Shadow Catcher Read Online Free PDF

risk. Their only other option would be to detonate both bombs in place and destroy the bomber. The cleanup would take weeks, during which any number of hostile agencies might discover the operation. Nick was not willing to accept either scenario. He had one more trick up his sleeve. A forceful jerk might free the lever. It might just as well break the arm or set off the bomb.
    There was no point in waiting. He leaned back, clenched his teeth, and yanked on the cable. Something snapped. He cringed.
    After a long moment, Nick opened one eye and then the other. His gamble had paid off. The safing lever had broken free of the rust. With another, gentle tug on the cable, it clicked into place. The flag changed from red to green.
    Nick sighed. One down.
    The next bomb took half as long to disarm. Its vacuum seal remained miraculously intact. With no rust, the safing lever gave in to Nick’s command on the first pull. Both bombs should now be so stable that no amount of jostling or shifting could set them off.
Should
was the operative word. Nick wished that he had some wood to knock on.
    After packing up his gear, he switched on the transmitter in his mask. “Come and get me, Drake. I need you to hold my rebreather and tanks so I can get out of this hole.”
    He heard no response, not even static.
    Nick tapped on the base of his mask, hoping to jolt its transmitter/receiver to life. “Hello? Does anyone read me?”
    Still nothing.
    Nick had been so focused on his work that he hadn’t noticed the sparse chatter between Walker and Drake fade away to nothing. Now he realized that the aftermarket radio in his mask was completely dead, probably a consequence of removing the mask at depth to squeeze into the bay.
    He swam over to the gap and peered through. Drake was nowhere to be seen. If he wanted to get his teammate’s attention, he would have to make some noise. But as he flipped his flashlight around to bang on the side of the bay, he caught a glint of steel from the seafloor. He panned the light back to the object. Just on the other side of the gap, its hilt sticking straight up out of the sediment, was Drake’s knife.

CHAPTER 6
    N ick fought back a wave of dread as he stared at the knife.
    â€œDrake? Are you out there?” His efforts were futile. He still heard no response. Something was wrong. The knife had not fallen onto the seafloor by accident. Drake had obviously stuck it into the silt as a signal, a warning.
    There were hostile players in the water.
    Nick slowed his breathing to focus his thoughts. If he shed his bulky rebreather and tanks to swim through the gap, he’d be a sitting duck for any intruders, blind and weakened as he struggled to re-don his gear. But shedding that gear was the only way to get out. Otherwise he may as well make the bay his tomb. He checked his air gauges. Too low. He couldn’t just wait it out. Besides, Drake might be in trouble.
    As Nick wracked his brain for a solution, a little brown fish swam through the gap between the crushed doors and the seafloor, kicking up a cloud of silt. That inspired an idea.
    Nick loosened his gear, preparing to shed it quickly, and then began to kick up as much sediment as possible and propel it through the gap. The cloud would mask his exit and deny a hostile diver a clean shot. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the only plan he had.
    He stripped off the miniature tanks strapped to his thighs, unbuckled the fasteners on his vest, and positioned his body just in front of the hole. After three deep breaths, he pulled off the rebreather and mask and pushed through the gap. On the other side, he remained just above the silt, working feverishly to put the rebreather back on. He allowed his fins to skim the seafloor and kick up more silt to maintain his smokescreen. Then he sensed a dramatic change in the light. Someone had fixed a powerful beam on his position.
    Nick darted and rolled in the water, presenting his back