***
The Rover’s headlights skimmed across patches of yellow and orange bacteria that Francis, who waited with Ranger Shore, Dr. Harris and Maltin, Greer and Patterson on a boat at Cleetwood Dock and who was in constant radio and visual contact with it, claimed lived on minerals rather than photosynthetic products of sunlight. He loved to lecture to anyone who’d listen about his field of expertise. The screen showed them everything Lassen was seeing below.
“These particular bacteria are everywhere down here,” Lassen voiced over the sub’s radio, aware Francis wasn’t the only one listening. “They’re real pretty.”
Lassen seemed delighted at the variety of plant life he was seeing.
“They’re growing in puffy masses. Some as large as fifty feet across. They resemble loose mattress stuffing. So weird looking. I’d love to touch them. Wonder if they’re soft or hard. Hmm.”
“That type?” Francis said. “Probably soft like mushrooms.” He laughed. Always amazed at how childlike Lassen could be when it came to what lived on the water’s floor.
Francis, short and wizened, looked older than his fifty years, and liked to dress in shades of gray. Casual wear. Bulky sweaters and Dockers. His hair of the same color was tied in a ponytail; he often wore a cowboy hat and was considered an eccentric individual who kept to himself. Best at what he did, he knew oceans and lakes and the creatures that lived in them.
Lassen could have been his brother, most people said, they looked that much alike, except Lassen had no ponytail and was taller than Francis. He wore his hair medium length and shaggy; had pale blue eyes like ice. He enjoyed people and was the more sociable of the two.
Lassen was the mechanical expert. He kept the Deep Rover running safe. He was also the married one of the two, having a wife and two chubby kids waiting for him in Vancouver, while Francis was a lifelong bachelor. Yet they were staunch friends and had been for over ten years, as long as they’d been partners.
The day before, Francis had piloted the sub along the lake’s bottom and discovered what the paleontologist, Maltin, had previously discovered, that the water was being heated by subterranean volcanic eruptions. He’d also told him they’d done the necessary tests, had recorded the results and found the water was nearly eighty-five degrees along the crater floor, although the deep-water temperature of the lake was supposed to average somewhere around fifty-five degrees. Francis had been disturbed, but intrigued by the temperature aberration.
His search had also found radon, the radioactive decay product of radium, at levels nearly two thousand times higher than at the lake’s upper levels, and unusually large amounts of the light element helium-3, a component of the hot viscous rock called magma that flowed upwards from the mantle beneath the earth’s crust.
“There are also signs there’s been extensive earthquake activity, perhaps going way back to prehistoric times, down there. Astonishing,” Francis had exclaimed the day before.
“Still is earthquake activity,” Henry had commented.
Francis thought about the earthquakes as the engines of the submersible purred through the radio and it picked up speed to cut through the cloudy water.
Through the sub’s mechanical eyes the men watched above as the Deep Rover passed rocky basins which resembled small volcano craters. These, like the ones Francis had seen the day before, were filled with dense water rich in salts that appeared vividly blue in the bright headlights and contrasted sharply with the gloom of the surrounding water.
“Wow,” Lassen remarked from below. “See these spires of silicate rocks on the cameras up there? Some of them must be thirty feet tall.” He was referring to the pointed spires rising around him from the bed of the lake like a stone garden. “They’re similar to those black smokers we found along the upwelling heat sources of that ocean ridge near Hawaii, remember those, Jim?”
He and Lassen had charted the depths of the Pacific and seen the lush plant life six-thousand feet down. Yet the bottom of Crater Lake still held unique sights. “Must be the volcano’s influence and the molten lava that created these formations. Lovely.”
“We see them,” the answer bounced back across the miles after a short pause. “They’re awesome. But, Mark, watch your way between them, looks like it’s going to be a tight fit.”
“It is,” Lassen responded. “But I’m a good driver.” He chuckled.
“You getting tired down there, Mark?”
“No. Doesn’t take much energy to shove around a joystick and aim the sub in the right direction. So far so good. Not tired at all. I can stay down a bit longer. Got another six hours of air. By the way, the scenery down here is exquisite. For a lake, extraordinary.”
Lassen had been searching the east curve of the caldera for hidden caves the last two hours.
“Well, put in another hour, buddy, then surface.” Francis didn’t want him under too long. The tense work rapidly wearied a person, and tired pilots made careless mistakes.
