Behemoth

by Michael Cole

  “Are you supposed to be a movie star?” Hooper’s tone remained aggressive.

  “Shark hunter guy,” David identified him.

  “Poacher,” Nic whispered under his breath, concealing his words with a cough. Rein lit up another celebrity-style smile.

  “I wouldn’t use the word poacher there, sir,” he said to Nic, who sat silent, slightly embarrassed that his voice was still heard. “Sorry, I just have a good ear. Goes with the nature of hunting.” Rein continued.

  “What can we do for you, Mr. Rein?” Nic asked, not too successful in hiding his disinterest in the poacher’s presence.

  “I’ll get right to it. I understand you gentlemen have a transaction to go to Mako’s Edge.” Nic stared down at the table, unsure on how to answer that based on their recent conversation with Old Hooper.

  “How do you know that?” Old Hooper cut in.

  “Mako’s Center isn’t a big place, bud. I’ve been around town, and fishermen around here talk… a lot,” Rein said. “Also, I couldn’t help but overhear what you chaps were talking about just a minute ago. Like I said a minute ago: Good ear.”

  “Damn pricks can’t mind their own damn business,” Hooper nearly shouted, more to himself. “It doesn’t matter. These boys here don’t seem to want to withdraw the proper amount of money from their mattresses.”

  “Whoa, give them a break, chief,” Rein said. “I understand that these guys are working on a strict budget. There’s only so much they can pay you.”

  “Then there’s only so much service I’m willing to provide,” Old Hooper glared at Nic, whose face was beginning to turn red with anger.

  “Before we get hasty,” Rein said, noticing the increasing tension at the table, “How would you like it if I put down three thousand dollars, in addition to the grand they were initially gonna pay you?” Suddenly all three sets of eyes turned to the shark hunter, each expressing pure amazement.

  “Four grand, huh?” Old Hooper smirked.

  “What’s the catch here?” Nic asked. Under the table, David kicked his shoe into his colleague’s leg, mouthing the words Shut up! What are you doing? He didn’t care why this semi-celebrity was assisting them, he was just glad he was doing it.

  “The catch is…” he paused, as if for effect, “I’ll be going with you.” Old Hooper’s normal response to any request like this would be ‘go fuck yourself,’ but a large offer of cash money made him think otherwise.

  “Why do you need to tag along with this expedition?” Nic asked.

  “Damned great whites chewed up a third of my beloved vessel,” Rein said. “She’s now in the shop.”

  “I think Nic meant, ‘what is your reason?’” David decided to pitch in. Rein chuckled.

  “Didn’t you hear the news? The Coast Guard lady said something was living under the water over there. I’ve been dying for a good hunt lately, and I think it’s lurking over in those waters. Whatever it is, it tore a Coast Guard diver to shreds, and I want to find it for myself and put a harpoon through its eye.” Old Hooper couldn’t care less for what he was saying, as long as the money was real. Nic, on the other hand, already thought this poacher was out of his mind.

  “I don’t think there’s anything over there,” he said. “The Coast Guard already did a search…”

  “They were looking for submersibles, genius!” Rein’s voice rose a bit. “All they took away from the commanding officer’s testimony was that there was a large object moving under the water, which caused the government to act like morons once again.”

  “Listen,” Old Hooper interrupted. “Let’s cut the bullshit. I really don’t care about sea monsters or submarines or friggin underwater caves. If you have the money, then according to these two schoolboys,” he pointed at the scientists, “we’ll be leaving at noon tomorrow. But there’d better be some cash up front…” Rein slapped a small brick of cash on the table in front of the old grimy fisherman.

  “That’s half,” he said. “You’ll get the rest from me when we get back from our trip.”

  “Wait,” Nic held up his hands. “How is this gonna work tomorrow?”

  “It’s easy,” Rein explained. “Old Hooper here will drive us on out there in his fishing boat. You guys go do your cave swimming, while I do myself a bit of monster fishing.”

  “Enough of this,” Old Hooper stood up. “East Port, tomorrow at noon, all three of you. Don’t be late.” He walked away, stopping at the bar table for another beer before exiting the restaurant. Ryan Rein also began walking away, but not before giving a small salute to the scientists.

