KRONOS RISING: After 65 million years, the world's greatest predator is back.

by Max Hawthorne

  “I’m sorry for that interruption, senator,” Von Freiling said, grinning broadly. “Boys will be boys. So, you were saying–”

  Harcourt pointed impatiently back at the diagram. “I asked you the name of the place where you expect to find the creature.”

  “Ophion’s Deep,” Von Freiling said.

  “What exactly is that?”

  “It’s a Cretaceous-era submarine canyon – a crack in the ocean floor – appropriately named after the god Ophion. It starts in the Straits of Florida, and carves its way some two hundred kilometers along Florida’s continental rise, terminating in this vicinity.”

  “The god Ophion?”

  Von Freiling smiled. “A mythical marine giant – and the original Lord of the Titans in Greek mythology. He was overthrown by his son, the Titan Kronos, who hurled him from the top of Mount Olympus, to crash into the waters Oceanus, far below. Ophion means ‘the serpent,’ ironically enough.”

  “I see. And this ‘Ophion’s Deep,’ as you call it; you’re confident the creature does its hunting down there?”

  “Yes, I am. The entire region is nutrient rich, fed by the warm waters of the Florida Current, which run through the Straits of Florida. The deep is home to a fairly dense population of giant squid, and it’s frequented by the sperm whales that hunt them.”

  “But, if it’s such a great hunting spot, why has the pliosaur been roaming the waters outside Paradise Cove?” Amara interjected.

  As he watched her attempt at misdirection, Jake remembered Amara’s tale from a few days prior . . . how the pliosaur had risen from the nearby abyss, frightening a pod of whales. Then there was the decomposing body of the bull sperm they found in the same area – the one attacked by the creature. Von Freiling was right about the pliosaur’s localized hunting, and Amara knew it.

  It was a wasted effort, Jake thought. When it came to hunting, her husband was obviously very good.

  “It’s a super-predator, darling, just like me.” Von Freiling smirked. “It’s undoubtedly got a huge hunting territory, one covering fifty square miles or more. But I’m betting that its home base – if you’d like to call it that – is right about . . . here.” He smacked the marker’s point down hard, directly on the Cutlass.

  “Fair enough,” Harcourt said. “I’ll buy that. What’s your attack strategy?”

  “We bait it to the surface,” Von Freiling said, speaking directly to his employer. “It’s an air breather, so it shouldn’t be hard.”

  “Bait it with what?”

  Jake felt a sudden ping of nervousness vibrate down his spine.

  “Let’s just say we’ve brought something with us that should be to the creature’s liking,” Von Freiling replied. “Don’t worry, senator. We’ll get a rise out of your monster.”

  Amara leaned toward Jake and Willie. “You know,” she whispered. “For a fat politician who’s used to sitting behind a desk and hiding behind bodyguards, this guy certainly seems to have Karl and his wolf pack eating out of his proverbial claw.”

  “Nature teaches beasts to know their friends,” Willie murmured back. “Coriolanus.”

  Amara nodded. Her eyes met Jake’s eyes and she gave him a pensive half-smile, then turned back to the discussion at hand.

  “We can also use this,” Stitches said, nodding at Willie. He pulled a recording disc out of his pocket. “It’s a recording of sperm whales being attacked by orcas. Mr. Daniels was kind enough to give me a tour of the ship’s collection of audio recordings. I dampened the orca calls, so all that’s left are the sounds of the sperms and their young. If we broadcast it over the hydrophone array it’ll add auditory appeal to our bait.”

  Von Freiling grinned as he accepted the disc. “Alright, we’ll give it a go. It certainly can’t hurt.”

  Jake glanced at Amara, clocking the cool look she was giving her second-in-command.

  “How exactly do you plan on subduing the monster?” Harcourt breathed, his cigar clenched in his teeth. “Once you’ve got it in your sights, that is.”

  “If we’re successful in drawing it to the surface, we’ll deal with it using conventional means.” Von Freiling looked meaningfully at his men. “It’s by far the safest way to go. However, if we fail, or if we miss our mark and it sounds, we’ll have to fight it in the water.”

