Deeper (33 page)

"Divers
aren't that hard to find, Diana.
 
Lots of
divers come around when you're near the ocean."

Instead of
listening to any more of their talk, I slipped my pants back on, put on my
loafers and walked out of the door, heading for the galley.
 
Both of them shut up while I was in the
hallway and I pointedly ignored them.
 
I
didn't want to deal with any of their romance problems and they definitely
didn't want to hear my opinion about Ward or his scientific plans.

There was
coffee already made, and I poured myself a mug as I looked out the galley
window.
 
We were docked again, which
suited me fine.
 
I have no idea who
piloted the yacht and the crab boat back to the harbor, but they were both
where they were supposed to be.

Out in the
water, I saw lights flickering along the edge of the Devil's Reef.
 
There were a lot of lights, moving along the
top of the reef and sliding in and out of the water.
 
I didn't bother ordering anyone to fire up
the engines.
 
I knew what was out
there.
 
But I still wanted to see.
 
It only took me a couple of minutes to find
my binoculars.

Charlie and
Diana were still going at each other as I passed them.
 
Neither of them came up for air this time
around; they just kept on arguing.

The lights
were still on the reef when I looked out again.
 
There had to be a good fifteen or twenty shapes up on the rock, and from
what little I could see, they were all Deep Ones.

I took a few
deep breaths and watched them.
 
Whatever
they were doing, it looked like a ceremony of some kind.
 
I saw a lot of weird-looking things they
brought with them, chains and headpieces made of shiny metal — gold most likely
— and an oddly shaped bell that they lowered into the water on a chain.

I was
seriously thinking about going out there and messing up their little church
service, or wedding or whatever.
 
It
would have offended them, it would have ruined their special time and I would
have loved to get them all pissy.
 
But I
wasn't ready yet.
 
I had the supplies,
but I didn't have them ready for use.
 
I
probably would have gone out anyway, if I hadn't looked beyond the reef and
seen the fog coming in.

Instead of
starting the
Isabella
and cruising
the distance out there, I interrupted Charlie's argument with his girl.
 
Diana had reached the screaming stage:
 
"I buried my brother two days ago!
 
Two fucking days ago, Charlie!
 
They had to keep the casket closed, because
they couldn't make him look good enough for people to see!
 
How do you think I feel?"
 
Her eyes were teary and red and streaks of
moisture ran down her face.
 
I felt for
her.
 
I did.

I just
couldn't let it show.

"Charlie.
 
Get the video equipment for me.
 
Get any long-range lenses, too."

"What?"
 
He looked at me like I'd just interrupted an
important life-altering conversation, which, of course, I had.
 
But I also knew Charlie well enough to know
that if I didn't break them up for a minute or two, he would say something
stupid.

"Before
you answer any more of Diana's comments, get me the video equipment and a
long-range lens."

Charlie
muttered to himself and stomped down the hallway toward wherever that sort of
crap was being held.

Diana looked
at me out of the corner of her eye and cried.

I knew what
she was going through.
 
She knew what I
was feeling.

So I looked at
her and asked something I could only ask when Charlie and the rest of them were
away.
 
"You want to kill them, don't
you?
 
The fish
men."

She nodded and
wiped at her eyes.

"Yeah.
 
Me, too."

"You
gonna do something about it?"
 
Her
voice was scratchy from crying, but there was a strength to it that came from
hatred.

"Maybe.
 
We'll
see."

"If you
do, I want to help."

"Maybe.
 
We'll
see."

She looked
hard at me, trying to see what I was hiding, I guess.
 
And finally she just nodded.
 
"Okay.
 
That's good enough."

"Good.
 
We'll talk later."

No sooner had
I finished telling her that than Charlie came up with the video camera, a
tripod and a lens.
 
He cast a grateful
look my way.
 
I'd given him enough time
to calm down from fucking up his relationship.
 
Charlie's a good man, but sometimes he likes to fight a little too much.
 
Not fistfight — he'll do that if he has to —
but argue.
 
He loves to argue.

"I took
the stuff and heard him apologizing to Diana at the same time.
 
That was probably his best choice.
 
I went out on deck, cursing myself for not
remembering a coat, and set up the video equipment.
 
It wasn't long before I was capturing all of
the action on the camera and recording it on a tape.

At least until
that fog came in and obscured everything.

But I got
enough.

I got enough.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*
         
*

By the time I
was done playing cinematographer, Charlie and Diana were busy having make-up
sex in his cabin.
 
Any chance I'd had of
going back to sleep was shot to hell right then and there.
 
So instead, I prepared for the coming
day.
 
First I set up the tape in the main
deck and hooked everything up to the TV I have bolted to the wall.
 
It doesn’t get used much, but it's there for
when people get tired of fishing.
 
Then I
started the coffee and started making breakfast for the small army that would
be coming along soon enough.
 
Nothing fancy.
 
They
got eggs, fried potatoes, and bacon.

Around the
time I was finished, Ward and his school of scientists made
themselves
known.
 
Ward looked at me, his every
gesture saying how much he wanted to say something to me.
 
