by David Wood
“You think that’s the best course? I agree about letting the creature go and taking this boat to town, but I’d like to get back to dry land and just run away from it all as far and fast as we can.”
Slater shook her head. “We can’t run, Aston. We have to own what we’ve done. Face the consequences. In the long run, we’ve done nothing illegal, right? It’s all on Holloway and Joaquin. And Laine maybe.”
Aston drew a long, deep breath. Morally, ethically, even legally, she was probably right, though he had little faith in the smooth running of due process. But he couldn’t really argue with her. “Okay. Yeah. Okay. Let’s get up there and release the net first.”
Slater held his eye for a moment, then nodded once and kissed him quickly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
She reached up and patted his cheek. “All of this.”
He smiled, unsure what to say. He was groggy from the fight, and from Holloway’s gun butt. His head pounded, he was probably concussed, but things were finally starting to settle down. He squeezed her shoulders once, then turned to head up to the bridge. She was right behind him as he reached the top of the stairs and froze. A figure moved along the rail, hood drawn up against the raging downpour.
“It’s Laine!” he hissed. They froze, crouching in the darkness, watching and waiting.
“He didn’t come in by the dive platform,” Slater whispered.
“Must have climbed up from his rowboat. Probably hoping to surprise Joaquin.” Aston wondered what the man’s game was. Why had he faked his death? Clearly he had some sort of fascination with, or attachment to, the lake monster. But dancing around on shore looking like a druid? Madness. They were all mad.
Laine moved out of sight along the side so Aston and Slater hurried forward, still crouched below the bridge’s windows, watching to see where he went.
“Of course,” Aston said as Laine reached the winch arm and hit the button.
The net began to unfurl as the winch motors whirred at full speed. Laine tipped his head back and they heard him chanting some repeated phrase over and over to the heavens. The weather had taken a nasty turn. What had been a light rain was now a steady downpour. The words were whipped away by the wind, but the tone, harsh and guttural, carried to their ears. Aston knew he would never understand that language.
Slater tapped Aston’s shoulder. He turned to see her holding out the small fire extinguisher from the helm. It was about a foot long and weighed a good few pounds. He frowned, shook his head. “A fire?” he asked stupidly.
Slater rolled her eyes. “Run out there and crack him over the head with this. Then he won’t be any more trouble.”
Aston grinned. “Oh, I see.”
Down in the water, a great thrashing and splashing erupted as the monster whipped up and free of the loosening net. They were momentarily distracted as it breached and curved up and over to crash back into the storm-tossed waves. He couldn’t deny its magnificence.
“Quick, while he’s distracted!” Slater urged.
Aston nodded, winced against his headache, but grabbed the extinguisher and ran outside. The rain was ice cold, driven sideways into his face by howling wind as he exited the bridge. It helped to clear his thoughts. He was soaked to the skin in seconds as he approached Laine’s back. The monster rose and dived in the water again, sending up a curtain of spray. Laine continued his mad chant, louder than ever, his voice triumphant and crazed.
Aston got to within six feet of the mad zealot, and began raising the extinguisher to strike, when a voice amplified by a megaphone burst out behind the Merenneito.
“Everyone put your hands in the air and prepare to be boarded!”
Aston jumped, instantly recognizing the Superintendent’s voice even through the loudspeaker and the storm. Laine spun around and took two quick steps back as he saw Aston there, the bright red metal cylinder high over his head.
“No!” Laine shouted and his hand emerged from his voluminous robes holding an automatic pistol. “I have to keep her safe. It’s my calling.” Madness glinted in his eyes. He gestured wildly at the police launch. “More flesh and souls for the God of the Lake!” he yelled.
“You have got to be winding me up.” Aston dropped to the deck as Laine fired three fast shots that strayed out into the night.
Rinne hollered something sharp and angry, and gunfire erupted from the fast-approaching launch. Shots whined and sparked off the metal rails, punched holes in the fiberglass walls of the boat. Laine dived for cover in front of the bridge and Aston stayed down, quickly commando crawling back inside to Slater.
A stray bullet struck one of the deck lights outside, sending a fine spray of glass through the open door.
“We need to get below before they kill us all,” Aston said. She nodded and they both scrambled to their feet and hurried down the stairs.
Up above, Laine opened up again with his pistol, answered immediately by the police launch. If they were aiming their shots, Aston didn’t know what their target was. Slugs thumped into and through the Merenneito. Glass shattered. He and Slater were ducks in a shooting gallery.
“What do they think this is, the Wild West?” he panted. They were all mad. Every last one of them.
Chapter 38
“All flesh for the God of the Lake!” Laine yelled. He shouted something in Finnish, and then more in his bizarre language. Beneath the sounds of his cries and the steady rush of the storm, the low drone of the police launch drew ever closer. “You have no right!” Laine screamed. “The god was here before you and will be here long after you are gone!”
“Could things go any crazier?” Aston said as he and Slater hurried down into the SCUBA room at the back of the Merenneito. More shots rang out and bullets peppered the gunwales, tearing through the sides. The situation was dire. It was only a matter of time before they were randomly hit. He pressed a hand to his aching head.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Slater asked.