  “You’re welcome,” he said to them. Nic and David sat silently, not noticing the waitress approaching to take their order.

  CHAPTER

  10

  Napier sat at his kitchen table, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he looked over his stack of bills, which piled nearly a foot high. At 10:30 P.M., the red mug of black coffee was not effective in keeping him from getting drowsy. Jane, being a teenager, was wide awake in her bedroom surfing the internet on her laptop. Napier yawned and wished he still had some of that young energy to stay up and focus on his budgeting. But what he wished for more than that was a way out of his struggling payments. Today had been another bad fishing day, and unfortunately there was no money to be made tomorrow, as no drift nets were allowed to be set up along the island for the duration of the fishing tournament. He had already converted much of his savings account money into his checking account to pay for many of these bills, and now he was concerned as to whether he would have enough to pay through the next month. He always vowed to keep away from credit cards, due to having witnessed many friends and family fall into a seemingly endless pit of debt by using them. But now he was beginning to fear that he may have to turn to those malignant cards to keep afloat. There was also the option of moving, which he also hated. He had grown to love Mako’s Center, and he also knew Jane would be upset if they moved. He quietly continued sitting, resting his chin on his hand, and stared at the white envelope pile through glassy eyes. Sleep was moving in on him like a siege, and his resistance to it was nearly gone.

  “These things happen to every fisherman at some point,” he quoted Wayne aloud to himself. He brushed the electric and propane bills to the side, brushing them past the large stack. This did nothing to ease his frustration, nor his financial concerns. However, those downbeat feelings were able to be cast aside when a sudden knock on the front door shocked Napier out of his daze. He quickly shuffled out of his seat and walked into the living room area where the front door was located. “Who’s knocking after ten-friggin-thirty at night?” he vented as he twisted the knob. The door swung outward, and there stood Lieutenant Lisa Thompson. She was dressed in civilian clothes, which included Wrangler jeans, brown boots, and a red tank top, which outlined her womanly features. Napier reacted with a flabbergasted “whoa” upon first sight. For a moment, he wondered if he had actually dozed off and was dreaming. “Uhh, hi,” he managed to get some words out.

  “Hi,” Lisa said. Her voice was low and disheartened, which also showed in her facial expressions. “Long day, huh?” There was a minor slur in her words, which led Napier to believe she had consumed a bit of alcohol.

  “Yes, I’d say it was-- still is,” Napier said, still surprised to see her at his front step. He wasn’t quite sure what else to say. Rather, his mind was trying to figure out why a high school sweetheart who hated his guts was now suddenly at his house at ten-forty in the evening. He glanced at a clock that was visible in the kitchen. “Listen, are you aware of what time it is?”

  “Only ten-forty,” she said. Without warning, she stepped through the doorway past Napier into the house. He stood like a statue, continuing to look out the open doorway, his confusion illustrated in his facial expression.

  “Come in,” he whispered under his breath. He shut the door and then saw that Thompson had taken a seat on a couch in the living room. You’ve got to be kidding me! He nearly screamed in his mind. He fi
gured there was nothing to look forward to from this visit. Ever since his senior year, a clear-headed Thompson certainly wanted nothing to do with him, except perhaps slap him some more. And now this time he figured she was intoxicated, which would make her hate him even more if he ‘took advantage’ of any drunken behavior. With all of this in mind, he knew there was nothing to gain from this visit. All he wanted was to go to his bedroom and sleep soundly until the next morning. “Yes, it is ten-forty,” he said. “That’s twenty minutes to eleven. Does that help with the time clock in your head?” Lisa laughed, almost hard, while trying to keep sitting up straight.

  “You were always a night owl,” she continued to laugh. Napier bit his lip.

  “Yeah okay, when we dated eighteen years ago…as teenagers, I may have been one.” He briefly paused to mentally arrange his sentences. “But now I’m a grown-up. One who likes to go to bed around nine-thirty at night, rather than one-in-the-morning. One who doesn’t like people barging their way in when he’d like to be asleep.” The sound of footsteps interrupted him, and he looked up the stairway to see Jane coming down. She obviously heard the commotion downstairs, and wondered who was in the living room with her father. Wearing a long white t-shirt and small blue shorts, she quickly shot her dad a puzzled look upon seeing Thompson sitting on the living room couch.

