Zaidee was asleep by the time Dr. Sam got home. Loch had decided not to tell her about finding Jesse Sanderson’s head in the lake. He knew she’d been through enough to give her nightmares for a very long time as it was. Nor would he tell his father about Jesse. There was no need, just yet, for others to know what had happened to the town drunk who swaggered around Lake Alban with a shotgun. The beasts were already hated enough.
By midnight a half-moon had risen over the mountains, and the dangers of the lake faded before its vast beauty. Loch waited up for his father, staring out the window at the sweep of stars that lay suspended in the dark velvet of the northern sky. Only the fragile cries from distant loons broke the silence of the night.
“What the hell was going on today?” Dr. Sam wanted to know when he came in, his face drawn. He grabbed a bottle of beer and swung into the dining nook next to Loch. “Why didn’t you tell me what you’d found?”
“You were too busy.”
“Don’t throw that back in my face.”
“We found what I drew-a young plesiosaur,” Loch said. “That’s what we tried to tell you yesterday.”
“A juvenile?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Sam took a sip of his beer. He let the fact sink in, imagining for a moment what he would have done if he had known. “Well, you heard Cavenger. It doesn’t make any difference now.”
Loch got right to what was on his mind. “He’s going to kill them, isn’t he?”
“He’s hoping to take one alive.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“I-”
“Dad, special equipment would have to be built to take any of the big creatures alive,” Loch said. “Cavenger wouldn’t spend the time-or the money-to do it right. All he’s got on The Revelation are guns and harpoons. And any young ones are going to die in the nets. You know that!”
“I don’t know that-”
Loch hit his fist on the table. “Dad, you do!”
“Don’t wake Zaidee,” Dr. Sam said.
“I need to talk to you,” Loch said, getting up and going outside. Dr. Sam took his beer and went out after him. He caught up to him walking down to the lake.
“The creature I found was frightened and scraped and terrified,” Loch went on. “Zaidee and I went into the water with him, and he began to trust us. He’s not some kind of stupid fake out of one of Cavenger’s lousy magazines. He’s real. He’s alive. Dad, he’s very smart.”
“Loch, it’s a prehistoric beast-”
“I’m telling you they’re all more than just a pack of monsters. The little one makes sounds, like a kind of music. He cries and feels pain. All these creatures, they’re just trying to stay alive and be left alone. Life doesn’t mean anything to Cavenger, but it’s got to mean something to you, Dad. It’s got to!”
“You and Zaidee mean something to me-”
“Then don’t just stand by and let him slaughter them and stuff them for some stupid museum. This lake has a great treasure! It’s more than gold, don’t you know that? Don’t you?”
“Son,” Dr. Sam said, “I don’t know why you’re trying to defend these beasts. I know I’ve moved you and Zaidee around a lot … you haven’t had the chance to have many friends-”
Loch raised his voice. “Don’t, Dad! You’re not hearing what I’m telling you. Please don’t say anything dumb now-”
“What kind of a thing is that to say?” Dr. Sam asked, confused.
Loch turned and started to walk away but then spun to face his father. “Zaidee and I are supposed to look up to you, but we don’t. We don’t because it’s almost like you don’t exist anymore, like you’ve given yourself away piece by piece.” Loch trembled as he pointed out at the lake. “We saved one of them. I’m telling you they have feelings and intelligence. At least take the time to know what we know. You think you won’t be able to learn anything from them. You’re wrong-”
“Look, you’re a kid …”
“Dad, some fantastic and mind-blowing creatures are trapped out there and you’re just standing by, helping to destroy them.”
“I only work for Cavenger,” Dr. Sam said.
“But you’re the grown-ups!” Loch found himself shouting now. “You’re supposed to do what’s right!”
Dr. Sam looked out at the lake. “Loch, I’m sorry,” he said finally, and started back up the slope to the trailer.
Loch ran after him and stopped him. “You have the codes for the grid. You could open it. The creatures could go back where they came from.”
“I can’t do that,” Dr. Sam said.
“You can.”
“No.”
“What you’re saying is you won’t.”
“You’re out of line, son.”
Loch curled his fingers into a fist. Dr. Sam saw it as well as the look in his son’s eyes. Dr. Sam turned away and opened the trailer door. He went inside, leaving Loch alone in the night.
