The Loch

by Steve Alten

  He hesitated, then shook my offered hand. "Make it a life worth savin'. One mair thing. Her eyes may be weak frae aye livin' in the dark, but her sense o' smell's unequaled. That's how she hunts. It's said she can sense a man by smellin' the terror in his blood. So take heed."

  I nodded, then gunned the engine and drove off, feeling as if an old scar had finally been picked clean to heal.

  Clansman Hotel

  True was waiting for me in the parking lot when I rolled in ten minutes later. "Ye're late. Sweet Jesus, whit happened tae yer foot?"

  "I fed it to an Anguilla eel." I glanced over his shoulder to the wharf and a hub of activity. "What's going on down there?"

  "'trucks arrived this mornin' wi' some steel nettin'. A' the boats are bein' fitted wi' them. Urquhart Bay's been cordoned off intae a giant pen. Now whit's this aboot an eel?"

  "Later. Is Caldwell down there?"

  "Aye. Playin' head honcho for the cameras."

  "Playing's the word. Can you call Brandy on her cell phone? Ask her to join us up here, I need to speak with her away from Caldwell."

  Leaning back against a pine tree, I could see Brandy as she swaggered down the wharf in all her glory, waving to television crews and journalists. True waited for her at the end of the pier, and I watched as brother and sister spoke.

  * * *

  "So, Brandy, then it's true?"

  "What're ye talkin' about?"

  "Zack says ye're sleepin' wi' this Caldwell fella."

  "Is this what ye called me out for? Tae discuss who I'm buckin'?"

  "I'm concerned, that's a'. Wi' a' ye've been through–"

  "Listen here, bro, there isnae anythin' between David an' me 'cept some heavy flirtin', an' most o' that's for the cameras."

  "An' one Zachary Wallace as well, aye? I heard whit happened at the Clansman. Ye're rubbin' it in his face, are ye no'?"

  "Aye. An' if ye let on about it, I'll smack ye so hard, it'll kill the fuc'in' Crabbitt!"

  * * *

  They started up the hill together, then broke into a footrace, Brandy taking the lead, giggling as True tackled her from behind. The sight of them wrestling in the grass brought a smile to my face, and I tried to recall the last time I'd actually laughed out loud.

  For the life of me, I couldn't remember.

  When I looked up. Brandy was standing over me, hands on hips like some Greek goddess. She motioned to my walking boot. "Looks like ye stuck yer foot in yer mouth one too many times."

  "And it looks like you've got every camera in the Highlands focused on your ass."

  "No' yet, but be sure I'm workin' on it. So Mr. Zachary Wallace, what is it then? Be brief, us lowlife whores need our rest."

  "Look, I… I'm sorry if I insinuated anything."

  "An' whit did ye insinuate?" demanded True, joining Brandy. "I hope for your sake ye didnae call my wee sister a whore?"

  "No, I—"

  "He claimed I was sleepin' wi' David Caldwell just so he'd rent my boat."

  "An' are ye?"

  "'Course not. I'm shaggin' David 'cause he's cute an' macho an' he's got a nice package."

  "Well, that's a whole lot different then." Satisfied, True lay down in the grass, covering his head with a big, hairy forearm.

  My blood pressure soared.

  "So, Zachary Wallace, what was it ye wanted then?"

  "Your sonar array… it won't find the monster."

  "An' how dae ye know that?"

  "There's a basic flaw in 'Mr. Big Package's' strategy. It's the same reason none of the other sonar expeditions ever found a thing. But I'll tell you what will work… in exchange for your sharing with me the array's password and security codes."

  "Ye've got tae be jokin', Zack? Ye want me tae help ye hack into our sonar's central control station?"

  "You have my word I won't touch the programming. My intentions are only to access certain information concerning the fish population and the Loch's geology. As soon as I'm finished, you can change the security codes."

  "Forget it. If David ever found out, he'd fire me for sure."

  "Come on, Brandy," said True. "Caldwell'll never ken anythin' aboot it. Ye've got his balls in the palm o' yer hand."

  The image set my teeth to grinding. "Forget it then," I growled. "I wouldn't want you to compromise your position."

  "Good."

