Project U.L.F. (27 page)

“What?” he said again, only louder.

Chris looked at him and then gestured with his head that Byron should come and join him. When Byron didn’t move, Chris glared at him and gestured with his head again.

“This had better be good, kid,” Byron moaned as he picked himself up off the ground. “There’s only so much I can deal with in one day.” He sidled round to where Chris was standing. Chris didn’t even look at him, just stared out at Wyatt.

“You have to get Wyatt out of the water,” he said, mechanically.

Byron looked at him and frowned, not understanding him. He looked out to where Wyatt was swimming. “He seems to be doing all right by himself.”

“No,” Chris said, with the same air of detachment. “You have to get him out of the water.”

Byron looked back at Chris. “You’re not making sense, son. What’s this all about?”

Chris looked at him. He was visibly shaken and the color had drained from his face.

“Are you all right, kid?” Byron asked, placing a hand on Chris’ arm.

“There’s something in the water,” Chris said, his voice finally breaking with emotion, and then the rest of the story spilled from his lips. “Something big, Byron. It followed Kate and now it’s somewhere between Wyatt and the shore. You’ve got to get him out of there.”

Byron looked back out to Wyatt. He could see nothing in the water except for his colleague. He turned back to question Chris further and then stopped himself. Chris was trembling beneath his hand.

Byron walked down the muddy bank and motioned to Par who, after checking on Kate one final time, walked over to him. The pair exchanged whispered comments and Par looked out at Wyatt, then behind him at Chris, before nodding curtly.

Across from him, Kit shot Chris a disapproving glance. Like someone who had been betrayed. Chris tried his best to ignore him.

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As he windmilled his arms through the water, Wyatt caught a glimpse of Byron and Par walking down to the water’s edge. There was nothing particularly odd about that, but then the two men split to take positions on either side of where his current heading would take him.

“Come on, Wyatt,” Byron shouted to him. “We haven’t got all day, you know.” If the comment was meant to be a joke, then it was not a funny one. In fact the opposite was true. They had all the time in the world and more. Wyatt did not understand the statement, nor did he think that Byron was trying to be funny. His old friend very rarely put on displays of humor outside the safety of an expedition craft. Coupled with the fact that there was not a hint of sarcasm in Byron’s voice, Wyatt got his first inkling that something was wrong.

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The animal turned its head slightly to get a final lock on the source. It was fifty feet in front of her and on the surface. As she began to accelerate to strike, she was suddenly hit by a huge pressure wave from beyond the source of the vibrations. Instantly she associated it with another of her kind, surging up from the depths to attack whatever was on the surface. Quickly she altered course to see off her competition.

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On the surface Wyatt felt a slight swell lift him gently in the water. He stopped. He had definitely not imagined it. Something big had moved and that something was directly below him.

The fear that rose inside him brought with it a new energy and he began to swim again. Much, much faster than before.

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The smaller animal sensed her huge bulk and turned quickly, deterred by its older relative. It swam quickly back into the depths with its nemesis close in pursuit. There was still a chance that it might get a meal out of the situation.

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She chased the creature into deeper water but knew that the fight was not yet over. If she stayed close on the other animal’s tail it could turn quickly and she could find herself the wrong side of it. She could effectively be chasing it back towards the prey item. It was a tactic she herself had used when smaller and more agile. She slowed. She would have to stay between her competitor and the food source until the other animal admitted defeat and skulked away into the inky blackness.

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Wyatt could not hear Byron encouraging him to swim faster, he could only see his friend beckoning him to the shore every time he raised his head out of the water for a breath. He was now forty yards from the others, but given the urgency of the situation the distance seemed like a gulf and even though he was swimming as fast as he could, it seemed he was making very slow progress through the water. With each passing second he had a horrible feeling that something evil was plotting against him and that just when he was going to make it to safety, some dark form would emerge from the water and snatch that safety away from him. Try as he might to dismiss the thought and concentrate on his strokes, it lurked there in the back of his mind.

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The vibrations became weaker and, satisfied that the unseen adversary had given up on the prize, she turned back to finally finish whatever it was that had disturbed her from her resting place.

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Kate lay on her back on the mud flat, exhausted. Her eyes were closed to the bright sky and now that the thumping of her heart in her chest had slowed, she was becoming more aware of the sounds around her. She heard Par call Wyatt and then Byron do the same. She could not help but hear the tone of urgency in Byron’s voice, simply because it was so uncharacteristic.

