Chapter 10

Oscar had been right. Jaime only had seconds to catch her breath before the tube flooded. The crushing sensation almost made her blackout, the pressure was so intense, yet it was nothing compared to the crushing she felt inside her heart. She panicked as she felt her body hurtling through the dark water – not being able to tell if she was heading for the surface or towards the ocean floor. After what seemed like an eternity, she could finally detect the slightest glimmer of light, as she rapidly approached the surface. She thought her lungs would burst, and then, she had made it. She was alive. Out of breath, but alive.

Fighting to keep her head above the waves, she scanned the horizon for a land, or a ship. Nothing. She treaded water for about a half and hour trying to decide which way to swim. Then she noticed a sea gull. She watched it as it flew off towards the east. There was still no sign of Oscar – or a torpedo launch. Reluctantly, she followed the bird, hoping it would lead her to shore. After about a 20 mile swim, she saw a blip on the horizon. Land. She was beginning to tire, but mercifully, she only had another mile to go before she found herself again on dry ground. Sprawling herself on the sand, she allowed her body to soak up the warmth of the sun. She clung to the glimmer of hope that somehow Oscar would be able to escape, or that he would somehow be rescued when the sub was recovered. The alternative was too much to bear.

Luckily, she had landed on one of the Spratly islands – in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. By the end of the day, she was able to flag down a freighter heading back to Manila. She managed to contact Russ while she was still on the ship and he assured her he would do all he could to start a recovery effort. A few days later Steve had returned from space and convinced Jaime that she needed to leave the Philippines – there was nothing she could do for Oscar there. Reluctantly, she agreed.

Days turned into weeks. Jaime was outraged with the lack of progress in locating the crippled submarine. She had given them a fairly accurate estimation of its last known location. The prevailing assumption was that the submarine had lost power once the core was breached, and eventually slid off the shelf it had rested on and down into one of the deep trenches ringing the South China Sea. This would make any recovery effort more difficult. Seven weeks after the accident, the sub was finally located. It had indeed slipped into a trench, and it was too deep to recover the entire submarine. The nuclear warheads were able to be retrieved by an unmanned remote controlled submarine. The remote was able to extract the loaded warheads directly from the torpedo tubes. The terrorists had failed.

Steve dreaded the visit he had to make. Jaime hadn't yet heard the news of the discovery of the submarine – or the fact that they wouldn't be able to recover it. She had been an emotional wreck since he brought her home from Manila. He and Rudy were already grieving for their friend, having faced the harsh reality that he wasn't coming home. But Jaime refused to join them in their grief. She stubbornly held out hope that when the ship was recovered, he would be alive and well. Steve didn't point out that with the core breach, he wouldn't have lasted out the day. Even if the core hadn't breached, because the engines were now crippled there wouldn't have been enough air on board to have lasted seven weeks. And finally, even if there had been enough air, they could never pull the sub up from the depths to which it had sunk.

Rudy offered to come along to help him break the news to her, but Steve thought it best he handle it alone. Jaime had been staying at Oscar's house. It was more comfortable than a hotel, and she somehow felt closer to him there. Jaime greeted Steve at the door, talking quickly about nothing in particular, sensing that Steve had news for her – news she didn't want to hear. Maybe if she didn't stop talking, he would never have to tell her that Oscar was dead. Steve grabbed her by her arms and shook her slightly. "Sweetheart, it's over. They've found the submarine…"

"When's Oscar coming home? They found him didn't they?" Her eyes were already brimming over with tears. She couldn't really fool herself. She could tell by the look on Steve's face that they hadn't.

"No honey. They didn't. The sub's slipped too far down. A recovery effort is out of the question." He pulled her into his arms before she collapsed, and carried her into the living room, sinking down on the sofa with her. He loved Jaime, and it tore at his heart to see her in such agony. Steve knew she was close to Oscar, and suspected that her feelings had gone way beyond friendship, but he hadn't expected her grief to be so profound. It was as if a piece of her soul had died along with Oscar.

He and Rudy accompanied Jaime to the cemetery. More than 1,000 people attended to pay tribute to him, most of them never knowing the sacrifice he made in his final hours. His tombstone was placed next to his wife and children's. Jaime stood at the edge of the empty gravesite. His body would never be recovered, resting forever on the ocean floor. She leaned down to trace the letters of his name on the tombstone, her fingers lingering as she ran them over the cold, hard granite. For close to an hour she sat there…staring. Seeing his name carved into the stone made everything seem all too real.

The overwhelming feeling of emptiness enveloped her, threatening to drown her in her grief and despair. The thought of never seeing his face, never hearing his voice, never touching his lips again was too much to bear. Now Jaime knew how Oscar had felt – that she could never love another person again. That there was nothing to live for. But she was alive, because of Oscar, and she knew she would have to go on somehow without him. Rudy and Steve knelt beside her as she kissed her hand and then pressed it to the grave. "I'm ready."

THE END