The Guillotine

by Lucas Pederson

  Giles nods. “He does. Told me so over the phone no more than a few minutes ago. He has the power to do all that and more, you know.”

  Ash, nodding, turns away from Giles. “Maybe. Good thing I’ve been recording everything going on here.” He stops to glance over his shoulder. “Even the conversations. Blackmailing and threats…not going to look good for Mr. Jones.” He returns to Quinn. Kayla and Julia are in the office working on something he can’t really see.

  “Is that true?” Quinn whispers.

  He winks. “Could you take a couple of people with you to get some of that meat?”

  Quinn smiles, snags a couple of the workers and they hurry off.

  Ash stares at the seeker bot, sighs, gaze wandering to the Moon Pool.

  It’s almost time.

  NINETEEN

  With all kinds of meats tied securely to the seeker bot, Ash gives Green and her team a nod. “This is like rounding up a stray cow. Need to keep it from trying to go elsewhere. We need to have it fully focused on the bot.”

  “Easier said than done,” Green says.

  “If it veers off course, all I need you to do is shoot it in the head. The armor will be too thick to really hurt it but should scare it enough to keep it on track.”

  “And you’re absolutely sure about that?”

  Shaking his head, Ash says, “Not at all. But it’s what I’ve got. You can keep your team in here if you want.”

  Green’s face darkens. “We’re not here to just sit. My team and I are with you.”

  “Thank you.” He faces Kayla’s dive/ drill team. “I want you to flank its other side leading to the tunnel. Once it’s in there, it won’t be able to back up if it thinks something is wrong. It’ll have no choice but to follow the seeker bot.”

  Julia steps beside Kayla, arms crossed. “I’m going to just put this out there, once again. Dude, are you fucking crazy?”

  He chuckles. “Apparently. But we’ll give it a shot. Fish run on pure instincts, right? We tap into this one’s instincts and we’ll get it where we want it.”

  Using a small hoist, Quinn lowers the seeker bot into the water.

  Ash holds up the control tablet, signaling Quinn. “This thing waterproof?”

  “Yes,” she says.

  Ash nods, gets into his suit while Julia curses at him from every direction.

  “You can stay in here and control that thing, damn it.” Her face is simmering in anger and worry.

  “I need to be able to see what it’s doing so I can try to predict its movements.” He straps on the Shark. “I’ll stick close to the Moon Pool.”

  Julia huffs out a breath. “Like that’s supposed to make me feel better? Damn it, Ash, why don’t you ever listen to me? You know, putting yourself in danger all the time isn’t healthy, right?”

  “Is what it is,” he says, inspecting his helmet and mask. “I don’t have a death wish, just trying to keep us all alive while we’re stuck in here.”

  Julia shakes her head. “Whatever. You just make sure you call things off and get your ass back up here if shit goes wrong. Don’t try to be the fucking hero.”

  “Promise,” Ash says and snugs on the helmet.

  He jumps into the Moon Pool with the others and snaps Julia a salute. She rolls her eyes and walks away.

  So now she thinks he’s suicidal. Lovely.

  Quinn lowers the seeker bot the rest of the way into the Pool. Ash taps the power button on the tablet and the bot whirs to life. Green and Kayla unstrap it. It bobs in the water.

  “Okay,” Ash says. “Quinn will give us a play by play where the fish is. Quinn? Location?”

  There’s a brief pause and Quinn says into their earpieces, “It’s swimming back and forth, about three hundred feet from the Infinity Moon.”

  “Thank you,” Ash says, then to the two teams. “We have one shot at this. You all know what to do?”

  “My team has been briefed,” Green says.

  “I told them,” Kayla says. “Everyone knows their job.”

  “Good. Let’s round us up a prehistoric fish.”

  Kayla sighs, rolls her eyes. “That was probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard from you.”

  “Oh, just wait…” Ash winks. “I get even better.”

  “Joy…”

  With this, they dive toward the bottom of the Moon Pool. It takes Ash a few failed attempts, but he finally manages to get the seeker bot moving and going in the right direction. He keeps it at a very slow five miles per hour.

  In his earpiece, Green orders her team to move out into flanking position and hold.

