by David Wood
Slater looked away. “I hate myself for it, but I’m still kind of invested.” She looked back, her eyes narrowed. “Are you curious at all? Don’t you want to see this through?”
Aston took a deep breath and sighed, nodded slowly. “Yeah, I have to admit that I am. If there really is something like we’re thinking down there, it would rock biology and history to its core. I want to be a part of that if I can.” Slater opened her mouth to speak, but Aston held up a hand. “But not if it’s going to get us killed. Or anyone else killed.”
“Is it really possible it’s already gotten two of us killed?” Slater’s voice was soft, her eyes wide.
“Gaszi and Dave, you mean?”
She nodded.
Aston looked at his feet. “I guess it is possible.” He met her eyes again. “So we’re back to square one. Do we push on or not?”
“It’s probably all academic anyway,” Slater said. “You promised Carly you’d go to Rinne in the morning and you have to do that, report Dave missing. It’s the right thing to do. After that, everything may well come crashing down around us when that weird bastard gets involved.”
“Think he’ll shut us down?” Aston wondered how Holloway would handle such an eventuality. Would he still pay Aston what he had coming to him? He immediately kicked himself for such a selfish thought. Two men were missing, perhaps even dead. Of course, Aston would soon be joining them if Chang didn’t get what he was owed.
“It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.”
“Bit pessimistic, no? He might not.”
She let out a long, slow breath, turned, and walked away, heading for her bunk. “Good night, Aston.”
He watched her leave, enjoying the view. “Night, Slater,” he said, but she was already out of earshot.
Chapter 20
Senior Constable Pieter Lehtonen rowed as slowly and carefully as he could up to the dive platform of the Merenneito, careful to make no sound. The overcast skies blanketed him in darkness, with scant light by which to navigate, but he was thankful for the covering darkness. He wanted to get this over with, preferably without meeting any of those he was investigating. Something splashed in the water behind him and he whipped his head around, but saw only ripples. A fish, he supposed.
The three am cold bit deep into his bones, chilling the sweat on his brow, and he cursed Superintendent Rinne again. Sending him out like a common cat burglar was ridiculous and he had told Rinne so. But his boss insisted, citing the possibility of the small town being sued for wrongful arrest or harassment if they went in and found nothing.
Lehtonen thought perhaps there was some other agenda at work. Rinne’s methods had always been… unconventional, and this expedition seemed to have struck an odd chord with the veteran policeman. Rinne had been unusually tense since the arrival of the American and his research team, curt with his underlings, barking orders, and quick to anger. Lehtonen wished he understood, but as a salaryman he did as he was told. Sneak onto the boat, is what he had been told. Find something that gives us a good reason to get a search warrant and find out exactly what those weirdos are up to.
Anything he found would be inadmissible as evidence, he had pointed out, but Rinne didn’t seem to care. Whatever. Do as he was asked, enjoy the overtime pay he had been promised and use it to buy Adalina a better birthday present than he could otherwise afford. That alone made the excursion worthwhile. He would always take every opportunity to make his wife happy. She’d spent two years at university in Helsinki and had reluctantly returned to Kaarme out of love for Lehtonen. She spent her days chafing at the bonds of small town life, and only Lehtonen’s constant attention kept her content, if not fully satisfied with the life they’d made together. But she would bring some form of modernity to the town one way or another. Kaarme was her project now.
He smiled as he silently secured his rubber dinghy at the dive platform, and then mentally shook himself, focusing on the job in hand once more. He slid the glass door open and stood listening for several moments. Silence pressed on his ears. He heard the gentle slap of the lake against the hull and nothing else. He jumped as some night bird hooted, then only the water once more.
