Primordial

Chapter 26

“What do we do?” Slater’s voice quavered and her face drained of color. “Do you think it was Rinne’s man, or could it have been one of the crew?” She ran her fingers through her hair and looked around as if the culprit might be hiding somewhere nearby. “What would someone want with it?”

A variety of scenarios flashed through Aston’s mind: Holloway or Joaquin had come down to check on it, Dave had panicked and disturbed it, the captain had considered disposing of it but changed his mind… But the most likely explanation seemed to be the one the Superintendent had hinted at.

“Do you think Rinne’s man really made it onto the ship and found it without anyone noticing he was here?” Aston asked.

“I suppose it’s possible, if he came late at night after everyone was asleep.”

Aston didn’t miss the fact that she didn’t quite meet his eye as she spoke. Another possibility occurred to him. What if Slater herself had disturbed it during one of her late-night treks?

“Have you been back to look at it since we first discovered it?”

Anger flared in her eyes “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“For the show. Did you or one of your crew come down to get some extra footage or something?” Somehow he couldn’t bring himself to challenge her about her suspicious behavior.

“Absolutely not.” She kept her tone and gaze level, staring him right in the eye.

“Okay,” he said. And it was. He believed her, hopefully not to his detriment. “Then I say Rinne’s man is the most likely culprit. He probably didn’t want to touch it without a warrant, if such things are required in Finland.”

“If that’s the case, I suppose we’re lucky he didn’t make it back to town.” Slater grimaced. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”

“But you’re not wrong. I can’t imagine what Rinne would do if he found out about it. That man is going to be a problem.”

“He wouldn’t be a problem if you hadn’t gone to him.” Holloway loomed in the doorway, his face still florid. “You betrayed my trust, Aston. I knew you were a crook but I thought you could at least be bought.”

Aston didn’t miss the puzzled glance Slater shot in his direction. Anger boiled up anew and he took a step toward Holloway, but stopped when Slater grabbed him by the wrist.

“Let it go, Aston. We’re all on the same side. It just doesn’t feel that way right now because we’re all under so much stress.” She stepped between Aston and Holloway, whose posture indicated he just might be stupid enough to take a swing. If he did, Aston could kiss his payday goodbye because he would pound Holloway into a bloody pulp. “I asked him to talk to the authorities. Begged him, in fact. Dave is my friend and I want to find out what happened to him. I’m sorry if I did the wrong thing, but surely you can see now that hiding things from Rinne can backfire on us. Isn’t it better to at least give the impression we’re above board?”

Slowly, Holloway’s frozen features melted as the tension drained away. “Fine. We’ll let it go for now, but if either of you steps another foot out of bounds, you’ll need better attorneys than mine to get a penny of what was promised to you. And there are no better attorneys than mine. Do we understand each other?”

Aston entertained one more fleeting thought of decking the man and getting the hell out, but reconsidered. When compared to the threat posed by Chang, Rinne was a mosquito. “Fair enough. I’m sorry for not keeping you in the loop.”

“What were you two talking about when I walked in?” Holloway took a step inside and looked around.

“The foot’s been disturbed. Someone’s been messing with it.” Aston couldn’t keep the note of challenge from his voice. “Any idea who might have done that?”

Holloway blinked twice. “No.” He pursed his lips and stared at the ground, probably considering the same set of possibilities Aston had. “Joaquin wouldn’t have done anything with it without my say-so. I suppose I’ll have to question the captain and Laine, you ask Carly.” He pressed his hands to his temples. “Good god, it shouldn’t be this difficult. Am I going to have to make an example of someone just to get some teamwork around here? If someone has been screwing around with this foot, I’ll…”

“It would actually be a good thing if one of us has been poking around down here,” Aston interrupted. “It’s much better than the alternative.”

Holloway understood immediately. “The police officer.” He let his hands fall to his sides.

“Do you think there’s any chance Rinne’s man made it here?” Slater bit her lip as she waited for Holloway’s response.

“It’s hard to believe he could have slipped onto the Merenneito without anyone hearing him, but I suppose it’s possible. It’s not like we post guards.”

“Oh my god!” Carly’s faint cry cut off further discussion. “Guys, get up here!”

They dashed to the bridge where the young woman was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her camera trained on the monitor where the image of the underwater cameras was displayed. “Something swam by. I saw it.”

“Let me check.” Aston moved to the controls, grabbed the mouse, backed the video up thirty seconds. The tension in the room was palpable as they gazed at the screen. And then something flashed across the monitor. And then several somethings.

“A school of fish,” Aston groaned. “Carly, I…”

And then he saw it. Something massive shot past the camera, so close he couldn’t make out any details, but he couldn’t deny it was there.

“What was that?” Slater breathed.

“Something big,” Holloway said.

Aston couldn’t deny what he’d seen.

They stood there, staring at one another for the span of several heartbeats, none of them able to speak. Aston knew there were a dozen things they should be doing right now but he was frozen in the moment.

“What’s this, then?” Laine had wandered into the cabin. The simple question seemed to jolt everyone from their collective stupor. They all began talking at once, describing what they’d seen and debating their next move.

“Which direction was it moving?” Aston asked.

Carly shrugged. “Right, I guess. That way.” She ran her finger from left to right across the monitor screen. “I guess that doesn’t help, does it?”

“It does, actually. It was headed toward the passageway.”

“Carly, we need to film a reaction segment right now.” Slater began smoothing her hair, though not a strand was out of place.

“We need to send the VUE back in,” Aston said to Holloway. “I imagine that thing, whatever it is, can move a lot faster than our little bot, but if she holes up somewhere along the way, we might get a look at her.”

“So it’s a ‘she’ now, is it?” Slater asked.

“I didn’t get a good look, but what I saw reminds me of an ex-girlfriend.”

Slater chuckled. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.” She glanced at Carly, who held the camera trained on them both. “Are you ready?”

Carly gave a thumbs-up. “Rolling.”

Slater turned to Aston. “Can we take a look back at the image?”

“Of course.” Aston backed the video up and began to click forward. The school of fish swam by, and then the screen turned to a mottled gray. It was impossible to gauge the size of the creature, but Aston could tell it was large, maybe huge. Despite the silt and the slightly out-of-focus image, he could make out a row of teeth, then an eye. The top edge of a flipper shot past. Another flipper followed, and then a long tail tipped with a fan-like fin. And then it was gone.

“What do you think it is?” Slater was all business.

Keenly aware of the camera, Aston sat up straight. “I can’t say right off. The creature is so close to the camera that we don’t get much detail.”

“How about at the end of the clip? She seems to move away from the camera a bit.”

“We definitely get our best look at the tip of the tail. That’s the first thing we’ll try to match up.”

“What will you match it with?”

“We’ll begin with known, living creatures. If we don’t find a match, and perhaps even if we do, we’ll look at prehistoric water creatures as well.”

“How big do you think it is?”

Aston’s stomach lurched. Though he couldn’t prove it, his gut told him the thing was at least forty feet long, but he was a professional and hated to speculate without solid evidence. He swallowed hard.

“Big. Very big.”