Discovered

by Chant, Daniel Marc

  By three in the morning the radio chatter had all but died and very few people were walking around. Devon stared at the monitoring readouts but didn’t really see them, falling asleep in her seat with her eyes open. Then a beep came. And another. Then another. They started to come, faster and faster. Shapes were appearing on the screens. She glanced out of the window, towards the loch and saw people rushing around along its bank. Shouts were beginning to sound and she heard the mercenaries around her starting awake and scrambling to gather their gear.

  Devon returned her attention to the monitors. There was movement on them. Many shapes, mostly the same size but still large, gathered together, swirling back and forth in formations she had never seen before. They followed behind a larger shape, so large she wasn’t sure what she was seeing at first. She looked to the lake. Plumes of water were erupting in the pattern that the shapes on the screen were swimming in. The water swirled and twisted and the faint sounds of splashing reached her ears. Everything around her faded away. There really was something in the loch, something that she had never seen before.

  She watched the movement in the water, the swirls and eddies, the water plumes that erupted from time to time. A sense of calmness filled her. The moon came out from behind the clouds, lit up the lake and brought new lake. She gasped and sat there, frozen and fixated on what she was seeing.

  Then the spotlights switched on with clicks and booms. The water lit up and dark shapes appeared beneath the surface. The beauty and magic was gone in an instant. A wail came up from the water as the plumes grew higher. It was pained, filled with suffering and Devon’s eyes filled with tears as she watched. The mercenaries shouted. A boat roared from the docks towards the lit up spot of water. A spotlight beamed out from its prow. Another wail, filled with panic came up. Devon watched, still frozen as the boat got closer and closer. Guns clicked above the roar of the boat, shouts came over the radios to prepare to fire.

  Smaller plumes surrounded the biggest. On the monitor, the smaller shapes swam around and around the large shape. The plumes came more and more often.

  “Lock on targets,” McCallum’s voice said over the radios. “Prepare to fire.”

  Devon leaned forward in her chair, eyes flicking back and forth between the shapes on the screen and the water plumes. The behaviour seemed familiar, the pattern they were swimming in stirred something in her brain. She kept watching, time seemed to slow down. She couldn’t pinpoint why she recognised the formations. Then there was a sudden surge of movement out on the loch, a dark shadow broke the surface before disappearing. It clicked.

  “There’s babies!” she screamed into a nearby radio. “Don’t fire. There are babies there. She’s protecting her young. Do. Not. Fire!”

  “FIRE!” McCallum shouted over her, drowning her warning out.

  There was a burst of gunfire, water jetted up with each pop. A shriek filled the air. Then dozens came. Devon watched from the entrance of the tent, hand at her mouth. Nausea filled her stomach. The water splashed and writhed. All she could see out there was white foam and the flash of the gun muzzles. Then there was silence. The boat engine had cut out. The water grew still. The lights remained fixed on the spot. Something slowly came to the surface, a dark shape. Then a liquid spread over the surface of the lake, something that wasn’t water. It spread like oil, dark and thick. The light caught it. It was red.

  “Oh no,” she murmured. “Oh no, no, no.”

  She rushed towards the edge of the loch but was stopped by two heavily armed mercenaries. They held her back and more joined them, creating a line between the dock and the now emerging villagers, woken from sleep by the commotion and gunfire.

  “What’s happened lass?” Arthur asked, suddenly appearing at Devon’s side. “What’s going on?”

  “There were babies,” she whispered, eyes still staring at the lake. “There were babies. She was just trying to protect them. But now they’re dead. They’re all dead.”

  Arthur gently put an arm around her shoulder and held her tightly. On her other side Helen had appeared and overheard. She gently took Devon’s hand in hers and held it tightly.

  “Divers prepare to clean up,” McCallum said over the radio again.

  Devon started, almost dropping it. After everything that had happened she had forgotten that she was still holding it.

  “I’d advise against that McCallum,” she said into the radio, her voice stronger than she expected. “Your men just killed her young. She’s going to be very, very pissed.”

