The Loch Ness Legacy (36 page)

Alexa was at serious risk of being crushed against the gunwale if Nessie decided to roll in her direction, but she put up her hands. If she tried to jump overboard, Pryor would kill her before she got one foot over the side.

He smiled and nodded that she’d made the right decision. Then he aimed the gun at Nessie.

“No!” Alexa screamed.

Bullets poured from the gun into Nessie’s side, the vicious man’s smile only growing wider as the animal barked in agony, wailing like a stricken infant.

The animal’s mouth gaped, and its throat convulsed. An enormous tongue shot forward at lightning speed, hitting Pryor’s body with a splat. The mucus adhered to his clothes, and he yelped as he was reeled back toward Nessie’s mouth.

He fell to his knees and was dragged the rest of the way screaming. The giant salamander clamped its jaws around Pryor and bit hard, bones crushed with a sickening crunch. Pryor’s screaming abruptly ceased.

Nessie spit him out, apparently unhappy with the taste.

Tyler appeared near the body, then ran over to Alexa, his panicked eyes searching her for wounds.

“Are you shot?”

She shook her head.

“Thank God,” he said, putting his arm around her. “We better leave. The ship’s about to go under.”

“Zim is here,” she said.

Tyler’s head swiveled around. “Where?”

“I don’t know. He was at the bow.”

“We’ll worry about him later. Let’s go.”

He escorted her around Nessie’s head and they scrambled down the ladder. Alexa saw how Tyler planned to get them all to safety with the small sub. The Gordian submarine pilots lay on the wings gripping the handholds. It didn’t matter that the GhostManta could no longer dive; the sub would have to remain on the surface.

Tyler cruised away from the ship. Alexa turned in her seat so she could see Nessie swim free.

Instead, she watched in horror as Zim climbed onto the
Aegir
’s harpoon cannon pedestal. He was limping, blood pouring down his leg from where he’d removed the gaff hook, as he loaded a fresh harpoon.

“Tyler!” she yelled. “Go back!”

“We can’t. We don’t have any weapons.”

The stern of the
Aegir
descended into the water, and the deck was immediately awash.

“Come on, Nessie,” Alexa chanted. “You can do it.”

At the feel of water on its skin, Nessie struggled to free itself of the netting.

Zim finished loading the harpoon and moved back to the trigger. With both hands on the grips, he swiveled it around to aim it at Nessie.

The animal flopped over the gunwales but it was too late.

Zim fired.

The harpoon speared Nessie through the base of the tail but didn’t explode, and Alexa understood what Zim’s plan had been. He’d loaded a cold harpoon, one without a grenade and trailing five strands of the strong nylon rope.

Zim wasn’t trying to kill Nessie. He wanted it to go down with the ship.

The other end of the rope was securely lashed to the welded pedestal holding the cannon. Nessie was big, but if she couldn’t loosen a gaff hook in two hundred years, she wouldn’t be able to pull out a huge harpoon. She struggled to swim away, but the harpoon was lodged too deeply.

Zim staggered off the pedestal and sloshed along the deck to pick up Pryor’s assault rifle, which she had stupidly left behind in her shock. He jumped back in the sub he had commandeered and came after them.

“Tyler,” she said, “Zim’s on his way. It looks like he’s faster than we are.”

“We’re running on only one impeller and weighed down by four people. I’ll make a run for that little beach in front of the castle and hope we can get there before he catches us.”

Alexa watched the
Aegir
founder. Its bow went up in the air, dragging Nessie backward.

She sobbed when the fishing boat disappeared beneath the water, dousing the last light illuminating the creature. All she could do was listen to the animal’s final haunting cry burble into silence as Loch Ness reclaimed its monster.

Zim’s throbbing leg only fueled his rage at the Lockes, not only for injuring him but for killing Pryor, who was a good supporter of the white cause even if he’d been annoying at times. Zim would savor the success of getting rid of that ugly animal later. First, he was going to show Alexa and Tyler that a hook through the leg was a pinprick compared to the pain they’d endure.

He held the rifle above his head and loosed some rounds in their direction, but at this distance any hit would be luckier than winning a lottery jackpot.

