Liger suppressed the urge to shake his head. The other man’s statement had already gone past the borders of sheer lunacy. If it were not for the deaths of his dive crew, he would have laughed instead of feeling bewildered by it all. “You’re mad, do you know that?”
Yamamoto shrugged as he placed the canister back onto the work bench. “My work is my life. I must admit… I have never had a relationship with… a woman. Perhaps I will finally get to experience such a feeling once we get the organism back into Typhon.”
“Don’t hold your breath, mate.”
Yamamoto gave him a confused look. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Never mind,” Liger said. He too wanted to get this affair over with so he could finally retire with his riches intact. “You’ve got your bloody bait. So now what?”
Yamamoto walked over to where the console was and flicked it on with the remote control. The monitor on the side wall now showed a map of the Arabian Sea. “Now we use the container to lure the kaiju into the vicinity of the work barge. Once it gets close enough, we release the drums of cyanide to stun it, and then bring it back into hibernation inside Typhon.”
Liger crossed his arms. “How would that monster even know how to track down a sealed canister?”
“By chemical scent mostly, but also due to the eggs having a unique electrical field,” Yamamoto said. “This was done on purpose, so that it could identify members of its own species using visual bioluminescence or via its electroreceptors.”
“But those eggs are inside a container. How could it have known about them?”
Yamamoto turned and pointed towards the canister. “Yes, the container is sealed, but it still gives off a unique electrical field, just slight enough for the organism to detect it underwater.”
“If that monster of yours is so smart, why didn’t it just take the eggs before?”
“It’s too big to handle such a small item,” Yamamoto explained. “If it wrecked the base on its own, it might have never recovered the eggs. You see, it still needs us to do certain things for it too.”
Liger let out a deep breath. “You talk as if that thing is human.”
“As I’ve told you, it does have a human brain transplanted into its body.”
“Whatever,” Liger said. “So we just bait it and let it come to us, and we wrap it all up?”
“The bait will have to be you,” Yamamoto said.
Liger’s eyes grew wide. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
“We’ll attach the canister to your submersible, and you just need to hover underwater around the work barge,” Yamamoto said. “Once the creature comes towards you, we release the cyanide. A very simple plan that is sure to succeed.”
Liger shook his head. “Oh no, I’m not going back into the water. Not ever again.”
“You want to finish this so you can retire to your private island, yes? Then this final part must be done.”
Liger clenched his jaw. “I’ll do it. Under one condition.”
Yamamoto gave him a confused look. “And what would that be?”
“You’re coming with me, mate.”
The Japanese scientist began to chuckle. “Me? I have no experience riding in a submersible.”
“I’ve seen you work mechanical arms before during Typhon’s construction, so you can surely operate these same tools on the Deep Dog.”
“But my skill with such things is minimal,” Yamamoto pleaded.
Liger placed his hands on his hips. For once he had finally gotten the better of the other man, and not by sheer physical strength either. “My dive team is gone, so there’s no one else.”
“B-but I’m needed to continue the research for this organism.”
“Since you said your plan is a piece of cake, then there’s no danger to you, is there?”
Yamamoto looked away. Liger could tell that the other man was internally debating with himself.
After a minute, Yamamoto straightened up his wrinkled collar and brushed his unkempt hair back in an attempt to make his appearance more respectable. “Very well, I shall join you in the submersible. This is my project, and I will see it through.”
Liger suppressed a smile. We’ll see just how much guts this crazy Jap wanker has. “Now that’s the spirit!”
A loud moan came from the ground as the now fully conscious Sandor sat up and leaned against of the workbench while rubbing his sore jaw. His mumbling voice was strained with pain and confusion. “You… you hit me.”
Liger loomed over the fallen man. “And you know why.”
Sandor looked up at him with daggers in his eyes. “I’ll… make sure… you pay for that.”
“You can do whatever you want, but at this instant I’m more important to this project than you are, so don’t you forget that.”
The intercom speakers along the walls came to life with the voice of Captain Rudenkov. “Dr. Yamamoto, we received a message from the work barge. They said the harpoon cannons are now in place.”
Liger turned towards the now grinning Japanese scientist. “Harpoons?”
Yamamoto nodded. “The Queequeg will not be able to tow the kaiju on her own. Once the organism has been stunned, we fire harpoons and bring it to Typhon using cables tied to the floating barge, all the while running a big intravenous line to its brain and feeding it a cocktail of anesthetic drugs to keep it sedated. A very simple and precise plan.”
Liger crossed his arms. “You can plan all you want, Doctor, but this sea monster of yours has a rather nasty habit of getting around it.”
48
INSIDE THE Wanderer’s sickbay, Dr. Lillian Daway sat on her chair, shaking her head slowly from side to side. The overwhelming sadness had cracked her normally stoic demeanor, but she had cried privately, away from the rest of the crew, so as not to demoralize them any further.
Looking up at Ethan, her weary eyes conveyed a sense of resignation. “I’m sorry. There were just too many complications. From a collapsed lung, to the bends, then the heart attack. It was all too much.”
Ethan nodded and leaned against a nearby cabinet for support. “You tried your best, that’s all anyone could ask.”
Lillian rubbed her wrinkled brown temples. “If we had a full operating theatre inside the hyperbaric chamber, maybe, just maybe it might have made the difference. If I’d been able to react faster, I could have—”
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Stop second guessing yourself, Dr. D. There was nothing else you could have done.”
Lillian turned her head sideways, looking down at the floor. “Poor Chloe. I feel so awful about this. Perhaps I ought to speak with her again?”
“No,” Ethan said softly. “Better if I do it.”
“Is she still in her cabin?”
Ethan let out a deep breath before answering her. “No, she’s gone back to the workbench and started to make repairs on the Sedna. The others gave her a wide berth so she’s by herself now.”
“Make repairs? But that would mean—”
“Yeah, she plans to take the sub out again,” Ethan said. “She told me we don’t have to go along with her.”
Lillian’s eyes grew larger. “But that creature will kill her if she goes out there by herself!”
Ethan made a slight nod. “Yeah. I’ve… uh, talked to the rest of the crew, and they told me they’re willing to follow her plan. You’re the only person I haven’t asked about this yet, and I will only take the Wanderer back to that rig if it’s unanimous.”
Lillian stood up and held out her right hand towards him. “Then you can tell Chloe we’re all with her.”
