The adult Guivre rose oot o' the river ontae the embankment, revealin' its entire girth tae me. Its terrible stench burned in my nostrils, an' the flame frae my torch danced in its rounded eyes, yet it didnae attack… wary o' either my light or my cousin's deadly sword.
I crept backward, keepin' my eyes on the monster. The ropes were close now, beckonin' me tae reach doon an' release them frae their anchor. Choosin' tae preserve the sword, I lowered the torch an' untied them wi' my freed hand.
The iron gate dropped, its sharp ends impalin' several o' the Guivre young circlin' in the river.
Afore I kent whit happened, I wis taken frae my feet by the adult, my metal battle dress an' torso crushed within its jowls as I lashed at it blindly wi' my sword. I felt the return o' a heavy blow, an' I must have struck deep, for it flung me loose an' I flew through the dimly lit cavern, landin' hard in the darkness.
The remainin' torch flickered and died. I lay on my side, breathin' heavy an' in great pain, unable tae see my hand afore my face. My sword wis gone, lost somewhere along the rocks. An' then I heard the Guivre young snarlin' an' I got mair terrified as they advanced.
God came tae me then in the form o' a wisp o' cool air. I wis close tae the tunnel entrance!
Blind an' on hands an' knees I crawled, feelin' my way until I reached the mooth o' the narrow access tunnel. Movin' on a' fours in the pitch black, I smashed my heid ower an' again, yet continued on through that suffocatin' darkness, each precious second distancin' me frae thae demons.
In time the sounds o' the roarin' underground river faded an' the tunnel opened tae the great chasm we had descended a lifetime ago. Somewhere, high above me, wis my escape, yet how could I ascend such a dangerous mountain in darkness blacker than night?
Still, I had tae try, for if I wis tae die, I'd rather it wis frae a fall than the fangs o' the De'il.
Feelin' my way tae the chasm wall, I climbed, each handhold threatenin' tae cast me intae oblivion, each reach intae the darkness flirtin' wi' unseen ledges. How long I ascended cannae say. At times I paused tae catch a few precious moments o' sleep, at times I wondered if I wis still risin', so confused were my senses.
I never saw the daylight, but I heard the rush o' the wind. It led me tae the mooth o' the cave where the night's stars greeted me like a long-lost friend. Exhausted as I wis, I continued on, refusin' tae stop until the dawn.
Even wi' the light, I stayed far frae Loch Ness's bank.
At some point I must've passed oot, for when I awoke, wis being carried by William Calder's men. His daughter, Helen, cares for me noo, an' soon I will ask for her hand.
Meanwhile, I am haunted by frightful dreams… dreams o' death. Each dawn I awaken, screamin' frae my bed, my mind trapped in that hellhole where my eight comrades perished. The priest claims the dreams will pass, but I ken better, for the journey has scarred me for life.
Yet return I must, at the beginnin' o' each autumn an' again at the end o' winter, for I have taken a blood oath… the oath o' the Black Knights. Salvation has blessed me wi' life, fate cursin' me an' mine wi' its task tae return again — tae raise an' lower the gate.
Tae protect the freedom o' Scotland.
— Sir Adam Wallace, 1330
Chapter 32
I was on the A82, traveling north out of Fort Augustus. Glancing to my right, I saw a dark, slick animal rise out of the waters of Loch Ness, trailing what had to be a ten meter [thirty-three foot] wake. When I realized what I was looking at, I nearly went off the side of the road.
My brother, James, and I were on our fishing boat, which was fitted with a Koden CVS886 Mk II Color Sounder, its 28kHz transducer directing a 31.6 degree beam vertically downward. The CRO screen displays different strengths of echo in different colors. We were testing the device when we detected a weird shape in fifty-five meters of water. The object was eighteen meters [59 feet] long, about nine meters [29.5 feet] wide.
True shook his great Viking head as he accelerated the trawler yacht away from the dock and into deep water.
"Brandy's gonna kill ye, assumin' ye ever survive this lunacy."
"I'll make it up to her."
"That, I doubt. So, Captain Ahab, exactly where we headed?"
"North. Follow the western bank until we reach the Bona Narrows. It's where the fish must enter the Loch, the oil's got to be seeping somewhere close by."
He gave me a weary look, then turned the wheel, guiding us toward the northern entrance of Loch Ness.
"Ye say he means tae go underwater tae battle this demon?" Angus squeezed his eyes closed, rubbing his face. "This isnae whit I wanted, no' at a'."
"What did ye want then?" Brandy spat back. "Ye've been pushin' an' pushin' him ever since he returned, hell, ever since he was born."
"Same as my auld man aye did tae me! Life's tough, ye ken. Ye got tae have a thick skin tae—"
"Don't you lecture me on life, Angus Wallace! An' don't you talk tae me about tough love. My mum died when I was seven an' my arsehole father kicked me out when I was sixteen. What you call tough love, I call no love at all. Yer son came all the way back tae Scotland because he sought yer approval, an' all ye've done since he arrived was lie tae him an' push him tae find that monster. Well, congratulations, ye've got what ye wanted. Guess some things'll never change, eh?"
She turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm through the cell bars.
"Let go, or I'll break it off."
"It's no' whit I ever wanted, lass, it's whit had tae be. It's the only way I kent tae help Zachary."
"Bollocks."
"Zack's sufferin' inside, has been ever since that night he first drooned. I ken whit he's gone through. My ain childhood demons made me a bitter auld man on my best days an' a nae-guid drunk on my worst. A restless man cannae be a guid family man, Brandy, "cause he's aye seekin' pleasure frae somewhere else. That wis me, still is. I never wanted that for Zack."
"So you pushed him intae locatin' the creature?"
"Aye. "Twis the only way he could conquer his fear."
"An' get ye out o' prison, I suppose."
"Aye, that's true enough, but see, if anyone could locate Nessie, I kent Zachary could. After a', he did it back when he wis only nine years auld."
Brandy's eyes narrowed. "What are ye talkin' about? "Twas the salmon that led the monster topside when Zack was attacked. Purely an accident."
"That's "cause Zachary cannae remember, at least his mind willnae let him. Trust me, Brandy, that wisnae an accident. My laddie wis a clever sort, even back then. Figurin' Nessie fed in the deep, he rigged underwater microphones tae his fishing lines an' recorded the sounds o' the bottom-dwellin' schools. Took him months tae perfect it, but on the day o' his ninth birthday he wis ready, intent on impressin' me wi' his wee invention. "Course me, bein' the restless arsehole that I am, wis mair interested in dippin' my wicket than bein' wi' my son."
"So Zack set out with his Nessie lure alone in that rowboat? Gees, Angus. An' now he's Join' it all over again."
"Aye, but we cannae let him, can we? I need yer help lass, so come closer an' listen carefully, there's no' much time, an' an awfy lot tae be done."
Locating oil and gas reserves buried beneath the bottom of the ocean, as well as leaks from crude oil pipelines, relies on a variety of technology designed to detect anomalous concentrations of dissolved gases and emulsions in water. When oil is present, its surface film can be measured using the intensity of its reflected light. The interface detector True had "borrowed" was an antenna-shaped device that used a small laser beam to detect oil along the surface, along with a second probe that measured the energy absorption of insoluble liquids in the water itself.