The squid’s body, without the tentacles, was thirty-five feet long. The largest squid, the Atlantic variety, captured before had a mantle no longer than twenty feet. That relatively familiar creature, Architeuthis princeps, came to a maximum total length of fifty-two feet. Counting the two longest arms of this one, it reached eighty. It could not possibly swim in water less than six yards deep. It did not belong in a coral lagoon, but it was there.
It was close to sunset when the last tremors of the great mass of flesh were stilled. Terry was in no mood for eating, afterward. He skipped the evening meal altogether, and paced up and down the veranda of the dining hall, at the satellite-tracking station. Inside, there was a clatter of dishes and a humming of voices. Outside, there was a soft, warm, starlit night. The surf boomed on the reef outside the lagoon.
Deirdre came out and walked quickly into Terry’s arms. She kissed him and then drew back.
“Darling!” she said softy. Her voice changed. “How is your leg? Does it still hurt?”
“It’s nothing to worry about,” said Terry. “I’m worried about something else. Two things, in fact.”
“Name one!” said Deirdre, smiling.
“I’d like to get married soon,” said Terry ruefully.
“To whom?” she asked, jokingly.
“But I have to have a business or an income first I think, though, that with a little hard work I can start up my especialidades electronicas y fisicas again, and if you don’t mind skimping a little… ”
“I’ll adore it,” said Deirdre enthusiastically. “What else would I want? What’s the other thing you worry about?”
“That monster,” said Terry with some grimness.
“Pouf!” said Deirdre. “You’ve killed it!”
“I don’t mean that one,” said Terry more grimly. “I mean the one that sent it. I wish I knew what it is and what it intends to do!”
“You’ve already found out more than anybody else even dared to guess!” she protested.
“But not enough. We’ve stirred it up. It sent small fish in the lagoon here and elsewhere to report back to it. We can’t guess what the fish reported, but we know some of it was about human beings. Whatever is down at the bottom of the sea must be interested in men. Remember? It made a patch of foam that swallowed up one ship and all its crew. It’s interested in men, all right!”
“True, b u t… ”
“We dropped the dredge, which implied that we were interested in it. The bathyscaphe indicated more interest on our part. To discourage that interest—or perhaps in self-defense—it wrecked the bathyscaphe.”
“It, Terry?” asked Deirdre. “Or ellos, they?”
“They,” he corrected himself coldly. “We killed the fish that were reporting men’s doings from here. That was insolence on our part. So the hum at the lagoon entrance went off and, after two nights, started again—and then this huge squid was found in the lagoon. It should have been able to defend itself against us. It was sent up here because it was capable of defending itself! But we’ve killed it just the same. So now what will come up out of the depths? And what will it do?”
Deirdre said firmly, “You’ll be ready for it when it comes!”
“Maybe,” said Terry. “Your father once mentioned an instrument he’d like to have to take a relief map of the ocean bottom. Changed around a little, it might be something we need very badly indeed. The horn we’ve got is good, but not good enough. I’ll talk to the electronics men here.”
There was a noise of scraping chairs, inside the dining hall. People came out, talking cheerfully. There was much to talk about on Thrawn Island today. The killing of a giant squid had been preceded by a specific guess that linked it to meteoric falls in the Luzon Deep. Logically, the excitement had grown.
Terry found his electronics specialists, and explained to them the type of apparatus he was interested in. He asked if it was included in the island’s technical stores. He wanted to assemble something capable of emitting underwater noises of special quality and unprecedented power. There is not much power involved in sound through the air. A cornet player manages with much effort to convert four-tenths of a watt of power into music. A public-address system for a large area may give out fifteen watts of noise. Terry described a device which could use a small amount of power, serving as a sonar or a depth-finding unit, and then, with the throw of a switch, turn kilowatts into vibrations underneath the sea. If powerful and shrill enough, such vibrations could be lethal.
A technical argument ensued. Terry’s demands were toned down to fit the equipment at hand. Then three men went with him to the island’s workshop. They took off their coats and set to work.
Three hours later someone noticed an unknown vessel making its way into the lagoon. She was stubby and small, and had short thick masts with heavy booms tilted up at steep angles. Her Diesel engines boomed hollowly, louder than the surf. As she entered the lagoon, a searchlight winked on and flicked here and there. It finally found the wharf where the Esperance was moored.
Men of the tracking station staff went down to the wharf to meet the small row boat that was now coming ashore.
A short, stout, irate fishing boat skipper waved his arms and shouted angrily. What had los americanos done to keep La Rubia from catching fish? Why had they changed the arrangement by which the starving wives and children of La Rubia’s crew were fed? He would protest to the Philippine Government! He would expose the villainy of los americanos to the world! He demanded that now, instantly, the original state of affairs be restored!
A fish leaped out of the water nearby. Where it leaped, and where it fell back, bright specks of luminosity appeared. Even the ripples of the splashes glowed faintly as they spread outward. The skipper of La Rubia stared. And now the people of the island realized that the look of the water was not altogether commonplace. Little bluish flames under the surface showed that many fish darted there. There were more fish than usual in the lagoon. Many more. The lagoon had suddenly become a fine place to catch fish. Some care would be needed, of course. There were doubtless coral heads in plenty. But still …
The skipper of La Rubia abruptly returned to his fury and his protests. La Rubia had gone to the place where she always found fish. Always! There was a humming in the water there, and fish were to be found in quantity. But yesterday the American ship had been there, and also this very yacht! La Rubia stayed out of sight lest the americanos learn her fishing secrets. But it was useless. When the two American ships were gone, there was no longer a humming in the sea and no more fish for the crew of La Rubia to capture for their hungry wives and children. And therefore he, Capitan Saavedra, demanded that the americanos restore the previous state of affairs.
Davis would have intervened, but the chubby skipper erupted into wilder and more theatrical accusations still.
Let them not deny what they had done! Fish were always to be found where there was a humming in the sea that las orejas de ellos heard and reported to him. But that humming was not in its former place. It was here! At the entrance of the lagoon! The fish were here, also! Los americanos had moved the fish so the crewmen of La Rubia could not feed their wives and children. Los americanos wished to take all the fish for themselves! But fish were the property of all men, especially fishermen with starving wives and children. So he, Capitan Saavedra, would fish in this lagoon, and he defied anyone to stop him.