Her spirits lifted when she came to the turnaround at the dam site and found Liz’s pink golf cart abandoned next to the chain-link fence.
Kate stopped the Bronco, turned off the ignition, but left the headlights on. She climbed out of the vehicle and pulled up her hood to ward off the rain.
Switching on her flashlight, Kate inspected the fence line. She spotted a hole just under the fence, big enough for someone to crawl through. The furrow was muddy with standing water. A tattered strip of pink cloth had caught on the jagged edge of the fence.
“Liz,” Kate muttered. “Liz! Liz, are you out there?” she yelled.
Kate did not care to crawl through the mud to get to the other side of the fence. She knew she could scale the fence, but then when she found Liz, it would be a chore, if not impossible, to boost Liz over the fence. There had to be a better way.
A steady runoff of rainwater streamed under the fence onto the turnaround. That meant the ground was saturated. It also meant that the posts holding up the fence were not solidly anchored, that she might be able to force the fence over.
She glanced over at the Bronco. A heavy-duty brush guard was mounted over the grill.
Kate went back to the truck and got inside. She started the Bronco, put the transmission into reverse, and backed up. Once she felt she had enough running distance, she shifted into drive, pushed the accelerator pedal to the floor, and charged the fence.
The chain-link fence gave way to the impact, the bulldozing Bronco flattening the barrier to the ground.
Kate went in another fifty feet before stopping. She switched off the ignition, again leaving the headlights on. She got out, walked around the front of the vehicle, and looked up the embankment that led to the first cave.
She dug her boots into the slippery slope and climbed up.
Reaching the mouth of the cave, she shined her flashlight inside. The cavern stretched back about forty feet. She could hear seepage draining down the interior walls.
“Liz! Are you in there?”
There was no answer.
She decided to check the other cave.
Kate was just entering the next cave when her flashlight flickered and went out.
“Not now,” she protested.
She slapped the flashlight in the palm of her hand and it went back on.
“Liz! Can you hear me?”
“Kate! We’re in here!”
“Oh, thank God.” Kate continued inside the cave. She tread quietly, panning the light along one wall then the other. Ten feet ahead, and to the left, was a narrow passage, large enough for a person to crawl into.
“For God’s sake, Kate! Get in here!” Liz shouted.
Kate ran over to the grotto and shined the light inside.
Liz and Rose were huddled twenty feet back at the rear of the chamber.
“Kate, hurry, get in here,” Liz pleaded.
“Yeah, but don’t you want to—?”
“Quit arguing!”
Kate hunkered down and crawled into the passage.
“Liz, what happened to you?” Kate said, once she had reached her friend.
Liz’s hair and face were caked with mud. Her jacket was grayish-brown with a few specks of pink.
“I know. I must look a fright,” Liz said.
“What in the world are you doing in here?”
“Finding my Rosie.” Rosie was on Liz’s lap and looked petrified.
“Well, I’m getting you out of here.”
“No! We can’t go out there,” Liz said.
“You’ll catch your death if you stay in here.”
“There are worse things to fear, trust me.”
Kate’s flashlight flickered and went out. “I knew I shouldn’t have bought these bargain brand batteries.” She slapped the flashlight and the light came back on.
“The truck is just right outside,” she said. “You’ll see the headlights when we go out.”
Again, the flashlight faltered and went out.
Rosie let out a menacing growl.
“Shhh. Be still,” Liz said. “It’s coming back.”
“What’s coming back?” Kate looked through the passage and could see a faint glow from the Bronco’s headlights filtering into the cave.
An immense shadow reflected off the far wall. She heard a loud scuffling noise, like something of great bulk dragging itself across the floor of the cave.
And that is when she saw the huge fin step in front of the passage entry.
“Oh Kate,” Liz whispered, clutching Kate’s arm.
“That is why you were afraid to leave.”
The creature pulled itself along on its belly.
“It’s been coming in and out of here all night.”
