Gates of Neptune (12 page)

“What's wrong? What is it, Val?” Sarah cried as they all rushed to him.

Val's eyes were wide with shock. He pointed to his right arm and said, “Look at that.”

She looked down at Val's right arm and saw a series of red rings that had pulled the fabric loose.

“There's a giant squid—a huge octopus—and he's perched right outside the cave,” Val whispered. “He nearly got me. If he'd gotten one more tentacle on me, I'd be dead by now.”

“Come on, we'd better get that suit patched up and that arm treated,” Josh said.

Val let them lead him back close to the fire where they repaired the suit and examined his wounds.

The sucker marks were not serious, but Val was shaken. “Those things can wait around for days,” he moaned.

“Maybe not,” Dave said hopefully. “Maybe he'll get tired and go on.”

Val jerked his arm back from Sarah, who was attempting to put some ointment on the sucker marks, and gritted his teeth. “He won't. We're lost now. I wish I'd never got pulled into this crazy scheme.”

His words shocked Sarah. She thought none of them had considered anything other than going on.

Wash said, “We're gonna make it, Mr. Val. Goel ain't brought us this far to let us down now.”

“You don't know these squid. None of you do. They're just patient as a mountain and can stay in one place about that long. Once they get a hint about a prey— which is us—they'll stay forever. And the only way out of this cave is right past that monster.”

Dave said, “Well, it's a bad scene all right, but I'm believing somehow we'll get out of it.”

“You can believe in anything you want,” Val said, “but what I'd like is for about a battalion of good mariners to suddenly appear and fill that thing so full of darts he'd shrivel up. It's a big one too. I've never seen a larger octopus.”

Val walked away from the group and stood staring moodily out at the water. The others milled about, not knowing what to do.

At last Sarah said, “Well, seems like we've been here before, doesn't it? Come to the end of everything. Remember how we thought we'd come to the end when all those soldiers of the Sanhedrin were coming and all we had was a stone wall that we couldn't get by?”

“That's right,” Josh agreed, “and Goel brought us through that. He'll get us through this too.”

Though they talked as cheerfully as they could, Sarah saw that none of them actually had much faith. Finally they ate a little, although no one seemed very hungry, and went to bed.

* * *

Wash moved over close to Reb, and they talked for a while.

Reb said, “Well, I know one thing, I don't believe in going down with your bat on your shoulder.”

“You mean, we ought to go out and tackle that thing out there?”

“Probably wouldn't make it, according to what Val says,” Reb said, “but I sure hate to go out doing nothing.”

“You know,” Wash said, “everybody's done something for the group—everybody but me.”

“What do you mean by that?” Reb demanded.

“I mean Josh, and Sarah, and Dave, and you, and Abbey—everybody has gotten us out of a mess at one time or another.” He stared down at his hands and looked very
small as Reb glanced at him. “But I haven't ever done anything to help us.”

Reb reached over and punched his shoulder. “Don't you worry about that. We're all one. It doesn't matter who does the work as long as we all stick together.”

Reb was still weak from his fever and said, “I think I'll take a little nap.” He lay back and was asleep almost instantly, but he could not sleep long. There was a rock under his shoulder, and he rolled over to remove it. As he did, his eyes opened. He sat up abruptly, staring around. “Wash. Wash?”

From across the way, Dave called out, “What is it? What's wrong, Reb?”

“It's Wash. He's gone!”

Everyone came rushing over and saw that Reb had spoken the truth.

Val took in the situation. Quickly he went to where the equipment was stashed. “His spear guns gone.” He looked toward the water. “You know, I think he went out to tackle that giant squid.”

“Oh no,” Sarah moaned, “he'll be killed.”

“Probably already is,” Val said. “Poor little guy, I could have told him that nobody ever wins in a one-man battle with a monster that big.”

* * *

Slowly, Wash moved along through the canal to the opening of the cave. He was trembling, but he held his spear gun as firmly as he could with both hands. He remembered what Val had taught them, so he had loaded the gun with six compressed-air darts and had set the trigger to automatic, which meant as soon as he pulled it, the six darts would be fired, one after the other, in a matter of seconds.

