The radio had gone quiet. Probably abandoned, Shelby thought, as his crew panicked and fled back to the Hitori. They were simple peasant fishermen, most of them just boys. To them, that sonar represented a visitation by one of the nightmares from their folklore. But Shelby feared something even worse.

Both of them were sodden from splashing through the flooded lower decks and on the next deck water dripping from their clothes made Li slip. The portholes on this deck were only just above the water line now, and as Shelby grabbed after Li to steady him, he saw something broach the surface outside.

Loosening his grip on Li, Shelby rushed to the little round window, but he could no longer see out. Whatever was surfacing had displaced so much water that a great wave had crashed against the Roosevelt's hull.

Water streamed down the outside of the glass, but by the time the porthole cleared, it was in the shadow of what had risen from the depths.

"Oh, Christ," Shelby said through his teeth.

But it wasn't alien. The submarine was very human.

"Any chance it American?" asked Li breathlessly.

Shelby hurried back to the stairwell. This time he pulled himself up two or even three steps at a time. Li was right behind him.

But as they emerged into the passage at the top of the stairs, they both heard a sound that made them freeze. The clatter of gunfire.

Then raised voices, screaming.

"Jack!" Li cried.

Shelby lifted a palm, held Li back against the wall. More gunfire. It sounded distant, but echoed through the corridors of the empty ship.

They were just yards away from the open door of a cabin one of their crewmen had pillaged. Shelby checked the main passage was clear, then darted across. Li waited for a moment, then scuttled in after him.

There was a window looking out over the sea on the other side of the cabin. It was round like a porthole, but much larger. Shelby approached it slowly, in case someone was looking up in his direction at that precise moment. But there were so many people below, he couldn't be sure one of them wasn't.

Shelby recognised their colours immediately.

"Russians." He let out a staggered sigh.

Li quickly squeezed in beside him to have a look.

The submarine had surfaced toward the bow, right beside the Roosevelt and right behind the Hitori. A dozen men in identical naval uniforms were crawling over the deck of Shelby's fishing boat, each with a machine gun.

It was then that Shelby saw the body.

"No!" Li cried, spotting it too.

The boy who had provided Shelby with his radio was lying spread-eagled and face down on the deck, wet with his own blood. His booty was nowhere to be seen. It looked like he had been heading to the wheel cabin when shot.

Two more of the crewmen were standing on the far side of the Hitori, turned to face the sea. They had their hands behind their heads and one of the boarders was standing guard over them with his gun trained on their backs.

As Li and Shelby watched and listened, more Russians came across the gangplank between their submarine and the Hitori. But they had no interest in Shelby's boat. The ladder Shelby and his men had used to board the Roosevelt had fallen across the deck. The new arrivals put it back up again.

Li balked, but Shelby grabbed him. The Russians didn't climb the ladder immediately. The rest of Shelby's crew climbed down it instead. They looked terrified. Several more Russians followed them down, and there seemed to be still more on board the Roosevelt. An officer type in a different uniform to the rest was standing on the deck of the Hitori, shouting things up to them.

Shelby quickly worked out what had happened. Whilst most of the Russians had been busy securing the Hitori, a handful had boarded the Roosevelt and captured his crew. One had made a noble escape bid, ultimately futile.

When the others saw his body, they began to panic. The officer got a couple of his men to line them up beside the other prisoners. One buried his face in his hands and wouldn't put his hands on his head. They shot him first.

Shelby let go of Li in shock. But Li didn't run now.

The body flopped over the side of the Hitori and fell into the sea. After a few moments, the officer gave another order, and the next man in line was shot. Shelby couldn't hear what the Russians were saying, wouldn't have understood it even if he did, but this seemed like more than just an arbitrary execution.

It was almost as if the Russians were after something.

Another crewman was shot, fell overboard. There were just three men left now, and as another order was given and the gun raised, the last man in line turned round and fell on his knees before the Russian officer.

Even from this distance, Shelby could see the fear on his face. The officer stood over him. The man was pointing with a shaky hand.

