Then Coselli stared at the monster once again.

And it was looking back.

A single multifaceted red eye the size of a giant billboard seemed to lock with his own. With effort, Coselli tore his eyes away, trying to discern the nature of the beast he was facing.

The man couldn't believe that anything that big could be alive. With the crumbling ice falling all around it, details of the monster's form were difficult to make out, but Coselli saw blue and golden scales, snapping metal mandibles around a distinctive beak, and that single hypnotic red eye.

The curved metallic spikes on either side of the mouth opened, and so did the pointed beak. An unearthly electronic howl filled the man's ears. Coselli wanted to cover them, but couldn't let go of the steering wheel.

Then the red eye seemed to focus on the spinning treads of the Hagglunds. The silvery claws flashed once again, and the ground shuddered beneath the vehicle.

In a torrent of ice chunks the size of trucks, the Hagglunds dropped into the pit. Coselli's eyes were wide open as he plunged toward the waiting talons of the creature that had emerged from the very center of the Earth.

7.

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.

Friday, December 1, 2000, 4:05 P.M.

Bridge of the Destiny Explorer.

2,700 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.

Off the coast of Georgia.

"Number One, take the helm," Captain Jack D. Dolan commanded, stepping away from the main control console in the front of the Plexiglas-lined high-tech bridge of the Destiny Explorer.

With an excited nod, Sh.e.l.ly Townsend stepped around Captain Dolan to take the steering wheel, which was mounted on the control column. With that single wheel, she now had the ma.s.sive airship at her command.

"On station," she announced, gripping the steering wheel and scanning the instruments, mentally recording every aspect of the aircraft's present condition.

Then Sh.e.l.ly peered out of the huge windows at the horizon, one eye monitoring the ship's radar screen. Far ahead in the distance, a United Airlines jumbo jet took off from Savannah International Airport and headed out over the ocean. The plane's running lights were blinking, and as it gained height, rays from the setting sun flashed off its wings.

Cargo ships and pleasure craft dotted the blue-green waters far below. Though the day had been bright, the first shadows of early evening were already touching the ocean waves.

Sunset would come much later at 3,000 feet.

The Destiny Explorer had departed Savannah airs.p.a.ce and had just completed a wide turn around the tip of Tybee Island, a course that put the Georgia coast on their starboard and the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean to their port.

"Take her up to thirty-five hundred feet," Dolan commanded.

"Aye, aye, sir."

Sh.e.l.ly spread her legs wide and dug the heels of her boots into the rubber matting of the deck. She wiped her hands on her Levi's and took a second grip on the steering wheel. Then she slowly tested the control column, watching the alt.i.tude indicators on the heads-up display edge upward. The HUD was nothing more than a clear plastic screen mounted above the control column. Fiberoptic lights flashed stats on this screen. The information displayed there could be projected on several other computer monitors aboard the Explorer, including one in the captain's cabin.

The HUD also displayed the airship's precise lat.i.tude and longitude, a land map of the region, the wind direction - as well as the craft's lift, engine thrust, and angle of ascent.

Sh.e.l.ly was soon satisfied that everything looked good. It was a simple, textbook course and speed.

And I should know, Sh.e.l.ly thought with pride. I helped write that textbook.

When she was sure everything was ready, Sh.e.l.ly pulled back on the control column, raising the nose of the aircraft. Because of its size, the aircraft responded slowly, but soon it began to climb. The teenager could hear the whine of the Destiny Explorer's forward turbofan engines as they pulled the ship forward and upward.

To Sh.e.l.ly, their high-pitched throbbing sounded like music played on a finely tuned instrument.

"Thirty-five hundred feet," she announced a few minutes later. She leveled the ship smoothly and glanced at the navigational and meteorological readouts. Then Sh.e.l.ly informed her captain of the airship's present course and speed.

"Very well," Captain Dolan replied when she'd completed her report. He had studied the teenager's every move and was more than satisfied that she could handle the con.

"I'm heading for a shower and a meal," the captain announced, stretching his tired muscles.

"Aye, aye, sir!" Sh.e.l.ly replied. She punctuated her words with a crisp salute. "And might I add that you've earned them both, sir!"

Captain Dolan chuckled and stroked his curly beard with his hand. He knew Sh.e.l.ly Townsend meant no disrespect. She genuinely appreciated the difficulty he'd had, taking off in a stubborn headwind.

"Call me if anything goes wrong," Dolan said over his shoulder as he stepped through the hatch.

