Something’s Down There

Chapter Fifteen

In the short time they had been on the stern of the ship, something had disrupted the festivities. There was no glaring change in the action that anyone could point to, but Mako felt it and all his senses suddenly became alert. There were four separate groups of men in earnest discussion, a younger man seeming to travel back and forth between them as if passing information. Each group was led by the type they called “elder statesman,” and, in fact, two of them had been, in the United States Senate.

Every few minutes a uniformed middle-aged crew member would come out of the passageway and go directly to one of the groups, hand over an envelope, take what was apparently a written receipt, hand it to the bigger man in the blue suit who was accompanying him, then hurry back toward the dark recess of the passageway.

“What’s happening?” Hooker asked.

Judy frowned and followed his gaze, then shook her head.

“Something’s going on, kid,” he told her. “They’re having an office meeting.”

“Oh, they always do that.”

“Do what?”

“Their businesses all seem to interlock and when something happens on the market they hold their committee meetings right here. Apparently it’s a pretty good arrangement.”

“You see those messengers coming up to them?”

“Yes. They’re from the computer room.”

“Each one of those guys has a bodyguard and they’re packing a pretty big piece under their jackets.”

Slowly Judy looked up at him, then said, “How would you know that?”

“Because I’m in the business, baby. How would you know what the big boys over there are doing?”

A tight expression came over her face for a moment. “I’ve... seen it several times. Why, what’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing, but I thought these guys were all retired. Hell, they have their millions, what more could they want?”

After a moment’s thought, Judy asked flippantly, “Billions?”

Hooker nodded and said, “You may be right, doll.”

It was the wind that gave him the answer. From the small gathering to his left he heard the same word twice. It wasn’t a new word. It had been in the news for a year and openly debated in public forums for a long time, but bandying it about here gave it a new meaning. The gentle breeze across the deck had carried the word right to him and he said, “Euro currency.”

“What?” Judy was staring at him, puzzled.

Hooker pulled Judy away from the passengers, got each one of them a soft drink at the bar, and when they were alone, he told her, “They’ve gotten some inside information on the European financial market... something to do with the new euro currency.”

“Would that be important?”

“In the right hands it could be damn important... and all the right hands in the business world seem to be aboard your boat, Judy.”

“Mako... they’re on vacation! This is a pleasure trip for them.”

“The hell it is. Who authorized a computer room like this on a pleasure ship?”

“Well, that was Marcus Grey’s idea. This way the guests can keep up with their business affairs. It was one of his promotional projects.”

“Have you seen the equipment?”

“Yes, but...”

“Describe it.”

“Mako... I can’t. All I know is...”

“That it’s state-of-the-art,” he finished for her.

“Yes. Very highly specialized. There are no duplicates in the world.”

“How many units?”

Mako slipped his hand around her waist and she moved close against him. It gave him a warm feeling and he said, “Let’s get out of here. Crowds aren’t my thing at all. Can you order up an inflatable to get us over to the Sentilla?”

Her smile said it wouldn’t be any trouble at all.

But she didn’t have to bother. One of the cruise ship’s waiters brought her word that Captain Watts had sent a launch over to pick them up. No, he didn’t say what for, but it was an important matter.

Don Watts was waiting at the top of the boarding ladder when they got there. His face was serious when he nodded hello; he escorted them both to the wheelhouse, where they could surround themselves with the darkness of the ocean and the lights of the cruise ship and Lotusland. Tellig was there too, an even darker smudge on the ocean, her presence not reflecting any light at all.

There was another visitor there too and Hooker grinned at her.

Kim Sebring stood up and shook hands with both of them. “You guys really made them jump in the home office, you know that?”

Judy’s eyebrows went up. “Why? We’re pretty far from your home base.”

“It was a double whammy,” Kim said. “Your father was a big money donor to our cause at Woods Hole.”

Judy simply shook her head. “My father was interested in anything about the ocean.”

When Kim looked at Mako she grinned again. “My boss was in the service with you, Mr. Hooker. He got a medical discharge after the helicopter you two were in got shot down. He was all busted up and you had a piece of tubing stuck in your butt. He hopes you can still sit in a straight chair.”