It's kind of like a machine gun
, he thought as he moved forward, paddling with his fins. He felt very much alone, and fear almost paralyzed him. But he kept repeating,
Goel, let me do something to help my friends. Help me kill this big old scudder
.

The tunnel was dark, but he saw up ahead a glimmer of light—the entrance to the cave. Even as he watched, several long objects moved in front of the opening, and he knew that they were the tentacles of the octopus.

He'd once seen a movie about a giant squid that had attacked a ship, pulled the sailors off, and killed them one at a time. Wash fully expected this would happen to him. But he forged on anyhow, hopeless yet remembering that Goel had done many marvelous things in the past.

He edged up to the opening. Even as he did, the tip of a tentacle slid inside and moved like a huge snake down the tunnel. The octopus was reaching into the cave, feeling for its prey. On and on it went until the body of the octopus blocked the opening. The tentacle, at its heaviest part, Wash saw, was a foot or more across. He knew the body of the thing must be enormous.

Got to get him in the belly
, Wash thought desperately. He watched as the tentacle felt about the cave, touching, searching, like a long, enormous finger.

Then Wash blotted out all thought of what it would be like to be clasped by those enormous feelers and have its suckers all over him. He knew that once he fell into the grasp of that mighty beast, he was lost. He paddled forward, barely moving his fins, careful not to touch the tentacle. Something about his movement caused the tentacle to suddenly writhe, though, and to Wash's horror it withdrew until the end of it, moving about the cave, touched his arm. He jerked back in terror, but before he could escape, the tentacle had wrapped itself around his body.

The pressure was enormous, and he felt the power of the monster. He felt also that he was being drawn toward the opening of the cave.

Just give me one shot! Help me get it right!

When he cleared the opening, all Wash could see was the massive body and the huge staring eyes of the awful, misshapen beast. The water had filled with writhing tentacles that all began to move toward him. He saw that he was underneath, and he saw the huge mouth that would tear him to pieces. It opened wide to receive him, and Wash now knew what death was.

Other tentacles began to enclose his arms and his legs.

Wash raised the dart gun, pointed it straight at the soft underbelly of the beast and, with a prayer to Goel, pulled the trigger. The gun bucked in his hand, but he held it steady.

Then he saw the darts—all six of them—penetrate the body of the octopus and disappear, buried deep. There was a series of muffled sounds as the expanding air exploded and literally blew the monster to pieces. For one moment, the tentacles pulled at him, probably a reflex action, and then they grew limp. Instantly Wash kicked himself free and back into the cave, his heart beating like a trip-hammer.

“I done done it!” he cried aloud. “I done killed that big old sucker!”

He swam as quickly as he could back down the tunnel, ducked under the air lock, and came up. He saw the others walking aimlessly around, and he pulled his helmet off and shouted, “Hey, it's me. I done killed that big old critter!”

His friends ran to him, and the cave was filled with the cries and shouts of excitement.

And then, as he told them what he had done, Val nodded with admiration. “You ought to get a medal for that. Nobody's ever done it before.”

Dave and Josh picked up the small boy on their shoulders and began carrying him around in a victory celebration.

And as the others watched and cheered, Wash said under his breath, “I sure wish my momma could see me now!”

A
fter Wash's victory over the giant squid, all the Sleepers were filled with confidence. Val was very impressed, but he shook his head. “Well, it was a marvelous thing,” he said, “and one that will be sung in many songs, but we're not to the Citadel yet.”

“What do we do now?” Josh asked.

Val bit his lip and thought hard. Finally he said, “We'll stick with our original plan. We're going to Mount Tor.” He hesitated, then smiled. “You ought to like that. You'll be out of the water for a while.”

“You mean really out—not like in a cave?” Sarah demanded.

“Yes. As I told you, Mount Tor sticks out of the water. It's an old volcano. We'll be able to make our plans about how to get into the Citadel when we get there—if there is any such thing as a plan,” he murmured as though to himself.

