She read her screen and tuned the marine radio to 87.8MHZ. Static. Then a voice.
“Sea Hunter VI this is The Day After, do you copy?”
It was Will.
“You’re on speaker,” she said.
“Afternoon, Will,” Splinter said.
“Yes, it is. How you guys holding up? I heard you were in the Bait & Switch the other night, talking all kinds of shit about the monster,” Will said.
Bait & Switch was a pub off A1A where Splinter was known to imbibe. Splinter pretended not to see Lenah’s scowl, and said, “Yeah. Thanks for pointing that out, pal.”
“Don’t mention it,” Will said. “What did the boys at the bar have to say about your story?”
“Told me I should get off the sauce,” Splinter said.
Lenah harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Probably not bad advice, Captain.”
“Did you call for a reason?” Splinter said. He knew Will was just trying to help, but he also knew he was warning Lenah. See what he does? He was saying. He’s not over it, no matter what you may think. You can keep him dry while he’s on your boat, but then… Splinter heard Will’s voice in his head and it made him see red, and the fog crept in around the edges of his vision. Everyone always trying to control him. Tell him what to do. He was a grown man for shits sake. All he wanted was to be left alone.
An awkward silence ensued, and the wind howled, and the ocean cracked against the hull.
Will said, “You find anything out there?”
“Nothing. Nadda. Not a whiff,” Lenah said.
“Donny and I were going out fishing today, so we figured we’d come your way. We can search as we fish, right?”
“Don’t see why not, but you know you probably won’t catch anything,” Splinter said. “You have another reason for coming out here?”
Will said nothing.
Splinter thought he knew why Will was coming, and it made him angry. He was checking up on Lenah, making sure everything was OK. His friend no longer trusted him.
“Haven’t seen you with you guys going all rogue,” Will said. “Send me your coordinates. I’ll bring lunch and we can chat and set up a search grid for Donny and I. We plan to be out there until after dark.”
Lenah scanned the GPS.
Splinter put up a hand and shook his head. Will had always done right by him and Splinter couldn’t say that about many people. Most people failed him, or didn’t try. Will had literally picked Splinter from the gutter and took him into his home and nursed him to health. If it wasn’t for Will, he’d be pushing daises.
Thing was, Will had known Lenah longer, since she was a young girl, and he had this fatherly thing going with her. He knew Splinter was unstable—Splinter knew it—but Lenah wanted to see the good in him. Splinter knew that. It reminded him of Luke Skywalker and how he refused to believe Vader wasn’t all bad. In the end Luke was right. Could Lenah be?
“We’re moving, Will,” Splinter said.
Lenah’s eyes grew wide as understanding dawned on her.
“Why?”
“New search area,” Splinter said.
Will said nothing.
“Anything else?” Lenah asked.
Will grunted, as if he had to answer because Lenah had asked. “There is one more thing.”
Splinter rocked back on his heels and threw up his hands in an ‘I told you so’ gesture.
“I got a call from Guppy,” Will said.
“Do tell,” Splinter said.
“He said you and Lenah stole one of his boats. Couldn’t be any truth to that, right?” Will said.
“What do you think?” said Lenah.
“I think your Parker is on the bottom of the Atlantic. I think Splinter would do whatever needs to be done to get back on the water and hunt this thing. I think Guppy has always come through for you, so you figured why not ask.”
“And?” Splinter said.
“He says he said no, but now one of his deep-sea vessels is missing. The high school kid who straightens-up the yard noticed.”
Lenah sighed. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“Of course not. Splinter is an altar boy and you’re a choir girl. Got it. But if you had taken the boat, what would you want me to tell him? Hypothetically, of course.”
“Hypothetically I’d ask, how mad is he? What does he plan to do?”
“Mad, and nothing,” Will said. “That guy still thinks he’s got a shot with you.”
“Will, I—”
“I know. I know. You’ve set him straight many times, yet you still lead him on with your requests,” Will said.
