by Greig Beck
“Holy shit, look at that sonar readout.” Cate whooped again. “The cavern above is only about a mile wide, but this body of water is not even returning a signal on two of its sides – it’s off the goddamned charts… and it’s deep. A few hundred feet deep here, but drops down thousands farther in.”
The water level that had been half way up the lens, and the only indication of something visual on their screen, bubbled for a moment, and things went dark – not solid black like last time, as there were still tiny flecks illuminated in the beams of the halogen lights.
“Dammit, we’re sinking,” Freddie groaned.
The rest of the readouts disappeared, and just the camera’s signal continued to send images that were strong enough to be received by the relay buoys high above it. But mostly there was silence and darkness with the occasional tiny glowing fleck scudding by.
“Look!” Cate’s loud voice was so sudden, it made Greg and Abby jump in their seats.
Her fists balled at her chest as she lunged forward, grinning madly. A tiny krill-like organism flicked itself past the screen. It looked like a striped slater bug, but its tiny arms rowed like a set of oars past them and continued on past their line of sight.
“Life,” Cate whispered.
“No big deal,” Greg said softly. “Many cave pools and underground lakes have some sort of albino shrimp or water nymphs. If we’re lucky, we might come across some tiny blind eelettes as well.”
“Yes, I know, but many of my esteemed colleagues who agreed there could be giant bodies of water hidden deep below the earth thought they’d be some sort of thick chemical sludge, and way too toxic to support life. But there it is, and notice something? That small creature has fully functional eyes, and is color banded. Means it can see and is subject to some sort of light source. We have no idea what the environment is like down here yet.” Cate turned. “Buzz’s sonar said there wasn’t even a return signal on some sections of the submerged cavern – do you know how big something has got to be, to not return a sonar ping?”
Greg rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, miles, I know.”
“Sixty thousand feet give or take.” Abby put her pencil down. “About twelve miles, before horizon drop.”
“Thank you, Abby, and that’s only where it loses strength. My satellite mapping has the thing charted at hundreds of miles – trillions of gallons of pristine seawater. That’s no lake, that’s an underground sea.” She sat back, feeling a dreamy light-headedness.
“Was this what you were looking for, Pop? This hidden sea world?”
“Cate, Buzz is fading fast; losing signal strength,” Freddie said in a rush. “And just as well I guess. I need to get home and thaw out my little bits before they all drop off.”
“Sure.” Cate slumped back, sighing. “I wish I was there.”
“About to lose image.” Freddie spoke distractedly as if he was focusing on something else. “Going to switch on all lights, as any remaining power is useless anyway. Okay Buzz, thanks for the show, and so long buddy.”
Immediately the dark water with the milky halo of light flared brighter and wider. More detritus snow filled the screen, and more scudding miniature shrimp. Cate half smiled, and began to sit forward, her chin resting on her palms, intent on savoring the last of the live images from the deep subterranean sea.
“Shit!”
Freddie’s yell burst from the speakers, and was like an electric shock jolting her from her seat, making Abby scream, and causing Greg to spray a mouthful of coffee onto the desk.
A cavernous maw opened in front of them, coming out of the stygian gloom like an express train, to gape wider and wider. There were flashes of white, and then the signal died. It didn’t just fade or whiteout, instead it was abruptly shut off.
The three of them sat in stunned silence for several seconds, mouths hanging open, and eyes round.
Cate shut her mouth and swallowed. “What… just… happened?” She got slowly to her feet.
“Did you fucking see that?” Freddie’s voice was several pitches higher. “Did you?”
Cate’s mouth worked but no words came.
“Yes, but what did I just see?” Greg also stood, his eyes going from the screen to Cate and then back.
“Did we just get sucked into another cave?” Abby frowned, her bottom lip pulled into her mouth.
“No, I don’t think so,” Cate said softly, feeling her scalp tingle. “I think, more like the cave came for us.” She turned to Greg. “I think we just got eaten.”