Dr. Sam had to leave for the base before dawn. Loch and Zaidee were still sleeping in their rooms, so he scrawled them a note:
Good morning!
Please take care of yourselves and stay out
of trouble until I get back. I’ll make it all
up to you. I promise. Camping. A dozen
new computer games. Swim with dolphins
A real vacation. You name it.
Love, Dad
The guard was waiting at the encampment gate when Dr. Sam arrived.
“Today’s the day,” the guard said. Dr. Sam saw the excitement in the guard’s eyes.
“Right,” Dr. Sam said, then drove on through. He parked near the dock, got out, and headed for The Revelation. The thrill of the hunt charged the air as fleet crews and personnel scurried everywhere. The water taxis skimmed between the dock and skiffs like water beetles. A few of the lighter, oldest boats had been replaced in the search formation by the converted PT and a pair of twenty-six-foot metal-hull patrol boats hauled overland from Lake Champlain. The highest security surrounded an army truck delivering a long gray crate to the yacht. Dr. Sam followed the crate up the gangplank.
Cavenger was waiting for the crate in the control room. “Here’s what we’ve been waiting for,” he said as the crew set the crate down against the far wall.
The mood in the control room was confident as Emilio and Randolph unpacked several pieces of heavy-duty artillery. In addition to upgraded electronics systems, the yacht now carried a half dozen automatic guns, a grenade launcher, and several explosive-tip spear guns.
Dr. Sam checked the ammunition supply. “You’ve got enough explosives aboard to blow up half the lake.”
“We’ll use what we have to,” Cavenger said.
Emilio checked the sights on the grenade launcher. “I was certified on this launcher in the army.”
“When?” Dr. Sam asked. “Twenty years ago?”
Randolph slid a clip into an automatic rifle. “It’s like riding a bike,” he said. “Just like riding a bike.”
Loch had heard his father get up that morning and stumble around the trailer to fix his coffee and toast. Loch wanted to get up, go out to the dining nook, and apologize to his dad for his outburst the night before. Instead, he lay on his bed staring at the remains of the cryptids and the sunlight streaming in through the bullet holes in the wall.
When he heard the Volvo drive off, he got up, poured himself a glass of orange juice, and read the note his father had left. The sunshine drew him outside. Barefoot and in his pjs, he walked down to the lake and picked up a handful of pebbles. He sat on the edge of the dock and stared out at the still, glassy surface of the water. One by one he tossed the stones in, watching them splash and send out ever-widening circles. Somewhere out there were Wee Beastie and the giant creatures.
“They’re going to try to kill Wee Beastie and the other creatures today, aren’t they?” came Zaidee’s voice. Loch turned to see his sister in her nightgown munching on a bowl of cereal as she came down the slope.
“Yes,” Loch said. He would have lied to her, but he knew she’d see right through him. Cavenger would slaughter every one of the creatures rather than let them get away.
Zaidee sat next to him on the dock and dipped her toes in the water. “Wee Beastie’s very smart. They don’t know that.”
“No, they don’t,” Loch agreed.
“And if he’s just a kid plesiosaur, you can imagine how smart the big ones are,” Zaidee added.
Loch saw a long, dark shadow emerging from the black water into the clear shallows. He stood. Zaidee spotted it too and jumped up.
“Oh,” Loch said, “it’s just another log.”
“Right. Another log.”
Loch looked to Zaidee. Suddenly, he was fully awake. He jumped up and rushed back toward the trailer.
“Hey, you’re thinking what I’m thinking, aren’t you?” Zaidee asked, running after him.
Inside, Loch grabbed the phone and dialed Sarah. It rang several times before she answered.
“Are you out of your mind?” Sarah’s sleepy voice came out of the receiver. She knew Loch was the only one who’d have the nerve to call so early.
“Do you have to sail with your father today?” Loch asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
“When do you need the jeep?” Sarah moaned.
“No,” Loch said. “A boat.”
“You’ve got a bass boat.”
“A bigger one,” Loch said. “I think I know where the creatures hide.”
By ten A.M. the search fleet was under way, with The Revelation setting the pace for the sweep. The PT was first to the yacht’s port side, with a new documentary photographer Cavenger had flown in from London. The pair of clanking fishing trawlers flanked the fleet. Both trawlers had let out their full lengths of rusted-steel netting by the time the fleet passed Dr. Sam’s trailer camp on the south shore.
