Kraken Rising: Alex Hunter 6 (38 page)

The submarine turned fast, the steel fish incredibly maneuverable. Alex felt a glimmer of hope as they moved along the eastern shoreline, on the edge of an underwater shelf and about twenty feet down.

Casey Franks frowned and leaned in towards her screen. “
Gross
, what the hell is this?” She turned. “Hey, Doc … uh,
Docs.
”

Cate and Aimee joined her, both leaning over the female HAWC. Cate’s brows shot up as she straightened. “Unbelievable, but I think that’s
eggs
.”

The group crowded around Casey’s screen. The underwater shelf created an overhang, and suspended from the rock roof there looked to be gigantic bunches of grapes, each egg pod about six feet in length. They swayed slightly in an invisible current.

“So, this is where momma raises the kids?” Casey said.

Cate leaned back. “Also answers the question on whether there is only one of them. Got to be at least two, huh?”

“And going to be a hell of a lot more soon.” Casey looked like she had just smelled something bad. She panned the external camera around. “Looks like a pretty strong current coming from somewhere.”

“Oh god, yes and no,” Cate said, spinning back. “We need to get away from here.” She leaned over Casey, staring hard at the screen. “A current, yes, but not a natural one. The female stays close to the eggs, protecting them and blowing water over them to keep them oxygenated.”  She pointed. “There.”

At the end of her finger on the screen, they could just make out the tips of tentacles flattened on the bottom. The rest of the creature was so perfectly camouflaged, it could have been part of the rock shelf itself.

Casey pulled back on the camera’s magnification, taking more of the gigantic cephalopod in, but like a submerged mountain, much of the animal extended beyond their scope.

Alex leaned forward, studying the image. He felt a surge of adrenalin at seeing the size of the thing, and so close to them in the water. Down here they were vulnerable. Inside the submarine, they had nowhere else to go. He straightened.

“Okay, if this is where the thing is, then we want to be somewhere else. Blake, get us out of here.”

Blake swung the submarine away towards the far wall, and the lake bottom suddenly fell away beneath them.

“Getting deeper here, we’ve not got fifty fathoms beneath us.” He checked his instruments. “No sign of any breaks in the wall.”

“Take her down another twenty,” said Alex.

“You got it.” Blake eased the U-shaped wheel forward and the sub gently inclined as it dropped. “Hold the phone, ladies and gentlemen, we might have an opening. Sonar just missed a few pings along the western wall … means the sonar pulses passed right through and didn’t bounce back off anything solid.”

“There, a blue glow up ahead.” Casey clapped her hands once as she watched the screen. “A big beautiful hole in the wall.” She grinned. “And plenty of room – got to be eighty feet up and across – easy.”

“Take us through,” said Alex.

“
Incoming
”’ Blake yelled, making Jennifer cringe as though she had been struck.

“What?” Alex spun to the man, crossing the bridge in two strides.

“Big bogey, coming right at us …”  Blake’s neck jutted forward, his round eyes fixed on the sonar. “Hold it, hold it …” He half turned, a relieved smile on his face. “Going to miss us … it’s going right past, and it’s in a helluva hurry.” Blake’s smile evaporated. “
Ah
goddammit, it’s headed for the hole in the wall.”

“No, you don’t.” Casey pounded a fist on the bench top. “It’s gonna shut the door.”

“All stop,” Alex yelled, crossing to Casey and leaning closer to her screen as the engines powered down. At this depth the water was darker, but the blue glow of the hole they had just glimpsed was now obscured.

“Try this.” Casey flicked a few switches, and external lights came on.

“Oh my god,” Aimee said, grimacing.

The huge cephalopod hung in the water, with many of its tentacles extended. This was no random action; it had moved to fully block the hole. It hung suspended, mid water, looking like a large mottled web, waiting to ensnare them. Its mantle fully spread, blotting out the weak light from outside.

