Loch Ness

by Donovan Galway

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Spencer’s ship rounded the coastal waters off Portugal and cruised toward Ireland. The Northern coast of Scotland was a day away and he was becoming anxious. They were still being tailed by the Plesiosaur and his phenomenal luck was going to his head.

  Louisa sat in her stateroom and stared at the monitor. The long-range ticker showed the southern coast of Ireland approaching, and she knew what was beyond. Her thoughts went in a dozen directions, none of which were in any way productive. Something was pulling her off. For some reason that she could not get her head around, something was not right. The gentle tapping on her door was almost a welcome interruption from the fruitless pondering.

  Beau slid his head in. “You decent?”

  “Depends on your definition. What’s up?”

  “We’ll be in soon. Something big is on the horizon. You know that. Right?” He came cautiously in toward her as he spoke with excitement. “I know I’ve been really wrapped up in this thing and maybe cut a few corners, but that’s work and that’s me. The chase puts me in a certain… frame of mind.”

  “It’s okay, Beau. Work’s work. God knows I’ve learned that if nothing else.”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking ahead and… well. There’s something I want to share.”

  Louisa shifted nervously in her chair as he came to her side. “Um… okay….”

  “Louisa. I need a decision from you. It’s a big step so think before you answer. But I want to include you in my future.”

  Louisa was incredibly aware of how visibly she had just gulped. She prayed for a tactical escape from the inescapable ‘Proposal at Sea’ that loomed. “Beau. I don’t know if we can…”

  “I’m ready to make the leap and I want you at my side. Think of the future. Think of the fame. Think of the money.”

  The flushed sensation suddenly passed. She had never heard this particular approach to a proposition. She doubted even Spencer could think so highly of himself. “What exactly are we talking about here?”

  “The paper, of course. I’m sure to publish the first definitive study on the Loch Ness Monster. Everything to date will be just unverified fiction and nothing after it will be anything more than a follow-up on my work. If I manage to secure copyrights, who knows? What I need is a commitment from you. I need to know if I can count you in on it.”

  A deck below them, Davis Billikin was diligently tracking the position of the animal which had been tracking them halfway around the globe. The skillful sonar man studied his contact more intently than he had to this moment. As it came closer, he realized his readings and assumptions were clearly flawed.

  “Boss?” he said into the intercom without turning.

  Spencer ignored the buzz, keeping his attention focused on Louisa. “So what do you say?”

  She was still trying to recover from the drastic misdirection. “A book? You’re talking about publishing a book?”

  “We all publish findings. You know that. It’s how we determine our stature among our peers.”

  “Boss. You need to look at this.”

  “By peers, you mean John.”

  “The goal is to be the first to prove it. Nagle’s had years to do what we just did. He snoozed and lost.”

  “Boss!” Davis shouted.

  Spencer finally heeded the demand and went to the intercom. “No need to shout, Davis. What is it?”

  “Well, it’s not what we thought it was. That’s for damn sure.”

  Spencer sensed his royalty check dwindling. “What? It’s not a Plesiosaur? You said it was big!”

  “Oh, it’s big. You need to come down here.”

  Beau darted from the room as if Louisa and her dangling proposition were completely irrelevant. He slid down the chrome ladder and spun into the lower where Billikin sat glued to the massive figure on his monitor. Omar and Kenny at their stations on the other side of the room glanced back intermittently but knew better than to be drawn from their posts. Beau went straight to Davis.

  “Tell me we haven’t been baiting a whale shark.”

  “This is no shark. It’s a ples all right. But it only just came in close enough for me to get a good look at it.”

  “So what’s the big change?”

  “It’s almost twice the size we thought it was. This thing is nearly a hundred and twenty feet long.”

  Louisa came into the room in time to hear the length. “How much of that is neck?” she demanded, coming to the screen.

  “Not much. This thing is all body. It’s swimming with four fins instead of two like Nagle’s beast. And it’s a lot faster. This is one bad predator.”

  Louisa stood erect at the comment. “What do you mean like Nagle’s beast? John found it first?”

  “Maybe not,” Spencer said. “And you can go all moral and ethical on me later. Davis? Are you telling me this is a totally different Plesiosaur? How is that possible?”

  Davis put his hands up. “Hey. It responded to the calls we got from Nagle. That’s all I know.”

  Louisa snapped angrily at Billikin. “You thieving little four-eyed weasel!”

  “You kettle, also black. Save your name-calling for someone who gets paid to give a shit.”

  “You’re paid to spot these things,” Spencer growled. “Why are we only now finding out it’s the wrong animal?”

  “I’m a technician, not an analyst. I gave you the data. You made the decisions.”

  “Based on what you told me!”

  Louisa looked away from the bickering to the monitor. The creature was approaching rapidly. “Um. Guys. This thing is about to swallow us whole.”

  Davis returned his attention to the monitor. Manning the fine-tuning controls, he refined the growing image. The creature in the clear, three-dimensional image was coming right at them. It had a long, wide head and a short, thick neck similar to a crocodile. The teeth were large enough to be visible on sonar. This was clearly a super predator which had been chasing them around the globe.