“Sooner, or later, we’ve got to get out of here.”
The light flickered out for a moment and came back on, shining on a gigantic tail passing by.
“Tell me I’m losing my mind,” Liz said. “And that’s not real.”
“I’m afraid it’s real all right.”
And with that, Rosie began to whimper.
***
Kelly’s body ached right down to her toes. She curled up on the couch and pulled the comforter over her shoulders.
“Kelly?”
Kelly opened her eyes, and when she looked up, there was Nell and Sean standing next to the couch.
“Where have you two been? Everyone’s looking all over for you guys.”
“We were looking for Max,” Nell replied, and gave her brother a strange look. Kelly sensed a conspiracy, but before she could question them, Nell went on by saying, “We almost got eaten by a giant fish. It chased us up a tree and everything. Even knocked the tree down. Good thing Mr. Murdock was there to save us.”
“You can do better than that,” Kelly said. She had conjured up some fibs in her time, but this one was lame as a one-legged dog.
“It happened just like Nell said,” Sean said.
“Oh, yeah. So, where is this Mr. Murdock then?” Kelly sat up on the couch.
The wick had dried out in the kerosene lamp so the room was dark.
“He’s sitting right there,” Nell said, pointing to a shadow in the corner of the room.
Just then, the front door flew open.
Devon and Professor Stone carried Jasper in and put the semi-conscious man on the couch.
“My leg’s on fire,” Jasper groaned.
“Kelly, we need some more blankets,” Professor Stone said.
Kelly ran back to the hall closet and came back with an armful of blankets. She covered Jasper. “Wasn’t Claude with you all?” she asked.
“Claude’s dead.”
“Oh, my God.”
Devon looked across the room and saw his sister and brother. “Where the hell have you two been?” he snapped.
“Max was lost. We went to find him,” Nell said.
Devon looked in the kitchen and saw Max sprawled on the floor, his head tucked down between his front paws, looking guilty as sin.
“Is that what happened?” Devon asked again, this time directing his question at Sean.
“What, you think we’re making it up?” Sean snapped back.
“Kelly, turn up that lamp,” Devon said.
Kelly dipped the wick back into the kerosene then turned up the key. Soon, the room brightened, and she could see a man sitting in the recliner, calm and collective as though he were a forgotten guest.
“Vernon!” Jess said.
“Jess,” he replied.
“How did you get in here?” Devon asked.
“Vernon saved us,” Sean said.
“What?”
“There was this gigantic fish. I never saw anything like it. Vernon rescued us with his raft.”
“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t have been in danger if it wasn’t for him,” Devon said, glaring at Vernon, who didn’t seem phased in the very least.
Kelly thought it strange that Vernon could just sit, cool as a cucumber, even though he was sweatin
g profusely like the temperature was a hundred degrees. She couldn’t stop shivering she was so cold.
“There’s no point fighting about that now,” Professor Stone said.
“The professor is right. We need to get Jasper medical attention,” Jess said.
“The sooner the better. We’ll need to keep an eye on Jasper’s leg. That barb was venomous. His leg could easily become infected, even go gangrene,” Professor Stone said.
“How are we going to get Jasper out of here if the road is closed?” Jess asked.
“We’ll figure a way,” Devon said.
Kelly’s head was spinning.
“Whoa. You mean Nell and Sean are telling the truth?” she asked.
“Yep. These two are lucky to be alive,” Devon said. “Aren’t we forgetting something?”
“What?” Professor Stone asked.
“Those fish, the silurids.”
“What about them? This is a lake. They’re not going anywhere,” Professor Stone replied.
“That’s where you’re wrong. The lake is rising fast. Pretty soon, it will be up to the mouth of the diversion tunnel at the dam. That tunnel was meant to channel water from the lake into the Sacramento River. If those things get out through that tunnel, there’s no telling where they’ll end up,” Devon said.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Professor Stone said.