Alex stared at the monstrous creature and cleared his mind. He pushed his senses out and felt the thing in the water, its bulk, and its cold consciousness. It knew they were inside the submarine, and it even knew how many of them there were.

Alex felt a stab of pain in his skull. It wanted all of them. It wanted them for food, and it wanted to use them to break the boredom it felt, in its eternal twilight.

“A monster, a real monster,” Cate said.

“It’s just sitting there, staring at us.” Casey’s fingers flexed on the console.

“Look at its eyes.” Blake seemed mesmerized. “Who was it that said that when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you?”

“Nietzsche,” Aimee said quietly.

Alex folded his arms. “Looks like it doesn’t want its new playthings getting away.”

“Let’s put a torpedo up its ass,” Casey said, with her jaw set.

Alex slowly shook his head. “Don’t know if just one will work, and don’t want to exhaust them just yet.”

“And if we miss and hit the wall, we might collapse our only way out,” said Aimee, coming and standing by Alex.

He turned to Cate. “You said it was protecting its eggs.”

“Yes, they have a strong maternal instinct. If we can outrun it, it might turn back,” she said, nodding.

“Can’t outrun it in here,” Alex said. “It leaves us no choice. Blake, bring her around.”

Blake engaged the engines, and turned the
Sea Shadow
away from the monster in the deep.

Alex waited for a few moments. “Is it following?”

Blake shook his head. “No, staying right where it can act like the biggest cork in history.”

“Time to take it up a level.” Alex reached towards the comm. “Rhino, stand by.” He looked back to Blake. “Hold course, but on my word, swing away hard, and make a looping course back for the hole.” Alex watched Casey’s screen.

“Coming up on the shoreline, boss,” Blake said. He gritted his teeth, occasionally looking across at the depth readings. “Getting real close.”  He half turned.

“Stand by.” Alex had the comm. line open. He kept watching Casey’s screen, until he could see them, the huge dangling bunches of eggs.

“Fire one.” There was a small kick, and on the view screen there appeared a trail of bubbles racing away from the nose of the
Sea Shadow
. Alex spun.

“Blake, bank hard,
now!
”

Blake turned the U-shaped wheel like a racing car driver, and the steel fish yawed in the water. They all held on as the submarine tilted.

Alex urged more speed, and in another second came the detonation, and then a judder ran through the skin of the vessel.

“That got its attention. Creature is on the move,” Blake said. “Coming fast –
real fast
– brace.”

They waited, but there was nothing. As Alex had hoped, the creature had raced right by them to save its eggs.

“Now, give it all you’ve got. Let’s get through that hole.” Alex paced as Blake pushed the lever forward to maximum, pushing every ounce of energy into the rear propulsion, and willing his own strength into the turbines for good measure. The submarine kicked forward, speeding away under the dark water.

Alex saw the blue glow of the hole approaching, and counted down the seconds.
Come on, give us some luck
, he prayed, urging the machine on. From deep within his head, he could feel a sense of anguish and pain emanating from the cold mind of the creature. He tried to shut it out, but the distress came at him in waves.

Alex put his head down, concentrating on the blue glow ahead. As the echoes of the creature’s misery dimmed, he finally felt it morphing into something much more hard-edged;
hate
.

No one spoke. Everyone was focused on Blake and Casey’s screens and panels. Soong and Shenjung just stayed seated, waiting and listening for the sound of something huge settling on the skin of the vessel.

“Gonna be tight.” Casey’s teeth were clamped together.

“Exit coming up,” Blake said. “500 feet, 450, 400, 350 … say a prayer ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to thread the needle. 200 feet, 150, 100 …” Nothing else existed but Blake’s voice.

Time slowed, and then stretched. Alex looked to Aimee, and her eyes locked with his. In the ice-blue gaze and the tiny uptilt of her lips, he saw resignation, perhaps to fate, but also trust. He hoped it was not misplaced.

