Cavenger had been glad when the helicopter had?arrived to remove Dr. Sam from the yacht and take him back to the encampment. You don’t win the Grand Prix by stopping if someone crashes, Cavenger had to remind everyone. While all the other drivers are feeling bad about the flames and the wreckage and the burning corpse, that’s when you floor it!
“What should we do now?” Emilio asked Cavenger when the fleet had finished the sweep of the lake.
Cavenger swiveled in his seat at the control board. “We start back, sonar active.”
Emilio transmitted the order to the fleet. Captain Haskell led the turnaround at the west end of the lake. The fishing trawlers clanked their way past each other in a wide semicircle, giving great berth to the nets and exchanging flank positions for the return search. Cavenger motioned Emilio to keep his eye on the sonar screens, got up, and went to the munitions chest. He lifted the lid to check the rocket launcher and grenades. If any creature came their way now, Cavenger wanted everyone ready for a kill.
On the skiff, Loch took over the wheel and threw the throttle open. The propellers growled, pulling the stern deeper and lifting the bow as the skiff began to plow out toward the open lake. A hundred yards away from the levee, Zaidee spotted a small, sleek, black shape darting in and out of their wake.
“Stop!” Zaidee yelled. “It’s Wee Beastie!”
Loch turned, saw the creature, and cut the throttle. He shifted into neutral and rushed to the stern.
“It’s really not a great time to be saying hello to our little plesiosaur friend, you know,” Sarah said. Loch and Zaidee hung over the rear railing as Wee Beastie scuttled through the remnants of the wake and swam right up to the boat.
“Hey, fellah,” Loch said, reaching his hand down toward the water. Wee Beastie rubbed his snout on Loch’s hand, fluttering his front fins.
“Where have you been, my little darlin’?” Zaidee leaned over, joyously stroking the creature’s head. “We’ve been looking for you!”
Clack click …
CLICK CLACK CLACK …
“Don’t tell me, I know,” Sarah said. “He wants us to stay and be lunch.”
CLACK CLICK …
“What are you trying to tell us?” Loch asked Wee Beastie.
Loch looked back at the twisted mill. A series of large waves flowed toward the rupture in the levee and out into the lake.
“They’re coming out,” Loch said.
“We’ve got to get Wee Beastie aboard,” Zaidee cried.
“Zaidee,” Loch said, “I don’t think his mom’s really going to like that. Besides, there isn’t time.”
CLICK CLACK CLICK …
Loch pointed Wee Beastie to the starboard. “Move away from the props, fellah!” he yelled as he rushed back to the wheel. Wee Beastie scooted back, still clicking away as the disturbance in the water behind them got nearer.
“Get us out of here!” Sarah shouted at Loch.
Loch opened the throttle wide, and the skiff lunged forward.
“He’s staying with us,” Zaidee yelled, watching Wee Beastie drop away from the gurgling props to dash in and out of the wake. Behind him the turbulence of the surface stalked them.
“Uh-oh,” Zaidee said.
“How many creatures are there?” Sarah asked.
Loch turned from the wheel to look back. “From what we’ve seen, I think there’s five or six big ones,” he shouted. “I think it’s just a family.”
“Enough to eat Greater Miami,” Zaidee said.
“What are they doing?” Sarah wanted to know.
“They’re not stupid,” Loch yelled over the roar of the engine. “They know the cover’s been blown on their den. There’s no place left for them to hide!” He turned the skiff west. Wee Beastie and the herd stayed with them.
“Are we the only meal around?” Sarah asked.
“No,” Loch said, “but Wee Beastie might have told them we’re their only chance. They’re not chasing us-they’re following us.”
“What can we do?” Zaidee asked.
“Try to get Dad on the ship-to-shore,” Loch said.
“I don’t know if I can,” Zaidee said, scooting to the radio. “It receives, but I don’t know if this thing can send.” She put the earphones on and grabbed the hand mike. “The helicopter took him back to the camp.”
“He’d clear out of there. Try the Volvo,” Loch said. “Let him know where we are and what’s happening.”
