Footprints of Thunder

by James F. David

  “Let me summarize the situation,” she said, plopping down into one of the visitors’ chairs. “You’ve broken into a private office, accessed a computer network you are not authorized to use—that’s theft of services, I think—and are in possession of sensitive information you’re not cleared for. And now you are impersonating someone with enough brains to be part of PresNet. Did I leave anything out?”

  “Yeah, I ate a package of Tic Tacs I found in Dr. Wang’s desk.”

  “Of course. I was wondering why I could get this close to you. I don’t suppose a busy lawbreaker like you has time to lend a hand to a lady? I had a proposition for you.”

  “You really shouldn’t make a habit of propositioning people.”

  “Hey, it keeps me from streetwalking.” Carrollee looked around the room. “Does Dr. Wang have a radio in here? No, then you may not have heard the news.”

  Emmett rocked forward. Had something new happened?

  Carrollee began. “First, there have been some ugly incidents at grocery stores throughout the islands. I drove by a Safeway on the way in and they’ve got police stationed all around it.”

  Even a big island like Oahu was overstocked with people and understocked with resources. Without supplies from the mainland there wasn’t enough food to last thirty days. Pineapple, sugar, and fish would only go so far among a million people. Gas and oil would dwindle just as fast. The implications of being cut off from supplies were staggering, and the consequences could be ugly. But they weren’t cut off completely, were they? Only interisland flights were still operating because of what had happened to the three flights from the mainland, but for how long? What of shipping? Emmett realized he needed to come back to reality.

  “You want me to help you get stocked up on food?”

  Carrollee briefly looked hurt, and Emmett regretted his suggestion. She was one of the most capable people he knew.

  “Not a problem. Richard’s navy, remember? But thanks for the offer,” she continued. “No, there’s another thing you might be interested in. You know how we thought Hawaii had been untouched by what happened? I mean by all the disasters. Well something strange has been drifting ashore. Mostly plants and a few dead fish. Nothing spectacular, but a friend of mine said it wasn’t the usual kind of seaweed and grasses. Thought you might like to come along.”

  “You need an astrophysicist?”

  “You don’t have to come, it’s just for company.”

  Carrollee made no attempt to leave and sat uncomfortably. Maybe there wasn’t chaos outside of the campus, but Emmett knew Carrollee, and he understood her request wasn’t for company, it was for safety, Emmett wasn’t a big guy, actually only five seven, so he wasn’t being asked to come along for muscle, only numbers. He realized he might need to make the same request of her one day.

  “How long will we be gone?”

  “A couple of hours, tops. You’ll be back to committing crimes in a jiff.”

  Emmett hesitated, turning toward the computer screen with the PresNet messages still displayed. This trip with Carrollee might give him something to put on the network, if he had the nerve.

  Emmett turned back to see her looking at him quizzically.

  “The computer will still be here when we get back. Besides, it’s not like you can use the network. You need a code to get on it.”

  Emmett tried to stay stone-faced, but he blushed slightly.

  “You didn’t break into the network, did you?”

  “Absolutely not. I found the code.”

  “Where?”

  “On the bottom of Dr. Wang’s chair.”

  “Her chair just happened to fall over and land upside down? Emmett, you’re shameless.”

  They took Carrollee’s car to the beach. Too busy looking for signs of looting or other potential danger, they didn’t talk much on the way. The stores they passed were untouched, however. A convoy of military vehicles on Kalanianaole Highway they took as a bad sign, and then realized they were becoming paranoid—military vehicles were common on the highway.

  Wailupe Beach turned out to look as serene and inviting as it always had to Emmett. It took him a few seconds to realize what was wrong. People were not on the beach but milling around in the park. When they pulled in the parking lot they spotted two squad cars, evidence that the police were guarding the beach.

  As they approached the beach Emmett realized there was an abnormal amount of debris there. A policewoman stopped them before they got to the shore. She looked Carrollee’s outfit over.

  “Sorry, beach access is restricted,” the policewoman said.

