Barracuda (30 page)

It had banged and bumped the
Hummingbird
all the way to the
Apogon
, using its keen sense of hearing
and the vibrations striking the lateral lines. Its eyes were very
blurry from the bright flames that covered the surface. It had
never tried looking through the water medium into the atmosphere
medium before, and the brightness of the flames temporarily blinded
It.

When Micko entered the water, It immediately
knew that one of the awkward tube things was diving deep; but It
decided to deal with the slow-moving enemy after It dispatched the
big oblong object on the surface. It heard non-aggressive splashes
and didn’t fall for the bait. Suddenly, the bright lights at the
boat’s waterline came on and startled the barracuda.

Celestial normally used these lights to attract
both bait and game fish while night fishing. It was just a curious
phenomenon that fish were attracted to bright light. This bright
light was too much for Its already stressed eyes, and It attacked
the
Hummingbird
.

Micko reached the bottom of the buoy line and
looked up above, where he saw that the surface lights were keeping
the barracuda busy. Using the strong beam of his light to locate
the submarine, he quickly swam to the conning tower. As he
expected, his gear was still strapped tight with the spider
wire.

Working quickly, but with skill, Micko cut just
the scuba tank free and left the BC vest. The tank still had more
than 900 psi of unused compressed air left. The surgical shears cut
the spider wire like a hot knife through butter. He was glad that
the plan was going smoothly.

Next he carried the extracted gear to the
torpedo tube where he had earlier seen the live bomb lying in the
bow tube. He placed the scuba tank in with the bottom just inches
away from the torpedo primer pin and the regulator barely sticking
out of the tube. Micko warily looked around, but he couldn’t see
the monster. He pressed the purge button on the second stage
regulator and jammed it so that a steady stream of bubbles poured
out the exhaust. Then he hastily swam to the sunken skiff.

He played his light from side to side, looking
for the beast, and saw a shadowy fish swaying back and forth in
front of the skiff. He was temporarily startled, thinking this was
strange. He’d never known a fish to behave like this, so he swam
over for a closer look.

Micko played his light beam onto Tanya’s
lifeless body tethered to the sea floor with a rope and a cinder
block.. She looked like a ghostly apparition as she swayed to and
fro with the current. The sea creatures had not yet violated her
lovely features, and she actually looked like she was at peace.
Micko suddenly understood what Chuu had been doing in the small
motorboat earlier that day. He regretted seeing her this way, but
he had to get back to the task at hand.

Micko turned his light back toward the skiff.
The skiff was already upside down, so he lifted one side up and
slid under, like a pea in a shell game—only this was a much
deadlier game.

He was in position and waiting for the fury of
the demon when he heard a loud disturbance from the surface.

***

It attacked the boat and Its long dagger teeth
blew out two of the u/w lights.

“Everyone put on a life jacket,” Celestial
ordered as he put his own on. “Regis, untie the life raft.”

“This fish can’t sink us,” Dr. Collins
protested.

“We’re not taking any chances,” Regis answered
as he untied the four-man raft.

It continued to ram the
Hummingbird
until
Its pointy upper front teeth impaled themselves into a wooden
plank.

“Quick, Regis! Get me the spear!” Celestial
ordered. “Then load the shotgun!”

Regis slipped the pole spear out of the galley
closet and handed it to his captain before returning to get the
shotgun. The giant barracuda was hopelessly stuck, and Celestial
was going to spear It continuously until It bled to death.

“Everyone, get to the other side of the boat so
we don’t overload this side,” Celestial commanded.

The others complied as Regis laid the raft at
the rear of the deck and then joined them. The brave captain struck
the struggling beast with vicious blows until It bled profusely.
Suddenly, It twisted one hundred and eighty degrees to avoid
another stabbing, and a large piece of planking broke loose in his
mouth. It snapped Its jaw twice and the wood was free. Celestial
leaned over the gunwale for a final deathblow and jammed at the
fish with all his might. The sleek barracuda easily avoided the
lunge, and instead of biting through the shaft of the harpoon,
pulled on it sharply.

