Beacon of Distress

Prologue: Harpoon

USS Hannibal

0200 Hours

The Marina Trench

The ship is quiet, the crew sound asleep. Me, I'm sitting in my quarters reading a book.

Life on a submarine is hard, it can be months, sometimes even years before any of us see the surface again. Every man is given a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, to remind us that we as human beings, mustn't go towards the savageness and brutality that Captain Nemo had. Sometimes I fear that I am Captain Nemo. That I'm being too hard, or shy towards favoritism. I think that's on what killed him in the book, but I can't be sure, I haven't finished it, I just know that he was a madman, a very fictionous reality that me and one and sixty others are now living.

As far as our mission goes Agent Gibbs, I can only tell you this. Everything is going well, we're meeting schedule, we are expected to resurface in a couple of hours, and I plan to be in D.C. in a few weeks, maybe we'll go have lunch or something.

Captain Anicetus

The Captain pushed the pause button on his audio recorder. Sitting at his desk, next to an outdated computer, William Anicetus pulled out a flash drive from a well used drawer and put it in the computer. Footsteps entered as the hardware loaded.

"Captain," a crewmember said, "I think you need to take a look at this."

Anicetus turned towards him. "What is it Major?"

"Just come here sir, I think the engine is going out again."

The Captain sighed, "Alright Fawkes," he stood up and stretched, "let's see what the trouble is."

He walked out, the crewmember following close behind. The computer beeped, the flash drive was ready to be accessed.

Anicetus and the crewmember walked down the hall towards the engine room. The silver metallic walls and the lights on the ceiling reminded Anicetus that he was inside a living machine, a time bomb, a weapon that can go off at any time. It reminded him that he was away from his family, his friends. It reminded him of Captain Nemo. "I am not a civilized man Professor..." That much the Captain had read, and that sentence, those seven words, fit him perfectly. Aniceus didn't want them to, but they did, he knew who he was, and so did Fawkes.

Fawkes got ahead of him a moment to open the engine room door, a steel latch door that had squeaky hinges that was the vestibule into a dark, evil room that was the heart of this mechanical beast that Anicetus so desperately wanted to escape from. The Captain and Fawkes entered.

"You see, look it's right there." Fawkes said, looking at the engine.

"I don't see anything," replied the Captain, leaning into the machine work.

"Just keep looking sir." Fawkes said as he pulled out a pistol, he readied it to fire. The Captain sighed upon hearing the weapon.

"If you're going to do it, best do it quickly."

Fawkes nodded, "I intend to."

He fired, the bullet hit Anicetus dead center in the heart. An instant death.

Fawkes walked back to the Captain's quarters. The flash drive was waiting to be used. Fawkes pressed play on the audio recorder.

"This is Major Lee Fawkes," he said, "Captain William Anicetus is dead."

He moved his lips to say more but he never got the words out. For lodged in his neck, was an arrow, it was silent, on target and vengeful to an end. The archer stood down the hallway, shrouded in a dark black shawl that covered his face, exposing only his eyes, which were deep, yellow, and alien. He sheathed his bow and walked into the room.

"This is Harpoon, Leroy Gibbs. Just wanted to inform you that the crew of the USS Hannibal is dead, the weapons on this vessel are secure and safe, and," he laughed, "you have seventy-two hours to give me what I want."

He pressed pause on the audio recorder, put the message on the flash drive and emailed to Leroy Jethro Gibbs. That done, the archer sat back in his chair and pulled out a detonator that was in his pocket and pressed the red button on the top.