Splinter was getting angry. “What is it to you, Will?”
Will said nothing.
“What do you want us to do?” Lenah said.
Will sighed. “Nothing. He asked me to get in touch with you. Verify you had the boat before he called the cops. He doesn’t want to get you in trouble, but the boat is worth $75,000 and he’s justifiably concerned.”
“Hypothetically, how much time would we have if we owned up?” Splinter said.
“Don’t know, but I think you’ll have a few more days. Assuming the Sea Hunter V doesn’t crap out on him,” Will said.
Lenah and Splinter looked at each other and made a mutual decision without speaking.
“OK, tell him we took it and we’ll get it back to him by week’s end,” Splinter said. He didn’t know if that was true, but he was having a hard time looking beyond the next hour.
“Thanks, Will. I know this could be sticky for you,” Lenah said.
“Think nothing of it. My pleasure,” Will said.
“When you get out here give us a call and we’ll tell you where we’re at, copy?” Splinter said.
“That’s a 10-4. See you when I see you.” Will cut communication and the channel went silent.
Lenah said, “What the hell was that?”
Splinter said nothing. He didn’t know, but something gnawed at his insides, some worry that he couldn’t identify. Was he bringing Guppy out with him? Was the fog creeping on?
“Will has done everything for us. Why would you be suspicious of him?” Lenah said.
“I’m not, it’s just…”
“What?”
“We’ve been heading in regularly. Not hiding the fact. Spending time at your house. Why wouldn’t he have stopped by? Asked to join us for dinner. Anything. But instead he waits until we’re miles off shore? Doesn’t make sense.”
Lenah said, “Splinter, what the hell are you talking about? He wanted to go fishing and figured he’d check-in. What more could it be? Nobody’s looking for us.”
“That we know of,” Splinter said. He knew that didn’t make sense. They’d done nothing wrong and were free to go wherever they wanted. If Silva wanted to see them or talk, he and Lenah were a cell phone call away.
“Do you really want to move?”
Splinter gazed out over the turbulent sea. White stratus clouds drifted across the blue sky, the coast of Florida a brown and black line on the horizon. They’d laid a chum slick, but had no success. The rotted tuna they currently towed attracted a sand shark and seagulls, but nothing more. SONAR was clear, and radio chatter light.
An hour passed before the radio came to life again.
“Yello,” Lenah said. A pause. “Hi, Will.” Her eyes widening as she looked at Splinter, a question there.
Splinter nodded. If he couldn’t trust Will, who the hell could he trust? Lenah was right. He was being over cautious.
Lenah read the GPS coordinates from the NAV screen and signed off. “ETA twenty minutes.”
Splinter nodded, but said nothing. He stood at the transom, staring into the deep blue water.
Lenah chuckled. “Check this out.”
Splinter turned and followed her gaze. A hulking mass of white steel pushed over the ocean like a brick, the upper and lower decks lined with people.
“Who is it? Boat looks full,” Splinter s
aid.
Lenah retrieved the binoculars and examined the horizon. “Looks like Ken Detmer’s boat, Fate’s Fortune.”
“Isn’t he the one that does whale watching?”
“Yeah, and lately he’s been running ads about the monster. Come see a real-life sea monster from the comfortable confines of our large boat. Enjoy cocktails and fine food while you search for one of the world’s mysteries.”
“Are you shitting me? Nobody believes us, but they’re selling tickets to see the thing?”
“Yup. Profit is as profit does. The existence of the creature doesn’t really matter. It’s the myth.”
“And the stupidity of people,” Splinter said.
“Say rather, people’s need to explore the unknown.”
“And see something their neighbor hasn’t so they have a better story to tell at this year’s block party.”
The large ferry-like vessel left a thick whitewater wake, and the rumble of its engines echoed over the Atlantic.
“It’s making a lot of noise,” Lenah said. “You see The Day After?”
