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  CHAPTER 36

  “Stay down – it’ll lose interest if it thinks you’re inedible.” Cate Granger

  There was more clanking from inside the Alvin, and Cate looked up to see the mountain of flesh rising up the side of the Archimedes toward the small submersible. Once again its body pulsed with waves of light as the chromatophore cells in its skin changed its flesh color in tune with its building interest.

  “Sam, please.” Cate watched the giant octopus glide up toward them. She guessed the hull of the Alvin was a lot tougher than the ADS suit, but the octopus had time, patience, and the strength of a titan. Eventually it’d get inside, or damage them for good.

  “Firing again.” Mironov bent to his task and another green beam shot out from underneath them. This time he managed to hit what he was aiming at – one of the remote arms of the Nautilus that was warped and locked onto the Alvin.

  Mironov squinted at the damage. The right-side limb was now partially severed.

  “Hurry up,” Jack said. “It’s found the Alvin. Cate, try them again. Sam needs to stay quiet, and also shut down her lighting.” He grimaced. “No, damn it, tell her to shut down everything.”

  “Sam, please, Sam, do you read?” Cate waited for several seconds, and gritted her teeth. “I don’t think—”

  “What the hell?” Sam’s voice was high and sharp.

  Cate swung back in time to see both Sam and Andy stand, but then shrink down to cower on the floor of the small submersible, as the monstrosity loomed beside them. Already one of the tentacles was tapping along the edge of the Alvin, feeling the seams.

  “Sam, listen to me.” Cate felt her own heart smashing in her chest. “Stay quiet, stay down, and, if possible, turn off all your electronics.”

  Cate, Jack and Brenner were engrossed, but Valery Mironov went back to his laser task. His next beam cut right through the right-side limb, this time fully severing it. The Nautilus lifted slightly, but at an angle.

  The lights inside the Alvin went out, and only a few pinpricks of light from their consoles remained. The massive bag-like head of the octopus glided closer and then one ten-foot wide eye stared into the small steel bubble of air. It hung beside them, motionless, taking it all in. Gradually more tentacles alighted on the craft, pushing at it, tugging, then settling on it, and finally engaging their suckers.

  Once again the Nautilus crew watched as some of the tentacles wrapped entirely around the small craft and tightened, exerting colossal pressure on the superstructure.

  Through the Alvin was built to withstand enormous pressure forces, it was designed to cater for ones directed at the hull uniformly, and not just on individual pressure points. Just like the ADS suit, eventually the creature would discover a point of failure.

  “Hold, still, damn it.” Mironov tried to align the laser to cut through the remaining remote arm and free them, but the jerking of the Alvin telegraphed up along the remaining arm and onto the long hull of the Nautilus.

  Lines of condensed green light shot out into the red water – he missed his target.

  “It’s got her now,” Jack said.

  “Stay down, Sam. It’ll lose interest if it thinks you’re inedible,” Cate said.

  “Tell that to Francis,” Brenner lamented.

  Cate shot him a glare, and the communication engineer held it for several seconds, refusing to be cowed after the loss of his crewmate.

  The massive mountain of boneless flesh slid further up the side of the Archimedes and wrapped some of its arms around the hull, while using more of the feeding tentacles to gently tug on the small body of the Alvin.

  Though Cate was horrified by the beast, she was also captivated by its ability to problem solve, its patience and its mind – it had a level of intelligence that seemed other-worldly, and had been documented many times in laboratories.

  “They’re too smart,” she said.

  “More than we realize,” Jack added. “Cephalopods have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and were once the top alpha predators in the ocean before anything even lived on land.” He exhaled softly. “They could have ruled the world, if they’d decided to leave the sea. We’re just lucky they wanted to stick to the water.”

  Like a child with a toy it couldn’t quite understand, the octopus started to shake the Alvin, tugging on it, becoming infuriated by the submersible’s reluctance to come free.

  The cable that still held it tethered to the Archimedes was already partially severed. But one massive tug, and it snapped.

