The thermostat would continue to drop as we distanced ourselves from the geothermally heated waters in the southern basin.
Ben tapped me on the shoulder, his index finger over his lips, indicating that I shouldn’t talk. He handed me an instruction booklet where he had written a message in pen:
Colonel Vacendak is MJ-12. He’s guiding us to the E.T.
I took the pen and booklet and wrote: Suggestions?
Ben responded: MJ-12 wants info, not eyewitnesses. Trust no one, including ML.
An hour later, the tributary merged with its parent river, and the landscape changed radically.
The waterway was several miles wide, its depths dropping more than 740 feet — as deep as Loch Ness. It was this body of water the Russians and Japanese must have analyzed when they had taken readings of the plateau. The river’s dark waters ran a bone-chilling twenty-nine degrees, and snow covered the shoreline as far as my night-vision glasses allowed me to see.
We made two very startling discoveries in this frozen lost realm: the first was the existence of mammals.
Lazing about across the snow-covered banks by the thousands were a Miocene species of elephant seal. The males we spotted were few in number, but massive — thirty feet long and easily weighing more than six tons. Each bull perched upright on its blubbery hind quarters and was surrounded by a harem of females, their hides as white as the snow they were nesting upon. Every so often one of the males would jut its head back and bellow a primordial call throttle toward the ice-capped ceiling, the sound echoing across the valley.
The elephant seals were not the only mammals present. Before I could even contemplate their existence, the sub was swarmed by a greeting party of twelve-foot-long albino Weddell seals. Within minutes the carnivores went from curious to aggressive, bumping the submersible with their one-ton bodies, forcing Ben to take control of the Barracuda from Vostok Mobile Command and guide the sub into deeper water.
He had to alter our course again when a gray-white tornado of krill rose from the depths directly beneath us. The presence of these alabaster crustaceans quickly attracted a stubby species of dolphin, their muscle-bound hides completely black, giving them a decided advantage in this albino-dominated ecosystem.
“Guys, this makes no sense. Mammals can’t survive in Vostok; they possess air cavities. The extreme pressures would burst their lungs like a ripe tomato.”
“Zachary, what about those sea cows we saw in the southern basin?”
“Check the video, Ming. You’ll see the species had evolved gills; they were breathing underwater. These mammals are clearly breathing air.” I glanced at my control console. “Ben, what’s your exterior pressure gauge reading?”
Ben shot me a look that translated into play along. “My gauge must be broken. It’s reading two atmospheres, which we both know is impossible.”
“Maybe, but it does explain how these mammals are able to inhabit this section of Vostok.”
“Vostok Mobile One to Captain Hintzmann.”
“Hintzmann here.”
“Captain, we need you to restore control of the Barracuda to our remote pilot.”
“As soon as we feel it’s safe. Seems the wildlife down here are getting a bit frisky.”
I flipped the toggle switch on my radio. “Mobile One, this is Wallace. Colonel, we’re approaching a magnetic anomaly that appears to be responsible for equalizing atmospheric pressure. Assuming it’s the magnetized remains of an asteroid, I’d prefer to give it a wide berth. You never know how these things might affect the sub’s controls.”
“We concur with your theory, Dr. Wallace; however, we feel the risk is minimal, and there’s only one way into the northern basin. Just out of curiosity, Doctor, what makes you think the magnetic interference is coming from an impact zone?”
“Two hundred and fifty million years ago another asteroid, much larger, struck East Antarctica and wiped out ninety-nine percent of the life-forms on the planet. The impact crater was discovered beneath the ice sheet in Wilkes Land, which is about six hundred miles to the south.”
“Is there anything you don’t know, Dr. Wallace?”
“Yeah, I don’t know where True is.”
“He arrived topside eight minutes ago and is in the capable hands of my assistant, Ashlynn.”
“That’s my boy.”
“Captain, six-point-five kilometers due east of your location is the entrance to a bay. Enter the waterway and return control of your vessel to our pilot. There’s one last thing we need you to investigate before we guide you to the northern basin.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Ben. “Can you give us a clue here, Colonel?”
“You’ll be briefed at the appropriate time. Stand by.”
The three of us remained silent for the next fifteen minutes as we made our way east, three hundred feet below the surface. Ming seemed especially distracted. Perhaps she had regrets about giving herself to Ben, or maybe she knew what the Colonel’s “last thing” was.
Leaning back in my seat, I gazed out into the dark waters with my night glasses, listening to the distant chirps of the Miocene seals over my headphones. For the third time in my life, I had escaped almost certain death — the fourth time, if I included my final encounter at Loch Ness. While each circumstance had been different, I realized there was a common thread that ran through them: ultimately I had chosen to place myself in danger.
This realization made me ponder whether I had a death wish.
A strange sensation of déjà vu made me think of Joe Tkalec.
When was the last time I had spoken to him? Three years ago… a few days after my near-death experience in the Sargasso Sea.
My mind was adrift as I nonchalantly stared at the blip now appearing on my sonar screen. Joe had chastised me for pushing the dive limits of our three-man submersible just so I could lure up a giant squid.
“Yo, Doc? Are you seeing this?”
Was it my fault the pilot had died? Should we have surfaced the moment the biologic blooped in my headphones? If only we had gone active on sonar… realized their size and numbers—
Without thinking, I pressed the red button marked ACTIVE.
Ping.
“Zachary, what are you doing?”
“Huh? Sorry. There’s something out there, I just thought … ” My eyes widened as data compiled on my screen. “It’s a biologic. Range: 1.4 kilometers to the east. Depth: 833 feet. Geez, this thing is big.”
“Another crocodile?”
“No, Ming. These waters are way too cold for Purussaurus.
Ben swore. “Any good news?”
“The good news is it isn’t coming after us.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t have let it know we’re here.”
I was about to retort when a flesh-tingling zzzzzzzzzzt sound rattled the cockpit’s dome. My stomach knotted. “I think I just screwed the pooch.”
“What was that sound?”
“We were just echolocated. Ben, kill the engine.”
“Damnit.” Ben powered down the propulsors, allowing the neutrally buoyant sub to rise slowly to the surface.