William Meikle - The Creeping Kelp

“Whatever,” the Colonel said, but something seemed to have gone out of the man. He went back to staring down at the shore.

Looks like we’re dismissed.

Suzie dragged Noble away from the battlements.

“If it’s to be London, there’s some stuff I’ll need from the lab. Come on.”

Noble took a last look over the edge then allowed himself to be led off.

“We’ll need all the proof we can gather,” she said as they went back down the stairs. “You know what these pencil pushers are like. I’ll…”

Now that a decision of some kind had been made for her, Suzie was all efficiency. He realised it was mostly bluff hiding a bubbling fear, but to point any of that out to her at this point would do more harm than good. He let her keep talking and tuned her out… he was having enough trouble just limping down the stairs without falling over.

When they got to the lab he sat down hard in a chair, relieved to be off his feet and very much aware that he was far from being well. In the meantime, Suzie fluttered around the room collecting papers and downloading material onto a pin drive, a frenzy of activity that came to a sudden halt when her gaze fell on the sample jar. She stopped, and her jaw fell open in an amazed, very-unladylike, gape.

“What?” Noble asked, seeing her stunned expression. “What is it?”

She didn’t seem to hear him, her whole attention was on the contents of the jar. Noble pushed up out of the chair, wincing at a fresh flare of pain in his leg. It felt like someone was down there rooting about in the muscle with a red-hot poker. But the discomfort was quickly forgotten as he looked down at the jar.

When they’d left it had been full of thrashing kelp. Now there was only a mass of blackened tissue.

Suzie lifted the lid of the tall jar.

“Don’t…” Noble said, but as usual he was far too late. She had already poked it with a long ruler she lifted from the table. Where she tapped it, fell apart like dray ash.

Before she could investigate further, a young officer arrived in the doorway.

“The chopper’s here for you Miss.”

Five minutes later they were in the air.

He tried to talk to Suzie in the chopper, but the noise, even through ear-mufflers was almost deafening. That, plus the fact that his leg started to throb in time with the chug of the rotors meant that this was not going to be a pleasant journey. But she needed him, and he was coming to a growing realisation that he also needed her.

And once this situation is over, I mean to tell her so .

He might even have tried to tell her there and then, but even as the chopper took to the air and banked over the smoking carnage in Weymouth Harbour, she already had the papers she’d brought opened in her lap.

She saw him looking.

“Try to get some rest,” she shouted. “I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a while before we get another chance.”

For the first half an hour he tried, but every time he closed his eyes his mind filled with pictures of flame and burning flesh and his head still echoed with the sound of screams and gunfire. After a time he came to believe he could taste burning flesh at the back of his throat. That, and the nausea building in his gut from the rocking and the vibration, made him wish he’d stayed back in the warm bed at the fort.

Then Suzie looked over at him and smiled, and all other thoughts slipped away.

I’ve fallen for her.

It came as a surprise. They’d been working together for a while now and always treated each other more as brother and sister than potential lovers. He’d always had a feeling of distance from her, as if she liked to keep not just him, but everybody at arm’s length. There had been more touching and hugging in the past few hours than there had been in the last few years.

Not that I’m complaining.

For a while he lost himself in fantasies of dinner and drinks and what might happen later. But even there the kelp intruded, forcing the screeching Tekeli Li wail into his skull in an ear-worm that couldn’t be stilled, couldn’t be turned down. Finally he gave up and sat up straight, reading along with Suzie as she perused some of her research notes. Once again he was quickly lost in the past, but this time, some way further back than World War Two.

After all my pondering, deliberations, and misgivings, the time has finally come. My new charge has arrived from the New World in the hold of the Santa Angelo and it has been brought to the castle. The Inquisitor General has tasked me with discovering the true nature of the abomination, to make a full and careful examination and ascertain what manner of Inquisition might be made of it. It is a great honour, and one I will fulfil with all the diligence the good Lord hands to me.

There is a certain doubt in my mind. A cloud has hung over the proceedings since I read the journal of Captain Juan Santoro last night on his arrival in the Inquisitor General’s chambers. A dark evil is detailed in those pages, and although the Inquisitor General teaches us that all things are powerless before the truth of our Lord, I have grave misgivings about the thing I am about to see for the first time.

I have prayed all morning for the strength to fulfil my duty to the Lord, but still my knees feel like water and there is a cold pit in my belly that nothing can assuage.

But the Inquisitor has entrusted this matter to me for a reason. He believes me worthy of the task, the one man here who might have the perception and the courage to do what must be done.

My duty is clear.

It is time for the questioning to begin.

Noble tapped Suzie on the shoulder. She lifted her gaze from the papers and any annoyance she might have felt seemed to melt away in her quick smile. Noble had to resist a sudden urge to kiss her.

“What the hell is this ?” he shouted.

Suzie shrugged.

“I’m not sure yet. It came up on one of my searches.”

The next page was from the same search, but from a different journal.

If there is a hell on this Earth then surely it is in this place here. No god-fearing man should have to face the horrors I have led my crew through on this day. I give thanks that I have brought us all back safely to the ship and I am much afeared with the thought of the return voyage, for the cargo is most foul and ungodly. But I would be remiss in my duty to the Church if I did not report on the things that plague this new land. If the Crown wishes, as I have been told, to colonise this place, then we must know what manner of things lay claim on it at present.

In truth, I know not what we have found. It began when we started to hear rumour of something being hidden from us in the forest to the west of the collection of huts that passes as civilisation here. The fact that something was being hidden proved most interesting, for until that moment, the people had been the most open and friendly of any I have met anywhere on my numerous travels and journeys in service of the King and Queen.

At first I did not wish to pry, but the rumours persisted, and the men began to clamour for action, having the scent of gold in their nostrils and the thought of glory in their hearts.

I took a party to the forest and we did indeed find resistance there, so much so that it became obvious there was indeed something hidden there from us, something of great value.

The natives died bravely defending it, and for most of the day we fought our way ever closer, thinking that we had stumbled on a great treasure. We fought through their defences, hacking and slashing our way to the centre of a dark temple that rose up high, even rising above the tall forest canopy. The temple itself was ringed with four concentric circles of burning oil, and several of our party took severe burns in their crossing, but all the men braved the fire, the thought of fortune spurring them on.