What Lurks Beneath

by Ryan Lockwood

  “Sir, I’m sorry, but if your friend doesn’t get up I’ll have to call security.”

  “Chill out, girl. He’s just tired. Sergei!” Niki shook him again, and he groaned, and then buried his face deeper into his arms.

  Niki hadn’t stopped thinking about the front-desk girl who’d passed them a short time ago. Bitch had nerve, turning him down like that. Back home, on Long Island, the girls knew who he was. If she knew who he was back in New York, who his family was, she wouldn’t be turning him down. Even if he was younger than her. She’d be begging him.

  The dealer said, “Sir, I’m going to call someone. They can help escort—”

  “Do you know who we are, skank?” This stupid bitch wasn’t going to embarrass them too, even if Sergei was a fool.

  She took a step back, raised her hands off the table. “Please, calm down.”

  “Nobody needs to call security. You got it? I’ll take care of this.” He smacked Sergei on the head, hard. Sergei lifted his head and looked at Niki, bleary-eyed.

  “Get up, asshole. You want your father to hear you passed out here?”

  Sergei looked at him dumbly, his jaw hanging open, then shook his head. He fished in his pocket for a moment and produced another fifty-dollar chip. The idiot had probably blown a grand already. He started to lay it on the table and Niki snatched it up.

  “Enough! Where do you keep getting those, fuck-hole? No more blackjack. Let’s go. I need a cigarette.”

  Niki dragged his friend out of the casino, in the direction the desk girl had gone. Maybe they could still find her. Teach her some respect.

  “I think I’m gonna be sick, Niki.”

  Niki shook his head. “You sure you’re Russian? You drink like a girl, fat ass.”

  He watched as his friend staggered to the greenery beside the path and bent over, hands on his knees. He shook his head.

  He’d pulled Sergei along as they smoked their Marlboros, hoping to catch up to the tall Bahamian girl. Not sure what he would do if he found her. But they’d already crossed through much of the resort, and hadn’t seen her. She was gone.

  They’d only passed two other people. Everyone had gone to bed hours ago. This place was nothing like New York. It was fuckin’ dead at night. Sergei stopped just before the pool with the big waterslide. The water roared down from above.

  The water. It was still running.

  “I’ll be over there. You hear me, Sergei?” He shook Sergei’s shoulder and pointed. “Over there! By the slide.”

  Sergei didn’t respond, but Niki left him and continued down the path. Where it narrowed between the swimming pool and the darkened dolphin play area he’d visited yesterday, the cement was covered in water. He saw the reason why. The pool was overflowing. Its well-lit, baby-blue bottom looked odd in the darkness from this angle, as if curved and convoluted.

  He thought he saw a small splash of water in the chlorine pool, accompanied by a faint plopping sound. He stared at the spot for a moment, but there was nothing there.

  He shook his head to clear it. He was just drunk. Seeing things.

  He stepped gingerly through the half-inch of water, cursing as he felt the water soak through his expensive leather shoes, and moved to where he could see the outlet of the slide better. Water rushed out of its mouth and into the empty pool. It had been off every other night, but maybe they’d accidentally left it on, and it was somehow overflowing the pool. He looked around, saw nobody. He suddenly had an idea, and grinned.

  It was their last night here. Even if they caught him, what the hell could they do to him anyway? What was the worst that could happen?

  He began stripping off his shirt.

  In the new pool of water, her skin began to burn. This water was different.

  She had left the safety of the salt water, to explore the strange-tasting pool she had tested with her arms while still within the confines where she had found the dolphins. She had fed, but she was still hungry, and the impulse to hunt had not abated. From the edge of the saltwater pool, she had been able to reach the tips of her arms into this other body of water. It had tasted odd, and felt very shallow, but curiosity pushed her.

  She had labored out into the air once again, dragging her tons of heavy flesh over the narrow spit of hard land before rolling into the new, smaller pool. Although her entire body did not submerge, this water tingled against her skin. Then it started to burn, to cause intense pain where it flowed past her gills, against her eyes. This water was not like the ocean. It was not safe for her.