* * *
It was late, 9:00pm, and the university halls were empty save for the distant throaty roar of a vacuum cleaner in one of the other rooms.
Cate rewound and re-ran the drone’s footage over and over – enlarging, enhancing, and freeze-framing the images. When she had the clearest frame she could extract, she sat back in her chair, exhausted, but exhilarated, and stared hard at her result – the triangular shape, the serrations, the color, she knew what it looked like to her, but dared not give voice to her thoughts.
She wished there was some way to get some scale, but there was nothing to benchmark it against – the item could be an inch or a foot long. Still, it seemed to have swallowed Buzz whole, and the drone was nearly as round as a manhole cover. She folded her arms, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she weighed up options. Bottom line, she needed to be there. She also needed advice, and knew just the person she should get it from – Jack Douglas Monroe.
She hadn’t spoken to Jack for over three years. He had been her best friend, companion, confidant, and once lover – her face went hot as an image of them intertwined flashed into her mind.
At the time, she thought he was going to be the one. He was supposed to be the one, she thought. But he was never there; being a marine biologist he was forever out on the blue water somewhere. He had often wanted her to go with him, but, well, her own work and ambitions took precedence. She never went, even once. And then she saw the photos in the Spanish newspaper of the latest dive he was on, the new ray species he had found, and of course, next came the pictures of the bikini girl draped all over him. While she thought he was the one, seemed she was probably the one of the many.
She let her mind float her back on a daydream to that last time they had been together. She had invited him over, but not for what he had expected. Jack had turned up at her door with a bottle of wine, and his usual silly grin. She let him in, and he leant to kiss her but she turned away.
“What’s wrong?” he had asked, eyebrows up.
She had been ready, locked and loaded, and she strode to her desk, spinning her computer around that displayed the image of him and the girl on the boat. “Nothing’s wrong… if you think I’m an idiot.”
His face closed down, and he put the bottle on her desk. “That’s Angelina, she’s only a friend. A biologist who was working with me on—”
“I know what she as working on.” Cate quickly pulled up the woman’s Facefriend page, showing her posts about the dates she had with the tall and handsome American marine biologist. Cate spun back to him, folding her arms and feeling her anger rise to volcanic levels.
Jack saw it. “Oh, good grief.” He threw up his hands. “We had a few drinks; that’s all.”
“Bullshit.” Her arms tightened across her chest as though locking her fury in tight.
He shook his head. “No it isn’t, and you know what? I asked you to come, but you never did… in fact, you never do.”
“Lucky for you, it seems.” She loathed his deflections and his lies.
“This is stupid.” Jack’s brows snapped together as his own storm began to brew. “If you just wanted to vent, you could have done that over the phone.”
“Get out before I say something I’ll really regret.” She nodded to his wine. “And take your cheap booze with you.”
“Keep it. You can drown your sorrows, alone.” He spun, and headed for the door, slamming it behind him. She had saluted his departure by launching the bottle fr
om her window, missing him by mere inches. “Don’t come back,” she had screamed.
Cate titled her head back and exhaled long and slow through compressed lips as she returned to the present. In the blink of an eye, it was over. She hated him then. And then later hated herself for losing something she valued so dearly. Both of them had been too stubborn to reach out to the other, and then their roads split. She hadn’t seen Jack in years, but the ghost of their past love still haunted her. Her face went hot all over again, and she was surprised the old anger was still there.
Never, ever again, she thought. That was one bridge she had burned, blown up, and then buried a mile deep. She’d find another shark expert.
Cate saved the image of the tooth to her local drive, and shut her computer down. She stood and stretched, feeling the fatigue settle heavily on her limbs. She needed sleep; she needed to be sharp. Tomorrow there was one more person left to convince if she was going to get funding to enter that body of water before anyone else.
CHAPTER 2
Cate ended her presentation, leaving up the image of the tooth on the large screen behind her.
