Return to The Deep (From The Deep Book 2) (4 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Ocean World had been closed to the public for more than two hours. The staff of more than fifty animal feeders and carers had gone home, as had the team of scientists in the area of the building sealed off from the public. Andrews walked around the perimeter edge of the two thousand square foot lagoon, the water on its surface a shimmering, undulating blanket. He looked out at the body of water, and as still as it was, could almost sense the giant which lurked somewhere in its depths.

At one end of the lagoon was a winch loaded with a harness, inside of which was the half ton slab of beef. Pressed to shape and frozen to specification for the specific use of the aquarium, it was the best and safest way to feed the creature. The frozen block of meat glistened under the dull lighting and was already starting to defrost.

Usually, there was a specific team charged with feeding the creature once every three days. In the wild, its need to feed would be much greater, however, in the confines of the aquarium and without the need to hunt, a three-day feeding cycle was deemed sufficient to maintain the health of the creature. Andrews had let the usual feed team go home, and as was his way on occasion, had decided to operate the winch himself. He walked to it, footsteps echoing through the cavernous chamber. He went through his mental checklist, finally, ensuring the chains were securely attached to the meat. Despite being made of two-inch thick stainless steel links, they were still pocked and scratched from countless encounters with the creature’s fourteen inch teeth. As strong as the chains were, it wasn’t unusual for them to be destroyed during the feeding frenzy, and swallowed by the creature with its meal. To combat this, the chain was routinely changed every third week. Andrews made a mental note to remind his staff to replace the current chain, then remembered he wouldn’t have to, as this was likely to be the last time the creature would feed from it before it was transported to Tomlinson’s waiting battleship.

He paused for a moment, enjoying the eerie silence of the cavernous space, then started up the winch, which growled to life and shattered the quiet. The wake came almost immediately, a body of displaced water rolling slowly from the far side of the water, drawn in by the familiar vibrations of the crane through the concrete, which signalled feeding time had arrived. No matter how many times he saw it, Andrews always drew breath, always gasped. It took an extraordinary effort not to step back away from the edge as the slow moving wake rolled closer.

With a nervous smile, Andrews activated the winch controls, lifting the slab of meat into the air and swinging it further out over the edge of the lagoon. Bloody melt water dripped into the lagoon, each drop sensed by the creature that circled below the meat, the water churning as it was displaced. Andrews hesitated, waiting for the right time to give the creature its meal.

He pressed the green 'release' button, the chain unrolling as the meat plunged towards the water. No sooner had the slab of beef impacted than the lagoon exploded in a green grey surge of energy. Andrews stared, breath held as the creature savaged the beef, shaking its head and sending bloody chunks drifting towards the bottom of the lagoon. The chain groaned in protest as the creature rolled on top of the meat, wrapping its tentacles around the harness as it tried to pull it deeper. Andrews couldn’t believe the sheer power of the animal, and could see why Tomlinson was so intent on harnessing such a force of nature for the defence of the country. The initial idea of trying to capture the creature’s mother seemed like utter madness, and it would have been a disaster. The thrashing and churning in the water subsided, leaving the lagoon once again still and calm, the only evidence of any disturbance being the tiny chunks of bloody flesh, which bobbed on the surface. For the first time, Andrews wondered if perhaps Tomlinson was right, and the best outcome for everyone would have been if the creature had suffered the same fate as its parent. No matter how he tried to convince himself otherwise, there was no place in the modern world for such a beast.

II

Joanne Penn had just celebrated her twenty third birthday. The daughter of a prominent Miami judge, it had always been expected that she would follow her father into the world of law. However, she discovered from a very early age that such things didn’t interest her, and thought there was too much to see and do in the world without spending countless hours in dusty courtrooms, judging other people and hearing details of how cruel and horrific humanity could be. Instead, she had made the conscious decision to make the most of life, and experience as many different things as she could. Although attractive, Joanne was what would be considered as plain amid the bronzed, cosmetically enhanced bodies, which sauntered around the Florida beaches. Slim with tanned skin smattered with freckles and green eyes, which complemented her dark brown hair, she still managed to avoid much of the attention from the opposite sex, mostly because unlike many girls her age, she wasn’t an extrovert. She didn’t drink, she didn’t have any tattoos, and she hadn’t rebelled as a teen. She had drifted along under the radar, making her grades in school and college, and then taking the job at Ocean World. She took it not because she had to, but because she thought it would be a fun place to work, surrounded by children, families, and of course, the plethora of sea creatures.

Her relationship with Tom had happened quite by accident. She had noticed him on his regular patrols of the building, and couldn’t deny the physical attraction to him. He was tall and muscular, with strong facial features and piercing eyes. Even so, those early months had been nothing more than a distant relationship between work colleagues, a nod in the hall, a lingering glance in passing. It was only when someone tried to steal something from the gift store and security was called that she had a chance really to speak to him, and discovered to her delight that the two were a seemingly perfect match. They shared a similar philosophy in life, one that was in favour of doing what made you happy rather than what society expected of you. They also shared the same interests and opinions in music, politics, and animal rights. They were perfect for each other and from that first meeting, had spent almost every day together in some way. Almost a year into their relationship, she couldn’t be happier.

It was because of her unconditional love for Tom that she had agreed to help Fernando. She had often wondered what was in the sealed off section of the aquarium, and it was one of the few things Tom wouldn’t talk to her about. Fernando had shown her the photos they had taken outside the building, and told her of their suspicion that there was something being held there, which was for some reason kept secret. She had always had a soft spot for animals, especially doing everything she could to fight against cruelty. She had been instrumental in helping with the campaigns in 2014 and 15 designed to force SeaWorld to stop keeping orcas in captivity, rejoicing when the motion was finally passed in early 2016. As much as she liked her job, she absolutely would not tolerate animal abuse, and so, it hadn’t taken much convincing at least to see if she could find anything out.

