“Burn, you bastard. Burn,” Banks muttered.
He chanced a look, turning his head to peer under his arm. He was just in time to see the lights of the jets disappear off to the southwest and the beast rise up, completely unharmed and as if impervious to the flames. It slithered south and west as if intent on following its attackers.
Within seconds it had gone, the last sight of it a swish of the great tale that fanned a wall of flame along the edge of the harbor before that too subsided, leaving only carnage behind.
Banks stood up and then helped Seton to his feet. They both appeared to be none the worse for the experience, but Banks’ ears rang from the explosions, and when Seton spoke he had to get the older man to shout to make himself heard.
“I said, did you see it?” Seton shouted again, but the conversation would have to wait; ambulances, fire engines and armed police were streaming onto the docks from beyond the barrier and Banks saw Wiggo behind them, frantically waving his phone in the air and pointing at Banks.
When he walked up and took the phone from Wiggo, the resulting conversation with the colonel was almost comical, for Banks had to get him to repeat everything in an ever louder voice until his superior was yelling at the other end.
“There’s a nuclear sub coming up from Rosyth,” the colonel shouted. “It’ll pick you up off Stonehaven at ten. There’ll be a boat waiting in Stoney harbor at nine-thirty. Don’t miss it.”
Banks checked his watch, surprised to see that it was still only a little past five in the morning; it felt like an age had passed since they’d arrived off the rig, but it had only been a matter of hours. Stonehaven was only half an hour drive away down the coast, so they had plenty of time to make their rendezvous.
“I’m coming along,” Seton shouted when Banks relayed the news to the team.
“Maybe you should sit this one out, wee man,” Wiggo replied. “You’re no’ as young as you used to be.”
“You don’t ken the half of it,” Seton replied and continued quickly before anyone could query the statement. “Did you not see it?” he said again.
Banks waved him away again. His ears were a few more minutes away from being ready to listen and he had an idea that what the wee man had to say might be important.
Out in the docks, fires were being put out and ambulance crew were lifting out bodies; thankfully not many, for the evacuation had been almost complete before the beast’s arrival. The devastation to the dock itself however was almost total. Where there had been stout harbor walls and new quays was now just a mass of rubble and receding water, and where there had been boats and buildings was only smoking ruin and twisted metal. The emergency services appeared to have what was left under control. Banks ordered the squad back to the SUV and got in the passenger seat to allow Wiggo to drive.
“Stonehaven,” he said. “And take your time, we’re in no rush.”
He closed his eyes and waited for the ringing in his ears to subside as Wiggo drove out of Torry and through the quiet industrial area to the south that led them eventually to the dual carriageway south. The others were keeping up a flow of chatter, Wiggo quizzing Seton about what had just happened mainly, but Banks wasn’t ready to talk just yet.
It wasn’t just the ringing in his ears that was keeping him quiet; it was the colonel’s orders, the reason they were going out on the sub and something he hadn’t told the squad yet, didn’t know how to tell them.
Wiggo was going to get his wish.
They were going to nuke the bastard.
17
Wiggo drove them down to Stonehaven. Traffic was almost non-existent and the quietness of the road only served to remind him of the sound and fury they’d left behind at the docks. But the drive did a lot to calm his inner thoughts and allowed him to focus on the straight line ahead and into the distance. The events on the floatel and in the dinghy were already taking on the slightly dream-like quality that memories gather, pushed aside by the rest of the night which had needed room of its own in his mind. He just hoped there wasn’t something even larger again coming along in the near future.
The drive proved uneventful, with the coming day being announced by a lightening of the sky way over to his left-hand side. They arrived to a glorious red-lined dawn rising over the old harbor. Wiggo pulled into a parking bay beside the harbor wall, killed the engine, wound his window down fully, and sat in silence, listening to wavelets wash against the harbor wall and a single seagull welcoming the morning somewhere high above them.
“I used to come here as a lad with my father to buy fish,” Seton said. “A great many years ago. It hasn’t changed much, thank the Lord.”
“Just our luck, though,” Wiggo said, waving a hand at the harborside pubs. “All that booze just yards away, and they’re bloody shut.”
“Not necessarily,” Seton replied. “I ken the owner of The Marine. Give me a minute, I’ll see if I can rustle up some breakfast.”
Ten minutes later, they were sitting around a table in the otherwise empty public bar of the Marine Hotel, each with a beer in hand and the smell of frying bacon wafting through from the kitchen.
“Do you ken everybody, wee man?” Wiggo asked as Seton made steady inroads into his beer.
“Benefits of a long life of debauchery, lad,” Seton replied. “Don’t mock it unless you’ve tried it.”
“Oh, I intend to,” Wiggo replied. “If I live that long.”
He saw the look that passed across their captain’s face at that.
“What is it, Cap? You look like you’ve unwrapped a sweetie and found a shite.”
“Maybe I have at that, Wiggo. Maybe I have.”
Banks told them the colonel’s order.
“Christ. I joke about it on every bloody mission; I never expected anybody to take me seriously.”