  Amara cleared her throat. “You know, if you do get it to the surface, we have a spear gun onboard that’s loaded with some serious whale tranquilizers.”

  Her impromptu announcement instantly garnered everyone’s attention, especially Von Freiling’s.

  “Hey, I’m just trying to help,” she offered. “I don’t know if you’ve brought any sedatives with you, but a heavy dose of Cetaprol-50 might do the job.”

  Von Freiling glanced at Harcourt, then gave Amara an indecipherable stare. “Sure,” he said. “I’ve used it before. It could slow it down a bit. Thanks for the offer. We’ll take you up on it.”

  “I’m still curious about the intricacies of your plan.” Harcourt stared at his hired gun. “If you do go into the water to fight the creature, how do you plan on doing it? I doubt you and your men have any experience at this sort of thing.”

  “I think it’s safe to say no one in the world’s ever taken on a Kronosaurus before.” Von Freiling chuckled. “They’ve been extinct for sixty-five million years, which makes it all the more exciting for us. However, our strategy will be the same as it would be, were we hunting any other creature of its type. Other than sheer size, it’s still just a predator, and a predictably nasty and territorial one.”

  “You still haven’t answered my question,” Harcourt said. He dropped the remnants of his cigar on the floor and crushed it out with his heel.

  “We’re gonna do the old ‘bait and switch’ routine,” Von Freiling stated, stroking his black mustache. “We’ll use one of the Eurypterids as bait, make it wobble around a bit to feign an injury, and draw the beastie out in the open. Then, we’ll use the second sub to blindside it.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Yep, that’s the plan,” Von Freiling said amusedly. “I’m sure we . . .” The merc’s leader paused as an interference-laden transmission screeched out of his radio. He held up a hand for silence and held the unit by his ear.

  “This is Karl, I missed what you said, Barnes. Please repeat.”

  A harsh shriek of garbled sound hissed out of the radio.

  “We’ve reached . . . initial coordinates, sir.” Barnes’s charged voice could barely be heard. “I’m . . . shift into . . . current and lower . . . anchors.”

  “Excellent. Let me know when we’re good to go.”

  Jake detected a subtle change in the feeling of the ship as the Harbinger began to decelerate in the water. Soon, everyone in the room could feel the vibration of the ship’s straining diesels, as her pilot maneuvered her nose-first into the fast-moving current adjacent to Ophion’s Deep.

  A moment later, the ship released its anchors. There was a series of lurching sensations as they caught hold, their chains creaking as they held the two-hundred foot vessel taut against the afternoon tide.

  “Okay men, we’ll be operational in a moment.” Von Freiling turned to Harcourt. “I’m sorry senator, we’re going to have to continue our conversation later. For now, you’re going to have to trust me.”

  He folded his arms. “Gentlemen, I want this thing to go smooth and by the numbers. Your assignments are as follows: Stubbs, you and Markov put out the bait. Take Diaz and Barker with you. Let’s see if we can convince our dinner guest to show up while there’s still light out.”

  “Yes, sir,” Stubbs said.

  “Stitches.” Von Freiling tossed him back the disc he handed him. “Get this playing on the ship’s hydrophone. I want you manning the sonar station until we’ve launched. I don’t want this critter sneaking up on us while we’ve got our asses half out of the water. Also, this ship’s got some good underwater cameras, so let’s take advantage of those. After Stubbs has got the bait out
he’ll relieve you, so you and Gibson can prep Eurypterid II for launch.”

  Stitches caught the disc. “What about you, sir?”

  Von Freiling looked up as Barnes walked into the room, then turned back. “Barnes and I will be launching right after you on Eurypterid I,” he said. “Oh, and before I forget, Stitches . . . you get to be the bait.”

  “Gee, thanks. That’s wonderful, sir.”

  Jake watched him shake his head as he walked away. Stitches was obviously a little less enthusiastic than his colleagues.

  Von Freiling focused on the pale-skinned giant standing a few feet away. “Johnson, you’ll continue to keep our illustrious benefactor company.” He gave a polite nod in Harcourt’s direction. “You’re to also keep an eye on things onboard while we’re in the water.”

