Kronos (23 page)

The wail turned into a roar, angry and energetic. Kronos had taken ten torpedoes at close range and the only thing Atticus had achieved was to enrage the beast. He took some consolation in the fact that he was, like a real ray, concealed beneath the sand. But the fight was far from over. He thumbed the trigger for the electric-shock cables. They worked like stun guns, each locking onto the target by piercing or suction, then unleashing an electric current through insulated cables that kept the charge from being dissipated into the water. Unlike a stun gun, the charge unleashed was enough to kill a whale ten times over…or the entire crew of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.

As the remaining cloud of silt settled, and the view cleared, Atticus found himself in a dire situation. No longer undulating, the whole mass of Kronos’s body slowly glided in a circle around
Ray,
propelled only by its four fins. It had located him instantly, and was apparently making up its mind as how best to kill him. He watched as the head moved past, following just behind the tail, its body forming a massive ring. One great eye glanced at Atticus. He was sure it could see him inside
Ray.

Perhaps that’s why it had yet to attack?
If the creature held any intelligence, like that of a whale or a dolphin, it might be curious as to how a creature could survive in the gut of another. As the body passed by again, its long front flippers pushed it forward and grazed the seafloor with every beat, casting sand into the waters around its sleek, black-topped, white-bellied body.

For an instant, Atticus saw the creature for what it was—not a freak of nature or killing machine, but a miraculous creation, unique in every way.

Then he thumbed the shock-cable trigger and waited for the head to pass again. A shot to the open eye should do the trick. The snout appeared from the right, then the eye again, still watching him. He waited as the head came into range, preparing to surge out of the sand and fire. He’d have a front row seat to watch the thing boil in its own skin.

Atticus held his breath. He could feel his heart beat behind his eyes.

With each beat he imagined faces of the living and the dead.

Giona.

Maria.

Andrea…

He blinked and realized the time had come. He accelerated out of the sand, exploding a cloud of silt from around
Ray
as he rose. Most denizens of the sea would have turned tail and fled at the sight of
Ray
rising off the seafloor, but Kronos turned toward the submersible and opened its maw, ready to snatch its prey.

Atticus fired the shock cables and rocketed forward. Their aim was true; each headed for Kronos’s eyes. It would be a fatal shot. Even a beast that large couldn’t survive a jolt straight to its brain.

But at the last possible moment, Kronos twisted its head and clamped its jaws shut on the cables, quickly severing them. The electric current meant for the target alone burst into the open ocean and hit
Ray
and Kronos alike.

The jolt coursed through the sub, striking Atticus and nearly knocking him unconscious. But just as soon as it had come, the shock was exhausted.
Ray
’s internal electronics shorted and again the sub began fluttering back toward the seafloor.

As Atticus regained his wits and realized what had happened, he screamed as the sight that had been Giona’s last enveloped him. The dark, gaping mouth of Kronos opened wide and sucked
Ray
in.
Ray
’s size kept Atticus from being swallowed whole, but he had no doubt the creature’s powerful jaws could crush
Ray
with ease. High-pitched squeaks tore through the cabin as Kronos’s teeth etched the glass above Atticus’s head.
Ray
’s systems reset, and its external lights blinked back on, illuminating Kronos’s jaws. Atticus gazed at the spear-like teeth and wondered what kept them from piercing the glass and finishing the job.

Whatever the reason, he wouldn’t waste this last opportunity. Atticus prepped the small nuclear device, doing his best to not look up; any distraction might cost him the time he needed to type in the activation code Trevor had given him. His finger worked the number pad recessed in the armrest, ticking out the fifteen-digit code. Once complete, Atticus’s index finger hovered over the final key.

Then he looked up and paused.

He hadn’t noticed the slight motion of the submersible or the gentle shake as it was set down gently into the sand. But now, as the gaping jaws loosened around the sub’s hull and dim sunlight filtering down from above filled the cabin, Atticus realized what Kronos had done.