Then he was gone, and Sh.e.l.ly was alone on the bridge.

"At last!" she exclaimed.

For the first few days of the voyage, Sh.e.l.ly had practically been barred from the bridge. Her father had been on board, running constant tests on all the systems. He had important tasks for her all over the interior of the gigantic airship - but never on the bridge. She spent hours among the huge gas cells filled with helium. She spent more hours in the airship's hangar, prepping the Messerschmitt-XYB with Ned Landson - not to mention a whole evening working on the interior lights with the onboard electrician, Michael Sullivan, and the self-styled Queen of Computers, Leena Sims.

I shouldn't dislike the girl so much; I hardly know her, Sh.e.l.ly thought, recalling the thoroughly unpleasant evening when they had worked together.

Michael Sullivan is sweet, though, she remembered, realizing that the evening had not been all bad. And I like Peter, too, though he is very shy. Sh.e.l.ly was neutral about Ned Landson - the young oceanographer didn't impress her despite his discoveries.

Ned is too handsome to have much of a brain in his pretty little head, she concluded.

But despite the benefit of getting to know her pa.s.sengers, Sh.e.l.ly longed to get up front, on the bridge itself.

Finally, this morning, she got lucky. At their last event - a public relations visit to Savannah - Simon Townsend received a message from his trouble-shooters. They needed the designer's personal help to supervise the construction of the landing tower at one of the airship's next destinations.

Because such lighter-than-air craft had not been in general use for more than fifty years - with the exception of a few advertising blimps featured at athletic events worldwide - even the most modern airports lacked the facilities to handle a ma.s.sive airship like the Destiny Explorer.

A single hundred-foot mooring tower and one or two equally tall elevator towers for pa.s.senger access and supply were required to service the INN airship. Not to mention at least twenty skilled ground crewmen to help land and tie down the behemoth.

For that reason, Mycroft E. Endicott had three prefabricated mooring towers and six portable elevator towers designed and constructed. The docking systems could be transported by cargo aircraft or trucks and erected in a suitable landing field in less than three days.

These three mooring systems, and their highly trained construction and ground crews, hop-scotched down the eastern seaboard, erecting the mooring towers at each of the airship's scheduled stops.

Because the Explorer was so large, no functioning airport had yet given permission for the airship to dock inside its airs.p.a.ce - that would just be too disruptive to daily activity in a busy airport.

Savannah International was no exception. For the airship's visit to Georgia, the Explorer had docked at Hunter Army Airfield near Oglethorpe Mall and Savannah's Memorial Stadium - where a huge rally was held just this morning to welcome and cheer on the voyagers.

But while on the ground in Savannah, Simon Townsend had received word that the crewmen building the mooring tower in Mexico City were experiencing insurmountable technical problems. The problem was deemed so pressing that Mycroft E. Endicott had sent his personal Lear jet to the Hunter airfield to pick up the chief engineer and designer of the Explorer and take him ahead to Mexico.

Two hours before, as Sh.e.l.ly Townsend's father waved good-bye to her from the tarmac of Hunter Army Airfield, her heart was racing in antic.i.p.ation of this moment.

Now, as the airship cruised high above Ossabaw Island, Sh.e.l.ly Townsend held the con. And she loved every minute of it ...

"It just shows that a hacker - no matter how good he thinks he is - isn't necessarily a computer expert," Leena Sims said cruelly.

Michael Sullivan, from his station on the opposite side of the computer lab, ignored her remark - at least outwardly.

Inwardly, he cringed. I never presented myself as anything more than a hacker, and I'm certainly not a computer expert. But his thoughts remained unspoken.

It was better that way, the youth thought. He'd already had one confrontation with Leena. He didn't want another. Michael had decided to steer clear of the hotheaded computer designer.

The trouble came to a head the other night while he and Leena were trying to get the interior floodlights on the airship to work.

Sh.e.l.ly Townsend had asked them to help get the lights integrated with an on-board computer. The computer was designed to operate the complex and sophisticated lighting system. With different settings, the ship could be lighted externally in a variety of colors, or internally with the lights that were installed in the center of the fuselage.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, only the normal running lights were working. The computer had not yet been hooked up. Sh.e.l.ly thought it might be a good project for him and Leena to tackle.

After hours of work, he and Leena thought they'd finally integrated the system. But when they turned on the exterior lights, only the port-side system was working. The starboard side remained dark. Michael ran a diagnostic test on the computer and announced that there was a faulty connection somewhere in the fuselage of the giant airship.