He was pointing up at the Roosevelt.

"Don't do it," Shelby groaned.

"What?" said Li distantly.

"He is. He's telling them about us!"

The Russians shot the man anyway, and the other two. The bodies were tossed overboard, then the officer turned to look up at the cruiser.

Shelby slid away from the window and pulled Li with him. Even from an angle he could see Russians heading for the ladder. A few moments later, he could hear their voices drifting down the length of the main passage, too.

Shelby couldn't control his heavy breathing.

"What we do now?" Li hissed.

Shelby swallowed, his throat dry. He dared another look out the window. The Russians were leaving the Hitori en masse. At first this filled him with a feeling of dread - it meant they were all coming aboard the Roosevelt.

But then, all of a sudden, he had a crazy idea.

"It might just work," he told himself.

"What will?" asked Li, puzzled.

"This way, Li. Come on!"

He didn't even check the passage was clear before charging back to the stairwell. He figured it didn't matter if it wasn't. The Russians knew they were here, and there were only so many places to hide on the ship.

Which is why they had to get off it.

"Where we go?" cried Li, chasing him down the steps.

"Back to the Hitori," said Shelby.

The bottom of the stairwell had been consumed by water, but Shelby just jumped right in. The water was up to his middle now.

Li splashed after his captain. Two decks above, the Russians had reached the end of the passage. Their voices echoed down the stairs.

"How we get to Hitori?" Li asked.

"There's an exterior pressure door in the outer hull," Shelby replied. "It's right next to the boat. I saw it when we were tying off."

He started along the main passage, heading toward the bow, where the water was even deeper. Behind him, Li hesitated.

"That way flooded," he said.

Shelby didn't look back, just waded forward, pulling water behind him with one hand and holding the torch over his shoulder in the other.

"It's the only way," he said plainly.

Li gulped, then started following again.

"If I'm right," Shelby explained. "Then our way out won't be any more than twenty or thirty yards on the other side of this door."

The door in question was the warped pressure door they'd seen earlier. By the time Shelby reached it, the water was up to his ribs.

Li caught up quickly. The water was even higher on him, up to his breastbone; he was a good six inches shorter than his captain.

"Hold these," Shelby told him, handing him the torch and machine gun. "If the flashlight stops working, just give it a hard shake."

Li nodded, or perhaps he was just shivering. He held the torch up, following Shelby with a beam of light as he waded toward the door.

Shelby began taking deep breaths. "I'm going to flip the pressure bolt," he said. "And there's a lot more water on the other side of this door."

Li clearly understood. He backed against the wall.

"Okay, shine the torch down on me."

Shelby ducked his head in the water once, twice, and then went under. All of a sudden it felt like someone had set alight to his eyeballs, the water was so cold. For a moment he thought he'd have to surface, it was such agony.

But then the cold permeated his skull, cleared his thoughts. He reached toward the pressure bolt, even though he couldn't feel his fingers.

The freezing water squeezed on his chest. He was out of air long before he felt the pressure bolt finally give. Then he surfaced, gasping for breath.

"Okay," he wheezed. "This is it. Keep the flashlight out of the water as long as possible. The water's gonna rise in here pretty quickly."

Then he turned the bolt to the open position.

The pressure door swept open immediately. Shelby braced against the sides of the passage as the excess water gushed over him. It felt a bit like standing in a strong wind. If he'd lost his footing, he would have been carried away.

The water kept rising. Soon it was up to his neck.

"You okay?" he called back to Li.

"No," Li spluttered. He had to dance on his toes to keep his head above water.

"As soon as the water levels equalise, we'll go," Jack told him.

He didn't explain precisely what that meant, but after a few moments, the water stopped rising, and Shelby signalled for them to go.

They proceeded into the next passage, half swimming, half walking. There was only a foot of air between the water and the ceiling.

They hadn't got far before Li suddenly grabbed Shelby's arm.

"Jack, what that? Look!" he cried.

