Up From the Depths Read Online Free PDF

looking for Elwood St. John, the owner of Safeguard. She hadn’t been to this level of the facility before. The doors were larger and labeled as storage with some kind of numerical designation. She knew from talking to St. John that this was supposed to be the data and material storage level but, so far, she hadn’t seen anything but closed doors. Duty Officer, the operating system for Safeguard that lived inside a surplus Cray computer, had reported that St. John was on this level. So far, she hadn’t been able to find him. At the far end of the corridor, she saw a partially open door. Walking quickly to it, she opened the door and stepped inside. Sensors registered movement and the overhead lighting clicked on illuminating the storage area. St. John sat in the middle of the room on a bar stool, his head bowed and looking at something he held in his hands.
    Sharon approached slowly.
    “Woody? Are you all right?”
    St. John looked up, his eyes moist and red rimmed. As she drew closer, she could tell he was holding a framed group photograph.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    St. John sniffed, used the back of one hand to wipe his nose then nodded his head.
    “Woody, tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help,” she said as she went to one knee by his side. The photo he held looked like a family gathering. Sharon gently touched his hand and angled the picture so she could see more of it.
    “Is this your family?” she asked.
    St. John didn’t say anything.
    “Do you think they’re safe somewhere?”
    “No,” St. John finally said. “I have no idea who these people are. This is a picture I found in that box over there.”
    Sharon was confused.
    “Why the tears and sad face then?” she asked.
    St. John wiped his eyes again, sniffed then turned and tossed the framed photo into a box.
    “I just realized that we’re totally out of Cabernet Sauvignon, the 1986 vintage,” St. John said.
    Sharon shook her head in dismay.
    “What?” she asked incredulously. “Here I thought there was something seriously wrong and you’re worried about wine? That’s not normal.”
    St. John chuckled.
    “I’ve been called a lot of things. Normal has never been one of them,” he said standing up. Sharon stood up and looked at him. St. John had made a strange introduction when they had first arrived at Safeguard. Over the time spent here, she realized that he had shunned public contact for his own personal reasons and considered himself agoraphobic. That was his own personal diagnosis not one from a trained professional. Since the events at Clovis and their return to recover the vehicles they had left behind, there had been a distinctive shift on the overall group dynamic and St. John’s personality. Sharon couldn’t quite place what the main problem was, but that shift was definitely affecting them all.
    St. John rubbed his face, took a deep breath and clapped his hands once.
    “Enough of this shit. Let’s go find a replacement for what I had chosen for dinner. Maybe a Riesling or Merlot,” he said.
    “Woody, isn’t all this stuff someone else’s property?” Sharon asked.
    “Just this room. All the other rooms are part of my collection,” St. John said as he led her out of the room, closed and locked the door. They walked in silence along the corridor until they reached another door where St. John ran his cardkey through the reader and opened. Inside, the smell of seasoned wood permeated the room. He hit the light switch to reveal row upon row of wine racks, and barrels. The racks ran floor to ceiling and lined the walls. Barrels covered most of the floor space.
    “I’m sure we can find something here that’s suitable,” he said as began to wander among the racks. Sharon watched him, not knowing how to react to what he had said previously or his emotional state in the other room.
     
    ***
     
     

Chapter 5
    Off the Pacific Coast
     
    The spray of the ocean washed the foredeck of BB-63, Missouri . Up in the Citadel,