New Year Island

by Paul Draker

  “The money.” Veronica’s phone lit Mason’s face again. Her voice was as harsh as ever. “What did it say about the money?”

  “Guaranteed… I thought.” He lost his grin. “I wouldn’t have signed it, otherwise.”

  Veronica lowered her iPhone.

  Travis spoke. “Way I read it, it said as long as we don’t all manage to disqualify ourselves, one of us ten gets that five million.”

  Sounds erupted with frightening suddenness from the surrounding darkness. Animal noises. Loud yelps, barks, moans. The sounds drowned out the crash of the waves. Camilla could hear deeper rumbles, too. They echoed off the rocks—the sounds of something very large. The other contestants pressed in tighter, everyone facing outward. The noises seemed dangerously close. Then the sounds faded away again. A few last yips and groans trailed into silence.

  Now the press of tense bodies was silent, too. She could feel her fellow contestants all around her, frozen in place, listening intently. Her own eyes strained from their sockets, staring into the darkness. Oh god, this was such a mistake. Where the hell were they?

  The wind shifted direction.

  In the middle of the huddle, someone coughed. Then there was a small choking noise that ended in a stifled sob. Natalie, maybe?

  Jordan spoke for all of them. Her voice shook.

  “Oh my god. What is that fucking smell?”

  CHAPTER 19

  Near Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz, California

  Heather Stevens stood in the living room of the Swanton Drive house she shared with Jacob Horowitz and Dmitry Kuznetsov, the other two members of her research team. Heather was struggling to come to grips with what the call from Karen, their director, meant.

  “What do you mean, not going?” Jacob, the lead scientist, asked her. “As in not going today? Or not going at all?”

  Heather realized she was still holding the phone. She put it down slowly. “Karen said next season we could—”

  “Next season? No, that makes no sense.” Jacob stared at her, rubbing his beard. “It took us eight fucking months to get the grants approved for this season.” His eyes blinked rapidly behind his glasses, showing the same confusion that Heather felt. “Besides,” he said, “all our gear is already in the van, checked and loaded. How can she pull this crap at the last minute?”

  “Karen didn’t really give me a reason.”

  Jacob’s face turned red. “Two goddamn weeks a year—that’s all we ever get out there, and now we don’t even get that?”

  He slammed the lid of his laptop shut, shaking the small kitchen table. The waterproof tracking unit that he had been prepping rolled away. Heather caught it as it rolled off the edge, and put it back with the others. “Look, why don’t we take a minute to calm down?”

  “This season is different.” He walked over to the window and stared into the blackness outside. “There’s something going on out there, Heather. Out at the island. The data from the old trackers shows it clearly: a convergence pattern we’ve never seen before. No one has. It’s a completely new behavior.”

  Jacob’s jaw worked, and he pulled at the chest of his rumpled “UCSC Fighting Banana Slugs” sweatshirt. The last time Heather had seen him do that was two years ago, the night before his dissertation defense. Picking up her tea mug with both hands, she plopped down onto the couch. She looked down into the mug but found no answers there.

  “We need to call Dmitry,” she said. “He took the van this afternoon. He might already be headed to the pier.”

  “You do it,” Jacob said. “I’m thinking.”

  Heather put down her tea and spread her hands. “Look, I don’t want to make excuses for Karen. This is messed up. But I know she’s dealing with a lot of pressure from the grants committee. Maybe the funding situation is worse than we know.”

  “Like, how is that my fucking problem? Karen’s the director, not me. She’s supposed to be dealing with all that so we can concentrate on the science. What am I gonna do now, Heather? Put the study on hold until next year?”

  “You should calm down.”

  “Fuck your calm down. Let’s all go down to the Institute right now and catch her in person. She needs to tell me to my face why we’re getting thrown under the bus.”

  • • •

  A half hour later the three scientists stood in front of Karen’s office door. To Heather’s surprise, it was locked.

