“Whoa! What are you doing?” Holloway shouted.
Joaquin lifted both hands, palm up to show he wasn’t operating any controls. “It’s not me. Something hit us!”
“Follow it!” Aston yelled, adrenaline rushing into his blood.
Joaquin hunched quickly over his controls and regained mastery of the VUE. He turned it back down into the tunnel and accelerated full speed. As they rounded a shallow curve and the way dipped to the vertical drop, the lights picked out a wide sweep of dark green flank and a tall sail of webbed fin.
“It’s the beast!” Holloway cried. “It’s really her!”
Joaquin frowned in concentration, pushing the VUE to maximum power and guiding it down into the murk. It burst back into the main channel, its lights reflecting off silt and grit stirred up in the creature’s wake. Joaquin leaned back in his chair, hauling the remote into the air as if his own physical movement could prevent the VUE from slamming into the rock floor. The image swerved wildly, then he had control again. He breathed out heavily.
“It’s heading away,” Aston said. “Toward the ocean, maybe.”
“I hope we haven’t driven her away with our poking around. Follow her!” Holloway said.
“The signal is down to forty-one per cent,” Joaquin said.
“The signal be damned, man!” the billionaire shouted. “Stay on her tail. Literally.”
The tunnel shot by, angles of rock slipping dangerously close to the expensive submersible, but Joaquin guided it with skill, his tongue playing at one corner of his mouth.
“Did you play a lot of video games as a kid?” Aston asked.
Joaquin grinned. “Still do.”
“There!” Slater said, voice high with excitement.
A sweep of tail, another illuminated swathe of flank, and several tall, bony spines. The creature dived past a shoulder of rock and the passage dipped steeply, then levelled out and rose again. The VUE kept pace, its small size adding advantage to the race as the creature had to navigate more carefully. Then the submersible began to gain on it.
Aston watched the rock, trying to get comparative distances by eye. As the creature turned another slight curve they saw more of its side. A large, wide fin struck out against the water on one side, driving the creature along.
“Is that a pectoral fin?” Holloway asked.
Aston shook his head. “There was a lot more body in front of that limb. It was a paddle, a hindfin. The forefins are likely longer and narrower.”
“Are you saying it has four limbs?” Slater asked.
“Of a sort. Precursors to limbs, anyway. It can maybe move on land a small amount, like a mudskipper fish.”
“We know it comes ashore,” Laine said. “We’ve seen the wallows.” His voice was tight.
The beast swept over another ridge of rock and disappeared into shadow. The VUE dropped quickly back, then tipped and sank to the rock floor.
“After it!” Holloway said.
Joaquin sat back with a sigh. “Signal lost. Sorry, boss. She’s dead in the water.” He hung his head and gazed down at the now useless controller.
Holloway kicked over a chair. “Damn it all to hell! We were so close.”
“Don’t be so despondent,” Aston said. “We just learned a lot! And all that footage is recorded.”
Holloway perked up at that. “I think we just captured more quality footage in a few minutes than every Nessie researcher in history combined.” He turned and challenged Aston with a condescending smile. “So, what’s your professional opinion on the likelihood of an undiscovered creature living in the lake?”
Aston grinned ruefully, well aware of Carly filming everything that had happened. His mind swam with thoughts of what they had witnessed. It was incredible, almost unbelievable, but he’d seen it with his own eyes. “That was pretty convincing.”
“If it does have fore and hindfins like you suggest,” Slater said, “does that give you any better idea what it is?”
Aston nodded, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck. “It does, but it makes no sense.”
“Don’t keep us in suspense. Spit it out.” The ghost of a smile still played across Holloway’s face, but his eyes flashed, excitement and frustration battling inside him.
Aston looked at the billionaire for a moment, wondering how dangerous he might become if his frustrations grew too great. “Okay, this is still speculation,” Aston said. “But it’s based on better evidence now. We still need to know a lot more, but from what we saw there, this looks like some kind of… I don’t know, this isn’t my field really. I’m not a paleontologist. But maybe some kind of liopleurodon, basilosaurus, kronosaurus, hainosaurus. Hell, I don’t know! I’m crawling back into my university studies just to remember these species. These things are all dead, extinct for millions of years!”
“Clearly not,” Laine said quietly. “At least one survives here.”
Aston let out a long, slow breath and nodded. “So it would seem.”
“And the size?” Holloway asked, slightly calmer than before, his face a mask of smug triumph.
Aston wished he could have avoided naming anything that might make the billionaire look that way, but the evidence was undeniable. “Hard to be accurate. But based on what we just watched, at least fifty foot. Maybe more.” The idea was mind-boggling.
Holloway clapped his hands. “Haha! Superb!”
Slater turned away from the screens. “So what now?”
“Now we dive!” Holloway said.
She cocked her head. “Really? You weren’t so eager to send us in before, but now that we know there’s something there that might eat us for lunch, you’re okay with it?”
“Of course. If nothing else, to recover the VUE. But also to investigate that cave we found earlier. The creature was in there. Imagine what we might learn.”
“We might learn we’re its next bloody meal,” Aston said.
Holloway turned a crooked grin to him. “We have no evidence to prove it eats people. But you’re willing to risk it, aren’t you? Deep down, you need to know, don’t you?”
Aston sighed, and then nodded. He hated to admit it, but the crazy bastard was right. Who’s really the crazy one?
“It’s going to have to be soon.” Joaquin had moved to another station and pointed at the meteorological data. “Bad weather is coming.”
“How long?” Holloway asked.
“It’s going to get grim and rough out here over the next twenty-four hours or so, I’d guess. But we’ll definitely be feeling the forces of storms within forty-eight.”
“It’s getting late,” Aston said. “Let’s get prepped and I’ll go in first thing tomorrow morning.”
Chapter 28
Aston rose at dawn, unable to sleep any longer. He had spent several hours organizing his gear the night before, and then fallen into bed early. His trepidation about the dive was offset by his excitement to learn more. This venture could end up becoming his retirement fund. Apart from Holloway’s payment to get out from under Chang’s hammer, this was the kind of scientific find that could keep him not only in scientific papers, but also talking tours for years, commanding huge appearance fees. Now that was a life he could enjoy. He knew he was being a bit optimistic, but it was all possible. All very real.
As he checked his gear again, he realized another set of SCUBA was prepped beside his. A third locker stood empty. Where had that gear gone? Slater’s voice distracted him.
“I’m coming along with you. No arguments.”
Aston turned to find her in the doorway, grinning at him. “Seriously?”
She nodded and held up one hand. “I am, and don’t bother raising any objections. It’s a two-person job. I’ll carry the underwater camera to make sure we get all the footage possible. You’ll have to bring back the VUE.”