Celestial lost his balance after his hard lunge
missed its target. Before he could regain his balance, the monster
fish pulled him and the spear overboard. Celestial landed
awkwardly, but his life vest quickly righted him. Before he could
look for his nemesis, he was shocked as he saw the huge hole in the
side of his boat that was rapidly taking in water.

Dr. Collins was the first to arrive at the side
of the boat. “Celestial, hold on!” he yelled.

James ran over with the portable ladder and
attached it. “Hurry!” he yelled. “Climb back aboard!”

Regis leaned over the gunwale with a useless
life ring in one hand and the empty shotgun in the other.

“Everyone, get back to the other side of the
boat!” Celestial dictated from the water, reaching for the ladder.
“There’s a huge hole on this side. Regis, start the pumps now!”

Regis opened the engine canopy and started the
electric pumps in an attempt to pump out the incoming water faster
than it rushed in. The scientists were nervously looking at the
rising water on the deck when they heard a blood-curdling scream.
When they looked up, they saw Celestial being thrown into the air
like a toy, only this toy had blood gushing out of its body where
its left leg used to be. Celestial hit the water hard when he fell
back in, but he still scrambled toward the ladder with both arms
and one leg flailing hard. Again, the poor man was tossed high into
the air, but this time he was missing his right arm just below the
elbow.

Celestial could no longer scream, but gurgled on
his own blood. The three men on the boat could only look on
helplessly as the
Hummingbird
began to list dangerously.
Incredibly, the amputee captain had a look of defiance in his eyes
as he used his left hand to poise the harpoon he still held for a
strike. Blood was gushing out of his wounds faster than the water
was rushing into his boat, but Celestial wanted one more strike at
his foe.

Regis finally grabbed the shotgun shells from
the wheelhouse and loaded the weapon. “Damn, Celestial! You’re
always leaving the gun and the shells in separate cabinets,” he
muttered.

He ran to the side of the boat to see Celestial
harmlessly poking the harpoon into the water near his remaining
leg. Celestial was in the glow of the boat’s lights, but a few feet
further was complete darkness.

It swam so fast that the men never saw It as It
removed Celestial’s other leg with surgical precision. Without the
weight from his legs, Celestial’s torso bobbed helplessly on the
surface. His face was drained and pale, and his mouth drooped
listlessly like an abandoned puppet. His face was blank of
expression, and his eyes were opened wide but unseeing.

Regis began firing the shotgun aimlessly into
the water while uttering curses at the unseen mutant. He fired and
reloaded. This scene repeated itself several times until James
grabbed the distraught man and said, “We may need those rounds. The
boat is going under.”

Regis looked around the deck and saw that the
boat listed precariously, and the professor was holding onto the
raft that threatened to be washed overboard. “I suggest that we get
into the raft now and get away from the suction of the
Hummingbird
as it sinks,” he calmly proclaimed.

The trio took one last glance at Celestial as he
slowly floated out of range of the lights and into the darkness of
the netherworld that he was entering. They launched the raft and
clamored inside just as the
Hummingbird
exhaled a final
audible gasp and sank. She fell in a straight line at a leisurely
pace to find her final resting place with the
Apogon
and the
scientists’ skiff.

***

A chill went up Micko’s spine as he saw the
Hummingbird
slowly descending toward him where he peeked out
from under the shelter of the skiff. It looked like a huge
spaceship with the landing lights on, coming in for a very soft
landing. Micko thought he was getting narced until he saw the
barracuda illuminated by the boat’s u/w lights. This snapped him
back to reality, and he immediately figured that the demon fish had
caused the sinking of the
Hummingbird
. It was following the
sinking vessel as it neared the ocean floor. The
Hummingbird
landed on her starboard side and kicked up a large cloud of sand as
she entered her watery grave.