“Swim for it.”
She looked at him as though he had sprouted extra feet from his forehead. “What are you talking about?”
“We need to get out of here. Get a wetsuit and tank on. We can dive straight off the back, get down to the lake bed for cover, and head straight for shore.”
She pointed with her thumb back over her shoulder. “Laine just released a massive prehistoric predator. Or did you forget that?”
“That’s a hard thing to forget. But if we stay anywhere around here, we’ll be shot for sure. If not by the police, then by Laine. I don’t like being the only fool in a gunfight without a weapon.”
“You don’t think we can just hunker down until Rinne takes Laine into custody?”
As if in reply, a bullet ripped through the side of the ship and pinged off the floor between them. They both looked in the direction from which the shot had come. A trickle of water flowed through the hole left by the bullet.
“I’m going to say no to that.” Aston hastily began pulling on gear. He gestured desperately as he shouldered a tank harness and respirator. Slater looked uncertain, eyes wide and confused. A mighty crack split their concentration and the Merenneito tipped violently to one side. They were thrown across the deck, crashing among the diving gear. The crack turned into a creak and lake water began jetting into the room.
“The monster’s attacking the boat!” Slater said, voice betraying her disbelief. “I can’t believe it could hit us that hard.”
“It’s a dinosaur! Now get some goddamned gear on!” Aston shouted.
She seemed to accept his assessment of the necessity and quickly began suiting up. The creature hit the boat again. The craft rocked and shook. A long crack appeared where the bullet hole had been, and the ship took on water at an even faster rate.
Gunshots barked from above, voices shouted, Rinne’s the loudest through the megaphone. Laine
screamed in that hideous, broken language and the beast smashed into the Merenneito again. Another thud, and then another. The monster was clearly in a frenzy.
“Don’t the police see what’s happening?” Slater shouted.
“Between the storm and the attention they’re paying Laine, maybe not. In any case, I don’t know how much time this tub still has. That thing is pissed!” Aston said, helping Slater into her harness.
Cold water washed over their knees as they pulled on fins and masks. They made their way to the dive platform. Icy rain greeted them, waves crashed all around, but no sign of the monster. As they exchanged looks, the back of the boat tipped alarmingly, the bow rising high and they had no choice but to roll with it, straight out into the lake.
Aston pointed down and Slater nodded, wrapping her mouth around her regulator. They kicked hard, directly for the lake bed. The water was aglow with the Merenneito’s lights, debris and silt swirling madly like glitter. With any luck, the monster would stay distracted by the boats and give them a chance to get away.
They dove, swimming for all they were worth, trying to reach a safe depth before they would level out and make their way toward shore. Thirty feet down, something tumbled through the water.
Slater screamed through a cloud of bubbles as a severed arm dropped slowly past them trailing clouds of dark blood. The beast must have turned its attention to the police launch. He imagined how well the small craft would fare against the determined attack of the prehistoric predator and shuddered at the thought.
Aston’s heart almost stopped as the massive, dark shape of the lake monster swept around, its gargantuan jaw sliding past them mere yards away. Slater grabbed him as it turned sinuously and powered up to crash directly into the underside of the police boat above. The booming crack echoed through water.
Aston and Slater tumbled and rolled in its wake like leaves in a storm, head over heels, bubbles clouding around them. Slater’s grip on Aston’s arm redoubled and he pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her as they managed to right themselves.
Slater looked frantically left and right, then at Aston, her eyes wide in a terrified question. He didn’t know the answer. Completely disoriented, the lake shore could be in any direction now and the only way to be certain was to surface again and look.
And risk putting themselves in the lake monster’s line of sight.
A sharp beam of light spiked up from below, swept left and right. Aston spotted the shark cage lying on its side on the silty bottom, Holloway was still inside, shining his flashlight all around, presumably trying to get an idea of what was happening above. In the glow near the surface, the monster snaked and switched in the water.
Turn off your light, you bloody fool, Aston thought. You’ll draw her to you.
The cage was their only chance for safety. He glanced at Slater and she nodded frantically. They both kicked hard for the lake bed.
Holloway’s light swept one way then back and passed right over them. He quickly returned his beam directly at them and Aston waved one hand, redoubled his efforts. The cage seemed a great distance away and growing no closer as Aston drove himself forward, Slater keeping pace.
He started in shock as Holloway raised a gun and aimed it alongside his flashlight. Aston recognized the tranquilizer pistol. He twisted in the water as a syringe dart with enough chemicals in it to kill him stone dead buzzed past with only a few inches to spare. He pushed Slater to one side then zigged back as Holloway frantically reloaded.
What was wrong with the bastard? Did he think they were coming to hurt him? To exact revenge? Surely he’d seen the monster in the water. There was easily room in the shark cage for the three of them.
As Aston drew closer, Holloway raised the weapon again and fired. Aston twisted once more, writhing away from the dart, but felt impact in his left shoulder. Cursing but refusing to stop, he kicked hard and dove for the cage. He thrust both arms through the bars and grabbed either side of Holloway’s head. As the man yelled a cloud of bubbles at him, Aston planted his feet against the cage and pushed back, pulling with all his might. Holloway’s head cracked up against the bars and he slipped from Aston’s grasp, falling limply back. He hung in the water of the cage like seaweed for a moment, clearly stunned, and Aston hauled the cage door open.