For the next two hours, Sh.e.l.ly, Leena, Peter, and even Ned climbed up maintenance ladders and crawled into access tunnels and along horizontal struts while the electrician checked the power generator.

They found nothing wrong.

Leena Sims announced that she would repeat the diagnostic test and discovered a critical error Michael had made the first time. The problem wasn't the hard-wiring - it was a software glitch. Everyone was polite about the mistake Michael had made - a mistake that had sent them all on a wild-goose chase.

Everyone, that is, but Leena.

She actually insulted him, in front of everyone. She accused him of being computer illiterate. Michael stood up to her that night, insisting that he was only human, and not a computer genius like her. His words only made her angrier.

To make up for his error, Michael had worked on locating the software glitch for the past two days - stopping only to make the public appearance in Savannah.

He hadn't found it yet.

Then, ten minutes ago, Leena had come into the lab and demanded to know what Michael was doing. When he told her, she exploded. She stormed off to a computer station on the opposite side of the computer lab, her laptop in tow.

Acting busy with the data on his screen, Michael stole a look at her now. She was still downloading information onto her sophisticated laptop.

Then Leena saw him looking at her. Michael thought she actually looked sick. Leena slammed the lid of her portable computer angrily and avoided his stare.

"I'm going back to my room and work this problem out," she announced haughtily. "It is obvious you can't."

As she rushed past Michael and opened the door of the lab, the youth was sure that Leena Sims looked pale and sickly ...

"Whoa!" Robin Halliday cried as Leena plowed into her in the narrow corridor running through the pa.s.senger area of the Destiny Explorer. "What's the hurry?" the reporter demanded, stepping backward.

The intense, dark-haired teenager looked up at Robin, her face scrunched up in obvious discomfort.

"Nothing ... just get out of my way!" Leena cried. "I'm going to my room."

Robin stepped aside, and the girl rushed past her. Leena reached her room, fumbled for her key, and ran the card through the slide. When the lock clicked, Leena yanked the door open. She hurried in and slammed the door behind her.

Robin heard the lock click again.

Then the reporter smiled knowingly. Well, well, Robin thought with some relish. The almighty princess of microchips acts like a tough cookie on the outside, but I recognize her problem, because I am very familiar with the symptoms.

At that moment, Robin realized that Leena Sims had the same problem as her former boss, Nick Gordon.

This little genius is afraid of flying!

Leena locked the door and had barely reached the bunk when the tremors. .h.i.t. Her hands shook, her teeth chattered. Panic overwhelmed her, and her heart palpitated until it threatened to stop completely. Leena gasped for breath as she dropped the laptop on the floor next to her bed.

Moaning aloud, Leena clutched the blankets until her knuckles turned white.

d.a.m.n! she screamed at herself. No matter what I do, I can't crush this fear and forget that I'm in an airship! It had always been Leena's secret. She'd been afraid of heights since she was little. Lately, that fear had expanded exponentially. Now she could barely contain her fear of being off the ground for an hour at a time.

But she was still determined to try and beat this fear, no matter what it took.

For the first few days aboard the Destiny Explorer, Leena had locked herself up in her stateroom. As requested, she got a room in the central section of the pa.s.senger area so her cabin had no windows. She had her meals brought to her room instead of taking them in the gla.s.s-walled dining room.

She just hid from everyone, waiting for the fear that threatened to consume her to pa.s.s. Finally, after the first day or so, she was able to venture out to the computer lab, but not much farther. There were no windows in the corridor to remind her of where she was, but if she accidentally saw out a window, the fear would rise from her belly and threaten to overwhelm her.

When Sh.e.l.ly Townsend asked Leena to help with the lighting computers, Leena almost lost her nerve completely. She was sure that everybody would figure out she was afraid, and then she'd be put off at the next stop.

Fortunately, the work was done in the center of the ship, and there were no windows through which she could see how high the airship was - and how far down was the solid, steady Earth.

Leena Sims was not sure how much longer she could hide her fear of flying from the others, but she was determined to let the charade last as long as possible ...

Nick Gordon, on the other hand, felt like a new man.

As far as he was concerned, this a.s.signment had changed his life - and it had hardly begun! That was because he'd learned that he wasn't afraid of flying - he just suffered from airsickness.

The first night aboard the Explorer was endless for the INN science reporter. Every shift of the airship, every change in sound and speed, brought with it a fit of nausea. He'd experienced mild nausea in boats and submarines - but getting into an airplane or a helicopter had always been a terrifying experience for Nick.