Shadow Of The Abyss

by Edward J. McFadden III

  “I keep watching, and when the time is right we’ll take the thing down,” Silva said.

  “A shame. I’d bet a million scientists would kill each other to study this thing,” Lenah said.

  “They can study the corpse,” Silva said.

  Silva fired up the engines and took Splinter and crew back to the Coast Guard base to get Will’s car.

  As Splinter got off the Navy boat Silva handed him a card. “Call me if you think of anything or if you learn something new.”

  “Something new?” Splinter said.

  “I can tell you’re not going to let this go, am I right?” Silva said.

  “Maybe,” Splinter said.

  “Keep me informed and take care, Captain Woods,” Agent Harry Silva said.

  “You too.”

  28

  Back at the Coast Guard base they all piled into the Taurus and headed to Lenny’s to collect Poseidon, who walked right past Splinter when he tried to pick the cat up. Clearly his feline friend was pissed. Will guided the old Taurus out onto A1A and made a right.

  “You want me to drop you guys at Lenah’s?” Will said. “I’m gonna drop Poseidon off at my neighbor’s and catch some rest.”

  “Yes, please,” Lenah said.

  Splinter grunted. Lenah refused to go back to his “shithole” and she was justified. His half-sunken home was no place for a woman. Hell, it was no place for anybody, except maybe water rats.

  They made the same left they had earlier onto Seaway Drive, and passed all the same places, but this time they didn’t make the right into the Coast Guard station. Instead they drove on, past the aquarium, over the bridge to the mainland, and turned left on North 4th Street heading south.

  Lenah’s place was a well-kept two-story cape in Sunland Gardens that reminded Splinter of the house he grew up in. It was light green, with white trim, and there was a floral wreath on the front door and a sailboat on a trailer next to her garage. The lawn hadn’t been cut in a while, and the thick blades of the St. Augustine grass swayed in the gentle breeze.

  Will pulled into the driveway, and as Splinter got out, Poseidon jumped out behind him.

  “Oh, no, you’re with Will,” he said to the cat.

  Poseidon just stared up at him with glassy green eyes. She sat and curved her tail around herself. If that wasn’t a no, Splinter didn’t know what was.

  “She can stay with us,” Lenah said.

  “No,” said Splinter. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few days and I can’t be worrying about her.”

  “She can stay at my place when we’re gone,” Lenah said.

  “Who’s going to feed her? Let her out, etc…?”

  Will said, “It’s best if she comes with me. Toby will take good care of her, promise.”

  Poseidon hissed as Splinter picked her up, placed her in the front seat of the Taurus, and closed the door.

  “Call you later,” Will said.

  “How?” Splinter said. “Lenah’s phone is on the bottom of the Atlantic and I don’t have one.”

  “We’ll check in with you. I’m gonna get a new phone first thing tomorrow,” Lenah said.

  Will waved and drove off, Poseidon staring out the window at Splinter, her paws on the dashboard.

  “Where’s your car?” Splinter asked.

  “Garage. I got a lift to the marina. Didn’t want to leave my car there.”

  Lenah turned over a rock and picked up a key. “My keys are on the bottom of the Atlantic as well.”

  She opened the front door and went inside.

  The foyer opened up into a living room, with the stairs to the second floor straight ahead. Splinter used the bathroom, and when he joined Lenah in the kitchen, she had various containers out on the table.

  “I’ve got leftover spaghetti, and a couple of pieces of chicken, salad, take what you want,” she said.

  “Any beer or anything?” Splinter said.

  Lenah went to a cabinet and pulled down a bottle of white wine. “Don’t know if it’s any good, but I figure you’ve earned it.” She put it on the table.

  It was a twist off, and Splinter opened the bottle and poured some into a coffee cup. “Want some?”

  “Yeah, sure.” She grabbed her own cup and he spilled some wine into it.

  They ate in silence and when they were done Splinter took a shower and went to the guest room where he found sheets sitting atop an old futon. He opened it up, threw the sheet onto the worn cushion, and lay down.

  In seconds he was asleep.