For a few minutes, Micko lost sight of the devil
fish as the churned-up sand blanketed the area. As the sand slowly
settled back onto the lagoon bottom, Micko saw a hazy figure
swimming over its fallen opponent. The u/w lights were barely
penetrating the blinding sand, but Micko could see the barracuda
appear to gloat over its victory. Then without warning, the
barracuda seemed to snap to attention, back up ever so slowly, and
stare in his direction. A cold chill went up Micko’s spine as he
realized that this was the end.

As the sand settled, Micko could see that
bubbles were still coming out of the scuba tank’s regulator in the
torpedo tube. He watched as the huge barracuda bent itself into a
tight S. It held that position for a long moment and then shot with
blinding speed not at him, but at the torpedo tube. The slender
head of the barracuda jammed right into the tube, and It used Its
enormous jaws to snap the top right off the tank.

This caused a deadly chain reaction. The scuba
tank, under high pressure, shot backward and smashed into the head
of the live torpedo, detonating it. The ensuing explosion was
funneled forward and tore the front right off the submarine. It
also tore the head right off the creature from hell.

Micko was watching from the stern of the
submarine; the vast majority of the blast was targeted forward from
the bow and away from him. Still, enough of the shockwaves rushed
at him with enough fury to lift the skiff completely off him. Micko
kept a low profile in the sand, but enough of the shockwaves caught
him to rip the mask right off his face and the regulator hose out
of his mouth. He was caught in a blast whirlpool that twisted and
rolled him like a corkscrew.

The scuba diving detective was now in another
fight for his life. He was tumbling out of control without a mask,
and he was unable to reach his mouthpiece for air. His head was
throbbing inhumanly as shock blast after shock blast pummeled his
body. He finally landed on his back in the sand facing upward into
an inky world of black. His u/w light was gone, ripped from his
hand during the blast, and the shockwaves had burst the lights on
the wreck of the
Hummingbird
, throwing the entire lagoon
into darkness.

What seemed like hours may have only been
seconds, like a dream. Micko gazed into the blackness and drifted
back to the fateful day when he was shot. The vision no longer
haunted him and the flashback manifested itself with such
clarity.

***

It was a cold, rainy night, and Micko’s partner,
Gus, had taken the night off to attend a christening. Micko was
assigned to help a neighboring precinct detective squad that was
low on manpower. The night was boring, and Micko was able to catch
up on a lot of his backed-up paperwork.

He was interrupted by Detective Thomas Gomez.
“Hey, Micko, I just got a call, and one of my perps is at a known
location. I need a collar and the overtime that goes with it.” He
was holding the phone and covering the mouthpiece when he
spoke.

“Yeah, why not?” Micko answered lazily. “I’m
caught up with my work.”

“We’ll be there in five minutes, but you have to
come to court and sign the ADA’s affidavit after we arrest him.”
Gomez spoke into the phone.

The two detectives put their suit jackets on,
and Micko asked, “What do we have here?”

“Simple assault. A tenant slugged his landlord,
and the landlord swore out a complaint. Since the guy’s nose was
broken, it’s an assault second degree, so I have a collar. The
landlord called to say that he just saw the perp enter his
apartment, so I get a number for the month and some much-needed
overtime.”

“Anything more I should know about the perp?”
Micko asked as he grabbed the car keys and a radio.

“Nah, he’s a sixty-year-old guy who just had a
beef with the landlord over a lack of heat in his apartment.”

The pair drove straight to an apartment building
in a rough section of University Avenue in the South Bronx. When
they got to the apartment, Micko stepped back to let Gomez take
charge since this was his case and collar. Gomez banged loudly on
the door and announced, “Open the door, Mr. Colavito. It’s the
police.”

A moment later, a short, balding, older man
answered the door and appeared to be in shock.

“What’s wrong, Officers?” he asked.

“Mr. Santiago swore out an assault complaint
against you, Mr. Colavito, so we have to bring you before a judge
to answer the charge,” Gomez answered respectfully.

“That guy is such a jerk. Can I put my coat on,
Officer?” the perp asked.

“Sure,” Gomez said with a grin.

The perp walked to a closet to get his coat, and
Micko and Gomez watched him like a hawk. After he put on his coat,
Gomez pulled out his handcuffs.