“Boy, are we going to be grounded or what?” Zaidee wailed, pressing the send button.
“I’ll do it,” Sarah said, reaching to take the mike.
“No way,” Zaidee said, pulling away and shouting into the microphone. “Big Z to Dad … Big Z to Dad … ”
Loch glanced over his shoulder. Wee Beastie still skimmed in the wake of the boat, leading the underwater herd.
“Tell Dad to get to the grid! Get there and open it!” Loch ordered Zaidee. “He’s got to open that grid!”
“What’s that?” Cavenger shouted, looking out over the bow of The Revelation. In the distance it had looked like a cat’s-paw of wind, but now they recognized the skiff heading for them.
“It’s one of ours,” Emilio said, checking it through binoculars.
“Who’s in it?” Cavenger demanded to know.
Emilio adjusted the focus on the binoculars. “Your daughter and Perkins’ kids.”
BLIP BLIP … BLIP BLIP …
The sonar screens of the control room leaped alive with closing, black dots. A rush of electronic sounds caused turmoil with the speakers, and the styluses on the graph machines nearly shot off the charts.
“What’s going on!” Cavenger roared, grabbing the binoculars. “What the hell do those kids think they’re doing?”
The radio receiver lit up. “Everybody’s picking up the signals,” Emilio said, confused. “It’s the boat, but it’s … beasts. There are a lot of them.”
“Tell the net boats to close!” Cavenger roared.
“Close the nets!” Emilio shouted into the radio.
“Faster,” Cavenger yelled, moving quickly across the length of the control console.
BLIP … BLIP …
There was too much data coming in for Cavenger and his men to process, too much to compute and calculate. The trawlers were pulling ahead, beginning to close their circle. Cavenger grabbed the mike out of Emilio’s hand and began bellowing into it himself. “Faster! Faster!”
“They’re doing as much as they can,” Emilio said.
BLIP …
Cavenger threw the mike back at Emilio. “They’re not going to make it!” he shouted with disgust. All his calculations had never considered the possibility of the fleet being rushed by a herd of plesiosaurs. He looked off the port side and was relieved to see the crew members of the PT boat ready with rifle butts held firmly against their shoulders. The new photographer-who hadn’t been told about Erdon-was at the video camera, following the action. Cavenger checked to see that the harpoon team was in position at the bow, then grabbed a pistol and ran out on deck. The skiff with Loch at the wheel passed swiftly between the yacht and the PT boat. Cavenger saw his daughter with Loch and Zaidee. And he saw the great undulations fast behind them.
He fired a single shot into the air to alert everyone. There was no way he was going to come out of this empty-handed. If anything, he would err on overkill.
“Slaughter the beasts!” he found himself shouting, his hand trembling as he pointed down at the huge passing shadows. “Slaughter them!”
As Sarah passed in the skiff, she saw her father out on the deck of The Revelation. She didn’t recognize him at first; his face was distorted with hate and he looked out of control. She had never seen him like that, and she flinched when she heard him fire the gun.
“What’s going to happen?” Sarah asked Loch.
“I don’t know,” Loch said. “We have to keep going.”
“What if Dad didn’t hear us on the ship-to-shore?” Zaidee asked. “What if he didn’t understand or won’t open the grid?”
Bam. Bam. Bam …
Terrible sounds of rifle fire echoed from the mountains like a cluster of firecrackers lit from a single fuse.
“Where’s Wee Beastie?” Zaidee cried out. “I don’t see him!”
“My father’s killing them,” Sarah said.
Loch looked back, reading the surface of the water. “No,” he said, “they’re running deep now. The bullets won’t get them. I’m sure Wee Beastie’s okay.”
Loch glanced to the south shore at a point where the paved road weaved for a stretch close to the lake. If only Dr. Sam had heard their radio plea, if only they would catch a glimpse of the Volvo speeding along the road toward the end of the lake and the grid.
Bam!
The shooting started again as The Revelation and the PT boat turned about quickly and took up pursuit. The rest of the fleet floundered, struggling to turn and re-form.
Zaidee was the first to see the little, black, shining body skimming again through the wake of their skiff.