  "Good!"

  "Was that it then, Mr. Wallace, 'cause I'm quite busy these days."

  The right side of my brain urged me to say something, to tell her to leave David, to confess that I loved her, but instead I was only able to muster, "I guess that's it then."

  Hydrophobia was not the only fear I'd yet to overcome.

  Chapter 25 Quotes

  I was working at the Academy of Applied Sciences when Dr. Rines contacted me about joining him in Scotland. His mission: To obtain underwater photos of the large animal he believed occupied Loch Ness. Using a strobe light invented by our colleague, Dr. Harold Edgerton, our team set up an underwater camera and lights rigged to our boat's sonar, so that contact with a large moving object would trigger the strobe camera to snap pictures once every fifty-five seconds. With our camera loaded with rolls of high-resolution photographic film I'd created for NASA, we set out to find the monster.

  ON AUGUST 8, 1972, OUR SONAR DETECTED A LARGE UNDERWATER ANIMATE OBJECT. WE CHANGED COURSE, PASSING OVER THE OBJECT, WHICH WAS MOVING VERY FAST. WITHIN SECONDS, IT WAS GONE.

  All was not lost. Our camera managed to capture a photo of an appendage, perhaps a flipper or possibly a fin or pectoral limb. Whatever it is that is down there, it's very large, and resembles no species I had ever come across before.

  —DR. CHARLES WYCKOFF, ACADEMY OF APPLIED SCIENCES, AUGUST 1972

  Chapter 25

  Inverness

  Two days passed. I spent most of that time alone in my hotel room, icing my foot and researching eels on my laptop.

  What I learned about the creatures was eye-opening.

  There were eight known species of conger, with Anguilla anguilla, the European version, considered the largest and most fearsome of the lot. Females could reach ten feet and weigh more than 250 pounds. Unlike common eels, the Anguilla could use its pectoral fins to venture on land. Their muscular bodies were enveloped in sheets of slime and their broad heads had protruding lower jaws and long needlelike teeth which, as I could attest, made for a devastating bite. Shy unless provoked, the Anguilla preferred deep water, burrowing in the muddy bottom, which would make them undetectable to sonar. Living in darkness, it would venture on land almost exclusively at night.

  But it was their migration pattern that sent my mind reeling.

  Anguilla eels that inhabited Loch Ness were notoriously slow to mature, taking fifteen years or more before they were old enough to spawn. When ready, the adult females abandoned the Loch, traveling up the River Ness under cover of darkness for the North Sea. Upon leaving Britain's coast, the eels followed scent trails, swimming thousands of miles west against the currents to reach the deeper waters of the mid-Atlantic. This amazing journey triggered some dramatic physiological changes in the animals' bodies. Upon descending to depths beyond 10,000 feet, the serpents suddenly stopped feeding and began losing their teeth. Their guts quickly degenerated, and their gonads became greatly enlarged. Upon finally reaching their ancient breeding site, the adults would spawn, then die almost immediately, each female leaving behind some 8 million eggs. The eggs that were fertilized developed into clear-colored larvae, called elvers. Over time, the young then rode the Gulf Stream thousands of miles east back to Europe, continuing the conger eels' bizarre circle of life.

  And where did the adult Anguilla eels of Loch Ness journey to spawn?

  The Sargasso Sea.

  * * *

  With no monster sightings in days, and nothing significant appearing on David's sonar array, the Highland Council was beginning to get concerned. They had invested a lot of money in penning off Urquhart Bay, and the entire world was watchin
g and waiting… and forming opinions.

  Despite the deaths of five people, there was still no real proof directly linking any of the killings to a lake monster. No creature had been sighted and no bodies recovered, save for Justin Wagners, and there were rumors spreading that in fact, his injuries had been a result of being run over by the Zodiac's propeller. Ron Casey was recovering in Raigmore Hospital, but the crime scene photographer could remember nothing about the boating incident that had led to the drownings of his two friends and the vessel's captain, and never claimed having seen a water beast.

  The pressure was mounting, and most of it was on David Caldwell and my father, whose trial was set to reconvene in the next twenty-four hours.

