Kronos

23

Aboard Ray-Beneath the Gulf of Maine

Though his sorrow fought against it, a smile grew on Atticus’s face. He twisted the control stick and took the sleek submersible into a spin. He followed the spin with a twist in the other direction and a loop that brought them toward the ocean’s bright blue surface, then back to the depths.

Atticus hadn’t planned on the joyride, but after feeling the speeds the sub could reach and how easily it handled, he’d started testing its limits. He had yet to find them. It handled like a jet fighter-an amazing jet fighter-underwater.

Trevor bellowed a laugh. He was enjoying himself as well. It wasn’t until O’Shea groaned loudly from the back that Atticus eased up on the controls and slowed. He ducked down out of the bubble and looked back at O’Shea. “You all right back there?”

“Peachy…” O’Shea looked green. “Just, slow down, will you? I’ve never been fond of amusement parks for a reason.”

Trevor was peeking out of his side. “Oh, Father. You can’t tell me that didn’t make you feel alive.”

“God makes me feel alive,” O’Shea said with just a hint of a smile.

“Oh, phooey on you,” Trevor said with a wave of his hand. He looked at Atticus. “And you! When this business is finished, you have a spot on my crew if you’d like it.”

Atticus wasn’t sure what to think of the offer. It was a temptation filled with the prospect of money and adventure, but those things seemed so hollow in the wake of all that had happened and might happen. He’d already considered the idea and imagined he would accept. He liked Trevor, and if he survived the confrontation with the creature, he’d need to do something with his life, no matter how shallow. He nodded his response and returned to the confines of his glass bubble.

The rest of the descent was made in silence and without reaching breakneck speeds. As they neared the seafloor some two hundred feet below, the light from the sun filtered away to a blue so dark that they couldn’t see more than a few feet.

“Trevor,” Atticus said, “this thing has lights, correct? And can you work the manipulator arms once we find the camera?”

Atticus saw Trevor look at him, his troll-shaped face deep in thought through the two glass bubbles. He seemed to be seriously considering something. Then he smiled and saluted. “Aye aye, mon capitaine. ”

The ocean became a globe of bright blue as two exterior five-hundred-watt metal halide lights blazed to life, lighting the surrounding area to near-daylight conditions. The seafloor came into view, glowing golden brown under the light. The sandy bottom was pocked with orange cerianthids, burrowing anemones, their jellylike limbs swaying with the ocean currents. Skittering across the sand were several small crabs, fleeing from Ray ’s bright lights. Tiny specks of life, known as zooplankton, flittered all around the sub, not even aware of it.

Atticus ignored the life that normally would have enthralled him and set about the task at hand. “I’m going to run a search grid. It will be tedious, but we should find it.”

Trevor nodded his agreement and Atticus pushed the sub forward.

Forty-five minutes later they were rewarded for their efforts. A flicker of reflected light in the distance revealed something on the sandy surface. Atticus wasted no time in approaching the object. He caught his breath, instantly recognizing the camera resting in its protective casing.

As they approached the case, Trevor spoke up. “We’re approaching the edge of the ledge, Atticus. Watch out for upwelling currents.”

Atticus nodded. He’d already noticed the building currents and was working hard to compensate for them. “Just grab the camera.”

Atticus couldn’t see Trevor’s hands working, but he could hear small motors moving within the submersible. Then two mechanical arms gradually reached out from Ray, stretching toward the sunken camera. As Trevor latched both manipulator arms tightly to the camera case handholds, a hiding flounder panicked and burst from the sand, swimming quickly away over the sandy seafloor. The movement brought Trevor’s eyes up from the camera.

He screamed.

A massive shadow rose from the depths beyond the ledge. A creature of undetermined length ascended, its massive mouth held agape.

“Get us out of here!” Trevor shouted, his voice squeaking in fear. “The beast is upon us!”

Atticus laughed hard, grateful for the distraction from the lump that had been forming in his throat since he first laid eyes on the camera. “It’s just a basking shark.”