“Aye, it’s serious, right enough,” Banks replied. “And these Tridents the subs carry have the potential to start World War Three all on their own. The brass are taking a big risk just considering it, but what happened to the rig, and last night at the docks, has them spooked.”
“Them and me both,” Wiggo replied.
They all went quiet ‘round the table until Seton spoke up.
“And what if it doesn’t work?” he said.
“Of course it’ll bloody work,” Wiggo replied. “It’s a fucking nuke.”
“And those missiles earlier at the docks, what were they? Sidewinders or some such? Serious bits of kit in any case, and the beast just brushed them off. And did you see what was happening just before the missiles hit?”
“That’s not the first time you’ve mentioned that,” Banks said. “I think you were the only one to see whatever it is you’re going on about, so out with it. What did you see?”
Seton took a long pull of beer before replying.
“I know you don’t really believe in my ‘hocus pocus shite’ as Wiggo so eloquently puts it, but I can only tell you what I saw. The chant was still going on, the beast was going to sleep…and it had begun to fade out of this reality, might even have done so if those bloody jets hadn’t arrived when they did.”
“Faded out of this reality?” Wiggo said. “What, like ‘Beam me up, Scotty’?”
Seton smiled.
“Something like that, yes. It’s not of this world, at least not entirely. It’s supernatural more than it is natural.”
“Bollocks,” Wiggo replied.
“It doesn’t have any, didn’t you notice?”
Seton turned to address Banks.
“That’s what I meant by asking what happens if the nuke doesn’t work. I think you need to be prepared for the possibility that it’ll still be here after the dust settles.”
“I’m not sure I even want to think about it, never mind prepare for it,” Banks replied.
“I’m just saying,” Seton said. “You might need me yet.”
“If I’m reading you right, you want to try your chant again? That’s not been going too well so far, has it?”
/> “On the contrary. It slowed the beast at the rig, might have done the job if we could have maintained the volume level. And it was working at the docks…you’ll have to trust me on that, but it was working.”
Wiggo could see that the captain was still skeptical.
“Let’s just hope we don’t have to resort to it, eh?” Banks replied.
“I’ll drink to that,” Wiggo said and downed half his beer to try to quell the grumbling in his guts that signaled trouble to come.
They kept the drinking to a minimum, just one more pint each while devouring a mound of eggs, sausages, bacon, and toast washed down with a large mug of coffee. After that, they adjourned to the harbor wall for a smoke.
“So, wee man, how much of this supernatural bollocks do you really believe?” Wiggo said as they lit up.
“All of it, of course. And don’t give me any talk of it all being bollocks…I remember you telling me of your experiences in Antarctica and the Amazon. Those weren’t bollocks, were they?”
“Actually, I’ve never been quite sure either way,” Wiggo replied. “I try not to think about it too much.”
“That’s the trouble,” Seton said. “Everybody tries not to think about the supernatural then when they come across it they have to evaluate it every time as a special case. Personally, I’ve found that gets exhausting, so I just start from a point of belief and go on from there.”
Wiggo nodded.
“Aye, I can see how that might work for you. As for me, I like to shoot the buggers first, and only ask questions when that disnae work.”
That got him a laugh in return.
“And I can see how that might work for you in your line of business,” Seton said. “But this time, we’re upping the stakes. I hope your nuke works, I really do.”
“But being a good Boy Scout you’ll be prepared if it doesn’t?”
“That’s the plan,” Seton said. “Keep everything crossed.”
“Man, I’d cross my dick if I thought it would make a difference.”
“My suggestion…try it and see,” Seton replied.
They were still laughing when a dinghy arrived in the harbor mouth and made its way towards the docking area at the foot of the old stone steps nearest to them.
A dour-faced seaman welcomed them on board the dinghy but didn’t offer to help with the kit, leaving Davies and Wilkins to lug it over from the SUV.
“You’ll be the experts then?” the man said as Wiggo got aboard. Wiggo almost laughed, thinking it was a joke then realised the man was deadly serious.
“Aye, I suppose we are,” he replied. “Any reports on the beastie’s whereabouts?”
“That’s a wee bit above my paygrade,” the seaman said.
“Aye, well, I always pay a ferryman, just in case. Can I interest you in a fag?”
The man’s face lit up in a smile.
“Thanks, man. I’m gasping. It’s not allowed on board. Fucks with the recycling system, or so I’m told.”
“Ah well, take your time getting over there,” Wiggo replied. “We can fit two in to tide us over.”
Still with a cigarette clamped in the side of his mouth, the seaman cast off and took them out, slowly, from the old fishing harbor, past the high outer wall and into the open sea, where the swell immediately got ten times worse.
“I’ve seen this fucking trick before,” Wiggo said. “Let’s hope it ends better this time.”
The dinghy bucked and yawed but the seaman knew what he was about, tacking into the biggest waves and sliding down the far side before tacking again. On one of the rises, Wiggo caught sight of the sub lying offshore like a sleek black whale riding low in the water. He mentally measured its size against the beast he’d seen the night before.