  “Stay off the air!” McCallum snapped.

  Then the radio went silent. Devon stood, sandwiched between Arthur and Helen and surrounded by the villagers. They watched as a second boat moved out to join the first and dark humanoid shapes dropped into the water. Devon realised she was holding her breath as they went in and released after a few moments of nothing happening.

  There was a roar. Stark, desperate, angry. It came from somewhere deep within the lake, close to the centre. Something crested the water, a great shape that broke through the surface and sent ripples away from it. It moved towards the divers, quickly, almost too quickly to watch. There were cries on the radio. Shots were fired from the first boat. The creature reached where the divers had gone in and the water grew still again.

  Then it erupted. White plumes and sharp waves appeared as whatever was below the surface thrashed. Dark shapes, limbs and equipment flew through the air in all directions. The white water spouts and thrashing surface turned pink with blood. Screams sounded over the radio for only a few minutes. Devon watched the scene with horror. McCallum called out for reports from the divers. There were none. The water went still and McCallum kept shouting for information. The people at the dock began to talk amongst themselves, their voices low. A burst of movement on the lake again brought gasps of shock and cries of alarm.

  It was a diver, the only one left. He threw himself at the first boat and was quickly dragged up. His hand was clutching something tightly but Devon couldn’t see what it was.

  “They’re dead sir,” another voice said over the radio. “Mr. McCallum, all of the divers are dead.”

  “Get back to shore!” McCallum snapped.

  “We’ve got something sir,” the voice said. “It looks like a piece of flipper. It’s massive sir.”

  “Bring it to me,” he said. “And get me Dr. Childs.”

  “I’m on my way,” Devon said. “Get that thing on ice but do not touch it.”

  Devon looked at the loch. The blood was still on the surface, showing clearly now in the floodlights. Shapes were beginning to emerge, human arms and legs and bits of torso. The divers, or at least what remained of them. There were no signs of what had killed them.

  “Nessie’s angry now,” Arthur said. “They took her babies and she’s not happy about that.”

  “Of course she’s not,” Helen said. “She’s Scottish, there’s nothing scarier than a Scottish mother on the war path.”

  “Except a 12 foot Scottish monster mother on the war path,” Devon said. She pulled free of the two villagers. “I better go and see what they’ve found. The last thing we need is McCallum doctoring evidence or even having the chance to.”

  She turned and pushed her way back through the crowd which still hadn’t dispersed. She made her way through the camp, brushing past panicked looking mercenaries and damp soldiers. She could hear McCallum before she saw him and walked straight into the tent he was in, ignoring the men that tried to stop her.

  “You’re all idiots,” she snapped. “Give me whatever it is you found and let me go to the morgue.”

  “Watch your language Dr. Childs,” McCallum snapped. “You forget I hold your wages in my hand.”

  “You forget that I just watched you slaughter a group of innocent babies,” Devon said back. “I told you there was more than one out there and you ignored me. You should have captured it, not killed it.”

  “I gave these people my word I’d kill the monster,” McCallum said,
“and that’s exactly what I’ve done. Here’s the flipper. Figure out what it is so we can tell the media come morning.”

  “Yes sir,” she said, a sneer on her face. “Just don’t forget to mention that you fired, completely unprovoked, in full view of civilians, without even knowing what you were shooting at.”

  “Just go,” McCallum said. “I have families to contact.

  For a moment, looking at his tired, haggard face Devon almost felt sorry for McCallum.

  “Do you think half a mill will be good enough compensation?” he asked one of the other mercenaries.

  Just like that the sympathy was gone. Devon snatched the ice cooler that one of the mercenaries handed her and turned to leave.

  “Get me answers Dr. Childs,” McCallum called after her.

  She wanted to flip him the finger but her hands were still full. She settled for walking away without looking back. She kept walking and walking through the camp and out through the village. The crowds were beginning to disperse but no one had yet gone back to their homes. They watched her as she walked by but seeing her face none of them dared to approach. No one that is except Chief McIntyre.

