Maria hurriedly strapped her prosthetic back on. “Oh my God. How did we miss it?”
“Miss what?”
Maria tried to stand up by herself and grunted in frustration. She still hadn’t mastered the art of standing up from the ground with only one real leg. “Could you help me up, please?”
No longer asking questions, Kevin helped her up and watched silently as she turned in place, taking in the scenery of the island. Mostly flat with the occasional swell of land, rocky and jagged shores, roughly three miles in circumference. As fun as it had been to fantasize about sneaking off somewhere to have sex, there wasn’t any practical place to do it. From the right vantage point, as long as it was clear and the light was good, a person could see the entire island from one spot. Anything bigger than a bird would stand out.
And at the moment, the people that had come over on the two Zodiacs were the only large creatures to be seen.
“Scat,” Maria said. “We need to search the edges of the island for scat. Any place large and flat enough to act as a breeding ground. A harem.”
With those words, Kevin’s face showed that he understood where she was going with this, and he was just as amazed that they had missed it as her. They were freaking marine biologists, after all. They should have been paying attention to this sort of thing.
As they both went to the nearest rocky shore and looked for the telltale signs, both Gary and Charlene came up to them, seeing from the sudden franticness of their actions that something must be up. Cindy and Simon had wandered some distance away to whisper whatever brother and sister things they talked about when no one was listening. At the flurry of movement, they slowly made their way back. Ernesto came up to them both, clearly confused.
“What are you two doing?” he asked.
“Help us,” Maria said. “We need to find any large piles of scat.”
“Scat?” Gary asked.
“Shit,” Maria responded. “We’re looking for animal shit.”
“Then you are not looking hard enough, I think,” Ernesto said. “I have seen plenty all over.”
“Sure you have,” Kevin responded. “Lots of bird droppings, mostly from boobies, some that might be from albatrosses, smaller pockets here or there belonging to finches. Probably find some from iguanas, too. And it’s all small.”
“I do not understand how that’s a problem.”
“It’s a problem because there should be more. Look around you, Ernesto. Don’t you see it? Tell me again, what animals live here?”
“Marine iguanas, birds, sea lions…”
Then he understood.
“We’ve been sitting on this island looking for anything out of the ordinary that might have shown up,” Maria said, “but what’s strangest is what we’re not seeing. Where are the sea lions?”
They were losing light quickly now, and Maria knew they needed to get back to the Cameron. There would be plenty of time to continue their search in the morning. But she already suspected what they would find. Nothing. Nada. A big old goose egg.
On an isolated island in the middle of nowhere, an entire species had vanished without a trace.
Less than half an hour later, they had no choice but to call off their search. Maria had found one area that would have been ideal for a sea lion bull’s harem, but it was empty, inhabited now by only a few iguanas and tiny lava lizards. As they walked back to the boats, Charlene prompted Kevin and Maria to explain. “Why is this something significant?” she asked.
“Sea lions don’t just disappear. Something happened here,” Maria said.
“But, correct me if I’m wrong, aren’t there any number of possible explanations for that?”
“Sure, there could be,” Kevin said. “Poaching, for one.”
“There are many things from Galápagos that are on demand in the black market,” Ernesto said. “Sea cucumbers, shark fins, occasionally tortoises. Sea lion penises are believed to be aphrodisiacs in some cultures, so they are on the list.”
“Okay, definitely a possibility,” Maria said. “But you bring groups out here often, right? Shouldn’t you have noticed if someone was out here poaching?”
“Possibly. I don’t know.”
“They could just have migrated away,” Kevin said.
Ernesto shook his head. “Every tour guide on the islands knows that next month is the prime time of year to see sea lion pups. The sea lions should be here, ready to give birth.”
“Local extinction, then,” Kevin said. “Sad as it might be, that’s a very real possibility with most Galápagos species, even without the intervention of humans. The local ecosystem is so specialized, so fragile, that any slight change can cause chaos. During El Nino years, populations of everything on the islands drop.”
