Primordial

Chapter 27

The crew hustled to get the VUE deployed again. As it hit the water with a splash, Aston ran back to the bridge and leaned over Joaquin’s shoulder to watch the big man guide the bot down into the channel. Suddenly the day seemed cool, and he realized he was shivering. Whether it was with fear or excitement he couldn’t say.

Slater came to stand beside them. She put a hand on Aston’s shoulder. “I haven’t seen you this enthusiastic since we started this expedition. At least, not during work hours.” Her cheeks reddened and she looked away.

“Well, we’ve actually seen something pretty definitive now. It’s getting harder and harder to maintain a professional scientific distance when we get video like this.” He realized he was actually entertaining the possibility they might prove the existence of a previously unknown animal.

“It is quite exciting,” Slater said, still not quite meeting his eye.

“I’m really trying to maintain an unbiased, observer’s position, but man, I want to see that thing again.” He turned to Joaquin. “Can’t we go any faster?”

“There’s no way we can catch up with it,” Joaquin said, but he turned a dial. “This is almost top speed and I’m reluctant to go any quicker and risk crashing. It’s durable, but it’s got some sensitive equipment on board.”

Aston stood back, hands clasped on top of his head. “Sure, sure.” He breathed deeply, calmed himself as he watched. Could they really have tracked a prehistoric survivor to a deep lake in Finland? It would be the scientific coup of the decade. Scratch that, of the century.

He caught Carly out of the corner of his eye as she moved behind them. They were all crowded around, an air of tense exhilaration electric in the air. As Joaquin guided the VUE, Aston stood right by with Slater beside him. Holloway, Laine and Makkonen stood in a tight line behind, all craning to see the small screen.

Aston moved over and sent the VUE’s video feed to one of the bigger monitors on the next desk. “Here.”

The VUE entered the channel, and then passed through the dark mouth of the tunnel. Joaquin triggered its lights and the narrow beams pierced clouds of particulate matter and lit the rough walls all around.

“Keep moving up and down as you travel,” Aston said. “Make sure we get to see as much of the walls as possible. We might be able to identify signs of its passage.”

“Or its meals,” Laine said quietly.

Slater glanced back at the cryptozoologist. “Its meals?”

He blushed slightly. “Sorry, I’m a little carried away. But if this is its regular route, it’s quite possible it brings any prey here to feed, no? That German’s bones were wedged in the rocks. If it’s fed recently, mightn’t it have brought its meal home? What do you American’s call it — takeout food?”

All eyes turned to Aston, like he was suddenly an expert on whatever the hell they’d glimpsed. He supposed he was the closest thing they had. “Well, it makes some sense,” he speculated. “Most creatures will use feeding grounds where they feel safe and protected if they have that chance. This might be her safe haven.”

“You think that German was dragged here?” Slater asked.

“We can’t know that. He might have found his own way there and then run afoul of the creature. Might have found this passage from another point of access we haven’t seen. I won’t speculate on anything without evidence.”

“Found his own way there?” Slater frowned, sighed. “Okay, but it’s possible he was dragged there from somewhere else?”

Aston grinned crookedly. “Yes. It’s possible.”

“What’s this?” Joaquin’s voice drew their attention back to the screens. He indicated a dark spot on the screen where a wider tunnel in the top quarter of the rock wall yawned darkly.

“We missed this before,” Slater said.

“How far in are we?” Aston asked.

Joaquin checked his readouts. “Less than a hundred yards short of our last end point. Signal is at forty-five per cent. In fact, we’re right about where we spotted those German remains.” He slowed the VUE. “Should I keep going or do you want to check out that tunnel above?”

Silence reigned for a moment. Eventually Aston turned to Holloway. “Your call, I guess.”

“Scientific opinion?” Holloway asked.

“I don’t have one. It’s equally possible the creature could have gone either way. Seeing how we haven’t investigated this second passageway, it might be worth a look.”

Holloway pursed his lips for a moment, then, “Okay, head up the new tunnel until the signal drops to forty per cent. No further.”

Joaquin nodded and worked the controls. The passage rose steeply, almost vertical at one point, for a good three hundred feet. He tapped his readouts. “Forty-two per cent signal. According to the data, we’d be about level with the lake surface now.”

As the last word left his lips, the VUE bobbed up into an air pocket. Its lights briefly swept a rough rock ceiling high overhead before the submersible tipped and righted itself. The cameras were just below the surface, the lights illuminating striations of stone and occasionally a distinct edge.

“An underwater cave?” Slater asked.

“Well, it’s a cave,” Aston said. “But like Joaquin pointed out, we’re at surface level. So the channel is underwater, but the cave is dry. Might be a hollowed-out place beneath the hills.”

“Pretty nice lair for a monster,” Holloway said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mister Aston?”

Aston smiled ruefully. “Possible. But there’s no way to tell without giving it a thorough inspection, and we can only check in person. The remote can’t get a look into all the nooks and crannies.”

The camera view suddenly swept left and turned over.

“Whoa! What are you doing?” Holloway shouted.

Joaquin lifted both hands, palm up to show he wasn’t operating any controls. “It’s not me. Something hit us!”

“Follow it!” Aston yelled, adrenaline rushing into his blood.

Joaquin hunched quickly over his controls and regained mastery of the VUE. He turned it back down into the tunnel and accelerated full speed. As they rounded a shallow curve and the way dipped to the vertical drop, the lights picked out a wide sweep of dark green flank and a tall sail of webbed fin.

