The Loch Ness Legacy

by Boyd Morrison

  ‘Thank you. See? A little compliment doesn’t hurt anyone now and then.’

  Pryor got a phone call.

  ‘Yeah? Uh huh. Okay, hold on.’ He looked at Zim. ‘It’s the captain of the Aegir. They want to know where they should meet us.’

  ‘Send him the GPS coordinates I gave you. Tell him to send the Zodiac to pick us up.’

  Pryor conveyed the plans and told the captain they’d be there in two hours. Before he hung up, Zim asked another question.

  ‘Have they been keeping an eye on the other ship?’ The Aegir had two men in the Zodiac observing an odd ship that had entered the loch the day before.

  Pryor relayed the question and after a long pause said, ‘They’ve kept their distance like you told them, watching with binoculars all morning, but they haven’t been able to figure out what they’re doing.’

  ‘Is it a fishing vessel?’

  ‘No. It’s like no boat the captain has ever seen.’

  ‘Have them record some video of the ship. I want to see it when I arrive.’

  Pryor gave the instructions and signed off.

  ‘What do you think Locke is up to?’ Pryor asked.

  ‘He’s going to have to assume Nessie is real and alive, just like we do. If he’s got Edmonstone’s journal, he has to be coming up with a plan for capturing the creature.’

  ‘I think it’s about time I hear your plan for destroying the creature,’ Dunham said.

  ‘I thought you trusted me to spend the money wisely.’

  ‘I did. Now I want to hear the rest of the story.’

  She already knew that Zim had paid a Norwegian crew more than a year’s wages to bring their whaling vessel over to Loch Ness disguised as a regular fishing boat. For that much money, the captain hadn’t asked any questions, even when he took on the remainder of Zim’s men as additional crew. Hunting minke whales in the Arctic Ocean was not only a rough business with hot and cold streaks, but because Norway was one of the only countries in the world still whaling, frequent run-ins with protesting ships made it even harder to catch their quota.

  The hundred-foot-long ship was small enough to get through the locks into Loch Ness. The Caledonian Canal, built almost two centuries ago, slices all the way from the North Sea through the four lochs making up the Great Glen – Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy – to its outlet just above the Irish Sea. Built as a bypass around the rough waters off the aptly named Cape Wrath, the canal could handle vessels up to 150 feet long, making it no problem to bring the Aegir through.

  ‘The whaling vessel was a nice idea,’ Dunham continued. ‘But if we find the Loch Ness monster, how are we going to destroy it?’

  ‘We’re not going to destroy it.’

  Dunham was flabbergasted. ‘What? All they need is a few ounces of flesh, and they can synthesize the antidote.’

  ‘I know,’ Zim said.

  ‘We have to make it so they can’t recover any part of the creature.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘If we don’t kill it, all of this has been for nothing!’

  ‘Calm down. I didn’t say we weren’t going to kill it.’

  ‘So we’re going to haul it up onto the Aegir and sneak it out of Loch Ness? That’s insane.’

  Zim was rather enjoying egging her on like this. They still had a long drive ahead of them, so he may as well be entertained.

  ‘You’re correct. If Alexa Locke’s video is accurate, then Nessie is at least thirty feet long. I think it would be difficult to smuggle something that big out of the area.’

  ‘Then what are we going to do? Just leave it there?’

  Zim smiled and nodded. ‘That’s exactly what we’re going to do.’

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Alexa was nauseated. Trying to read John Edmonstone’s jagged handwriting while swooping through the curves on the road to Loch Ness finally ended up being too much. When they reached the broad Glen Coe valley, she asked Tyler to stop the car at a scenic overlook so that she could decipher the journal without losing her lunch.

  She still felt guilty for freezing up back at Edinburgh Castle. Just yesterday morning, Alexa had never even seen someone die before, let alone killed anyone. Now that seemed so long ago. First, she’d watched the two men killed on the go-karts, contributing to the death of one of them. Then she’d actually done the deed herself. The sickening feel of the blade sinking into flesh made it seem like she’d crossed some unseen threshold that she could never step back over again. The responsibility of ending a life was more than she had been ready to bear, even if it had been in self-defense. All those thoughts overwhelmed her so much that she couldn’t finish Zim when she’d had the chance, and the remorse gnawed at her.