  “Damn you’re ugly,” Davis commented. “You called it, boss. You name it.”

  Spencer stared at the terrifying image of the giant. “I think it already has a name.”

  “Liopleurodon,” Louisa gasped. “That thing hunted Plesiosaurs.”

  “And you led it right to them,” Davis said dryly. “Nice work, boss.”

  “It was tracking the sound of the ples. You used John’s calls to attract the animal’s natural predator to its nesting ground?’

  Beau was becoming frantic. “I didn’t know! How the hell was I supposed to know there were two of them? I only just found out there was one!”

  “There’s going to be none real soon.”

  Beau stopped to take a deep cleansing breath and compose himself. Now calm, he looked at Davis with renewed confidence. “Not if I can stop it.”

  Billikin looked at him in bewilderment. “Stop it? Boss, this thing eats Great Whites like anchovies. What did you have in mind?”

  “It’s tracking us, right? So we turn inland. Head for the coast. It’ll follow us in to the shallow water and get stranded.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  “It just followed us around the world. It’s not stopping now.”

  “Beau, I don’t like this,” Louisa objected.

  “Sounds good to me, boss,” Billikin said. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

  “God, I hate you,” she snapped.

  Spencer was at the intercom. “Jonesy! Bring us to eighty degrees starboard and open her up!”

  Louisa was really uncomfortable. “I don’t like this,” she muttered, mostly to herself.

  * * * * *

  Aisling came to the house she and all of the locals knew belonged to Carl Linton. She went to the door and knocked soundly. She rang the bell and called through the mail slot in the door. The place was clearly deserted.

  Aisling stepped back from the door. “Give up? I will not.” She looked around for an open window or opportunity but none present
ed itself. Glancing across the yard, she spotted a garden rake leaning against a tree. The mail slot gave this item potential. She took the rake and twisted the top off of it; the handle easily slid through the mail slot. Her slender hands made it almost easy to position the end of the handle against the oval deadbolt knob. After only two minor slips, she managed to turn the knob and open the front door.

  “I’m in the wrong business,” she muttered as she tossed the pole back out into the yard and entered the house. The downstairs was pretty normal. A dwelling for an old man. She saw nothing incriminating here. The upstairs beckoned and she tiptoed up the stairs.

  The second story was comprised of one bedroom, a bathroom in need of cleaning, an office and a large laboratory. She started in the office but the file cabinets were locked and the computer immediately demanded a password. She abandoned this room and entered the lab. A counter in the center of the room was cluttered with papers and what appeared to be shell fragments from gigantic eggs. It seemed like something but she could make out little of the doctor’s handwriting on the notes. One note read “Pending carbon dating” which she assumed referred to the egg shells. The computers in this room did even less. There had to be something.

  She opened every drawer and cabinet in the room looking for anything to suggest the existence of the monster or John Nagle’s files, anything would shift blame to the doctor and away from her. She knew he’d been studying the phenomenon since it was a novelty and had to have something tangible if not incriminating here. In desperation she opened the mini fridge. There it lay, seemingly glowing in the backlight of the tiny bulb. The enormous egg was gray and speckled and cold and possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

  Aisling took the egg and cradled it. Scanning the room, she found an old rock sack under the counter. She wadded some of the papers into the bottom of the sack and set the egg inside. It still seemed to roll around too much; she couldn’t risk breaking it. It meant everything if she could just get it to the right people before the wrong people got it.

  She decided it needed more protection. Reaching her hands under the back of her shirt, she unhooked her bra and removed it through her sleeve. The egg sat perfectly protected within the cups. She tied the straps and returned the padded and supported egg to the sack.

  Leaving through the front door, Aisling began to feel a sensation of dread. This was too critical. What was this egg worth? She set it on the floor of her car to prevent it from falling and drove back toward John. But what would he say? Would he have stolen it, had he the opportunity? Stolen? Is that what she had done? It was so easy and she truly needed it, but would that justify theft? Breaking and entering? What obscure laws protected dinosaur eggs? As she drove, paranoia set in and she wanted only to get back to John. She’d tell him in private. See what he thought. Maybe just tell him the egg existed and see how badly he wanted it. Then it would be a good thing when he found out that she had stolen it. Stolen! How could that be a good thing? She struggled to keep the car on the road as she sped back to the mooring of Esperanza.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Spencer looked to Billikin. “Secure the radios.”

  At his instruction, Billikin disabled all of the radios and ship-to-shore phones on board. He glanced back to receive the nod of confirmation from Kenny Kirkpatrick. “We’re deaf and dumb, boss.”

  “Isn’t that illegal? I mean aren’t you supposed to keep a radio in operation at all times for emergencies?”

  “Yes,” Spencer replied with a note of assertiveness. “And if anyone asks, we do.”

  “But why? I mean it doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Tell her about the penguins, boss.”

  “What about the penguins?”

  “He spotted about two thousand emperor penguins out at sea.”

  “What? So you’re the one who found out they could swim?”

  Spencer finished the statement. “They were in open water more than two hundred miles north of where they should have been. Somehow they got off the ice pack and swam that far out without drawing the killer whales or sharks into a feeding frenzy. It was a brilliant mass escape.”

