Primordial

Chapter 28

Aston rose at dawn, unable to sleep any longer. He had spent several hours organizing his gear the night before, and then fallen into bed early. His trepidation about the dive was offset by his excitement to learn more. This venture could end up becoming his retirement fund. Apart from Holloway’s payment to get out from under Chang’s hammer, this was the kind of scientific find that could keep him not only in scientific papers, but also talking tours for years, commanding huge appearance fees. Now that was a life he could enjoy. He knew he was being a bit optimistic, but it was all possible. All very real.

As he checked his gear again, he realized another set of SCUBA was prepped beside his. A third locker stood empty. Where had that gear gone? Slater’s voice distracted him.

“I’m coming along with you. No arguments.”

Aston turned to find her in the doorway, grinning at him. “Seriously?”

She nodded and held up one hand. “I am, and don’t bother raising any objections. It’s a two-person job. I’ll carry the underwater camera to make sure we get all the footage possible. You’ll have to bring back the VUE.”

“Why does it have to be you?”

“Is there anyone else on the crew you’d rather take along? Maybe you and Holloway would like to be dive buddies?” She laughed. “It doesn’t matter. The decision’s made.”

Aston raised both palms, knowing very well that arguing was pointless. “Fair enough. We’ll need to—”

“We got a problem.” Joaquin appeared behind Slater, his face dark. “You’d better come up and see this.”

He turned and strode away. Aston and Slater shared a glance and then followed. On the bridge, Holloway was up too, fuming. Carly stood nearby, eyes bleary with sleep, capturing it all on film. The only people missing were Laine and Makkonen.

Holloway pointed at the desk. A handwritten note sat there. Aston and Slater both leaned in to read it in place.

Sorry, everyone, but my whole life I’ve been following the activity of our lake’s supposedly mythological creature. Now that we’ve finally found it, I can’t let someone else be the first to get close. I have to be the one. I’ll explain more when next I see you. A tunnel is dark at night or during the day, so I’ve gone first. The desk is recording.

Laine.

“What does that mean, ‘The desk is recording’?” Aston asked.

“It means he took a head-mounted webcam and transmitter, and fed imagery back to the ship here,” Joaquin said.

“So we can track his progress?”

Joaquin pointed to a screen of snowy static. “That’s his progress right there.”

Aston’s stomach turned. “Have you watched it yet?”

“Mister Holloway sent me to find you first.”

Aston sighed. He’d thought Laine a bit of an odd sort, but hadn’t expected him to pull something like this. “Okay. Better rewind then. See what happened.”

Joaquin rewound to the start and then hit play. The picture was a hectic blur for a moment as Laine swept the camera left and right, then turned it to his face. He was grinning widely. ‘Sorry!’ he mouthed, then the view blurred again as he put on the headgear. He moved out onto the dive platform and dropped into the water, powered up a DPV and its headlight split the gloom.

“That son of a bitch took some of my best gear!” Holloway said.

“How many DPVs do we have?” Aston asked.

“Three. Well, two now! Honestly, can none of you bastards be trusted?”

Aston turned angrily. “Hey, keep your bullshit temper under control, will you! We don’t actually know what happened to Gazsi or Dave, and Laine is your pick for local expert. Don’t go accusing us all of dishonesty.”

“And your little visit to the police?” Holloway asked, his eyebrows high in challenge.

“Just let it go!” Slater snapped. “Bickering among ourselves isn’t going to help anything. Let’s watch and see what happened.”

Aston returned his attention to the screen, though anger still roiled in his gut. How was he going to make it through this without putting Holloway in his place? He calmed himself with more thoughts of post-expedition life.

On the screen, Laine headed down into the channel, clearly a fairly experienced diver. But Aston wondered just how experienced and whether the man was ready for the currents and eddies that were likely in the confines ahead. Rock walls rose on either side as the cryptozoologist went in, the view panning left and right as he looked around. His movements were quick and jerky, as if he were nervous. After what they’d seen the day before, Aston couldn’t blame him. A couple of times the view fritzed and blurred, but quickly the signal returned strong and clear.

“Those remote transmitters are temperamental,” Joaquin muttered. “Hopefully it wasn’t static just because the thing failed.”

“Why else would it have gone to static?” Slater asked, but nobody had an answer for her.

Eyes remained locked on the screen. It took a long time, but eventually Laine’s view showed the vertical side tunnel. Laine angled upward and his momentum increased as he used the DPV to power into it.

“Damn fool’s heading for the lair,” Holloway muttered.

“Of course he is,” Slater said. “Where else did you expect him to go?” She left unsaid that the lair was precisely where Holloway had wanted Aston to search.