  ***

  Splinter and Lenah slept in and had a late breakfast at a local diner. Then they went to the cellphone store in Lenah’s 2015 Ford F150 and got her a new phone, which the clerk linked to her old account. Inside fifteen minutes, Lenah rejoined the twentieth century.

  They grabbed coffee and parked at the end of Talbot’s Pier.

  “OK. We’re rested. Fed. We have communication. What now?” Lenah said. “Oh, don’t tell me, you want to swim out there and look for the thing.”

  “You’re a riot, Alice. A real riot,” he said. He sounded nothing like Jackie Gleason.

  “My father loved that show,” Lenah said.

  “Mine too. I watched re-runs with him when I was a kid. I always thought Alice was way funnier than Ralph, though,” Splinter said.

  “Me too. I remember how the walls would shake when Ralph slammed the door. They were fabric stretched over wood frames,” she said.

  “Jackie Gleason was the first famous person to die that I actually cared about. I still watch the Honeymooners. Never gets old, no matter how many times you’ve seen them. That show could never be today.”

  “There are a million versions of it on TV right now,” Lenah said.

  “Copies, you mean. How do you think ‘bang zoom to the moon’ would go over today? It was always followed by Alice staring him in the face and saying ‘just try’ but still.”

  “I see what you mean. Never thought of that before,” Lenah said.

  “And that’s good.”

  “Now that we know we share a love for classic comedy, what the hell are we going to do? We done here?”

  “Not by a longshot. I’m just getting started,” he said.

  “Silva’s on it. What can we do that he can’t?” Lenah said.

  “First off, we know the area. Second, he hasn’t called in the cavalry yet, and until he does the thing needs to be hunted.”

  “Why us?”

  Splinter laughed. “Who else?”

  “So I ask again, what now?”

  “You think Guppy would loan you one of his adventure boats? Those things are fast and have all kinds of neat equipment,” he said.

  She sighed. “I just dogged him. I don’t know if he’ll help, but I can certainly try.”

  “Agree to have dinner with him like you promised,” Splinter said.

  “And you’ll come?”

  “Sure.”

  Lenah called Guppy and he agreed to meet her at the Lobster Boat down in Palm City at five o’clock. That left them with three hours to kill. Lenah called Will and told him she bought a phone, and what they planned to do. He said the pets were fine, and he’d check in. Then she called Silva, but he didn’t pick up, so she left him a message with her number, and said they’d learned nothing new.

  “What about weapons?” Splinter said.

  “Like what?”

  “Like some big stuff. Grenades. Missiles. But we can start with guns,” he said.

  Lenah drove to Armed and Dangerous, a gun shop on the main drag of Fort Pierce. They agreed Splinter should stay in the car and let Lenah handle the transaction. There’s a waiting period for handguns, but rifles and shotguns could be purchased, along with ammo, by answering a few basic questions and proving identity, which Lenah did with her passport. Her driver’s license was on the bottom of the Atlantic.

  She got back an hour later and put a long box with two smaller boxes in the bed of the pickup.

 
“I got two shotguns and a rifle, along with ammo,” she said. “Cost me twenty-five hundred bucks. You got half?”

  Splinter said nothing.

  “Good thing Sal didn’t cancel his credit card payment and I had a spare card,” she said.

  They drove on because it would take an hour or so to get to the Lobster Boat and she didn’t want to keep Guppy waiting.

  The Lobster Boat was a south Florida fixture. You entered through the hull of an old fishing boat, which had run aground on the very spot where the restaurant now sat. The back deck extended out over the water, and most of the joint’s red paint was flaking off.

  Guppy waited in the back of the dining room. It was early, and only a spattering of older folks were in the place at 5PM. Guppy’s face registered disgust when he saw Splinter, and Lenah said, “You don’t mind that Splinter is joining us, do you?”

  “I do, but does it matter?” he said.

  “No,” Splinter said, and he sat down next to Guppy and made a show of putting his cloth napkin across his lap before he took a pull of water from a glass on the table, pinky held high.

  Lenah sat across from Guppy and when the waitress came, they ordered drinks. A Jack Daniels Manhattan for Splinter, a glass of Pinot Grigio for Lenah, and a scotch neat for Guppy.

  “So, why do I have a feeling this isn’t a social visit?” Guppy said.