“Hold onto your asses
-ssss
 …” Blake yelled through gritted teeth as scraping and grinding sounded against the hull. They bounced hard to the left, something popped, and metal squealed from somewhere back in the bowels of the vessel. The makeshift crew held on as they passed through the hole in the wall.

“Yeah.” Casey leapt from her chair, high-fiving herself in an overhead clap.

There were sighs of relief and cheers as the submarine sailed out into more open waters. Alex leaned forward onto his knuckles and exhaled, realizing he had been holding his breath.

Aimee grabbed his arm, holding on. “You know it will follow us,” she said softly.

He half turned, feeling a sense of resignation. “I wish I could say it won’t.” He straightened. “But I can’t.” He pressed the comm. button connecting to Rinofsky. “Rhino, stand by on all tubes.”

*

“Whoa.”

Sam Reid turned at the sound of the scientist’s voice.

“That’s weird,” Sulley said.

“What’s up, sunshine?” Schmidt pushed his chair back.

“Got something?” Sam wandered over and stood behind Sulley’s chair.

“Yeah, but something that shouldn’t be there. A big object, but really weird. It’s giving back a metallic signature.” Sulley’s fingers flew over the console.

Metallic signature
– Sam’s hopes skyrocketed.

“You been putting too much sugar in your tea again?” Schmidt leaned over the young scientist. “Could be some sort of high concentration of ore in one of the cliff walls – anything from platinum, nickel, copper to gold down here. Let me see that.” He straightened, frowning. “That
is
weird.”

Sam put one large hand on Sulley’s shoulder. “Please tell me yours is the only probe down there?”

From behind, Bentley scoffed. “Of course we damn well are, Reid. We must be picking up some sort of manganese node amalgamation or the like.”

“That’s what I thought, but it’s moving, and damned fast … and that background signal is getting stronger,” Sulley responded.

Sam folded his arms, grinning. “Follow it.”

Cate paced in the small bridge room, having to maneuver around the huge Rinofsky who had just joined them. She strained to draw the most minute details from her memory.

“I don’t know where it was exactly. I was kinda focused on staying alive.” She stopped and turned. “The best I can guess is that it was close to where we came up on the beach. There was a column of cool among the tropical water mass – a cold water vortex; it might not even show up above the water.”

“No idea if we can pick up temperature variations. Might be able to, but haven’t really read the manual.” Blake shrugged. “Doing the best we can.”

Alex nodded. “We’ll find it, we have to.” He looked at Aimee and Cate, and also motioned Soong and Shenjung closer. “We haven’t got a lot of time. You guys are the brains trust. If we can’t detect the temperature variation, and can’t really see it, then how else can we detect it?” Alex looked along their faces. “Water movement; like a current? Color; would it be full of debris, or less debris?” Alex paced. “What about density, could it …”

“Wait …
density,
” Soong said. “This might be a way. Ocean water has different densities. The colder the water, the heavier it is; the hotter the water, the lighter it is.” She turned to Cate. “When you passed through the column, did you rise or fall?”

Cate nodded. “We dropped … dropped down about fifty feet in a few seconds. And it got real cold.”

“Good.” Soong nodded. “Cold water is heavy water; it sinks.”

Shenjung put his arm around her and beamed.

“
Density,
we might be able to pick up,” Blake said. “We can ping it, maybe listen for some sort of soft echo or at least a distortion.”

“Do it,” Alex said.

“Where?” Blake half turned.

Cate cast her mind back to the dark water. “I think we were around half a mile offshore.”

“Then let’s take a trip along the coast,” Aimee said.

Blake nodded and just slightly turned the U-shaped wheel.

“Franks, give me external acoustics. Let’s see if we can hear anything out there.” Alex paced.

Casey flicked some switches and suddenly the room was filled with the sound of surging water, and the pips and squeaks of a large ocean … a large
living
ocean.