  * * *

  My hotel phone rang on the eve of Angus's continuance, chasing me from a catnap. "Hello?"

  "Zachary? Mary Tidwell. I just got the results back from the lab."

  I sat up in bed. "Go on."

  "Two things. First, traces of beta blocking chemicals were found in the eel's blood."

  "Beta blockers? As in heart medication?"

  "Yes. Most likely ingested from feeding on Ferox trout, which come in contact with the chemicals near industrial areas before entering Loch Ness."

  "And the brain lesions?"

  "Those were caused by PCB's… hydrocarbon poisoning. Somewhere out there, oil's leaking into the Great Glen."

  Sniddles Club, Drumnadrochit

  True and I waited until the waitress set down our drinks and left before continuing our conversation.

  "So," I pressed, "do you think there's a pipeline leak or not?"

  "Shh, lower yer voice. There's a million bloody reporters snoopin' roond the Highlands these days." He drained half his beer, then belched. "Jist 'cause ye find an eel wi' lesions, disnae mean it wis exposed tae oil in Loch Ness. First off, they're aye doin' water tests. Second, crude floats, people wouldae seen it."

  "And what if it's not even getting into Loch Ness? What if it's coming through the remains of an underwater passage that connects the Loch with the North Sea?"

  "Whit passage? That's a' theory."

  "Just humor me, True. Where are the closest oil fields to Loch Ness?"

  "There's two o' them, baith located jist offshore in the Moray Firth. The Beatrice Field's twenty kilometers off the coast in the inner firth. Big field, wi' three platforms. The Cialino Field's smaller, belongin' tae you know who. Johnny C. bought it for pennies on the pound frae Talisman Energy."

  "Talisman Energy? Now why does that name sound familiar?"

  "They've been in the news. A few years back, Talisman wis implicated in a lawsuit that accused the company o' collaboratin' wi' the Sudanese government, jist after yer President Bush declared it a terrorist state. The country wis run by mair o' thae Islamic extremists who used profits frae Talisman's oil wells tae buy weapons… weapons they used tae commit genocide against their Christian population. Word is, close tae two million people died."

  "Lovely. No wonder Johnny C. got himself such a bargain."

  "Aye."

  "These fields in the Moray Firth, what happens to the oil after it's pumped?"

  "The crude's stabilized, then sent through export pipes to the Nigg Oil terminal for processin' an' export. Niggs wis also owned by Talisman, an' it's had its share o' problems, too. No' long ago the EPA found leaks in the pipelines at the tanker terminal carryin' supplies frae Beatrice. Pipes are aye corrodin'. Problem is, companies like Talisman an' Cialino drill closer an' closer tae shore every year."

  "Any supply lines feeding into the Great Glen?"

  "A few, but they're heavily monitored."

  "Any chance of getting hold of a map that shows the buried distribution lines?"

  "Hmm… maybe. Got a few muckers at Niggs who might help. If no', I can aye hitch a ride back oot tae my last rig an' borrow a few things, if ye ken whit I mean."

  True's cell phone rang. "MacDonald. Hey, sweets. Jings, no shyte! Sure, he's right here. Okay, I'll tell him."

  He hung up. "That wis Brandy. David Caldwell wants tae meet wi' ye right now, doon at Urquhart Castle. Alone."

  Urquhart Castle

  The steel-gray modular bridge stretched end to end across the mouth of Urquhart Bay, each of its free-floating prefabricated platforms twenty-eight feet long and fourteen feet wide. Lightweight and portable, the newly completed expanse had been designed to support army and commercial vehicles, though its use on Loch Ness would be limited to pedestrian traffic only.

  A construction pontoon stood a quarter mile offshore, the boom of its three-hundred-ton capacity Shearleg Derrick rising 250 feet into the mouse gray sky. The crane was supporting a spool that fed fourteen foot wide, 750-foot long lengths of chain-link fencing down through the modular's precut slots. Each length was weighed down by a five-ton concrete weight, which served to anchor the steel barrier to the bottom.

