"What are we gonna do with them?"

Buffer pointed at the two men kneeling in the sand before him. From what it looked like, he seemed to have no problem to just shoot them and get on with the rescue mission without further delay.

Kate sighed. She sure wanted to start the search for the sub better sooner than later but they had to deal with the criminals first. "Charge and I wait here with them. You and Bomber go. Hammersley has already sent a RHIB to drop-ship them to austere. Feds are on their way also, I think they will be pleased to receive our packet." She scrutinized the larger man. "I don't know... I have a feeling I saw you somewhere before."

Buffer looked at her in surprise. Teasing he said, "Still waters run deep. Never imagined you being the low-pub-type, X."

Kate blushed and coughed slightly. "Well I'm sure not. No, it was somewhere else." She knitted her brow. "I don't know. And it doesn't matter right now. You two go. Let's try to keep radio contact. And be careful. There could be a second landslide if the area is unstable."

The water lapped around their feet. Small ripples occasionally sloshed over the boots and the water slowly but surely seeped through the trousers. Robert tried to tug up his legs even more and sighed inaudible. He had known from the beginning. It all had started with spilled milk and a buttered sandwich. This wasn't his day. He should have stayed aboard. Glancing to his side, he eyed up Billy. The young man seemed to quickly have regained his composure. From time to time, he checked the radio but otherwise seemed to be as calm as one could be under the current circumstances. Oddly enough that made Robert nervous. The calmer his crew mate became, the more fraught he became himself. He felt like slowly but surely reaching the boiling point, like a steamer ready to blow up. And there was nothing he could do about it. I'm not going to freak out. Just stay calm, breath in and out, slowly in and out... The Radio Officer tried to talk himself down. That actually helped until the next thought came to his mind. As long as you still have air...

A line of red and green lights, bunch of colored wires wildly wrapped around a big gray block that looked a bit like modelling clay. It seemed so benign. As if some children had left their plaything behind. But it wasn't. And Leo knew. The minute he had discovered the box he had known there would be trouble. Oh please not again. We had had that fun already! He must have spoken out loud what he was thinking 'cause Swain answered him, "Well it doesn't seems active to me. At least for now. But I'm not an expert."

And I am or what? The blonde sailor railed against his fate. Mike entered the room, carefully but as fast as he could.. He glanced at the content of the box but didn't touch anything. For all they knew the thing could be motion sensitive. "I can't see a timer." He cautiously opened the box a bit more trying to get a better view.

Sharpe attention. 2Dads had always wondered what that was supposed to mean. Now he was pretty sure he knew. His nerves stretched to the limit, he would have jumped if someone had made a sound even as silent as a snowflake falling.

"We need box cutters and someone online who knows how to deal with this." At least he knew where to start. What was it again the adviser had proposed last time? You need Alligator blood, quick, calm, relaxed and focused. Nothing easier than that.

"Already on it, Leader. As soon as we're reaching NACOM, we patch them through to you. And here", with that the CO handed him the box cutter, "is the other thing you wanted. Be careful."

As if I don't know that. With a sigh 2Dads cautiously started to cut open the box. So much for the dive.

Bomber and Buffer reached the last known position of their crew mates after a short but straining walk along the waterfront. It was easy to see where the landslide had occurred. A muddy slope reached from the tree line higher above straight to the shore. Roots and parts of fallen trees were dangling over the escarpment. Carefully Buffer stepped on the mud testing its structure.

"It holds. Let's cross it fast nonetheless. I don't like these overhanging trees up there."

"Think these are the boulders RO spoke of?" Rebecca asked pointing at some rocks at the other side. Buffer nodded. "Hope so. Let's go and have a look. We better don't go together though. Stay here until I reach the rocks. If there's an other landslide, it won't bury us both."

The chef shuddered. "I'd prefer it bury neither you nor me."

Already on its way across the dirty road, Pete acknowledged what she had said with a wave of his hand without taking his eyes of the ground before him.

Reaching the solid ground at the boulders was a relief. Rebecca pulled her boot out of the doughy dirt, again. She long before had stopped counting on how often she had done that. "It holds", well that seemed to be relative.