He moved on soundless feet through the dive room and climbed the steps up to the bridge. The first thing he saw was a table littered with eight by ten printouts. He used a penlight to quickly scan the images and his eyes widened at the shots of fins and teeth. What in God’s name were these supposed to be? Glancing around furtively to make sure no one was about, he pulled out his phone and took a couple of photos of the pictures, wincing at the bright bursts of flash. When he was finished, he looked out the bridge windows and grinned. It wasn’t as if there was anyone about to see him. As long as the ‘documentary makers’ stayed asleep he would be fine.
He moved around, taking photographs of several other printouts and pictures, quickly putting together in his mind exactly what these people were doing. They were monster hunters, clearly. More fools desperately seeking something that at best should be left well alone. They seemed to have found a strange geological feature and that interested Lehtonen greatly. After all, who wasn’t intrigued by the local legends, even if it was best to ignore them? But regardless, these people were lying about why they were here and they were almost certain to cause trouble. Rinne would want them gone and Lehtonen had found enough here to give the Superintendent cause to question them, but not really anything on which to base an actual search. He needed something more concrete, some angle Rinne could play. The man was thorough and obsessive.
A glance out on deck showed the boat to be heavily equipped with lots of new gear, including complicated looking nets and hydraulic arms, and a big harpoon gun. The surveillance equipment on the bridge and the gear he’d seen in the dive room were proof this operation was massively financed. It was a far cry from the simple expedition they’d claimed.
Lehtonen shook his head. Americans. He moved back through the Merenneito, quietly checking storage cupboards and any other space that wasn’t behind a closed door, but he found nothing more of interest. He didn’t dare risk disturbing someone in their bed, and the longer he stayed, the more he pushed his luck. He passed into the galley and had a quick poke around. A large, well-stocked freezer stood beside the cooker. He opened a couple of drawers and saw expensive seafood and fancy frozen desserts. These people were eating well. He spotted a small package of frozen éclairs—Adalina’s favorite treat, and tucked them inside his jacket. The crew wasn’t likely to miss them among this veritable cornucopia, and if someone noted their absence, they’d simply assume one of the others had beaten them to the prize. His head swimming with happy thoughts of smiles, kisses, and perhaps a little more his wife would bestow upon him in thanks, he made to shut the door when something caught his eye.
An oddly shaped object sat on its own in the bottom drawer, wrapped in plastic. He shifted aside the covering and gasped, barely stifling a cry. Eyes narrowed, he moved more sheeting aside and confirmed what he had at first thought must be a hallucination. A foot! These people were holding human remains. Now, this was something that would be of interest to Rinne, and rightfully so.
For a moment, he considered taking the foot with him, but thought the better of it. Rinne would want it left in situ for the time being. The Superintendent was a vain man, and he would want to make the discovery himself. And they could hardly deny it if the evidence was right here on board. Most likely Rinne would bring a team aboard first thing in the morning. He loved an audience for the occasions upon which he actually did something of value.
Shaking his head, Lehtonen snapped a few photographs and closed up the freezer, then headed directly for his dinghy. He definitely had all he needed now. The photos would provide ample evidence to merit a search of the boat and Rinne would be eager to act now he had solid intel showing there was something to be found.
Within moments he was gently rowing away from the Merenneito,
congratulating himself on his ninja-like incursion. It made him happy to be a success at anything, especially as Adalina would directly benefit. He would have to get his kids something too, as their happiness was another of his primary driving forces in life. Plus, every time he did something particularly brave or daring, he delighted in sharing the story with his idiot brother. Jannik always enjoyed mocking Lehtonen for ‘taking the easy path in life’. Why the man thought being a policeman was easy, he would never know. Maybe it was a small town thing, now Jannik was a big shot in Helsinki. Well, screw him.
As he propelled the craft through the still waters, fueled by angry thoughts of his brother, a flashing light caught Lehtonen’s eye. He paused his rowing, drifting on the silent lake as he looked toward shore. Another flash, like an electric torch being flicked on and off in rapid succession. Morse code? No, that couldn’t be it. Unless someone was trying to signal the boat, but why wouldn’t they use a modern means of communication?