  “’Cause it isn’t,” Splinter said. Lenah kicked him under the table.

  “I’m sorry about the other day. Running out on you like that,” she said.

  “I’m used to it.”

  “I’m sorry anyway.”

  They drank, ordered their food, and ate, saying very little. Guppy was a human garbage pail, and he ate all the bread, two one-and-a-half pound lobsters, and a side of filet minion. Lenah had a salad with chicken, and Splinter had a T-bone steak. When they were done, Guppy said, “OK, out with it.”

  Lenah gave Guppy her “who me?” face, but Guppy wasn’t that much of a guppy. “We need to borrow one of your boats,” Lenah said.

  Splinter smiled. He appreciated the directness.

  Guppy laughed so hard his belly jiggled like a bowl full of jelly, like Santa Claus. “Why? Where’s the Evenstar?”

  Lenah looked down and started to speak, but Splinter jumped in. “It’s got engine trouble. It’s in dry dock for a few days over at Lenny’s.”

  “So, lay low until it’s fixed. Can’t imagine you have many charters lined up. The fish have left the building.”

  “All the same, I’d like to get back out there. I do have a couple of charters lined up,” she said.

  “No way. All my stuff is in use. Plus, I don’t…” He looked Splinter’s way and Splinter stuck out his tongue. “Plus, I don’t really trust your first mate.”

  “I’m the only mate, mate,” Splinter said.

  “You don’t have anything in the yard you’re not using?”

  Guppy leaned back in his chair and looked hard at Lenah. “I’ve done a lot for you, Lenah, and all I seem to get from the relationship is rejection, disrespect, and lies.” Guppy stood and threw his napkin on the table. “The answer is no, but thanks for dinner. You’ll pick up the check, right?”

  Lenah and Splinter said nothing.

  “You know, for my help the other night. Do you have the rifle I lent you? That’s an expensive piece.”

  Again Splinter jumped in before Lenah could tell him the truth. “It’s back at Lenah’s. I didn’t want to drive around with it in the car.”

  “Of course, you get stopped by a cop and you’d get arrested. You are the butcher of Kabul, after all.”

  Splinter stood, the fog encroaching around the edges of his vision. Heat rose to his face and his stomach burned. Lenah stood beside him, her hand on his shoulder. “That wasn’t called for. If you won’t help, fine, but there’s no need to insult anyone.”

  Splinter took a step toward Guppy, and Lenah tried to hold him back, but failed. “Listen you little shitbag. You talk to me like that again and you might just see the butcher of Kabul. Got me, Shrimp? Oh, sorry, I meant Guppy. Shrimp are too strong and smart for you to have that nickname.”

  Guppy turned red, but stepped back, and Lenah got between them. Guppy said, “Lose my number.” He shook his head and left the restaurant.

  “Nicely done,” Lenah said. She rummaged through her purse. “Guess I’m paying. Again.”

  They got coffee at Bean Break on A1A and sat behind a high school to drink and talk.

  “What’s plan B?” Splinter said.

  “Why do we need a plan B?” she said.

  “Oh, I don’t know, because plan A failed worse than that chain of cotton candy stores,” Splinter said.

  “I liked that stuff.”

  “You would,” he said. “What do we do now?”

  She smiled. “We take a boat anyway.”

  29

  Lenah drove her pickup through the deepening night, route 70 twisting and turning toward Okeechobee. Saw palmetto and brown dried-out grass fields ran by on both sides of the road, and thick white clouds floated across a waxing gibbus moon. Oceanic Memories did adventure tours on both coasts, the keys, and Lake Okeechobee and its associated rivers and estuaries, and the town of Okeechobee was the company’s central base of operations where it had its yard and maintenance facility. There wasn’t much in central Florida, except small towns, swamp, and sugarcane.

  “You sure we’re not gonna get arrested for this?” Splinter said.

  “When you see the yard you’ll understand,” she said.

  Another hour slid away before she exited the highway and made a right on NE 14th Avenue, went a mile, and made a left on NE 3rd Street.