If Shore was right, his partner couldn’t afford mistakes if the mystery creature showed up.
“I hear ya,” Lassen responded. “But I haven’t found anything yet. No so-called water monsters. In fact, strangely enough, I haven’t seen any fish. None at all. If, as they say, they stock this lake every two years, and there aren’t any inlets or outlets with the sea, then something’s depleting the supply big time.”
Francis noticed the ranger listening to the conversation and didn’t seem surprised at the news. Greer’s colleague, Patterson, was listening, too.
“I’m in full throttle and retracing my route to the other side of the lake to a place I passed earlier,” Lassen told him. “By the time I saw it, I’d passed it. I’d like to check it out. I thought I saw tunnels branching off and burrowing down away from the bottom. Huge mothers. Must be the lake’s plumbing system. If I explore, could be I can figure out where all the heat’s coming from.”
“I didn’t see any large tunnels yesterday when I was down there,” Francis said. “Just small caves.”
“You were on the other side of the lake most of the day, remember, Jim?”
“I was, wasn’t I? Okay, check them out, but be careful. The tunnels could be unstable with the recent earthquakes and since we don’t know where the magma flows are originating, even more so. And if that’s where the heat’s coming from, even the Deep Rover’s thick hull might not keep you from turning into a crispy critter.”
Lassen snickered from the cockpit. “Yes, mother, I’ll be careful.” Francis could almost feel the sub shifting slightly to the right and gliding through the dark liquid, so often had he driven it and so attuned was he to the machine. The headlights would be roaming the rocky floor like a hungry eye as the swishing gurgle of the water coursed up through the radio.
“Yep, you can sure tell there’s been earthquakes down here,” Lassen kept up the chatter, a link to the land as the men above observed the scenery through the Rover’s eyes. “It’s a mess in this section. The crustal plates are cracked and have shifted up and onto each other. The sediment’s a mile thick in some places. There’s rising steam everywhere.”
“We’re getting clear photos of it up here. Fascinating what nature can create, isn’t it? The view’s even got Greer’s attention. Made him put that notebook of his down and he hasn’t checked that pocket watch of his for the last ten minutes at least, either.”
More chuckles.
Greer, in his neat suit, was hovering behind him at the make-shift base in the abandoned boat chained to the dock. Dr. Harris was next to the man, making faces at the video screen; waiting for the elusive creature to make an appearance so he could coo over it.
Justin Maltin, scribbling something on a notepad a few feet away, was getting ready to return to John Day’s to do some more research.
Francis liked the young paleontologist, having found him not only affable but highly intelligent. He even appreciated Greer, rough and enigmatic as the man was on the outside, he was probably a decent guy beneath th
e steely exterior.
But that Harris fellow. Francis wasn’t sure he was for real. Such a pompous ass, a nuisance. Always underfoot. Always hatching schemes to make money, gain fame off the situation.
“There!” From the boat, as he watched the sub’s progress, Francis directed his friend in the submersible. “Veer directly to your left. Sharp. That’s it.
“See that crater to your right, Mark? It looks like a miniature volcano in a volcano?”
“They’re all over. There’s a truly impressive one below me now.”
“We see it. Watch those silicate columns starboard, buddy. Cutting it awfully close, aren’t you?”
Lassen was weaving in and out of the columns with the submersible, a pinball in a giant pinball game. He was scaring his friend.
“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, Jim. This is fun. Great stress reliever, dodging around these rocks. Like bumper cars but underwater. Whoopee!”
“Not like bumper cars. You don’t want to hit them.” Francis put his fingers over his eyes, shaking his head. “And I thought you were a sane man.”
Lassen played around a little longer and then said, “Stop nagging me. I’m heading towards those caverns now. I know my time’s running out.”
Francis wished he was below in the lake and Lassen was on top with Harris and his whining. The man was driving him nuts. He never shut up. Always making plans for what he’d do if the creature showed up, if they caught it. Blah, blah, blah. Another half hour of Harris’s babbling and he’d knock the guy senseless just for some peace and quiet.
The Rover was skirting along a series of cave openings, all of them too small to take it. Lassen was describing and reporting what he saw as he went. He’d moved halfway around the arc of the lake when he exclaimed, “There’s this large cavern down here, behind the rocks. I mean big. The entrance opens in an o shape. Don’t know how I ever missed it before.”