“I’ll be damned. Old Bambi Hill. I thought he’d go back to his farm on Long Island.”

“He did, but between tourists and traffic he got run out and the only place he could go where there still was some privacy was the ocean. Woods Hole was a perfect spot for him.”

“You two sound like cousins,” Captain Watts interrupted. He got everybody seated, passed around cups of fresh coffee and said, “Mako, pursuant to your original problem, I have some new information.”

“The eater?”

“Possibly.” Watts tilted back in his chair, his fingers laced across his stomach. “We’ve picked up some radio traffic from boats between Peolle and here. It was pretty frenzied and sometimes garbled, but I have a good guy on the horn who can make sense out of anything. What he heard was all on CB, and friend, we were lucky it carried this far. Those old fishing boats aren’t noted for having any sophisticated equipment.”

“You’re right,” Hooker said. “Most likely inexpensive Radio Shack models, good, but old. Everything they have is out of date, including their outboard engines.”

“They had two sightings of that thing you called the eater.”

Judy leaned forward quickly. “What did they say it was?” Her voice had a breathless touch to it.

“They didn’t say everything in English.”

“Damn!” Hooker exploded.

Captain Watts held up his hand. “Don’t sweat it. We recorded the conversation. I contacted Chana on the Tellig and they took off for the area immediately.”

“Damn, she never let me know!”

“Was she supposed to?”

“This is my call, not hers.” Suddenly he shook his head, angry at himself. “No, she did right. It was an emergency action. How long have they been gone?”

“Tellig left twenty minutes ago.”

Hooker felt his breath ease out slowly in relief. “Send somebody over to the Clamdip and get Billy Bright. He’ll be able to decipher what they said.”

Watts reached for the phone, gave the order and hung up the receiver. “We have a fix on the position of the incident. I suppose you’ll want to go there.”

“Right. How far is it?”

“You should make it in a couple of hours.”

Hooker nodded at Kim Sebring. “Where do you come in?”

Kim leaned on the edge of the desk and said to Hooker, “We finished our little ocean bottom experiment. It was very interesting.”

Mako frowned, wondering what she was getting at.

“Captain Watts was good enough to contribute some of his findings too,” she said. “Neither of us were doing any secret work, but we have both come to some oddball conclusions.”

“The face of the earth is changing,” Watts put in. “There are plate movements where we never suspected them to be.”

“Like the San Andreas Fault?”

“At this point, not so severe. There are indications.”

“I don’t like the way you say that,” Mako told him.

“Nothing may happen in our lifetime,” Watts said softly.

“Oh boy,” Judy whispered, the sense of it getting to her.

Kim leaned forward again, her hands poised to describe what she had found. “There are currents below that weren’t there a hundred years ago. Scara Island was clean then, a breeding ground for seabirds.”

“How do you know?” Judy asked.

It was Hooker who said, “Old charts. The captains of the old sailing ships did a lot of topographical work too.”

Kim nodded in acknowledgment. “We’ve known a lot about Scara Island, but when we found out that the Sentilla was going to do some experimental sounding nearby, we coordinated with the navy to carry out our own investigation too. The navy was glad to cooperate.”

“So,” Captain Watts said, “why don’t we have some more coffee until Mr. Billy Bright comes aboard.” He called for the mess boy to bring what was needed and had the radio room deliver up a tape of the CB transmission, and they made small talk until the ship’s launch bumped against the ramp of the Sentilla.

There was wariness in Billy’s eyes when he came aboard. Nobody had briefed him, and until he saw Mako sitting there comfortably with Judy beside him, he was as tensed up as a tight spring. His eyes caught Hooker’s and he said, “Sar... it is all right?”

Hooker pushed a chair toward him and nodded. “Everything’s okay, Billy. We need an interpreter and you’re our man.”

Billy’s face stayed blank.

Mako explained, “The eater’s out there again. Our guys are on the CB, but we can’t understand what they’re saying.” He motioned for Billy to sit down and flicked on the tape recorder. Captain Watts turned on another to record Billy Bright’s rendition of the radio chatter.

