by Greig Beck
“Where are you? We’re here!” Chaika roared and walked further into the large cavern.
A few tiny pieces of gravel bounced off Fradkov’s shoulder. He slowly lifted his light beam. Higher and higher.
Then he saw them—dozens of glistening white, almost translucent bodies clinging to the ceiling. He frowned, confused, but his heart rate immediately kicked up.
Their bulging sightless eyes quivered and long ears ran all the way down the side of their heads.
One of the creature’s mouths moved. “Help me,” it said, but in a woman’s voice.
“Ab, ab.” Fradkov’s mouth wouldn’t work. He pointed his gun. “Ab… above us!” he screamed and began to fire.
The bodies dropped down on them.
***
The sound of gunfire had all the soldiers immediately on their feet with weapons drawn. Zhukov spun to his second-in-command.
“Vlad, double-time.”
Vladimir barked orders, pushing the large frame of Vyrin Andripov to the front, and then in seconds they were on their way.
The gunfire sounded again but seemed in two distinct bursts: one fairly close to them now and another far away.
Then came the screams.
“Faster!” Zhukov yelled.
The men began to sprint, determined to rescue their colleagues from whatever hell was being rained upon them.
In the next second, an ear-splitting screech came from just up ahead.
“The sonic device,” Zhukov remembered. Each man had one affixed to their belt. He thought at the time it was nothing more than a talisman or a joke being played on them by the Americans. But soon, he would see.
As they rounded a bend, there came gunfire that exploded rock chips back at them and the huge form of Yuri at the front flattened himself against the wall and held one large arm out to stop the advancing team.
“Cease fire, cease fire!” he yelled.
The gunfire shut off.
“Kapitan?” the shrill voice asked from the darkness.
“Shut off the screamer!” Zhukov yelled back.
The irritating screech stopped, and the men eased out to see a lone soldier jammed into a crevice, his back to the wall and gun barrel extending.
“Fradkov,” Zhukov said and turned about. “Where is Chaika?”
“They took him.” The young man put a hand over his face.
“What is that smell? Shit?” Vlad frowned.
“Get to your feet, soldier!” Zhukov roared. “Where is your partner?”
The young Russian stood. “They came out of the walls and dropped from above. Too many of them.”
The group shone lights above them for a moment or two, then brought them back down on the young soldier.
Zhukov ordered two men to keep watch above and their lights went back to the vast ceiling above them.
“Calm yourself.” Zhukov stepped right up in front of the young man, grabbed the front of his shirt, and shook him a little to focus him. “Tell us what happened.”
Fradkov swallowed. “We found some old clothing and caving gear, very old, maybe over a century old. Then we heard the woman. Or we thought it was the woman.” He grimaced. “Help me, she said.”
“You heard the woman? The American?” Zhukov shook him again as his eyes began to dart.
Fradkov nodded. But then shook his head. “We thought it was. Chaika wanted to check it out. But I wanted to wait until we had back up.” He swallowed again, noisily. “We came in here, this stinking place, but saw nothing. Until we looked up.”
His eyes went wide, and he gripped Zhukov’s forearms. “There was no woman. It was them. They were calling for help. Tricking us.”
“Who?” Zhukov shook the man and his face contorted in distress. “Make sense. Who was calling for help?”
“The creatures. The dog people, like skinned dogs with the faces like gargoyles. They were everywhere. So many of them.” He shook his head and shut his eyes. “They took Chaika away. I heard him screaming.”
Zhukov pushed the young man off his arms, but Fradkov clung on.
“The sonic device, it worked. I turned it on and they fled,” Fradkov almost pleaded.
Zhukov looked at the young man for a moment more before turning away. “So, it seems the stories are real.”
“And the woman is not,” Vlad added.
The group stood in silence for a moment or two until it was broken by his second-in-command. “If the woman is not real, then…?”
“We don’t know that, yet,” Zhukov replied. “And we still need to find our man, and quickly.”