  Johnson said nothing, just dipped his huge head in what might have been a nod, then stood there like a seven-foot ivory statue. Jake was starting to wonder if the senator’s polar bear bodyguard was mute as well as melanin deficient.

  “What about us?” Amara indicated Willie and herself.

  “Well, now, you’ll be a darling if you go and fetch me that big spear gun you bragged about,” Von Freiling said. “Other than that, I’d appreciate it if you two and our worrywart of a sheriff stay out of the way. I’d hate for something to go wrong once the action starts and one of you get hurt.”

  Jake exchanged glances with Amara.

  “Alright people, you have your assignments,” Von Freiling said. “We’re anchored and good to go. Let’s go make some money and go home!”

  The observation room shuddered as the mercenaries raised their fists, cheering like barbarians before they bolted headlong out of the room. As he followed Willie and Amara out, Jake noticed Harcourt lagging behind. The stocky politician gestured for Von Freiling, leaned over and whispered in his ear. Though the angle prevented him from discerning what was being said, it was obvious the senator had his hired gun’s undivided attention.

  Jake hesitated. He was sorely tempted to lag behind and eavesdrop, but before he could make up his mind, Dean Harcourt’s colossus of a bodyguard appeared in the doorway. Glaring malevolently down at him, Johnson slammed the heavy metal door shut in his face.

  CRETACEOUS OCEAN

  65 MILLION YEARS AGO

  The big male was in a rage.

  Moments prior, with the competition between himself and the one-eyed bull approaching its inevitable climax, an interloper unexpectedly interfered. The culprit, a fourteen-foot sea turtle known as Archelon, stumbled unwittingly into his path. Caught in the female pliosaur’s route, the frightened creature tried desperately to flee. Unable to escape in time, it was bowled over by the giant cow.

  Trapped in the vortex of her powerful wake, the chelonian whirled helplessly out of control, spinning beak over tail. By the time it righted itself and began struggling for the surface, the big bull pliosaur crashed into it with stunning force.

  With his progress momentarily thwarted by the bone-jarring impact with the six-ton Archelon, the frustrated male pliosaur watched powerlessly as the third remaining jack, a powerful beast nearly his size with tiger-like stripes, flew right past him. Already foul-tempered from hormones brought on by the rut, the big bull brought his mighty jaws to bear on the hapless sea turtle.

  Shearing through the Archelon’s protective shell like it was an egg, the dominant male eviscerated the smaller reptile with a single bite. Disdainfully spitting out the source of his irritation, he shook his huge head back and forth, then snarled and charged after the other jacks with a vengeance, leaving the dying Archelon to sink slowly into the depths. Jagged pieces of turtle shell and flesh clung to his teeth and spun from his jaws as he raced forward.

  The pliosaur queen spouted. Like the whales that would one day replace her kind, twin funnels of compressed water vapor exploded from her nostrils to a height of over twenty feet. With a quick inhalation, she closed her watertight nostril flaps and prepared to continue her mating chase.

  Overhead, the sky was a virtual inferno, as a second sun, many times brighter and fierier, blazed across the heavens at inconceivable speed. Her scarlet eyes, with their pinprick black pupils, reflected the fireball’s deadly descent. Sensing the powerful displacement wave of the approaching jacks, the bright distraction was quickly forgotten.

  With a loud hiss, the female dove beneath the waves and sped on.

  Topping out at over fifty miles an hour, the big bull quickly caught up to the remaining two males. He could see his rivals only a hundred yards ahead, the one-eyed male and the striped bull, violently jostling each other as they vied for position behind the queen. The big male was in a rage. His blood pounded in his brain and he saw the world through a ruby-red curtain. In that one critical moment, the normal rules of mating competition were completely forgotten.

  With an extra burst of power from his giant flippers, he positioned himself directly behind the older male. His deadly jaws agape and razor sharp teeth poised, he prepared to attack his rival’s exposed haunch, incapacitating the older bull and taking him out of the fight.

  He moved to strike. Then he was blinded.

