Deeper (28 page)

When we
finally reached our destination the yacht and docks
below
were almost half a mile
away.
 
I
wondered how they'd gotten the damned thing so far away from the shore without
ever being seen.

Ward opened
the locked door with a key from his pocket and we stepped inside the small
warehouse where he'd set up his examination room.

Ward froze at
the threshold and stared with wide, wild eyes.
 
"What the hell...?"

I pushed past
him, no longer willing to wait patiently before setting the fish man free.

We were too
late.
 
Someone had been very busy while
we were stuck out in the storm.

I saw the body
of Diana's brother,
Jan,
where he lay on the ground,
his head twisted hard enough to let his chin dangle toward his lower back.
 
His leg was still wrapped in bandages, but
the rest of him was covered only in shorts and a T-shirt that had been soaked
in blood.
 
Judging by the wounds across
his arms and chest, I had to guess the blood was his.

Five other
people were in the room, all of them just as torn and bloodied.
 
What little furniture the place held — an
examination table, complete with straps to hold down the examinee and a few
chairs as well as video equipment — was tossed around, scattered and broken by
whatever had been in the room with them.

The only thing
that was actually missing was the fish man.

Belle's only
hope was gone.

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You'd think
I'd have the good common sense to look around a place where I found a bunch of
dead people to make sure everything was safe, wouldn’t you?

Well, all I
could think about was Belle.
 
Sound a
little obsessive?
 
I was.
 
I looked at the bodies scattered around the
room, saw the condition they were in, and all I could think of was that the
fish man's disappearance basically screwed Belle's chances of surviving.

Something
broke inside of me and I started gasping for air.
 
My skin went cold and my vision turned gray
around the edges.

Ward was
staggering around like a drunk, touching every one of the bodies.
 
I knew what he was doing.
 
He was making sure they were dead.
 
If they were injured, they could be saved.
 
I watched him and felt my knees go weak,
rendering me useless.

"Call
nine-one-one!
"
Ward's voice snapped me out of my
daze and I looked at him.
 
I knew he'd
said something, but it wasn't really registering right then.
 
"Call for an ambulance!
 
Do you hear me?"

"Yeah.
 
Okay."
 
I reached for the
phone on the end table near the front door and I almost touched the receiver
when I saw the motion from the corner of my eye.

Oh, yes, we
should have checked the building out.
 
The fish man might have gotten free, but he had not made it out of the
building.
 
He looked at Ward and he
looked at me and then he charged, trying to get through the bodies and
furniture and then to the door behind me.

The thing was
graceful in the water.
 
I knew it had to
be, after seeing its relatives swimming.
 
It was nowhere near as dexterous on land.
 
That was the good news.
 
The bad news was it made up for being clumsy
by being as strong as a horse.

It let out a
croaking roar, and swatted a chair out of the way with enough force to break
the frame.
 
Its foot came down on top of
a man I'd never
seen,
who I guessed was a biologist
that Ward had hired to look the monster over.
 
The man grunted and twitched as the claws sank into his leg.
 
I heard the knee on that leg popping under
the pressure as the fish man pushed itself forward.

Ward had just
enough time to look at it and let out a scream before it slapped him across the
face with one of its oversized hands.
 
The claws on that enormous paw cut into his hairline.
 
They probably would have ripped his face open
if he hadn't flinched.
 
As it was he let
out a loud shriek and fell to his knees as the blood started flowing.

The thing
ignored him and came for me, determined to get out of the building.
 
I saw the recognition in its bulging eyes,
and in the way it tilted its head.
 
We
knew each other, and I think maybe even had a grudging respect for each
other.
 
But under that, beneath whatever
acknowledgments of strength, there was a deep hatred:
 
I'd wounded it and threatened it.
 
In turn, it was responsible for Belle's
disappearance.
 
I stood my ground.
 
Not because I wanted to get ripped in half,
but because he was only going to get away after I'd made a few things clear.

Remember what
I said about the fish man not being so graceful on land?
 
Well, graceful and fast aren’t the same
thing.
 
He came on like a freight train
and I guess I was supposed to be the poor damsel tied to the tracks.

The good news
for me was I wasn't actually tied down.
 
I snapped out of my paralysis and moved as the thing came closer.
 
It took a swipe at me and I ducked it,
falling on my ass and breaking the end table under my dropping weight.
 
A hot pain burrowed into my hip where I'd
hit, and I rolled over onto my knees as quickly as I could.
 
The fish man had almost made it to the open
door and I reached out and grabbed its ankle.
 
When it turned to look at what was holding it back, I pulled up and back
as hard as I could and dropped the damned thing into the ground, face-first.

It let out
another scream of rage and reached for my face.
 
I pulled on its leg and crawled backward, just managing to miss having
my nose ripped off.
 
Adrenaline kicked
into my system and gave me false strength.
 
The claw flashed across the very tip and I felt the blood fall at the
same time that I closed my eyes against the sudden tearing the strike caused.

Never take
your eyes off someone you're fighting.
 
