Kronos

24

Coast Guard Cutter-Gulf of Maine

Andrea stood on Coast Guard cutter’s deck feeling more alone than ever. Most of the crew had lost interest in the Titan and the men still fishing-incessantly fishing-off the back of the giant ship. But she found herself locked to the top deck of the cutter, unable to leave. She knew the crew suspected there was more to her obsession with Trevor Manfred than she’d explained, but short of lying to them, she couldn’t change that perception. It was the truth.

She raised the binoculars to her eyes and scanned the Titan again. Except for the men fishing off the stern, there was no movement. Nothing at all. She scanned the men at the back of the boat, watching them cast their lines into the ocean, searching for a fuzzy white-mopped head of hair. Nothing. Trevor had been missing in action all day.

He’d claimed the fishermen were his guests. If they’re guests, why isn’t he with them? Andrea thought. Just then, one of the men yanked hard on his rod. The pole bent sharply into an upside-down U. The man had hooked something big, but as he locked himself into the seat and began pulling and reeling, Andrea could see it wasn’t too big to handle. Just another small tuna, she thought. They’d pulled in two already.

She watched the man battling with the fish, his face not more than a millimeter in size, but she could see the flash of his teeth when he smiled. She could see the other men cheering around him, whooping it up, and having fun. Maybe they were guests? Maybe Trevor was sick, or just a rude host?

Then the men froze. They seemed to be listening to something. The man holding the fishing rod suddenly let go. The rod flew through the air and into the water. The stern deck cleared as the men rushed inside.

What the hell?

The sound of a metal door clanging against the side of the bridge startled Andrea away from her spying. She turned around to see the captain rushing out of the bridge, heading her way with a scowl on his face. She’d been caught. Maybe Reilly had spilled his guts? She stood tall, ready for a verbal barrage, still confident in the choices she’d made and the secrets she’d kept.

She remained silent until the captain was upon her. “Sir, I can explain,” she blurted.

“I seriously doubt that,” the captain said as her stood before her, glancing at the Titan.

Andrea was confused. Up close, he didn’t seem angry, not at her anyway. His eyes were more interested in the Titan than in her. She decided to keep her explanations to herself and let the man speak.

The captain sighed. He removed his captain’s hat and rubbed his temples. “Look, we all know about what you and your crew saw. We all heard about the rescue, the creature. Rumor spreads quickly. You know that. To be honest, not many of us took it seriously. We figured that was why you were really out here; we figured that was why Manfred was here too. But, none of us really believed it. We were going to turn back today. Some of the crew wasn’t all that happy about being on a wild-goose chase.”

Where was he going with this? She opened her mouth to ask, but decided silence would be better for now.

“Look,” he said. “We just intercepted a transmission.”

Andrea’s forehead wrinkled with her rising interest. “From the Titan?”

“Yes, but the response came from”-the captain pointed a finger over the side of the cutter, straight toward the ocean-“down there.”

Andrea looked to the waves, trying to see through, imagining what could be down there.

“It’s seems they’ve had an encounter with your creature. Some men must have gone down in a submersible launched from the Titan. Honest to God, I didn’t think it was real, but the fear in those men’s voices…” The captain trailed off and looked over to the Titan. He squinted and crunched his forehead. “What happened to the men fishing?”

Andrea returned her gaze to the Titan, remembering the rush of the men on deck. Coupled with the information she now had, she could picture the crew hurrying throughout the ship, preparing, recovering the submersible, destroying their cover story.

Why?

Andrea gasped. “They’re going after it!”

Trevor burst onto the bridge of the Titan and began shouting orders. Atticus and O’Shea stood behind him. The cabin became a flurry of motion as the captain and crew rushed about, preparing for a rapid pursuit. Remus greeted them on the bridge, his colorful shirt nearly washing out the pitiful look in his eyes.

“I should have been with you,” Remus said to Trevor, with a look of genuine concern.