“What the hell?” Atticus moved his hand away from the activation keypad and gazed at Kronos as the creature backed away, its eyes locked onto his. Reaching a distance of twenty feet, it resumed its circular course around
Ray.
It was waiting for something, but what?

Atticus knew this behavior was completely unheard of in the animal kingdom. Its life had been threatened. It had been under attack, yet it didn’t fight or flee. It had defended itself, to be sure, but then it showed restraint. Perhaps even mercy.

Atticus shook his head at the last thought. He remembered Giona and the way she’d been so quickly eaten. If this creature was intelligent, it had eaten her on purpose, and toyed with him now. He reached over for the activation keypad, but froze before reaching the halfway point. The creature’s body, or something inside the creature, caught his attention.

Atticus focused on the anomaly.

A flashing from inside its body. Perhaps it was building up its own electric charge, like an electric eel? If that were true, the herring wouldn’t have been able to flee, and he and Giona would have been shocked. Then what the hell was it?

As though in answer to his unspoken question, Kronos brought his body closer, a mere ten feet from
Ray.
Its body filled the view. Moving out of instinct more than anything else, Atticus switched off the exterior lights, turning Kronos’s side into a dark canvas.

Then he saw it—a flash from inside the creature, emanating from a precise source. Then with a sudden brilliance, the flash repeated like a strobe light, and an image coalesced at the center of the light.

A silhouette of something at its source.

A form.

A body.

A shape that Atticus immediately recognized.

“Oh, God no…” Atticus leaned so far forward that he hit his head on the lexan glass bubble of
Ray
’s eye socket viewing port, which separated him from the ocean. He didn’t even register the impact.

He knew the shape, however impossible. Sadness, then rage, took hold of him, shaking his body. The beast tormented him!

Before Atticus could act and destroy them both with a small thermonuclear device, the impossible happened. The silhouette moved amid the continuing flashes. He could see her arms. He watched her knees rise up to her chest.

Still alive.

Giona was alive—inside Kronos.

Hot tears came with a torrent of emotion. Atticus pushed against the glass bubble, willing himself to burst forth into the ocean, tear Kronos apart, and extract his still-living daughter from its gullet.

“Oh, baby, I’m here .” Atticus filled his lungs and screamed. “Giona! I’m here! I’m going to get you out! I won’t leave you! Giona!”

He was pounding on the glass now, beating his fists as his heart broke for the second time in five days. Then the flashing stopped, and she disappeared, hidden behind Kronos’s black skin. Kronos slowly backed away, his body sliding backwards as his massive face turned toward
Ray.
Atticus felt the intelligence behind the massive beast’s eyes once again, yet more clearly. It was conveying a message with its eyes—a look of consternation, of disapproval.

Atticus slumped in his chair. How was this possible? It wasn’t! His mind kept shouting it at him.

She’s dead!

Giona is dead!

No, damn it, she’s alive!

Atticus could sense the message coming from the beast. Its eyes, once frightening, now tranquil. It bore him no ill will. And then it let out a cry, a sound so peaceful that Atticus, despite the dire situation, felt comforted. In that moment, he realized that the creature had no intention of truly devouring Giona. She lay inside the creature, yet even after days inside, was still alive and undigested.

A single thought burrowed into Atticus’s mind. What kind of creature is this?

ASCENT

35

Kronos—Gulf of Maine

The flesh supporting her body felt like a waterbed, comfortable and cozy, yet visions of monsters played behind Giona’s eyes as she slept. Her hair lay damp and matted to her face and the slick tissue beneath her body. Her wetsuit, still secure, kept the majority of her body free from moisture, but her face, long exposed to the humid air, had paled and wrinkled.

Her breaths, previously even with deep sleep, came ragged and quick. When her eyes finally opened, it seemed that the nightmare she’d just been having continued on into reality.