  “We’re from the university. We were called to come down and check things out,” Carrollee answered authoritatively as if the governor had called her.

  Emmett bit his tongue to keep from smiling and dug his faculty ID card out of his wallet. It was really just a glorified library card, but his name, picture, address, and official faculty ID number undoubtedly impressed the officer, who then examined Carrollee’s.

  “Thanks for coming, Dr. Chen-Slater and Dr. Puglisi. I can’t believe you got here so fast, but we appreciate it. We’ll be here if you need us.”

  The officer walked off. After she sealed the entrance to the park she came back with two shotguns and handed one to the other cop.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me, Carrollee?” Emmett asked.

  “No. I don’t think so. My friend called and said there was some unusual marine flora washing ashore. That’s all I know.”

  Carrollee lead the way down to the beach and immediately began examining the seaweeds, grasses, and other materials. Emmett saw only a dark green mass of smelly plants quickly dehydrating in the sun. Carrollee’s interest in the material, however, seemed intense.

  He watched in silence for a while, then announced abruptly, “Take a couple of samples, and let’s get out of here.”

  “Don’t rush me. We’ve only been here a few minutes. This is very strange. Take a look at these,” Carrollee said, pointing to four pieces of seaweed laid out on the sand. “These are all varieties of Laminaria. Laminaria is a kind of seaweed that attaches to the bottom with roots and then has one principal blade responsible for photosynthesis.” Carrollee pointed to the bottom of all four plants. Emmett noticed they all had similar rootlike ends.

  The tops of the plants were distinctly different. One looked like a fluorescent tube attached to a cord that ended in roots. One was a large flat blade that looked like a canoe paddle. A third had a long stem that ended in three clumps of whitish material that looked like cauliflower. The fourth had several thin strands that looked like elongated lawn grass.

  “I see four different plants. What’s got you so excited?”

  “These are all laminaria. There’s no doubt about that. But these are four laminaria I’ve never seen before. This one,” Carrollee said, pointing to the one shaped like a canoe paddle, “might be one I’ve seen in marine taxonomy books. Maybe this one too,” she said pointing at the overgrown lawn grass. “Maybe. But these two … I don’t think they’ve ever been recorded.” Then, glowing like a kid on Christmas, she said, “I think I’ve got a new variety here. At least two. I’ll get tenure for sure.”

  Happily, she went back to sorting through the beached seaweed. Emmett felt useless and saw the cops watching him with puzzlement. Uncomfortable, Emmett started up the beach along the line of seawood, but soon he heard the policewoman yell.

  “Look down by the water, that’s where they saw it. At least that’s what the tourists said.”

  The hair on Emmett’s skin stood erect at the word it and he knew the police officer wasn’t talking about seaweed. Looking back, Emmett saw Carrollee still on her knees, sorting out specimens, unaware of anything else. To buy Carrollee more time, Emmett walked slowly to the shore, watching the waves rhythmically washing the sand. As he approached, the surf seemed to be one great green mass of seaweed.

  The police were still watching him, so he squatted as if he were ex
amining vegetation. Instead, he watched the waves and thought about the PresNet. A new variety of seaweed was hardly worth the risk of illegally using the network.

  Emmett was still feeling sorry for himself when something surfaced to his left, but by the time he turned his head it was gone. He stood, staring at the spot to see if it would surface again.

  Suddenly Carrollee was next to him, staring into the surf. Then she unhooked her big silver buckle and unzipped the front of her black jumpsuit. Emmett was both shocked and aroused. She stood in a one-piece swimsuit—black with a few oversize silver sequins. Emmett realized it matched the jumpsuit, which she handed him along with her shoes. “What are you doing, Carrollee?”

  “I’m getting samples. These will be a lot fresher.” She waded knee-deep into the water while Emmett looked up and down the beach nervously, still trying to spot what he had seen in the surf. Then he heard footsteps and turned to see the two police officers approaching with their shotguns.

  “You think that’s a good idea? Her getting in the surf like that.”

  “She’s just getting some samples of the seaweed. She wants fresh samples.”

  The two police officers were looking at each other in confusion.