  “She always used to work late.” Jacob ticked a fingertip against the brass plate on the door’s glass upper panel which read, “Research Director, Santa Cruz Pelagic Institute.” “Have you seen her working late even once since she became director? Because I sure haven’t,” he said. “She didn’t return your call, either. This is such bullshit.”

  Dmitry, the third member of their team, laid a hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “She’s not here. Come, we go now, drop off van at lab. Tomorrow morning I buy you Starbucks, and we figure out what to do.”

  Heather liked Dmitry. The short, stocky Russian was a thoughtful and meticulous scientist. But with his cheery grin, he was a center of calm rationality, too. That was something their team also needed, particularly at times like this.

  “Inside every cloud is silver line,” Dmitry said. “Instead of going to island now, maybe we finish deep-water survey, then enjoy New Year’s with family, no?”

  “Listen to him, Jacob. He’s right. We’ll be able to look at this with clearer heads tomorrow.” Heather pulled out her phone. “In the meantime, I’m going to get a hold of Karen’s admin, or someone from Raja’s team. Somebody has to know what’s going on.”

  CHAPTER 20

  “I see something moving out there.”

  Lauren squinted and saw it again, flopping just at the edge of her vision: a faint gray shape in the blackness. She pointed it out to JT. “On the rocks.”

  JT’s teeth and eyes gleamed white, next to her face. “I’m gonna go check it out,” he said, and started down the dock, headed toward land.

  She stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Here, take this.”

  “Don’t want it.” He handed the cell phone back. “Mess up my night vision.”

  Lauren watched JT’s back disappear into the darkness. Several other phones lit up the small section of dock where the rest of the contestants stood. The nauseating stench came and went as the breeze shifted. It filled her sinuses, at times getting so bad it made her gag.

  The animal noises rose around them again. That deep rumble came from nearby, beneath the other sounds, like liquid gargling in a giant plastic drainpipe. Her eyes met Travis’s. His grimace showed teeth. You look pretty scared there, tough guy.

  “Seals. Sea lions. That’s what you’re hearing.” Juan’s voice, coming out of the darkness behind them, was calm.

  The beams from several phones swung in his direction, and Lauren could see him now. He stood at the edge of the dock a small distance away, his side to the rest of the group, arms crossed. He was looking down into the water.

  “If you’ve been to Fisherman’s Wharf or Pier Thirty-nine,” he said, “then you’ve heard them before.”

  She caught a flicker of amusement on Juan’s lips. Asshole was just standing there laughing at them. But she could make out individual seal yips and barks now amid the noisy din.

  “Great,” she said, disgusted. “We’re standing around terrified by a few seals.” Her voice carried loudly. “What a bunch of losers.”

  She turned and walked down the dock with forceful strides. “Let’s get going, people. Someone’s gotta be waiting for us up there, wondering why we haven’t shown up yet.” She could see only a few feet in front of her, but that was enough to find her footing on the rocky ground where the dock ended. Now, where was JT?

  A deafening roar exploded out of the darkness right in front of her. Lauren froze. Before she could react, JT came flying toward her, arms waving wild circles, running all out. His eyes were huge with fear.

  “Go!” he shouted into her face as he race
d past her.

  Lauren pivoted and sprinted after him. Another deep bellow exploded right behind her. It sounded angry. She risked a glimpse over her shoulder as she ran.

  A massive wet shape surged across the rocky ground behind her, moving with terrifying speed, rippling up and down in a violent humping motion. It reared up behind her, taller than she was, and much, much wider.

  Lauren’s belly clenched in terror. Oh Christ, what the hell was it?

  Her feet pounded onto the boards of the dock. She whipped her head around again. It was almost on top of her now, the size of a minivan, its gray hide knotted into a cauliflower mass of scar tissue. She glimpsed an eye, red-veined with rage. Then, with a sideways jerk, the beast suddenly broke off the chase. It faded back into the darkness with another chest-rattling roar.

  Lauren slowed her pace. The visible part of the dock remained empty behind her. Her heart was hammering. Her hands shook. Fucking JT! He had let that thing almost get her. She backed the rest of the way to join the others, staring fearfully at the shore.

