Deeper (36 page)

Charlie's
hands went into his short hair and he started shaking his head.
 
"That's crazy talk."

"Yeah.
 
I'm not
really thinking Ward is all there right now, Charlie.
 
Go get back on the
Isabella
and get out of here."
 
I didn't want him hurt, but I also didn't want to be the one who hurt
him.
 
Charlie was currently in my way and
I had things to do.

"There's
no way he would have done that!"
 
Charlie was sounding a bit stressed out, and I was just plain not in the
mood for him.

"Diana's
known him a lot longer, Charlie.
 
Why
don't you take the
Isabella
back to
shore and you can ask him in person."

Before he
could answer me, I saw the floodlights on the
Isabella
light up the darkening water.
 
As I'd thought only Charlie and Diana were on
board, I was a little surprised.

So were
Charlie and Diana.

"Who the
hell is up there?"
 
Charlie was
frowning.

Diana talked
at the exact same time, frowning as she spoke.
 
"We were the only people on board, weren't we?"

Buddy stepped
back from us and his hand reached for the holster he had draped under his
shoulder, mostly hidden by the jacket he was wearing.

I looked up at
my ship and waited.
 
I figured someone
had just announced his or her presence.
 
It was just a matter of waiting.

Martin Ward
stepped forward until he was looking down at us.
 
I couldn't have missed him on a bet.

"Ahoy there."
 
He was sounding awfully smug.

"What are
you doing on my yacht,
Dr.
Ward?"

"Well, I
was just listening to your conversation."
 
He looked down and placed his hands on the railing.
 
"I guess you'd like some
answers."
 
His voice carried to us
easily, because the storm that had been threatening still hadn't shown
itself.
 
The air was still and so was the
water.

"Just one.
 
Did
you tell the fish men to pick a sacrifice?"
 
I did my best to keep my voice calm.

"I wasn't
really sure what I'd said at first, Captain.
 
I just quoted writings from Obed Marsh's personal journals."
 
His face was barely shadowed and backlit by
the floodlights, but I could see genuine regret on his features.

And I didn't
care at all.

"You told
them to pick a sacrifice and they took my wife!"

"Yes, I'm
afraid so."

I started
toward the yacht and had my hands on the ladder to hoist myself up before I
even thought about his answer.
 
I was
looking at the reason Belle was dead as surely as if I'd been looking at one of
his Deep Ones.
 
I'd been thinking he was
responsible all along, but more as a side effect of his obsessions than because
he'd told the damned things to do what they pleased.
 
Before he'd just annoyed me, but now?
 
Well,
I
 
have
to be honest.
 
Right then when I was looking up at him, I
didn't even think about the fish men.
 
I
wanted to kill him with my bare hands.

"They
said you'd react like this.
 
They were
right."
 
His head looked away from
me and down toward Diana.
 
"And
you.
 
How could you betray me?"
 
The thing that really knocked my logic
circuits crazy was that he actually sounded hurt.

"They
killed Jan!"

"Jan was
there and the Deep One wanted to escape, Diana.
 
I told you it was dangerous to bring your little brother along but you
didn't want to listen to me."
 
He
was so sure of himself.
 
I guess that
should have been the first sign of trouble.

I guess I
should have known that a snake like Ward would bring backup with him.
 
Or have it nearby, like in waiting just below
the surface.

As I started
up the side of the
Isabella
, he let
out a loud rattling call and lit a fuse on something he held in his hand.
 
I dropped back down to the
Marianne
and got ready for whatever
fireworks he had with him.

What I didn't
expect was for him to throw whatever it was high into the air above the reef.

When it
detonated it let out a brilliant green flash of light — so strong that it left
everyone stupid enough to
kept
their eyes on it, like
me, half blinded for a moment — like looking at a flashbulb only much more
powerful.

"I've
made a deal with the Deep Ones, Captain.
 
Do you really think I'd let my new associates be attacked without
warning them?"
 
I heard Ward's smug
words as I blinked away the spot in front of my eyes and caught a whiff of
whatever residue came from his homemade flare.

All around the
Devil's Reef, the water seethed, and a moment later the Deep Ones came out of
the water, hundreds of demons rising up and treading surf as they looked from
one boat to the next.
 
They made their
choice and one or two of them let out heavy croaks, then turned toward the
Marianne
and came for us.

22

Well, it
wasn't exactly what I'd wanted to happen, but the added adrenaline surge was a
blessing.
 
I looked at Buddy and he
looked at me and then ran like the devil himself was trying to bite his ass
off.

Then I ran,
too.
 
Not for the generator switches,
because I knew that was where Demetrius's sidekick was heading, but for the
artillery.

I barely
bothered to look, but scooped up whatever I hoped were all loaded weapons and
put them on the deck as Diana and Charlie screamed at Ward.
 
For his part, the professor was looking down
on us with a calm, slightly insane smile.
 
I'm guessing on the crazy part, of course, but I had my suspicions.

The first of
the Deep Ones cleared the water and landed at the guardrail, holding it with
thick, wet paws.
 
It looked over at us
with bulging eyes and a formidable mouthful of teeth as it hissed.

Charlie was a
little faster on the uptake than Diana.
 
He grabbed a weapon for himself and one for her.

