Primordial

Chapter 29

The moment Aston hit the water his worries dissolved. The cool, dark lake was a soothing balm for his jangled nerves, the silence a welcome change from the incessant bickering that had plagued the team. He allowed himself to float there for a moment, welcoming the brief respite from the topside world, ignoring for a moment that it would all return after this dive was finished. Assuming, of course, they didn’t end up snacks for a prehistoric predator.

Slater hit the water a few feet away. She kicked her flippered feet, slowly turning about, until she spotted him. He gave her a reluctant thumbs-up. She returned the signal and together they dove.

They had foregone the DPVs, trading a measure of speed for the ability to move in near-silence, and to potentially hide in small spaces. Each carried a dive bag with two remote cameras they would secure as close to the suspected lair as possible, even in it if they could. Once the cameras were in place and operational, they would return to the ship and wait, hoping the elusive creature would show itself in all its glory. The images they’d captured of it so far were compelling but not enough to offer definitive proof, at least by the standards of the scientific community, that a primordial creature, one believed to be long-extinct, still lived somewhere in Lake Kaarme.

Aston swam with powerful strokes, propelling his body down through the murky depths. Slater kept pace, swimming a few feet back off his right shoulder, a handheld underwater camera trained ahead of her. They descended into the channel, the blanket of darkness drawing over them. With it came a deep sense of trepidation. The story of the creature had first seemed an absurdity, and even after they’d gathered a few clues, it still seemed, at most, a remote possibility. Now that it was, to Aston’s mind, a reality, this mission seemed foolhardy, even reckless.

Just keep your wits about you. You’ve faced danger before and always come out all right. The thought echoed in his mind and he clung to it like a talisman as they left the channel and plunged into the dark passageway.

The light from his headlamp added a dull glow to his surroundings, illuminating a few feet ahead. Slater moved in beside him, adding the light from her own lamp. There wasn’t much to see, nothing the VUE hadn’t already revealed, so he swam harder, wanting nothing more than to get this over with and the two of them back to safety.

The current ran steadily in their faces, making their passage more difficult but also carrying away any silt they inadvertently stirred up. After several minutes of hard swimming, Aston enjoyed the familiar burn of exertion. It was a welcome feeling after so much time spent gazing at video screens and digital displays. He glanced over his shoulder to see if Slater was flagging at all, but she was keeping pace. The woman was hardly the stereotypical soft television personality. Perhaps when this was all over he’d have the chance to find out what other surprises she had in store.

As they approached the vertical passageway that led up to the lair, Aston’s heart began to race. What, if anything, would they find there? He wished he had more in the way of a weapon than the knife strapped to his thigh, but what could he possibly carry that would make any difference against a prehistoric beast of such massive size? If the creature’s hide was half as tough as he thought it might be, even a high-powered spear gun wouldn’t deal the thing any serious damage.

Slater tapped him on the arm and he turned his head in her direction. She pointed to the bag secured to her hip, then at the wall, and then held her palms up. Her meaning was clear — might as well start planting the cameras.

Aston nodded. Here, the camera would likely pick up a decent signal, it was close to the entrance to the lair, and the way was narrow enough that if the creature swam through, they ought to capture a lovely image of its smiling face.

Working quickly, he took one of her cameras and secured it into a fold of rock. Slater moved back to film the process. He turned it on, checked the signal, then waved a hand in front of it. A ring of white LEDs around its edge flared into life, triggered by movement. In the pitch dark of the tunnel, the small circle of lights illuminated the space like a flash bulb. They moved away, paused, and the lights blinked out again without further motion to activate the sensors. Aston gave a thumbs up and they were on their way again. He planted another camera at the spot where the passageway began its steep upward ascent, checked it and confirmed the signal was strong. He had half-hoped they’d get no signal at all, thus making a swim up to the beast’s purported home unnecessary, but if the VUE could send back images from up there, so could these cameras. Besides, Holloway expected them to make a visual inspection of the space. Perhaps, he had suggested, they might find a tooth or claw — something that could be studied and provide solid proof.

Aston turned to Slater, held up his hands, fingers spread, and pointed down. Wait here. She replied with an upraised middle finger and a shake of the head. He didn’t bother to argue.

Heart in his throat, he led the way up toward their destination. He swam hard, eager to get it over with. The darkness and creeping sense of peril quickly leached away the serenity that came with the dive, and his senses were on high alert. He realized he was breathing far too rapidly and would exhaust his air supply if he didn’t calm down. He needed to settle himself. Three slow, deep breaths, and he was close to normal again.

Finally, the entrance to the lair loomed ahead. Aston’s gut twisted in a knot at the sight of the circle of blackness. This was it. If the beast were lurking there, they could be done for. He suddenly found several religions and sent up prayers to God, Jesus, Vishnu, Poseidon, and one to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, just to be a smartass, as he passed into the widening tunnel.

Slater paused and pointed, so he positioned a camera not far from the water’s surface above. It was a good spot and would capture anything breaking in from the cavern. Aston took a steadying breath and swam upward.