“Except this isn’t an El Nino year, and enough time has passed since the last one that populations should have rebounded by now,” Maria said.
“I feel so stupid,” Ernesto said. “Now that I think on it, I have not seen any here on the last several trips. The last time I saw one here at all would have been… maybe two and a half months ago? That is what I get for paying too much attention to the tourists and not enough to the islands themselves.”
“So what does all this mean?” Charlene asked, pointing her camera right at Maria and Kevin’s faces. Maria couldn’t give her a good sound bite, though. It probably was poachers. But what if it wasn’t? First, the sea lions vanish, then a tourist. What could have possibly happened?
Maria shuddered involuntarily as an image popped unbidden into her brain of a mouth full of sharp teeth coming for her through the crystal blue ocean waters. It wasn’t a memory, she thought, not really, just a figment of her imagination. But it was vivid enough that it might as well have been a memory.
“It might not mean anything,” Maria said. “But it gives us something to start with.” She went back to thinking about the poacher possibility, wondering what they could do to investigate it and how Mrs. Schmidt’s death might tie in. It seemed highly unlikely that illegal poachers had anything to do with such a spectacular disappearance, yet she wanted to remain open minded.
The trip back down the ledge to the Zodiacs was easier for all of them, this time. Once they were sure all their equipment was packed up, Kevin took control of the motor of their raft while Simon took the other motor.
“Hey, before we go back, can we cruise around to the site where the woman disappeared?” Gary asked. “We could use some footage of the area from the ocean.”
“We’ll have to go quickly, though,” Charlene said. “We didn’t bring anything for night vision with us. It’s all back on the Cameron.”
“Sounds fine,” Kevin said. They took the lead, going around the island close enough to the shore for the cameras to get a good shot but keeping enough distance that they didn’t rip the rafts open on the rocks. While Charlene concentrated on her shot, Maria leaned over and whispered in Kevin’s ear. “We were interrupted earlier, you know.”
Kevin chuckled. “Actually, you were the interruptus, my dear.”
“We wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally lying down in crap in your room, you know.”
“You sure you want to do that with so many people on board at the moment? The walls in the Cameron aren’t exactly thick.”
“You never cared about that sort of thing before.”
“We never had cameras recording nearby before.”
“Uh, Kevin honey? Are you forgetting about that time shortly after I got out of the hospital where we forgot to turn our mikes off when…?”
She stopped.
Kevin laughed. “Maria, if you’re afraid about the mikes picking up this conversation now, I think that ship has long since sailed.”
Maria couldn’t make her voice come out as more than a whisper. “There’s something in the water.”
Their world went silent except the mutter of the engine and the lap of the water on the sides of the Zodiac. Charlene, having likely heard more of the conversatio
n than she’d been pretending she could, immediately turned the camera in the direction Maria was looking. Kevin slowed the Zodiac down but didn’t stop it.
“Where?” Kevin finally asked quietly.
Maria didn’t answer. She stared out at the water between the island and the Zodiac, trying to see again what had given her pause. Maybe it had just been her imagination. The lowering light, the movement of the waves, that sense of semi-permanent paranoia that seemed to be a part of her now, all these things combined could have tricked her eyes and mind.
Except there it was again.
“Right there,” she said, pointing to a spot on the surface roughly two-thirds of the way from the island to them. The water had churned a little bit more than normal, as though something were moving just far enough beneath the surface that the displaced water could be seen without it showing itself.
“That could be anything,” Kevin said.
The second Zodiac came up beside them. “What is it?” Cindy asked. There was an odd tone in her voice, as if she just knew that they were about to see something exciting. Except Kevin was probably right. In a place as teeming with life as the Galápagos, something stirring beneath the water was hardly an amazing occurrence.
Yet Maria’s mind wouldn’t let it go.
“Just wait. I think.”