As for me, I
looked at the fish man, then grabbed my own weapon and spun around, taking
careful aim at Ward's face.

He was
answering whatever the hell the other two had said to him, and he was looking
back at Diana when he spoke.
 
"It's
about immortality, Diana.
 
Not for me,
but for the human race.
 
If we don't
change, if we don't become more like the Deep Ones, we're all doomed by our own
stupidity."

"Hey,
Ward!"

His head
snapped around as I yelled for him and he looked at me like I'd just
interrupted one of his class lectures.
 
He was in preach-mode and as the only member of the
Church
of
Martin Ward
,
Scientist,
I guess he wasn't used to getting
interrupted.
 
For one second he looked
outraged, but seeing the business end of my assault rifle aimed in his
direction, he changed his tune fast.

"Wait!
 
You can't do this!"

I shot
him.
 
It would have been so perfect to
see his head explode all over the place and to see him die right then and
there.
 
I wanted him to pay for what he
had done.
 
I didn't care about his
beliefs.
 
There are freaks like him all
over the planet, but, oh, how I cared about Belle.
 
So I shot him.

Sad to say my
aim wasn't perfect.
 
Instead of watching
his head explode, I got to watch his right ear vanish in a quick red spray.

Martin Ward's
eyes bugged even wider than a Deep One's and he let out a wail of pain and
dropped from sight, screaming in agony.

I didn't have
time to finish the job.
 
The first of the
Deep Ones was almost on board my crab boat.

God love him,
Charlie had the situation under control.
 
His face was set like a statue, angry and determined.
 
He fired his weapon and three bullets blew
out the back of the fish man that was just setting foot on the deck of the
Marianne
.

The thing let
out a wet sounding howl and fell back into the water, bouncing against a couple
of its relatives before splashing down.

By that time
around fifteen of the things were all over the guardrails and doing their best
to overrun us.
 
At least two of them were
dumb enough to get caught in the barbed wire and were roaring and bucking as
they tried to get untangled.

Before I could
do anything to end their suffering with a bullet or two, the hot wires
activated.
 
The air was filled with a
series of little popping noises and a very clear electrical hum, and every last
one of the fish men who was scaling the sides of the
Marianne
jerked violently as live current cooked their bodies.
 
Diana let out a scream, and I think I did,
too.
 
Charlie just calmly took aim and
fired again, blowing holes in the face and chest of another target.

The ones still
there, the army of the damned things that was surround us, they went a little
crazy, screaming and barking as they backed away from the boat.
 
Quite a few of them ducked back under the
water, but not nearly all of them.
 
I
stepped closer to the railing and opened fire, spraying the damned things with
ammo.
 
The ones hit by the bullets
discovered that I had claws, too, only mine were longer.

Diana finally
figured out how to get the safety switched off and put a couple of bullets in
the deck before she got a better aim and fired on the fish men.

By the time
Buddy made it back to the deck, the Deep Ones had moved out of easy targeting
range and were making lots of noises while they stared at the boats.

"So, I
thought about what you said earlier, Joe.
 
I think you're right.
 
You can
handle this by yourself."
 
That was
Buddy.
 
His voice was tense, but he had a
thin smile on his face and his eyes were hard.

"Might be a little late."

"Yeah.
 
I figured
as much.
 
Same luck I always have with
the lottery."

Several of the
Deep Ones had fallen away from the electrified wires — or burned away — and a
few of them actually caught fire.
 
I
trusted the rest of them to watch my back and grabbed a wooden pole I usually
saved for pushing away from shallow spots.
 
I used it to knock the burning corpses off the side of the
Marianne
.
 
Each one that fell was already dead, but
hissed anyway as it hit the water.

All around the
Marianne
, the Deep Ones were treading
the surface and making their odd croaking noises, like a million frogs singing
in a choir.
 
When I was done with my
grisly task, I put the pole down against the cabin wall and got a few more
weapons from inside.
 
Like I said, we
brought an arsenal.
 
One of the nicest
surprises that my father-in-law added to the list of supplies, aside from
Buddy, was body armor.
 
Unfortunately he
only brought two sets.
 
One of them went
on Buddy.
 
The other one I made Diana
wear.
 
What can I say?
 
I was raised to be a gentleman.

"Why
aren't they doing anything?"
 
Diana's voice was shaky.
 
I could
understand the reasons well enough.

"They are
doing something.
 
They're thinking about
how they should continue."
 
That was
Buddy.
 
He looked around at the things
out there and shook his head.
 
"Damn
me if they aren't smart."

Turns out they
were smarter than we thought.
 
The next
wave came from the air, not from the sea.
 
While I was busy pushing corpses aside and the rest of my group was
watching for unexpected attacks from below, the Deep Ones that had disappeared
were scaling the far side of the
Isabella
.
 
They didn't actually fly, but I have to tell
you I let loose with a very unmanly scream when I saw them come over the
railing of my yacht and drop down on the deck of the
Marianne
.

They were
strong and they were fast, but like I said before the Deep Ones didn't seem
really built for land attacks.
 
A couple
of them fell back against the railings and got
themselves
hooked into the barbed wire.
 
One of them
tried to twist around and in the process managed to make contact with the hot
wire and immediately fried.