Splinter searched the horizon, but didn’t see the black luxury fishing boat. “No.” Splinter’s stomach turned to ice. Lenah had a point. The vibrations that large boat sent into the depths would draw apex predators to the surface, but what could he do? He hadn’t seen the creature in almost two weeks, so there was nothing to warn anyone about.
“Why do you think they came here?” Lenah said.
Splinter said nothing. He didn’t know, but he had a guess. He had been talking a bit too loudly at the Bait & Switch, and maybe the guys at the bar were listening closer than he thought. There’d been plenty of scuttlebutt about what killed Aron Darnald, and words sometimes led to deeds.
“You think they know something?” she asked.
Splinter shook his head no.
The wind picked up and blew sea spray across the deck, coating everything with a layer of moisture. The sun had moved past noon and started its descent to the horizon, and beams of sunlight fought through the patchy cloud cover. Splinter saw something sticking from the water, moving toward the charter boat as it closed in on the Sea Hunter IV.
The creature’s caudal fin broke the surface three hundred yards behind the charter. Splinter pressed the binoculars to his head, and his eye sockets hurt under the pressure. Worry rose in him like the tide. Fate’s Fortune was a big boat. Made of metal, and there was no way the beast could bite a hole in it. But what if someone ended up in the water? Or the creature rammed and disabled the boat?
Splinter took the binoculars away from his eyes and saw nothing but the white glare of the sun on the water between the Sea Hunter IV and Fate’s Fortune.
Splinter handed Lenah the binoculars and she gasped.
“What should we do?” she said.
“We go say hi.”
32
Lenah eased down on the Sea Hunter IV’s controls, and the diesel engines rumbled. Splinter was on the bow, watching the scene through binoculars. As the boat picked up speed, sea spray pounded him, but Splinter didn’t move. He was a statue, a figurehead on the bow, unmovable and firm.
The creature slowed and was hanging back, and Splinter didn’t think the captain of the charter saw it. He shouted over the moan of the engines, “Can you hail that ship? Get people away from the railings and into the interior?”
Lenah said, “Yes.” She picked up the comm handset and hailed Fate’s Fortune. Splinter opened the pilothouse door and stuck his head in.
“Yes, Fate’s Fortune, we copy,” said a scratchy male voice. “This is Captain Detmer. What is the nature of the problem? Do you need assistance?”
“No, but you’re going to if you don’t get all those people off the deck,” Lenah said.
“What are you—”
Lenah stepped on his transmission. “Go look off your stern.”
“10-4.”
Silence and intermittent static as Captain Detmer did as instructed. Seconds passed. A minute.
“I see a caudal fin out there. Is it our sea monster?” said the captain of Fate’s Fortune. The man sounded the wrong kind of excited.
Lenah said nothing. When she looked Splinter’s way, he shrugged.
“We think so,” she said. “I suggest moving all your passengers into the interior cabin and move from the area slowly and carefully. The more noise you—”
“Move away? We’re out here to see this thing, over,” Detmer said. He didn’t close the channel and Lenah and Splinter could hear him giving orders to his crew.
“Ken, listen, this isn’t a joke. This thing is dangerous,” Lenah pleaded.
Splinter moved to Lenah’s side, his temper rising.
“Appreciate the concern, Sea Hunter, but we’ve got a pretty stout vessel here. We could take a torpedo hit, so I’m not concerned. We will take all necessary precautions, I assure you. Fate’s Fortune out.” Detmer closed the channel.
“Stupid shit has no idea what they’re dealing with,” Splinter said.
“I think we need to show them. Look,” Lenah said.
Fate’s Fortune was tilted to port and looked like it was going to tip over as passengers crowded one side of the boat trying to get a peek at the creature as the ship turned. As the vessel passed the beast on the starboard side everyone shifted position and the boat yawed to starboard.
“The dumb bastards,” Splinter said.
“What do you want me to do?” Lenah asked. Her face was dark with weariness, but her eyes were alight.
“Bring me in close and I’ll stab this bitch, draw it away after us,” Splinter said.