Billy recognized the first voice immediately. “That’s Poca... and Lule Malli... their boat, she got hit again!”

“They sinking, Billy?”

The Carib shook his head. “No, sar... the pump, she is holding.”

Other voices came in, fainter but frantic. All their heads were turned toward Billy, waiting to see what had happened. Suddenly there was a pitched screaming and the sound of engines suddenly being revved up past the redline almost blanked out the voices. Billy’s voice was shaking as he said, “They saw it... the eater... it was right behind them.”

“They get hit again?”

Billy shook his head hard. “No, sar, they got away.” He turned and stared at Hooker. “They all saw it, sar. They heard it breathe.”

“They describe it?”

The tape had gone quiet. That was description enough. With death so close nobody had time to describe it. It was there. That was enough.

But Billy knew what was happening. “They see another ship to the west and Lule think it be the Tellig. They be helping in Poca and Lule, you think?” Suddenly his face wore a dark scowl. “They won’t leave them, will they?” he asked anxiously. “Lule and Poca, they be good friends, them.”

Judy finished it for him when she got to her feet. “So are we, Billy.”

Billy grinned, the relief plain on his face. Hooker said, “We’ll take any boat and tow them back. I’ll stay in touch on VHF. Channel nineteen okay?”

“No problem,” Captain Watts told him. “You need anything?”

“What I need is on the Lotusland.” He glanced at Judy and said, “You have a handheld camera aboard, haven’t you?”

“We have anything you can think of.”

“Good. Get the newest digital camera you can! Get the smallest you have and the simplest to operate.”

“Can do.” She beamed.

“Any weaponry?” Watts asked.

“No, that rocket launcher I got before is enough. I have a few other pieces aboard. Strictly legal in these waters.”

“Don’t start a war, buddy.”

“Hell, it started a long time ago.”

“Something eating ships is hardly a war.”

Mako grinned at him. “It’s a good way to keep one going.” He looked over at Kim Sebring and added, “I think Woods Hole will enjoy this expedition.”

The Sentilla’s launch was the quickest way to get to Lotusland, then back to the Clamdip. Judy went up the boarding ladder of her company ship and in ten minutes she was back with a canvas bag she lowered over the side before going down herself.

As soon as her feet touched the deck and Hooker steadied her, the engines roared and the launch pulled away, turning sharply behind the stern of the Lotusland and heading south to where the Clamdip was anchored.

Hooker lowered his mouth to her ear and shouted, “You get everything?”

She nodded brusquely, then shouted back, “Tony Pell was gone, Mako. He had come from the party, got into slickers, and then he and Gary left in the big inflatable. They had a lot of camera equipment with them.”

Mako felt a wave of impatience close over him like a cold fog. He knew what had happened. Somebody on the cruise ship had picked up the frantic call from Poca and Lule and relayed it to Pell. Now there was no way they could get to the area in the Clamdip before them. Damn!

The transfer took less than a minute and the launch went back to its mother ship. Billy had the engines going and the anchor raised, and Clamdip went into gear, picking up knots until it was at full speed. Every few seconds Hooker would flick on the bow searchlight, scan the water for any floating debris the radar didn’t pick up, then cut it off. Ahead, there still were no lights of any other boats.

Billy waved his hand and pointed to the barometer. Mako pulled away from Judy and glanced at it. It had barely gone down a half point, but it had moved. “A good night for the eater, Billy?”

“Only he knows,” Billy said. There was no inflection in his voice at all. His hand was tight on the throttles, holding them at maximum revs but ready to cut back if there was any discordant sound from the heavy engine rumbling below.

Mako found his night glasses and fastened them on the sea ahead. He checked his watch one more time, then swept the horizon again. He almost missed it, then came back thirty degrees and stayed focused on one tiny light. In four minutes the light became two and he said, “Steady on, Billy, they’re ahead of us.”

But Billy was ahead of him, having steered into position before Mako had spoken. With one hand Billy snapped on the CB radio, dialed it to channel sixteen and turned the volume up. Ahead there was the sudden pencil thickness of the beam of a flashlight touching the hull of a sixty-year-old converted sportfisherman that listed to port. Mako picked up the CB microphone and said, “Poca and Lule... this is Mako... are you all right?”

