Pressure (11 page)

The boat shot upward again as the creature battered it from below, causing all three of them to scream. Then, as it slammed back down, the diesel long-tail motor roared to life.

“Go,” she shouted, holding on to Paolo. “Go-go-go-go!”

Abhi teased the throttle, apparently concerned about the engine stalling out again. Carrie wanted to scream at him to hurry up, but she resisted, fighting down her panic by focusing again on Paolo's leg. Behind her, the motor grew louder as Abhi slowly increased their speed. He shouted, but Carrie couldn't be sure if it was from triumph or terror.

Paolo followed her eyes to his wound. Fading toward shock, he clasped her hand again.

“Get it … out. And … take care of … this…”

He let go of her hand and gently patted the scavenged egg. Then his eyes rolled up in his head, and he went limp, sagging against the dented metal deck.

Carrie stood up and glanced over the side, scanning the ocean for signs of pursuit. The ocean was choppy and clouded, and silt swirled in their wake, but the creature was nowhere in sight. She grabbed the first aid kit, and then hurried over to the toolbox and rummaged inside of it, searching for a pair of needle-nose pliers.

“How is he?” Abhi called.

“He's unconscious, and there's something lodged in his leg.”

“What kind of something? You mean like a stingray barb?”

“I don't know what it is,” Carrie admitted. She looked again. “It's organic.”

“And that thing in the water?”

“I don't see it. Maybe it gave up. Just keep us steady.”

“Petal to the medal,” Abhi said, accentuating.

“I think you mean pedal to the metal, Abhi.”

“That's what I said, Carrie. Now is not the time to—”

“Sorry. You're right. I'm just … scared.”

“I am, too,” Abhi admitted.

Returning to Paolo with the pliers and the first aid kit, she knelt down again and tilted his leg. Blood and water rushed over her feet as the boat rocked with the swells.

“Keep it steady,” she yelled. “I'm going to try to pull it out.”

“I'm doing my best,” Abhi countered. “But it's getting choppier out here!”

Carrie noticed that her hands were trembling, as she first poured disinfectant over the pliers, and then over Paolo's wound. He moaned and twitched as the pink foam bubbled around the injury, but didn't wake. Carrie paused, using her breathing techniques to get her shaking under control. Then, she carefully tried to pull the object from Paolo's ankle. More blood welled around the pliers as she worked them around the object, pushing his flesh apart. Wincing, she finally managed to grip the ovoid. Then she pulled. Paolo groaned, clenching and unclenching his fists, but remained unconscious. She was glad for that. If he had been awake, there was no doubt in her mind he'd be screaming right now.

She felt like screaming herself.

Cursing, Carrie tugged harder at the mineral. Slowly, it cleared the ragged, blackened flesh of his ankle, but still refused to come entirely free. Then she saw why. The bottom of the ovoid was lodged deeper in his leg via a hook-like barb. She couldn't extract it without doing a lot more damage to Paolo. They needed a doctor. Or better yet, a surgeon.

She looked up and saw Abhi smiling sadly at her.

“Don't worry.” His expression belied his reassuring tone. “We'll make it to shore.”

Biting her lip again, Carrie nodded. She just hoped they'd make it in time.

 

EIGHT

“Any sign of it?” Abhi called over his shoulder.

“No,” Carrie said, cradling Paolo's head in her lap. He still hadn't regained consciousness, and his skin was cold and pale. Carrie wasn't sure if that was from shock or the result of the creature's attack on him. She had used some shop rags and a length of rope to fashion bandages and a crude tourniquet above his wound. Paolo had whimpered during the process, but remained out cold.

She was worried about him, and also feeling unsettled by the emotions his condition had stirred up in her—emotions she'd long thought sealed away in a drawer, along with old cards and letters.

“What is it, anyway?” Abhi asked. “That thing that attacked us?”

“I don't know,” Carrie admitted. “I still didn't get a good look. It seemed … it looked like some bizarre hodgepodge of a bunch of different animals. At first, I thought it might be a giant crab, but then—”

“A giant crab,” Abhi interrupted. “You mean like a Clicker?”