As the forty-foot shark continued to rise, sucking down and filtering out a cloud of helpless copepods, Trevor slowed his anxious breathing and took in the creature. “A shark. A damn shark! That thing is huge!”

“Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the ocean. The first is the whale shark.”

“But, it’s so big.”

“Trust me,” Atticus said, “when you get your first look at what we’re after, this toothless giant will seem small and gentle. In fact, it makes Laurel look like a sweet little puppy.”

A voice echoed through the cabin, transmitted from the Titan above. “Mr. Manfred! We just picked up something huge on-”

Trevor slid on a headset, flicked it on, and cut the panic-filled voice off. “It’s a shark, you nervous twit. And the next time you let something this big get this close to me without warning; I’ll have your head. Understood?”

“Yes. Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“Where is the creature now?”

“Umm, the shark is moving away.”

“Not the shark!” Trevor shouted. “The…the creature. The monster!”

“Oh, it’s ahh…it’s still following the herring. It’s about three miles east of your current position, moving north.”

Trevor switched off the headset and put it down. “Imbeciles.”

Atticus gave one last look at the basking shark as it swam gently away, gobbling up more copepods. Not everything in the ocean is an evil monster, Atticus thought, as a shred of his old self surfaced for a moment. He worked the controls and rather than head directly for the surface, he gave chase to the basking shark. He pulled up next to its head as it lazily swam through the water. As it was illuminated by the bright lights, Atticus could clearly see its brownish coloration, conical snout, and large gill slits. While being far from attractive, a basking shark’s size and smooth glide made it a wonder to behold.

Suddenly its massive jaw snapped shut. The shark hovered for a moment, then, with a speed Atticus thought impossible for one of its kind, turned tail and fled back into the depths beyond the ledge.

Atticus’s body went rigid. “Oh hell.”

Trevor’s eyes were wide. “What?”

Atticus put the submersible at a steep angle and accelerated as fast as he could. A voice, yelling this time, came over the intercom. “It’s coming your way. It just changed course. Holy…It’s fast!”

Trevor switched off the intercom and shouted to Atticus. “Hit the yellow button on the control stick, aim for the Titan ’s underside. When we get within twenty feet let go, and the computer will take over.”

Atticus didn’t bother to ask why. He simply flipped up the button’s protective covering and pushed it with his thumb. In the split second before anything happened, he wondered what the green, red, and blue buttons were for. Then they were off. It felt like the beginning of a terrible roller coaster. Atticus felt himself pinned to his seat as the craft reached fifty knots in just a few seconds. He heard O’Shea groan, but he didn’t sound sick.

“Oh, Dear Lord, there it is,” O’Shea said.

Atticus knew O’Shea’s view was out the port side and looked in that direction. He looked past Trevor’s glass bubble and saw a huge shape shifting through the water. At that distance he could only see its dark silhouette, but the up-and-down undulation was unmistakable. If the creature hadn’t been moving past them, in the direction of the basking shark, Atticus might not have looked forward. But he did, and in that instant realized they were going to crash headlong into the hull of the Titan.

He let go of the controls and felt the craft shift as the computer immediately took over. Huge jets of bubbles exploded from Ray ’s roof. The jets served to correct their angle of approach and slow them down. In seconds, what surely would have been a quick and violent death morphed into a smooth, gliding ascent. They rose smoothly into the confines of Ray ’s bay.

With their safety assured, Trevor lowered his seat. Atticus followed suit and met his eyes. Trevor was near tears and his skin paler than usual. “It was beautiful,” he said, wiping wetness away from his eyes with his black sleeve. “I simply must have it.”

O’Shea spoke from the back. His voice was quivering with fear, not holding an iota of Trevor’s excitement. “Are you sure that is wise? This…this creature might be out of even your league.”

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” Trevor started.

“I shall fear no evil,” Atticus finished.

O’Shea gave a nervous smile. “Except for that thing.”