“Fret not, Remus. Atticus handled the sub like a pro.” Trevor gave the man a pat on the shoulder and moved to the front window.

Remus gave Atticus a scowl and stood next to Trevor, waiting for his command.

O’Shea slid up next to Atticus and whispered, “You better watch out for that one.” He motioned to Remus. “He doesn’t like it when other people get close to Trevor.”

“He’s worried about nothing,” Atticus said. “I’ve only just met the man.”

“You called him by his first name,” O’Shea said.

Atticus shrugged. “So?”

“Only those who criticize Trevor on TV or in the papers, or those in his extreme favor, can call him by his first name. On the Titan, only I get away with calling him by his first name, and that’s simply because he fears the power I represent.”

“I doubt Trevor fears God,” Atticus said.

“No, but he fears eternity. He believes, for some reason, in the power of priests to erase sins and save souls. I am his ticket to a blessed eternal life.”

“That’s not really how it works, is it?”

O’Shea smiled. “Not at all, but he believes it.”

“Then why are you here? I doubt it’s common for a priest to be paid to hear confession.”

“That,” said O’Shea, “is a story for another day.”

Trevor’s voice pierced the cabin again. “Where is the creature now?”

“It’s returned to the school of herring,” the captain said, leaning over the sonar screen, still being fed multiple signals from the array of sonar buoys.

“Must have seen the basking shark as a competitor and driven it out of the area,” Atticus said, unable to stop himself from analyzing the creature’s actions from the standpoint of an oceanographer.

“It’s…it’s rising,” the captain said, his voice tight with tension. “It’s going after the herring.”

Atticus felt a surge of adrenaline. He knew what was coming next.

“Full steam ahead!” Trevor shouted. “I want us on top of it in ten minutes or heads will roll!” He turned to Remus and spoke in a calmer voice. “Prepare the harpoon, will you?”

Remus nodded. “Yes, sir.” Then he was gone in a flash.

Trevor turned to Atticus, a gleam in his eye. “Are you ready, Atticus? The game is afoot. I believe Melville called this portion of the hunt, ‘The Chase’”

“That was at the end of the book,” O’Shea said.

Trevor smiled. “I’m an impatient man.”

White foam burst from the back of the Titan. It lurched forward and churned through the water. “There they go!” Andrea shouted.

Standing in the bridge of the cutter alongside the captain, her shout was unnecessary but understandable. From the moment they’d realized what was happening, the crew had been on alert and ready to move.

“Set a course to follow,” the captain said. “Bring us alongside, but keep a safe distance.”

Andrea braced for sudden movement as the cutter’s engines roared to life. The propellers dug into the water and pushed them forward in pursuit of the Titan. While the captain and crew had their minds set on the chase and the possibility that the sea monster they’d all been joking about was real, Andrea’s thoughts were on the man she’d been pursuing from the moment she’d brought him back to life. She knew Atticus was on the Titan. But as she watched the megayacht pounding through the water, a glint of metal rising from its bow, she realized it might be too late to save him.

While his life might not be at risk while aboard the Titan, he was going to lose himself in the fight. She feared he’d become as much a monster as the creature he sought to kill.

A reassuring hand gripped her shoulder. She turned and found the captain looking at the photo. “He’s why we’re really here, right? He’s the man you pulled from the water, the one who lost his daughter?”

She nodded.

“He’s on the Titan?”

She nodded again.

He squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll get him back.”

“How long have you known?”

“I’ve been a sailor long enough to know what a woman looks like when she’s waiting for a man to return from sea.” The captain smiled. “You’ve been standing on that deck watching that ship with the same look in your eyes I see in my wife’s every time she greets me at the dock.”

Andrea smiled. She’d been found out after all, but, amazingly, it didn’t seem to matter. The captain was a good man. Only then did she realize she had yet to learn his name. “Captain, what’s your name?”

“Nathaniel McCormick,” he said.

“Well Captain McCormick,” she said, “thank you.”