by Michael Bray
“Ahh, so he did die. I always wondered if they moved him on, perhaps changed his name and sent him to a new project.”
Rainwater shook his head. “No. He thought he could control this thing. Thought he could handle the pressure of trying to capture it. Problem was, when it all started to fall apart and unravel, he unraveled with it. By the end, he was a broken mess. You might want to keep that in mind.”
Decker’s eyes burned into Rainwater, the friendly atmosphere now replaced with a heavy, underlying tension they could all feel. “You were there when he died?”
Rainwater nodded.
“What was it like? Forgive the morbid nature of the question, but this has been a piece of the puzzle which has been missing for some time.”
Part of him didn’t want to go there again. He didn’t particularly enjoy dragging out those particular skeletons. It was those that made him want to return to the tempting embrace of alcohol. However, he thought that Decker might benefit from knowing the potential magnitude of what he was attempting to do. “It was like the rest of that damn trip. Blood. Screaming. Death. Fear. In the end, he got what he deserved, dragged under and drowned by one of those things that he was so desperate to catch. Funny thing is that even in the end, I don’t think he really understood what was happening to him. I sometimes wonder about it, if he went to his death still thinking he was in control.”
“Fascinating,” Decker whispered.
“Not really. Not when you were there. Sitting here on this expensive boat, warm and sipping drinks, it’s easy to forget what it was like. It’s a different story when you’re out there in the cold, watching friends and innocent people die because of him and wondering if you’ll be next. You go to a place that’s worse than fear, if that makes sense. A different level where you start to accept that you are going to die, it’s just a question of when. Screwing around with these creatures, doing what you’re doing might seem like you’re in control, it might seem like you’re doing your part to advance science, but it always ends the same way.”
“You’ll see, I’ll take you out to the facility, show you it in person.”
“No thanks.”
“Wait,” Jade said, interjecting. “Are you saying you’re willing show us the lab where they are being cloned?”
Decker nodded. “Of course. As I said, I have nothing to hide. No secrets, no locked doors or secret agendas, just a thirst for advancing science.”
“No. We’re leaving, right now.”
“Henry, wait,” Jade said as Rainwater stood.
“No,” he snapped, shrugging free of the grip she had on his arm. “This always ends the same way. People always think they’re in control, but people always die. People always make mistakes.”
“Not me, Mr. Rainwater.”
“Yes you. No matter how much you say otherwise, it will end the way it always does. To be honest, I’ve been through too much to go through it again. If the rest of you want to stay, that’s up to you, but I’m leaving.” He exited the boardroom and made his way to the upper deck, hoping that the dramatic exit would let the others see how much he meant it. He went upstairs, planning to wait there until they caught up, then stopping when he got there, unable to quite believe what he was seeing. The dock was already some distance away, a series of lights on the horizon as the boat moved out to sea. He heard someone climbing the steps behind him and knew it was Decker.
“Trust me, Mr. Rainwater. You’ll feel better when you see it for yourself. It will convince you that this is all under control. You have my personal assurance that it is completely safe.”
“You brought us out here against our wishes.” Rainwater was angry, and it took all his effort not to punch Decker in the mouth.
“No. We set out to sea as we always planned to do. You just happened to have hidden away on our vessel. Besides, your friends seem interested to know all about it. Maybe, under the circumstances it might be good for you to see it too.”
Rainwater turned to face him. “Take me back. I don’t want this no matter what you try to say to convince me.”
“We can’t go back now. I have a very strict timetable that I have to adhere to. Please try to trust me. Come and see for yourself and if you’re still unconvinced, I’ll transport you all back here first thing in the morning.”
“You don’t like to take no for an answer, do you?”
Decker shrugged. “I see it as having faith in my work. With luck, you will appreciate it for what it is when we get there.”
Rainwater turned back to the ever diminishing horizon, knowing that it was pointless to argue. “Looks like we don’t have a choice.”
Although Rainwater had his back to him, he could hear the smile in Decker’s voice.“Come on, let’s have a drink and I’ll gladly answer any more questions you have. The facility is actually quite impressive. I half wish you would have been able to see it in all its glory in the sunlight rather than at night when we will arrive. Either way, I’m sure you will see when we arrive that my intentions are good. You just might have to learn to trust me.”
Rainwater grunted, hoping Decker could see how annoyed he was. If he did, he ignored it. Instead, the billionaire grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, guiding him back towards the steps. “Come on, let’s go get that drink before you decide to swing for me.”
Declining to tell Decker how right he was, Rainwater allowed himself to be led away as the Incognito continued its journey into deeper waters.
