“Two miles, and slowing,” the operator confirmed.
“Can we surface?” Seton asked.
Banks wasn’t ready to make that kind of decision for the submarine crew but was surprised when Green capitulated immediately.
“Sure, why not,” he said. “Nothing else has worked. It’s your show now.”
The sub rose and surfaced.
“One mile out and closing slowly,” the radar operator said.
Banks followed Seton up and outside onto the deck with the other squad members close at his back.
The beast lay quiet in the water, the huge head almost touching the prow of the submarine, eyes wide and fixed directly on where the squad stood. The chanting seemed to come from everywhere around them.
He sleeps and he dreams with the fish far below.
He dreams and he sings in the dark.
The beast sang in time, its wailing bass drone sending vibration thrumming through the hull.
He sleeps and he sings and he dreams far below.
The serpent faded and solidified in time with the beats of the chant, becoming fainter with each beat.
It began to sink, fading fast. Its song faded with it. Seton added his voice to the chant as it sank beneath the swell and was gone.
And the Dreaming God is singing where he lies.
“Won’t it just come back again?” Green asked when they went back below.
“Not if you keep the chant going,” Seton said.
“We can’t stay here forever.”
“You won’t have to. I’m thinking a series of buoys each broadcasting the song and a naval blockade of the immediate area should do the trick, as long as there is no renewal of drilling in this area.”
“I can’t authorise that,” Green said.
Banks got the last word.
“You don’t have to worry about that. I know a man who knows a man who can.”
The chant was still echoing around them as they returned to their cabins to prepare to go home.
He sleeps and he dreams with the fish far below.
He dreams and he sings in the dark.
He sleeps and he sings and he dreams far below.
And the Dreaming God is singing where he lies.
- 21 -
Once back on dry land, Wiggo had the honor and was first to enter the sarge’s room at the infirmary.
“Time to get up, you old fart,” he said. “I’ve brought the strippers.”
Too late, he saw that the sarge already had a visitor; the new woman in his life, Debs, sat on the edge of the bed holding his hand.
“Fetch them in then, Wiggo,” she said. “They can help us celebrate.”
“Celebrate?” Wiggo asked, and Debs, still holding the sarge’s hand, lifted her own hand up to show that each wore a new ring.
“Oh, Sarge,” Wiggo said. “You never went and proposed?”
“He never did. I did,” Debs said with a smile. “Had to get him to agree to a few conditions first though.”
The sarge looked rueful and addressed Banks.
“This is what I wanted to talk to you about, John,” he said. “I guess I just quit.”
“Quit? What the fuck are you going to do with yourself in civvies?” Wiggo said.
“He’s coming with me,” Debs replied. “I’m assigned to hurricane relief in the Bahamas and I wasn’t prepared to go without him.”
“If you’re sure this is what you want…” Wiggo said, addressing Hynd.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, lad,” Hynd replied. “And I’ll need a best man before I go, if you’re up for it?”
“It would make me the proudest man alive,” Wiggo said, and he meant every word.
Banks spoke up to fill the sudden silence.
“In that case, I’ll need Wiggo for something too,” he said. “Meet me in my office for orders in the morning, Sergeant Wiggins.”
THE CRYPTID FILES
A FREE SAMPLE
Jessica had looked forward to this weekend for a long time, so she was getting pretty annoyed that Brian was making it so miserable. With all the work she’d been putting into college, she didn’t have a lot of time to herself, and what time she did have usually went into doing things that Brian wanted to do, things like bar crawls and keggers. Jessica wasn’t at all interested in those sorts of things, but Brian was the first real boyfriend she’d ever had. She’d been too shy and introverted in high school to attract anyone’s attention, so the fact that someone like Brian was with her now made her want to do anything at all to keep him by her side.
Now though, after a day out camping and hiking in the wilderness, she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to do with him anymore. He was a city guy to his core, but he’d seemed interested in going out into the forest and mountains with her. Soon after they’d started hiking though he’d gone straight into complaining about his feet. Now, on day two, it was obvious to her that he hadn’t bothered to prep for the trip at all and had instead expected that all they’d be doing the entire time was getting naked with each other in a tent. Not that she would have complained about that, but they could do that anywhere. Out here there were other things to do, things she couldn’t do most of the time, like fish and hike and just enjoy nature.
“Nature sucks,” Brian mumbled from behind her on the trail. It was approximately the ninth time today he’d said it, or at least the ninth time Jessica had heard it. Honestly he might have said it a lot more when she couldn’t hear, but her hearing it seemed to be the point. “Why can’t you be into something less likely to get me blisters on my feet? Something like sewing.”
“You constantly mock people who sew,” Jessica said. “And the blisters wouldn’t be there if you’d followed my advice and broken in your boots before the trip.”
“I thought we were going to be knocking boots, not keeping them on,” he muttered. Right there, in that moment, Jessica realized their relationship was going to end as soon as they got home. They were definitely not right for each other anymore, if they ever had been in the first place. Jessica knew that there was a spot up ahead on the trail where they could easily loop back around and start heading back early, and although it sucked that her time out here was going to be cut short, it was probably for the best. If she tried to keep this going for the whole weekend, it would only be more miserable for both of them.
“It looks like there’s a spot up ahead where we can rest if you want,” Jessica said. She thought about adding in what she was thinking, about turning around and ending the trip early, but she thought it would be better if they had a breather first, just in case she was tempted to just blurt out that she wanted to end other things as well. That would best wait until they weren’t in the middle of nowhere.
Brian looked around at the clearing she pointed out as though he expected a comfy chair to magically pop out of the ground, and when one didn’t, he scowled at a fallen tree. “What, am I supposed to sit on that?”
“Or you can keep standing,” Jessica said. “It’s fine by me.” She took a seat closer to the broken end of the tree and did her best to ignore him as he sat next to her and pulled off his boots. Idly inspecting the splintered portion of the tree, she realized the break was still fresh. The tree had been old and large enough that they could both sit on the trunk comfortably, so it wasn’t something that should have been able to easily break unless it was diseased or dead, but the wood inside looked healthy.