"Bomber come up here." Peter stood at the top of one of the smaller boulders, one that was pretty close to the waterfront, actually partly standing in the water. "There's a small whole in here. I can see them down there. They just can't hear me, waves are too loud."

Hastily the woman started to climb up. She laid flat on her belly and looked down through the hole. Spider and RO stood with the back at the wall, legs bathed by the ocean. None of them looked up.

"Have you tried the radio?" Bomber asked without rising. Judging by the tone of his answer, the bosun was rolling his eyes. "Of course I did. Does not work. I hope they fix it in time."

After the RHIB had arrived and took away the prisoners, Kate and Charge had made their way down to the waterside and searched along the boulders.

"X, come over here. I think I found something." Charge waved and pointed at footprints in the sand that led to a bigger rock and vanished under it. He'd spoken in a hushed tone and when Kate answered, she whispered as well.

"Let's be careful, we don't know how many they were. Follow my lead."

She stooped and used the bigger rocks as cover, slowly nearing the point where the steps disappeared. From up close the Lieutenant could see that they actually did not vanish but circle around the rock and ended at the top of some naturally formed steps that lead to a little stone bay. A small sub was moored there, gently pitching and tossing in the swell.

"There's no sign of anybody around. Shall we have a look inside?"

Kate hesitated only for a second. Then she straighten herself and nodded. "We do."

"Can't we just throw it over board like we did last time, Sir?" Leo wiped his sweat away. He had finished dismantling the bomb, the card box laying around it in neat peaces.

"I wouldn't recommend. You said it yourself. Some parts of the bomb you can't see. There could be a motion sensor. Listen, help is underway. Luckily there is a team of combat engineers out there for exercise. It won't take them long to get to you. Just make sure no one touches it and as few radio traffic near it as possible, understood?"

"No worries there. Wouldn't work anyway. We do have problems with our radios. Haven't figured out yet for what reason that is. I'm at my wits end there." Silence at the other end of the phone answered him. "You still there?"

The combat engineer at NAVCOM coughed then said slowly, "Yeah, still there. Tell me, can you see something like an aerial? Parts of a sat phone maybe?"

2Dads tried to illuminate as much of the devise as he could with his black torch. "No, but I can't see much of it. There's to much around it. It's packed into an other box, seems to be plastic. You thinking of remote detonation? Shall I try to remove the parts blocking the view?"

"No, don't touch them. There could be a trigger linked to the plastic. We stick to the original plan. You wait until help arrives and tell me the minute something changes."

"Like red lights blinking?" Leo asked, shranking back, staring at the device in horror.

You are going to drown, you are going to drown... Robert couldn't help it. Staring at the water now lapping around his knees, his thoughts revolved around the inevitable end of their little adventure. There was no way out. Spider had tried to dive out, they had tried to reach the hole at the ceiling climbing on each others shoulders, no chance.

"Stop it!"

He lifted his head. "Sorry? Stop what? The water increase? If you have any great plans left, just tell me." RO knew he sounded stressed but he didn't care anymore. Loosing his composure in front of someone who was going to die with him was his merest problem right now.

"Stop muttering. It's nerve-wracking." Spider adjusted his position, trying to find the highest place in their little cave.

"We do have not a snowball's chance in hell to get out. So please excuse me if I'm maybe loosing my nerves here. I'm not supposed to be here anyway."

"Oh but you think I am? RO the world doesn't revolve around you!"

Before he could say anything else, a stone whooshed past him and landed with a splash. Both sailors instantly looked up. Bomber waved from above. They couldn't hear her but the sight of a familiar face rose hope again. Bomber bugged out and Buffer's face came into view. He held something in hand.

"Spider, where's the radio?" RO frantically started a search patting down his pockets. They had put everything aside that made it difficult to swim earlier on including their tec vests.

"It doesn't work, remember? But here it is." Spider pulled it out of his breast pocket where he had stored it as far away from the water as possible.

Robert tried different channels, he got nothing but static crackle. But suddenly, he could hear Buffer's voice in between.

"...down there...2Dads...Bomb..."

He looked at Spider. "Any idea on what he meant?"