“As I see it, we have only two choices. Get help or stop them ourselves.”
“Vernon, we need your help,” Jess said, and knelt beside the recliner. “How do we stop them?”
“I don’t know,” Vernon replied.
“Come on, Vernon. Tell us how we can kill them!” Devon said.
“You can’t. I won’t let you.”
“Vernon, don’t you see what you’ve done? Don’t you realize what these creatures could do to our eco-system?” Professor Stone said.
Vernon fell silent.
Jess placed her hand on Vernon’s forehead. “He’s burning up!”
“He might have pneumonia,” Professor Stone said.
“Vernon, you’re bleeding,” Jess said after she removed her hand from Vernon’s head and saw the blood.
“I hit my head pretty hard when I crashed the truck,” Vernon said. He leaned back in the recliner like a traveler exhausted after a long journey.
Jasper groaned on the couch.
Devon glanced about the room. “Wait a minute. Where’s my mom?”
“She went looking for Liz,” Kelly said.
“She did what?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
After making Jasper as comfortable as possible, Devon and Professor Stone helped Vernon into Kate’s bedroom and put him on the bed where Jess dressed her brother’s head wound. Vernon quickly drifted off to sleep.
Everyone congregated around the kitchen table cluttered with mail, some school supplies, one of Nell’s textbooks, and a kerosene lamp.
“Anyone have any ideas what we should do?” Professor Stone asked.
Devon absentmindedly picked up a pencil and began to nervously tap it on the tabletop.
“I know there’s a road crew working up near the main road. Should be there just after dawn. One of us could hike up there and get help,” Jess said.
“Be tough in this weather, but it may be our only chance,” Devon said, still tapping the pencil.
“I’ll go,” Sean said. “I can use the golf cart then hoof it the rest of the way.”
“No, you better let me,” Devon said.
“I can do it. Besides, don’t you have to go look for Mom?”
“Sean’s right. We need you here, Devon,” Jess said. “Let Sean go.”
“All right.”
“Well, now that we have decided on that, we still have those fish to worry about,” Professor Stone said.
Nell came into the kitchen carrying a small black box.
“What do you have there?” Jess asked.
“I don’t know. It’s Vernon’s.”
“May I see it?” asked Professor Stone.
Nell gave him the box.
Professor Stone lifted the lid and examined the contraption. “It’s a tracking device.”
“You don’t think Vernon was using that device to keep tabs on the silurids, do you?” asked Devon.
“Maybe.” Professor Stone flicked on a switch and a greenish glow shone on his face. “I’ll be. It’s configured to the shoreline around the lake. These two red dots must be Zeus and Athena.”
Everyone leaned in to see the screen.
“Judging by this, they are somewhere around the southern part of the lake.”
“Okay, so we know where they are. Now what?” Devon asked.
“Let’s think for a minute. We know due to their abnormal size that they must possess extraordinary keen sensory abilities, both gustatory and auditory,” Jess said.
“Say again?” Devon said, rapping the pencil on the table.
“Catfish possess the ability to actually taste a food source through their skin, as well as having hypersensitive senses. These silurids could probably hear a minnow swimming, halfway across the lake. They rely on their instincts, reflexes, not their brains. We just need a way to lure them into a trap.”
“Devon, you mind putting that pencil down. It’s hard enough to think without you doing that,” Professor Stone said.
“That’s it!” Jess said.
“What?” Devon said, tossing the pencil on the table.
“In Europe, fishermen use a technique called klonking. They hollow out this shaft of wood about the length of your forearm then by using a paddling motion on the surface are actually able to attract fish to their bait. We could use a similar method.”
“Baiting them is one thing, hooking them is another,” Devon said.
“I may have the hook,” Jasper said, balancing on his good leg at the kitchen’s threshold.
Devon jumped up and helped Jasper to a chair.
“There’s…RDX in my trailer,” Jasper said, wheezing out the words.