“Wee Beastie!” she shouted happily.
The Revelation was gaining on them, the PT boat pacing itself easily off its port.
Loch saw the grid and its cement control bunker in the distance. He searched the ridge for any glimpse of his father. There was no one.
“The plesiosaurs are surfacing!” Zaidee cried out.
Loch looked back to see the water rupture as the creatures’ dark, scaly backs began to emerge from the lake. Their speed slowed and the handful of smaller beasts began to panic, skimming to the surface at the edges of the adults like frightened fish. Only one huge head began to rise from the herd, the tremendous bony mass and snout of the Rogue. The Rogue slowed, dropping back like a patriarch whose instincts are clear.
“What is the Rogue doing?” Zaidee asked.
Loch, understanding what was happening, answered sadly. “Protecting his family.”
The Revelation closed the distance between itself and the Rogue. Cavenger and his team were in place at the bow, the harpooner manning the huge gun. The Rogue lifted his head higher, showing more of his neck and letting the yacht come within striking distance.
“Oh, God, please don’t …” Sarah said aloud, as if magic would carry her words to her father. As much as she feared the beasts, she didn’t want to see them destroyed like this.
Boom.
The first harpoon exploded from the gun and entered the Rogue’s neck so deeply its shiny, metal tip burst from the scales beneath his jaw. Blood spurted out of the wound, rushing down into the water of the lake as the creature snapped his neck back and forth, trying to break free.
Boom.
Another harpoon tore into the Rogue’s shoulder, this one setting deep. Its explosive head detonated, blasting loose a vast slab of the creature’s flesh and muscle.
The PT boat began to circle the beast, its crew firing and refiring rifles, pumping bullets into his body. Sarah put her hands to her ears to try to block out the terrible, terrible noise of the shooting and the tortured roars of the beast. The Rogue kept trying to turn his head as if to see whether his herd was safe.
“The creatures are passing us,” Zaidee yelled as the clear springs of the shallows replaced the darker peat water.
She watched the huge blackness of the beasts rush by beneath them to halt at the mouth of the grid. What might have been Beast and two of the other larger plesiosaurs surfaced in front of the boat, forcing Loch to cut the motor and shift into neutral.
“They’re going to eat us!” Sarah screamed, flashes of what had happened to Erdon stabbing back into her mind.
“They could have done that already,” Loch said, ready at the wheel for anything.
With the skiff stopped, the herd had strangely quieted, the creatures sinking to the bottom. Only Wee Beastie stayed off the boat’s stern, clicking at them, motioning with his snout toward the slaughter of the Rogue, as if there were something they could do.
“What’s going on?” Zaidee asked, confused.
They looked back at The Revelation. Perhaps in a last desperate attempt to escape, the Rogue had sounded in the deep water. The harpoons were holding, their lines drawn taut as the yacht began to list from the great weight and strength of the beast.
Cavenger pushed his way to the railing and stared down into the black and bloodied water. Emilio, with a belt of grenades, appeared at his side.
“Kill it!” Cavenger screamed at him. “Kill it now!”
Emilio took a grenade, pulled its pin, and hurled it down into the water. Seconds later, there was the great sickening thud of an underwater blast and a great fountain of blood and water erupted from the surface of the lake. Still the harpoon lines were taut, pulling the boat down.
“Throw another grenade!” Cavenger ordered.
Emilio had time only to draw the pin out before the Rogue suddenly shot up out of the water like a huge submarine surfacing from a great depth. His body angled across the bow, then came crashing down and ripped away a section of the hull. He slashed forward with his fins as the men with guns on the PT blasted him mercilessly. One of the better marksmen hit the beast’s left eye, bursting it.
The impact of the Rogue’s attack caused Emilio to drop the live grenade on the deck. Cavenger saw the grenade fall, then watched helplessly as it rolled back, past the crew, and dropped into the maze of cables and wires of the sonar power base.
“It’s going to blow!” Emilio shouted, diving over the side.