  “Ummm…hi,” she muttered after a long pause.

  “Hi, Jane,” Napier said. He gestured to the lieutenant. “Jane, this is Lieutenant Lisa Thompson.” He then gestured to his daughter. “Lieutenant, this is my lovely daughter Jane.” Thompson looked up to Jane, with a surprising sharp concentration.

  “Hello, Jane,” she said while struggling to suppress her troubling thoughts. She forced a smile. “It’s so nice to meet you.” Jane also forced a smile in the midst of the awkwardness.

  “Nice to meet you too,” she said. Her eyes went to her dad, which sent a message without words: Why do you have a woman here so late, I wonder? Napier knew the inappropriate thoughts his daughter was thinking, and quickly shot her a look in return, which she understood as meaning: No, you little brat, it’s nothing like that!

  “Ummm… listen Jane,” he said. “Go ahead and do…whatever it is you do in your room upstairs. I need to talk to this lady.” And get her out of my house, his thoughts finished the sentence. Jane turned and went back upstairs, covering her mouth with her hand to conceal her laughter. With his daughter back in her room, Napier felt he could now focus on getting Thompson out of his house. He turned to face her, prepared to simply say ‘listen, I’d appreciate it if you would be on your merry way’. But when he noticed her sadness, it stopped him in his tracks. “Well…” he searched for something to say. “Umm, Lisa? Listen, it’s late, and…”

  “So that’s your daughter,” she interrupted. Napier didn’t say anything. Thompson took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “I guess life led you down a suitable path. You’ve got a family. A job, a kid, a wife.” Napier struggled to understand her babbling. “I guess it worked out for you, leaving me for that…” she maintained just enough conscious control to stop herself from referring to Katherine as a whore, “that other woman.” She paused again and scanned her eyes throughout the room, as if searching for something. “Where is she, anyway?”

  “I beg your pardon?” Napier said.

  “That wife, whom you left me for. Is she home? I’d hate to get you in trouble.” Napier didn’t find this funny.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he said, keeping his voice low enough not to alert his daughter. “Is this some kind of sick joke?! By-the-way, how the hell did you find out where I live?” Thompson laughed out loud.

  “Everyone in Mako’s Center knows you, Rick. It wasn’t hard,” she leaned back into the sofa. “So what’s the wife up to?”

  “Can you get off that subject? High school was a hell of a long time ago.”

  “What? You don’t know where she is?” Thompson started to laugh drunkenly again. Napier’s temper flared like a box of fireworks.

  “She died! Okay? Does that fucking amuse you?!” He barely kept himself from screaming. In the blink of an eye, the lieutenant’s facial expression went from solid drunken amusement to a combination of sorrow, embarrassment, and most notably shame. She leaned forward and buried her hands in her face. Even though she didn’t yet cry, she was clearly upset.

  “Oh fuck,” she mumbled. “Oh fuck. Oh shit. Jesus help me.” She looked up at Napier, teary eyed. “God… I’m so sorry. I really didn’t know.” She stood up and started for the door. With the first step she immediately stumbled, due to the loss of coordination from the alcohol. Napier quickly stepped in and caught her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

  “Okay, okay,” he said. “Go ahead and sit down again.” He helped her back onto the couch. Even though there was a chair in the nearby corner of the room, he didn’t feel comfortable enough to be sitting during this bizarre situation. Therefore, he decided to stand in the middle of the room as before. Thompson continued to mumble about how sorry she was. Napier’s anger had already subsided, especially after remembering that she was not in the most balanced state of mind.

  “God, I’m just so stupid,” she continued. Napier shrugged his shoulders and tightened his lips.

  “Don’t worry about it. It could happen to anyone.” He squinted as if in pain after hearing himself make that stupid remark. “Listen, don’t worry about it. It’s alright.” Thompson shook her head.

  “God,” she groaned. She closed her eyes and leaned back, dwelling on her misfortunes. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” She opened her eyes and looked at Napier. “It hasn’t been the greatest day for me, can’t you tell?” She added a fake chuckle.

  “Well how bad could it be?” Napier said, finally taking a seat in his chair. “Should I make you some coffee?” He asked, suddenly thinking that would help with her buzz. She ignored the offer.

