by Roland Smith
Ana was friends with Sylvia and Timothy O’Hara, Wolfe, and Ted, a fact that had not appeared in any of their dossiers. And she had been stalking Noah for — not days, not weeks, not months — but years.
Like Butch, Noah also had a “to do away with” list, but his was much, much longer. On the bright side, a number of the people on his list were together aboard the Coelacanth, and he had enlisted some professional help to cross them off it.
He switched on the computer’s webcam and a live, high-definition picture of his famous face appeared on the flat screen. Except for the scowl, he liked what he saw.
The fact that eWolfe and NZA were on a secret expedition for a giant squid was perfect for Noah’s purposes. The only reporter within a hundred miles was aboard the Coelacanth, and since she was on his list, she would be taking the information for her article to the bottom of the sea with her hysterical lungs filling with salt water. By the time anyone figured out that the Coelacanth had disappeared from the face of the earth with all hands on board, Noah would be back at the Seattle Ark holding a press conference about the tragic loss of his dear colleagues. It was a low priority, but if they succeeded in catching a giant squid before he scuttled their ship, he might try to put the leviathan in the Moon Pool on Endangered Too, then make the ultimate sacrifice of giving it back to NZA — thus removing all suspicion of his having anything to do with the loss of the ship and crew they’d hired. When NZA went bankrupt — which he would make certain happened — he would get the giant squid back and put it on exhibit in his own park.
“Come see Architeuthis at the Ark,” he whispered.
That’s good, he thought.
The smile returned.
He clicked the webcam RECORD icon.
“Wildlife first,” he said in his melodic, hypnotic voice. “This was Northwest Aquarium’s expedition, not mine. I was only there in a support role in the event that they needed my expertise. I am giving them the giant squid because, frankly, their facility is better suited for this amazing creature than the aquarium I currently have at the Ark. We are, and always will be, on the same team. Wildlife first.”
Noah knew that the competition would be short-lived. A few weeks after the squid splash at NZA, the Ark would make a splash of its own in the form of two baby dinosaurs, which would cause the fickle public to forget all about Architeuthis.
He replayed the sound bite and liked what he saw and heard. He walked over to the window and looked at the Endangered Too, twice as big as Endangered One, anchored a few hundred yards away. Unlike the Coelacanth, both of his vessels were beautiful inside and out.
Butch still didn’t know how Wolfe was going to catch a giant squid, but in his email he’d said that the rumor was that they were going to somehow lure it into the Moon Pool with the dolphins. Butch had learned a great deal about how to keep a giant squid alive from one of the scientists aboard the Coelacanth. Right now, Noah’s technicians were retrofitting their Moon Pool to accommodate this denizen of the deep.
Travis Wolfe and Ted Bronson would not spend the money or time to go after a giant squid unless they were reasonably confident they could bring one in. They had no doubt come up with some brilliant yet simple capture method that Noah hadn’t thought of — meaning that Ted Bronson had come up with the method. When this was all over, with Travis dead and eWolfe in ruins, Noah was going to go after Ted Bronson. Ted was not on his “to do away with” list. Noah wanted Ted alive and well and working for him — like his taxidermist, Henrico.
Noah hadn’t seen Ted since he and Wolfe brought in the great white and kept it alive in Ted’s shark box. He was a painfully shy, distracted geek, and totally dependent upon Travis Wolfe. Noah had heard from his spies on Cryptos that Ted had turned into a complete recluse, never leaving the Quonset hut where he came up with his marvelous inventions.
Without Wolfe, Ted was just another mad scientist. Without Ted, Wolfe was another twisted cryptid hunter.
But together …
And this was yet one more thing that irritated him about the self-righteous Travis Wolfe. If he knew about Henrico, Wolfe would be outraged. He would probably try to free him from the basement. And yet Wolfe had his own Henrico in the form of Ted Bronson. Henrico was happy in the basement creating works of art for Noah. Ted Bronson was happy in his Quonset hut inventing things for Wolfe. There was absolutely no difference in Noah’s mind, except that Wolfe was too much of a coward to admit that he used people to benefit himself.