“All indications are it’s a mega predator, we think. In a significant body of water, deep below the surface, and sealed off from environmental interference.” She smiled confidently at her boss, Bill Harris, the only person in the room. “Imagine what this can tell us about climate change, evolution, and ancient species. This is what we’ve been looking for, Bill – proof of life – pristine, ancient life.”
Bill Harris had been the Faculty Head of Biology for twenty years, and been Greg and Cate’s boss for the last three. He sat stone still, his large hands clasped together on the desk before him.
“Certainly interesting.” He nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on the image.
She felt a knotting in her stomach. He wouldn’t meet her eyes – a bad sign. “Just interesting? It’s damn astounding is what it is.” She hiked the corners of her mouth up, trying to radiate enthusiasm.
He sucked in a deep breath, and then winced. “Yeeah, I’ll grant you, it’s probably a life form, but what you’ve shown me is indistinct, impossible to verify, and—”
“And I think it’s a whole world down there; untouched and waiting for us to explore. This could change our knowledge about everything. We need to get back there and do a full exploratory – before anyone else. I’ve put some basic numbers together.” She hurriedly turned to her computer and called up a spreadsheet. She spun back to him.
Bill had a single hand up. “I think that’s enough for today, Cate. Thank you.”
“If I get a modest draw down, a hundred thousand, I can assemble a team, and be up there within a month.” She knew she was beginning to talk too fast.
“Cate…” His sounded fatigued.
“Everything we find will have Stanford U’s name on it.” She was losing him.
“Cate… there is no funds to be drawn down on.” His expression was grave.
She felt deflated, and searched his face, looking for anything encouraging. There was nothing. “So, you’re saying, just not now, then?”
“No Cate, not now, and not ever, I’m afraid. There’s something else.” A muscle in his jaw twitched. “There’s no demand for evolutionary biology anymore.” He sighed. “I’m sorry; the board has already decided… we’re going to have to shut down your Department.”
* * *
Cate pushed open the door so hard it slammed into the wall, knocking out a chip of plaster.
“I knew it. The bastards.” She gritted her teeth.
“Well, that doesn’t sound promising.” Greg frowned.
“Bastards!” Cate repeated, feeling a tension headache coming on.
“Let me guess; budget cuts?” Greg had to jog to keep up with her.
“Budget cuts? More like fucking Cate and Greg cuts.” She banged a fist into her leg as she strode down the hallway, her face like thunder. People stepped out of her way, students and staff alike parting like the Red Sea before her. She pulled up, stopping so suddenly Greg banged into her back.
“Hey, what did you mean about Cate and Greg, cuts?” He tried to get in front of her.
“Nothing, like you said; budget cuts.” She couldn’t bring herself to tell him just yet that he was also out of a job. There had to be another angle she could pursue, and her mind worked furiously.
She clicked her fingers. “I’m an idiot; I should have said we were going to explore the effects of climate change on newly discovered species.” She went to turn around, head back into his office, but Greg grabbed her arm.
“Forget it, Cate. We should have known this would be low priority when there are dozens of researchers fighting for funding. Besides, a hundred grand was going to be well short of what we really needed. Think about it; we’d need to be there for at least a week, maybe more. We’d need an underwater camera on some type of submersible platform, new computer equipment, food, accommodation, flights, and on and on.” Greg sighed. “We would have been capital-light by a mile to begin with.”
Cate stood hands on hips, her eyes sharp. “Maybe, but it would have gotten us there… and gotten us there first.”
“No maybe. Definitely. And then we’d be spending days just filling out paperwork and reports. Stanford would own everything.” He began to turn away, but paused and then eased back. “You know what you really need? Some sort of sponsor, or funding partner, independent of the university.”
Cate straightened. “A partner?” she stared off down the hall, the gears in her mind turning again.
“Sure,” Greg said. “I bet Bill was onboard with the concept, but just doesn’t have the funds. If we…”
Cate turned so quickly, Greg flinched. “I could kiss you.”