The surface bubbled and something came up.
Everyone recoiled for a few seconds, then followed Maria and Kevin’s cue when they relaxed.
“Just a marine iguana,” Kevin said.
Charlene and Gary both got different angles on the lizard as it swam leisurely back to the island. Not something for them to worry about at all, although it was quite a large, wonderful specimen. From its blunt, scaly snout to the tip of its tail, the iguana was probably three feet long, with an impressive fringe along its head and back that, along with the unique protuberances on its nose, made it look something like Godzilla’s tiny baby cousin. Maria’s heart slowed back to a normal beat.
No, wait, she thought. Something’s still not right. Galápagos marine iguanas, some of the only known swimming lizards in the world, swam by keeping their legs tight to their sides and squirming through the water much like a snake. It was a form of locomotion that was well-suited to the creatures when they were diving for their dinners of green algae, but entirely impractical at the surface of the water. For the iguana to come to the surface this distance from the shore made no sense.
Unless it was trying to escape a predator.
She saw the shadow beneath the iguana a split second before the water erupted in violence. Maria got the vague impression of something coiling, ready to strike, but the way the fading light reflected on the water kept her from seeing anything else.
Until something huge broke the surface and swallowed the iguana whole.
It moved too fast, disappearing back below the water before Maria could identify more than a dark, slightly beaked mouth so large that the whole length of the iguana fit within the closing maw. The water churned and splashed, rising high enough and with enough force that, despite the distance between it and the Zodiacs, Maria felt the spray on her face. Just as quickly as the mouth had appeared, it disappeared back below the water.
But she could still see the silhouette of something below the surface.
“Holy shit!” Gary screamed. “Holy shit!”
“Did you get it?” Charlene screamed back at him.
“I don’t know. I think so.”
“Move!” Kevin yelled, trying to be heard above the sudden chatter and panic. “Simon, get your Zodiac back to the Cameron!
“What was that?” Cindy yelled. “Would someone tell me what the fuck that was?”
“Just get away from it! Go, go, go!”
“Gary, keep your camera on where it was!”
“Madre de Dios! Is that… was that… oh hell!”
More panic. More screaming. Everyone moving and shouting orders. A vague sense of leadership starting to develop around Kevin. The water still moving, whatever had swallowed the lizard still nearby, still lurking, possibly still hungry.
And through it all, Maria didn’t move. She didn’t even breathe. She couldn’t.
She’s come for me, Maria thought. Teddy Bear the hammerhead has come back to finish what she started. The dim part of her brain still capable of logic tried to say that wasn’t possible, that Teddy Bear was far north of here and being tracked. Logic was worthless here, though. Logic wouldn’t keep her safe. The shark was coming for her. She had always been coming for her. Teddy Bear had just been waiting for the moment when Maria would forget, when she would be stupid enough to go back to the water and forget that there were things underneath that had tasted her, that wanted more.
Her hands gripped the pliable material of the Zodiac. Her lungs began to burn from lack of oxygen, but she knew that to breathe right now was to die. The water all around her would fill her lungs and she would drown, even as the monsters of the deep ripped her body apart. She had to hold her breath. Had to. Must not…
“Maria?”
The Zodiacs were moving away from the shape under the surface, and although the water continued to bubble with the movement underneath, the unknown thing didn’t look like it was following them. That was a trick, Maria knew. Teddy Bear was smart. She could outthink them. All she had to do was wait until the people on the Zodiacs forgot about her, decided she wasn’t a threat anymore, and then she would come up from beneath, ripping them, tearing them, shredding them, devouring them…
“Maria, honey?”
Something touched Maria’s arm.
Maria screamed. Her fingers, stiffened into talons, lashed out at her attacker, raking against something soft that gave way beneath her fingernails. She’d hurt Teddy Bear. This was her chance. She had to get away. If she stayed where she was, she would be a sitting duck.
“Maria, no! What are you doing?”