A low whistle drifted across the water, and then the light flashed again. He needed to check it out. It was suspicious, if inexplicable, behavior, and Rinne would expect him to leave no stone unturned. Lehtonen pulled on his oars, guiding the small boat toward the strange flickering. In less than a minute he had gained land and pulled the boat up onto the mud.
“Hello?” he called out. “Who’s there?”
The flashing light had stopped and the shore was still and silent. Lehtonen took a step forward, peering into the shadows between the trees. “Hello?” he said again. “Police. What’s your business here?”
He pulled his penlight out and directed its thin, sharp beam into the stygian gloom. Tree trunks danced with shadows as he panned it slowly back and forth. A twig snapped. Lehtonen swung his light quickly in the direction of the sound. “Police! Show yourself!”
No sound. No light. Lehtonen turned in a full, slow circle. He slipped his hand to his side and drew his Walther P99Q as nerves rippled up his chest. His heart began to hammer a little too hard for his liking.
“Show yourself!” he said again, louder this time.
As he came back around to face the trees, his light fell on a figure directly in front of him, robed and hooded. Lehtonen cried out in surprise and began to raise his weapon, but the cowled man struck him across the wrist of his gun hand and punched him hard in the chest. As Lehtonen staggered backward, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
The safety was still on! Never in his career had he needed to draw his weapon. This was Finland, not the wild west of America or the drug-infested lawlessness of Mexico. His vision crossed and pain lanced through his ribcage. He looked down and panic flooded him as he saw the hilt of a large knife sticking out from his jacket, the blade completely buried in his body. He tried to lift his weapon again, thumb flicking at the safety, but it weighed too much. His fingers twitched at the trigger, but the mechanism was too strong for him to operate. He dropped to his knees and through his failing vision he saw a strange creation of sticks and twine in his attacker’s hand, the effigy of a man less than a foot tall.
Lehtonen tried to cry out, but only a wet gurgle emerged from his restricted throat as his punctured heart flooded his lung. The robed man stepped forward and caught the collar of Lehtonen’s jacket as he pitched forward. The last thing the Senior Constable saw before blackness swam across his eyes was the lakeshore mud sliding by as he was dragged into the darkness of the trees.
* * *
Jo Slater tossed and turned on her bunk, bone weary but unable to sleep. She was full of wine too, and that slowed her thoughts, but not sufficiently to let her drift off into blessed unconsciousness. If she was honest with herself, she was no longer worried about Dave. Now she grieved for him. He was gone. She had no proof, but equally no doubt that the man was dead. But how? Murdered by a local who stole his boat? Drowned in a freak accident? Or could he really have fallen victim to this lake monster? And if so, did that mean she owed it to him to make sure the film got finished? Or was she using a weak excuse there to justify her own desire to see this thing through. To see her continued paychecks and her chance to move on from bimbo cable host to something bigger, something more respectable. Something of which she could be genuinely proud.
She had entertained the idea that maybe Dave had fallen prey to an entirely more human monster. Maybe someone locally was using these legends of a mythical beast to get away with atrocities. It was a good cover, if a person was that way inclined. No better place to be a serial killer than in a small, isolated town where the locals expected a few people to die or disappear every year. It was a goddamned serial killer theme park. She imagined the mind-blowing exposé if she managed to reveal a culprit and blow the thing wide open. The Lake Monster Killer. Nice hook.
But she didn’t know if that was even a realistic possibility. After all, weren’t they uncovering more every day to indicate there really was some prehistoric horror here preying on the locals? And, just maybe, the idiots who came to film it.
It was all too much. The thoughts bounded in her head like a border collie on amphetamines. She needed to turn off her brain for a while. Maybe another roll with Aston would take her mind off things? She dismissed that out of hand. She wouldn’t say no to another hookup sometime in the future, but she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. Better to let things cool down for a bit.