At first, Carrie wasn't sure if Abhi was joking or not. It was hard to see his expression, since he was turned away from her.

“The Megarachne Servinei? That was just a hoax—a misidentification. It was never a real sea creature.”

Carrie thought back to when Megarachne Servinei had first come to scientific light twenty years earlier, when a fossil was discovered in Argentina. It was thought, at the time, to be the biggest spider to ever walk the earth, and was even recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as such. Plaster casts of the fossil were exhibited in museums around the world. But then Sinclair, a researcher from the University of Manchester had insisted that its origins be reclassified, writing for a scientific journal that the fossil was more of a cross between a giant crab and a sea scorpion. He had intended to offer proof that the Megarachne Servinei was an aquatic relative of the giant eurypterid and the Woodwardopterus, an invasive species from the Carboniferous Period. Unfortunately, Sinclair had died unexpectedly before he could ever finish presenting his findings. That hadn't stopped various Internet-based conspiracy theorists and cryptozoologists from speculating that he'd been right, however, and that the creatures, popularized by the nickname Clickers, still existed somewhere in the depths of the ocean.

“I don't believe that,” Abhi said. “I know people who've seen one—or even heard one. In the North Atlantic, and off the coast of Maine, and another in the waters near Cuba.”

“It wasn't a Clicker,” Carrie insisted. “Maybe they saw or heard something they couldn't explain, but the Clickers were a hoax.”

“The sea still has all kinds of secrets, even today.”

“Maybe so, but that thing I saw wasn't a Clicker, either. It only looked like a giant crab at first. It's difficult to explain. It seemed to keep changing. There were tentacles, and a tail, and maybe a shell. I had a sense of it … flowing. That's not exactly the right word, but I don't know how else to describe it.”

“And that thing he brought on board? Is that what I think it is?”

“I don't know. What do you think it is?”

“It looks like an egg to me.”

Carrie didn't respond. Instead, she gently patted Paolo's cheeks, trying to rouse him. Her attempts were unsuccessful.

“Paolo? Can you hear me? I need you to hang on.”

“I'm going to radio ahead,” Abhi said. “That way we can have paramedics on standby at the dock to take him to Jeetoo in Port Louis. That's the closest hospital. Okay?”

Carrie nodded, blinking back tears. She was afraid that if she responded, her voice would crack.

Abhi steered with one hand and tried the radio handset with the other. But after several attempts at hailing the mainland, he frowned, staring at the radio in confusion.

“What's wrong?” Carrie croaked.

“The radio. There's some kind of interference. I don't understand. I checked the hell out of it before we left, and it was working fine. Now, it's acting up.”

Carrie suddenly felt very cold. “What kind of interference?”

Abhi hung the mic back on the receiver. “Like what your radios were doing underwater. But you said that happened at a certain depth. I don't understand why it would be impacting us now, up here on the surface.”

Carrie glanced behind them, scanning the waves. Then she turned back to Abhi.

“I think—”

Before she could finish, something slammed into the bottom of the boat, knocking them both to the deck. Carrie glimpsed the creature's broad shadow moving beneath the surface. Abhi screamed, flailing around wildly. Carrie grappled for a handhold as Paolo slipped away from her and flopped into a pool of bloody water. The boat spun in a wide arc, going off course and running parallel to the coastline. The motor whined like a wounded animal.

Carrie pulled Paolo from the water and checked to make sure he was still breathing. The creature rammed the boat again. The frame shuddered beneath them. She spotted Abhi clambering to his feet. Blood trickled down his face from a small gash on his forehead, but his eyes were clear and the panic and terror were absent from his expression, replaced with a grim determination.

“Hang on tight!” He struggled to right their course. “I just saw it go under. The size—I've never seen anything so big in these waters!”

Carrie was about to respond when something punched through the bottom of the boat, piercing the hull just inches from Paolo's leg. The segmented appendage was long and thin, brown in color, and covered with fine hairs and warty knobs. Its end tapered to a javelin-like point. To Carrie, it looked like some obscene cross between a crab and a spider. Spearing through the metal had wounded the creature. Blood streamed from several cuts around the joints. The beast incurred more injuries when it yanked its appendage back through the hole, leaving torn bits of meat dangling from the shredded metal. More blood spilled onto the deck, steaming in the sunlight.