“We’re going to need a bigger boat,” he muttered.
Despite its size, the interior of the sub felt cramped and claustrophobic and Wiggo immediately felt the urge to smoke now that he knew he couldn’t. They were shown to three cabins in the bowels of the vessel; the cap got one to himself and Wiggo was to share with Seton. They stowed their kit and then were directed forward to the bridge.
It, too, felt cramped and overcrowded, especially when the squad and Seton joined the crew already there. The sub’s captain, Michael Green as he introduced himself, was a mousy, dour man in his fifties who didn’t seem especially pleased to see them.
“But orders are orders,” he said, “and I’m to look after you and take your advice, however daft it sounds. So advise away; I’m all ears.”
“First things first,” Captain Banks said, “do we know where it is?”
Green nodded towards the radar screens.
“We had a fix on it when it left Aberdeen this morning but we lost it out at sea somewhere. It disappeared as if it just blinked off the map.”
“Beam me up, Scotty,” Wiggo whispered, then went quiet when it earned him a stern glance from his captain.
Green continued.
“Just before you came on board, we got another blip, fairly close by, but this thing is damned hard to track, whatever it is.”
Seton spoke up.
“There’s no sense us sweeping the whole North Sea looking for it. We should try to get it to come to us.”
“Sorry,” Green said, looking at the older man as if he was something nasty he’d trodden in. “And you are?”
Wiggo spoke up.
“He’s an expert. He’s one of us.”
Seton mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ and continued.
“We can’t do anything until we know where it is. Bringing it to us would accomplish that.”
“It might also get us killed,” Green said.
“I have a plan to avoid that contingency,” Seton replied. “But first I need to know if there’s a way for you to broadcast a constant, rhythmic sound underwater, one that will carry for distance?”
“Certainly. We have seismic survey equipment that does that very thing but…”
Seton didn’t give him time to finish.
“We’re close to Dunnottar Castle. I suggest we hang just offshore from there and start up the beacon, or whatever you want to call it.”
“Why there?” Green asked.
“Because it’s an old stomping ground of the beast’s,” Seton answered. “We lure it in to somewhere it knows then we do our thing.”
“And what thing might that be?”
Seton ignored that and Wiggo thought that was for the best; explaining to a man like Captain Green about ancient chants, sea serpents from the great beyond, and a beastie that could be both natural and supernatural simultaneously would take a wee bit more time than they had available to them. Instead, Captain Banks spoke up.
“Before we start throwing nukes around the North Sea, I think we should give Seton’s idea a chance. If it goes tits up, I’ll take full responsibility. You heard the man,” he said to Green. “Take us to Dunnottar.”
It only took ten minutes to turn the sub and head two miles down the coast. They held position a mile offshore at periscope depth. A series of screens showed the view out over to the castle where it perched on its rocky outcrop. Wiggo had seen pictures of the old castle over the years and had always promised himself a visit, although he’d never got ‘round to it. It always looked staunch and imposing in the photos, but it looked even more impressive when viewed from out here at sea, the high crumbling sandstone cliffs topped with an array of fortifications that, from their periscope’s low angle in the water, showed as dark silhouettes on the skyline.
“Let it rip whenever you’re ready, Captain,” Seton said. “If I’m right, it’ll bring the beast right to us.”
Green looked to Banks for confirmation.
“This is all okay by you, is it?”
Banks nodded.
“Experts, remember?”
Green sighed, gave the order, an operator got to work, and seconds later they were being treated to a rhythmic, high-pitched ping that echoed around them every five seconds.
“What’s the range?” Wiggo asked.
“It’s been shown in experiments that it can be picked up as far away as Norway,” Green replied.
“The beastie might be farther away than that,” Wiggo answered and turned away from the question he knew would be coming. He was now facing Seton.
“What now?” he asked.
“Now we wait,” the small red-haired man said but even before he’d finished speaking another operator shouted out.
“We’ve got incoming. Twenty miles out and closing fast. It’s big.”
“It’s not just big, it’s fucking enormous,” Wiggo added, but by then nobody was listening to him.
All eyes were on the radar screens.
18
Seton spoke up.
“When it gets within a mile of us, switch off the beacon.”
“Why?” Green asked, and Banks knew it was high time he put down some ground rules.
“Because he said so,” he said to Green. “You have your orders, kindly follow them. We don’t have time to explain every action we’re going to need to take in the next few minutes and things will go a lot more smoothly if you let us get on with it. The auld man knows what he’s doing. Expert, remember?”
Banks wasn’t at all sure that was entirely true…but he wasn’t about to tell Green that.
He was glad to see Green back down and when the blip showed that the beast was within a mile, the sub captain gave the order to turn off the beacon.
Relative silence fell over the sub.
“Five hundred yards,” the radar operator said. “Four hundred.”
“It’s going to hit us,” Green said. “Prepare for impact.”
Operation: North Sea (S-Squad Book 10) Page 9