CHAPTER TEN
TRITON SPIRE LOWER LEVEL
Pacific Ocean
Twenty six miles off the coast of California
Almost a mile beneath the pacific, Darrell Conway strode through the deserted corridors with only the steel walkways and overhead spotlights recessed into the structure for company. The current batch of resident staff had long since vacated to the upper floors to eat and relax after another long day. Conway, however had no interest in mingling with them. He was still frustrated and angry with Decker for brushing off his advice so flippantly, not to mention calling his ability into question.The initial excitement at working for someone as well-known as Decker had long since faded, and he had grown to hate the job and would give anything to be back at SeaWorld. He missed the sun, the pleasant atmosphere. Here, it was different. All cold steel and pipes, the impossible to explain feeling of knowing that his life was only a broken seal or faulty rivet away from ending if the structure were to be somehow breached and how the crushing pressure would cause his body to implode before he would even know what had happened. He always thought he would be fine working in such conditions. The idea of it had never concerned him, especially when Decker told him how much he would be paid for his services. Now that he was here and hadn’t been on any kind of shore leave for what felt like an eternity, he was close to telling Decker he could shove both his money and job where the sun didn’t shine.
He reached a steel door with a keypad at the side, and punched in his I.D number, the door sliding open to grant him access. Beyond was his prison, the room where he seemed to spend more and more time lately. It was oval in shape, the first quarter of the room reserved for a changing area with lockers and showers. Beyond was another steel door with a small mesh window. Beside the door, a sign warning against unauthorized access was painted in red on white. Conway ignored it and went to his locker, kicking off his shoes as he opened it. He dressed slowly, exchanging camo shorts and t-shirt for a charcoal and blue wetsuit. He hated the way it felt. It was too tight, too uncomfortable. He glanced at the roof, trying not to think of the crushing pressure of having over one thousand six hundred feet of seawater between him and blessed fresh air. Fully changed, he moved to the second interior door, again punching in an access code on the keypad at its side. The lock clicked open and he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The rest of the room was impressive, and no matter how frustrated he was with his employer, he always took a few seconds to appreciate it.
Decker had dubbed it ‘
The Nursery,’ which was as good a description as any. The ground beyond the door sloped away after twenty feet into a man-made lagoon, an indoor enclosure for the three fourteen-foot juvenile creatures which inhabited it. As impressive as the pool was, it still wasn’t the most impressive feature of the chamber. Unlike the rest of the Triton Spire which was made of four-inch-thick titanium, the entire roof of the nursery was open to the surrounding ocean, a dome made from steel framed Lexan, a highly durable polycarbonate plastic which offered both superb protection against the outside pressures and a glorious view of the deep Pacific Ocean. Although the structure was in the aphotic, or midnight zone where natural light didn’t penetrate, Decker had installed high-powered lights to the outer structure of the facility, giving a breathtaking view of the ocean beyond and the rest of the impressive structure, at least as far as the lights could reach before it was swallowed again by the black ocean. Much to Conway’s surprise, life was abundant, even in such a hostile environment. Anglerfish and giant squid routinely hunted at such depths, as did several other bioluminescent creatures which relied on creating their own light sources in order to draw in its prey. As Conway watched, a tripod fish flitted past the Lexan bubble, its twin spiny dorsal fins stretching like horns above its body before it moved away out of sight.
Out there, Conway reasoned, it was beautiful. Natural. A world in balance and run by nature in the way it was intended. He let his eyes fall to the manmade pool ahead of him, its black waters not betraying what lurked in its depths. In there, he knew, were things that were never meant to interact with man, and were certainly proving difficult to train. To the right was a small control room. From it, the thirty underwater cameras in the pool could be monitored, as could the trackers fitted within the creatures at birth. There were also controls for the filtration system and outer hatch, which when pressurized would allow access to the ocean via a sealed off canal build directly into the side of the pool. Outside the office door was a small table. Conway placed his radio and phone on it, then took one of the small trigger remotes from it and clipped it to the belt on his wetsuit. He found his eyes drifting to the control panel beside the desk, scanning the monitors showing the video feed from the lagoon. He could see them stirring, circling at the deepest point of the enclosure. They had taken to waiting there, all three together. He hated that. There was something about them, a knowledge or intelligence that made him uneasy. More than once he had considered pulling the release valve, opening the canal and allowing the creatures to go free into the world. Conway had objected to the canal and access door being constructed at all, arguing that it was highly dangerous. However Decker, as always, knew best. He had said he needed the canal so that after purchase, his buyers could safely transport their prizes to wherever they were to be taken. Decker had even had special submersibles constructed which could dock directly onto the outer hatch of the canal and receive the creatures when they were ready to be transported.
For as much as Conway would love to see the look on Decker’s face if his multi-million dollar assets were to swim past his office and out into the ocean, he wasn’t stupid enough to do it. He knew that out there, without the restrictions imposed by their current environment, they could grow to incredible size. A fully grown adult would come in at close to three hundred feet long and an astonishing six hundred metric tons. A single such beast would have a devastating effect on the world’s already fragile ecosystem, even without considering the impact three of them might have. It was something he wasn’t prepared to be responsible for. Instead, he would go on doing as he was asked, earning his money and let Decker deal with the consequences if things went wrong.