Holloway shook himself and tried to rally, swinging his weapon arm up to try to for a pistol whip. Aston raised one arm to block the blow and punched out with his other hand. His arm dragged through the water, his attack a fraction of its possible strength, but it was enough to knock the billionaire back again.
Slater came barreling past him, a decent sized rock in one hand, and slammed it into Holloway’s face. His mask shattered and his respirator tore free of his mouth in a cloud of bubbles. Slater used the moment to push into the cage and reached to pull Aston in, but the billionaire was not giving up. He clawed for Aston’s mask, tried to pull it loose. Aston twisted aside, grabbed Holloway by one arm and struggled to drag him sideways so that he might gain access to the cage.
Something moved in the corner of his vision. The monster was back. As its massive, grey bulk descended, Aston panicked and heaved. He used Holloway for leverage to force himself into safety between the bars.
Holloway’s eyes and mouth were wide as he was swung up out of the door and into a forest of giant, white teeth. The beasts jaws snapped closed over him. Aston whipped his hand away as the billionaire vanished in the scaled sweep of the monster flying by. He pulled the cage door closed and slid the bolt home.
He gripped the cage bars and gazed at the massive form that swam above them, desperately trying to calm his breathing. Leave us alone, he pleaded as the monster swam up and banked over.
Slater reached out, eyes concerned. He looked down to see a syringe dart hanging from his harness. The point was buried in the thick nylon and he felt nothing as she pulled it free. Far too close for comfort. His relief was short-lived as the monster barreled back down through the water, straight for them.
They both braced against the cage walls as the enormous snout crashed into it, rocking the cage and sending it tumbling across the lake bed. His injured shoulder slammed hard into the cage door, and hot pain burned anew. Silt stirred up in thick clouds and they rolled around inside like laundry in a washing machine. Another clang rocked them a second time, then water began rushing by at a furious speed.
Gradually, the silt cleared as the sensation of motion increased. The monster had the cage clamped in its deadly maw and was carrying them back toward the underwater channel that led to its lair.
Chapter 39
It was like falling to the ninth circle of Hell. The eerie sensation of rapid movement in utter darkness, the icy water sending chills down Aston’s spine, the surety of impending death. His stomach lurched as fear took hold. They were at the mercy of the deadliest killing machine he could imagine.
He held fast to the bars of the cage, trying to figure a way out. Slater flicked on her dive light, illuminating the cage and the massive jaws that held it in their grip. Gleaming teeth, each over a foot long, stuck through the space between the bars, so close Aston could reach out and touch one. They were in the middle of a nightmare.
The cage banged against the side of the channel, sending him and Slater crashing into one another. He wrapped an arm around her and they held each other tight. Aston longed for the days when his greatest fear was Chang’s goons.
Forcing down rising panic, he focused his thoughts on escape. They were locked in a shark cage carried in the jaws of a giant, prehistoric creature, headed, most likely, to the creature’s lair. The very same place they’d seen piles of its victims’ bones. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t know what was happening. The beast was taking them back so she could feed on them.
The cage door faced away from the creature’s jaws. So, theoretically, he and Slater could get out. But the cage was the only thing keeping t
hem alive. The beast had displayed a particular taste for human flesh. If they swam out, they’d be snapped up in an instant.
They had no weapons at their disposal. No way to fight back. But what weapon would be effective against this prehistoric predator anyway? Nothing they had, except perhaps the harpoon on board the Merenneito, and that was certainly beyond their reach now.
He saw only one way out. Perhaps, upon reaching her lair, the beast would be unable to break through the cage and would go off in search of easier pickings. Then, perhaps, he and Slater could make their way out. It was a faint hope for two reasons: once they escaped, they’d have to make it through the underwater passageway and to the shore with an enraged, voracious killing machine on the loose; and they’d have to do it before they ran out of air.
Bright light flashed as they passed the first of the cameras set in the passage wall. By the time Aston had registered what it was, it had streaked past into the silt-stirred distance. Then light flared again as they passed the second camera. They were close to the shaft leading up.
He thought about the images being relayed back to Merenneito, and wondered if, when this was all over, someone would find them. Would snapshots of their final moments on earth be leaked onto the web, to the media even? Would the world see the horrifying images of two people about to be devoured by this legendary creature? If so, he imagined the fascination with the beast would be so great that he and Slater would be little more than a footnote, an afterthought. Few tears were likely to be shed for Sam Aston.
Hope began to drain, replaced by a stoic feeling of fate. Perhaps this was repayment for the choices he’d made in his life. He’d always half-expected to die young but this positively was not the way he’d imagined it. The thought almost made him smile. At least he had an outside chance of leaving his mark on the world.
They angled upwards, the beast sweeping into the vertical channel. Aston shifted his weight and tightened his one-handed grip on the bar, the other arm squeezing Slater tighter still, suddenly irrationally afraid of falling back into the creature’s mouth. Not just yet.