He broke the surface and looked around, his head on a swivel. As his headlamp swept cold, hard rock his heart hammered, so loudly he was sure the sound would draw the monster to him. But he saw only dark, cold rock. The domed ceiling rose about fifteen feet above his head, and a wide ledge ran around one side of the open space, disappearing into darkness. He breathed a sigh of relief. There was no monster.

He set to work, hauling himself up the side wall to balance on one knee and wedge the last camera in a narrow crevice, aiming it down so it could take in most of the cavern floor immediately at the water’s edge. The space beyond seemed huge, disappearing into shadows his headlamp couldn’t penetrate and he was reluctant to stick around any longer than necessary to look. Time flowed like cold molasses as he secured the camera, turned in on, and checked the signal and movement sensor light. The cave lit up and the signal read twenty per cent. It would do.

A flash of movement drew his eyes back toward the water. His stomach lurched when he saw Slater thrashing about in the light from the last camera he had placed, held fast by unseen hands, her headlamp carving hectically back and forth under the surface. He had been so intent on getting into the cave and out again that he hadn’t checked she was still with him. He dropped and powered toward her, swimming for all he was worth.

As he drew close, relief washed through him as he spotted the problem — one of her fins had wedged in a jagged crack in the stone. Slater, too panicked to see what held her fast, kicked and batted at the rock that gripped her. Aston grabbed her arms, pinned them to her sides, and slowly nodded. You’re all right. When she stopped fighting, he hastily worked her free. He pointed to the way out, but she shook her head vigorously, gestured upwards. She needed a moment to gather herself perhaps.

When they broke the surface in the cavern next to the rocky shelf, Slater spat out her regulator and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Oh my God. I thought… I thought it had…” she sobbed.

“I know,” he said, stroking the back of her head with one hand while grabbing on to the rock with the other. “It’s all right.”

“I made an ass of myself.” Her voice still trembled, but she was already regaining her composure, taking deep, steadying breaths.

“This place has me spooked,” Aston said. “I should have paid more attention, I’m sorry.” He jabbed a thumb back over his shoulder. “This must be where the VUE surfaced before. I set a camera up over there, so we’re good to go, I think. Let’s just…” He broke off when he felt Slater go rigid. “What is it?”

Her gasping reply scarcely reached his ears. “Bones.”

He slowly turned his head. On the opposite side of the rock shelf to where he had climbed before, far back under a large overhang, were piles of animal and human skeletons. Cloaked in gloom, they stood out as stark white sculptures as Slater slowly panned her light back and forth. His own flashlight picked them out even more clearly. Aston realized the VUE had briefly shown the smooth round objects that he now realized were skulls.

They floated there, frozen by the macabre scene. Finally, Slater let go of his neck. “I have to get some pictures of this.” She raised the small video camera, her free hand on the ledge to boost herself up.

“Jo, don’t!” He snatched the camera away and pressed a finger to her lips. “Listen,” he whispered.

A stray sound had caught his attention. As they listened, it came again. The heavy, wet slap of something hitting solid rock. Something big, far back in the cave.

Slater’s eyes bulged and her jaw dropped.

Go, he mouthed.

Biting down on his regulator, he sank beneath the surface and swam for it, Slater right beside him. He kept glancing back, each time fearing he’d see a dark shadow or a gaping maw closing in behind.

He’d always prided himself on having a high panic threshold. No matter how dire the circumstances he was the one who kept his wits about him. Those limits were tested now in their desperate flight toward safety. They were still side by side as they reached the swirling maelstrom of currents where the main passage passed the vertical shaft and they kicked hard into it, heading back for the lake.

Despite the current at their backs, he felt they were moving at a snail’s pace. When would the way out come? Light flared repeatedly as they passed the cameras they had set and Aston took each as motivation to get to the next.

But it was a long way from the last camera back to open water. The currents were too crazy, the distance too far. He felt his body weakening, his senses dulling, as the heaping dose of adrenaline in his system began to dissipate. The dim light of the lake loomed up ahead, but his legs were lead and his arms rubber. He had nothing left.

Slater was faring no better. She stopped, grabbed hold of the side of the passageway, and waved for him to go on without her.

Aston was having none of that. Calling on reserves of strength he hadn’t known he possessed, he took hold of her wrist and urged her forward. Together, they made their way, one exhausting inch at a time, back out into the silty deep green gloom of Lake Kaarme and kicked up for the shadow of the boat high above.

They broke the surface, gasping and flailing for the dive platform as Joaquin reached out to help them. Only when he stood on the deck again did Aston allow himself to surrender to the sheer weight of exhaustion that he had thus far held at bay. He hit the deck, rolled onto his back, and closed his eyes.

“What happened?” Joaquin’s voice sounded as if it came from miles away.

Aston sucked in deep lungsful of humid air. “Bones,” was all he could manage.

When his breathing steadied, he pushed himself up and shucked off the tank harness and removed his flippers. He turned to look for Slater and saw her halfway up the steps to the bridge, looking up onto the deck.

“What the hell is Holloway doing?” she said, eyes wide.