‘Ah J-J-Jay-zus!’ His blue lips trembled at thethought of floundering in the darkness, beneath the surface — losing his way, feelingthe growing desperation and then finally sucking churning seawater into his lungs.
It was then he heard it — the sound of movement from behind him.
CHAPTER 2
1912, Atlantic Ocean
He turned to look up the passageway and saw a man standing ankle-deep in the water,holding on to a wall rail to prevent himself tumbling down the passage towards him.
‘Liam O’Connor!’
‘We’re s-stuck!’ Liam replied. ‘There’s no… there’sno way out!’ His voice sounded shrill.
‘Liam O’Connor,’ the man said again, his voice calm.
‘What?’
‘I know who you are, lad.’
‘Whuh?… We need to — ’
The man smiled. ‘Listen, Liam.’ He looked at his watch. ‘You have justunder two minutes left to live.’ The man looked around at the vanilla-coloured metalbulkheads of deck E. ‘This ship’s spine will snap in about ninety seconds.She’ll break two thirds of the way along. The bow end, the larger section, the bit youand I are in, will sink first — like a stone. The stern will bob for another minute andfollow us down, one and a half miles to the bottom of the ocean.’
‘Ah, p-please no. No, no, no,’ Liam whimpered, realizing that he was crying.
‘As we sink, the water pressure will quickly mount. The hull will buckle under it. Theair pressure will burst your eardrums. The rivets in these walls,’ hesaid, running his hand over a row of them, ‘will fire out of the bulkheads like bullets.This passage will instantly fill with water and you’ll be crushed before you can drown.That’s at least a small mercy.’