  Now Tyler’s reluctance to talk about his experiences in war made sense to her. In abstract, killing someone to save your own life or someone else’s might be a heroic deed, but reliving the carnage and celebrating the event wasn’t a prospect she would relish. If there were a pill she could take to completely forget that moment, she would swallow it in a heartbeat.

  She stepped out of the car to get some fresh air. Tyler and Brielle followed suit, while Grant stayed in the car to rest. Alexa walked over to a fence and leaned against it for support as she tried to calm her queasy stomach.

  Unlike cloudy Edinburgh, the canyon was awash with sunlight. The sloping valley walls, hollowed out by a glacier millennia ago, were painted green with grass and a handful of trees. The scent of earth and flora on the mild breeze bathed her in a revitalizing medley, spoiled only by the tinge of car exhaust from the multitude of vehicles traversing the pass through the rugged highland mountains.

  Tyler sidled up and leaned on the fence next to her. ‘How are you doing?’

  ‘The sandwich Brielle got me at that convenience store will remain consumed.’

  ‘I meant about the castle. I thought I’d lost you there.’

  Alexa massaged her temples to fend off a nausea-induced headache. ‘Do you ever get used to it?’

  Tyler shook his head, knowing what she was referring to. ‘Getting used to it implies it becomes routine. Killing someone is never routine. Not for me, at least.’

  ‘How many people have you killed?’ she asked and then immediately regretted the question when she saw the pained look on Tyler’s face.

  ‘More than I want to think about. I’m sorry you have to think about it now.’

  ‘But you do it anyway. You chose to go into the Army knowing you might have to kill people. Why?’

  Tyler was silent a long time before responding. ‘It was my job, my duty to a greater cause than myself. I guess the real answer is that I went into the Army despite knowing I might have to kill someone. Some of the soldiers under my command went into the military with a different attitude. They wanted to get into battle as soon as they graduated from boot camp. For everyone except the very few sociopathic recruits, that eagerness lasted until the first firefight. It was nothing like they’d expected it to be. Confusion, terror, and remorse had never been part of their idealized mental image of battle. After that initial experience, most of them just wanted their buddies and themselves to get back alive.’

  Alexa shuddered. ‘It sounds horrible.’

  ‘It is. Bloody, messy, and brutal. As you’ve seen first hand.’

  ‘I’ve always bragged about you to my friends as a hero, but I never really understood what that meant until now. You’re a hero for putting that uniform on in the first place, knowing the piece of yourself you’d have to give up.’

  ‘I’m lucky. Lots of guys I knew couldn’t let it go. For some reason, I can compartmentalize. I think that’s why I could eventually go on after Karen died.’

  ‘I hope I can do that, too. Compartmentalize it.’

  Tyler turned to face her. ‘I think you will. I don’t see the thousand-yard stare or the jitteriness that doomed some of my guys.’

  ‘Must be our Locke genes.’

  ‘You’ll be all right. But remembe
r I’m always around to talk if you need to.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She gave him a hug. ‘You, too.’ She felt like they had closed a distance between them, as if Tyler now trusted her with something she didn’t understand before. She couldn’t imagine him talking like this with Grant. Their way of communicating was more subtle, the jokes and macho posturing easier for guys like them to deal with.

  She stood up. ‘Let’s see what Edmonstone has to say.’

  They all got back in the car, and the others dozed or contemplated quietly while Alexa laboriously read through the journal looking for the relevant passages, carefully turning the singed and yellowed pages so as not to tear them. After thirty minutes of scanning, she finally found it.

  ‘Listen to this,’ she said, her heart pounding as she read Edmonstone’s notes to them.

  Mr Darwin and I returned from Loch Ness, and I hardly believe myself what happened. I’ve never been scared like that, not even when I was set free and had to fend for myself.

  We were camping on the east shore of the loch where Mr Darwin was collecting specimens. I spent my time hunting for animals to add to my taxidermy collection and fishing for our dinner. I caught some big salmon using the Guyana blue shark saltfish my cousin sent me as bait, and I think that’s what did it.

