The Labyrinth of Minos (A Carter Devereux Mystery Thriller Book 5)

by JC Ryan

  “Thank you for coming, Carter. I’m so happy you can understand me.”

  “You’re welcome, Merrybeth. Is there any word on your daughter?”

  “We can’t understand him, but I think we’ve seen the man who threatened her. He tries to communicate, but we can’t understand what he’s saying.”

  “Is he speaking the same language I am?” Carter asked. He’d never thought to ask if the dolphins could understand other human – land-human – speech, or only English, and why English? He struggled to focus. It had been a long day.

  “Yes, I think so. He’s wearing something over his face, and the sounds don’t sound the same underwater.”

  “Can you lead him to the surface? Maybe I can talk to him.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Merrybeth disappeared, and night had fallen by the time she came back. “He would not follow me.”

  “I’m sorry, Merrybeth. What else did he do?”

  “He swam back to his boat. Carter, he can stay underwater longer than we can.”

  “He’s wearing scuba gear, right? The mask, and tanks?”

  “Just the mask, no tanks. We didn’t know land-humans could breathe water like fish.” She used the word for food.

  “We can’t. Merrybeth, I need to go to shore and talk to Mackenzie. I’m sorry, but we can’t do anything more until the sun comes up. Will you be okay?”

  “I will be okay, Carter. I don’t know if my daughter will.”

  “I understand. We’ll be back as soon as it’s light enough to see.”

  THE NEXT MORNING, when they found Merrybeth at the same coordinates, Carter was surprised to see something in her mouth. On closer inspection, it was a sealed plastic bag, with a piece of paper inside. She swam close to the boat and let him take it from her.

  “The bad man was here,” she said. “He gave me this. I think I’m supposed to give it to you.”

  Carter opened the bag and started to pull the note out. At the last second, he remembered some of the things he’d learned while working with MI5 and MI6. He pulled on a pair of neoprene gloves that went with his dive kit, and gingerly pulled the note out of the bag.

  I saw you talking with this dolphin yesterday, it read. I have a dolphin who would not let me pass when I wanted to explore an underwater cave. She is safe for now, but I couldn’t get into the cave. If this one will lead me to a place where I can get in, I’ll release the other one.

  “What the hell?” Carter said out loud. “This doesn’t make any sense. A dolphin guarding a cave? He kidnapped her? Who the hell is this guy?” His question went unanswered, of course.

  “Merrybeth, this says that the man has another dolphin. Is anyone else missing, or is he talking about your daughter?”

  “No one else is missing, Carter. I’m sure he means my daughter. He will let her go?”

  “He wants you to lead him to a place where he can enter some kind of underwater cave. He couldn’t get in where your daughter wouldn’t let him pass. What’s that about?”

  Instead of answering, she disappeared from the surface and didn’t return. What the… maybe she’s gone to find him and lead him where he wants to go, Carter thought.

  While he waited for her return to tell him her daughter was safe, Carter decided to call Mackie and update her on the strange goings-on. She answered after only one ring.

  “Carter! Oh, I’m so glad you called! I’ve been so worried!”

  “Hi, babe. Listen, this is really strange. When I got out here this morning, Merrybeth brought me a note sealed in a plastic bag. Believe it or not, it was a ransom note! The guy saw me talking to her last night, though come to think of it, I didn’t see him, so… Well, anyway, he wants Merrybeth to lead him to a place where he can get into an underwater cave. Seemed to think Carmen was guarding the entrance? Says he has her and will release her when Merrybeth does what he wants.”

  “So, is she going to do it? Why would Carmen be guarding a cave?”

  “You got me there. I have no idea. And I guess she’s doing it right now. As soon as I told her what the guy wanted, she disappeared under the water. Didn’t say anything, just submerged. She hasn’t come back.”

  “That’s odd. She’s usually very polite. She did something like that when I was talking to her at the site. Before she answered me a couple of times, she dipped under the water. I assumed she was hot and needed to cool off. The sun must be brutal on the water this time of year.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “You’ll stay until she reports in? I want to know for sure that Carmen is safe.”