Cate listened intently, frowning as she concentrated. The sounds danced at the edge of her memory – things that could have been whale song, but weren’t. That could have been triggerfish, dolphin squeak, or even the click of crustaceans, but were all slightly different from what she had heard in the past. These creatures she was hearing were things that no one in her lifetime, or a perhaps a million lifetimes, had ever heard. Or maybe
nothing
had heard them
ever
, if evolution had taken them in a myriad different directions.

“Boss, got something up ahead. Just registering a change in density. Not solid, but just on the scope.” Blake raised his eyebrows. “It feels right.” He switched the sound to the console and small pings, just audible, came from his panel.

“Let’s take a look,” Alex said, continuing to pace.

There came a louder ping from the console that brought everyone’s heads around.

“Ah, shit.” Blake leaned in closer. “Got another bogey, big signature this time. Coming at us fast.” He turned, grimacing. “And from where we just came from.”

“Put the pedal down,” Alex said.

They felt the surge as the vessel picked up speed. Jennifer looked like she was praying.

“Still gaining on us, doing fifty knots now. Impossible speed.”  

“Not for this thing,” Aimee said softly.

“We can’t outrun that.” Casey’s teeth were gritted as she turned. “Boss, we need to surface. Fight it up there.”

Rhino scoffed. “With what, our bare hands?”

Casey rounded on the big HAWC. She was carrying multiple facial wounds and was still streaked with dried blood from her battle with Mungoi, giving her a fearsome painted warrior look. Jennifer had wrapped a cloth bandage around her battered forehead, that was now also bloody, and it dragged down one of her brows into a permanent scowl. Soong and Shenjung shrank from her when she passed in front of them. Casey’s eyes blazed as she glared at Rhino. “We fight it with tooth and claw if need be.”

Rhino held up a huge pair of hands. “Okay, take it easy,
huh
?”

Alex half turned from the screen. “Everyone just cool it. We’re trapped in this tin can together for now, so we might as well conserve our energy. If we need to surface, we will, but that’s not yet. If things go to plan, we’ll find a way out. If not, well, we might all find ourselves swimming back to shore.”

Soong blanched, and Aimee put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll be fine. Captain Hunter was only joking.”

“Rhino, get down to the torpedo room.” Alex turned back to Blake at the consoles. “Keep heading to the vortex. If need be, we’ll bring her around for a torpedo launch, but as a last resort. Not convinced we’ll even hit something that fast and smart underwater.” He looked up. “And we know it learns, so now it knows what those torpedoes can do.”

“Yeah, and I’m betting it remembers exactly where those torpedoes came from, and wants to tear us a new asshole.” Casey growled. “Floor it, soldier.”

From the acoustic speakers there was an increasing sound like the clacking of a giant castanet.

“What in hell’s name is that?” Casey asked.

Aimee hugged herself. “That, I think, is the sound of a Kraken’s mouth, the beak, opening and closing.”

“Oh fuck. It sounds to me, like someone really pissed off, grinding their teeth.” Casey flexed her hands on the panel top, and Cate and Aimee looked over her shoulder. Her view monitors showed nothing but a soft blue above and a pitiless black below them.

“Vortex coming up in 500 feet, boss.” Blake read more numbers. “Plenty of water. Deep, but within our crush tolerance.”

“Come on, come on.” Casey urged more speed from the submarine, her neck straining.

“Bogey about to overtake is. Vortex in now in 200 feet.” Perspiration ran down Blake’s face and his forearms bulged from the strain as he squeezed the wheel. “It’s running us down, boss. We ain’t gonna make it.”

“Vertical dive, straight into the vortex,” Alex yelled. “If that column of cold water has some drag we can ride its wake.”

“Into what?” Cate asked. “We don’t know what’s down there.”

“Well, we know what’s up here, lady.” Casey’s jaws bulged as she bared her teeth. “Hold your ass, say your prayers, and enjoy the ride.”

“No choice,” Alex said as the deck tilted.