He gave his GPS coordinates, pinpointing his exact location for the ones listening above.
“Something’s hiding in it. Something….
“I’m going in.”
Francis watched through the view screen as the Rover glided into the opening.
“The cave appears to have been well-used, and recently,” Lassen continued the commentary. “The stone around the opening is freshly scratched and there’s loose debris and rocks everywhere.”
“Watch yourself, Mark,” Francis advised, his eyes glued to the story the cameras were sending back. It was difficult to see much beyond the sub’s lights, the water was so misty. “This could be the hiding place we’ve been searching for.”
“Could be,” the pilot’s answer crackled across the space through the radio channel. “I’ll keep my eyes open for any unfriendly monster cave dwellers.”
Only Patterson laughed. Evidently, he didn’t believe in the monster either.
Dr. Maltin, from a chair in front of the console, gave him a dirty look.
Greer and Ranger Shore had been discussing other caves they’d known, but fell silent, as they hulked anxiously over the radio set. He’d overheard Shore say he’d done some cave climbing when he’d been a teenager. But, it turned out, Greer was the expert spelunker. He’d been in over a hundred caves.
“Caves,” Greer announced, “are one of my obsessions. And the only variety of cave I haven’t explored is precisely the type of cave I’d bet Lassen is in now…an underwater lava cave.”
“An underwater lava cave?” Shore asked.
“Yes, and they’re often treacherous and unpredictable.”
“Ha, any cave is treacherous and unpredictable,” Maltin snapped. “Things can fall on your head any time.” He whispered, “I hate caves.”
Francis wasn’t listening to them, instead he was fretting over his friend in the caves below. He had an uneasy premonition something wasn’t right.
“It’s a maze of passageways,” Lassen was describing in an echo of a voice that seemed far away. “It keeps twisting, and turning one way and then another…a true labyrinth. Magnificent! Some tunnels are too narrow to navigate through….I’m backing up, going another way. Now I’m in a much larger one. Good, there’s more room to maneuver.”
“Jim, all of you up there, you ought to see this! I mean the full up-close effect, not just what the cameras are picking up. It’s breathtaking. Wait a minute, there’s light directly above me. I’m going up.”
The sub moved upwards at a steep angle. The eerie light grew brighter. Warm glowing crimsons and whitish oranges. It kept getting closer.
The Deep Rover surfaced from the water into what looked like an above water cavern full of wreathing bluish smoke and watery air. The walls were covered with dripping stone and lime formations. “Wow, this cavern is something,” Lassen murmured. “Looks real old. Prehistoric even. There’s multicolored lava rocks glittering along the walls, rising in spirals from the floor. They’re so delicate looking. Can you see them? And look at those rocks embedded in the ceiling. What fantastic shapes and colors. A rainbow.”
“We see all of it, Mark,” Francis sent back. “It’s on camera now. Even from here it looks spectacular.”
“It is. See the live lava river?”
Along one side of the cavern there was a moving stream of sluggish lava creeping its way into the adjoining tunnels and pillowing into the water less than fifty feet from the submersible.
It meant the cavern and the nearby water’s heat would be extreme. It also meant the warm cave could be a home to a living creature. The men on shore realized that.
“With all that active lava,” Francis spoke into the mike, “it must be hot in there.”
“It is. The instruments are recording a steep jump in temperature. It isn’t a dangerous heat level…yet. But it could be if it keeps building. See the steam?”
“I see it,” Shore spoke up.
“This chamber probably leads to another exit,” Lassen reported. “To my right. See? I wish I had the time to explore this place more thoroughly. It’s truly unique.”
“Not by yourself, mate,” Francis told him. “Too dangerous. We were only to locate a possible lair, not toddle around in it, peeking behind rocks, twists and turns.”
He didn’t have to explain that what he’d meant was they weren’t to take any chances like that not without weapons. Weapons that hadn’t arrived yet. Weapons the Rover didn’t have.
“I know. I’m going back down. Get out of here. It’s getting a little spooky. Shadows all over the place. Strange noises.”
“Yeah, better safe than monster chow.” Patterson snorted.
Francis gave the man a dirty look. He was uneasy enough.
“I’m leaving the cavern now,” Lassen’s voice sounded strained. “Those shadows are creeping me out. They’re…moving.”