Zhukov turned to seek out Viktor Sobyanin. “Mr. Sobyanin, find my missing soldier.”
Each man had swallowed a small capsule that contained a small tracking device before departing. The device would stay in their system for up to a week, as they were designed to loiter in the alimentary system before being finally excreted.
Sobyanin held out the tracker and it showed each of the team members signified by a red dot and an identifying code. By entering Chaika’s unique code number, they could just focus on him.
“Got him,” Sobyanin said while staring down at the small, illuminated screen. “He’s still on the move. But not far away.”
“This may work in our favor,” Vladimir said.
“I know. If the things have him, then maybe they will take him back to where the woman is.” Zhukov circled a finger in the air. “Mr. Sobyanin, plot our course, and Mr. Ludzkov, you are promoted to point man.”
Zhukov faced the still-trembling Fradkov. “And you pull yourself together. We have work to do. Let’s move, double-time,” Zhukov said.
The group ran on into the caves.
***
Deep in the caves, it felt the vibrations from the trampling boots of the men. Its fifty-foot-long body pressed against the walls of the cave that were covered in a lubricating mucous. Tiny hairs prickled as they passed the vibratory signals back to the creature’s brain stem.
Movement meant food, which was hard to come by in the deep caves. Its bulk surged forward, sliding as it pulsated forward using a peristaltic motion.
The monstrous nematode was little more than a mouth on the end of a giant pipe of muscular flesh. But it and its kind had lived in the dark depths, miles below the surface, for millions of years. And they lived solely to eat and reproduce.
The vibrations were coming closer. It increased its speed to catch its next meal.
CHAPTER 09
Mike Monroe, Jane, and Matt sat across from Janus in the Sikorsky SB1 helicopter. Mike thought Jane looked tired, or pissed, or both. He guessed it was understandable on both counts as they had just come off a high-speed jet into Guam, and then been ushered straight onto this chopper. Plus, he knew she didn’t want either of them to be here. Truth was, if circumstances were different, he would have made sure they’d both run a mile. But circumstances weren’t.
She caught him watching her and her mouth quirked up a little at the side and she shook her head. He could tell what she was thinking—for months, she had wanted him to be more active and not retreat, but this wasn’t what she had in mind.
He loved her so much he was prepared to do anything to save her, and if that meant traveling back to hell to find that medicinal compound, he’d do it a thousand times in a thousand lifetimes.
He looked across to the young professor. Matthew Kearns was their puzzle solver. Mike figured that if Katya wasn’t alive—and how could she be—then they couldn’t waste time trying to find out how and where the salve came from. Speed was the key, and Kearns was their shortcut.
Kearns looked up and gave him a goofy smile. Mike nodded in return. With his long sun-bleached hair, he looked like someone straight out of the surf. But Janus had shown him the guy’s background report, and he was one of the sharpest linguistic minds on the planet.
Mike sat back. They had a good team and plenty of brainpower. He glanced out the small window. Now to meet the muscle.
***
The helicopter was whisper-quiet, and their destination was a ship already over the Mariana Trench. Supporting their vessel was the USS Bainbridge, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.
In another half hour, they were preparing to be lowered to the deck of their ship. It was unusual in that it was extraordinarily large, and Janus had told them it was for launching underwater vessels.
“Military?” Jane asked.
“Yeah, one of the new line of vessels owned by our naval forces but not exactly broadcast. It’s designed to covertly launch prototype DSVs with the advanced propulsion systems.” He turned and grinned. “Of which we get to trial two of the latest models.”
“Prototype DSVs?” Matt Kearns asked. “They’re safe?”
He chuckled. “Yep, safe as all DSVs traveling to over 35,000 feet are.”
“Modern submarines are fairly reliable,” Mike said. “But as there can still be accidents, if they happen at depths, well, you can’t exactly get out and walk away.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Matt replied glumly.