  Kayla tells her team to flank opposite Green’s team.

  The men and women all do as they’re told and Ash watches in wonder at the efficient way they all move. The Seals are faster, but Kayla’s team moves in a fluid motion that reminds him of a stingray. The way they sort of glide, rather than swim. Everyone has a gun.

  Ash maneuvers the seeker bot into the open lake. “Status?”

  Quinn comes back right away. “Moving toward you at about five knots. Two hundred feet and closing from the east.”

  Ash’s heart thuds in his chest as he back swims so he’s directly under the Moon Pool. Then he turns the seeker bot right to the east and watches the camera feed on the tablet screen as the bot goes to greet the dunkleosteus. He kicks the speed up to twenty knots.

  Soon he should see the giant fish through the bot’s camera.

  “It increased its speed to twenty knots,” Quinn say. “Less than one hundred feet.”

  Soon. Very soon…

  “Moving faster now,” Quinn nearly shouts. “Thirty…forty knots. You guys better brace yourselves.”

  And there it is. A huge mass that’s all brutal, giant jaws and little else. It appears to pause a moment, perhaps catching the bot’s scent.

  Ash swings the seeker bot around and increases the speed to sixty knots.

  From the back camera, he watches the dunkleosteus almost jump, then its massive jaws open wide and the chase is on.

  “Seventy knots,” Quinn says.

  Ash bumps the bot up to ninety knots. In no time it’ll be at the passageway leading to the tunnels.

  “Eight. Eighty-five. Ninety knots.”

  “Everyone,” Ash says. “Be ready.”

  “Roger that,” Green says.

  “Gotcha,” Kayla says.

  The bot streams by, closely followed by the dunkleosteus, which entirely obscures Green’s team and everything else as huge as it is. A gargantuan thing, every sweep of its tail shoves Ash backward. He fights to remain under the Moon Pool and keep an eye on the seeker bot’s location.

  Almost to the passageway opening. Maybe twenty feet and—

  The dunkleosteus’ tail swats sharply, creating a force so great it knocks Ash spinning head over flippers away from the Moon Pool. And all he hears through his earpieces are shouts and screams.

  Once the spinning stops, he rights himself, blinking. The force of the tail sends him at least thirty feet away from the Moon Pool. Directly behind him is one of the facility’s anchor pillars. If he’d gone another couple of feet…

  Quinn is shouting something, but it’s lost in a maelstrom of screams and barking orders. Chaos in his ears.

  He shakes his head, checks the tablet, but the seeker bot’s screen is black. So, it either went head first into the dirt, or the massive fish ate it. Heart hammering, Ash swims back to the Moon Pool, and is bombarded by other divers. He’s not even sure who they are. If they’re Green’s or Kayla’s. All he knows is they’re scrambling to get back into the facility. And even in the water, Ash can feel the terror.

  He drifts away from the Moon Pool a bit to allow the scared divers easier access, and his breath catches in his throat like a rusty fishhook.

  No more than ten feet away, the dunkleosteus bites the head off a diver trying to escape. Blood clouds the water scarlet and before the twitching body can float away, the beast swallows it whole.

  G
ives its nickname, the Guillotine, a bit more relevance.

  Pectoral fins rotating, the monster faces Ash head on. All he can do is gape at this monstrosity. This prehistoric monster. Face to face with living history…

  He’s more fascinated than scared and he forces himself not to reach out and pet it. To make sure it’s real.

  Its huge jaws open and close. Open, and close. It’s like staring into the mouth of a cave. It wouldn’t need to bite off his head to kill him. Just suck him in and that’d be it.

  “Ash?” It’s Julia, but he can’t find his voice to speak. “Ash, just sit tight. Green is…”

  A series of thump-thump-thump’s and the dunkleosteus’ jaws open wide. A rumbling roar vibrates Ash from the inside out. Those guillotine jaws snap shut like a giant snapping turtle and the fish lashes around. In a blink, Ash notices Green and a couple of other Seals. His heart sinks a bit. She just put her and her team into the sights of a ravenous tank. Still, they shoot the creature.

  In his ear, Green shouts, “Move out, Dr. Barrington! Get topside!”