“What’s RDX?” asked Professor Stone.
“Plastic explosive. Used to work demolition years ago.”
“You mean to tell me you have explosives in your trailer?” Devon asked.
“Sorry, Devon. For violating another one of your trailer park rules,” Jasper said.
“I don’t believe it,” Devon said in an exasperated tone.
“Don’t get sore. You guys are family to me,” Jasper said and hung his head. “So was Claude.”
“Tell us more about this RDX,” Devon said.
“I’ve worked with all kinds of explosives. Dynamite. Nitroglycerin. Lost most of my hand and got this scar from nitro. RDX is more stable, not volatile like TNT. No fuse, just takes an electrical charge, and BOOM!” Jasper clapped his hands together to simulate an explosion.
He leaned forward on the table. The flickering light from the kerosene lamp accentuated his solemn mood.
“Devon. RDX is a serious explosive. You make a mistake and there is no correcting it. Don’t ever forget that. And whatever you do, don’t violate rule number one.”
“What is rule number one?”
“Always finish the job with the same number of digits you started with,” Jasper said, stroking his scarred cheek with the remaining fingers on his crippled hand.
“Sounds like solid advice. Now tell us what we need to know,” Devon said.
For the next few minutes, Jasper explained how the RDX was to be rigged and had just finished telling them how to set the timer when he gasped.
“Jasper!” Devon reached out but not in time to catch Jasper. He slipped off the chair and fell to the floor.
“Oh, my God!” Jess screamed.
Jasper lay motionless, dead.
“Look at his pant leg,” Stone said.
Devon grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and sliced along the outer seam of Jasper’s trousers. “Ah jeez!”
Jasper’s leg had turned a dark purple and was swollen twice
what it should be. Minute beads of green pus oozed out of every pore.
***
Tony had turned off the dispatch radio in case they received a call to return to the station. If anyone should ask, he was going to say that they had blown a fuse. He even had a blown fuse handy to replace the good one, in the event someone became suspicious and wanted to verify his story.
“We should call it a night. I’m tired of driving,” Bernie said.
“We’re almost there,” Victoria said.
“Think so, eh?” Bernie stopped the van.
Ahead were five sawhorses lined up and blocking the road. A Road Closed Mudslide sign was attached to the middle sawhorse.
“I guess you got your wish,” Tony said to Bernie.
“I’m not giving up,” Victoria said.
“Then what do you suggest?”
Victoria thought for a moment. “I got it. Miles Forbes.”
“The joker that flies the chopper for traffic,” said Tony.
“He’s always had a thing for me. Frankly, I can’t stand the jerk. But, I think I can convince him to fly us out to that lake.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“I’ll call him.”
“At four in the morning?”
“Like I said, the guy has a hard-on for me. What can I say?” Victoria pushed the appropriate buttons on her cell phone and put the phone to her ear. A few seconds passed.
“Miles? Morning, I didn’t wake you did I?” Victoria purred. “What? I did. I thought you would be on your way to work. No! It’s your day off. Damn. Oh, no honey, I mean damn I was hoping to see you at the station. I’m sorry, too. Dinner? You want to invite me to dinner tonight? Well, that sounds fantastic, but I’m sort of in a bind. What sort of bind?
“The station is expecting me to cover this hot exclusive, but my crew and I can’t get there as the road is closed. Mudslide. Yes, it is very important. Could you help us? I know it’s your day off, but don’t you think you could, maybe borrow a helicopter. I know that sounds silly. You can!” Victoria put her hand over the phone. “He fell for it,” she said to Tony and Bernie.
“What a horn dog,” Tony said.
Victoria elbowed Tony then went on to say into the phone, “Really, honey you’re a sweetie. Where? Give us an hour to find a place for you to land, and I’ll call you and tell you where we are. I’m looking forward to dinner. Yes. Me, too.” Victoria closed the phone. “The things I have to do to get a story.”
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