Leviathan(64)
“Exactly, Connor,” Frank responded. “This entire facility was designed as a holding pen for Leviathans. It was meant to be a place where Leviathans were housed and programmed and set loose to accomplish certain missions. The same way the Navy uses dolphins to attach mines to enemy vessels; except Leviathans would be capable of tearing the hulls out of battleships or of searching out and destroying enemy submarines by ripping out their buoyancy systems.”
Connor frowned. “Go on, Frank.”
Frank paused, morose. “As you've probably guessed, Connor, Crystal Lake was the path Leviathans were supposed to take to reach the Atlantic Ocean. According to the specs of the proposal, a Leviathan would submerge itself in the lake and swim into Crystal Lake's underground stream. Within a few minutes it would find its way into an Atlantic current and begin its mission. Then, when the mission was completed, the Leviathan would return to the island through the ocean current and the island's underground stream and come back up through the lake where it would be put back into a Containment Cavern.”
Connor stood in silence. “The perfect plan, huh?” He waited, receiving no answer. “And how is Crystal Lake defended, Frank? Can this thing get to the lake any time it wants?”
Frank nodded.
There was a long pause and Connor continued, “Well tell me this, Doctor. Is Leviathan going to try for the lake first? Or is it going to try and kill all of us? What’s it going to do?”
“First, Leviathan will try and kill everyone in this cavern,” the scientist replied plainly, eyes open. “Because Leviathan believes that it has to kill everything in this cavern in order to survive. But when it gets through killing us, it’ll go for the lake and the Atlantic.”
“So nobody gets out of here alive,” Connor said grimly.
“No,” the scientist said, staring. “Nobody gets out of here alive, Connor. Not us. And not Leviathan. Because there's something you still don't know about. And it's something you need to know.”
“Well I know about it, Doctor,” Chesterton said, head bent. “And maybe you don't need to be talking about it.”
“Well, Connor doesn't know about it and he has a right.”
“Know what, Frank?”
Frank turned to him. “GEO was programmed to ultimately prevent something like this from occurring, Connor. If Leviathan ever escaped from the Containment Cavern, a total lockdown of the vaults was supposed to be the first level of intervention. And GEO was supposed to remain in Lockdown Mode until it registered Leviathan as dead.”
“And so?”
“And so there’s another safety intervention.”
“Well, what is it?”
Chesterton threw it in. “A fifty-kiloton nuclear device, Connor, a fifty-kiloton nuclear weapon that will vaporize this entire island. It's built into the lowest level of the cavern and it's designed to activate automatically if this supercomputer of Frank's ever tracks Leviathan moving into Crystal Lake without authorization to escape into the Atlantic.”
Connor stared. “You people are crazy.”
“It wasn't my call, Connor,” Chesterton responded, lifting a hand toward Frank. “Dr. Frankenstein here insisted on it.”
“It was the only way to ensure total containment,” Frank responded, suddenly defensive. “We couldn't risk Leviathan escaping into the Atlantic! If Leviathan ever reached the ocean, it would find an endless food supply! It would kill and eat whales, sharks, whatever. It would attack the mainland! It might live for hundreds of years It would—”
Connor slammed the scientist against a wall. “Defuse the fail-safe!”
“I can't!” Frank grabbed without effect at Connor's wrists. “There's no way to get past GEO's frontline defenses!”
“You designed the thing! Shut it off!”
“No! GEO is still a computer! It's going to do what it's designed to do!” He pulled frantically against Connor's unbending arms. “There's no way to defuse the fail-safe!”
Connor paused, teeth locked. His breath was leaving him in hard, angry blasts. “So what are we supposed to do?”
“We've got to kill Leviathan!” Frank replied, pained. “If GEO ever tracks Leviathan entering the lake, it'll detonate the fail-safe immediately! We've got to keep it down here! We've got to kill it down here!”
“Didn't you people ever worry about what it would look like to have a nuclear explosion in the Arctic Circle?” Connor grated. “Didn't that little problem ever occur to you?”
“The bomb was designed to look like a volcanic eruption,” Frank replied, breathless. “And there's something else!”