Craig shook his head, eyeing the once-lively eyes, now sealed closed in death. He pivoted, leaned into the bloody red stump, and studied what looked like… vertical lines, from whatever had severed the body. He tried to count them. This wasn’t easy, but there appeared to be a dozen, each as wide as a human hand. They were teeth marks. Made by much larger versions of the fat S-shaped canines they’d found earlier, perhaps the size of champagne bottles. He took a few steps and studied the carcass from another angle. It was covered with smaller bites, gaping red chunks the size of footballs. Craig couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This was proof, and it was unambiguous. “My God, Jason, these rays are predators.”
Jason felt numb. “So… they’ve been feeding on dolphins all this time?”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Why?”
“You haven’t heard what the USDS has been saying?” The USDS is the United States Dolphin Society, a conservation group out of Monterey that monitors the migratory habits of bottlenoses in the Northern Pacific.
“No. What have they been saying?”
“That California’s bottlenose population has been swimming south to Brazil and Chile for two years. York says to escape GDV-4. So these rays can’t be feeding on dolphins, at least not regularly.”
“So what are they eating, then?”
“I have no idea. I’m just wondering why they didn’t eat this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why didn’t the rays eat this dolphin? They attacked it, they killed it, why didn’t they eat it?”
Jason shook his head.
“Wait a second….” Summers’s eyes sharpened. “I bet this animal has GDV-4.”
“You think?….” Jason picked up a wall phone without a dialing mechanism. “Gavin, did your lab people do any tests on this specimen?” He hung up and Bell instantly brought in a manila file and left.
Summers tore into it and pointed. “Look… ‘tested positive for GDV-4’… ‘only recently entered the bloodstream’… Sounds like a mild case.”
Jason read the words himself. “So they detected a mild case in a living animal.”
“And they caught a dolphin. They caught and killed a frickin’ dolphin. How is that possible?”
Jason looked at the ceiling, clueless. Slow-swimming rays didn’t possess the physical equipment to catch speedy dolphins. The land equivalent was like a turtle catching a cheetah. It wasn’t possible. And yet it had happened. How? He considered it for several silent moments. And then the answer hit him.
“There’s only one way—there’s only one possible way.”
“What?”
“They must have outsmarted it.”
Craig absorbed this. The rays were more than just predators. Somehow they’d outsmarted what many believed to be the most intelligent wild animal on the planet. “How on God’s earth did they outsmart a dolphin?”
Jason looked up at the ceiling again. “I know. My God, I think I know.”
CHAPTER 24
“WE NEED to find a brain, a physical brain.”
It was night, and Craig and Jason had just returned to the boat. The Monterey marina was deserted now except for a lone patrolling security guard. Beneath the pale yellow light from the dock’s streetlamps, everyone was on the rear deck, dressed casually, seated on the built-ins or freestanding chairs. The others had just finished a dinner of burgers, grilled chicken, and sides.
As Craig went below deck to change out of his khakis, Lisa shook her head at Jason, not getting the logic. “You’ve seen millions of manta brains, haven’t you?”
“Manta brains, yes. But these animals are not manta rays, Lisa. They’ve got to be much smarter than that.”
“Meaning they’ll have larger brains?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I want to see one.”
Monique nodded. “That’s a fascinating idea, Jason. But how would we do it? It’s clear now that these rays are hiding, and we haven’t even seen one yet.”
“Not a living one anyway.”
A pause. “Are you saying we can find dead one?”
“Yes.”
Lisa turned to Jason skeptically. “How the hell are we going to do that?”
As Craig emerged from below deck in a white terry robe, Jason smiled at Lisa Barton, for the first time noticing what she was wearing: tight jeans and a yellow shirt with a lower-than-average neckline. Her head was jutted forward, and the chip on her shoulder was almost as big as the quarter moon hanging over the docks.
“I like that optimistic nature of yours, Lisa. It’s kind of sweet.”
She reddened slightly, suddenly aware that she was leaning forward. She didn’t know why she’d worn her sexy jeans tonight.
Jason smiled, more to himself, happy he could stick her a little. “Tell her how we’re going to find a dead one, Craig.”
Craig took a step forward. “GDV-4.”
She turned. “What?”
“We know GDV-4’s been forcing these rays out of the depths, right?”
“Right.”
“But it must have killed a bunch of them, too.”
“OK, so…”
“So maybe we can find a dead one.”
“How do you figure that? You know how quickly the ocean’s food chain works, Craig. We wouldn’t find more than a skeleton.”
Normally, when an animal dies at sea, its entire body—skin, muscle, fat, liver, brain, even eyeballs—is eaten and digested with great efficiency. The feast takes place in three phases. First, the largest of the scavengers eats large chunks of meat and muscle. Second, smaller animals eat the bulk of the insides, including the major internal organs. Finally, the vermin, the tiniest of the flesh eaters, pick the bones clean. Nothing is left to waste, and within forty-eight hours, skeletons are all that remains.
Monique’s eyes shifted to Craig. “I don’t get that logic either.”
“Let me explain it, then. This isn’t just a normal dead body. If GDV-4 did actually kill it, then nothing will even touch it, much less eat it. The virus would actually serve the beneficial purpose of preserving the body.”
Monique smiled. “That’s very clever. You think it will work?”
“Jason figures there’s gotta be at least one body down there, and I’m inclined to agree.”
Darryl turned. “How deep are we talking, Craig?”
“A couple thousand feet.”
“A couple thousand? How are we gonna get to that? Will Ackerman pay for that?” The cost of renting the necessary equipment could easily be ten times their combined salaries.
“I get the feeling Ackerman’s financial situation is getting worse, so I’d prefer not to lean on him here.” Jason shrugged. “We might not need to.”
“You know someone who’s got the equipment?”
“I’ve got to check. What’s up with the kelp trail, Darryl?”
“We can’t find it.”
The starkness of the answer knocked a blank stare onto Jason’s face. “We’ve got to find it. If we don’t… we could be in real trouble.”
“Then we’re in real trouble,” Lisa said.
“What? Why do you say that?”
“Because the kelp trail’s probably gone, Jason.”
“Why would it be gone?”
“Because these rays have got to be finished teething by now.”