“We need to send the VUE back in,” Aston said to Holloway. “I imagine that thing, whatever it is, can move a lot faster than our little bot, but if she holes up somewhere along the way, we might get a look at her.”
“So it’s a ‘she’ now, is it?” Slater asked.
“I didn’t get a good look, but what I saw reminds me of an ex-girlfriend.”
Slater chuckled. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.” She glanced at Carly, who held the camera trained on them both. “Are you ready?”
Carly gave a thumbs-up. “Rolling.”
Slater turned to Aston. “Can we take a look back at the image?”
“Of course.” Aston backed the video up and began to click forward. The school of fish swam by, and then the screen turned to a mottled gray. It was impossible to gauge the size of the creature, but Aston could tell it was large, maybe huge. Despite the silt and the slightly out-of-focus image, he could make out a row of teeth, then an eye. The top edge of a flipper shot past. Another flipper followed, and then a long tail tipped with a fan-like fin. And then it was gone.
“What do you think it is?” Slater was all business.
Keenly aware of the camera, Aston sat up straight. “I can’t say right off. The creature is so close to the camera that we don’t get much detail.”
“How about at the end of the clip? She seems to move away from the camera a bit.”
“We definitely get our best look at the tip of the tail. That’s the first thing we’ll try to match up.”
“What will you match it with?”
“We’ll begin with known, living creatures. If we don’t find a match, and perhaps even if we do, we’ll look at prehistoric water creatures as well.”
“How big do you think it is?”
Aston’s stomach lurched. Though he couldn’t prove it, his gut told him the thing was at least forty feet long, but he was a professional and hated to speculate without solid evidence. He swallowed hard.
“Big. Very big.”
Chapter 27
The crew hustled to get the VUE deployed again. As it hit the water with a splash, Aston ran back to the bridge and leaned over Joaquin’s shoulder to watch the big man guide the bot down into the channel. Suddenly the day seemed cool, and he realized he was shivering. Whether it was with fear or excitement he couldn’t say.
Slater came to stand beside them. She put a hand on Aston’s shoulder. “I haven’t seen you this enthusiastic since we started this expedition. At least, not during work hours.” Her cheeks reddened and she looked away.
“Well, we’ve actually seen something pretty definitive now. It’s getting harder and harder to maintain a professional scientific distance when we get video like this.” He realized he was actually entertaining the possibility they might prove the existence of a previously unknown animal.
“It is quite exciting,” Slater said, still not quite meeting his eye.
“I’m really trying to maintain an unbiased, observer’s position, but man, I want to see that thing again.” He turned to Joaquin. “Can’t we go any faster?”
“There’s no way we can catch up with it,” Joaquin said, but he turned a dial. “This is almost top speed and I’m reluctant to go any quicker and risk crashing. It’s durable, but it’s got some sensitive equipment on board.”
Aston stood back, hands clasped on top of his head. “Sure, sure.” He breathed deeply, calmed himself as he watched. Could they really have tracked a prehistoric survivor to a deep lake in Finland? It would be the scientific coup of the decade. Scratch that, of the century.
He caught Carly out of the corner of his eye as she moved behind them. They were all crowded around, an air of tense exhilaration electric in the air. As Joaquin guided the VUE, Aston stood right by with Slater beside him. Holloway, Laine and Makkonen stood in a tight line behind, all craning to see the small screen.
Aston moved over and sent the VUE’s video feed to one of the bigger monitors on the next desk. “Here.”
The VUE entered the channel, and then passed through the dark mouth of the tunnel. Joaquin triggered its lights and the narrow beams pierced clouds of particulate matter and lit the rough walls all around.
“Keep moving up and down as you travel,” Aston said. “Make sure we get to see as much of the walls as possible. We might be able to identify signs of its passage.”
“Or its meals,” Laine said quietly.
Slater glanced back at the cryptozoologist. “Its meals?”
He blushed slightly. “Sorry, I’m a little carried away. But if this is its regular route, it’s quite possible it brings any prey here to feed, no? That German’s bones were wedged in the rocks. If it’s fed recently, mightn’t it have brought its meal home? What do you American’s call it — takeout food?”
All eyes turned to Aston, like he was suddenly an expert on whatever the hell they’d glimpsed. He supposed he was the closest thing they had. “Well, it makes some sense,” he speculated. “Most creatures will use feeding grounds where they feel safe and protected if they have that chance. This might be her safe haven.”
“You think that German was dragged here?” Slater asked.
“We can’t know that. He might have found his own way there and then run afoul of the creature. Might have found this passage from another point of access we haven’t seen. I won’t speculate on anything without evidence.”
“Found his own way there?” Slater frowned, sighed. “Okay, but it’s possible he was dragged there from somewhere else?”
Aston grinned crookedly. “Yes. It’s possible.”
“What’s this?” Joaquin’s voice drew their attention back to the screens. He indicated a dark spot on the screen where a wider tunnel in the top quarter of the rock wall yawned darkly.
“We missed this before,” Slater said.
“How far in are we?” Aston asked.
Joaquin checked his readouts. “Less than a hundred yards short of our last end point. Signal is at forty-five per cent. In fact, we’re right about where we spotted those German remains.” He slowed the VUE. “Should I keep going or do you want to check out that tunnel above?”
Silence reigned for a moment. Eventually Aston turned to Holloway. “Your call, I guess.”
“Scientific opinion?” Holloway asked.
“I don’t have one. It’s equally possible the creature could have gone either way. Seeing how we haven’t investigated this second passageway, it might be worth a look.”
Holloway pursed his lips for a moment, then, “Okay, head up the new tunnel until the signal drops to forty per cent. No further.”
Joaquin nodded and worked the controls. The passage rose steeply, almost vertical at one point, for a good three hundred feet. He tapped his readouts. “Forty-two per cent signal. According to the data, we’d be about level with the lake surface now.”
As the last word left his lips, the VUE bobbed up into an air pocket. Its lights briefly swept a rough rock ceiling high overhead before the submersible tipped and righted itself. The cameras were just below the surface, the lights illuminating striations of stone and occasionally a distinct edge.
“An underwater cave?” Slater asked.
“Well, it’s a cave,” Aston said. “But like Joaquin pointed out, we’re at surface level. So the channel is underwater, but the cave is dry. Might be a hollowed-out place beneath the hills.”
“Pretty nice lair for a monster,” Holloway said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mister Aston?”
Aston smiled ruefully. “Possible. But there’s no way to tell without giving it a thorough inspection, and we can only check in person. The remote can’t get a look into all the nooks and crannies.”
The camera view suddenly swept left and turned over.