An all-consuming blackness surrounded her. Light did not exist. Her body didn’t exist. As Giona tried to comprehend the absolute darkness, a violation of her senses assailed her nose. The smell of rotting fish, fat, and bloated, thickened the air. She gagged and dry heaved, her stomach lacking substance to issue forth. She breathed through her mouth, which turned out to be a mistake; she could taste the odor. As her body built toward a second dry heave, she became aware of a noise, deep and repeating. It pulled her attention away from the smells.

A deep
whump-whump
came again and again, double beating like a distant machine, working without tire. A momentary hope tugged at her thoughts as she imagined she’d somehow been transported to a fish factory. That would account for the smell and the sound, but…

Giona rested her hands on her bed. It rolled beneath her like the massaging chairs she was fond of trying out at the mall. The surface beneath her suddenly shifted. She tumbled and fell against a wall. It, too, felt soft and smooth, like silk. She stood for a moment, bumping her head on the low ceiling. But the ceiling flexed as her head connected. She’d been trapped inside a giant balloon, or some kind of cocoon.

Panic rising, Giona shuffled around her enclosure, probing the soft walls with her hands. Since she found no method of egress, sobs wracked her body.

Trapped.

“Daddy?” Giona said between vaults of emotion. “Daddy!”

But the darkness around her absorbed her voice. No echo returned. No sound escaped. The fleshy walls held in everything.

Fleshy…

Giona’s thoughts lost focus on reality as a flood of memories washed through her mind, overloading her synapses and quickening her breath. She no longer noticed the smell. A single image emerged from the deep, consumed her mind, opening its dagger-filled mouth and sucking her down. Giona opened her mouth to scream as the full realization of her situation struck her, but before the sound could escape, her body left the floor and smashed into the ceiling above.

Then she hit the floor again. Each wall greeted her in rapid succession, pummeling her body. As consciousness slipped away, Giona found breathing nearly impossible. Her body, while being twisted and jounced violently, was ultimately protected by the soft walls that formed her meaty prison. A searing pain turned the darkness all white as something solid struck her head. She blinked back to consciousness seconds later, not knowing how long she’d been out because the murk of unconsciousness was no darker than that of her current waking world. But the pain in her skull told her the impact had been real.

All that mattered was that it had stopped. She held a hand to her throbbing head and felt a warm, sticky wetness beneath her hair. A cut caused by the projectile that had struck her head had swollen and gushed, but the blood had clumped and coagulated in her hair. She imagined the sight of it would send most kids running in fear, but at least the bleeding had stopped. Then she remembered her watch. Her father had given it to her on her last birthday—a Luminox Navy SEAL dive watch, the same as her father’s. She pressed a button on the watch and its yellow face glowed to life. The little light seemed like a spotlight in her eyes, and she squinted against it as her eyes adjusted.

While the watch did the job of illuminating the time, it did little to reveal her surroundings. She checked the time—9:30 a.m. Then she saw the date and gasped. It’d been four days…four days since her dive with her father! As her eyes began to water again, she noted a slight glint of light reflecting from the floor. She reached her glowing watch out toward it and saw her camera, now freed from its waterproof casing.

Her dank cubby had stopped moving almost completely, just rising and falling gently. She slid over to the camera and snatched it up. After finding the power button, she turned it on. The view screen blazed to life, causing her to squint again; but while the screen glowed brighter than the pitch-darkness surrounding her; it could only project the light it took in through its lens, which, at the time, was none.

Giona pushed the button on her watch again and held it down, moving the watch face in front of the camera’s lens. The light of the watch magnified through the camera and bloomed from the view screen. For the first time, Giona saw her own body. Then the watch was extinguished, and the light disappeared. She needed more light. Feeling the camera’s solid frame in the dark, Giona realized she held a bright light source in her hands. Snapping a few pictures would reveal everything.

Not bothering to aim, Giona held up the camera and took a photo. The flash exploded into the small dark chamber like an atom bomb. The brightness shot stabs of pain through Giona’s fully dilated eyes. She groaned, and in the resuming dark, now colored by shades of purple dancing in her vision, she lowered the brightness and set the camera to take multiple photos. She hoped the lower light level but would allow her eyes to adjust.