  The giant octopus jerked its prize toward itself, and the sudden motion also tore free the last remote arm of the Nautilus that had bound it to the Alvin. There came a horrendous scraping noise as the broken remote arm gouged the nose of the Nautilus as it was dragged away.

  “Damn it. It’ll damage the cavitation cells.” Mironov seethed. “But at least we’re free. Jack, back us up, I’m realigning the laser.”

  Jack leaped at the controls, giving them reverse thrust, and pulling back on the U-shaped stick. The sleek submersible immediately eased back in the water.

  “Hold,” Mironov said.

  Jack slowed and then stopped the craft. Mironov targeted and fired.

  The green beam of light pierced the enormous, fleshy body, and the effect was instantaneous. The octopus expelled a cloud of dark ink, and shot a hundred feet up the vertical hull of the Archimedes.

  Jack backed the Nautilus into clearer water, where they saw the monstrous creature hanging above them, glaring malevolently. Two tentacles waved before it, like a boxer shaping up, and along its body rings of color undulated up and down its limbs and over the bulbous pulsating sack of a head.

  Unfortunately, it still had hold of the Alvin, circled in one tree-trunk thick tentacle.

  “What’s it doing?” Brenner asked. “The colors are like a neon sign.”

  “It’s infuriated,” Jack said.

  “So am I,” Mironov said.

  “Don’t!” Cate lunged.

  Mironov fired again. The laser touched on the broad mantle of the creature, and this time it fled. Taking the Alvin with it.

  “Shit.” Cate screamed. “Get after it.”

  “On it.” Jack gave the Nautilus forward thrust and lift.

  The giant octopus flowed like liquid over the hull of the Archimedes, and then, like a waterfall, fell in and among the tall sea fans at the base of the trench wall. It held the Alvin under one long tentacle like a footballer holding the ball.

  The Nautilus chased after them, but it’s maneuverability was far inferior to that of the octopus, and though Mironov was continuing to fire, he desisted when the huge mass of limbs paused and actually held up the small submersible like a shield.

  “Is it doing that on purpose?” Jack asked.

  “Probably,” Cate said. “They’re certainly smart enough, and it’s been proven that individual octopus display real emotions like anger, fear, curiosity, and hate. There’s good reason to believe it knows we want the Alvin back. The more we want it, the more it’ll want to keep it.”

  “It can’t outrun us – especially if it gets into the open,” Mironov said. “But its boneless body can fit itself into places we can’t follow.”

  As if in response, the octopus lifted off, now flowing up the side of the sheer trench wall.

  “Like in there.” Cate pointed.

  About 400 feet up there was a series of jagged openings, all large enough for a soft giant to fit in, but not for a hard-shelled submersible.

  “If those caves are deep, and it goes in, we’ll never get it, or them, out again,” Jack said, and began accelerating.

  “Slow it down, Jack.” Mironov reached out to touch Jack’s forearm. “We damage ourselves on the rock face down here, we don’t have a dry-dock workshop to undertake repairs. We’ll all end up staying.”

  “Yes, yes.” Jack took in a deep breath.

  “We’ve got about thirty seconds before it’s gone,” Cate said. She flicked on the comms. “S
am, it’s too fast for us. Do you have any weapons, or anything defensive at all?”

  There came the sound of grunts, banging and then shouts, as the small submersible was shaken about.

  “No …” Sam strained at the words. “… we had an ADS suit … and that was it.” More grunting. “Where are we? I can’t see a damn thing anymore.”

  The octopus flowed out from an outcrop and drifted into open water for a few seconds. It seemed to be daring the Nautilus to follow, or maybe goading them as it gently unfurled the arm that held the Alvin as if to show it to them.

  It obviously planned to flow back in to the trench wall as it now hung just below the largest of the caves in the rock. Brenner ignored his screens and continued to stare, open-mouthed.

  “Mr. Andrews, ready torpedoes one and two.” Mironov’s eyes narrowed. “If we can’t stop it, we can certainly make getting into its den a little bit more difficult. We’ll shut its front door.”

  “Two fish loaded, control is yours, sir.” Andrews had obviously been waiting on the directive.

  Mironov started to aim the torpedoes as the octopus glided out from the cliff face.