The water. She had to get into the open water. Yes, the water was dangerous, the source of everything that wanted to kill her, but Teddy Bear was in the Zodiac now. It wasn’t safe. Nowhere was safe. Her only chance now was to get away, far away.
As she tried to crawl over the side of the Zodiac, something got her from behind, circling her, pinning her arms at her side. This was it. She was dead. Teddy Bear was going to eat her. But she would not go down its gullet without kicking and screaming and giving the bitch as much indigestion as possible.
“Maria! Maria, listen to my voice! Listen, Maria.”
Her name, over and over. Teddy Bear had learned a new trick? No, that wasn’t right. Now the logical part of her brain started to reassert its dominance, reminding her that sharks lacked the vocal cords needed for such a thing. But it still had to be a trick, right? She was still in danger?
“Maria, honey, I’m here. Okay, I’m here.”
Shark skin was rough, like sandpaper. Yet the flesh surrounding her was soft, warm compared to the chilly temperatures of the deep. She still couldn’t move, which made her fight-or-flight reflex squirm all the more, but the thing holding her was gentle, despite its firmness.
“Maria, you’re okay. You’re safe.”
She was safe? What?
The world started to come back into focus. She saw the light shining on the water, smelled the sea in her nostrils, heard the putter of the motors. Except all of it felt more dull than usual, as though she were sensing everything through a thin gray cloth. There was some distance between then and Isla Niña now, although Maria had not been aware of the passing time. The thing wrapped around her was Kevin, and as he sensed her calming down, he loosened his grip. Now, she could be aware that Charlene had set down her camera in the bottom of the Zodiac so she could work the motor while Kevin held her. Nearby, the other Zodiac zoomed over the water with them, Gary’s camera trained right on her face.
“Maria, come back to me,” Kevin said. She finally saw his face and the gashes she had left in his cheek when she’d raked him with her nails. “Are you back?�
��
“Where is it?” she whispered. “Where did it go?”
“It’s still back near the island,” Kevin said. “Whatever it was, it doesn’t look like it followed us.”
All she could say was, “Oh.” Then, for some reason she didn’t understand, she reached down and pulled off her boot and sock.
“What are you doing?” Kevin asked.
She didn’t answer because she didn’t know. But as soon as her single foot was exposed to the air, she felt like a pressure had left her. Then, as she leaned against Kevin’s chest and let a sudden exhaustion overtake her, she began to chant to herself.
“There’s a hole, there’s a hole, there’s a hole at the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole, there’s a hole, there’s a hole, there’s a hole…”
9
Kevin had been right earlier. The walls of the Cameron were thin. So as Maria hunkered down in her and Kevin’s bed, she was still able to hear most of the conversation from the bridge. The fact that everyone was scared and excited probably helped.
“What the hell was all that?” Merchant yelled.
“We don’t know,” Kevin said. “It was definitely large, and I think—”
“I’m not talking about the thing in the water. Although, Gary, Charlene, please tell me one of you got it on camera.”
“I think we both did,” Gary said. “Although we’ll probably have to slow down the video quite a bit before we can see what it was.”
“Good. Very good. But I’m talking about…”
Her voice stopped. Maria could guess that she was probably pointing down in the direction of the bedroom, not that omitting Maria’s name made a difference.
Kevin’s voice became gruff. “You wanna watch your tone, Mrs. Merchant? That’s the woman I love you’re talking about.”
Maria wished she could force herself to leave the bed and go up to them. If they were going to discuss her, she would prefer that they do it in front of her face, damn it. She couldn’t, though. She felt strangely drained and hollow, like that feeling one got after a really hard crying jag, yet without the waterworks. Kevin had given her extra pillows and a blanket, which she had promptly rearranged after he left to form a rough nest around her. The feeling of being surrounding by something soft on all sides, a womb of cotton and synthetic fibers, did wonders to bringing her back down.
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