“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go see if we can find a sea monster, huh?”
10
The bungalow, like so much in Puerto Ayora, was a weird mix of traditional fishing village and modern tourist. The building itself was probably about thirty years old, but sometime recently, it had been painted a bright, obnoxious green. A pair of iguanas, these ones of the land variety and much smaller than the one they had seen in the water last night, sat in front of the door in mid-copulation. Kevin gently shooed them away before knocking and entering. Inside, much of the furniture had been moved around so that Merchant and her people could use it as a makeshift studio. In one corner, a chair had been set up with a camera and lighting in front of it. Maria sighed. She knew what that meant. A “confessional.” The place where she or Kevin would be expected to sit and explain what was going on to the audience at home. Including, most likely, what had happened to Maria last night.
Merchant was off in a far corner on her cell, pausing only long enough in her hushed conversation to look in Maria and Kevin’s direction. One of Merchant’s crew, a young man named Ted Shirr, brought them both coffee and hooked up their mikes for the day. While this was going on, Maria and Kevin stood behind Gary and Charlene, who had a laptop set up on a folding table in front of them as they went over the footage they had taken the day before.
“Okay, so we’ve done everything we can to get a clear picture,” Charlene said, “but this isn’t the movies, and we don’t have access to all the state of the art equipment. Maybe we can analyze the footage a little better when we get back Stateside, if you still think we need to.”
Kevin looked at Maria. “Are you ready to see this?”
“Don’t look at me. You’re the one with a Ph.D. You’re the one who’s going to do most of the identifying, assuming we can.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know that’s not what you meant. I was deflecting. Do try to keep up, dear.”
“Wait, don’t start watching the video yet,” Gary said. “I need to make sure we get good shots of you watching and talking about it.”
Maria tapped her foot impatiently as Gary and Ted finished their prep. Or she tried to. She forgot that she was balancing on one fake leg, and the attempted motion almost made her lose balance. Kevin grabbed her shoulder, both calming her and steadying her.
“Okay, all set,” Gary said.
“So here’s what we got, starting with normal speed,” Charlene said, starting up the video on the computer. “This was camera one.” Gary’s camera. The video started at a point where he was pointing that camera back at Isla Niña, a shot that all by itself would have been beautiful. Then there was the sound of multiple people murmuring, and the camera turned in the direction of the ruckus to show the marine iguana coming to the surface before swimming back to land.
“And here we go,” Charlene said. The water beneath the iguana became pure churning violence, and something huge came up from underneath, snapped shut over the iguana, and vanished.
“Shit,” Maria said.
“Language,” Kevin muttered to her. “Remember we’re being recorded.”
“Shit,” she defiantly said again. “I don’t remember it happening so fast.” She looked to Kevin. “Were you able to see anything useful?”
“Not sure,” Kevin said. “Can you make that part of the video bigger and slow it down.”
“Yes to both, but making it bigger won’t make it any clearer. We’ve already tried. Hold on.”
Charlene did as he said, but she was right. It didn’t give them a much better view. “We might be able to do more with the image when we get back to the mainland.”
“I’m not sure that we want to leave long enough to do that, though,” Kevin said. “The Galapaguenos already seem to be on edge.”
“Or at least the mayor,” Maria said. “Hey, maybe you guys could run over and do an interview with him? The more you annoy him, the more I’ll try to get you a bonus on your next check.”
“What do you think the locals would do, though?” Ted asked as he handed both Kevin and Maria their coffees. “The island is already off limits again. Just keep it that way while you head back and get any new info you might need.”
“Not that easy,” Kevin said. “I know somebody in Sea Sheppard who has spent some time in the Galápagos.” He nodded at Maria. “That’s the contact I was talking about earlier. He’s how I knew that things here weren’t exactly the perfect paradise you imagined.”
“I thought you weren’t a fan of Sea Sheppard?” Maria asked.
Kevin shrugged. “I’m not. But I knew Danny before he joined them. He’s a good man, whether I agree with the organization’s methods or not.”
Maria let that part drop. He’d made his feelings on Sea Sheppard evident in the past. Sea Sheppard was a group self-appointed protectors of the ocean’s inhabitants. They always seemed to operate within the confines of the law, but only just. They’d been known to sink whaling ships, but since they only did it when they were in port and had no crew, and because whaling was supposed to be illegal, they technically weren’t doing anything wrong according to the law. As an organization, they’d become more famous recently because of, of course, a reality show. Kevin tended to think of them as being more reckless than needed. Maria gave them a little more benefit of the doubt.
“Anyway,” Kevin said. “Any laws regarding illegal fishing or poaching are supposed to be enforced by the Ecuadorian Navy. Except they don’t enforce much at all. There’s lots of rumors of money handed under the table for them to look the other way, probably some from the mayor himself, although Danny hasn’t found any concrete proof. So any attempt to keep people away from Isla Niña would be incredibly difficult. Sea Sheppard used to contract with the Charles Darwin Research Station and Galápagos National Park to patrol, but they’ve been held back by both interference from the Navy and a lack of funds.”