  Mironov waited, and waited.

  “No shot.” He exhaled. “It’s in front of its den. If I hit it, I might hit Alvin.” His teeth clenched in determination. “No choice, I have to take it now.”

  The huge creature hung like a massive parachute in the red water, still taunting them, its huge dispassionate eyes fixed on them, and the submersible held loosely in the coils of one of its tentacles.

  It started to float toward the crevice in the trench wall, and Mironov leaned forward.

  The giant octopus was directly in front of its lair now, and Mironov’s fingers began to flex.

  “It’s impossible – don’t take the shot, Valery; you’ll hit the Alvin,” Jack yelled.

  “We’ll lose her for good, if he doesn’t,” Cate fired back. She leaned toward Mironov. “Take it, now.”

  Brenner, who was scratching furiously at his bandaged hand, leaped to his feet. “No, you’ll hit them!”

  Cate lunged at him, just as a massive collision made her shrink back down. They all felt the impact right through the skin of the Nautilus. The massive shark had grabbed the entire bulbous head of the tentacled body, and now shook it side to side for a few seconds, like a massive hound who’d caught a rabbit. Then came a billowing explosion of blue blood, ink and massive gobbets of shredded flesh that filled the water.

  In seconds more it was over, the shark flicked its tail and was gone. The disembodied coiling mass of tentacles floated down, but the entire head was gone.

  “Oh my god.” Cate sunk back into her seat.

  The tentacle mass headed down toward the bottom. Its coils slowly relaxed, and the Alvin tumbled free.

  * * *

  “It’s still here,” Jack said.

  Mironov turned to glare at Brenner. “Well?”

  The young man shook his head. “It must have come down along the trench wall, hugging it, and staying invisible. It’s just so damned fast.” He fumed.

  Mironov exhaled loudly and sat back as he stared at the tiny submersible now resting on the bottom, and beside it, the huge mass of relaxing coils.

  “They’re free.” Cate laughed, still in disbelief.

  “Yes, but now we’re without our remote arms, so we can’t hang onto the Alvin anymore.” Mironov swung to look at Cate. “I’m afraid they’re on their own.”

  “But you still have all your weapons, right?” She lifted her chin.

  “Yes, we still have them.” Mironov looked less confident than before.

  Jack stood, staring from the cockpit window. The blood and ink was dispersing, being carried along the trench and also higher by the thermal current. “All that blood will attract any predators and scavengers for miles.” He turned to Cate. “We should at least get Sam to move away from that mountain of meat.

  Cate nodded, licked her dry lips, and opened the comm. link. “Sam, do you read?”

  “Yeah, we’re still here.” She sounded breathless and a little dazed.

  “Are you two okay?” Cate tried to see inside the small submersible but it was still fogged by the cloud of flesh debris and inky blood.

  “Yeah, a little shook up, but we’re both still here.” She exhaled loudly. “Oxygen levels are okay now, but we burned up quite a bit of power trying to get ourselves free.”

  “We got a problem,” Andy said with a hint of pain in his voice. “The propeller and struts are all bent out of shape. That damned octopus squeezed us like a tube of toothpaste.”

  “So, we can’t maneuver?” Sam asked.

  “No. But we’ve got hull integrity, and we can still pop the pod when we need to,” Andy mumbled.

  “And we’re alive.” Sam sniffed, and then she chuckled sadly. “But we probably should really think about going home soon.”

  Cate smiled lopsidedly. “I know, kid. We’re working on a new plan right now.” She turned to Mironov, but he simply stared back with little indication he agreed.

  Brenner grimaced. “Well, we got good and bad news. The good news is that scraping we heard didn’t affect hull integrity, and only damaged the air expression vents on one side of our nose. The bad news is, the damage is enough to stop us developing a complete air envelope – means we won’t be able to create a bubble around the ship.”

  Mironov shut his eyes for a moment. “No bubble, no cavitation, and thus, no speed.”