  “What’s going on lass?” he asked. He matched step with her despite being dressed in a robe and slippers. “What happened out on the loch?”

  “They shot and killed something,” Devon said, eyes focused on the morgue. “Lots of somethings. Whatever they were, they were babies. Divers were sent in and the mother attacked. I tried to warn them but McCallum ignored me. Again. The divers were all killed apart from one. He brought this up with him. I’m going to find out what it is.”

  “Need some help Dr. Childs?” the Chief asked.

  “I can manage,” she said, “You should go back to bed. It’s going to be busy tomorrow.”

  “I doubt any of us’ll be getting some sleep after this,” McIntyre said. “If you don’t mind I’d like to watch you work. Might learn something and even if I don’t at least this way you’ve got an impartial witness overseeing everything.”

  “True,” Devon said. She reached the morgue and nodded at the Chief. “I can see McCallum trying to discredit me after what I’ve said to him. And threatened him with…. Why don’t you go and get dressed and then do me a favour and collect my laptop from my room? I think I’m going to need the help of my assistant back in England.”

  “Will she even be awake this time of night?” the Chief said in surprise. He glanced at his watch and his eyes widened. “It’s four thirty in the morning. Normal people are asleep by now.”

  “Believe me, Danny is anything but normal,” Devon said with a smile. “She’ll be up, researching or playing a game. She might even be working on her dissertation. Smaller miracles have happened before.”

  “Ok lass,” he said. “I’ll be with you in a few. I’ll send the missus over with tea and biscuits for you. You look like you could use them.”

  Devon put the bag from McCallum’s men on the table and pulled a pair of rubber gloves from the box beside her. Pulling out her Dictaphone from her bag she turned it on and set it to record before she put on the gloves. She carefully removed the tape holding the flap of the bag closed and reached inside. Her fingers felt soft cold flesh over hard bone. She pulled the object out and put it on top of the bag. Then she sat back and stared.

  “This is Doctor Devon Childs, examining the item found in the loch after McCallum’s hunt,” she said. “Object has been removed from the bag. At initial examination it appears to be a flipper of some sort, from a large aquatic creature, possibly reptile in origin.”

  She carefully picked the flipper up and turned it around, examining each and every inch with her eyes. The entire time she kept narrating for the Dictaphone. It was a large flipper but showed none of the wear and tear associated with an animal of that size. There were no old injuries or scratches on the scaled surface. In fact, the flipper appeared to be almost pristine and the skin was still soft and relatively clear.

  “There are no parasites or algae attached to the skin of the flipper,” she said. “Nothing to indicate that the flipper or the creature it belonged to were in the water for the amount of time usually associated with a creature of this size. I would expect it to have substantial residue on the skin if it were of any particular age. Most animals in water have some form of parasite or algae within their skin by the time they get to be the age usually expected to have a flipper of this size. I am seeing nothing.”

  She put it down and sighed. She wiped her head with the back of her hand and looked up as the Police Chief returned to the room with her laptop. He set it up for her on the table in front of her and took a seat beside her. He looked at the flipper and put on a pair of gloves of his own. Devon allowed him to handle the flipper, sure that he would be careful with it, his profession making him used to handling delicate items with care. He wouldn’t contaminate anything, handling evidence over the years would have made sure of that. While Chief McIntyre examined the flipper, Devon called Danny.

  “Doc,” Danny cried as soon as she answered. “Are you ok? That thing at the loch is all over the news!”

  “I’m fine Danny,” Devon said, “I’m here with Chief McIntyre, we’re examining something the special forces guys pulled out of the water.”

  “What happened up there?” she asked, “The news sites are going crazy, the crypto sites are going mad. Everyone’s saying it was the Loch Ness Monster.”

  “It was,” Devon said. “She appeared and the soldiers opened fire. Danny…. She had babies with her.”