“They’re the future of warfare, at least naval warfare. While the missile and missile-defense systems are crossing swords in the air, below the water, DSV craft will be seeking to advance positions at all depths.” Janus turned. “The faster and deeper we can go, the better we can hide.”
In several minutes, they were hovering over the ship. Matt was strapped into the drop harness first and gave a small salute as he was lowered away.
Jane watched him drop and thankfully there was little breeze, so the harness and tether didn’t swing at all.
“Hard to believe,” Mike said and turned to her.
“What is?” she asked.
“That below us is the deepest water on Earth.” He stared down at the blue water. “You could drop Mt. Everest in there, and it’d still be nearly a mile and a half below the surface.”
She looked back at the warm, azure water that seemed so calm on the surface. It was deceptive, inviting almost, but something had been coming up from the deep water and attacked ships, and for all they knew it was the same thing that had been dragging vessels down for centuries.
The idea of it filled her with dread, and she couldn’t trust her own sanity for coming back. “We know it hides a lot more than just deep water down there.” She turned to him. “Don’t we?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “Yeah, we do.”
She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “In a few days, it’ll all be over. And I’ll have saved you.” She smiled.
“That’s weird, ‘cause I thought I was saving you.” He grinned, took her hand, and squeezed it.
Matt reached the deck, was grabbed, and then quickly unstrapped from the harness. It was then immediately hauled back up.
“Who’s next?” Janus asked.
“Ladies first,” Mike said quickly.
“My hero.” She laughed. “Piece of cake. Besides, this is the easy part.”
Jane sucked in a deep breath as the harness arrived. In seconds more, she was strapped in and her experience in caving and mountain climbing meant she secured the straps herself. She nodded to the winch operator, winked at Mike, and then stepped out.
Heights never bothered her. How could they and she still be a caver when she had dropped down rifts in stone walls that were half a mile high, free-climbed vertical peaks in Colorado, and of course, floated down gravity wells that dropped for tens of thousands of miles.
As she neared the ship’s deck, she felt her excitement kick up a little. She didn’t want to go, and oddly, now she did. Many people led lives that were unremarkable and when they left this world, a few days later no one even remembered them or what they did. She didn’t want to be like that, and she knew neither did Mike.
She guessed they were both hostages to their curiosity and spirit of adventure. She remembered an old saying by the legendary actress, Mae West: You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
She smiled, liking the sentiment. If she could leave this planet after doing something good, then her life had been worthwhile.
As she touched down on deck, she was roughly grabbed and hands quickly unbuckled her. Even though she was vastly experienced, she knew the drill—get it off and get away quickly. The worst thing that could happen was while you were half in, half out of your gear a sudden gust of wind shifted the chopper, just a few feet. But the tug and jerk on the line could be enough to catapult you over the side or lift ten feet in the air to then drop like a sack of sand to the deck.
She joined Matt, whose eyes sparkled with excitement. He bumped fists with her and then pointed to a group of military men watching them and raised his eyebrows.
“Our fellow crew members?”
Jane looked across to see the brutally fit-looking crew. There were a few women among them, and they looked as rugged as the men. The group stood with arms folded, scrutinizing the pair as much as Jane and Matt did to them.
“They look tough and competent,” Matt said.
“They better be,” she replied.
The pair then shielded their eyes and watched as Mike first then Janus were lowered to the deck. As Janus finally touched down and then was released, he turned to give the chopper a thumbs up. Its nose dipped for a second in salute and then turned in the air and headed northeast, back to the Guam base.
An intense-looking man with a thin, straight nose with a dent in it halfway up that was obviously evidence of a former impact he hadn’t bothered fixing approached them. He was dressed in combat trousers and T-shirt that displayed a formidable set of arms.
Janus nodded. “Captain Loche.” He turned to Mike and Jane and thumbed over his shoulder at the squad. “Captain Loche and his team are Navy SEALS on loan to our mission. Joshua here is English, but don’t hold that against him.” He sniggered.