  We were coming back across the loch to start the journey back to Edinburgh. I was trolling for one last fish for the trip home while I rowed, and that’s when we spotted the beast for the first time. The wake it left behind was bigger than ours, and it slapped against the bottom of our boat to give me the biggest fright.

  I rowed with all my strength, but we couldn’t outrun it. Just in sight of Urquhart, it rose from the water like some great ghost haunting the dark waters. I only saw shadows until the beast attacked and Mr Darwin fought back. Using his ax, he hacked off a piece of the creature’s tail. I stabbed it with the only thing I had by my hand, a gaff hook, and lost it in the combat.

  The creature went under never to be seen again, and we made it to shore while I thought my chest would burst. The only thing we had to prove what happened was the fleshy bit Mr Darwin kept.

  On the trip back, we agreed never to speak of it – Mr Darwin to protect the wretched creature and me to keep my business. I didn’t think anyone would believe us even though Mr Darwin let me keep a piece of the beast. I knew it was the spawn of the devil as it wouldn’t die, but I kept it safe all the same because Mr Darwin asked me to.

  I don’t abide ever going to Loch Ness again, but if I do, I know what would bring the beast calling. This demon craved the taste of shark.

  Alexa looked up and saw Grant gaping at her.

  ‘Could it be that simple?’ he asked. ‘Shark is like catnip to the Loch Ness monster?’

  Tyler borrowed Brielle’s new phone to use its web browser. ‘According to this site, saltfish is a salt-cured and dried dish and was commonly eaten by slaves in the Caribbean in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because it was cheap and easy to preserve and transport.’

  ‘Why would a freshwater animal like shark?’ Brielle asked.

  ‘The Loch Ness monster may not be a strictly freshwater species,’ Alexa said, ‘although it’s now stranded in the loch. Shark may be one of its favorite foods, but it makes do with fish like salmon.’

  Grant looked dubious. ‘Don’t you think someone would have come across this affinity by now?’

  Alexa shook her head. ‘Not necessarily. I would never think of using shark as bait, and I’m sure few highlanders would either. The uncommon scent of shark meat might have been irresistible to Nessie. Sharks themselves can detect a few drops of blood in the water from miles away. Edmonstone’s trolling might have acted like an underwater beacon.’

  ‘Then it’s pretty apparent what we need to do,’ Tyler said. ‘We have to find us some pickled shark.’

  He called Aiden and laid out the unusual request. Aiden said he’d call back as soon as he had an answer.

  ‘This journal entry verifies everything,’ Brielle said. ‘Darwin did come away with a sample of the Loch Ness monster. His portion somehow ended up in the hands of the Nazis over a hundred years later, while Edmonstone’s half was flushed away by Zim today.’

  Alexa nodded. ‘If we can find Nessie again, an antidote is truly possible.’ She squeezed Grant’s shoulder. He looked at her in confusion and then read her eyes and knew that she was aware of his plight. He took her hand and laced his fingers with hers in a reassuring gesture.

  ‘How big did you say Nessie is?’ Brielle asked.

  ‘At least thirty feet long,’ Alexa said. ‘If the mass is commensurate, maybe over two tons.’

  ‘Are we able to catch something that big?’

  ‘We don’t have to catch it,’ Tyler said. ‘We only need a piece of it.’

  ‘And we can do that?’

  ‘We’ve got just the thing. I’ll show you when we get to Loch Ness.’

  ‘What did Edmonstone mean when he said that the “spawn of the devil” wouldn’t die?’ Grant asked. ‘Is it immortal?’

  Alexa scrunched her brow and looked at the relevant passage again. ‘You said that the Altwaffe acts by aging people prematurely,’ she said to Tyler.

  He nodded. ‘I’ve seen the effects myself.’

  ‘That can’t be a coincidence.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘The weapon must attack the telomeres in some way.’ When she saw blank looks, she continued. ‘Telomeres are nucleotide sequences at the end of each chromosome. As cells divide, these telomeres get shorter and shorter until they disappear, which means the chromosomes can no longer duplicate. That’s what happens when we get older. The telomeres deteriorate. If the Altwaffe destroyed the telomeres, it would replicate the effect of rapid aging.’