“So you mean to tell me that, in a World Heritage Protected Site, one that is of the utmost importance to biological research and contains large numbers of critically endangered species, no one is trying to protect any of it?” Maria asked.
“I didn’t say no one. It’s just that the number of people trying to exploit it is far larger.”
“So what does that mean for Isla Niña?” Ted asked them.
“It means that the quarantine of the island is pretty much in name only. It means we can’t leave until we have a better idea of what’s out there. If that thing’s endangered, people might try to take it or kill it for their own financial gain,” Kevin said. “And if it’s dangerous, other people besides Mrs. Schmidt might die.”
“Is that the hypothesis we’re working with, then?” Maria asked. “Whatever this thing is, that’s what killed Debbie Schmidt?”
Kevin leaned closer to look at the paused image on the screen. “It certainly looks big enough. And we already know that it’s carnivorous.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Maria said. “Whale sharks are huge and carnivorous, but they don’t eat anything much bigger than krill. There’s no proof yet that this thing looks at a human as lunch.”
And yet, she realized, she didn’t want to get anywhere near it. The higher part of her brain might have been going back into biologist mode, yet the thought of boarding the Cameron again and getting anywhere near it scared the piss out of her.
Merchant finally came over and joined them. “So what do we have? Do we have another sea monster or not?”
“Please don’t call it that,” Kevin said.
“You just called it that before we got here,” Maria said.
“Yeah, between you and me. But we’ve already got too many rumors floating around, and a questionable politician poking into it. Whatever this thing is, it’s some kind of animal. If we, the people who are supposed to be experts, call it a monster, and if that gets around, then the Galapaguenos will be in even more of a panic than they were before.”
“Whatever,” Merchant sa
id with an uncharacteristic sound of defeat in her voice. “Where did the Gutsdorfs go?”
Maria suddenly realized that she hadn’t seen them since they got here. “That’s a good question.”
“They left right after you started your call,” Gary said. “Don’t know where, although I think Cindy said something about wanted to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station.”
“Doesn’t matter, I guess. We’ve got enough comedic relief for now.”
“What’s wrong?” Kevin asked Merchant. “I would think you’d be overjoyed by this turn of events.”
“Just because this is going to make good television doesn’t mean I’m happy about the possibility that there’s something out there eating people. Give me some credit. But also, I just got off the phone with TEC’s lawyers.”
Maria tensed. “What did we do?”
“None of us did anything. But you don’t need to think about confronting Suzanne Laramie anymore, Miss Quintero.”
“Why? Did whatever plea deal she was working on fall through?”
“No. She was found dead in her cell three hours ago. Laramie killed herself.”
11
Both Maria and Kevin did everything they could to remain polite and courteous at the police station. Ernesto met them there, although he couldn’t stay. He, unfortunately, had to deal with mounds of insurance paperwork regarding Mrs. Schmidt. His brief appearance seemed to calm the locals. Still, the police had plenty of reasons to distrust outsiders throwing around their muscles, and the last thing either of Maria or Kevin wanted was to give the residents more reasons to be distrustful. Some of the officers let them into the morgue with wary eyes, but the coroner himself shook their hands happily and welcomed them in. He didn’t speak more than a little English. Kevin knew some, but Maria was fluent, so she acted as the translator between him and Kevin.
“The way he’s acting, you would think this is a party and we’re the guests of honor.”
“Actually, it’s you that the guest of honor,” Maria said. “He’s familiar with your work. Says he even worked with you a little bit as a volunteer when you were here once long ago.”
Kevin stared at him for a long time before smiling. “The teenage boy with the pink bucket, right?”
Maria translated for the coroner, but she didn’t need to translate his response back. The pure joy that someone like Kevin remembered him was palpable.
Maria was ashamed to admit that she had expected the morgue to be little more than a refrigerator and a couple of cots. She should have known better than to assume that just because they were in a small village far from the mainland that meant law enforcement couldn’t be professional. Instead, the morgue was small but clean and tidy, the coroner obviously running a very tight and professional ship here. Mrs. Schmidt’s remains, however, were in fact being kept in an evidence bag in a refrigerator. The coroner explained to her that there hadn’t been much point in using one of the normal body drawers for just one arm.
As Kevin and Maria put on masks and gloves, and the coroner retrieved the arm and prepped if for their examination, Maria’s mind wandered back to what Merchant had said. Suzanne Laramie. Dead. It shouldn’t have been something that affected Maria, and yet it did. The young woman had been responsible for many deaths, even if she hadn’t intended for that to happen. She had, however, set events in motion that had led to Maria being permanently maimed, and Maria saw no reason to forgive her for that. But this fate just seemed too harsh. She’d been found hanging from the bars of her cell with a makeshift noose made from her bed sheets around her neck. Reportedly, no one had had any clue that the young woman was even suicidal, although Maria understood how she could get that way. Not only were the deaths of so many people from the Tetsuo Maru on her hands, but there had also been her boyfriend, ripped apart in Teddy Bear’s jaws while Diane, or rather Suzanne, had been right there next to them. Maria had her own inkling of what that kind of trauma could do to a person’s mind.
