by Adam Blade
Lia pointed downward with a webbed hand.
Now Max saw them. Three dark shapes drifting through the water below. He swallowed.
“Snapperfish,” said Lia. “Come on.”
Max twisted the bike’s throttle and they shot upward. Rivet tucked his forelegs up to his body and his rear propellers whizzed at full speed.
“What are snapperfish?” Max shouted over the bike’s engine.
“Ferocious sea predators,” Lia replied. “They can detect blood from miles away. They must have smelled your hand.”
Max turned back and saw the fish darting upward, yellow, wide-spaced eyes gleaming over long jaws. Their eyes were fixed on him.
“They’re gaining!” he shouted.
Lia, just ahead, steered closer to the coral, threading in and out of the jutting shards. “Hardly anything can outswim a snapper in the open water,” she called back. “Look for a way through the coral!”
But all the openings were too small.
Max glanced back over his shoulder. For a moment, he thought they’d escaped their pursuers, but then two snapperfish rounded a coral outcrop. He watched them regroup and steer toward him.
“We’ve lost one!” he said.
“No, we haven’t,” said Lia. “They work as a team — it’ll come from above.”
Spike nosed in and out of cracks, searching for an escape route. As Rivet buzzed alongside them, Max had an idea. “Hold still, boy!” he said, leaning across with one hand and keeping the bike straight with the other. He opened the compartment on Rivet’s back and took out the jawbone.
This had better work, he thought. He was going to put all his faith in the mysterious strength of the Skull of Thallos.
At once, the jawbone tugged him to the left. Max let the bike steer in that direction, too.
“Where are you going?” called Lia.
“This way!” he replied.
The jawbone guided him toward what looked like a patch of thick scarlet weeds coating the coral shelf. The tugging sensation stopped. Max reached gingerly into the weeds and pushed them apart. Peering through, he saw black space beyond. A passageway! Just as he’d thought — the skull had helped them. It was almost as though it understood their danger. But would the space be big enough?
Max stowed the jawbone and got to work clearing the slimy weeds from the opening. Rivet helped, too, tearing whole patches off the rock with his jaws. Lia grabbed a handful and looked over her shoulder, her face pale. “Quicker!” she said. “They’re coming.”
As Max ripped out more weeds, he saw a hole as wide as one of the drain covers in Aquora City. “You’ll have to leave the bike,” said Lia.
Max nodded and reached for the aquabike. He tugged open the storage compartment and began hunting for his infrared goggles. “You go first.”
With a kick of her feet, Lia slipped through the gap. Spike backed off, gesturing to the hole with his sword. “You next!” Lia called. Max saw the yellow gleam of eyes coming toward him as he secured the goggles to his belt. The lead snapperfish was at least as big as he was.
Max pulled himself through the opening, feeling the coral cut into his fingers. He wriggled along the passage, the coral scratching against his sides. Lia’s hand grabbed his and tugged him the rest of the way. Rivet shot through next, barking madly, and Spike came last of all.
Max found himself in a huge white cavern that glistened on all sides. The water was cold and gloomy, with shifting clouds of plankton hanging in the stillness. Beyond he saw the opening to another, larger tunnel. Lia looked back from near the tunnel opening. “Get away, quickly!” she cried to Max.
He pushed himself through the water, legs kicking hard, and twisted around to see the first snapperfish pushing through the passage, shaking its body from side to side and gnashing its jaws. There wasn’t any time to block it.
The predator burst into the cavern, followed by its two friends. Their muscular gray bodies were lined with scars and stubby fins. Six hungry yellow eyes followed Max and Lia. The snapperfish opened their jaws to reveal rows of teeth like needles. They’d tear my head off in a heartbeat, Max realized.
Spike burst through the water, shielding Max and Lia with his body and swishing his nose-sword from side to side. The snapperfish watched him, their ugly bodies still.
Spike darted right toward the center of the group. The snapperfish scattered, then countered. One clamped its teeth over Spike’s tail, and another grabbed his jutting sword. Spike writhed, but couldn’t shake free. The remaining snapper moved in and his jaws closed over Spike’s back.