Rustling outside in the passageway indicated someone coming. With weary steps, a tall man entered the room. Boots covered in mud that reached as high as his knees and with that affecting the trouser legs as well, sleeves of the gray overall rolled up and a toolbox at hand, he looked like walking straight out of a jungle workshop. "Hi mate. I'm Petty Officer Jack Meadow. Pleasure to meet you. Just call me Jack. Let's see what you have for me."

"Have fun. It just had stopped blinking for some minutes. Now it started again." Leo stepped aside and let the other one have a look. He had never been so glad to lean back and let someone else do the job.

Cautiously the other man examined the device from all sides. After that, he used a small camera to have a look inside. When finished he looked up, clearly confused. He raked his fingers through his short black hair. "You touched anything?" he asked then.

"No, no! Nothing but the card box. And I was told to do so!" Leo felt the urge to defend himself.

"Well, you know what? That thing is pretty sophisticated in its design but at the same time really poorly put together. See that green wire? It ends nowhere. The soldering contact isn't right. So, it can broadcast but..." he made a short pause then finished, "there's no way it can receive anything."

Not sure he had heard right, Leo asked, "What with the blinking lights? It is not going to go off? 'Cause it can't? "

"No, that's not what I said. It can go off but not with a remote detonator. As for the lights – won't put my shirt on that but I'd say it's trying to get a signal. Red lights – no signal. Let me do some final examination but I'm pretty sure we can just throw it over board." He grinned broadly. "Best thing to do with stuff like that."

And the first thing I proposed to do. Leo felt proud. Just a bit. The blinking stopped. And 2Dads had a sudden inspiration. "Can you just wait here for a second? I have to try something." Sprinting out of the room as fast as he dared he left a confused looking Jack behind. He came back in no time, carrying a small device with him. "You said it can broadcast, right? Let's see what frequencies. Can we make it doing it again?"

With a look that indicated Jack was thinking of some serious mental illness, the combination engineer bent over the bomb and touched a contact with his screwdriver. The red lights started blinking again.

"It's kHz!"

Now Jack seemed sure of his diagnosis regarding Leo's mental state. "Of course it's kHz."

The blonde sailor grinned broadly. "775 kHz. You can't understand but I just unraveled a mystery our RO has tried to do so for weeks. Can you stop it again? I think that's what causing us the problems with our radios."

The black haired man bent over again and the blinking stopped. "Ready to go for a stroll?" he asked. "'Cause I'd like to solve mysteries as well and that one is best solved by throwing it overboard."

"...still tries to find a way to fix the radio so hang in there if you can hear me."

"Yeah! Buffer, we can hear you. Loud and clear." Spider yelled at the radio, laughing at Robert. "Whatever you've done it worked. Any idea on how to get us out of here?"

"There's no way digging the entrance out in time, I'm sorry. Bomber and I thought about explosives but that's too dangerous. Everything round here is unstable."

There was an uneasy silence after the two sailors had been filed in on the situation outside.

Swain and 2Dads had made an attempt to reach their trapped crew mates after the bomb situation was solved. But they had to come back up empty handed. The current had been too strong and the labyrinth wildly ramified. Without knowing where to swim there was no chance to reach the cave in time. The submarine Kate and Charge and discovered wouldn't help either. It had been sabotaged and now had water increase. Apparently the three men had tried to destroy evidence. There was no way it would go anywhere else than down to the bottom of the small bay.

"775 kHz. Of course. Should have thought of it."

"What? Please don't start mumbling again."

Ignoring Spider RO asked, "Buffer, is there actually a plan on how to get us out of here?"

After a pause that seemed a bit too long, the answer came. "Sure. Just hang in there a little while more."

As if we could go somewhere else.

The sun became veiled in clouds, the wind freshened and Nikki wondered if Billy and Robert noticed the swell became heavier too. The small vessel closing in on the Hammersley decelerated and their helmsman brought about the ship. From the bridge Nav could see someone waving and throwing a rope to tie up the two ships. Four people, two men and two women, climbed aboard the warship. They wore dark blue jackets with three yellow letters on it. AFP. The Feds had arrived to take care of their guest in austere. Nikki wondered if she knew on of them but with the also blue baseball cap and the popped collar she couldn't recognize their faces. The CO seemed to know at least one of the females. After a short hesitation he hugged her friendly and smiled at something she said.