They pulled their belongings together and mounted the sea beasts. Sarah felt that she had begun to know hers. She was still afraid of him and his huge teeth, but when he nuzzled her she ran her hand over the sandpaperlike skin and said, “You're an ugly thing, but you've been the best thing for me at this time.” She slipped into the saddle, thinking how strange it was that she did that as easily as a cowboy would slip into the saddle of a horse. Then when Val led out, she leaned forward to cut down on the water resistance, and the party began their journey.

It was not a long journey, but there was danger Sarah
—and she was sure all the others—kept her eyes moving constantly, and Val kept leading them through small canyons and behind reefs, out of the open water. At last he turned and waved his arm forward, saying, “There it is. There are the foothills of Mount Tor.”

Sarah looked forward eagerly and saw that the ocean floor was giving way to small rises. As they moved forward, she saw that it was a mountain indeed. It rose steeply out of the water, much like a mountain Sarah had once climbed in Washington State.
But,
she thought,
it's much easier to climb on a sea beast than it is to pull yourself up by your fingernails.

The water grew clearer and brighter, almost translucent. Then Sarah's shark broke the surface, and she blinked at the brilliance of the sun, almost blinded.

“This way,” Val said. “Let's get out of sight.”

They all had to cover their eyes until they got accustomed to the beams of the sun, and Val led them to a small harbor that seemed made to order. “We can keep our beasts here,” he said, “until we decide what to do.”

“We'll have to feed them,” Wash said, as he patted his shark on the side. “Don't want anything to happen to these fellows.” They had brought special food, concentrated fish cakes, and it was amusing to see how the sharks took them into their huge maws.

Their teeth could have torn a horse in two, Sarah noted, but the beasts were as gentle as the porpoises and offered no harm.

As they left the lagoon, Val said, “You can take off your suits now. We'll store all of our equipment here.”

Soon they were free of the diving uniforms and were walking around in their green, fish-scale swimsuits, enjoying the sunshine and the warm breeze.

“Now, this is something,” Reb said. “It's almost as pretty here as it is in Texas.”

Sarah agreed. “I didn't realize how much I missed the world up here.”

Dave chipped in, “Yeah, I feel like I'm waterlogged.” He looked back at the sea. “It'll be hard to go down there again.”

Val laughed. “You're not real mariners. But I guess you have to be born in it to really know what it's like. Come on,” he said, “let's see what is here. I've been here only once, and then we just touched the shore.”

They moved inland and discovered that the tip of Mount Tor was not large at all, no more than a quarter of a mile across. But there was a large, circular crater right in the center. They came to it cautiously and peered down into the darkness.

“It's an old volcano, all right,” Jake said. “Sure hope it don't decide to go off until we get away from here.”

Abbey said, “I'm hungry. Can't we make a fire? Are we going to stay here all night?”

Her words spurred them on, and darkness was falling. By the time it was completely dark, they had found firewood and a brisk, cheerful blaze dotted the darkness.

“Aren't you afraid somebody will see our fire—some of the outposts?” Josh asked Val.

“I don't think so. My people don't think about above-the-surface very much. They'd be looking for us down below.”

“Well, that's a good thing,” Josh said. “I'm all tensed up, expecting to see some of those mariners any minute.”

“You'll see them tomorrow, or whenever we decide to make our try,” Val said grimly. Then he looked around. “Here's the situation.” He drew a map in the dirt. “Here's where we are, on top of Mount Tor. Over there, to the north and to the east a little bit, is the Citadel of Neptune.”

“How far is it?” Josh demanded.

“Not far, maybe three miles. Between here and there are half a dozen outposts, but the mariners don't stay in them much. They're out parading back and forth, so they've got a chain that surrounds the Citadel, just like we do with Atlantis.”

They stared at the crude map he had drawn, and they talked a long time about some way to get in.

“How many gates are there?” Sarah asked.

“Well, that's the bad news. There's only one, and you can bet it's guarded like nothing you've ever seen before.”