  “Well, for starters, I got one of my men killed last night.” She paused for a sigh. “My statement to my superiors led to a massive Coast Guard operation that turned up nothing. Now…” she stared off into the distance for a moment, “Well I’m up for a court martial. It’s not yet scheduled, but they told me that I’m off duty until the whole shebang is underway. And it looks like it’ll lead to a dishonorable discharge, which of course destroys any future I thought I had.” Napier didn’t know what to say, although his mind was reeling off thoughts. Shit, no wonder she had a date with the booze tonight.

  “Damn,” he finally said. “I’m……sorry.”

  “He’d still be alive if I just did what I was supposed to do,” she continued. “He was a douchbag, but he didn’t deserve that. He didn’t even want to keep diving, but of course I thought we could still find the wreck. Now everyone I know thinks I’m insane.”

  “You’re not insane,” Napier tried to sound comforting. Lisa chuckled.

  “I know I’m not insane, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel like I am,” her voice broke a bit as she fought to hold back tears. “There’s something in the water over there, Rick. I’m telling you I saw it. It had a huge, rigid body, and several long arms. It was like a large, I don’t know, a Kraken, or something. I don’t know what it is, but it’s there.” Napier sat quietly, processing her words in his mind. It seemed extremely unfathomable that there was something in the water like what she claimed. However, to his surprise, she didn’t come off as crazy to him. There was a strong conviction in her voice and a sure sign of terror in her eyes as she reflected back on the dive. In addition, there had been a lot of bizarre things happening around the island chain over the last few days. Fishing suddenly decreased almost overnight; Steve Hogan’s boat disappearing almost without a trace; the bizarre disappearance of the Coast Guard diver Denning; the destruction of fishermen’s nets; bizarre unconfirmed sightings on the news. Somehow, with everything going on in Mako’s Ridge, the lieutenant didn’t sound crazy to him.

  “Perhaps, if you’ll still be in
town for the next few days, we can take my boat out if you’d like,” he said aloud while still in his thoughts. The lack of response from Lisa snapped him back into reality. She had passed out on his sofa. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” He cursed any existing higher power. He got up out of his seat and walked out of the living room through the kitchen and into the laundry room, where he pulled a freshly cleaned fleece blanket out of the dryer. Back in the living room, he helped position Thompson into a lying position on her back, placing the sofa’s pillow behind her head and covering her body with the blanket. With an exhausted sigh, he headed up the stairs to his bedroom, where he felt he could sleep for a month.

  CHAPTER

  11

  The creature concealed itself in a state of hibernation within the dark habitat. Instinct dictated that it remain hidden in its tunnel, due to several intruders that had been lurking about in the area throughout the previous day. Normally, it would fight off any life form to invade its habitat, but the sheer number of intruders caused its small brain to reconsider any offensive maneuver. It balled all of its appendages into its body, becoming an inanimate object resembling a massive pebble within the deep dark passageway.

  Now, even as it was still in a state of unconsciousness, its brain slowly began punching minor energy sparks throughout its body. Hunger was now settling in. It hadn’t ingested anything more than a few small fish throughout the previous day. Its monstrous size required an intense amount of energy, and that energy required organic fuel. Being in this natural environment required spending more energy than it was used to before, accelerating its metabolic rate. Within a short period of time it would awaken again, and immediately afterwards its instinct will drive the leviathan to kill and keep killing.

  ********

  “What the hell,” Lisa Thompson moaned as she woke up and reviewed her surroundings. It took her a few whole minutes for her memory to start trickling back from the previous night, which answered her mental question of where she was. “Oh, shit!” she exclaimed upon realizing she was on her ex-boyfriend’s living room couch. She was still dressed in her civilian jeans and tank top, and her other belongings were at a motel in town. She stood up and searched the house for a bathroom, which she found near the laundry room. After relieving herself, she washed her hands in the sink and then splashed water over her face. She walked to the front door, which had a window view of the cove. Looking out, she could also see the driveway off to the side of the house, which reminded her that she had no vehicle. In her drunkenness, she had hitched a taxi-ride to Napier’s home, and eliminated the possibility of leaving quickly.