Battle for Atlantis

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

As soon as Dane went back down in the water that covered Manhattan Island, he knew he was not alone. There were other presences in the water. Real presences. Pure evil. As evil as the Shadow, but different. Mindless creatures that existed for only one reason — to kill.

He’d seen them before.

Kraken.

And he knew what they were now. Bio-engineered creatures, designed by the Shadow to kill dolphins. Given the betrayal of the dolphins the Shadow had placed on the moon, there was nothing, no creature, the Shadow hated more.

Dane knew this hatred sprang from the subconscious, that the Shadow on a very deep level understood that the Ones Before were better than they were. More human.

The kraken were altered deep ocean giant squids. A species that had eluded scientists and oceanographers in Dane’s timeline, and remained a myth, just like Atlantis. In the Shadow’s timeline, they had captured the creatures who inhabited the dark depths of the ocean. Over seventy feet long to start with and natural carnivores. They were the perfect creature to adjust to fight dolphins. Their only natural enemy were sperm whales. And vice versa.

Kraken had a massive head, but Dane didn’t sense much intelligence, just malevolence. Stretching back from the head were eight sucker-bearing arms and two contractile tentacles with spatulate tips. The latter had rows of suckers encircled by rows of hard, horn hooks. The Shadow had transformed those into mouths with razor sharp teeth, that could not eat, only kill.

They were waiting.

Let them wait, Dane thought.

He focused his self, his core.

He did something that only the Shadow from this timeline had ever done. He made his own gate.