  “Yes, dear. I want to know what this whole thing is about. I’ll stay until I can ask Merrybeth what’s going on.”

  14

  CARTER DIDN’T HAVE long to wait. Merrybeth was back within fifteen minutes after he ended the call with Mackie.

  “Carter, I must tell you something.” She didn’t wait for an answer before dipping underwater and then coming back up immediately.

  Here it is, he thought.

  “Go ahead, Merrybeth. What do you have to tell me?”

  “We have knowledge we must not tell land-humans.”

  “A secret?”

  “Secret. That is a good word. Yes, we have a secret. But I must tell you now, before my daughter is killed.” She dipped under again.

  Carter wondered if the dipping behavior indicated nervousness or something worse. Were dolphins capable of lying? He wasn’t an animal behaviorist, but he knew primates, especially chimps, were. Before he’d read that, he would have said only humans could lie. Land-humans, that is, he thought wryly. He hadn’t quite made the leap that Mackie had. He still thought of the dolphins as highly intelligent animals unless he made a conscious effort to include them as another race of homo sapiens.

  Merrybeth returned. If Carter hadn’t known better, he’d have thought she was acting as if she were ashamed.

  “Forgive me, Carter. This is very hard for me. We have kept our…secret… for countless suns. There is something very bad in this cave. Very bad for land-humans. Many, many, many suns ago, one of our kind lost his best land-human friend to this bad-thing. We have guarded the cave since then, to keep land-humans safe.”

  Carter listened with growing disbelief. What could possibly be in there, and after so many years? He despaired of getting an accurate idea of how long she was talking about, or a reasonable description of what she was talking about. The dolphins’ vocabulary, though rich in words for their undersea life, lacked variety for the world above.

  They knew things like boat, and they were quick studies. You could show them an object, name it, and because of their ansible communication, dolphins around the world would suddenly have the word in their vocabularies. But if they couldn’t see a thing from their watery homes, they didn’t know what it was.

  “Merrybeth, can you tell me what this bad thing is? Is it a weapon?” He was thinking of the ancient nuclear weapons the dolphins had helped him locate.

  “No. It is a living thing.”

  “A man? A land-human?”

  “It looks like a man, but the head is wrong. We do not know of land-humans who tear apart and eat other land-humans.”

  Merrybeth broke off and swam in a quick circle. “It is a land-shark!” she whistled, leaping from the water.

  Carter’s mind went to a clip he’d seen of a comedy TV show, and the opening notes of an old movie. He swallowed the bubble of laughter the word evoked. Merrybeth’s excitement wasn’t about humor – the circumstances were too serious. She was happy to be able to describe what he could only imagine as a monster. But he seriously doubted it was a human with the head of a sh…

  “Wait! This is Crete!” he shouted. He quickly drew an image of a human with the head of a bull on the whiteboard they had for this sort of communication issue with the dolphins. “Merrybeth, does it look like this?”

  She swam closer and eyed the drawing, twisting from side to side like they did when shown a mirror. “Yes, something like that, Cart
er. More hair, and darker. Longer pointed things, and they curve.”

  Carter made the adjustments to the beast’s horns and hair. “Like this?”

  “Yes. Very much like that.”

  Carter turned the whiteboard, so he could examine what he’d drawn. It couldn’t be true. That was just a myth!

  “Merrybeth, how long has it been since your kind saw this thing?”

  “Many, many, many, many, many…”

  “Okay, I get the picture. So, maybe it died?”

  “It did, or it didn’t, Carter. But what about its offspring? We cannot let our land-human friends be eaten by these land-sharks.”

  “Uh, Merrybeth, I think what it’s called is a Minotaur. And if what you say is true, then I need to tell my leaders about it. But what about Carmen? Will you lead the bad man to the cave? If the Minotaur eats him, then all your problems are solved.”

  “What if the bad man releases the Minotaur instead?”