Lenah nodded.
“Oh, and call Silva,” he said.
“Yeah,” Lenah lifted her phone. “No signal.”
“Text him and it’ll go through as soon as we get a signal, then call the coasties on the radio. I’m sure Silva’s monitoring communications.”
Lenah nodded again, and Splinter went to the harpoon gun.
He had a general rule he always tried to follow. Never use a weapon you haven’t personally tested. In the case of the harpoon gun, he’d been unable to test it without losing one of his prized homemade harpoons, so Splinter didn’t know what was going to happen when he drew back the thick sling that would propel his bolt. He also had no idea how accurate it would be. It would probably take at least one shot for him to get his sights.
Remembering their arsenal of guns, Splinter ran back to the pilothouse and jumped down the galley steps two at a time. He retrieved a loaded rifle, a pocket of bullets, and scuttled back up onto deck. He leaned the rifle against the gunnel and gripped the harpoon gun’s handles and brought it to bear on the creature. He pulled back the large black band and clicked it into the firing mechanism. So far so good. He loaded a harpoon and sighted the weapon fifteen feet in front of the beast’s caudal fin.
It would take another minute for the Sea Hunter IV to get into range, which Splinter estimated at 50 yards.
The faint sound of laughter and excited screams floated over the water, and Splinter pictured parents taking photographs, and children gasping, asking if the creature was real. Could it hurt them and where had it come from?
Splinter couldn’t wait any longer. His nerves jumped, the fog blowing over his subconscious. Worry climbed up his back and dropped a bucket of ice down his throat into his stomach. If he didn’t act, the beast would attack the charter.
He picked-up the rifle, sighted forward of the creature’s caudal fin, and fired. The faint chatter stopped, and the bullet plunked into the water and the monster rolled, its underside visible as the beast writhed.
Splinter drew back the bolt and slipped another bullet into the firing chamber and jacked the bolt closed. He fired again.
This time the beast bellowed and surged from the ocean. The Sea Hunter IV was one-hundred yards out and closing, and Splinter put down the rifle and gripped the harpoon gun again, closing his right eye and lining up the shot.
Seventy yards.
At sixty yards out Splinter pulled the trigger, but the harpoon didn’t streak from its tube.
A loud twang resounded as the tension band snapped, and lashed Splinter on the arm, drawing blood.
“Shhhiiiittttttttt,” he screamed. He’d been afraid of this. The rubber was dry rotted, and he’d rubbed it with WD-40, but it hadn’t been enough.
“What now?” Lenah said.
The beast was agitated, and it surged forward into the charter boat, rocking it and sending passengers sprawling across the deck.
A young boy fell over the railing into the drink. A woman, who Splinter assumed was the boy’s mother, screamed and wailed, and climbed the railing to jump into the ocean, only to be pulled back. A life ring was thrown into the water, but Splinter could see it wasn’t going to be enough.
The creature circled the ship, coming around the aft side, heading toward the bow where the boy flailed about, trying to stay above the rolling sea.
“Ram it. Now!” Splinter screamed.
Lenah hesitated only an instant, then dropped the throttle and the Sea Hunter pushed through the water, slamming through the waves.
Splinter grabbed the rifle and loaded a round. He sighted the weapon, but the beast was on the opposite side of Fate’s Fortune and he couldn’t see it. Frantic passengers ran around the ship’s deck and children screamed.
Time slowed, and it felt like the Sea Hunter IV was moving at two knots. He balanced the rifle on the gunnel and aimed where he thought the beast would be when it emerged from behind the boat.
The creature didn’t appear, and as the Sea Hunter IV came around the bow of Fate’s Fortune, Splinter saw why.
The beast bore down on the child in the water, its flat crocodilian head rising from the ocean, long powerful jaws opening, sharp teeth shining in the sunlight. The boy screamed as he reached the life ring and made one last effort to swim away from the creature, but he was too slow.
Shadow Of The Abyss Page 20