  “Oh…” Danny said. “Oh my god. Did you get a good look at them? Do you know what species they are?”

  “I don’t know,” Devon said. She sighed. “It all happened so fast. One minute they were all breathing up near the surface and the next the soldiers just opened fire at anything that moved out there.”

  “They got away though right?” she asked quickly, “Nessie and the babies were ok?”

  “No,” Devon said. She wiped away tears that were beginning to fall. “No Danny girl, they didn’t get away. I think Nessie did but her babies… they weren’t so lucky. They were wiped out.”

  “Oh my god,” Danny said. Devon watched as she raised a shaking hand to her mouth. “Oh Devon… I’m so sorry.”

  “I know,” Devon said. “It was horrible. I tried to warn them, to alert them but nobody listened. McCallum gave the shoot order right over the top of me. Danny, it was a bloodbath.”

  “Oh no.” Danny said. “Oh Devon. What… how…?”

  “Nessie didn’t take it well,” Devon continued, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “They sent in a dive team to do a sweep, ten men in all. Only one came back out.”

  “Good for her,” Danny said, sounding fierce and ferocious. “What kind of operation is McCallum running up there?! Doesn’t he need permits or licenses to hunt something in the water like that? Can he even do that legally?”

  “He’s got all the paperwork lassie,” Chief McIntyre said, putting down the flipper at last. “Everything he’s shown says he’s allowed to do it. And even if it didn’t I doubt that’d stop him. People are scared, men have died. Everyone wants answers and this thing stopped. The mayor would probably let him get away with murder if it stopped any more deaths from happening.”

  “Well that’s exactly what happened,” Devon snapped. “But there was one thing. Danny, they pulled this out of the water,” she held up the flipper. “I’m going to attach the camera to the computer and send a live recording to you. I want you to record it and then get in touch with some marine biologists with a few stills from it. I want to know what kind of creature this comes from.”

  “Will do boss lady,” Danny said. “Is that from Nessie?”

  “I don’t think so,” Devon said, putting the flipper back down. “It’s not big enough to match the size of the thing I saw going for the divers. It’s massive, sure, but it just… it doesn’t seem to fit with the size of the creature I saw or the amount of time Nessie’s
apparently been in the loch. It’s got none of the usual weathering or time markers you’d expect on the flipper of an animal this size. It’d take years to grow this big, decades even.”

  “Maybe for the ones we know about,” Danny pointed out, “but if you’re going for the obvious… maybe they were really big babies…”

  Devon froze and stared at the computer screen.

  “Danny, you’re a genius!” she cried out.

  She scrambled around for her paperwork and all of the readings that she had so far. Printouts from sonars, snapshots of the hunt that had been taken and printed by automatic cameras she’d set up.

  “Does this mean I get a raise?” Danny asked. “I have had my eye on a new flat.”

  “Danny if this is right we’ll all be getting raises,” Devon said. She didn’t look up from her paperwork, flipping through sheet after sheet and spread them out on the table beside her. Then she took a closer look at the flipper. “Yes, I thought so. Danny, I’m sending you over digital files of all the readouts I’ve gathered so far.”

  “Right Boss,” Danny said. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Send them over to Dr. Edwards in archaeology,” Devon ordered. “Get him and his wife to look at them and give their opinion.”

  “But Dr. Edwards’ wife is a paleontologist,” Danny said. “What good is she- … oh! Oh! Oh oh! Seriously boss lady?! Seriously?”

  “I think so,” Devon said. “Make sure you get a copy of the flipper image to them as well. If I’m right then they’ll have a better idea than Professor Cooper of what we’re dealing with.”

  “Right-o,” Danny said. “Do you need me to send you any of Edwards’ articles?”

  “Yes,” Devon said, “that would be best.”

  Devon ended the call as Danny disappeared to get to work. She turned to Chief McIntyre with a wide smile on her face. He just looked between her, the computer and the flipper with a lost and confused look on his face. Her smile softened to one of understanding.