  Her huge bulk still curving slightly above the shallow water, she moved back toward the side where she had entered, to return to the other pool. The saltwater pool. But then she stopped.

  Vibrations.

  Something was coming.

  She flattened herself down as low as she could, displacing even more water around her. Conforming. A moment later, she was entirely below the surface, compressed to the bottom. Instantly, her skin turned a lighter shade of blue, smoothed out to match the bottom surface of the pool. Dark, regular spots began to form on her skin, at regular intervals, as the chromatophores in her flesh patterned themselves after the dark tiles laid into the submerged surface.

  She fought the burning in her gills, against her skin and eyes, and waited.

  The pain quickly became unbearable. Her gills began to feel swollen. Just as she began to abandon her camouflage, she felt the vibrations again. Tasted something new. She slid an arm very slowly toward the incoming flow of water, into a large hole from which it flowed. Radial muscles contracted as longitudinal ones extended, and the arm stiffened, elongating as it moved upward into the pipe.

  Within it, she tasted prey.

  Niki had left his clothes in a pile, and in his underwear he jumped the heavy rope guardrail strung alongside the path. He knew there might be a guard positioned to watch the actual entrance to the tower stairs. He’d been on this slide several times already, but the rush of doing it now, at night, when it wasn’t allowed, added novelty.

  He found his way through the trees and other greenery planted between the path and the tower, the pain from small rocks jabbing into feet numbed by the alcohol, and soon found himself beside the stairway built into a man-made hill. He stepped over another heavy rope that bordered it and charged up the stairs, two and three at a time. He didn’t care if he was caught, as long as he got to go down first.

  He reached the top of the stairs and paused, looking out. From eight or nine stories above the resort, at night, the view was pretty cool. The artificially lit grounds spread out beneath him, and he could see the white line of the surf breaking on the dark beach nearby. He could see a handful of people moving between the casino and their own rooms. But he knew they could not see him. He stepped under the roof covering the top of the waterslide.

  Whitewater surged loudly into the pipe from large jets on either side. The water disappeared a few feet later, where the steep pipe dropped almost vertically before curving near the bottom to slow guests before spitting them out into the pool. He stepped into the trough of shallow water just above the jets and sat down. The water felt cold.

  The pipe shuddered. He paused. Was something really wrong with it, making the water run at night? For a moment, he considered heading back down the stairs. No, he told himself. Stop being a bitch. The slide is fine. Grasping the rim of the pipe, he crossed his legs and thrust himself into the darkness.

  He screamed in delight as he went over the precipice, his stomach fluttering as the bottom dropped out from under him. He plummeted down, his eyes and mouth shut. In just a few seconds he would enter the water at the bottom—

  He slammed into something in the pipe.

  His knees buckled as he stopped suddenly, violently, his limbs crashing into the mass and the sides of the unyielding pipe. One knee slammed into his jaw, shattering it, and he felt something in his spine give at the sudden compression. He cried out in pain.

  Crumpled inside the dark slide, disoriented,
and no longer moving, he looked up and realized he hadn’t reached the pool. He was stuck in a fetal position somewhere near the bottom of the steep part of the pipe, before it curved out horizontally. He was sitting on something.

  The water from above was quickly filling the space, blocked by the obstruction below him. The water rose quickly, passing his shoulders as it filled the pipe around him. He tried to stand, to keep his head above the water, but his legs wouldn’t work. He looked down toward his feet, but it was too dark to see anything. He reached a hand down through the water. The obstruction below him felt firm, textured, and yielded slightly to his touch. Like pressing down on an overinflated inner tube. Maybe one of the tubes from the waterpark—

  Then the obstruction began to move. To change shape. It was not an inner tube. Under his fingers, it slid below him, harder discs protruding from its surface starting to latch on to his thigh.

  It was alive.

  Niki reached upward, trying to grasp anything in the smooth pipe, and screamed just before the rising water reached his mouth.