  The yard where Oceanic Memories had its shop and dry dock was surrounded by six-foot chain-link fence with razor wire at the top. A pile of old boats sat at one end of the two-acre property and was overgrown with water reeds, everywhere else boats of various sizes were stored one next to the other like in a parking lot. At the yard’s center sat the maintenance shed.

  “Security?” Splinter said.

  “You’ll see.”

  Lenah slowed the pickup and came to a stop in front of a chain-link gate. A single floodlight on a pole illuminated the entrance, but it was the only light and the rest of the yard was dark.

  Shep was an old German Shepard who sounded tough, but was in fact a teddy bear, if you knew him, which Lenah did. Guppy’s mechanic Grady had worked on the Evenstar and she’d been to the yard many times. The old dog barked and growled at the stopped pickup, even though he’d seen it before.

  Lenah got out and went to the gate, arms extended in welcome.

  “Whatcha doin’?” Splinter said.

  Shep growled and barked as she approached, but he stopped and started whimpering when Lenah entered the sphere of light. Lenah pet the animal through the fence, and then she fumbled with the lock and opened the gate. Shep jumped on her and licked Lenah’s face, and she embraced the animal, kissing him on the nose.

  When she got back to the truck, Splinter said, “OK, I’ll bite. How’d you get the lock off the gate?”

  “Guppy lost the key ages ago. He just lines it up to look like its locked,” she said.

  “No cameras or alarms?”

  Lenah laughed.

  She pulled into the yard, got out and re-secured the gate, and pulled the truck behind the maintenance building. Shep panted and waited for them to get out of the cab, but Lenah and Splinter sat in the darkness, waiting to see if anyone came out of the shop. Guppy’s workers had been known to pass out after work.

  Fifteen minutes passed and Splinter got out and surveyed the stored boats, but it was hard to see in the dark, so he reached back into the pickup and grabbed a flashlight. He clicked it on and trained its beam up and down the rows of boats. There were various sizes and shapes, ranging from small dinghies to big dive boats. Splinter said, “What do you recommend?”

  “Size. Something we can mount a harpoon gun on,” Lenah said
.

  “Where the hell are we going to… oh, right here,” Splinter said.

  An old rusted deck-mounted harpoon gun lay on its side next to the shop.

  “It doesn’t have any bolts, and it needs TLC, but it’s better than nothing,” she said. “Guppy was going to get it restored and mounted on his party boat and modify it to throw water balloons.”

  Splinter said, “It’ll work. It’s just a big speargun. I can make some incendiary harpoons. We’ll mount it and I’ll work on it while we search. We’re lucky it’s not a harpoon cannon. Those big boys need gunpowder and can’t have rust or decay and only fire metal bolts.”

  Lenah nodded.

  “You have a boat in mind?” he asked again.

  “Just a type. He uses pontoon style boats for the basic tours, but he has bigger boats for scuba and deep-sea fishing. I’d like to get something with a sub,” she said.

  He laughed.

  “I’m serious. The bigger vessels are equipped with Trident tourist subs. Might be useful.”

  They walked down the center row of inventory, and she said, “That one.” It was three rows back and in a corner. “They won’t notice it’s gone for weeks unless its primary breaks-down and they need it.”

  The white rust bucket Guppy had named Sea Hunter IV didn’t look like much, but it would do the trick. It was a thirty-two-foot ferry-like vessel with twin diesel inboard engines. It had no rear gunnel to make it easy to launch small craft, a pilothouse at its center, and a bow that rose above the deck four feet and surrounded a fifteen-foot Zodiac. Two underwater scooters were stored against the pilothouse, along with dive equipment, several harpoon guns, and fishing gear and poles. On the center of the aft deck an old Trident six-person Tourist-viewer submarine was held in place by large holding clamps, a gantry arm with steel cable lowered and tucked behind it. Two long benches sat in the bow behind the Zodiac where the tourists would sit while the boat was in motion. The ship rested on a trailer surrounded in weeds three-feet high.

  “You sure it will run?” Splinter asked.

  “Yup. He does his real He-Man expensive tours with these rigs. He keeps these back-ups ready to go in case a primary goes down. Guppy never cancels a tour. This one probably hasn’t been used in a while because they constantly maintain the newer boats in the water. Especially the alpha ships.”