Loche’s eyes slid to Janus for a moment and then returned to their group, appraising each of them.
Janus then pointed from Jane and Mike to Matt. “This is the pair I was telling you about: Mike Monroe and Jane Baxter. Also, the eminent Professor Matt Kearns of Harvard University.”
The man looked at each, continuing to scrutinize them down to the bone.
“Joshua Loche.” His voice was deep and with the British accent still running through it. He smiled and held out a hand to shake. “I’ve read your files. I must say it’s going to be a pleasure working with you.” He eyeballed Jane and Mike. “Especially you two. Your experience with the inner world will be invaluable for the mission ahead.”
“We have files?” Jane scoffed. “Then I hope in real life we can live up to our profiles.”
“We’ll know soon enough.” Loche turned to Janus. “Craft and crew are ready and awaiting your orders, sir.”
Sir? Jane was a little surprised. Seems the little guy does pull some weight here.
“Good,” Janus replied. “Final briefing and then we can launch immediately after.”
“I’ll gather the team in the mess hall,” Loche said, saluted and headed off.
“You’re military? You have rank?” Matt asked.
Janus shrugged. “Yes and no. I’m not military, but this operation is primarily military-based. Overall, the project management and leadership is being overseen by us four.” He tilted his head. “In fact, they report to all of you as well. We’re more than just advisors here, Professor.”
Janus pointed. “Let’s grab a coffee, meet the team, and then get ready to jump.”
“Jump?” Jane laughed softly. “Yeah.”
The mess in the large ship was a good-sized hall. The usual crew carried on their duties, but they were easily distinguishable from the large and fit-looking SEAL team members that now crowded the room.
Janus poured them each a coffee from the large urn into mugs with a naval crest on them. He poured himself one, and then walked to the front of the group as he sipped.
Jane was impressed by his calm demeanor and air of a
uthority among the much bigger soldiers. Even though he wasn’t military, it was obvious to the team that the small, dapper man was in charge. At least up here.
Janus put his coffee down on the table in front of him and looked along the faces of each of them. A small smile formed on his lips. “Today is the day.”
The room silenced immediately.
“I expect the submariner crews to have read their briefing report. Some of you may not believe it, but you better be ready for it.”
He briefly turned to Mike and Jane. “With me, as expected, is Professor Matthew Kearns, one of the, if not the, leading paleolinguists in the world today—that means he can speak or read over a hundred and fifty languages, live or dead. If you like, Matt will be our spokesman if that’s what we need.
“Also, we have Mike Monroe and Jane Baxter, who recently returned from the center of the Earth. And importantly, have encountered and engaged the, ah, adversary, we may encounter.”
There were murmurs and nods of greeting.
Janus then half turned so he could face the soldiers, as well as Mike, Jane, and Matt. “Let me introduce our military members who, with you, will make up the Mariana Trench Mission team. You’ve already met Captain Joshua Loche.” He smiled. “He’ll happily answer to captain, Josh, or Loche.”
Loche gave them a small, friendly salute.
Janus turned back. “Then we have lieutenants—Maxine Archer, our chemist, who will be assessing the viability of any compound we recover.”
Jane noticed the blonde crewcut woman. Even though she was a scientist, she was still quite formidable looking, and she gave them a casual nod.
Janus continued. “Our other dive master is 2nd Lieutenant Nina Masters, second-in-command to Captain Loche, and an anthropologist.” Janus turned to Matt. “I expect she’ll be of great value to you, Professor, if or when we find the race of indigenous folk down there.”
The black woman smiled at Matt. “It’s an honor, Professor Kearns. I read your work on the proto-Sumerian alphabet—it was riveting.”
A few of the other soldiers groaned, but Matt looked delighted to have a like mind on the mission.
“Thank you, Nina.” He grinned and returned her salute.