Noah decided he would fly to Cryptos with Grace immediately after the Coelacanth went down. He would collect her things and make Ted Bronson an offer he could not refuse. With Wolfe dead, Noah Blackwood, as Grace’s grandfather and legal guardian, would own Travis’s half of eWolfe’s assets, including Cryptos Island and every invention Ted Bronson had ever come up with. Ted would have to come over to Blackwood’s side or lose everything.
Noah could hardly contain his glee at this prospect. In a few days he would have a pair of dinosaurs, an island, the most brilliant inventor since Leonardo da Vinci, and his granddaughter.
He strolled over to the other window and looked out at the broken-down Coelacanth, knowing full well they were in turn staring at his two ships. His smile broadened. What they didn’t know was that soon there would be a third vessel. And it was this third vessel that would take them down.
History was going to repeat itself.
The Coelacanth was indeed a bad-luck ship.
* * *
“So,” Marty said. “Ana is like … uh … your girlfriend?”
He and Ted were standing exactly where Ana had left them, staring at the Moon Pool door.
“Yep,” Ted answered.
“She’s something,” Marty said.
“A force of nature,” Ted said with a grin. “We’ve been together for years — whenever we can be together, that is. We’re both pretty focused on our work, which makes it a pretty good match.”
“I like her,” Marty said.
“So do your parents. I don’t know if Wolfe told you this, but Ana flew down to Brazil with him when they crashed in the jungle.”
The way Ana was dressed, it was hard for Marty to imagine her hacking her way through a sweaty tangle of leaves and vines.
“So, you think my parents are okay?” Marty asked.
“I don’t know,” Ted answered. “But I do know Ana. If she thinks there’s a chance they’re alive, there’s a chance. You probably noticed, but she doesn’t mince words. She says what she means and means what she says. If she thought they were dead, she would tell you.”
Ted looked at his diver’s watch. “We don’t have a lot of time, but I suppose I should take a couple of minutes to talk to you about the chicken and the egg. It will give you some insight into how I think, and how Wolfe thinks as well. In a few hours you and I will be exploring unknown territory in very tight quarters. I know something about how you think. It would be best for both of us if you know something about how I think. Ready?”
“Sure.”
“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
“I don’t know,” Marty said. “Why is that important?”
“Because it’s the foundation of my theory of invention,” Ted answered. “And you have to know the answer if you are going to be my copilot.”
“Fine,” Marty said. “Which came first?”
Ted shook his head. “First I need to explain some things to you.” He patted the side of the Orb. “I came up with this new alloy by studying the exoskeleton of a dragonfly Wolfe found in the Congo when he was there with Rose. He was looking for a dinosaur and stumbled across a very unusual dragonfly, previously unknown to science, and sent it back to Cryptos. If Wolfe had not gone to Lake Télé to find Mokélé-mbembé, he would not have found that dragonfly. I would not have been able to synthesize the alloy and invent the bot-fly — or dragonspy, as you call it — or the Orb, or the aquasuits, which I’m going to show you in a moment — all of which are made out of the same mater
ial.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” Ted continued. “All great inventions are a synthesis of things that already exist in nature. A lot of people think that Travis Wolfe is a lunatic, risking his life and fortune pursuing animals that are not supposed to exist. But you see, finding these animals is secondary to searching for them. You can’t discover anything unless you’re out looking. Hunting cryptids is an excuse for looking.
“The two hatchlings gulping down pounds of meat in Lab Nine are interesting, but their discovery doesn’t matter unless we ask the right questions about why they still exist when every other dinosaur disappeared tens of millions of years ago. What makes the hatchlings different from all the other dinosaurs that went extinct? The answer to this might lead to dozens of new technologies … or it may lead to nothing … but that doesn’t matter. Which leads me back to my original question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
Marty shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“That’s close,” Ted said. “But the real answer is: It doesn’t matter. The important thing is the question. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”
“Maybe,” Marty said. “Let me give it a shot.”