  “I’m not leaving you down here—”

  “Get the fuck into the facility, Ash,” Green commands.

  He wastes no more time and swims into the Moon Pool while more screams fill his ears.

  TWENTY

  Julia is helping him out of his suit when, through his earpiece, Green says, “I’m crammed into a narrow crevasse in the hillside. It’s bashing at the rocks and will get to me soon. Dr. Barrington, Dr. Remus, Kayla, Quinn, everyone, it has been an honor to serve you and my country. Bullets don’t hurt this thing. If you can, Ash, use the LZ-missile launcher I keep in my cabin. If any of my team make it up there, have them show you how to use it. Might be the only—”

  Harsh static roars in his ear a second before Julia pulls the helmet off.

  Ash, gasping, rolls onto his side. Chill after icy chill shivers through his body.

  “Ash?” Julia, sounding more than a little freaked out.

  “G-Green’s dead,” he manages between breaths.

  “I know,” Quinn says, stepping out of the office, Kayla following closely behind.

  He’s glad to see Kayla made it out and sits. The Moon Pool is about three feet to his left. He scoots away from it a bit and stands on legs like thin pillars of gelatin. He wobbles some, then gains his balance.

  “Any of Green’s team make it back?”

  “No,” Julia says before anyone else. “Ash, I think we should—”

  A crash of doors and, “See! Now see what you did!” Giles bustles in. Behind him are a few fellow scientists and workers.

  The little, portly man is a couple feet away when Ash points at him. “Any closer and I’ll break your nose.”

  Giles skids to a stop, looks around almost sheepishly, then clears his throat and stands ramrod straight. “Well, Dr. Barrington, you successfully led an entire Seal team to their deaths. Want to reconsider Mr. Jones’ offer now?”

  “How many do you think will die trying to capture that thing?” Ash walks to the Moon Pool and points. “That fish can’t be coaxed or tricked as easily as you think. It’s intelligent. I saw that much staring it face to face. It’s aware, at least to some degree, what’s going on. Attempting a capture would lead to many more lives.” He shakes his head, not believing what he’s about to say, but saying it anyway. “We have to kill it. If we don’t, we’ll be stuck down here forever. Or until it decides to tear Infinity Moon apart. If we don’t, more lives could be taken, not to mention a total upheaval of Lake Superior’s ecosystem.”

  Giles is grinning.

  Ash frowns. “What?”

  “Mr. Jones foresaw this happening, so he added extra measures to take place the moment you broke my phone.”

  Ash moves toward the little man, stops. “What measures?”

  Hands clasped behind his back, Giles chuckles. “Let’s just say…I hope you’re used to wearing a mech.”

  Ash blinks. “Come again? Did you say mechs?”

  “Submersible mechs don’t exist,” Kayla says. “Only time I’ve ever heard of the things is during that oil rig craziness that happened years ago.”

  “The leviathan…” Julia muses.

  “Yeah,” Kayla says. “That thing. The survivor said something about sub-mechs in an interview. But that’s not possible because sub-mechs haven’t been invented or tested yet. Trust me, I looked into it for this job.”

  Giles, he’s giggling. A high-pitched, ugly clown-like giggle.

  “What’s so funny, jackass?” Julia asks.

  “All of you,” Giles manages around giggles. He takes a few breaths, and says, “That survivor, he invented the sub-mech, and Mr. Jones made it a reality. Mr. Jones’ sub-mechs have been in full production for three years.”

  Ash shakes his head, looks at the Moon Pool. “Secrets.”

  “Mr. Jones is a genius and he has a plan to capture that beast. He also requires all of you to assist.”

  “Fuck off,” Julia spouts. “He can’t do that.”

  Giles grins. “He just did.”

  A few workers push shiny, blue mechs through the doors behind Giles.

  “He sent six of them,” the portly man says, grin barely faltering.

  Lying on their backs, the sub-mechs are lined up behind Giles.

  “Dr. Barrington, Dr. Remus, Kayla. You three get in the mechs and will be accompanied by three others of Mr. Jones’ choosing.”

  “Three others?” Ash steps away from the Moon Pool toward Giles. “Who are the three others?”