Shelby stopped and Li pointed the beam of light over his shoulder. His hand was cold and shaking, so Shelby only caught a glimpse of it.

There was something floating toward them.

"Give me that," he said to Li.

Then he held the flashlight out himself.

It was a yellow life preserver. There were several of them, floating slowly down the passage toward Li and Shelby, carried by the flow.

Shelby sighed and grabbed for the nearest as it floated up to him.

He wasn't expecting to find somebody wearing it.

Shelby lost his footing in shock, slipping under and inhaling water. He surfaced again, gagging and choking, and spat it out.

"Jack!" Li cried. "Look that!"

The body was turning over, face up. Its skin was grey, its lips blue. It had pleading, dead eyes. The mouth was open, gaping.

Li threw up into the water.

"Jesus Christ!" Shelby managed.

It was the body of an American sailor.

More of the life preservers reached them, except they couldn't float past each other. Shelby realised why. They all had bodies attached too.

Shelby shone the flashlight down to confirm his suspicions. The torch was flickering. It had just got drenched. He slapped it.

"Jack, what going on?" Li whispered.

Shelby didn't answer. He aimed the light along the passage, as far as the beam would go. There were dozens more life preservers down there.

Shelby pulled the nearest one out of the way. But as he pushed on, his feet caught on something. He tripped face first into the water.

And came up again spluttering.

But not before seeing what he'd tripped over.

"What down there?" Li cried.

Those that hadn't put on their life preservers.

"I think we just found the missing crew," Shelby said.

Then he started up over the sunken bodies.

"What happen here?" Li howled.

"Let's speculate later," Shelby suggested.

Li followed, gibbering to himself.

They made their way through the bodies slowly, but the further they went, the harder it got to move them. There were so many floating on the surface, or just below it, that there was nowhere left to push them anymore.

Before the flashlight finally gave out, Shelby spotted the exterior pressure door ahead. Then he discarded the torch in the water.

Behind him, Li retched violently.

"Nearly there," said Shelby.

Somehow it was easier ploughing through the bodies when he couldn't see them. He could almost pretend they weren't there.

But evidently Li couldn't. He was still muttering.

"Russians do this?" he said nervously.

"These people drowned, Li."

And chose to, Shelby added to himself. After all, there was an escape route right here. They were about to use it. So for these people to trap themselves down here, the alternative to drowning must have seemed far worse.

Some Russian, thought Shelby.

He felt his way along the wall until he found the door.

"But why they not fight?" Li wondered.

Shelby wasn't going to answer. He had his face pressed against the door, reaching underwater, feeling for the pressure bolt.

But then he remembered the armoury, the bodies, the guns nobody finished loading. "Maybe they didn't have enough time," he said.

In the darkness, he heard Li gulp.

Just then they heard voices back along the passage, saw the glint of a distant torch being shone down the stairs. It was the Russians.

"Those bodies should keep them distracted for a while," Shelby whispered. "With any luck they'll think it's us." He grinned.

Li's mouth was now underwater, so Shelby couldn't see if he was grinning back, even in the half-light. His eyes had only one reply: hurry up.

"Okay, take a deep breath," Shelby said.

The pressure bolt was larger than the one on the interior door, and harder to turn. It took both hands, for which Shelby had to dip his head under.

But when the bolt opened, Shelby didn't feel any difference. The door didn't swing open. That's because there was equal water pressure on the other side, holding it shut, he realised. The essence of the pressure door.

Shelby turned underwater, braced both feet against the door and pushed. And pushed. It was like heaving a car out of the mud. With feet.

As soon as the door was open, light flooded in. They were just beneath the surface and Shelby could see the sky through the gap between the Roosevelt and the Hitori, which was, as he'd predicted, mere yards away.

And in good need of a barnacle scrape, he thought, observing the encrusted hull. Just then, he was struck from behind. Li was out of breath.

They both swam out of the ship and surfaced beside the Hitori. Li began to splutter after air. Shelby immediately swam up behind him, put an arm around his waist and a hand over his mouth. Li stopped struggling.