“Go ahead.”
“If you hadn’t gotten the contract to go after the giant squid, you might not have invented the Orb. Without the alloy, you wouldn’t have been able to come up with the Orb. Without the Orb, you wouldn’t be able to explore Kaikoura Canyon. If you couldn’t go into the canyon, you’d never know what’s down there. We may not catch a giant squid, but what we find in the canyon might lead to something that could help us up here.”
“I knew you’d get this!” Ted said enthusiastically. “And if we’re lucky enough to capture a squid and get it back to Washington alive, we’ll learn from the creature.”
“And make money,” Marty added.
Ted laughed. “Money has never meant much to me, or to Wolfe. If you find your passion and pursue it, the money will follow. Wolfe and I use money to keep the gas tank full so we can look around. Speaking of which, do you want to see the aquasuit?”
“Yeah.”
Marty followed Ted into the control room, which looked even more elaborate up close than it had from a distance.
“Wolfe, or whoever is manning the room, will be able to see and hear everything we see and hear in the Orb. Another set of eyes in case we miss something in the deep.”
Opposite the screens and computers, hanging on a rack, were three golden suits with attached hoods. On a shelf above them were three black high-tech-looking helmets with black visors.
“The suits aren’t as scratchy as they appear,” Ted said. “Yours is the one on the left. While you were in the Congo trying to kill yourself, I used a pair of your jeans and a T-shirt for the measurements.”
“Correction,” Marty said, imitating Ana. “While I was in the Congo with Butch McCall trying to kill me.”
“Noted,” Ted said. “My point is that the suit should fit pretty well. The alloy stretches and contracts like spandex.”
Marty felt the suit. “It does feel like the stuff the Orb is made out of.”
“Same alloy,” Ted said. “But a lighter version. It’s sort of like an exoskeleton that’s molecularly adaptive to any environment. It’s cold in the abyss. The aquasuit will keep you at a comfortable seventy degrees, or whatever temperature you choose.”
“You make it sound like the suits are alive,” Marty said.
“In a way they are, and so is the Orb. It’s a bit complicated to explain, but the Orb and the aquasuits are actually organic body armor impervious to just about everything, and they will adapt instantly to any environment. Why don’t you slip into your suit? You’ll have to strip down to your underwear. Once I have you zipped in, I’ll get into my suit.”
“I don’t see a zipper,” Marty said. “How am I supposed to get into it? Through the neck?”
“With this.” Ted pulled what looked like a glass knife out of a pocket in Marty’s aquasuit. He pushed a green button on the handle. The blade started to hum and turned green.
“What is that?”
“You probably noticed there is no hatch in the Orb. This is the key to the Orb and the zipper to the aquasuits. It’s a molecular particle disrupter. Green opens the zipper. Red closes the zipper.” He ran the key down Marty’s aquasuit, ripping it open from the neck to the crotch. “Step inside.”
Marty took off his jeans and T-shirt and pulled on the aquasuit.
Ted hit the red button and the key glowed red. “You’re going to feel a tingling sensation like static electricity.” He ran the key along the tear and it came together like it had never been torn.
“Amazing!” Marty said. “We just rip a hole in the side of the Orb to get inside.”
“That’s right. Once it’s sealed, it’s a completely enclosed environment. And with the helmets attached and functioning, the aquasuits are also completely enclosed.”
“Who does the third suit belong to?” Marty asked.
“One of the scientists aboard. For security reasons we haven’t told him that he’s going into the canyon yet. We’ll let him know tomorrow morning just before we leave.”
“What if he doesn’t want to go?”
“Don’t worry,” Ted said. “He’ll go. He wouldn’t miss this opportunity for anything in the world. Go ahead and put your helmet on.”