Remaining as calm as possible, she had managed to slip within the restricted area and see what was happening. She walked down an interior corridor, a place she had never seen before in the almost two years she had worked there. She knew she shouldn’t be there, and that if someone should challenge her as to what she was doing in the pristine white corridor, she would have no answer. Still she went on, curiosity guiding her and doing a fine job of silencing her rationale. Off the corridor were two further doors. One of them was labelled with a sign that read:

Pump maintenance access.

Strictly NO unauthorised personnel.

For someone as curious as she was, such a warning was only going to be met with one reaction. She quietly opened the door and slipped inside. An iron staircase led down to a curved corridor that was lined with pipes. The corridor was dark, lit only by subtle low wattage strips set at intervals in the floor. Ahead, she could see another door, the sign this time even more intriguing.

OBSERVATION AREA

!!!WARNING!!!

NO
MOVEMENT IN PRESENCE OF SUBJECT!

NO
CAMERAS / MOBILE PHONES!

NO
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT SOURCES!

NO ADMITTANCE WITHOUT PRIOR AUTHORISATION!

She inched closer to the door, comforted by the pneumatic hum of the pipes on the walls, which was the only thing other than her own ragged breaths that punctuated the silence. She took out her phone and snapped a shot of the door and another of the warning sign, noting that here in the bowels of the building that she had no reception of any kind. Slipping her phone back into her bag, she inched towards the door.

There appeared to be no locking mechanism that she could see. The steel door was set back in its frame a good three inches, but appeared to be unremarkable despite the stringent warnings on its front. As was her way, she didn’t dwell or ponder, but acted on her first instinct, pulling open the door and stepping over the threshold.

It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. In here, there was no artificial lighting of any kind. The only reason she could see was due to the undulating blue waves and ripples that were thrown on the wall from the twenty five foot long, six foot high viewing window, which looked out into a murky blue-green underwater landscape. She realised she was holding her breath, and let it out in a long slow exhale. Beside the window was a map of the enormous holding tank of some kind, which she was now looking out into from beneath the surface. Without being consciously aware she was doing it, Joanne reached into her purse and took out her phone, having the mental capacity to make sure the flash was off for the camera application before she started to snap photographs of the room. She knew the chances of them showing anything but murky shadows were slim. However, she reasoned the warning on the door was there for a reason, and she had no desire to startle whatever dwelled in the tremendous artificial lake beyond. She walked to the glass, feeling incredibly small and insignificant. It was made of curved plexi-glass that followed perfectly the contour of the bowl. She reached out and laid a shaking hand on the plastic. It was cold to the touch, and for the second time in the last few minutes, she realised she was holding her breath as she stood there, basking in both the tranquillity of the scene before her and with a vague sense of danger. There was plainly a very good reason why this area was closed to the public, if only because she knew such a spectacular observation area would be a huge tourist attraction. For it to be closed to the public meant that the government had something that they didn’t want people to see, which, as was her way, made her even more determined to find out what it was.

There was a clipboard hanging from a hook on the wall. She grabbed it, leafing through the papers, in between glances out the window into the murky greenish water. It looked to be a feeding schedule going back at least a couple of years. Occasionally, there were notes scrawled in the page margins in a hand that were difficult to read. One entry stood out on the front though.

90 feet! Fully Grown blue whale size!! WOW!

Blue whale.

She dropped the clipboard in disgust. As it was, she had a problem with corporations keeping dolphins and Orcas in captivity. Never did she expect the greedy, money hungry owners to try to house a blue whale, and a fully grown one at that, if the clipboard was to be believed. It was little wonder they had tried to keep it under cover. Public outrage would be off the scale if word got out that such a majestic and endangered creature was being held in the dark in the confines of a pool with no external stimulus. She knew all whales were social creatures that preferred to live in pods, not in solitude in a manmade pool. She couldn’t understand why they had captured it if they plainly did not intend to display it to the public. She looked around the observation room, trying to gauge how much money it was costing to keep this particular area of the aquarium operational. A flush of hot anger raced through her when she considered that the poor whale was probably separated from its mother as a calf and brought here, confused and alone, until it was big enough to earn the owners of the aquarium a few more blood-covered dollars. The idea that she had worked there for so long and contributed to their lies, however unknowingly, made her nauseous. She re-opened her camera app, and began to snap pictures of the clipboard, particularly the entry relating to the Blue whale. It was as she was taking this photograph that something caught her eye, a sliver of movement from inside the tank.

She paused and looked out into the water, searching the undulating gloom. She was sure she had seen something, and yet, there was no movement at all, the pale greenish blue landscape deathly silent. She leaned closer, touching her nose to the cool Plexiglas. She strained her senses, eyes staring into the gloom, ears straining to hear even the smallest of sounds.

There.

She was certain she had seen it again, a dark smudge moving frustratingly just out of the periphery of her vision.

You're imagining things. Seeing what you want to see.

Maybe her inner voice was right. Then again, maybe it wasn’t. She reasoned there must be
something
in the water. As good as the evidence was that she had gathered so far, it would pale in comparison to a shot of the actual captive whale. She waited, camera poised, breath held, watching for any sign of movement. It was as she realised just how still she was keeping that the message on the door floated back to her mind’s eye, particularly the urgent way in which it was written.