The reception was scratchy, but a voice came back, “Mr. Hooker, sar, the pumps, she hold good. We not taking water now.”

“Good. We’ll be alongside in ten minutes and take you in tow. Who’s that in the other boat?”

“She be a big rubber one. She got outboard, but not enough engine to tow.”

“Who is it?”

The reply came back slowly. “That mister be a bad one. He just sits and waits for something. He don’ wanna help none at all.”

So it was Pell, all right. Another sudden burst of light came from the strange inflatable illuminating the crippled fishing boat. It played around the hull, taking ghostly night pictures, a lens change probably bringing the anxious faces of the crew into view. When the Clamdip was almost in range for clear identification, the inflatable’s engine revved up, and the boat spun and darted out of sight. Mako didn’t bother trying to pick him up with his own spotlight. He knew what he was going to do, but right now he had to get a towline on the Malli brothers’ boat.

When he had completed the lashup and had the two hulls snuggled together he waved to Billy, and the Clamdip went into a low power setting for the trip back to Peolle.

“Is this the way you tow a boat?” Judy asked.

“How would you do it?”

“This way.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“Just to see if you knew.”

Mako grinned and shook his head. “Dames,” he said softly.

Off to starboard he saw a red light and a higher white one. The lights moved, then a green one came into view. It passed to their stern for a mile, then turned again until the boat was running parallel to the Clamdip. Judy was frowning at the light until Mako said, “That’s the Tellig out there.”

“What are they doing?”

“Looking for the eater.”

“How?”

“They have instrumentation coming out their ears. Go tell Billy to hand you my portable VHF. I want to speak to them.”

A minute later she handed him the unit and he pulled up the miniature antennas and punched in channel sixteen. “Tellig from Clamdip, over.”

It was Lee Colbert who came on. “Go ahead, Clamdip.”

“How come you didn’t make contact with the fishing boat, Lee?”

“She wasn’t that bad off. We got her on the night-vision glasses... the real vision kind, if you remember, and their pumps had the leak in check. Those two guys had gotten something down in that broken plank and didn’t seem worried about it.”

“Hell no, Lee, those two had all the worry scared out of them. They got hit by the eater.”

“That’s what they said. You believe that?”

“Damn right, and so do you. What are you looking for out there?”

“The eater,” Lee said calmly. “So far there’s not a trace of it.”

“It’s here, pal. It’s still out there looking.”

“Who is in the inflatable? We picked it up on radar coming from the naval operation. Either he won’t answer our VHF transmission or doesn’t have a unit aboard.”

“Don’t sweat him, Lee, we have the fishing boat tucked in tight and heading for Peolle. We’ll probably be getting in around daybreak.”

“What happens if you run into our maritime horror?”

“The eater?”

“Roger.”

“You’ll know it as fast as I do.”

There was a pause before Lee transmitted again and said, “You want us to stay with you?”

Mako grinned and thumbed the transmit button. “And spoil Chana’s fun? She’d rather wait to scour the wreckage and find what was left of us.”

“She isn’t that bad, Hooker.”

“Wait till she puts a bullet in you, pal. Over and out.” Hooker fingered the off button and told Judy and Billy, “Keep your eyes open for that inflatable. They’ll have a VHF with them and if anything happens they’ll be ready to zero in on us.”

“Who’s ‘they,’ Mako?”

“Our boy Pell, kid. He’s on a money trip now. He’s getting film clips of everything that happens for that picture of his and right now he’s hanging around for the big bomb, the only shot that will put that movie at the top of the list... the eater, seen for the first time, hitting something real, something that can’t be faked.”

Judy understood what he meant and nodded gravely. “But... he’d have to... kill it somehow, wouldn’t he?”

“Don’t worry, he’s prepared, all right. He’s got Gary Foster with him and they’ll have equipment that can knock out any kind of terror.”

“Mako...”

“What?”

“If the Tellig has all that electronic equipment, why haven’t they been able to locate it?”