  “So we can’t outrun it anymore.” Jack sat down and rested his elbows on his knees. He curled the fingers of one hand around the other and placed his chin on them. He sighed long and slow. “Okay, here’s what we’ve got: we’re over 20,000 feet down, in some sort of volcanic vent turbulence zone that is mitigating the crushing pressure forces on us. Though we can’t swim out there, it at least has meant we aren’t pulverized down to mush even in our submersibles. So we’re safe from that threat for now. But, we’ve got dwindling air and power, and a super predator somewhere out there.” He sat back. “Bottom line; we need to make it to the surface. There’s no other way around it; we need to take a risk.”

  Cate groaned. “And on the way up, and even on the surface, it means there’s no guarantee we’ll be safe there; remember the Slava? The shark will attack us topside.” She grimaced. “There’s risk, and there’s suicide.”

  “No,” Mironov said. “We’ll be safe once we are on the surface. By now Sonya in the Anastasia should be waiting for us; it’s too big for the shark to attack.”

  “I present exhibit A.” Jack thumbed toward the enormous hulk of the Archimedes that was jack-knifed into the seabed. “I’m sure they thought the same thing.”

  Mironov shook his head. “The Anastasia has countermeasures.”

  “What sort?” Jack asked.

  “Deck cannon, but primarily depth charges; they’ll keep the Megalodon away from us.”

  “We might not need them, if we time it right.” Cate sat forward. “In my research we found that the attacks of this creature, and also the majority of its sightings, occurred at night, and especially during overcast or moonless nights.”

  “Light sensitivity, of course.” Jack checked his watch. “It’s already daylight up there now, so we have about seven hours to get topside, and hopefully avoid the Megalodon following us all the way to the surface.”

  “Yeah, well, anyone else want to place a bet on it not following us up?” She gave Jack a half smile.

  Jack nodded. “Hey, one problem at a time. At least it gives us a timeline to work toward.”

  “So, how long to get topside?” Cate asked.

  Brenner cleared his throat. “If we had cavitation, we’d be there in ten minutes. But under standard propulsion, and at top speed; probably a little under an hour.”

  The four of them sat in silence for a moment. Cate knew what was on all their minds. “So, what are our chances of making it past the shark under standard propulsion?” She pushed the hair back off
her face. “And what about the Alvin?”

  “We have little chance of outrunning it or sneaking past it. They lock in on any movement.” Jack said. “And a big target like the Nautilus will draw it from wherever it is now; not to mention the sound of our engines.”

  Mironov steepled his fingers. “So we need to rise silently, steadily, and with only a small signature.” He turned to Jack. “My understanding is that the Carcharodon species is primarily triggered by food, and territorial protection, yes?”

  Jack nodded. “And mating, but you’re right; those two are the primary stimuli for aggressive action.”

  “Food and territorial defense. We know it has just fed, so food is not going to be a primary driver right now. That leaves territorial defense – it’ll attack anything it perceives as a threat, yes?”

  “Yep, and the larger the threat, the more it’s going to fire up,” Jack responded. “And the Nautilus being 190 feet long is going to be seen as a pretty damn big threat. It’ll hunt us down before we’ve gone a hundred feet, let alone 20,000.”

  “Then all we need do is make ourselves smaller.” Mironov raised an eyebrow. “And we need to give it something else to chase. Something bigger, louder, and far more threatening.”

  “I like it, but what?” Jack’s lips quirked up.

  “A decoy of course.” Mironov smiled in return.

  Cate angled her head. “Please tell me you’re not going to use the Alvin as a decoy.”

  Mironov stared for a moment, but then slowly shook his head. “Damn, and it was such a good plan.”

  Cate’s eyes widened, and Mironov smiled devilishly. “No, of course not. We use the Nautilus. We eject the escape pod and float up.”

  “That’s better.” Cate grinned. “And the Alvin?”

  “We go up together.” He turned. “How long to get to the surface if we float, Mr. Brenner?”

  Brenner did some quick calculations and winced. “Six hours, and that’s based on a slow rise, and without any sideways drift.”

  “There will be drift,” Jack said.

  “Just a couple of tiny air bubbles on their way to the sunlight.” Cate felt slightly giddy.