After another couple of minutes, Laine’s camera broke the surface, the vision regularly flickering in and out. He shined a flashlight into the wide cave. The sweep of light caught a few smooth, rounded objects very briefly before something dark and solid swept past, obliterating the view. The vision blacked and returned several times rapidly, almost strobing, then there was light and bubbles and silt, then the camera tumbled end over end a few times, a stream of air bubbles spiraling past, before it cut and the screen turned to static.

Joaquin hit fast-forward. Nothing. “That’s it,” he said as he clicked and dragged the mouse, advancing the image in great chunks of time.” It’s nothing but static for hours.” He looked to the others who stood in contemplative silence.

“The monster. She was in there and she ate him,” Holloway said. His voice carried an edge of satisfaction that Aston found disturbing.

“We don’t know that,” Aston said. “We didn’t actually see the creature or what happened to Laine. It could just be an equipment malfunction. Or he might have knocked the camera off against rock and lost it down the shaft.”

“But he’s not back is he?” Holloway said.

“What time did he leave?” Aston asked Joaquin. “Is the video timestamped?”

Joaquin checked. “Yes. Turned to static at three-fifteen.”

Aston nodded. “Just under three hours ago. If we assume Laine was still attached to that camera when it fell back down the passageway, then he’s still underwater. There’s no way his air would have lasted until now.”

“Or he’s in the belly of the beast,” Holloway said. “Either way, I think it’s a safe bet the fool is dead.”

“Or trapped up in the lair, hiding,” Aston suggested.

“Could he have gotten out and then had second thoughts about returning?” Slater’s words of hope rang hollow. Laine had made it clear he planned on returning once he’d had a crack at finding the monster. There was no reason for him to change his mind in the middle of the dive.

“I have to say, this makes me think twice about making the dive ourselves,” Aston said to Slater. “There’s not much room for error down there.”

“You have to go. The time is now,” Holloway said. “We know where the creature is. This might be our only chance. You need to go down there and deploy remote cameras around the cave and in the passage below it. We must capture definitive footage of the creature and identify it. Anything less and we’ll be dismissed as crackpot monster hunters, just like all the rest.”

Aston shook his head. Holloway had just declared Laine to be breakfast for the lake monster, and now he wanted to serve Aston and Slater as brunch? “There are other ways to do that now we know where the thing goes. And we have the footage from yesterday—”

“Not good enough!” Holloway barked, his face reddening. “Besides, we don’t have time. Bad weather is coming in and that damn policeman is about to shut us down. Which is mostly down to you! You go now or this expedition is technically unfinished. And you don’t get one penny if you don’t finish the expedition. It’s in your contract.”

Aston stared, dumbfounded. “Are you serious? You’re blackmailing me into this after what happened to Laine?”

Holloway was unmoved. “Do you want to get paid or not?”

Slater shook her head and waved her hands. “Time out, guys. Time out. This is getting ridiculous. We can all walk away right now, come back later when the bad weather’s passed. In the meantime, we can mollify Rinne and get ourselves better organized. That creature’s not going anywhere.”

“It happens now, or no one gets paid,” Holloway said.

“Another man has died!” Slater yelled.

Holloway took a step toward her, menacing, his face redder than ever. “Now, or no one gets paid,” he repeated. “I won’t be moved on this, so don’t waste your breath.”

Slater refused to back away from him, her face twisted in fury. “Fine. You think everything is about money? It’s not. I can come back here with another film crew, with different funding. You don’t own this footage.”

“I knew it!” Holloway said. “You’ve been planning something on the side, haven’t you?”

“You’re nuts,” Slater said. “I’m just reminding you that no matter how much money you have, no matter how many people you pay to kiss your ass, you don’t own me. I don’t need you.”

“I do,” Aston said quietly.

“What?” Slater’s anger tracked to him.

Aston hung his head. “I’m sorry, Jo, but I need his money. I’m in real trouble without it, and I’m out of time. I’ll go on my own. There’s no need for you to put yourself in danger.”

Holloway grinned like a cat with a mouse. “I guess you’d better go and suit up.”

Slater stared hard at Aston. “You and I need to have a long conversation.”

“When I get back,” he said.

She tossed her head and rested her fists on her hips. “When we get back.”

He pointed at the static-filled screen. “Didn’t you see what happened down there? You don’t have to come. I won’t let you come!”

Slater laughed. “You don’t own me any more than he does, swim-boy! I’m coming with you. You’re part of my documentary and if you go, I go. It would make for a pretty weak film to end it here. If it continues now, it continues with me.”

Aston held her eye for a moment, but her cold resolve was obvious. He shook his head and stalked away, furious at himself for the trouble he was in with Chang. If it wasn’t for those debts he’d still be cruising on a small research grant in Queensland.