Another of my grandfather's bits of wisdom I should have listened to a
little better.

The fish man
grabbed at my face and caught it in those freakish hands.
 
I felt the claws slipping through my hair and
fully expected to have my scalp peeled away for my mistake.
 
I let out a sound that had nothing to do with
rage or bravery and everything to do with desperation and fear.

Then it looked
into my eyes again and I knew what was going to happen before it did.

The damned
thing communicated again.
 
Showing me
images of how badly I would suffer.
 
They
weren't pretty.
 
I didn't know how it
talked with its mind and I didn't have a clue if it could hear my thoughts, but
I tried to make them clear.
 
I wanted
Belle back.
 
If I got her alive and
intact, I would forgive everything and make sure that the expedition left the
area.
 
If I did not
...
I
pushed hard with those images, showing how much devastation I would wish on
them if my wife was not returned.

I still
couldn't read the facial expressions on the thing.
 
There was no real point of reference and the
only thing I could do was note the change in expressions.
 
First it pulled back its head as if I'd
slapped it.
 
Then it very quickly bobbed
its head from side to side.

I let go of
the thing's leg and it stood up quickly, looking at me with an odd tilt to the
head.
 
I pointed at the door, and it gave
me one last hard look before it moved from the room and down the street.

I watched it
go, and looked at the tiny tracker on its leg as it went.
 
Just a little thing, really, once you took
off the spear that was supposed to fire it into the flesh.
 
All that was there now was the barbed hook
and a small cylinder that bounced softly against the moving calf.
 
The hooks were punched into the scales, but I
don't think they actually penetrated the meat under the outer layers.
 
If it stayed where it was, it would be
something akin to a miracle.

A wave of
nausea hit me hard as I stood back up, trembling and disoriented.
 
The adrenaline in my system, the fears for
Belle, the close encounter with a demon from hell, all worked to make me
violently ill.
 
I bit my tongue and shook
my head and made it to my feet without passing out.

I finally
started feeling a little better around the same time Ward let out another
scream.
 
I looked his way and saw the
flow of blood running down his neck.
 
He'd tried to stand up and slipped.
 
I limped my way over to him.
 
I
didn't want to help him.
 
I really
didn't.
 
But he was a wreck.

"We have
to get him back!"
 
His hands
clutched at my shirt and he pulled himself up my body, using me as a brace to
help him stand.
 
I looked at him and
shook my head.

"He's
gone.
 
We need to call an ambulance,
remember?"

"I need
him!"

"Just calm down.
 
I put the tracker on him."

One of the
kids on the ground let out a moan.
 
I
looked down and saw one of the presumed corpses twitch.
 
I managed not to scream.
 
Well, not much of a scream at any rate.

Then I went to
the phone and dialed for emergency services.

"Nine-one-one,
what's the nature of your emergency?"

"There're
some dead and injured people here.
 
It
looks like an animal attack of some kind."
 
I don't know why I lied, except that I didn't want to be anywhere around
the place when the police and emergency techs showed up.
 
I had other things to take care of, like
finding Belle.

I looked, and
I could just make out the shape of the thing hopping and shuffling toward the
shore.
 
Without another word, I took off
after it.
 
Let Ward clean up his own
damned mess.
 
My body ached and my head
was still feeling disjointed from the communication with the fish man but I
couldn’t let that stop me.
 
I ran faster,
my feet slapping the road and sending shock waves through my shins and knees.

Ward didn't
come after me.
 
I didn't really expect
him to.

17

I ran down the
hill for all I was worth, cursing every cigarette I'd smoked in the last week
and hating that my body was getting older and weaker.
 
The ground was slick from condensation and
the fog wasn't making it any easier to see.

None of that
meant a damned thing.
 
I pushed myself
harder, ignoring the stitch in my side that was threatening to rupture.
 
Up ahead I could just make out the thing
moving toward the water.
 
There were
still a few blocks to go to let me catch up.
 
I ran faster, until I wasn't so much running down the hill as putting my
feet forward to stop from falling on my face.

The Deep One
was just reaching the water when I got to him.
 
I don't know what was going through my mind.
 
That I would grab him and hold him until they
returned Belle?
 
That I would dive with
him and somehow manage not to drown?
 
Whatever it was, it didn't work out the way I'd have liked.

The fish man
spun around fast and opened its mouth wide.
 
The tongue that came out of its mouth was just as long and nasty as I'd
heard and it slapped across my face like a wet slab of meat thrown from a
speeding car.
 
My face stayed where it
was and the rest of me kept going.
 
I
only barely remembered hitting the ground near the docks.

By the time I
was back up and shaking off the blow to the face, the damned thing was diving
into the water.
 
I could just see it as
it descended into the depths and swam out toward the reef.

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There's an old
question that goes with doing the limbo:
 
how low can you go?
 
Gotta be
honest, I'd never been lower.
 
I made it
back to the yacht on leftover adrenaline alone.
 
I was wiped out.
 
My hands were
twitching and my body ached everywhere.