  ‘Biology was a long time ago for me,’ Brielle said. ‘How does that relate to Edmonstone’s observation about it not dying?’

  ‘If he saw something unusual in the tissue sample that he had – say tissue repair – then the Loch Ness monster’s body might have some way of regenerating its telomeres. Lizards and starfish can grow new tails and limbs after they’ve been amputated, so the Loch Ness monster may have a similar ability. Essentially, it wouldn’t age. The Nazis could have figured out how to reverse the process using the tissue sample from Darwin.’

  ‘Bastards,’ Brielle spat. ‘They had something that could help mankind, and instead all they did with it is create another way to kill.’

  ‘Except they were more interested in poison gasses for battlefield use or the extermination camps,’ Alexa said. ‘Altwaffe may have worked too slowly for their purposes, and that’s why they never used it.’

  ‘And all it took from the monster itself was a bit of flesh it probably re-grew in a few days,’ Grant said. ‘A week later you probably wouldn’t even see any scars. I have to say I like mine. They’re good reminders of what I’ve been through.’

  Grant’s words struck a chord with Alexa. They’re good reminders.

  Brielle’s phone rang. Tyler answered with, ‘What have you got, Aiden?’

  ‘Grant,’ Alexa said, waving her hands at him, ‘let me see your phone.’

  ‘Sure,’ he said, handing it to her. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘I have to check something.’

  She brought up her YouTube video and fast forwarded to the sighting of the monster. She played it three times, holding it as close to her eye as she could until she was sure she wasn’t hallucinating. She dropped the phone to her lap and stared at Tyler.

  ‘You’re the man,’ Tyler said into the phone. ‘Ship the package to Inverness airport. Brielle will pick it up there since I’m a known fugitive. I’m hoping the police don’t realize yet that she’s an accomplice.’ He hung up.

  ‘What package?’ Brielle asked.

  ‘Aiden found a market in London that specializes in food from around the world. They have twenty pounds of Caribbean blue shark saltfish. He’s getting an expedited shipment of the whole thing to Invernes
s in the next two hours. Then we’ll see if Edmonstone’s theory is correct or if we —’ He paused when he saw Alexa staring at him. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I think the cell regeneration theory is right,’ she said. ‘Look at this.’

  They huddled around the phone as best they could. Alexa played the video, which showed the surfacing flipper.

  ‘What are we supposed to be looking for?’ Grant asked.

  ‘The glint of light. It’s faint, but once you notice it, the outline becomes obvious.’

  Brielle squinted and then gaped as it was replayed.

  ‘Is that what I think it is?’ she gasped.

  Alexa nodded. ‘That’s a gaff hook embedded in the flipper.’

  She shook her head in disbelief at the revelation. They weren’t searching for a descendant of the creature that Darwin and Edmonstone had encountered. There was only one Loch Ness monster, and it was over two hundred years old.

  LOCH NESS

  WORLD NEWS

  Arab Countries Indicate War Is Imminent

  By PHYLLIS CROUCH and MARCUS THUNE

  June 22, JERUSALEM – As forces mass along the eastern and western borders of Israel, residents of this ancient city have flocked to the holy sites of the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, praying for a miracle to avert an invasion that seems nearly inevitable.

  With the leaders of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan rumored to be in intensive care, the more hawkish ministers in those countries have garnered support for a retaliatory strike against the perceived aggressor, the Israeli government. With the support of other Muslim nations whose leaders are also in dire straits and bolstered by new missile technology purchased from China and Russia, the armies arrayed against Israel are the most formidable they have faced since the Yom Kippur War of 1973 nearly drew the United States and the Soviet Union into a nuclear standoff.

  The massive military buildup has caused the United States to raise its threat level to the highest it has been since the 9/11 attacks. Countries in western Europe are undertaking similar preparations for possible terrorist strikes. Some analysts believe Israel may call on its allies if it fears being overwhelmed in an assault, which could draw the western powers into wider war.