  CHAPTER 54

  In the predawn darkness, Ashley knelt by the dolphin enclosure, trying not to get water on her black skirt or turquoise shirt. She looked down at Ella. The female dolphin was not moving, pressed against one wall of the artificial lagoon.

  “What happened, girl?” she whispered. “Where’s Captain?”

  Ella saw Ashley and swam over to her, poking her head out of the water when she recognized her. Ashley touched the animal’s smooth nose. She quickly turned and dove under again, heading for the far side of the enclosure. She lunged out of the deeper water onto a shallow man-made shelf covered in eight inches of water. The dolphin faced away from her, uncharacteristically restless this early in the morning.

  Normally, the dolphins only swam onto the shelf when they were doing a show and were coaxed up with frozen fish. It was located in front of a set of bleachers, and here the dolphins had been trained to interact with handlers as part of two daily shows. But there would be no shows today. Captain was gone, and the shows would be cancelled.

  “That’s where we found her this morning,” Chris, one of the young dolphin handlers, said as he walked over to Ashley.

  “Has that ever happened before?”

  “No. Never.”

  “Where do you think Captain is?”

  He shook his head. “We have no idea. But he’s gone. I’ve gotta go get her breakfast ready.” He patted her shoulder and walked away.

  As soon as Ashley arrived at the desk at five a.m., after getting a few hours’ sleep, she’d heard the news about Oceanus’s male dolphin. He’d somehow escaped overnight. The only thing the aquarists could figure was that Captain had incredibly, almost impossibly, leapt out onto the narrow strip of land between the lagoon and ocean and then wriggled his way to freedom. Were any outdoor cameras trained on that part of the grounds last night? She’d have to go talk to Dennis Gladwin, one of the resort’s security heads.

  “You ginned it all up with your man too?” Ashley said to the dolphin. Maybe Captain was just trying to get away from his girl.

  She thought about Eric. Despite her height, she was a magnet for most men—even the shorter ones. But Eric was different. Even though he obviously was attracted to her, he didn’t fawn over her or seem desperate to get physical. He enjoyed just talking with her. Seemed to respect her. Why hadn’t she called him back?

  It was she, who never lost her temper, who had driven him away. Yes, he’d upset her with his negative comments about Oceanus, but she knew he only meant well. As she looked at the lone dolphin trapped in the lagoon, and thought of the other who had escaped, she knew he was right. This resort wasn’t natural, or as eco-friendly as it pretended to be. But what choice did she have but to work here? If she ever had a resort of her own, it would be more natural, simply abutting the environment, rather than trying to recreate it, and any dolphins a guest might happen to see would be free. Living in the ocean. But for now, her loyalty was to Mr. Barbas, and his resort.

  She knew she should probably return Eric’s call, but something held her back: the simple fact that he was leaving. What was the point?

  Ashley stood and said good-bye to Ella, then headed for the security room at the base of the resort’s middle tower. There, Dennis would have footage from all the outdoor cameras. She stepped around two groundskeepers, hosing what looked like blue paint off the cement, and continued through the waterpark.

  In the silent black-and-white video, the young Russian-American appeared from the side, wearing only his underwear. He leapt the thick rope guardrail onto the stairs leading up to the waterslide, glanced about for a moment, then turned away from the camera and hurried up the stairs. Dennis Gladwin, sitting beside Ashley in the dim room, paused the image. Dennis was the senior security and loss prevention specialist at Oceanus, and he and Ashley were friends. They had roots in the same island chain, and his family knew hers quite well. Now in his early sixties, but still relatively fit, Dennis had been like an uncle to her.

  “Then young Mr. Melnikov appeared on camera fourteen . . . here.” Dennis pushed a button on the remote control.

  On a separate monitor, the young man appeared again. This image was darker, taken at night on top of the tower. He paused at the edge of the screen to look out over the side, perhaps enjoying the view, and then moved to the trough at the top of the slide. He sat down in the rushing water, crossed his legs to brace for the impact at the bottom, and disappeared inside the tube.