Another appendage punctured the hull a few feet away from where Carrie crouched, and the creature further bloodied itself in the process. Given its reaction to their torches, Carrie had thought this animal was afraid of sunlight. But now it attacked them, seemingly without concern for the light or the damage it was doing to itself. The leg withdrew. It left behind a second hole, and the boat began to take on water. As a result, their speed slowed.

“Can't this fucking thing go any faster?”

“If it punches another hole in us, we're not going to be going at all,” Abhi shouted. “I need you to bail!”

Carrie dragged Paolo over to the cabin, which was really nothing more than a raised platform with an awning to protect the pilot, controls, and the navigational and communications equipment. She shoved the ice-filled cooler aside and laid Paolo's still form on a bench, hoping he was out of reach from any danger below. Then she quickly returned aft, grabbed a bucket, and began to bail. The bloody water smelled sharply of brine, but there was another stench—an alkaline, chemical tinge that made her eyes water.

“I think its blood is toxic,” Carrie gasped. “Try not to get it on you.”

Abhi's eyes widened. “You mean like acid? Or poison?”

“Not acid. I think it probably could have the same effect it had on us underwater. If you start to feel numb, try to focus before the hallucinations begin.”

“Wonderful,” Abhi moaned. “That's all we need.”

Crouched on her knees, Carrie dumped another bucket of red water over the side. As she did, she glimpsed a dark, massive shape disappearing beneath the boat.

“It's coming around again,” she warned.

This time, instead of a segmented leg, the creature attacked with a tentacle. The appendage was thick as a telephone pole, and erupted from the water on their starboard side, weaving back and forth for a second before darting forward like a snake. It struck at Abhi, who, with a frightened squawk, sidestepped the flailing arm. He ducked low, grabbed his machete, and swung at the tentacle as it felt along the boat, searching for something. The blade parted the rubbery meat like margarine. Blood erupted from the wound, spraying the boat. The stench was horrific. Carrie took a deep breath and held it. Gagging, Abhi backed away. The injured appendage disappeared back into the ocean. The severed end curled and uncurled on the deck, jetting blood, and then lay still. The blood slowed to a trickle.

“I told you we should have gone back,” Abhi complained, “but no. We couldn't go home. You had to do more science!”

Carrie's skin began to tingle. “Oh no…”

The boat rocked back and forth. The sea roiled and churned.

“Carrie,” Abhi coughed. “I don't feel so good.”

“It's the toxin. Get us ashore, Abhi. Hurry. While we still can.”

“I don't think…”

A massive wave broke over the bow, flooding the boat. Carrie blinked saltwater from her eyes and then blinked again in disbelief. The wave had deposited hundreds of tiny seahorses into the boat. Each one was no bigger than the tip of her pinky finger. They wriggled around in the red-tinged water, brushing against her knees and ankles. Awestruck, Carrie forgot all about their peril. Instead of bailing, she dipped the bucket into the water and scooped up dozens of the little creatures. Smiling with delight, she tried to touch them. When she did, the wiggling seahorses turned into bursts of multi-colored lights. Carrie laughed, amazed by the experience. It was like a miniature fireworks display taking place inside the confines of the bucket. She wanted to share this joyous discovery with Abhi, but when she tried to call out to him, she discovered that her tongue had gone numb. She turned to him instead, slowly, and was surprised to see him staring at her in alarm.

“Carrie, the blood!”

She tried to say “seahorses,” but instead could only slur. “Sheee…”

“Whatever you're seeing, Carrie, it's not there!”

Another wave crashed over them, drenching them both. Sputtering, Carrie glanced down at the bucket. The seahorses and their kaleidoscope of colors were gone. She heard Abhi screaming at her to bail, but he sounded far away, and the matter didn't seem all that urgent. What she really wanted to do was sleep, or better yet, just dive into the ocean and slip beneath the waves. After all, that's where she'd always felt the most comfortable, wasn't it? Beneath the waves, she was in charge. She answered only to herself. Nobody could hurt her when she was down …