She lifted her head off the mud and shielded her eyes with a hand to see what was going on. Byron and Par stood at the water’s edge calling and beckoning Wyatt to join them. Beyond them Wyatt was about thirty yards from the shore. He would soon be approaching the place where Byron and Par reached her and yet they were making no move to repeat their entry into the water.

She looked across to Chris who was standing watching the three men too. He looked anxious, the hand holding the bag of synthetic blood had fallen to his side and his free hand was at his mouth. He was biting his nails feverishly. Kit stood to her left, his body language conveying the same apprehension. She could not help but notice that his hand played lightly over the weapon strapped at his side. She picked herself up, standing to get a better look at what was going on.

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As the creature headed back towards the shallower water, the vibrations started getting stronger again. She was close but she was in dangerously shallow water for an animal of her size.

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From his higher vantage point, Chris saw the first swirl of water about forty yards behind Wyatt; ten yards behind that there was another swirl and ten yards behind that again, another.

“Fuck me,” he said under his breath. He knew he was looking at the movements of either three large animals or one massive…He did not even stop to contemplate the possibilities.

“Get him the hell out of there!” he shouted. “It’s coming back!” Chris pointed out to the lake and to the swirls, which were now disappearing without trace. Kate saw them and took a sharp intake of breath. Her stomach knotted. She brought a hand up to her mouth.

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Wyatt heard Chris’ shout and put on a spurt. He did not turn around to take a look at whatever “it” was. It would waste him valuable seconds and that could be the difference between making it or meeting “it.” He did not feel exhaustion, only fear.

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Byron and Par looked once, quickly, at each other and knew instantly what the other was going to do. Without a word the pair of them ran into the water towards Wyatt.

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The creature slowed again. Again the signal had intensified once the source had got close to the shallower water. There was more than one of whatever she was tracking. Any other time she may well have turned away, daunted by the prospect of being led into a trap, but she had expended a great deal of energy during this whole episode and that had to be replaced. She was eating for more than one. She had already let one meal escape her today, and was not going to let the second go so easily. With a flick of her long tail, she accelerated to strike.

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Byron and Par reached Wyatt and both grabbed hold of an arm; fortunately they were still in their depth and could touch bottom. “You can’t rest yet,” Par said quickly to him. “Run!” His words were echoed by Chris up on the bank.

“Move, god dammit! Move! Move!” he shouted as he fidgeted on the spot. Powerless to do anything.

Behind them Byron heard a splash and took a brief look over his shoulder. His eyes widened in horror. A bow wave had started to form behind them. Something large and indiscernible was surging through the water towards them.

The three men pumped their legs furiously, each step fractionally easier than its predecessor.

“Run!” Kate screamed at them.

Kit unholstered his weapon and brought it up to take aim.

There was a whoosh as something exploded out of the water behind them and Wyatt, Par and Byron launched themselves onto the bank, diving the last few feet to safety.

Wyatt brought his hands up to protect his head, expecting to be covered in a spattering of blood as Kit emptied his weapon into whatever had chased them out of the water. Kit very rarely needed an excuse to cause some kind of suffering to someone or something, but the sound of shots never came. He peered from the ground to see Kit lowering his weapon, a look of complete astonishment on his face.

Wondering what it was that so nearly ended his life. Wyatt rolled over onto his back to take a look at it. Stranded on the mud, not four feet away from him, all he could see was a massive head. It must have been about six feet across and the whole front of it seemed to comprise a huge mouth which gaped open to reveal large, crude, pointed teeth. Alarmed by its proximity, he pushed himself away from it until he was standing about ten feet away. He walked around the side of it to take a better look at it. It was a mottled white color, like marble, except for two pinpricks of black, one on either side of its head, which must have been all that was left of its eyes. The head went back to a bony crest which fanned out over the neck region and behind that a long cylindrical body tapered off into the water. The start of a dorsal fin, which Wyatt suspected, ran all the way down its back and formed part of the concealed tail, was just visible out of the water. On either side of the animal’s abdomen were a row of appendages, all about a foot long, all looking like large webbed three-fingered hands, each finger being tipped by a tiny black nail. It was both grotesque and yet somehow beautiful.