  Carter was grateful the translation device had made the adjustment. He was sure Merrybeth had said land-shark again, and he wasn’t certain he could hold it together if he kept hearing that. The music from that shark movie was still underlining his thoughts, too. His mind raced like an out-of-control railway engine. This was a matter for A-Echelon. But the moment they became involved, he’d be ordered to find any evidence that the story Merrybeth told was true. And her daughter’s life would not take precedence over that order.

  He owed Merrybeth an answer.

  “Let us worry about that, Merrybeth. Lead him there so he’ll release Carmen.”

  Merrybeth wagged her body in the dolphin equivalent of no. “I will deceive him, Carter, while you and Sunhead form a plan. We trust you.”

  Carter’s heart sank. He’d be letting Mackenzie down as well as Merrybeth if he didn’t figure out who this guy was and what he wanted with the Minotaur.

  “Be careful, Merrybeth. We don’t want to lose you or your daughter. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Merrybeth turned on her side, one flipper in the air. She must have learned that from some of the ‘trained’ dolphins. She was waving him goodbye.

  He ordered the boat back to shore. For this, he’d need a secure line. And a private place to talk. Anyone who heard what he had to say would call the funny-farm squad on him, and he’d be locked up as delusional.

  An hour later, he reached Irene O’Connell. “Irene, are you sitting down?”

  “What is it, Carter? I’m busy. How’s London, by the way?”

  “I’m not in London. I’m on Crete. You’re not going to believe this.

  15

  AHAB WASN’T PARTICULARLY pleased that Carter Devereux had shown up, but it did give him the opportunity to talk to the dolphin. He’d been worried she would give away his presence under Devereux’s boat, but when he realized she was the mother, he understood. She was distracted. Maybe she didn’t even see or hear him, hidden among some ancient submerged shoreline debris. This whole area must once have been above the water line.

  The new information gave him an idea. He’d never thought of enjoying his peculiar entertainment with an animal. He needed to see the terror, the effects of pain, the progression from fear of death to its final acceptance. Hearing the conversation between Devereux and the dolphin, though, gave him a better understanding of the dolphin’s intelligence. They, the mother and the daughter, would understand death. He was curious to learn if they feared it like humans feared it.

  Land-humans, he thought. What an odd way to refer to mankind. Or did she mean something else? And how clever of the dolphin to describe the Minotaur as a land-shark. Ahab had no knowledge of American popular culture, and wouldn’t have known so old a reference if he had.

  Granted, Devereux’s involvement meant that Ahab’s target was now known. He’d have to get rid of Devereux somehow, before he revealed his own involvement. Devereux was smart – he’d put it together.

  But before any of this could come to pass, he had to first find the Minotaur. And the dolphin’s part of the conversation had given him renewed hope that he’d find one or more still living in the cave. The rising of the sea or subsidence of the land, or both, must have cut off entry, allowing the species to survive in the Labyrinth all this time. He wasn’t sure how, or how many there could be by now, but he was more excited than ever to find out.

  For the first time, he began to hope that he could have both his fantasies – the fame of the discovery that it hadn’t all been a myth, that the Minotaur literally existed, as well as being able to secretly own and control one in some remote location.

  He’d heard Merrybeth’s intention to stall him, though. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He didn’t know who Devereux meant by his ‘leaders’, but he couldn’t let anything interfere with his research. Now that he knew those squeaks and whistles were truly language, he’d turn up the heat a bit on the mother.

  What he needed wasn’t among his equipment. The dolphin female was stashed in a place where no one would find her, and he’d kept her sedated, so he could handle her. He’d be sure she was out for another few hours while he went to the mainland for underwater recording equipment, and then he’d let her wake up.

  Not only would he have a way to ensure the mother’s prompt cooperation, but it would be the beginning of his death experiments on dolphins.