  “And a hell of a find,” Billikin added.

  “It would have been except I had my radio on when I came across them. I radioed my position and word got out. Within two hours we were inundated with more boats and morons than I ever would have believed could get out there so fast. There was Australian guard, Japanese whalers, Greenpeace, media of every kind and God knows how many sightseers.”

  “It was amazing how many people wanted to kill penguins. They were shooting them with rifles and spear guns. Some people were netting them. People were screaming and crying and laughing. It was… surreal.”

  “It was a bloodbath and I was responsible. It made me physically sick. Worst of all it ruined any hope of research. I never got to find out where they were going or why. It may have been a seasonal migration or a desperate attempt to escape global warming. Who knows? It could have resulted in a whole new species but we’ll never find out. We learned nothing and I got nothing. Ever since then I’ve held a hard and fast policy when I hit on a potential discovery. I break all contact with radios and external sources. We do the research and classification first. We’ll establish what we’re looking at and what it’s worth before we share it with the world.”

  “Good call.”

  Louisa was still uncomfortable but she had no argument to sway Spencer’s policy or ease her concerns about being in open sea with no contacts to the outside world and a giant predator homing in on them. She had never heard of a better recipe for disaster.

  Jones was obediently piloting the ninety-foot cruiser toward the distant coast of Spain and had the engines full throttle. Spencer watched the monitor as Billikin clarified the image of the creature. Omar Harvey and Kenny Kirkpatrick remained steadfast to their respective posts, one watching the depth and the other scanning for long-range contacts. Louisa took advantage of the controlled chaos by facing an unmanned computer station. She kept one hand in her lap while the other monitored nothing of consequence. Despite Spencer’s orders, she tapped a text message into her phone. The slim-line design made it easily concealed and she was adept enough to type a basic message with only an occasional glance down. She had entered their last known coordinates and simply “We’ve found another one. Bigger and following us. Need help soon. Coming your way from Portugal. Coordinates to follow.” She had more to say but elected to send the message in increments to make sure it got out. With another glance around to confirm Billikin was measuring the beast, Omar and Kenny were attending to their low-profile duties and Beau was watching the horizons fore and aft, she selected a destination from her address book and sent the message.

  Davis suddenly noticed several lines of interference running across his screen. He heard the distinctive buzzing and turned to Spencer. “Some kind of wave signal is coming through, boss.”

  “What kind?”

  “Looks like a cell phone. Is yours off?”

  “I’m not carrying one. Anyone else have a cell phone on them?”

  Louisa feigned surprise. “I have one. Let me see if I’ve had any messages.” She pretended to look as she deleted the “Message Sent” message.

  “Never mind. Just turn it off for now.”

  “Okay. It’s off.” She hit the button and returned it to her pocket. It was off but she knew she could slip away soon to send the next increment. She couldn’t risk it ringing or a message coming in, as Beau would surely confiscate it.

  * * * * *

  John was sitting on the rail of Esperanza. Frank and Kyle were on board. Kyle was setting up a new sonar system linked to a GPS unit.

  “Once we pick it up and tag it, we’ll be able to track it from anywhere. Our range is pretty much the same as NASA.”

  “Uh huh,” John said. “Can you pick up The Discovery Princess on that?”

  “Give me some coordinates and I’ll bet I can.”

  J
ohn’s cell phone vibrated to the incoming text. John studied it in astonishment. “Kyle. Do me a favor.”

  “Sure, Doc.”

  “Ask me for the lottery numbers.” With a dramatic display of amazement, he handed the phone to Kyle who read a message promising the coordinates of the Discovery Princess.

  “Holy freaking God.”

  “I know! How incredible is that? Where are they?”

  “Did you read the rest of this text, John?” Kyle asked, his tone turning cold.

  “Just the first screen. Why? What’s in it?” He took the phone from Kyle and read the rest of Louisa’s first increment. “Holy… Kyle! Where is this? Where are they?”

  “Don’t know exactly. But if they’re heading this way we can backtrack. Give me a minute to crunch,” Kyle responded, already searching his computer for the exact position of the sender. “They’re close, John. If I’m right we could probably get there overnight, assuming they’re coming toward us and not away from us I mean.”

  John pondered the possibilities. He could ignore what Louisa and Spencer surely wanted and notify the authorities. No. Spencer was coming up here to tread on his discovery. He would do the same. It wouldn’t be stealing but merely reclaiming what was his.

  “Cast off the lines!” he shouted. “We need to get out there.”

  “Where?” Frank asked. “She never told us where they were.”

  “We know where they were. We’ll figure the rest out on the way. I know the route they’re on. Follow it south and watch the instruments.” With the turn of a key, they felt the rumble of the powerful twin Volvo Pentra 715 engines. The lab was ready to be transformed into a speedboat.

  “Speaking of which, something is coming this way, boss.” Kyle said.

  John looked to the road as Kyle simultaneously pointed to the loch. Kyle saw nothing, but John saw Aisling’s car racing toward them.

  “Wait!” he ordered to his crew. “Cast off and be ready.”