  “Why is she getting seaweed?” the policewoman asked. Overhearing the conversation, Carrollee turned to answer, standing in the surf in her swimsuit. For the first time, Emmett saw her as an attractive woman.

  “I’m selecting specimens for identification. That’s what marine botanists do.”

  “You’re a botanist?” the policewoman said, clearly surprised. “Why would they send a botanist to—”

  The policewoman broke off her sentence when a head popped through the surface behind Carrollee. Slowly, the head rose higher out of the water—it was large, shaped like a turtle’s head, but elongated and covered with gray lizard skin. The mouth opened silently, revealing uneven rows of triangular teeth, and the head continued to rise, revealing a snakelike neck that thickened as more of it appeared above the waves. As it rose above Carrollee, it seemed smaller, dwarfed by the length of the neck. When its ascent stopped, the head was fifteen feet above the surface.

  Both Emmett and the two police officers were speechless. When Carrollee spoke to Emmett, breaking his trance, he looked down to see her staring at them with a comical look. Her back was still to the monster.

  “What are you people doing? If you could see the way you look—”

  Then three things happened at once. The policewoman raised her shotgun to her shoulder and shouted to Carrollee to get out of the way, and Emmett bolted into the water, racing to reach Carrollee in time. At the movement, Carrollee turned to look behind and said, “Magnificent.”

  Then the monster screamed a sound like tearing metal. The cops couldn’t fire until Carrollee and Emmett were safely out of the way, but Emmett feared they might panic. He was nearly to Carrollee when the monster turned its head to the side, staring down into the sea, and Emmett realized it was farther out to sea than he’d first thought—he wasn’t used to animals of that size. He grabbed Carrollee and pulled her toward shore.

  “Stop yanking me. Don’t you know what that is?”

  “I know it’s not Flipper! Now let’s get out of the water.”

  “It’s a plesiosaur. Can you believe it? A plesiosaur. Everyone thinks they’re extinct … extinct for millions of years. Let go of me!” Carrollee yelled, jerking her arm away from Emmett, Then to Emmett’s horror, she turned and dove into the water toward the animal, disappearing beneath the waves. Suddenly the head stabbed down into the sea and the cops, startled, shouted a warning. Emmett screamed, “Carrollee!” Near panic, he kicked off his shoes in preparation for swimming after Carrollee and had pulled down his pants when she resurfaced.

  “It’s too far away. I can’t see its body, but I’ll bet it’s got four flippers and a ten-foot tail.”

  Emmett zipped up and dragged Carrollee out of the surf, looking fearfully over his shoulder at the monster. The plesiosaur’s neck looked like a huge piece of curved pipe. Then the neck straightened and the head appeared again, a fish in its mouth, and it used a snapping motion of its head and jaws to work the fish lengthwise and swallowed the fish whole. Then it turned to look back at the people on the beach. By now Carrollee and Emmett were clear and the police raised their shotguns again to fire.

  “Don’t shoot it. Don’t shoot it,” Carrollee shouted. “It’s not dangerous. It only eats fish.”

  “It’s big enough to swallow a dolphin whole,” Emmett responded, “or a person.”

  “It’s not that big. Well, even if it is, it eats fish, not people.”

  The police were confused. They had a strong desire to shoot the plesiosaur but believed Carrollee was an authority on the creatures, and a representative of the university. The police were indoctrinated into taking orders and shooting only as a last resort, so Carrollee’s protest stopped them from firing. But they didn’t take their eyes off the beast. Emmett, meanwhile, was trying to hurry Carrollee away from the water. The police walked backward behind them, their guns trained on the animal’s head.

  “There must be a colony of them living deep in the ocean,” Carrollee hypothesized. “There was probably an underwater volcanic eruption or avalanche that drove this one to the surface. That would account for all this unusual laminaria. It was probably sent up with the plesiosaur.” Then Carrollee paused and looked back. The plesiosaur was still staring at the beach and screeched its metal-tearing sound again, rattling Emmett and the police. Carrollee didn’t even pause in her speculation. “Except,” she continued when the screeching died, “this is a reptile. It couldn’t live deep in the sea without coming up for air. And if they keep coming up why haven’t we seen one before?”