His audience was holding their breath until the craft submerged again, leaving the fiery chamber behind, and wound its way through the tunnels towards the cave’s entrance.
“That explains why the water temperature’s been rising. The earthquake must have opened those old caverns and released the magma flows,” the pilot was speaking as the sub descended. “That cavern deserves further study. It could ruin the delicate ecology of the park if enough lava is pumped into the lake.”
“I agree,” Francis said. “You returning to base now?”
“Sure am. I’m hungry. What’s for lunch?”
“Whatever they’re having on special at the closest restaurant in town. My treat.”
“Sounds good to me.” They could see Lassen was exiting the mouth of the underwater cave, the Rover gaining speed. The rear cameras were giving a wide view of all behind him.
Greer was stepping away from the monitors to inquire something of Dr. Harris when Shore cried out. He’d been studying something on the edge of the screen. “Lassen, behind you! It’s behind you! Get the hell out of there!”
The following seconds were chaos. Dr. Harris and Greer scrambled back to watch what was happening on the cameras.
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“Oh, my god,” Lassen could be heard exclaiming from inside the sub.
Dr. Maltin, who’d left his chair and moved over to the screen, cried, “Oh, my god, there it is!”
For what seemed like an unbelievable amount of suspended time the men stared at the thing outside the sub’s portals.
“It really exists,” Patterson gasped, as a scaly wall of emerald skin filled the portals of the Rover, trapping the wide-eyed Lassen inside. The creature pulled away and everyone could see it clearly framed in the windows. “Well, I’ll be damned. An honest to god dinosaur. Would you look at that thing!”
Francis, along with the other men, were. He was as shocked as Patterson. He hadn’t believed in the creature, either.
Outside in the inky water they caught patchwork glimpses of the monster: a belligerent eye peering in, a spiked tail swimming by a window. Teeth when the thing snarled.
Lassen was trying hard to hide his panic, but his trembling voice gave him away. “It does looks like some kind of dinosaur, Ranger Shore, just as you and Dr. Maltin said. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life or in any of my sea explorations. Oh, Lord…it’s so big.”
All the men around the screen found they couldn’t take their eyes off the apparition.
Ranger Shore took the microphone from Francis. “What are you going to do?” he demanded softly of the man in the sub, knowing what he was feeling–absolute terror–because he’d been there. Felt it.
“N..n..nothing. I don’t think it even notices me.”
“Don’t underestimate it, Lassen. It sees you all right. Get out of there. Now, while you can.”
Lassen moved the submersible away, forgetting completely their big rock-on-the-bottom-of-the-lake strategy. Apparently all Lassen wanted to do at that moment was get as far away from the creature as he could.
Francis didn’t blame him one bit.
Stationary, the monster examined the metal craft with glittering eyes. Then it opened its tooth-filled mouth and silently roared. Bubbles exploding from its mouth. Its claws came up to its chest and flailed in the water. It almost seemed to the men watching that it was waving at Lassen.
“How long can it stay underwater before it has to go up for air?” Lassen voiced meekly.
“I don’t know.” Dr. Maltin’s face had a stricken look on it. “Just tell him to get away.”
“I’m increasing speed.”
Dr. Harris’s eyes were glued to the screens, too, but the glint in them was one of greedy excitement.
The submersible sped faster through the dark water.
The beast became smaller in the sub’s windows as the distance grew between them.
Faster. Faster.
Francis was breathing again when the monster begun to move, churning the water like a giant paddle wheel, neck stretching out, tail pushing it along. Francis had never seen an underwater creature move that quickly. Not even a shark or a Great White. It was eating up the water.
It was coming after the sub. After Lassen.
“Gonna try to outrun it,” Lassen under toned, his demeanor still calm.
Not for long though. His friend must be so afraid, Francis thought, putting his hand to his brow. They never should have put the submersible in the water, but how were they to have known the monster was real? Or so gigantic…and curious?
By the instruments he could tell the Rover had ratcheted up to its top speed. The monster easily caught up with it as if it were idling in the water. Through the radio lines there was the sickening sound of claws scrapping metal as the beast reached out and captured the sub in its embrace, holding it prisoner.
By then Lassen’s coolness had evaporated and he was groaning loudly as the giant tail encircled his metal sanctuary. There were more scraping, scratching noises. Now the sub was motionless. Lassen was screeching something but none of the men above could make out the words, there was so much background noise.