“No!” shouted Lia. The swordfish twisted in pain.
Max had no weapon. He had left his hyperblade behind, stowed on his aquabike. And if he didn’t do something soon, Spike was finished.
BUBBLES SPILLED FROM SPIKE’S GILLS AS HE fought. Rivet barked and leaped into action, butting one of the fish off with his snout. The snapper was bigger than anything the dogbot had ever caught, but at least he could distract it. The snapper wheeled away, looking for another angle of attack. Rivet struck again, lowering his head and ramming the top of his flat metal skull into the side of the fish that was holding Spike. The snapper squealed with pain and relaxed its jaws — just enough for Spike to wriggle free. Now all they had to do was escape….
Max glanced all around. Deeper in the cavern, he noticed a glint of metal. No, not just a glint. His straining eyes followed the line of some sort of vessel. Surely not. Were there people down here?
“Hold on a second,” he shouted.
“What?” gasped Lia. “We need you here!”
Max swam down toward the vessel, kicking hard. It was abandoned — a submarine resting at the base of the cavern at an angle, among broken fragments of coral. Weeds grew over the hull. A few small portholes stared out from the side, the glass green with algae. There was a jagged metal tear in the base of the sub. Debris floated within. Max saw a rusty compass, and clothing of some sort. What had happened to the pilots? The submarine type wasn’t one Max had seen before. It was old-fashioned and probably built years ago.
He spotted the main entry hatch — the dry hatch — for boarding the sub from a jetty at sea level. There was another hatch on the underside — the wet hatch — which had an airlock for slipping in and out underwater.
Perhaps we can hide inside, Max thought. Or maybe …
“Lia! Spike! Rivet!” He waved. “Down here — all of you!”
Max yanked a lever, and the dry hatch opened. A cloud of filthy seawater flooded over him. He slipped down through the open hatch. Lia and Rivet sped toward Max and followed him into the sub. Spike came last of all, still fighting off one snapper with the other two on his tail. Batting aside floating packages of food and tattered old diving suits, Max led them through the sub’s central chamber toward the wet-hatch airlock. He passed a swinging cabinet door and spied a harpoon gun propped inside. He grabbed it, just in case. He kicked toward the wet hatch. “This way!” he called back.
They piled into the airlock. Spike twisted as he came through last, bashing off the snapperfish. The predator threw itself at them with gaping jaws. Max slammed his palm on the LOCK button and the door swished shut. The snapper slammed its face against the viewing panel, smearing it with black fish drool.
“Bad fish,” barked Rivet.
“Yes, bad fish,” said Max, patting his dog on the head. “But we’re safe for the moment. Good job on rescuing Spike.” Behind them was the outer wet-hatch door, leading back into the cavern.
Lia ran her hands over Spike’s flank, which trailed blood from teeth wounds. The swordfish’s eyes seemed dim and colorless. “Poor thing!” she said. “He saved our lives.”
“What about the clotleaf?” said Max.
“Good thinking,” said Lia. She took out the weeds and gave a handful to Max. Between them, they laid the makeshift bandages over Spike’s wounds and the bleeding ceased at once. Outside, the snapperfish had stopped bashing themselves against the glass. Rivet cocked
his head at Max, as if to say, What now?
“I wonder what we should do now,” said Lia. “We’re in here, and they’re out there. As soon as we try to slip out again we’re fish food!”
Max looked over the controls and saw the AIRLOCK RELEASE button. He grinned. “Help me get this panel off.”
“Why?”
“It’s time to do some rewiring.”
He used the tip of the harpoon gun to pry open the panel, then Lia got her fingers under the edge. Feet against the wall, she yanked it free. Beneath the panel was a tangle of different-colored cables over a circuit board.
This was old technology, the sort of stuff Max’s dad had taught him when he was just a little boy. He found the right thermoresin cable — red with blue bands — and hooked a finger around it.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” asked Lia.
Max smiled. “You might know the names of a thousand species of starfish,” he said, “but I know a thing or two about engineering.”