  Even safe on the beach, Emmett was still nervous. The plesiosaur seemed fixated on the beach and very disturbed by the people there. Emmett picked up Carrollee’s jumpsuit and handed it to her, but she was too lost in thought to put it on. Instead she held it and free-associated for everyone to hear.

  “How about this? An egg is frozen in the antarctic ice. It breaks free in an iceberg and heads north. The iceberg melts, freeing and warming the egg. The egg hatches and a baby plesiosaur is released.” Then she frowned again. “That is too farfetched even for me to believe.” Carrollee fell silent and stared at the plesiosaur. Emmett watched it too, stunned by its size. Then Carrollee turned and looked Emmett in the eyes. “What do you know about this? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Let’s get back.”

  “This has something to do with all the disasters, doesn’t it?” . “Here’re your shoes, Carrollee. I really don’t know what’s going on, that’s what I was trying to find out in Dr. Wang’s office.”

  Carrollee still looked suspicious, but she let the matter drop.

  “Help me get my specimens then.”

  Obligingly, Emmett was picking up her seaweed when he heard a cop shout a warning.

  “Look out, it’s coming!”

  Emmett’s head snapped up. It was coming—the plesiosaur was moving through the water toward the beach. As it approached it screeched again. The cops raised their guns again but Carrollee ran out onto the beach in front of them.

  “It’s harmless. I’m telling you, it doesn’t eat people!” she screamed urgently.

  The expression on the cops’ faces told Emmett they were losing confidence in Carrollee.

  When Emmett turned back to the plesiosaur, its movement had changed. Instead of gliding toward shore, it was now swimming jerkily, its head rocking back and forth.

  “Carrollee,” Emmett said. “I think it’s beaching—”

  “No it isn’t!” Carrollee shouted, loud enough for the cops to hear. “It lives in the sea. It can’t get around on land. It has only flippers.”

  The cops heard Carrollee, but they kept their guns on the beast. Slowly its body began to emerge from the water, the fifteen-foot neck attached to a huge lump of a body with gray skin, like the hea
d, but speckled dark green along the spine. It became clear the plesiosaur was dragging itself along the sea bottom and coming ashore.

  “Dr. Chen-Slater,” the policewoman said without lowering her shotgun. “I’m no expert, but that dinosaur is headed this way, and it’s not swimming.”

  “It’s not a dinosaur,” Carrollee argued. “It’s a reptile. It shouldn’t be coming ashore. Really. It’s probably curious about us. Maybe we should back up.”

  The plesiosaur screamed, seemingly at the people on the beach and in the park.

  “It sounds angry to me, not curious,” the policewoman answered. “I think backing up is a good idea. But if it charges I’m going to kill it no matter what you say.”

  “It can’t charge …” Carrollee began, but gave up. She had already lost most of her credibility. Besides, she really didn’t know if it could charge.

  The plesiosaur dragged its body out of the water using four huge paddle-shaped fins, dragging a long tail. The flippers worked in unison, the front and back ones rotating forward, to dig into the sand, dragging the animal’s body toward the shore. The police pushed the tourists, Carrollee, and Emmett back into the park away from the beach, but still the animal kept coming, dragging itself across the sand. When it reached the embankment edging the park it stopped, swinging its head back and forth, screaming at the people, pushing them back farther. But suddenly it turned its back to the bystanders and stopped. Everyone waited for it to return to the sea, but it didn’t move. Instead the rear flippers folded together under its tail and pushed outward, throwing sand to both sides again and again. “What’s it doing?” Emmett asked Carrollee.

  “I don’t believe it. It can’t be.”

  “What? What?”

  “Wait, Emmett. You’ll see.”

  After digging for some time, the animal stopped again. A few minutes later it began breathing hard and swinging its long neck back and forth, seemingly oblivious to the people in the park behind it. Its breathing became ragged, but still it didn’t move.