  As he drove to Heraklion from his base at Chania, Ahab tried to think of what he could record the young dolphin enduring to force the mother to give up the secrets she and her ancestors had guarded. It wasn’t as if the dolphins had many appendages to give up, like the fingers and toes he’d cut off one at a time if he were dealing with a human parent. And what was this business about ‘land-humans’? What did that mean? Was he to believe that half-human, half-fish people, like mermaids, were real, too? That maybe a race of sea-humans existed? That the dolphins may be the go-betweens between people and creatures long thought to be mythical?

  He rejected that notion as too ridiculous. The Minotaurs would be enough to cement his fame among archaeologists. If he then began looking for mermaids, he’d be laughed out of his college. He returned to the problem at hand. He could shock the young dolphin, of course. The stun gun could be set to various levels of current. He’d begin with that, just enough to make her plead for mercy at first.

  If that wasn’t enough, he could keep her underwater. How long could she go without surfacing for air? He’d have to experiment. It wouldn’t do to accidentally kill her before the mother had led him to the Minotaurs’ habitat.

  Did the dolphins even know whether the Minotaurs were still alive?

  THE ENTERTAINMENT OF thinking of ways to torture a dolphin made the two-hour trip seem short. Ahab found his way to a camera store and used cash to purchase underwater recording equipment, thinking to disguise his intent. In truth, the store employees would think nothing of a tourist purchasing such equipment. The diving off Crete was world-famous.

  What the clerk noticed was the furtive manner of his customer.

  16

  CARMEN WOKE UP in a dark place. As she regained consciousness, she could feel cool water on her underside, but her back and dorsal fin felt dry. The realization brought her fully awake with a surge of fear. Where was she? Was she beached?

  Once she was fully awake, she realized she had some buoyancy. However, she couldn’t dive. She was in shallow water, just enough to keep her afloat but not allow her to submerge. It was then she became grateful for the darkness. If she’d slept for long in a place like this in sunlight, she would be near death.

  But where was she? The question returned with urgency when she realized that she also couldn’t swim to deeper water. Something like a net surrounded her and was under her. Fear surged again. Had she been caught by a fisherman? She’d heard stories of young dolphins being caught in giant nets along with tuna. But there didn’t seem to be anyone else here. Not even a tuna.

  Gradually, as her eyes adjusted, she became aware that it wasn’t completely d
ark. Something that gave off light was above her. At first, she thought it was stars, and she worried that soon the sun would rise, and she’d be in trouble if she couldn’t dive. Then she noticed there were far too many of the little points of light. The night sky was bright with stars, but not as bright as this. Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could see very clearly. She was in a cave.

  Memory flooded back. The bad land-human had struck her with his weapon! It had hurt. Carmen thrashed around wildly, looking for the bad land-human. He’d come from behind her before, and after he hit her, she’d gone to sleep. Carmen was confused. She wasn’t supposed to go to sleep in a fight. And she’d never gone to sleep so deeply that she didn’t remember continuing to swim.

  What had he done to her? Where had he taken her?

  Carmen had a funny feeling in her head. It was like she couldn’t hear anymore. Wait! She couldn’t! She couldn’t hear other dolphins, or the sounds of fish swimming nearby. That made her realize she was hungry. Without knowing it, she sent a distress call by ansible. To dolphins near and far, it would sound like ‘hunger, fear, lost’. However, her signal was so weak that it reached only a killer whale that was hungry itself. And even her giant cousin could not pinpoint the location of the signal. It went in search of easier prey.

  Carmen didn’t like the feeling in her head. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t hear anyone, and it scared her. Before she completely shook it off, she saw a shadowy figure blot out the points of light above her.

  “So, you’re awake,” the land-human said. Carmen could understand land-human language, a little. She didn’t have the experience her mother did, so there were many words she could not understand, but she understood those.

  “Help me,” she returned, in Dolphinese. “I need food. I need to dive. I need to find my mother.”

  “It’s no good squeaking at me,” the land-human said. “I don’t have a translation device, so I can’t understand you. I don’t care what you have to say anyway. I need to talk to your mother, too.” He made a noise that hurt her ears, and then said, “We’re going to have a little fun, Miss Dolphin.”