The truth was, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure he had the right wire. Breaking this circuit would either close the dry hatch, locking the snapperfish in the main chamber of the sub, or it would open the door that was now holding them back.
Life, or death.
He closed his eyes and pulled.
The wire snapped. Through the glass he saw the main entry hatch clamp shut. The snapperfish saw it, too, and darted in panicked circles around the enclosed chamber. “Yes!” Max said. He pressed the WET-HATCH RELEASE button and the outer airlock, leading out into the cavern, swished open.
Lia’s jaw dropped. “Wow,” she said.
They swam out through the wet hatch. Spike twisted in joy, and Max was glad to see him back to normal.
Rivet swam in front of the hatches, taunting the snapperfish inside. He turned to Max. “Stupid fish! Clever Max!” he barked.
“It’s just lucky we found the sub,” Max said. “I don’t get it, though — why would anyone come down here?”
“Probably looking for precious stones,” said Lia, climbing onto Spike’s back.
“I wonder why they crashed.”
“Breathers might be brave, but they’re foolish, too,” said Lia. “Rule Number Two, remember? They don’t respect the sea.”
“I wonder what happened to them,” said Max, remembering the scrap of diving suit floating in the sub’s chamber. “Do you think they made it back to the surface?”
“I doubt it,” said Lia. “The pressure down here is too much for Breathers. They probably drowned and gave the fish a good feast.”
Max shivered. His mom’s face flashed into his mind, along with the nightmares he used to suffer about her drowning.
“Let’s keep going,” he said, shaking his head clear of the pictures.
He called Rivet over and took out the jawbone, letting it float in the water. He’d trust the Skull of Thallos with his life, he realized now. It glowed and drifted around to point to the tunnel he’d spotted on the other side of the cavern — deeper into the ancient coral caves.
Max tucked the harpoon gun into Rivet’s compartment. Without his aquabike, he swam behind his friends. He took a deep breath as they entered the tunnel that would lead them into the heart of this coral maze.
“All right, Robobeast!” Max muttered. “We’re coming to get you!”
MAX AND LIA SWAM ALONG THE TUNNEL. The only light came from the glowing jawbone.
Rivet switched on his headlamp, and the way ahead lit up in a faint red glow. Fish winked out of sight and hundreds of pink shells reflected light up from the tunnel floor. Yellow weeds brushed at Max’s feet.
By the lamplight, Max saw that the way ahead forked. A path on the left led deeper into the glowing coral. Another on the right sloped gently up toward a sparkling cave. “Which way?” he asked.
“We should trust the power of Thallos,” Lia replied.
Max held the jawbone loosely, and it twisted in his hand, pointing to the left fork. He was about to swim ahead when he noticed that Lia had stopped. “What is it?”
She stared into the tunnel. “Well, we can follow the skull into the maze, but what about finding our way out again?”
Lia was right. Sinking to the bottom of the tunnel, he fished around for several of the pink shells, then swam back past Lia and into the left tunnel. Every few strokes, he dropped one on the ground.
He’d scattered almost all of them when he realized Lia was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” he asked. “Don’t you get it? I’m laying down markers so we can find our way back.”
“Sorry!” Lia covered her mouth with one webbed hand and pointed at Max’s feet with the other. “Look!”
Max peered down. One by one, the pink shells sprouted crab legs and scurried off. “Fine,” he said. “But what can we use?”
Lia swam to the tunnel floor. She plucked a flower head off one of the yellow weeds. “We call this the sunshine flower,” she said. “It only grows from this sort of coral, so it’s rare.”
Looking closer, Max saw the petals of the flower were actually long pods. “And how’s it going to help?” he asked.
Lia squeezed one of the pods between her fingers. It burst open, throwing out a bright yellow ink that hung like a cloud in the water. Rivet barked with surprise and drifted forward to sniff at the shiny substance.
“Wow!” said Max.
“The pollen lasts for a few hours,” said Lia, handing some of the pods to Max. “Let’s go.”
They pressed on into the eerie darkness, bursting pods to leave markers in the water, and dipping occasionally to pick more sunshine flowers. There were fewer fish here, and soon even the weeds ran out. Max felt odd currents of water pressing around him, like the pulse of a heartbeat. Spike must have sensed it, too, because each time one of the vibrations hit, his nose-sword twitched.