Marty took it from the shelf and put it on his head. As soon as the helmet touched the fabric around his neck he felt another burst of static.
“The helmet is adhering to the suit,” Ted explained. “Leave the visor up for a moment while I get into my suit.”
Marty did a few stretches. The suit, helmet included, was featherlight, comfortable, and covered every inch of his body down to his fingertips and toes. Ted zipped himself into his suit and put on his helmet.
“You look like you’re ready for a moon walk,” Marty said.
“With this suit I could walk on the moon. Flip down your visor.”
Marty reached up to pull it down, but Ted stopped him.
“No,” Ted said. “It’s computer-controlled. There’s a button on the right side of the helmet, but before you push it I should tell you that it’s going to be a little disorienting. I nearly fell over the first time I buttoned up. As soon as the visor comes down, the environmental systems, video, and audio are going to kick in. You’re going to feel a little pressure in your ears and sinuses for a few seconds while the system adjusts to your physiology and the suit seals. Oh, and it will be pitch-black. The visor is actually a video screen. You won’t be able to see anything until we activate it.”
Ted’s description of what it would feel like was not even close to what Marty experienced when he hit the button. He felt like he was falling into a black, bottomless pit. His eyes burned, his ears popped, and his knees buckled — at least he thought they buckled. He wasn’t sure if he was standing on his feet or his head.
“Close your eyes.” Ted’s voice came through speakers in the helmet.
“How do I know they’re open?” Marty said.
Ted laughed. “I told you it was disorienting. Just close your eyes. On the left side of the helmet is another button that turns on the onboard computer. The reason you need to close your eyes is that it’s a little bright as it boots up.”
Marty pushed the left button.
“It should look like someone is shining a flashlight into your closed eyes.”
“Yeah, I see red.”
“Good. Your eyes are closed. Give it a few seconds, then open your eyes.”
Marty counted to ten silently, then opened his eyes. “Whoa!”
“Cool, huh?”
“It’s awesome! It’s like I’m seeing through the visor, not looking at a screen. And everything is so clear. I have hawk eyes, not human eyes.”
“High definition and you have a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. Turn your head.”
Marty did. When he put on the suit,
he’d been facing opposite the Moon Pool. He was pretty sure he hadn’t moved, but he could see the Moon Pool, the Orb, and the dolphins as if he were facing in that direction.
Marty looked back at Ted, who had put his visor down. “Where’s the power for this thing? With all this high-def video and audio, it has to be burning a lot of juice.”
“There’s a battery built into the helmet. If you look up in the left-hand corner you’ll see a digital countdown timer. What’s it read?”
“Thirty-seven minutes.”
“That’s because you have all the bells and whistles turned on. If you shut down everything except the oxygen and pressurization, you’d have about an hour of battery left. When we hook the suits up to the Orb, the components will run indefinitely. Wolfe told me you know how to scuba.”
“Yeah.”
“About thirty miles west of Cryptos there’s a small trench approximately a thousand meters deep. I made it all the way to the bottom in the aquasuit.”
“That’s more than three times deeper than the world record!” Marty said.
“I know,” Ted said. “I could have gone much deeper. And I came straight back up without pausing for decompression. No bends, no ill effects whatsoever.”
“Incredible,” Marty said. “So what’s the suit’s limit?”
“I have no idea,” Ted answered. “And I hope we won’t have to test the limits on this trip. That would mean the Orb got crunched and we had to eject. The suits are kind of a fail-safe system, an Orb within the Orb. And now it’s time to get into the Orb and familiarize you with the controls.”
* * *
Phil Bishop walked into Wolfe’s cabin holding a can of pork and beans with a spoon sticking out of it.
Wolfe looked away from the computer screen, where he’d been staring at a crude sonar map of Kaikoura Canyon, wishing there were more details so they would have some idea of where to hunt for a giant squid.
“I’m not hungry, Phil. And if I were, I wouldn’t be interested in sharing a can of pork and beans with you.”
