hissed. "I helped you with the controls. I came here right away while she was nursing my brother's bruised ego. I should be the one going on."

"Hey wait a minute," Leah said and turned towards Gabi. "What are you implying?"

Gabi took a step towards Leah, their faces merely inches apart. "What do you think I'm saying? Hm?"

"Ladies, ladies, please," Denton said and pushed himself in between the two. "Leah is going. She's got the experience."

"Yeah, perhaps. But I know Jarell," Gabi countered. "I worked with him for a long time. He trusted me. He still does."

"Of course he does," Leah said and crossed her arms across her chest. "And you trust him too, right?"

Denton sighed and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. He hadn't anticipated Gabi and Leah to get into it at that very moment. They both had their reasons, that much he understood, but this wasn't the time to fight over who was better suited to walk into a dangerous situation.

"Leah is coming, that's final. Gabi, this is not up for discussion. I need Leah's experience on this if we're going to come out of it alive. But, I also need to expertise up here, as I already mentioned. Both are important."

Leah and Gabi both looked at Denton in silence, and they both nodded their agreement.

"Good. Leah, we need to do this right away. Come on," Denton said and stepped towards the airlock. He opened the hatch without hesitation and stepped in, followed by Leah. The hatch shut behind them with a metallic clang. Leah proceeded to put her hands on the handle on the opposite side when Denton put his hand on her arm.

"What?" she said and looked up at him.

"Are we good?"

She nodded.

"Ok. Good. Listen, Jarell already knows someone is up here, controlling the module from the outside. He could be waiting for us inside. He's no dummy."

"I know."

"All right. You open the door, and I'll slip in first, just in case he's waiting for us. Be ready to back me up."

"Denton, I don't need you to play the hero."

Denton glanced back at her over his shoulder and smiled. "What makes you think I am? I just want to get my hands on him."

"If you say so."

"Let's go," Denton said and opened the airlock on the other side and stepped into the module as quickly as he could. He couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu, returning to the place they had left not long ago. 

Denton stepped into one of the private living spaces, while Leah slipped out of the airlock behind him and carefully closed the hatch behind her. They needed to find something to defend themselves with. There had to be something in the cabins, somewhere, that they could use as a weapon of some sort. He pulled out the drawer underneath the bed, checked the desk against the opposite wall and finally the closet by the bed. Although empty, in the back corner of the closet, on the floor, he saw a flashlight that was about a foot and a half long. He smiled. It wasn't perfect, but it could work as a club if needed. He pulled it out and showed it to Leah, who was standing guard at the door.

"Check the closet across the hall," he whispered and pointed towards the flashlight. If there was one, there was likely another.

She nodded and disappeared into the other unit. Mere seconds later, she returned with another flashlight in her hand and flashed a thumbs up sign.

"You ready?" he whispered. When she nodded, he pointed towards the observation deck and took the lead, each step as silent as he could manage. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that Leah was right behind him, the flashlight turned upside down in her hand. She was ready to knock someone out.

Denton was bothered by the fact that they hadn't already encountered Jarell. If he was in the module, shouldn't they have seen him at this point? He had expected him to be all over them as soon as they entered the module. There was, after all, that certain advantage that the gun created. 

If Jarell had the upper hand, where was he? Had the equation and the power balance somehow shifted in a way he hadn't recognized? If it had, which way had the scale tipped? Denton didn't know, and if he was honest with himself, it scared him a little.

As they approached the doorway into the observation room, there was still no sign of Jarell. Everything was quiet. Denton noted that the lights in the observation room were dimmed, yet he distinctly remembered that when they left the module, they had not been. He was sure no-one from their group would have had taken a detour for that purpose. That meant someone was in the module with them.

They slowly stepped through the doorway and spread out. Leah moved left towards the kitchen area, while Denton moved right towards the escape pods and the lab. They both froze as they heard the distinct sound of footsteps from the hallway that led to the escape pods. Leah quickly moved around the couch to the other side of the entrance and raised the flashlight above her head, ready to strike. Denton followed her example and pressed himself against the wall on the other side of the doorway, his flashlight above his head.

The footsteps approached the doorway and as a shadow stepped through, Leah and Denton acted simultaneously. Their arms swung down from high above their heads towards the head of the emerging shadow. Denton gasped, and Leah shrieked as they both impacted metal at the same time and staggered backward and fell to the floor while the flashlights clattered onto the floor and rolled away. As the shadow stepped into the dim light of the module, they both gasped.

~~~

Well, Denton and Leah found someone. Is it Jarell? Will they survive this encounter or face another fatal plunge to the bottom of the icy ocean?

As always, if you like what you read, vote and leave a comment :)