“What is that?” asked Max.
Lia shook her head. “I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
One thing was certain — the shock waves filtering through the tunnel were getting stronger, like a drum beating ever closer. Soon Max realized that the walls themselves had begun to shake. Still the dogbot’s lamp picked out nothing ahead but the twisting tunnel.
Max felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingle as the jawbone turned in his hand. It pointed behind them.
“Er … Lia,” he said. “Whatever that is, I don’t think it’s coming from ahead.”
She stopped and turned. Another blast shuddered past them. Her silver hair fluttered back from her face. “You’re right,” she whispered. “Let’s keep going — if we’re going to fight properly, we can’t afford to get trapped in here.”
They swam faster, and though Max looked back several times, he couldn’t see anything. The rumbles grew louder and more frequent, echoing his own heartbeat. There was no doubt about it — something was coming after them.
“Bad, Max,” Rivet whimpered, his microphone hushed.
The passage narrowed, then all of a sudden emerged into another cavern. This one was enormous. Max swam closer to one of the walls, and gasped. It was made of metal. Huge sheets beaten into curves and bolted down. It was as if they were inside a giant metal ball!
Lia ran her fingers over the metal. “This wasn’t built by Merryn,” she whispered.
In Max’s hand, the fragment of the Skull of Thallos glowed bright blue. It tugged back toward the tunnel they’d come through.
“There must be another way out,” said Max. “We can’t go back there.”
He stowed the jawbone in Rivet’s compartment and led the way down toward the bottom of the cavern, searching for an opening. Even the floor was made of metal, covered in a fine layer of sand. His eyes were still adjusting to the gloom when Rivet’s headlamp caught a flash of something. Max made out the bones of a large skeleton. Then more — the ribs of some creature picked white and clean. Lia was trembling beside him.
“This is a graveyard,” she muttered. Max suddenly r
emembered his infrared goggles and took them from his belt. The cavern floor was littered with the remains of dozens of sea-dwellers. Some looked like they had been human, but some had the fused foot and hand bones of Merryn. There were weapons, too. Harpoons, blasters, even a handheld torpedo launcher. All were rusted or broken.
“It’s as if they all came down here to fight something,” said Max.
“And lost,” added Lia.
Max thought of the empty submarine and shuddered.
A rumble from the tunnel rattled the bones, and the great metal walls shook. “It’s almost here,” said Max.
Lia swept over the debris and skeletons, and plucked out a lance. “A Merryn hunting spear,” she said. “Made of pearl. An ancient weapon, but powerful. My grandfather used one.”
Max swam up to face the dark empty mouth of the passage. “Stay behind me,” he said. “A harpoon gun will do more to keep them back than an old spear.”
With a flick of her foot-fins, Lia was at his side. “We face this together,” she said.
Another boom shook the water around them. Lia laid a hand on Spike’s side. “Stay brave.”
Max patted Rivet’s back. “You’re a good boy,” he said.
The tunnel ahead filled with a shape.
The Robobeast had arrived.
A HEAD EDGED THROUGH THE WATER, ALMOST as wide as the tunnel. The creature’s skin was as smooth as a beach pebble, gleaming in the faint light.
Max and Lia backed away.
Two tiny unblinking eyes like dull black marbles watched them.
The Beast’s body followed, huge lengths of snaking pale flesh spilling into the cavern.
It’s a gigantic eel! Max realized.
As the creature’s tail finally slid from the tunnel, the body formed into a tight coil, filling almost half the cavern. Its staring head came to rest over its back and its lipless mouth parted to reveal jagged, close-packed teeth. Max made out a robotic harness behind its neck, just like the one worn by Cephalox the Cyber Squid. Metal clasps and coils of cable sat next to the eel’s pale flesh — the mechanism by which the Professor controlled his slave. Mounted on top of the harness, under a glass dome, was the second piece of the Skull of Thallos. Max peered closer — it was an eye socket and a section of cheekbone.