“They’re not a ballistic submarine, Judy. Their equipment probably isn’t cut out for long-range surveillance underwater. This thing, whatever it is, doesn’t follow any patterns. Everything it strikes seems to be a random hit, like a dog attacking intruders inside its own fence. Right now we’re on top of a possible feeding site. It took the bait on Poca and Lule’s boat and might be hanging around looking for another bite.

“The eater left a history, honey. It comes at you, but it comes slowly and quietly. It’s been seen and heard, but it never made a rushing attack. That inflatable would be damn well aware of anything that surfaces, especially if it has a small radar unit aboard.” He turned his head and looked at Judy quizzically.

Quietly she said, “Lotusland has several on board. They used them at night when they were out among the ice floes in the Arctic shooting documentaries.” Her tongue wet her lips in a nervous gesture. “It’s Pell for sure, isn’t it?”

“Whatever he’s doing is legitimate. In a way, he’s still working for you. Even not responding to a disabled boat’s need isn’t a crime. He could have seen that they could make way unassisted and he left when he saw us coming up. We would have been able to offer a lot more help.”

“Sar...”

“What, Billy?”

“The glass, she has dropped another point.”

“Still in the normal range?”

“Yes, sar.” At the wheel, Billy glanced around, his eyes probing the open water as far as he could see. His hand rubbed the throttle levers but there was no way he could add extra speed. On the other boat Poca and Lule were shoulder to shoulder, continually searching, continually listening for any sounds that didn’t belong. When a manta ray leaped and came crashing down on the water a hundred yards to starboard, everybody jumped, then felt foolish when they realized what it was.

Judy tapped Hooker on the shoulder and said anxiously, “Where’s the Tellig?”

No light penetrated the night from Tellig’s last position. The sea was black. Nothing seemed to move against the bank of low-hanging stars. Even Mako’s binoculars couldn’t pick up anything in their limited scope.

“What’s happened, Mako?”

“They’re running dark.”

“Why?”

“Nothing unusual. Their radar will be making a full sweep.” He picked up the VHF and thumbed the send button. “Tellig, this is Clamdip. Over.” There was no answer and he repeated his call once more before hanging up.

Judy waited quietly.

Finally Mako said, “That’s a government ship on official business. They don’t have to answer anybody unless it’s a dire emergency, which this isn’t. Hell, they know we’re here. They can see us on radar. But believe me, if they were even touched by the eater, we would have heard about it on radio. Nothing’s going to close in on them either, not with all the electronics they have on board.”

“You sure?”

Mako waited a few seconds before he told her, “Pretty sure.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“Doll, that’s about as good as I can do. Here we are, lashed up to a crippled boat, we can turn a slow couple of degrees at a time, got minimum speed at best and are just plain sitting ducks for anything that wants to take a crack at us.”

“That’s a refreshing thought,” she answered. “What can I do?”

“You can get me a beer out of the cooler. Some Miller Lite should still be there.”

Mako was pulling the tab on the beer when Billy said, “Sar... he’s here.”

Both Mako and Judy felt the cold chill run down their backs and Billy switched on the portable spotlight. In its brilliant beam the mako shark, even blacker than the water, paced the Clamdip twenty feet off the side. It rolled, dove slowly without dipping the full length of its dorsal fin, then rose until its eye was above the surface and Mako knew it was staring straight at him. Then, almost laughingly, it slid below without leaving a trace behind it.

“He be looking for you, sar.”

“Billy, there are a lot of mako sharks out there.”

“Yes, sar,” Billy agreed.

“You see any notches in his tail?”

“No, sar.”

“See?”

“He didn’t show his tail, sar.”

Frustration mixed with annoyance. There was no way he could beat Billy’s logic. That was his mako shark down there and that blooming fish was looking for him to get this name back. One great bite would settle that argument for all time and there would only be one real mako left.

What was really strange was that Mako knew there was something between him and those jaws. Something was going to be settled for sure sooner or later when brother met brother face to face. If he had that mako on the end of a hundred-twenty-pound nylon line, he could win. If they met in the sea with a one-on-one confrontation the result would be one bloody mess of blood and flesh.

His.

Mako said, “Damn!” He shook his head and went back to watching the sea. Something was still down there.