  As though perfectly timed, the doors crash open again and three men stride in. “Us,” the one in the lead says. Tall, blond, a chiseled face Ash wants to punch.

  The two behind him are shorter, though every bit as punchable as their leader.

  “And who the hell are you?” Ash’s hands curl into tight fists, fingernails biting into his palm.

  “Captain Riley Frost,” the tall, blond, douche says. He stops beside Giles. “I train people to use these mechs, Dr. Barrington. And I can tell by that little glint in your eye that you hate me already, well…you gotta hate someone. But hating me will only work against you on this mission.”

  “And,” one of the shorter men steps around Frost. “I can assure you, we’ve been given full clearance to dispatch any and all threats, including you.”

  Ash glares at the man. “Is that so?”

  “Yup. You wanna try us, asshole? We’ll—”

  “That’s enough Corporal,” Frost says. “We’re here to work together, not bicker.”

  The Corporal rolls his eyes and darts back behind his Captain.

  “Anyway,” Frost says. “This is a simple seize and transport operation. Our supplied nets are strong enough to take over ten thousand pounds of pressure. We net it, drag it to the boats above, and that’s it.”

  “And,” Ash says, “I suppose you’ve captured hundreds of prehistoric fish…”

  Frost smirks. “You got me there, Dr. Barrington. Though, I suppose it wouldn’t matter to you how many giant mutations I’ve captured in the last three years? No, it wouldn’t, because you not only hate me, but fear me and anything I say won’t matter.” He steps closer, hands clasped behind his back, very much like Giles. “I’ve been given a full file of you, Dr. Barrington. Very impressive resume. Even more impressive finds and theories on deaths and what those old fossils might’ve looked like in their day. I had the utmost respect for you…until I met you.”

  Ash, not really sure what to say, shrugs. Maybe he was wrong about Frost. Maybe there’s more honor than douchery.

  “Point is,” Giles says, “you all will comply. If you don’t…further extreme measures will be enforced.”

  “Like what, you fucking weasel?” Julia, she looks like she’s about to start hitting people. Her entire body quakes.

  “Oh, I don’t know…I have Captain Frost and his men shoot you? Fair enough?”

  “What the actual fuck, dude?” Ash has to stop Julia from charg
ing at the small man. “You can’t do that!”

  Frost clears his throat. “It has been ordered, yes. But, if you all comply, and follow my instructions, I don’t see why anyone should be hurt. We can all work together on this and be on our separate ways in less than five hours.”

  At his side, Julia says, “I don’t trust them.”

  “Me either,” Ash says.

  But, what if Murdock can indeed keep the fish alive? Despite everything, maybe it really can help humanity. Maybe it really can cure diseases and cancers. Maybe it can stop ALS and Alzheimer’s too.

  Maybe it can do all those things…but to what end?

  Why does it even matter when humanity keeps killing itself anyway?

  Why save a species that clearly doesn’t want to be saved?

  And, yet…what other choice does he have? Get the missile launcher from Green’s cabin and go at it man to giant, ravenous fish? And what if he misses or missiles don’t hurt it much? Then what? He’d probably be dead and it’d break apart the facility anyway.

  But, really, is this the best choice…?

  Is there even a choice now?

  He sighs. “Let’s do it.”

  “What?” Julia nearly shoves him into the Moon Pool.

  “It’s the only way, right now,” he tells her.

  “What about that missile thingy Green was talking about?”

  He shakes his head. “I wouldn’t even know how to shoot it. Probably blow up the damn place.”

  She steps away from him, frowning. “So, you’re giving up? You’d rather it suffer?”

  “Maybe it won’t suffer. Maybe Murdock will have what it takes to keep it alive.”

  “He does,” Frost interjects. “The best habitat has been constructed just for this fish. They want to keep it alive for a very long time, Dr. Barrington and Dr. Remus. If I thought otherwise, I wouldn’t have accepted this mission.”

  “So,” Ash says. “You actually care about this creature? Besides getting paid, you really want what’s best for it?”

  Frost nods, smiling. “Believe it or not, I wanted to be a paleontologist before I became a Marine.”

  Julia blows out a harsh breath, flaps her arms. “Of course you did. Of course! How fucking convenient.”