It was another regular day aboard the Rosanne and Elsie had visited Oliver Tanner’s cabin so they could share some tea. Oliver spent most of his time aboard the Rosanne alone reading, or staring out into the turquoise glow of the cabin window. Sometimes when the Rosanne was deep enough to observe a reef or even the ocean floor, Tanner would borrow some paints from the storage in the library and play around with all different colours of blue, until at last he had created a wonderful image of the view from his very own window.
Over some tea that she had grown herself in the window of her apartment back home, Elsie listened as Oliver opened up about Sylvia. He mentioned how confused he was and how betrayed he felt, and yet, he also pointed out that he felt, somewhere deep inside, a little free. After first laying eyes on her, he explained that a chaos erupted inside him that was so overwhelming he was drawn near to the point of madness. Also, for the entire time that he had known her, there was this chilling fear deep inside that she was indeed destined to leave him, as she did. It was this fear, and the chaos, that he was free from.
Elsie then left Oliver to the comfort of his books and decided to retire to her own cabin. She sat down at her desk, observed the glowing window for a while, and then stared down at Mr. Vandenberg’s shredded journal. “What more are you hiding?” she asked it. With nothing but free time on her hands, she decided to flick through the pages yet again in the hopes that she could find some indication as to what she might expect when Tanner opened the brass vault. She had made very little progress when suddenly the lights flickered and the entire ship began to shudder. She considered that maybe Mr. Dunstan had run them into something, but then again, the impact was not nearly as violent as it should have been.
She opened her door and peeked outside. The main lights were all out and the emergency ones were on, so now the entire ship was illuminated with a menacing red glow. Doctor O’Donnell opened her door and stepped out, and Jack followed her – he was wearing his best suit and had a rose pinned to his collar. O’Donnell came carefully down the hallway, bearing the same confused look as Elsie. “Elsie? Good heavens! What on earth is going on? Has the power shut off?”
Elsie observed all of the red lights. “It would appear so. I say we go to the engine room. I’m sure Tilly will know what’s happened.”
“Quite right.”
And then Jack broke off from them, saying, “I should look for the professor. You two keep heading down to the engine room and we’ll meet up.”
The VS Rosanne 7 suddenly became deathly quiet as the two girls strolled through the dim rooms, and then down the stairs and towards the engine room. Elsie had this biting fear that the submarine wouldn’t be able to surface, and that sooner or later they were all going to suffocate. She grew breathless just by thinking about it, so she did her best to push the thought away. “So how was your date going?” she suddenly asked the doctor.
Doctor O’Donnell feigned innocence. “Hm? What date?”
“Don’t be silly, your date with Jack. I can imagine you enjoyed the ring he gave you?”
O’Donnell let out a giggle. “Yes, well I’d enjoy it more if I actually got to keep it. Still, I suppose it’s the thought that counts…”
They opened the door to the engine room and Elsie’s heart dropped as she encountered a very unexpected visitor, and a dreadful situation. Mr. Rex Bowler had snuck aboard the Rosanne, and he was holding a pistol to Tilly’s head.
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