Jeremy Robinson - Kronos

After Atticus adjusted to the seat, he looked up and found the glass viewing port to be a foot above his head. “Was this thing designed for giants?” he asked.

Trevor smiled and reached his hand over the side. As in a car, each seat had a small control panel. Trevor depressed a button, and his seat rose into the air, bringing his shaggy-haired head within the confines of the glass bubble. Atticus did the same and was happy to see the control stick rise with him.

“I wanted to be able to stand up inside,” Trevor said without offering any other explanation. “If you tire of looking at the ocean from the eye of a manta, there is a concealed front viewing port.”

Atticus twisted from side to side. The mobility and field of view were far beyond those of any submersible he’d ever been in. “No. This is great.” As he spoke, water rose to the lower edge of the window and quickly covered it. He hadn’t even been aware that it was rising.

“When the cables let go,” Trevor said, “don’t touch the controls until we’re in the open ocean. The computer will guide us out.”

A moment later a slight drop signified that they were no longer attached to the support cables. True to Trevor’s word, the submersible came to life and descended through the open floor, into the ocean.

They were immediately greeted by a pair of massive jaws bearing rows of razor-sharp teeth. For a moment, Atticus thought he must be having some kind of hallucination brought on by a subconscious fear of entering the ocean again. But as the bubbles and froth cleared, he could make out the distinct triangular teeth of a shark, a very large great white shark-Laurel.

“Is she a danger to the sub?” Atticus asked.

“Not at all.” Trevor said with a chuckle. “She comes to say hello every time we descend in Ray. I’ll tell you, she’s given many a guest quite the start!”

Laurel circled Ray twice before swimming lazily away. “You see,” Trevor said, “she’s a friendly girl when she wants to be.” Atticus looked at Trevor, whose face was distorted by the two glass bubbles separating them. The way the glass bent and stretched his image made the man look more like a Troll doll than a multibillionaire. When Trevor flashed a wide smile at him, Atticus couldn’t help but laugh.

Trevor’s next words immediately erased his smile. “Take us down, good Ahab! Down, down into the depths to recover the record of the beast that we might glimpse what makes it tick and discover a chink in its armor.”

The jovial tone of Trevor’s theatrics had no effect on Atticus. He was not looking forward to recovering the tape, or seeing the creature again. He would move toward it regardless. Like a meteorite through the galaxy, propelled by forces out of his control, he would not stop until he met an unmovable force and collided with it. Atticus gripped the control stick and thrust it forward, sending Ray into a fast dive through the azure depths.

Aboard Ray-Beneath the Gulf of Maine

Though his sorrow fought against it, a smile grew on Atticus’s face. He twisted the control stick and took the sleek submersible into a spin. He followed the spin with a twist in the other direction and a loop that brought them toward the ocean’s bright blue surface, then back to the depths.

Atticus hadn’t planned on the joyride, but after feeling the speeds the sub could reach and how easily it handled, he’d started testing its limits. He had yet to find them. It handled like a jet fighter-an amazing jet fighter-underwater.

Trevor bellowed a laugh. He was enjoying himself as well. It wasn’t until O’Shea groaned loudly from the back that Atticus eased up on the controls and slowed. He ducked down out of the bubble and looked back at O’Shea. “You all right back there?”

“Peachy…” O’Shea looked green. “Just, slow down, will you? I’ve never been fond of amusement parks for a reason.”

Trevor was peeking out of his side. “Oh, Father. You can’t tell me that didn’t make you feel alive.”

“God makes me feel alive,” O’Shea said with just a hint of a smile.

“Oh, phooey on you,” Trevor said with a wave of his hand. He looked at Atticus. “And you! When this business is finished, you have a spot on my crew if you’d like it.”

Atticus wasn’t sure what to think of the offer. It was a temptation filled with the prospect of money and adventure, but those things seemed so hollow in the wake of all that had happened and might happen. He’d already considered the idea and imagined he would accept. He liked Trevor, and if he survived the confrontation with the creature, he’d need to do something with his life, no matter how shallow. He nodded his response and returned to the confines of his glass bubble.

The rest of the descent was made in silence and without reaching breakneck speeds. As they neared the seafloor some two hundred feet below, the light from the sun filtered away to a blue so dark that they couldn’t see more than a few feet.

“Trevor,” Atticus said, “this thing has lights, correct? And can you work the manipulator arms once we find the camera?”

Atticus saw Trevor look at him, his troll-shaped face deep in thought through the two glass bubbles. He seemed to be seriously considering something. Then he smiled and saluted. “Aye aye, mon capitaine. ”

The ocean became a globe of bright blue as two exterior five-hundred-watt metal halide lights blazed to life, lighting the surrounding area to near-daylight conditions. The seafloor came into view, glowing golden brown under the light. The sandy bottom was pocked with orange cerianthids, burrowing anemones, their jellylike limbs swaying with the ocean currents. Skittering across the sand were several small crabs, fleeing from Ray ’s bright lights. Tiny specks of life, known as zooplankton, flittered all around the sub, not even aware of it.

Atticus ignored the life that normally would have enthralled him and set about the task at hand. “I’m going to run a search grid. It will be tedious, but we should find it.”

Trevor nodded his agreement and Atticus pushed the sub forward.

Forty-five minutes later they were rewarded for their efforts. A flicker of reflected light in the distance revealed something on the sandy surface. Atticus wasted no time in approaching the object. He caught his breath, instantly recognizing the camera resting in its protective casing.

As they approached the case, Trevor spoke up. “We’re approaching the edge of the ledge, Atticus. Watch out for upwelling currents.”

Atticus nodded. He’d already noticed the building currents and was working hard to compensate for them. “Just grab the camera.”

Atticus couldn’t see Trevor’s hands working, but he could hear small motors moving within the submersible. Then two mechanical arms gradually reached out from Ray, stretching toward the sunken camera. As Trevor latched both manipulator arms tightly to the camera case handholds, a hiding flounder panicked and burst from the sand, swimming quickly away over the sandy seafloor. The movement brought Trevor’s eyes up from the camera.

He screamed.

A massive shadow rose from the depths beyond the ledge. A creature of undetermined length ascended, its massive mouth held agape.

“Get us out of here!” Trevor shouted, his voice squeaking in fear. “The beast is upon us!”

Atticus laughed hard, grateful for the distraction from the lump that had been forming in his throat since he first laid eyes on the camera. “It’s just a basking shark.”

As the forty-foot shark continued to rise, sucking down and filtering out a cloud of helpless copepods, Trevor slowed his anxious breathing and took in the creature. “A shark. A damn shark! That thing is huge!”