  CHAPTER 21

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” JT was bent almost double, his hands on his knees. His chest heaved violently, breaths whistling in and out. Camilla put a hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off.

  “Christ!” Lauren looked frantically from face to face, her mouth opening and closing. “What was that thing?”

  “A seal?” Mason called to Juan. “You think?”

  To Camilla’s surprise, he was laughing.

  Lauren took two angry steps and pushed Mason hard in the chest. He stumbled back and almost fell. She glared at him for a moment, but her hands were shaking. It looked as though she didn’t trust herself to speak. Then she stalked off.

  JT straightened up and looked at Mason. “You find something about this funny, asshole?”

  Mason seemed like he was about to say something more, but Camilla quickly took his arm. “I need to talk to you,” she said.

  She led him away from JT’s angry stare. Then she put her fists on her hips and rounded on him. “What were you thinking? This isn’t a joke. There’s something dangerous out there.”

  “There might be something out there, but trust me, it’s not likely any real danger.” Mason’s voice was calm, reasonable. “Think about it. Whatever it is, they put it there deliberately, to liven things up with a little drama.”

  What he said made a lot of sense. It was even kind of obvious, in a way. Surprising that no one else had considered it.

  “Let’s tell the others, then,” she said. “We need to get everybody calmed down before someone does something dumb.”

  She started forward, but Mason gently held her back by the arm.

  Behind his glasses, his eyes twinkled. “Or we can just keep quiet instead. See how long it takes them to figure it out for themselves.”

  • • •

  “No bars. I can’t get a signal, either.” Veronica sat on the dock next to Camilla, hugging her knees to her chest. The screen of her phone lit her face from below. The others were barely visible, sitting or reclining in twos and threes scattered about the dock.

  “How about you?” Camilla turned to Jordan, sitting to her other side.

  “Me, neither. Nothing,” she said. “I’ve got Verizon. Who do you have?”

  “A T and T.”

  A few hours had gone by. After a brief debate, everyone had agreed to wait until dawn, and see what the daylight brought. No one wanted to dare the darkness beyond the dock again. They had all settled in for a lengthy wait, doing their best to get comfortable despite the cold, the stomach-churning smell, and the sporadic chorus of animal barks and grunts.

  Natalie lay on her back with her knees raised, staring at the sky. Her hands were tucked into her hoodie’s front pockets. Camilla reached out and tapped her on the foot. “Natalie?”

  Natalie jerked her foot away. “What?”

  “Does your cell phone work out here?”

  Without getting up, Natalie pulled her hand out of her hoodie pocket, holding a phone. She tilted her chin forward, peering at the screen. “Nope.”

  “What is it?”

  “An iPhone.”

  “No. I mean your carrier. A T and T, Verizon, whatever.”

  “Sprint.”

  Camilla exchanged a puzzled look with Jordan and stood up. “Hey, everybody.”

  Faces peered up at her.

  “Can anybody get a signal on their phone right now?” she asked.

  Her sense of unease grew as person after person confirmed a lack of signal across the entire spectrum of mobile carriers.

  “Let’s all save our batteries,” she said. “Turn ‘em off.”

  • • •

  Camilla lay on her side. The darkness crushed in on her from all sides, and she imagined she smelled smoke. She shivered and hugged herself. Her legs ached. She had been drowsing on and off, half asleep and half awake, for the past couple of hours. At least the cold breeze served as a constant reminder that she was out in the open, providing some relief from the claustrophobic press of the dark.

  A little distance away, she could see Juan and Mason, squatting side by side. They were talking quietly about something. What? She strained to hear what they were saying, but couldn’t. Juan’s finger moved on the dock between their heels, tracing something out for Mason. A map? She got the distinct impression that he knew exactly where they were.

  Someone dropped to the boards right next to her. It was Travis, the mechanic. Snake Eyes.