I didn't make it any easier.
 
He wasn't completely at fault for my wife
dying, but he had his hand in it.
 
What
can I say?
 
I'm not the most forgiving
man.
 
Want to know how out of it I
was?
 
I never even realized that the
Parsonses were still on board.
 
Either
they slept through the screaming match the night before or they just ignored
it.

Anyway, I
waited until everyone had finished breakfast before I told Jacob what I had
filmed.

Just like I
expected, he told Ward.
 
Next thing I
knew, everyone was sitting down in the main cabin and watching what I'd filmed.

There wasn't
really that much to see for most of it.
 
The Deep Ones were definitely doing something.
 
They had their little lamps burning, and they
rang their bell and they lowered it into the water and chanted something.
 
There was more gesticulation than at a
traditional Catholic wedding:
 
they stood
up; they bowed; they waved their arms; they croaked and chanted — though it was
too far away to hear what they said.
 
Understand me, you could tell they were saying things, but the ocean is
always noisy and they were almost a mile away.
 
Telephoto lenses can't give you better sound quality, no matter how much
you wish for it.
 
I guess with enough
work and the right equipment, Ward could figure out what was being said, but it
would take time.

The highlights
came toward the end of the footage, but it was worth waiting for them.
 
First off, my earlier estimation was
wrong.
 
It wasn't a dozen of the damned
things.
 
It was closer to a hundred.
 
They were in the water all along the reef,
and even though I had only filmed one part of the land there, you could count
the fucking things with ease.
 
The
moon
 
was
up and
bright when I taped them.
 
You could
actually see a decent amount of detail on the tape.
 
There was enough to make Ward gasp, and I
could almost hear his heartbeat get faster.
 
Why?
 
Because the Deep Ones were
revealed for the first time, revealed well enough to see that his little
‘chimera’ theory was absolutely correct.
 
I don't know how or why they would mate with different things from the
sea, but they had.
 
Seems like most of
the ones we'd run across looked more human than some of the ones that took
place in the ceremony.
 
A
xeno-biologist's wet dream was what I'd filmed.
 
Some of the fish men had full dorsal fins, the sort you see on sharks.
 
Some had tentacles in place of limbs, or in
addition.
 
Most of them still looked like
they were at least related to humans, but now and then there was a flash of
things that just didn't belong in the world, or at least not above the surface
of the water.

Hundreds of them.
 
Ward was the only one who didn't seem unsettled by that.
 
He was too busy being all excited about the
visual record of his discovery.

The only other
person who looked as hyped about it was Buddy, who never said a word but
watched the entire thing like a hawk going for tender prey.

He walked over
to me when it was all done and the scientists were chattering at once.

"Those
are the things?"
 
His voice sounded
a little less confident than before.
 
He
was whispering, because without bothering to ask me, he knew the people on the
Isabella
wouldn't approve of what was
going on.

"Yeah."

"Now I
understand the equipment."

"Thought you might."

Before we
could discuss the matter any more, Jacob came up to me, smiling.

"That was
amazing, Joe."

"I sort
of thought you wouldn’t want to miss it."

"Did you
see the fog?
 
Did you look at it carefully?"

"No.
 
I went to get more coffee."

"Look at
it again.
 
We're going to watch it a
second time.
 
Look at the fog, Joe."

I nodded and
they started the damned tape a second time.
 
I was drawn to watching it, repulsed by the things on there and also
fascinated by them.
 
Mostly, I watched
because I needed to know everything I could learn about them before I sent them
to hell.

You know, I
watched that film a dozen times that day and I looked at every aberration from
the shapes I'd come to expect, and studied them.
 
The one that unsettled me the most looked
almost human.
 
She was as naked as the
rest, and she had a face only a mother could love, but she also had a body that
would have shamed most Playmates.
 
She
bothered me the most I think, because it put paid to any doubts I had about
whether they could mate with humans.
 
She
was too much like a human for my comfort.
 
Most of them were thick-limbed and scaly to the point where they could
have been completely alien and just lucky enough to walk on two legs, but her?
 
She looked more human than she did alien and
it messed with me.
 
One of the college
boys pointed her out.
 
He made comments
about how hot she looked.
 
Most everyone
else made sounds of disgust.
 
I hoped he
was kidding.
 
Like I said, she just made
me sick.

When the fog
rolled in this time, everyone shut up.
 
The white clouds rolled over the Devil's Reef, swallowing it completely,
except for the lanterns and torches that the fish men carried.

You had to
look carefully, but there were ships in that fog.
 
Ghost ships.
 
I recognized the shape of a couple of them,
including the one I'd seen disappear before.

They moved
around the reef, circling it like they were trying to find the best way to keep
the Deep Ones stuck there.

I could see
why they would fascinate Jacob.
 
Ghosts
were his thing, after all, but all they did this time was piss me off.
 
The ghost captain that had warned me before —
and I'd damn him for being right if he wasn't already damned — could do nothing
but watch and try to warn others.
 
What good
is a warning that comes too late?