Even without the responsibility of what would happen if they escaped, he had already grown to hate those creatures. He knew they understood the training, that they were aware of the commands he had painstakingly taught them to follow, and yet they continued to disobey him out what he was starting to believe was pure spite. Today, he would show them that as big and powerful as they were, the human was still the most dominant species on earth.
Conway grabbed the trolley from beside the table and took off the brake, wheeling the huge blue plastic bucket towards the edge of the water before bringing it to a halt. As was always the case, he didn’t move. He stood there and waited. It didn’t take long. The wake rolled across the surface of the lagoon, spilling water up over its sides and back into the drainage grates at its edge. Three slick brown ridged backs broke the surface, then dipped back beneath the waves as they approached. Even as angry and disillusioned as he was, he couldn’t help be impressed by their scale and majesty. A rush of fear and adrenaline sharpened his senses as the first of them came, holding station in the water and waiting for him to feed them. This was part of the behavioral modification training he had been trying to implement in order to make them follow his commands. The idea was simple. Show the creature a behavior or give an instruction. If it was successful, the animal would be rewarded with food. If not, the units implanted into the backs of the creatures would be triggered by the control on Conway’s belt, giving the disobedient animal a small shock, teaching it by association that compliance resulted in reward, disobedience with pain. Only the largest of the trio of creatures was fitted with the shocking device. Conway’s observations had shown that it was the most dominant of the three, and its smaller siblings would comply if it did. Now they circled wearily some distance away. The larger male, however, showed little fear. Instead, it waited for Conway to do something.
“Hungry, aren’t ya, you little bastard,” he said, voice reverberating around the amphitheater like room. He took a scoop from the side of the barrel and used it to grab a nauseating portion of minced up fish, the stench of blood and guts still able to turn his stomach. He tossed the despicable concoction into the water, watching as the large male came to devour it, the others hanging back as always until their dominant master had finished.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the smell of that shit out of you clothes? Out of your skin?” he uttered. “Do you fucking animals have any idea what you’ve done to me by not doing what I tell you to do? I’ll show you. All of you.”
He activated the device on his belt, sending a violent shock into the creature, which bucked and whirled away from its meal, sending a huge wave of spray towards Darrell. He laughed, enjoying the show. The devices were connected to the tangle of nerves above the spine to ensure the most intense response. He knew it was wrong, and that he was only supposed to use the device in direct response to disobedience, he still didn’t care. He was angry and frustrated, and if he couldn’t take it out on Decker, he would take it out on the things that were stopping him from doing his job. He laughed and jolted the creatures again, pausing to toss more food into the water. The larger creature hesitated, circling with its kin, before making another cautious approach. This time, Darrell waited until it was about to take the food before he jolted it again, cackling as the creature jerked away and retreated to deeper waters. He shocked it again, and again, enjoying the show, enjoying the way the water frothed and churned as it convulsed.
“Stupid fucking animals,” he grunted, the anger, for the time being, gone. He waited for the water to settle, looking for the creatures but seeing only a flat calm. He stood at the edge, scanning the surface for them. It appeared in front of him, drifting up from the bottom and making itself visible. The large male broke the surface of the water, casting a black, emotionless eye on its tormentor. Human and animal locked eyes across the water, and suddenly the enjoyment in Conway was gone, replaced by an inexplicable icy fear.There was hatred in the creature’s eyes, and it hit home to Conway what was happening. He dropped the scoop and leaped back from the edge of the water just seconds before one of the smaller males breached the pool, lurching towards the space he’d just occupied and knocking the barrel and trolley over so its brethren could feed. The creature rolled back into the water, and Darrell laughed, a nervous gesture. He tried to convince himself they were onl
y looking for the food, even when the little voice in his head told him it wasn’t just the food they were after, but him too.
He looked out into the water, watching the creatures feed. All but one. The large male still hovered with its head out of the water, watching Darrell with its black hatred-filled stare. He had seen enough, not allowing himself to acknowledge the sick feeling in his stomach. He retreated to the safety of the locker room, deciding that both Decker and his creatures could wait. He needed a break, some time away from the disobedient games. Most of all he needed away from the big male. Even though he couldn’t see it, he could still imagine it staring at him with venomous intent.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE PENTAGON
Washington D.C
Tomlinson poured himself a drink, and then sat in his chair, looking around the office. Its eggshell-colored walls which were once adorned with photographs of his family were now bare, said photos packed away into boxes with the rest of his belongings. He sipped the brandy, then set the glass on the table and rubbed his temples. Although it was just an office, to him it was filled with memories. It dawned on him that when he first took it over; his children were only youngsters. Now, they all had children and families of their own. It was a sobering thought, and not wanting to think too deeply about it, he drained the rest of the brandy. A knock at the door disturbed his reminiscing.
“I heard you were leaving?”
“Come on in, Martin. I have a few minutes yet,” Tomlinson said, pouring another drink. Andrews complied. Like Tomlinson, he too was in transition to other things. Tomlinson waved a hand towards the seat opposite and Andrews sat. “Weird, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
