Sam rifled through five different cupboards until he found what he was after. He opened the can of dog food and placed it in a bowl for Caliburn.
The dog watched him, and licked his lips.
Sam poured some water in a bowl and placed it next to the food.
Caliburn sat upright and barked.
Sam said, “You don’t have to ask permission. Go on, eat!”
The retriever didn’t need to be told twice.
Guinevere found some frozen food in the fridge and unceremoniously dumped it in the microwave. It was a type of lasagna. More than they could eat together. Sam parked the T-Bird in the garage and shut the roller door so that it wouldn’t be spotted by any passersby. When he returned to the kitchen, the sight of the melted cheese made Sam salivate. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until then. They ate it out of the packaging. His mother would have killed him for being lazy, but he justified it on the grounds that it was bad enough that he was eating his friend’s food, no reason to use his plates.
Sam watched Caliburn curl up on the couch, getting ready for sleep. He came and sat next to the dog, running his fingers through the dog’s thick golden mane. Caliburn nestled in as though to request more of a pat.
Sam stopped. “Now Caliburn, we need to talk.”
The dog sat upright and mewled.
Sam said, “It’s about your magic trick. You changed the color of your fur.”
The tension seemed to instantly evaporate from the dog, as he adjusted his position on the couch ready to go back to sleep.
Sam said, “I’m serious. I need to know about it!”
Caliburn tilted his head, as if to ask, what do you want to know?
“Do you have control over it?”
Caliburn barked.
Sam said, “I don’t know if that was a yes or a no? I sure wish we had the SCRABBLE board to ask him.”
Guinevere went and grabbed her bag. She unzipped it and said, “In that case you’re in luck.”
Sam looked at the SCRABBLE board. “You stole the motel’s SCRABBLE board! Who are you?”
“Hey, I figure our needs are a bit more important right now than some vacationers trying to have family time.”
Sam wasn’t so sure, but he was glad to have the SCRABBLE board even so. He emptied the game letters out onto the floor. Finding the letters, NO, and YES, he laid them out so that Caliburn could easily recognize the two of them.
Sam said, “Okay, let’s try this again. Caliburn, can you control it?”
The dog nudged two letters from the board together to form the word, “NO.”
“Did someone experiment on you?”
“YES.”
“Your old master?”
“YES.”
Sam met the dog’s eye. “Were you the only one?”
“NO.”
“Who?”
Caliburn nudged some of the other game pieces together to form the word, ANOTHER.
“Do you know his or her name?”
Caliburn tried to maneuver some of the letters on the floor, but struggled to form a word.
Guinevere said, “Was his name, King Arthur?”
The dog nudged the word, NO.
“Crusader?”
Caliburn looked blank.
Sam squinted and said, “What about Excalibur?”
Caliburn’s ears pricked up.
Sam’s eyes narrowed. He said, “Excalibur. The other experiment’s name is Excalibur?”
The dog gave a single affirmative bark.
“Look. I want to take some blood directly under your fur. It won’t be a big sample.”
Caliburn jingled the game pieces to spell, “WHY?”
“I need to find out what makes you so special?”
The dog simply used its nose to point toward the same set of letters. “WHY?”
“Because whatever experiments they used to achieve your extraordinary abilities, I’m afraid they’ve used them on something else, too, haven’t they?”
“YES.”
“Only the program failed with the second test, where it worked perfectly for you?”
“YES.”
“What went wrong with the second test?”
It took some time, but Caliburn eventually spelled something resembling, “NOTHING.”
“Nothing?” Sam raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Then, why was the program shut down?”
“EVIL.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “What was evil? The people experimenting on you?”
“NO.”
Sam swallowed. “The second test subject. That’s it isn’t it? The experiment emphasized your intrinsic state of being. Where you were naturally good natured, a dog filled with duty, honor, kindness, and unconditional love, the second creature was filled with hatred, vengeance, and pure evil… is that it?”
“YES.”
Sam said, “Don’t worry. Whatever it was out there that you were afraid of, he can’t find you here.”
The dog tilted its head.
Almost as if to say, you don’t know what’s coming for me.
Chapter Forty
Sam called Aliana Wolfgang.
The two had very nearly gotten married a few years back, but their distinctly different lifestyles and all-encompassing work schedules never seemed to gel together. In the end their relationship became more or less platonic, based on mutual friendship and respect for one another. But they had always remained close and for Sam at least, the sound of her voice never ceased to stir some pretty strong emotions.
Aliana was a geneticist and a leading expert on microbiology. She owned a pharmacological research and development company in North Dakota. Early that morning, Sam had sent her samples of Caliburn’s blood as well as some possible DNA samples of whatever creature had lived and survived inside the drifting wreck of the Hoshi Maru. If anyone could tell him what they were dealing with, and what they were up against, it was Aliana.
She picked up on the seventh ring, right before it went to voice mail.
Sam asked, without preamble, “Did you get the data I sent you?”
“Hi Sam, how are you?” Aliana teased. “It’s nice to hear from you too. I’m well. Thanks for asking…”
Sam grinned. “How are you Aliana?”
“I’m well. Life’s good. What are you doing?”
“I’m in Tualatin, Oregon. It’s a very long story, starting with getting stuck in Cannon Beach yesterday after my granddad’s old T-Bird broke down, and I needed to wait for parts to make the repairs.”
“How perfectly mundane of you.” There was a tone of laughter in her voice. “That’s an incredibly normal problem for you to have. I’m almost disappointed for you.”
Sam laughed. “If it makes you happy… there was a Japanese fishing trawler that washed up on the beach. The ship was called the Hoshi Maru. It was last seen trying to leave the harbor at Minamisōma, Japan just before the 2011 tsunami hit.”
“So I heard. It’s the third one this month.”
“You heard about it?”
“Okay, I read it in a newspaper. Apparently, it has taken the majority of the lost ships about this long for the natural winds and currents to bring them here. All the same, that sounds more like a typical ecological disaster waiting for the right marine biologist to solve. I expected more from you.”
Sam said, “Did I mention the ship was carrying a biological monster. Some sort of Japanese chimera called a Nue — a mythical combination of a tiger…”
Aliana didn’t let him finish… “I know what a Japanese chimera is!”
“Yeah, well this one is pure evil. It’s gone on a killing spree, which very nearly involved me last night and this afternoon, too.”
Aliana said, “And there’s the typical punchline. Everything ends up with someone, or in this case, something, trying to kill you. Things never change with you.” She spoke with a tease, but there was a harsh undertone of disappointment in her voice.