  David Caldwell, wearing a yellow hard hat and mirrored sunglasses, stood on the southern shoreline of the bay, the ruins of Urquhart Castle at his back. The area was fenced off, preventing the public from accessing the bridge. Still, the tourists and media were out in droves, snapping pictures of "Nessie's new habitat" and David Caldwell, too, as if he were the monster hunter, Carl Denham, about to capture King Kong.

  I gave my name to a security guard, who allowed me to enter. "David?"

  He signaled me to approach.

  "David, why're you wearing a hard hat?"

  "Hello? We're standing in a construction site."

  "Construction's in the bay. The only thing that hat'll protect you from are birds as they shit on your head."

  "More sarcasm. What happened to us, Zack? I thought you and I were a team?"

  "Some team. My brains and your mouth."

  "Say what you will but it worked. We were the first to catch a giant squid on film."

  "We? You took all the credit and blamed me for losing a sub." He turned to me, feigning sincerity. "I was wrong in doing that. I'm sorry."

  I ignored his offered hand. "What is it you want?"

  "Brandy told me about your offer. You still interested in gaining access to our sonar array?"

  "Go on."

  "I can't allow you access into the system, but I am willing to let you monitor the array from your laptop… in exchange for telling us why we still can't track the monster."

  "I want it in writing, authorized by Provost Hollifield."

  "Whatever." He reached into his pants pocket, handing me a folded piece of paper. "That's a Web link my engineer just set up for you. It'll connect you to the array.'

  "Fax the agreement to my hotel. Meanwhile, I'll check out the link. If it suits my needs, I'll call you on your cell phone and tell you everything you need to know."

  "Do it soon. That provost guy's getting on my nerves."

  "What'd you expect? You're spending their money, they want results."

  "Results? The creature's been around for fifteen hundred years. All of a sudden they're in a rush?"

  "They certainly rushed getting that bridge pieced together. How much they end up spending?"

  "About a million dollars or pounds, I forget which. Either way, it's nothing. They'll make that back in crossing fees alone during the first few months."

  "You're not actually going to allow people out there?"

  "Damn straight. We'll have guardrails up, separating the tourists from the plesiosaur. It'll be safe."

  I could have spouted off then, lecturing him about dinosaurs and timelines and how a deepwater feeder, whatever was out there, wasn't about to surface during the day just to please a bunch of humans with cameras.

  Instead I only shook my head and walked away.

  Chapter 26 Quotes

  I believe the Loch contains Zeuglodons, also known as Basilosaurus, which means "King of Reptiles." Basilosaurus was a prehistoric ancestor of modern-day whales, though it actually looked more like a sea serpent. It was 55-75 feet long and very narrow, had a five foot skull and a blowhole on it
s snout, and was prevalent all over the world some 37-53 million years ago. These beasts could have swum into Loch Ness in search of food when there was ample access from the sea.

  A long, thin whale is closer to eye-witnesses descriptions than a plesiosaur.

  —DR. ROY MACKALL, CRYPTO-ZOOLOGIST

  Chapter 26

  I was back in my hotel room an hour later, my laptop set to the sonar array's Web link. Using my touchpad, I could zoom in on each section of the Loch, obtaining real-time data on any biologics passing by the pinging buoys.

  Before I could begin, however, I was interrupted by a knock on my door. Not another reporter …

  I peeked through the peephole, then opened the door for a stocky waiter with short, dirty blond hair and matching beard. "You must have the wrong room, bud. I didn't order room service."

  "Compliments of your father, sir." He handed me a card.

  Dearest Zachary:

  Tomorrow's a big day for both of us.

  Keep up your strength, my faith's in you.

  —Your loving father.

  Now what was Angus up to?

  "Set it by the desk, please."

  He pushed the cart of food inside, then noticed the laptop screen. "Hey, is this some sort o' sonar array? We're studyin' these things in university. My professor, he writes for the Fish an' Fisheries journal, the one put out by Edinburgh, St. Andrews, an' Leeds."

  "I've read it. They do nice work."

  "Yeah, they're pretty intense. I helped compile information used in one o' their special issues, it wis about how fish are smarter than scientists once thought. Ye know, steeped in social intelligence, cooperatin' wi' each other when it comes tae spottin' predators an' catchin' food. Stuff like that."

  "So you're a marine biologist posing as a waiter?"