Zim withdrew the rifle and used the strap to tie a tourniquet around his thigh. It slowed the blood loss to a trickle and alleviated some of the agony. He convinced himself he’d be able to walk.

Trailing by only a hundred yards, he saw where Tyler was headed: a small rocky beach with a staircase leading up to a stone archway and a wooden gate flanked by low walls on the back side of the castle grounds.

With Dunham and his well-armed men positioned at the opposite entrance, Zim could catch them all in a classic pincer movement.

Tyler ran the GhostManta up onto the beach, where it tilted to one side. The two pilots on the wings slid off and clambered up the staircase.

This might be Zim’s best chance to kill them. Tyler and Alexa climbed out of the sub and scrambled for the steps. Zim stood, ignoring the sudden lightheadedness, and loosed a volley at them. Tyler was hit in the left arm and went down. Alexa stopped to help him get to his feet.

Zim shot again, this time hitting the gate as the two rescued pilots squeaked through. Tyler and Alexa veered to the right and tore up the hill, where they climbed over the railing.

Zim beached his own sub next to Tyler’s, running it so far onto the rocks that it would be impossible to launch again. He didn’t care. Once they finished off Tyler and his friends, they’d take the Zodiac back across the loch to the stashed Range Rover and freedom.

He eased himself out of the cockpit. The pain flared up again in an excruciating jolt, but he did his best to tamp it down for now. It reminded him that he had a special present for Tyler and Alexa.

He picked up the gaff hook and tucked it in his belt. Getting off the sub was even worse, and he took a moment to gather himself before continuing on, his rifle at the ready.

He considered yelling that he was coming for Tyler and Alexa, then thought better of it as he set off up the stairs. Fear of the unknown was always scarier.

* * *

Grant snapped out of his stupor when he heard rifle fire not only in front of him, but also behind him as well. Something primal from his long stint in the Army gave him a sudden burst of adrenaline. He felt more alert than he had in days, but he knew it wouldn’t last long.

He peeked over the back wall and saw Tyler and Alexa creep out of hiding behind a crumbling retaining wall. Tyler would know that Brielle had chosen the gatehouse for their last stand and would lead Alexa in that direction.

As he watched, they kept low and were about to dash along the sidewalk to the gatehouse when another man burst from the loch gate behind them. The hulking figure in the shadows had to be Zim. He fired from the hip, sending Tyler and Alexa running away from him toward the tower.

Grant called to Brielle. “I need the rifle!”

She shook her head and whispered, “I ran out of ammo two minutes ago.”

Grant couldn’t sit there while Tyler and Alexa were killed.

“Keep showing the rifle over the wall,” he said. “Since you’re such a good shot, the bluff should give us another minute or two.”

He crawled toward the stairwell, willing the energy to move.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Whatever I can,” he replied, and went down the stairs.

* * *

Dunham couldn’t convince either of the remaining men to make a run for the gatehouse. They were too afraid of Brielle’s sharpshooting skills to venture out, so they kept taking potshots at the balcony.

A distant sound pierced the silence between gunshots. Dunham was the only one not firing, so she doubted the men heard it. But as it grew closer, the source was unmistakable.

Sirens.

She looked in the direction of the road and saw blue flashing lights heading toward them. The police would be there any minute, responding to the sound of gunshots.

Sticking around was no longer a good idea.

“Keep firing,” she said, and they each shot a few more rounds at the castle.

Sufficiently distracted, they didn’t notice when she backed away, got to her feet, and made a run for the pier.

It wasn’t until her footsteps were banging against the wood that she heard them shout, “Hey! Come back!”

She ignored their pleas, instead laying down her own covering fire with the machine gun. It bucked in her hands so much that she hit nothing, but it did the job. The two men dived to the ground.

She leapt into the Zodiac and untied it from the pier. After a moment of fumbling with the starter, she figured out how it operated. The engine thrummed to life, and she reversed away from shore.

Once she was clear, she twisted the throttle to full and aimed for their drop-off point across the loch. The lights at the front of the Zodiac would show her the reflectors they’d planted on shore. Dunham congratulated herself for having the foresight to swipe the car keys from Pryor before getting off the ship.