  “And that’s the last time anybody saw him,” Dennis said, sipping his coffee from a Styrofoam cup. “His father just called us a few hours ago, when his friend came back and said he’d looked for hours, but couldn’t find Melnikov. The friend claimed this guy left to go on the waterslide, and says they didn’t meet up again. Obviously, the story checks out. We even found the kid’s clothes and wallet hidden in the brush, right where he cut over to the slide.”

  Ashley was stunned to see that this was the same man who’d made advances on her last night. Not long before this footage was taken. And according to Dennis, who’d immediately shown her this footage when she walked in, apparently, he was now missing too.

  “You don’t have any cameras aimed at the bottom of the slide? At the Neptune Pool?” she said.

  “No. Just camera twenty-one, aimed at the far edge of the pool, and at the poolside bar there. These cameras are intended to help us watch out for theft, or altercations between guests. Not to watch people enjoy the waterslide.”

  She nodded. “Right.”

  “But there was something odd in that camera,” he said. “Hold on.”

  After a moment, he rolled the video. It was a wide-angle shot, also clearly taken at night, showing part of the Neptune Pool and the bar next to it. It was recorded from on high—clearly this camera was mounted somewhere on the waterslide tower. Nothing moved on the screen.

  “I’ll fast-forward to the part I showed Mr. Barbas earlier—”

  “Barbas is already up?”

  “You know him. Wants to make sure everything goes off all right today—here.” He pointed at the screen. “Right about now, watch the left side of the screen. . . .”

  Ashley stared at it for a moment, and then thought she saw part of the pool darken momentarily, as though a shadow had suddenly been cast over it.

  “What was that, Dennis?”

  “We don’t know yet. Want to see it again?”

  “Please.”

  He moved the slider bar back a minute and replayed the digital video. Again, Ashley saw the pool darken at the edge of the screen, just for a few seconds, before the shadow went away. She thought of the blue stains she had seen the men washing off the sidewalk.

  “Was something dark poured into the water, maybe? Maybe from the top of the slide? I saw maintenance cleaning what looked like paint off the sidewalk by the pool. ”

  “I doubt it. We would have seen that kid doing it.”

  “What else could that
shadow be?”

  “I don’t know. There aren’t many lights overhead at night, and no bird could cast a shadow that big. It might just be a glitch. Either way, I’m stumped.” He leaned back in his swivel chair. “So that’s it.”

  “But there’s nothing at all from the edge of the dolphin enclosure? That might show us how Captain got out?”

  “Sorry, Ash. Already looked.”

  She sighed. “Thanks for showing me those, Dennis.”

  He looked over his shoulder, out a small window into the main room at security where a few others were talking at their desks. He lowered his voice. “There is one more video. But I really shouldn’t show you.”

  “Then why are you telling me about it?”

  “I don’t know, Ash. You’re a smart woman. And we can’t figure out what the hell happened here. Not yet. Maybe you’ll have an idea.” He leaned toward her, raised his graying eyebrows. “But you can’t say nothing.”

  “Of course not, Dennis.”

  He slid another thumb drive into the computer in front of him. “This is the footage from about four this morning, when I first interrogated that other Russian kid. Taped in the room next to us here. After Melnikov’s parents raised hell. We’re only gonna watch the end. The young man doesn’t have much to say, and doesn’t remember shit. He’s still pretty drunk here.”

  Dennis skipped forward through several frozen frames, and then played the video. On it, the other Russian-American, the short one with the shaved head, was hunched over a small table, his face in his hands. He was sitting across from Dennis, whose arm appeared in the edge of the frame. She heard him clear his throat, then start talking. This time, there was audio:

  “Come on, Sergei,” Dennis said. “You really expect me to believe you have no idea what happened?”

  “I already told you. I don’t know where he is.”

  “What happened, man? You can tell me. Then you can go get some sleep. I promise. Did you get in a fight?”