The creature seemed to be amusing itself with the submersible. Playing with it.
“Why can’t he get away from it?” Greer’s hands were clenched before him, his expression flat.
“It’s too strong,” Ranger Shore sighed.
“It can’t get to him in that sub.” Francis swallowed. “The hull’s too thick. Made of the best, strongest metals. It’s–”
Lassen’s shaky voice haunted the speakers, “My god, it’s trying to break in. Why won’t it just leave me alone and go away? What the hell does it want?”
You, Francis answered silently, meeting the panicked gazes of the men around him.
“He’s not going to make it,” Shore said. “And it’s my fault. I knew what the creature was like. I knew it was real. Deadly. I never should have let him, anyone, go down there…without weapons to protect themselves.”
“How can you blame yourself, Henry?” Greer tried to ease the ranger’s guilt. “He was only doing his job. He knew the risks.”
Dr. Harris snapped, “And he’s not dead yet. He’ll get away. That creature is not that smart, I keep telling you. A human surely should be able to outsmart the thing.”
“I hope you’re right.” Francis regarded the monitors, his jaw clenched. He found himself praying for his partner’s safety deep below in the lake.
Suddenly, the beast released the sub and the machine pulled away. It was chugging ahead, leaving the monster behind.
The men on the boat cheered.
The Rover slowly increased its speed, as if Lassen was afraid to recapture the creature’s attention. Then it was a gray bullet flying through the water.
The monster waited for a while and began to follow. Gaining. Gaining.
The submersible ceased moving, falling dead in the water.
“Mark!” Francis cried. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you getting the hell out of there?”
“I don’t know! She won’t accelerate. She’s dead in the water.” Lassen could be heard panting, pure terror in his words.
The leviathan had caught up to the Deep Rover and was slowly circling it.
“Maybe something’s wrong with the engine…I don’t know. I’ve checked everything. Everything was fine this morning.”
Then Lassen was screaming.
The screaming made Francis’s blood freeze.
The pictures on the camera were going crazy, one moment a view of the lake bottom and the next of nothing but water churning.
“It’s got me again! Got the Rover…tearing at us…” the man inside the sub rasped breathlessly, his utter terror painful to hear. His words were now gibberish and his shrill shrieks, and pitiful pleas for help, were lost among tearing metal. The microphone and cameras giving a gruesome account of what was occurring, up to the moment Lassen was taken from the Deep Rover.
The beast had him. Like a can-opener, it’d pried the sub open and popped the human out.
The others watched, mouths open in horror, their faces registering shock, as the man in the submersible was ripped from his sardine can and disappeared from view. They watched the screen until it went dead and there was nothing else to watch or to hear but the pounding of their own hearts.
“Oh, god, we’ve got to do something,” Francis cried. “We’ve got to save him!” The others had to restrain him or he would have started the boat and gone to rescue his friend. Hopeless. There was no way he could have saved him. Lassen was gone.
“It’s too late.” Greer’s eyes were glued to the screen but there was nothing left to see. “It’s over.”
Under his feet Francis could feel the sway of the boat, moored to the dock. Outside it was broad daylight. But he didn’t feel safe. As long as he was on the water, he wouldn’t feel safe.
The monster, and that was what it was, had come out early to feed. It wasn’t even dark. Which meant either it was getting bolder, or hungrier. Or both.
Francis stared at the other men. Everyone but Dr. Harris was in shock. Even Patterson.
He collapsed into the chair Maltin had just vacated, his distress a live coal i
n his gut. He’d really cared about Lassen. He’d been his partner, his friend, for so many years. The man had a family. How was he going to tell them? He felt sick.
How could this have happened? What were they going to do now? He couldn’t think about that, his revulsion, his grief was too fresh.
“Sending that sub into the lake was like sending out a bright fishing lure on the end of a line. Come and get me, monster,” Ranger Shore gritted through clenched teeth. “We as good as sent that man to his death. It’s my fault, I should have known how dangerous the mission was; never sent him. I’m so sorry, Jim.”
Jim Francis, who’d been quiet since his outburst, jerked his eyes towards Shore. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know this would happen.”
Shore lowered his eyes but said nothing more.
“At least he didn’t suffer long.” Francis laid his head on his folded arms and Dr. Maltin put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“No, not long,” Henry Shore said gently.
And no one disputed that.
Dinosaur Lake Page 28