She streaked away, passing the Grant Tower to her right. The
Aegir
was nowhere in sight, so she assumed it was on the bottom of the loch with the monster strapped to it. Although her plan to capture Tyler hadn’t worked, she felt pretty good about the outcome.

She waved goodbye to the ruins and couldn’t help but grin that she was done with Zim even earlier than she had planned.

* * *

Tyler winced at every footstep that jarred his re-injured left shoulder. His arm dangled by his side, useless. The pain was far worse than when he was shot at the Eiffel Tower. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had shattered bone. Zim’s gunshot had hit him so hard it knocked the wind from his lungs. It was only by leaning on Alexa that he could go on without passing out.

They hobbled into the tower and onto a modern wood floor that had been built to cover the open basement.

Bullets bit into the floor, and they hobbled faster, plunging into the darkness of a doorway. It was the landing of a narrow spiral staircase.

“Up or down?” Alexa asked.

“Up,” Tyler said without hesitation. High ground was always better.

Tyler chewed on his lip to keep from screaming as they climbed the stairs. Footsteps pounding across the floor below them hurried their pace.

They reached the top of the tower, a twelve-by-fifteen-foot observation platform constructed for tourists to have an unsurpassed view of the loch, and Tyler realized they were cornered. There was nowhere to run, no other way down. Crawling to one of the other parapets along the disintegrating rampart was suicide, but the alternative wasn’t much better.

To the north, Tyler could see the Zodiac speeding away. A woman’s long hair streaming backward from the head of the only passenger was barely visible in the running lights. It had to be Dunham.

Zim, who was now on the stairs below, must have seen it too.

“No!” he screamed. “You bitch!”

He fired a long burst from a window opening in the stairwell until the weapon clicked empty. Tyler listened for the sound of him reloading another magazine, but the rifle clattered down the stairs instead.

“I’m coming for you, Tyler,” Zim cackled with glee. “I’m coming for both of you.”

Tyler considered jumping over the balustrade and landing on Zim, but decided it was too risky. In close quarters Zim had the advantage of upper body strength, doubled now because of Tyler’s injured shoulder. Better to bring him into open space where Zim’s wounded leg would hinder him.

Tyler backed Alexa against the railing behind him and readied himself for the fight.

Zim limped up the stairs one at a time, brandishing the gaff hook in front of him. Tyler didn’t want to think what landing on that would have felt like.

Alexa pressed something into his good hand.

“I forgot I had this,” she said.

Tyler looked down and saw his Leatherman gleaming in the floodlight. He flipped open the knife and held it out, bending his knees in a defensive posture.

Zim came to a stop at the top of the stairs.

“How’s your arm?” he asked with a maniacal grin.

“Nothing but a scratch. What about your leg?”

“I’ve had worse.”

“Well, now that we’ve gone through our ritual lies, why don’t you go back down the stairs and give yourself up?” Tyler pointed at the flashing blue lights in the parking lot. “Without your boat, you won’t be getting out of here.”

“I don’t care. I know you must have gotten a tissue sample, and I want it. Now.”

“Come and get it.”

Even with his gimpy leg, Zim was quick and the platform was small. He charged forward, swiping with the hook. Tyler dodged to the side and kicked at Zim’s leg, grazing it enough to elicit a howl.

Zim whirled around again with the hook but missed. He followed through with his other arm and connected with Tyler’s chest close to the shoulder. The vibration jolted the injury, causing a blaze of stars to temporarily obscure his vision. Another hit like that and he’d be down for the count.

Tyler staggered back, waving the knife. Zim came at him again, bringing down the hook in an overhand sweep.

Tyler blocked the move with his right forearm, but couldn’t bring his other hand up to ward off Zim’s right fist. It crashed into Tyler’s shoulder, and this time he buckled to his knees in agony, dropping the Leatherman to the floor as he grasped at his shoulder.

Zim raised the hook to finish him off, then dropped the weapon when Alexa smashed her knee into his wounded leg. He screamed and threw his arm back, catching Alexa with an elbow that sent her reeling.

Pain seemed to provide Zim with superhuman powers. He put one hand on Tyler’s shoulder and the other around his neck. Tyler had little strength to fight back. Once he was unconscious or dead, Zim would find the tissue sample in his coat pocket and dispose of it, killing Grant in the process as well.