“Uh, thanks?” he smiled, brows knitted.
She sped off, half turning as she went. “Meet you back at the lab. I’ve got to send someone an invitation they can’t refuse.”
* * *
Cate sat in the foyer of the gleaming silver spire that rose a hundred and ten floors above the center of New York City. She licked her lips and her hands gripped the armrests of the soft chair, and beneath her, her feet tapped insistently on the dark marble floor. The reception desk was like the floor – marble, and expensive she bet. There was glass and chrome everywhere, and on walls and pedestals there were works of art with small nametags underneath, each bearing the moniker of artists she had never heard of or could even attempt to pronounce.
She sighed, heart hammering in her chest. If the opulence was designed to make someone feel intimidated, it was sure working on her.
The person she had come to see was Valery Konstantin Mironov, a Russian-born businessman who didn’t exactly have a rags-to-riches story, rather a riches to even more riches story. He was one of the Russian oligarchs who made too many enemies in his homeland and decided to emigrate. The guy was worth billions and was now reputed to be the eighth richest man in the country. That made him interesting, but of little relevance to Cate. However, what did make him an outstanding person for her to seek out was his passion and hobby.
Mironov was the only person anywhere, anytime, to have a fish tank in one of his homes that was the size of two Olympic swimming pools. What made the tanks astounding was what he had in it – two coelacanths, the living fossil fish found in the Indian Ocean shallows and thought to have been extinct for sixty-six million years. The man’s hobby was fossil hunting, collecting, and anything to do with the Earth’s primordial past
Cate had sent the Russian a letter containing a polite request – all included with the film she had shot in the subterranean sea recently. She’d taken a risk sending proprietary university property, but she knew it was the only way to get his attention. And after all, as her grandfather always used to say in his letters, without risk there was no reward.
“Ms Cate Granger?”
Cate swung around at her name. The young woman was exceptionally tall with perfect cheekbones and eyes that were a luminous b
lue. She immediately made Cate feel like an ugly duckling. Another way to intimidate guests, she thought, beginning to detest Valery Mironov already.
“Yes.” She got to her feet, smoothing her jacket. “Professor Cate Granger.”
“Of course. I’m Sonya Borashev, Mr Mironov’s personal assistant.” She held out a hand that Cate shook quickly, noticing how calloused the tall woman’s palm was. She then she motioned to the private elevator. “Mr Mironov will see you now.”
Cate nodded, swallowed and followed the woman, noticing that every item of clothing she wore was designer and immaculate. She bet the woman’s pay as an assistant outstripped Cate’s own as a tenured professor by a country mile. But was Sonya happy? Cate wondered, her mouth curving into a smile.
“Ms Borashev, Valery Mironov; can I ask where you met him?” Cate looked away, expecting Sonya Borashev’s answer to be from some professional executive pool, while she waited for her name to go up in lights on Broadway.
“I was recruited by Mironov Enterprises five years ago,” Sonya said, slowing as they approached an elevator door. She stopped and turned. “Straight from Harvard, where I was majoring in physics.”
Cate suddenly felt even smaller beside the woman. Sonya smiled briefly and then nodded to the two men standing beside the elevator, who turned and both inserted a key into an identical slot either side of the doors at the same time. The doors shushed open, the car already waiting, and Cate and Sonya stepped in. Inside it smelled of lavender, wood paneling, and the tall woman’s expensive perfume.
As the car rose, Cate worked hard at slowing her breathing. She was already made nervous by the displays of wealth and power, and was determined to project confidence to Mironov, not some sort of freshman skittishness. The elevator glided higher without a sound and only a hint of increasing gravity. She shut her eyes for a moment, thinking over her pitch. If it failed, she had no idea what other options she might have.
Cate tried to think of something calming and immediately Jack Monroe’s face popped into her head. He always knew what to say. She sighed and opened her eyes, noticing Sonya looking down at her.