With a sigh, she rolled off her bed and pulled on a sweater. Might as well use her insomnia productively. Everyone would be long asleep by now. She grabbed a spare t-shirt and snuck out into the belly of the boat. A tickling up her spine gave her pause for moment, the sensation that she wasn’t alone. Being watched. She held her breath and turned in a slow circle, then gasped at the shadow of someone standing not ten feet from her, motionless.
One adrenaline charged second later she realized it was a wetsuit hung on the wall next to several others. Idiot!
Sneaking up to the bridge, she paused again to look around and listen. Nothing but the quiet lapping of the lake against the hull. She peered out into the gloom. Far fewer stars this night, clouds moving in thick and low. She was no weathergirl, but it looked a little ominous to her eye. Maybe storms coming. Great.
Movement caught her eye and she turned quickly to look out across the lake toward the shore. She went to the window, squinting through the darkness. Was that something near the trees? A large bulk shifting into the deeper black? She stared for several seconds but there was nothing there, just the passing idea of a person dragging something. But the shadows shifted as the breeze moved tree branches and every time she turned her head, something else caught on the periphery of her vision like a wayward sleeve snagged on a thorny bush.
Why am I so fucking jumpy?
She went to the terminal, used the spare shirt to mask the glow like before, and logged on. When it finally booted up, she connected her external drive. As the browser loaded, a private message icon flashed by her username. With a half-smile, she clicked it.
‘All really good stuff, but we need more. Keep it coming and we might get them yet!’
Slater’s smile widened. Wait until they saw today’s footage and data. Or at least, the few encrypted snippets she was going to allow them. She quickly set the drive to uploading, nervously chewing her bottom lip as it chugged along. So damned slow, it drove her crazy. Simultaneously, she backed everything up to her personal encrypted cloud account. Once the files were sent, she replied to the message.
‘How do you like me now? :)’
With a self-satisfied chuckle, she hit Send and logged everything off. Pausing again, looking and listening carefully, she nodded. Keep those bases covered, Jo. She could imagine a bidding war soon, the way things were going. Now wouldn’t that be fun. She glanced back at the inert terminal. You’d better not fucking stiff me! she thought at her contact, half a world away. But she was pretty sure he could be trusted. As far as such things went
.
She crept back down through the sleeping boat. As she approached her cabin, she heard footsteps, and then Aston’s door opened a crack.
“Hey,” he whispered. “You all right?”
“Sure, fine. Couldn’t sleep with all the craziness that’s been going on. I thought a night time stroll might help me clear my head.”
“Did it?” It was too dark to read Aston’s face, but the question was seasoned with a dash of skepticism.
“I suppose.”
“I heard you leave a while ago. I thought about coming to check on you but figured you wanted to be alone.” The last word hung there, a subtle invitation extended.
“Yeah, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be good company right now. I’m going back to bed.”
“Good night, then.”
“Night.”
She slipped into her cabin, closing the door silently behind herself. She had no idea if she would be able to sleep, but had to at least try. Rest, even wide-eyed through the night, was the next best thing.
Chapter 21
“This is going to take forever.” Joaquin scowled at the vial of liquid he’d just drawn from the lake. “Circle the entire lake testing salinity? That’s going to take forever. I don’t know where Holloway gets these ideas.”
“He got that one from me.” Aston took pleasure at Joaquin’s embarrassed grin.
“Sorry.”
“No worries.” Aston waved off the apology. “It might not work but it’s an avenue we haven’t yet tried.” They’d covered a large section of the lake countless times and performed scans of the lakeshore and bed, but despite some tantalizing clues, they were really no closer to anything definitive. If the creature, or creatures, lived here, there should be a lair somewhere, most likely in the warren of underwater passageways, but if the creatures were actually accessing the lake from the sea, that was a different story altogether. They could have their nest anywhere. Exploring every passage one by one was out of the question, but if they could find an area of high salinity, that might point the way to the ocean, and to the creature’s favored thoroughfare.