And yet, something felt strange about this. Why would Laramie have killed herself if she had wanted to say something to Maria? Maria had thought that maybe the woman had left a note for her, but Laramie’s lawyers said there was nothing.
Maria thought again, although mercifully briefly, of the events in the Sea of Cortez over El Bajo. Laramie and her boyfriend Murphy (it suddenly occurred to Maria that she couldn’t even remember his real name) had been working with someone else. That someone or someones had made an attempt to kill her before. Maybe they had done it again, and this time succeeded.
That was definitely something Maria wanted to follow up on when they got back to the US, but right now she needed to concentrate on Debbie Schmidt, or at least all that were left of her. Gary had followed them and seemed to be debating whether or not he should film a stiff, bloody severed arm, then shrugged and started recording. If they couldn’t show it on TEC, the censors could always blur it out later.
A boom mike operator stood nearby, holding the mike over the coroner’s head. To his credit, he was able to ignore the television equipment and maintain a completely professional demeanor. He set the tray holding the arm on a stainless steel table in front of them, explaining to Maria what he had been able to find out so far.
“As far as he can tell, the arm was definitely bitten off, or at the very least wasn’t ripped off when it caught on something like we might have theorized. The wound is too even for that. In fact…” Maria frowned at the coroner and asked him a question in Spanish. The coroner shrugged and gave a short response.
“What did he say?” Kevin asked. “I only got some of that.”
“He says the wound is almost too perfect. Like, if it wasn’t for the circumstances, his first guess would have been to say that someone had cut it off, maybe with a pair of strong but dull scissors.”
“Hmmm,” Kevin said, then gestured for her to get closer. “This is your show. You want to take point on this?”
“Uh, you’re probably better at the lab work than I’ll ever be. Be my guest.” While she knew that was true, in actuality, she didn’t want to get near the thing. The coroner had done a good job preserving the arm for this long, but it was still a severed body part. It gave off the slightest hint of a rotting meat smell, and flecks of blood that had dried around the wound were sloughing off and making Maria queasy.
And, if she thought about it too much, it made her think of other missing body pieces. Her leg began to itch at the shin, her right one, the one that wasn’t actually there. She really, really needed to scratch it. Also, she was getting that same weird urge again that she had in the boat, that her left foot needed to be let out of its boot immediately to breathe.
There’s a hole, she thought to herself. That single assertion helped to calm her mind enough to observe.
“To start with, let’s see if we can get any kind of sample off it,” Kevin said. “Not likely, considering how soaked it got from the splash of water, but we should try.”
Maria conveyed his request to the coroner. She was surprised that he had a swab and the tools to try to get a DNA sample, but not so much by what he told her next. “He has the means to take samples thanks to some borrowed tools from the Charles Darwin Research Station, but he says there’s nowhere on the island that could analyze them. Still, we can take whatever we find to the CDRS, and they can fly the sample out on their next supply flight. If Merchant pulls some more of her strings, maybe we can get the analysis bumped up and have the result in a few days.”
“A few days,” Kevin muttered. “Do you think we have that long?”
Maria shrugged. “Do we really have any reason to think we can’t keep things under control for a few days?”
“You do realize that if Simon were here, he’d point out that, according to the rules of a monster movie, you’ve just guaranteed that something bad is going to happen very soon?”
“Yes, but sometimes I don’t think Simon is all there. Who knows what he would be like if he didn’t have his sister around
to knock some sense into him.”
They took as many samples as they could with what they had, taking extra care to get anything they could from the wound itself. If the arm had in fact been bitten off, then that would be the most likely place to find the DNA of whatever had done this. Kevin’s task was to make a closer inspection of the wound itself, looking for bite marks.
“He’s right about the wound. No indentations that would indicate teeth.”
“But based on what we saw yesterday and what was on the video?”
Kevin nodded. “Could be. That thing’s mouth looked almost beak-like to me. Without being able to get a closer look at the creature itself, my best educated guess is that they could be a match.”
“A beak,” Maria said. “Some kind of bird?”
“First, a bird that large? Not possible.”
“Given what we’ve seen, we have to reevaluate our idea of what is or isn’t possible. I’m sure the people who watch Simon’s Syfy original movies would love the idea of a giant carnivorous penguin.”
“Uh, true enough, I suppose. But second, let’s say it is a bird that size. It wouldn’t be able to stay underwater indefinitely. Even if we assume that whatever made it so large has also affected other aspects of its physiology, it’s doubtful that we’d ever find a bird with gills. It has to come up and find someplace to stay. I would think that people would have noticed a fifty-foot booby.”
“I really, really want to make a joke right now.”
“Please don’t. Booby jokes got old for me decades ago.”
“Okay, then let’s brainstorm what else it could be. I suppose what we saw could have belonged to a giant squid. And that one comes with the bonus of actually seeming plausible.”
“That still would have been pretty large even for a giant squid.” He stared off into space for several moments. “A couple problems with that. First, there was no sign of tentacles.”
“To be sure, there wasn’t much of a sign of anything, given how fast it happened.”
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