"Keep very quiet," Shelby whispered.

But as they swam around to the other side of the Hitori, where Shelby knew there to be ropes hanging down, they didn't see any Russians. Their submarine sat quietly beside the USS Roosevelt like an obedient dog.

Li and Shelby climbed onto the fishing boat at the bow, hidden from the submarine by the wheel cabin, and near the ladder.

"Get rid of that," Shelby told him, crouching on the deck. "And sever those guide ropes. I'm going to start the engines."

Then he started crawling toward the cabin. If anybody came out of the submarine in the next minute, they were finished.

Li put the gun around his neck and carefully lifted the top of the ladder away from the side of the Roosevelt. He pulled it back in.

Then he took out his sheath knife.

Shelby reached the stern on his hands and knees, then got up. He saw the gangplank between here and the submarine and picked up his end. He fed it towards himself, until it was clear of the submarine, then he tipped it into the water. It was made of wood, so didn't splash, and started to float away.

Then he went into the wheel cabin.

Li wiped his blade dry on his thigh and then started on the guide rope. But it was over an inch thick for a reason, and it was slow going.

"Come on, Li," Shelby muttered to himself, his hand above the ignition. If he started the engine before they were ready to go, the Russians would come and investigate - and find them still tied to the Roosevelt.

He turned the wheel hard to starboard, the throttle to max. As soon as Li had cut the ropes, he'd be ready. His heart thumped ever faster.

And then it was done; Li was through.

He turned and waved the machine gun jubilantly.

Shelby jabbed the ignition. The engine caught immediately. Shadowy grey smoke spluttered out of twin exhaust funnels beside the cabin.

Shelby grabbed the wheel, felt the expanding vibrations; the mustering power of the Hitori's engines reverberating through the boat.

He looked out at Li and saluted victoriously.

When the old man went down, Shelby thought that was it. The Russians had got him. The blast, though silent, caught Li in the chest and threw him off his feet. He sprawled across the deck, jerking. Blood plumed from under his wet tunic like a shotgun round had struck him; then he went still. Shelby ducked.

But he couldn't see any Russians anywhere.

Slowly, he stood back up again, turned the Hitori away from the Roosevelt. He was just about to abandon the wheel, go to Li's body, when he heard the crash.

No, not just heard: he felt the crash.

Like something had dropped onto the deck of the fishing boat, like something had been dropped from the deck of the Roosevelt.

Or like someone had jumped from it.

But there was nobody except him and Li's corpse.

Shelby saw the distortion, like a shimmer in the air by the bow, but thought it just the glass. Glass was warped like that sometimes.

But then the shimmer moved nearer Li.

And then it picked him up.

Shelby froze, couldn't even breathe his chest was so constricted by fear. He just stood and stared as Li's limp form was lifted up effortlessly.

"American?" said a voice.

There was a hatch on the other side of the cabin. Down the steps were the engine room and mess. Shelby slowly turned his head.

Three Russian sailors were emerging from below. Shelby recognised the one speaking as the officer who'd ordered the execution of his crew.

They'd been on board the whole time.

Shelby put up his hands.

The officer reached forward and turned off the engine.

"Are you American?" he asked again, in a clumsy way that suggested he'd learnt the English language phonetically.

"Yeah." Shelby sighed.

The other two lifted their guns.

"Then you're coming with us," said the officer.

Just before they knocked him unconscious, Shelby took one last look across the bow of his boat. He barely had enough time to frown.

Li's body had completely disappeared.

NOTES:
An awkward chapter to write. I don't know anything about ships, which didn't help, because when I'm not well acquainted with a setting I tend to (contradictorily) over-describe it to compensate. Most of this chapter was rewritten completely. I originally wrote a far more convoluted version in which Shelby and Li get separated, Shelby goes looking for Li and finds him in the flooded cargo bay, where he gets killed by the Predator and Shelby gets captured by the Russians.