“Bogey coming at us, going to hit …” Blake yelled the words. “
Hold on!
’

*

The laboratory was silent as the four English Ellsworth base scientists stared hard at the camera feed. Their mouths hung open.

Orca
hung motionless in the dark water, its sensitive lenses trained on the submarine as it came out of the dark, and then shot past. It was immediately pursued by what looked like a huge mottled shroud. An enormous eye with a slitted pupil, momentarily swiveled towards them, but immediately went back to focus on the fleeing vessel – the thing obviously wanted that craft, and nothing else.

Sam Reid’s huge hands curled into fists. He felt a wave of frustration and rage wash over him, and had to swallow it down hard, knowing he could do nothing but watch.

The screen image wobbled as the small probe was buffeted by the pressure swell, as the creature surged past, and then was gone.

“Oh my good Queen Lizzie.” Sulley leaned back into his chair, his hands to his head. “That was a
fucking
submarine, being chased by … I don’t even know what it was, but it was as big as an office block.”

“
Follow, follow
,” Schmidt screamed.

“Huh? But …”  Sulley looked confused, and simply pointed at the screen.

Sam leaned in. “Get after them …
now!
” He paced like a huge lion behind the men, his weight making the floor creak beneath him.

Sulley swiveled the submersible and accelerated, and then bounced in his seat, looking like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to sit or stand, or something in-between. He pointed at the screen again, grinning. “
That was a submarine
.” His brows were so high on his forehead they nearly touched his hairline. “
That, was, a fucking, submarine
.” He put his hands to his head. “Getting chased by what looks like a giant squid-octopus thingy.”

Sam felt lightheaded. He’d read the reports from the Antarctic mission, and of the creature that had once pursued Alex and Aimee through the ancient tunnels. But nothing,
nothing
, could have prepared him for the reality of the thing. He straightened, trying to calm himself, and remembered a few lines from a favorite thriller writer he read:

“
When I look down into the abyss, Down into the merciless blackness, Colder and deeper than Hades itself, There I see the Kraken rising.”

And so it was
, he thought, and now Alex was right in its path. Sam suddenly jolted, and then turned to stare hard at the mini-submersible’s screen.
What if it wasn’t Alex?
What if the Chinese had won the race? Shit! He turned back to Sulley.

“We need to contact them.”

Sulley shook his head. “How?
Orca
has no conventional communication hardware. I’m afraid no can do, Bill Bunyan.”

Sam was pushed aside as the other scientists jostled for a closer look at the spectacle.

“How … who?” Bentley asked.

“Who?” Schmidt grinned. “Does anyone else think Cate might
not
be onboard?”

There was silence for a few seconds, until Bentley finally spoke. “Of course, if anyone could find a submarine in a warm, primordial sea, start it up, and then get into a fight with a Krakenesque sea monster, it’d be her – could
only
be her.”

Not just her
, Sam felt a knot tightening in his stomach.

“That thing was twice the size of the submarine.” Timms was now on his feet. “They’re going to be crushed.”

*

Sam stood out in the cold corridor and tried to shut out the whooping of the British scientists in the control room as he made the call.

“Confirmation,
Sea Shadow
is on the move. But still below the ice.”

Colonel Jack Hammerson grunted. “That’s only half the answer I want. Who exactly is in control of that vessel?”

Sam exhaled. “I don’t know, sir. Until there is contact, it could be Alex, and it could be someone else entirely.”

“Goddammit, that’s not going to stop a war, Reid.” There was a sound like grating teeth, and then Hammerson came back on the line. “Seconds count now. Make contact, somehow, some way. If it’s Alex, move heaven and earth to assist. If not, I don’t want that submarine ever seeing the light of day. Tell me the second you know for sure. Out.”

Sam turned back to the crowded control room. In front of the excited scientists, the screen showed nothing but endless blackness as
Orca
was on the trail of two leviathans of the subterranean depths.