  He leaned back on his elbows beside her, staring out into the darkness in front of them. “Can’t really say this is what I expected.” He nodded to himself. “But I guess that’s all right. As long as we get our shot at that money… Camilla, right?”

  She nodded. This close to her, here in the dark, he made her uncomfortable.

  He pointed out over the water, at an angle from the dock. Camilla figured the shore lay in that direction. “Look right over there,” he said. “Give it a minute or two. Tell me if you see something.”

  She peered in that direction, seeing nothing at first. But after her eyes adjusted, she thought she detected a faint flash, barely visible. It disappeared, but then she caught sight of it again. Then another one, some distance from the first. And then a third, and a fourth. They seemed to form a line, probably along the shore.

  “What do you think they are?” she asked.

  “Can’t rightly say for sure. But I suppose I have some idea.” He paused, fingering the triangle of hair under his lip. “Because what our good buddy Julian said about this thing running twenty-four-seven stuck particularly in my mind.”

  He looked back out at the water. “Had a job few years back pumping gas at an all-night truck stop in Bakersfield. Lonely place at night. Some bad types drifting through, time to time. Year before I started there, trucks out in the lot got broke into four times. Owner couldn’t afford a security guard. So what he did, the owner, he put these cameras up around the lot. Got a break on the insurance that way. Thing was, there weren’t any lights out in the lot. Place was dark as pitch at night. So the cameras, they were infrared.”

  Camilla shifted position, putting a couple more inches between them.

  Travis pointed toward the shore. “I sometimes had occasion to go out into the lot at night,” he said. “If I happened to look directly at one of them cameras when I was passing, I’d see it flash just like that. But sorry if I’m bothering you. Just trying to be friendly.” He got up and moved away.

  Camilla looked toward the invisible shoreline. The flashes seemed sinister now, a row of eyes hidden in the darkness. The idea of large unknown animals roaming out there had been scary enough, but this was worse, somehow. It seemed purposeful, deliberate. Like something huge watching them. Biding its time. Waiting.

  • • •

  Lauren’s impatient pacing was getting on Camilla’s nerves. She yawned and pulled herself to her feet. The air was damp, chilling her skin. According to her phone, there were stil
l a couple of hours to go until dawn. Jordan lay fast asleep on the boards next to her, curled on her side with her blond hair pillowed on one arm.

  Next to Jordan, Veronica looked up. “Do you really think this will help your little orphan cause?” she asked.

  “It’ll be light soon,” Camilla said. What is your problem, lady?

  Lauren was back. “As soon as it’s light,” she said, “I’m gonna go hunt that goddamn thing down. Find out what the hell it was.” She shifted from foot to foot, shaking her arms and fingers like she was loosening them up. “Who’s with me? JT?”

  “Hell yeah. Sucker was big. Fast, too. But if it’s still around come morning, it’s gonna be one sorry motherfucker.”

  Brent laid a hand on JT’s shoulder. “I didn’t see it, but I don’t think it makes sense to go challenging some wild animal. This may be its home. What do you think it was?”

  “Don’t know.” JT shook his head. “Don’t care. Walrus maybe, some shit like that.”

  “As far as I know,” Camilla said, “walruses live up in the Arctic. Alaska, Northern Canada. Why would a walrus be down here on the California coast?”

  “Because of all that global warming shit.”

  Lauren pushed her way between them. “It wasn’t any walrus—I saw one at Marine World up in Vallejo a couple years ago. This thing was kind of similar, but different. A lot bigger and uglier.” Camilla caught a flicker of fear on Lauren’s face. “Like a goddamn dinosaur.”

  Day 2

  Saturday: December 22, 2012

  CHAPTER 22

  Dawn broke slowly. A faint rosy hue spread behind the low, oppressive cover of pewter clouds, and what lay all around them gradually took shape in the dim gray light. Camilla rubbed the chill from her arms and joined Jordan and Veronica where they stood nearby. Seagulls swirled overhead and landed on the seaweed-draped rocks that stretched away to either side of the dock. The air was noisy with their cries.