Cavenger’s first, completely absurd, impulse was to berate Emilio, to scold and blame him for not following orders precisely. The harpoon team pushed by him, heading for the railing. The rest of the crew ran for the stern. In these last, futile seconds, Cavenger had no one left to order, no one to command. He was standing alone when the Rogue’s head snapped toward him. The mouth opened and the huge vise of teeth slowly closed on Cavenger’s head. In a paroxysm of death, the creature jerked back his neck, lifting Cavenger into the burning sun of a tremendous explosion.
Sarah screamed and threw up her hands to cover her face as a second, greater blast swallowed The Revelation in an immense ball of fire. As the storm of smoke and flames rose up into the sky, Loch went to Sarah and put his arm around her.
“I’m sorry,” Loch said gently. “I’m very sorry.”
The fireball turned into streaks of black and raining embers as the remnants of the hull began to slide beneath the surface of the lake. When Sarah lowered her hands from her eyes, her entire body shuddered and she burst into tears. “He was my father … my father,” she cried. “I know he didn’t always do the right thing-he needed so much to prove to everyone he was right. …”
“I guess being right isn’t enough,” Loch said, looking up to the desolate ridge. “I don’t think it was enough for any of us.”
Zaidee rushed to Sarah, flung her arms around her, and began to cry too.
CLICK CLICK …
They heard the sounds, and saw Wee Beastie’s head peer over the stern at them. He looked at them for only a moment, then swam slowly down to the herd.
Lake Alban was silent. A few of the crew from The Revelation had survived the great, ripping blast and had managed to swim to the PT. The crews of the fleet stood quietly on their decks, all guns pointed toward the skiff with the beasts beneath it.
Loch was the first to hear the sounds from below. “They’re making their music,” he said.
“Why?” Sarah asked.
The water around the skiff began to stir, then churn. It moved in increasingly greater swirls and turmoil until the heads and bodies of the beasts began to rise all about them. The beasts surfaced in a great circle, their heads and necks lifting high above the boat.
Loch, Sarah, and Zaidee stood together, looking up at the leviathans. The sound they made now was like that of a thousand cellos, a series of low, haunting notes that slid upward into an increasingly profound and complicated harmony. The music of the plesiosaurs was penetrating, vibrating the air in a way that could be felt on the skin and in the heart. Their singing transcended words and even thoughts, as Loch felt a warmth start in his brain, then move down his spine and flood his entire body. He knew from the look in Zaidee’s and Sarah’s eyes that they were feeling it, too.
To a man, the men with guns lowered their weapons as the sounds swept over them.
Loch didn’t know how he knew, but suddenly he was certain his father was on the ridge. He looked to the cement control bunker. Zaidee’s eyes followed his. They saw Dr. Sam looking down at them.
“Will Dad open the grid?” Zaidee asked.
“Yes,” Loch said.
Dr. Sam waved to them. He knew what had to be done, and he unlocked the door of the bunker. Inside, he punched the code into the controls. In seconds the hydraulics of the grid came alive. Still singing, the beasts slowly sank beneath the surface of the lake as the grid parted its massive gates. There was a tremendous surge of water as the river was restored to its full depth, and the beasts slowly swam into the rush of water flowing toward Lake Champlain-toward their home.
CLICK CLICK.
Only Wee Beastie surfaced. He remained off the stern of the skiff, his eyes glowing at them.
“He wants to stay with us,” Zaidee cried out.
“I think he does,” Loch said, “but he knows he can’t.”
Wee Beastie lifted his snout and shook it at them. Zaidee rushed forward to pet him. She looked closely into the creature’s eyes and knew her brother was right.
“Good-bye, Wee Beastie,” Zaidee cried out. “Good-bye!”
The light in Wee Beastie’s eyes slowly faded. He shook his snout again, turned, and dug his fins hard and deep toward the open grid to follow the song of the plesiosaurs.
Dr. Sam waved to his kids from the knoll.
“We’re a family again, aren’t we?” Zaidee asked Loch as she waved back.
“You bet we are,” Loch said, holding Sarah close to him. A wide grin broke out across his face as he lifted his hand into the air. “We’re a family.”