Dr. Sam looked up from his console of graphic recorders as they scratched their ink zigzags onto the rolls of graph paper. Out the window he could see the motionless specks of Loch and Zaidee standing on the dock watching the fleet pass. Loch’s words last night repeated inside him as Dr. Sam caught his reflection in the glass.
“Sit down,” Cavenger ordered him.
“Sorry,” Dr. Sam said.
“Today we will be famous,” Cavenger spouted, basking in the glow of the dozen flickering sonar screens. His hands trembled as he tensed forward in the command chair, looking to Emilio and Randolph for their assurance. They smiled and nodded to him.
“This time we’re ready for them,” Emilio said.
“Right,” Randolph agreed.
At the wheel Haskell kept his eyes straight ahead.
It was ten minutes after The Revelation had passed the logging mill that the first significant BLIP hit the screens. By now even Cavenger had learned to read the difference between a beaver or a log and their prey.
“I’ve got one of them,” Cavenger said, his voice cracking with excitement.
“It’s very deep,” Dr. Sam confirmed. “Deep under us.”
Cavenger looked like a ghost in the strobe light. “It’s coming up! Give the alert!”
Randolph went on the PA. “Sighting! All crew in place!”
The harpoon team readied the equipment on the bow. A half dozen other crew members with rifles took their positions topside. Emilio got the alert out over the ship’s radio. A dozen armed men moved to their stations around the perimeter of the PT.
“It’s the big one,” Cavenger said, checking the signal.
“Yes, it’s big,” Dr. Sam confirmed.
“How deep?” Emilio asked.
“Rising from eight hundred feet,” Dr. Sam called as the seconds ticked by. “Eight hundred, seven hundred, six hundred fifty …”
BLIP, BLIP, BLIP.
“Five hundred feet and closing …”
BLIP …
Cavenger reached his hands out around the edges of the master screen in front of him like a warlock peering into a cauldron. “We’ve got this one.”
“We won’t be able to net it out here,” Dr. Sam said.
“No,” Cavenger said without looking up. “But we are going to blow its head off. We get the carcass of the first one, then we can worry about netting the others.”
Dr. Sam shifted in his seat.
The sonar signal disappeared at three hundred fifty feet.
“What’s going on?” Cavenger shouted, turning away from the screens to look at Dr. Sam. “What happened to our signal?”
“Nothing,” Dr. Sam said.
Cavenger jumped up to check the graphic recorders. “Get that signal back,” he ordered.
“Our sonar is operational,” Dr. Sam said, confused. “The creature’s disappeared.”
“A beast that size doesn’t just disappear,” Cavenger roared.
There was a mild impact to the boat, enough to throw the frail Cavenger off balance. Emilio grabbed him before he fell.
“What was that?” Cavenger asked.
“We’ve hit something,” Haskell said nervously. He shifted the motor’s gears. “We’ve got power, but it’s not engaging the prop.”
“Tell everyone to hold their positions,” Cavenger ordered Randolph. He got on the radio as Cavenger went to Haskell. “What is going on!” he yelled.
“There must be something wrong with the propeller shaft,” Haskell said.
“I think he’s right,” Emilio agreed.
“We’re dead in the water, is that what you’re telling me?” Cavenger began to rant.
“We must have hit one of those logs.” Captain Haskell’s voice cracked in the face of Cavenger’s fury. “Probably a sheared cotter pin. We can fix it, but someone’s going to have to go down.”
Cavenger turned on Randolph. “You’re the dive engineer. Go fix it!”
“Mr. Cavenger,” Randolph said respectfully, “we had something on the sonar. One of the creatures is somewhere around here.”
“No, it isn’t,” Cavenger said. “Sam said it disappeared, didn’t you, Sam?”
“It’s not on the sonar,” Dr. Sam replied.
“Then it’s gone, is that correct?” Cavenger pressed. “Or don’t you know what the hell you’re talking about?”
“It’s gone,” Dr. Sam said uneasily.
“Fine,” Cavenger told Dr. Sam. “And since you’re the great oceanographer, you can buddy Randolph on the dive.”