  Five hundred miles away, the asteroid struck with indescribable force. The shock of the collision reverberated throughout the planet’s core, starting earthquakes and tsunamis, and setting off volcanoes across the globe. On impact, the blast gouged out a gigantic crater measuring one hundred and ninety miles across, and emitted a blinding burst of light that blazed with the fury of a thousand suns. The entire asteroid was instantly vaporized, along with trillions of tons of water, earth and stone, and reformed into a continent-sized cloud of silicate metal vapor with a temperature that could melt copper.

  Within moments, the white-hot cloud encompassed most of what would one day be North America, as well as large portions of South America and Eurasia, broiling to death every living creature it encountered. Reptiles, mammals, insects and plants perished on contact. Nothing was spared. On land, dinosaurs died screeching by the millions.

  Accompanying this cloud, and devastating whatever areas the deadly vapors failed to permeate, was the shock wave brought about by the blast. In an instant, every creature in the air, from the smallest pterodactyl to the largest flying giant, was swatted from the skies. Helplessly they fell. Battered and broken, they crashed to the earth or plummeted into the sea. The shock wave shattered stone, started avalanches, and knocked down trees, bowling over and battering the largest of creatures.

  Next came the inevitable inferno. Thousands of cubic miles of red-hot debris expelled from the impact zone mushroomed over forty miles straight up into the atmosphere. Carried by the prevailing winds, the glowing embers spread like lethal fireflies across the globe.

  Gently drifting back to earth, the shimmering particles started forest fires wherever they landed. Within a matter of hours, most of the remaining planet was in flames.

  Still reeling from the shockwave, the four pliosaurs milled aimlessly about on the surface. From over five hundred miles away they watched, mesmerized, as doomsday unfolded. The skies grew dark and foreboding, and the surface of the water was dotted with the bodies of flying reptiles and other smaller creatures.

  The pliosaurs had survived the blast, though not unscathed. Several of them, including the big bull, suffered ruptured eardrums. Dark blood oozed from their tympanum canals as they lay, dizzy and disoriented. To their good fortune, the flash blindness was only temporary; the murky waters shielded them from the full strength of the burst.

  Keeping close to the giant female, the three jacks drifted along, their conflict temporarily forgotten. The mating impulse was interrupted for the moment, though it was far from gone. Uncertain how to proceed, the great sea beasts watched as the awesome spectacle unfolded. A mushroom cloud of debris and vapor rose high into the sky, spreading rapidly.

  All around them, panic-stricken sea creatures fled, heedlessly splashing over the bodies of the dead as they went. Among them were the three Tylo
saurus the big male routed earlier and a forty-nine foot elasmosaur – two thirds of its length made up of a serpentine neck – that paddled right past the giant female’s toothy muzzle. With the cow distracted by the devastation going on, the delicate fish eater sped by unmolested.

  A short while later, glowing bits of debris began to fall around them, splashing into the water with a loud hiss. Some of the particles struck the pliosaurs, singeing their thick hides. The marine reptiles shook off the burning embers with low rumbles of irritation, submerging just below the surface when the fiery downpour became too great. Their huge size and strength had saved them from the shock-wave. They would weather the falling fire as well. Lords of the oceans, there was nothing they could not withstand.

  Then they saw the wave.

  The tsunami had started over five hundred miles away, formed as the asteroid struck the coastline, displacing thousands of cubic miles of earth and ocean. Traveling at over eleven hundred miles an hour, it crossed the Abyssal plains with frightening speed. Its power only temporarily diffused and concealed by the water’s depth, it began to grow geometrically as it reached the shallower waters of the continental shelf. In six thousand feet of water, the tidal wave measured only thirty feet in height. Now, in six hundred feet, it was three hundred feet tall. By the time it reached the coastline, it would measure three thousand feet or more.

  With hurricane-force winds and a deafening roar heralding its approach, the wave loomed in the distance.

  TWENTY-TWO

  His thoughts to himself, Jake accompanied Amara and Willie onto the Harbinger’s sunlit decks, leaving Karl Von Freiling and his men behind. As he donned his sunglasses, he cast a sideways glance at the marine biologist. Tension overshadowed her exotic features; her body language seemed off, and she was uncharacteristically quiet.

  All of a sudden, Amara sucked in a huge breath through flared nostrils. She wheeled on Willie, her pale eyes shimmering. “What the hell were you thinking, giving them that disc?”