“It’s the beast!” Holloway cried. “It’s really her!”

Joaquin frowned in concentration, pushing the VUE to maximum power and guiding it down into the murk. It burst back into the main channel, its lights reflecting off silt and grit stirred up in the creature’s wake. Joaquin leaned back in his chair, hauling the remote into the air as if his own physical movement could prevent the VUE from slamming into the rock floor. The image swerved wildly, then he had control again. He breathed out heavily.

“It’s heading away,” Aston said. “Toward the ocean, maybe.”

“I hope we haven’t driven her away with our poking around. Follow her!” Holloway said.

“The signal is down to forty-one per cent,” Joaquin said.

“The signal be damned, man!” the billionaire shouted. “Stay on her tail. Literally.”

The tunnel shot by, angles of rock slipping dangerously close to the expensive submersible, but Joaquin guided it with skill, his tongue playing at one corner of his mouth.

“Did you play a lot of video games as a kid?” Aston asked.

Joaquin grinned. “Still do.”

“There!” Slater said, voice high with excitement.

A sweep of tail, another illuminated swathe of flank, and several tall, bony spines. The creature dived past a shoulder of rock and the passage dipped steeply, then levelled out and rose again. The VUE kept pace, its small size adding advantage to the race as the creature had to navigate more carefully. Then the submersible began to gain on it.

Aston watched the rock, trying to get comparative distances by eye. As the creature turned another slight curve they saw more of its side. A large, wide fin struck out against the water on one side, driving the creature along.

“Is that a pectoral fin?” Holloway asked.

Aston shook his head. “There was a lot more body in front of that limb. It was a paddle, a hindfin. The forefins are likely longer and narrower.”

“Are you saying it has four limbs?” Slater asked.

“Of a sort. Precursors to limbs, anyway. It can maybe move on land a small amount, like a mudskipper fish.”

“We know it comes ashore,” Laine said. “We’ve seen the wallows.” His voice was tight.

The beast swept over another ridge of rock and disappeared into shadow. The VUE dropped quickly back, then tipped and sank to the rock floor.

“After it!” Holloway said.

Joaquin sat back with a sigh. “Signal lost. Sorry, boss. She’s dead in the water.” He hung his head and gazed down at the now useless controller.

Holloway kicked over a chair. “Damn it all to hell! We were so close.”

“Don’t be so despondent,” Aston said. “We just learned a lot! And all that footage is recorded.”

Holloway perked up at that. “I think we just captured more quality footage in a few minutes than every Nessie researcher in history combined.” He turned and challenged Aston with a condescending smile. “So, what’s your professional opinion on the likelihood of an undiscovered creature living in the lake?”

Aston grinned ruefully, well aware of Carly filming everything that had happened. His mind swam with thoughts of what they had witnessed. It was incredible, almost unbelievable, but he’d seen it with his own eyes. “That was pretty convincing.”

“If it does have fore and hindfins like you suggest,” Slater said, “does that give you any better idea what it is?”

Aston nodded, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck. “It does, but it makes no sense.”

“Don’t keep us in suspense. Spit it out.” The ghost of a smile still played across Holloway’s face, but his eyes flashed, excitement and frustration battling inside him.

Aston looked at the billionaire for a moment, wondering how dangerous he might become if his frustrations grew too great. “Okay, this is still speculation,” Aston said. “But it’s based on better evidence now. We still need to know a lot more, but from what we saw there, this looks like some kind of… I don’t know, this isn’t my field really. I’m not a paleontologist. But maybe some kind of liopleurodon, basilosaurus, kronosaurus, hainosaurus. Hell, I don’t know! I’m crawling back into my university studies just to remember these species. These things are all dead, extinct for millions of years!”

“Clearly not,” Laine said quietly. “At least one survives here.”

Aston let out a long, slow breath and nodded. “So it would seem.”

“And the size?” Holloway asked, slightly calmer than before, his face a mask of smug triumph.

Aston wished he could have avoided naming anything that might make the billionaire look that way, but the evidence was undeniable. “Hard to be accurate. But based on what we just watched, at least fifty foot. Maybe more.” The idea was mind-boggling.

Holloway clapped his hands. “Haha! Superb!”

Slater turned away from the screens. “So what now?”

“Now we dive!” Holloway said.

She cocked her head. “Really? You weren’t so eager to send us in before, but now that we know there’s something there that might eat us for lunch, you’re okay with it?”

“Of course. If nothing else, to recover the VUE. But also to investigate that cave we found earlier. The creature was in there. Imagine what we might learn.”

“We might learn we’re its next bloody meal,” Aston said.

Holloway turned a crooked grin to him. “We have no evidence to prove it eats people. But you’re willing to risk it, aren’t you? Deep down, you need to know, don’t you?”

Aston sighed, and then nodded. He hated to admit it, but the crazy bastard was right. Who’s really the crazy one?

“It’s going to have to be soon.” Joaquin had moved to another station and pointed at the meteorological data. “Bad weather is coming.”

“How long?” Holloway asked.

“It’s going to get grim and rough out here over the next twenty-four hours or so, I’d guess. But we’ll definitely be feeling the forces of storms within forty-eight.”

“It’s getting late,” Aston said. “Let’s get prepped and I’ll go in first thing tomorrow morning.”