His dark, straight eyebrows narrowed. “What is that?”
He fixed the flashlight on a razor-sharp line in the middle of the fish hold. It was like an imaginary line had been drawn and none of the fish dared to cross it. The damned thing looked as though someone had taken a solid glass divider and cut the hold in two. Itaru Katsuzō knew there was no such thing in his live fish hold. He should know, he’d been inside it when it was dry only three weeks earlier before the Hoshi Maru left its dock at Minamisōma harbor.
Even so, it was extraordinary to watch the fish.
He’d seen something similar, although not to the same extent, just one time previously, when they’d somehow dragged a great white shark into the hold. The predator had eaten as many fish as it could manage and then drowned in the narrow confines of the hull. But in the process, the remaining fish had compressed into the narrowest of corners in an attempt to leave space between the predator and themselves.
Even then, it was nothing like the vision he had now. That time, it was more like the shark maintained a small spherical bubble around its teeth-filled mouth, while the fish compressed into the rest of the compartment. In this case, there was no shark, and the dividing line was very specific. What’s more, it divided the hold into port and starboard sides, splitting the hatchway in two, with the fish on the starboard side.
His taut jaw muscles flexed.
There was something mythical, if not magical, about the way the line was straight, as though the fish knew that to cross it would be to their certain peril. But there was nothing obviously dangerous to be seen.
Yet still, the fish seemed to keep away from it.
Itaru Katsuzō stared at the dividing line down the middle of the hold. He shined a flashlight into the empty section. The beam flashed through the empty line.
He squinted his eyes.
Nothing.
What the hell had gotten the fish so spooked?
The captain reached in and touched the invisible dividing wall. His hands reached through, penetrating the imaginary divider.
Captain Itaru Katsuzō shook his head. He must be going crazy. For a moment he was almost certain that he would find someone had installed a new glass partition in his hold.
“Find anything?” came the voice of Yuki Tono from a distance.
Captain Itaru Katsuzō turned around to greet him. “Nothing.”
He touched the imaginary partition and laughed.
There was nothing there.
He turned and tried to remove his hand, but something forcibly gripped it. Itaru Katsuzō shifted his position, using his other hand to gain leverage.
Itaru Katsuzō felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his body. His heart pounded in his chest. He thrashed, trying to escape whatever had gripped him on his left wrist. Whatever it was, it hadn’t hurt him — yet. Instead, it simply held on. He twisted his wrist trying to slip free, but the invisible force that held him seemed to simply tighten.
“Help!” he shouted. “I’m stuck! Something’s got me!”
Yuki Tono moved toward him.
But he was too late.
The creature pulled hard with one sudden movement and Captain Itaru Katsuzō was dragged into the live fish hold. His head dipped under the cool water. He kicked with his feet fighting to reach the surface again. His head broke the surface and a moment later he was swimming toward the hatchway.
He nearly made it too.
Yuki Tono reached in.
Itaru Katsuzō gripped his hand thankfully.
But something yanked on his right leg. It was the same sort of vice-like grip of something far from human.
He tried to kick it free, but it was impossible.
Above him Yuki Tono’s eyes widened in terror. “A Chimera from the deep!”
Itaru Katsuzō kicked harder.
While confusion, fear, and horror reigned.
A moment later he was dead.
Patrick opened his eyes with a jolt.
He stood up from his bunk and listened. The fishermen were all yelling something. In the past two years his Japanese had become pretty good, but they were speaking too fast for him to get any real comprehension.
He glanced out of the porthole, taking in the calm waters. The Hoshi Maru appeared steady in the water. It wasn’t listing or riding low in the water, which meant they weren’t in any immediate danger.
Yuki Tono burst into his quarters. “Patrick! Help there’s a Nue!”
He blinked. Patrick was tall by comparison, nearly six feet, with the well-defined and muscular build of a soldier. At thirty-eight years of age, his posture was still ram-rod straight, and his body bore the marks of multiple injuries from a lifetime on an unknown battlefield.
He picked up his shirt and casually pulled it over his head.
“Patrick!” Yuki Tono said, holding him by his shoulders. “Are you listening to me? We’re in serious trouble. We’re going to die!”
Patrick nodded. “Start again… what’s going on?”
“Captain Itaru Katsuzō has been killed by a Nue.”
Patrick tried to blink away the haze of confusion. “Sorry, what’s a Nue?”
“It comes from ancient Japanese folklore. But it’s real. I just saw it kill the captain!”
“Wait…” Patrick met Yuki Tono’s gaze. “Itaru Katsuzō’s dead?”
“Yes.”
Patrick asked, “How did he die?”
“A Nue killed him!”
“Right.” He took a deep breath. “You want to tell me exactly what a Nue is?”
“It’s a chimera with the face of a monkey, the legs of a tiger…”
Patrick felt a sudden rush of fear rise in his throat. “What did you say?”
“It’s a chimera… a type of animal…”
“I know what a goddamned chimera is!”
Patrick reached for his duffel bag. It contained what few possessions he still owned. He unzipped it and foraged into a secret compartment at the bottom, withdrawing a Sig Sauer P226. Despite not being fired in nearly two years, the Swiss-made pistol had been well serviced, its parts regularly stripped and oiled, and loaded with .357 SIG pistol cartridges.
Yuki Tono frowned. “Where did you get a handgun?”
Patrick ignored the question. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“The chimera! That damned killing machine!”
“The Nue?” Yuki Tono cocked his head. “It’s in the hold.”
“Right.” Patrick chambered the first round of his Sig Sauer P226. “The hatches are locked. It might hold it for a few minutes.”
“A few minutes?” Yuki Tono’s face was ashen gray. “That’s all we have?”
“It’s all we have. We’ll have to scuttle the ship before it escapes.”
“Scuttle the ship?” Yuki Tono asked, his voice incredulous. “Why would we scuttle the ship?”
“It might just be the only way to kill it for good. Maybe we can drown it.”
“What about your handgun?”
Patrick glanced at the Sig Sauer P226. “This… are you kidding me? This won’t even scratch it.”
“Then why do you have it?”
“This…” Patrick held up the weapon again. “This is to shoot myself before it can get its hands on me.”
“What will the Nue do to us?”
“Anything it wants. It’s pure evil. Only it’s not called a Nue. Its name is Excalibur — and it was a genetically engineered weapon built in secret by a team from the British Secret Intelligence Service — MI-6.”
Yuki Tono turned gray as the overcast sky. “Why would you tell me this?”
“Because when the program was shut down, and the weapon ordered to be destroyed. Excalibur didn’t take too kindly to the concept of being broken into little pieces. Instead, he went about systematically hunting down each of the seven-man group who worked on the project. Of which, four are already dead. That’s why I have been in hiding. But now he’s come for me.”
“Stop. I don’t want to know anymore. Why are you telling me this?”
“Don’t you see?” Patrick’s lips curled into a sardonic grin. “Some weapons can’t ever be broken. Excalibur will systematically hunt down every one of us, until we’re all dead.”
He stepped out onto the deck.
The Hoshi Maru motored through the second break wall of Minamisōma Harbor. Patrick looked up. “Holy shit! You didn’t tell me we were almost on land!”
“Yes. I thought you knew. We just need to keep that… thing locked within the hold until we reach land and then we’ll be all right!”
“No, we won’t!” Patrick’s words were emphatic. “We’ll never be all right. Not until that creature is destroyed.”
He turned and raced toward the raised pilothouse.
“Where are you going?” Yuki Tono asked.
“To change the course of the future.”