"Squid Attack Squad"
Jul. 8th, 2023 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"Squid Attack Squad"
4/6-4/7/2023
I.
Few helicopters would have been cleared to fly during such a storm. Even the US Coast Guard would have weighed the risk to a crew against any rescue mission. And for a flight intended for only research purposes, no copter would have launched into the heavy rain and gale force winds over Long Island Sound that night.
But the CORBY was like no craft available to any Human nation or organization. Sleek and sharklike in its contours, the black stealthcraft tore through the downpour as steadily as if it was flying on a calm summer afternoon. No visible lights showed. With its radar alignment systems working, the CORBY was as good as invisible in the darkness as it sped over the northern coastline.
At the combined cyclic/collective stick, the Trom who called himself Frank Mills kept his eyes moving constantly. From the row of small monitors screens showing views from all sides of the CORBY to the luminous windscreen which worked with both light enhancement and ultra-violet projectors to the sonar pulses lancing down into the black waters a thousand feet below, he saw everything he wanted to.
In the co-pilot seat, Demrak Jin shifted her weight irritably. Patience had never been one of her strong points. At first, she seemed to be only a rather short, thin woman with a wide flat face and sullen dark blue eyes. But further scrutiny of the stiff bristly white hair and odd facial bone structure would prove unsettling. In bright sunlight, a close examination would reveal three barely visible lines in a row on either side of her throat. These were gill slits. Demrak Jin was a Geldydra from the realm of Ulgor, a Cousin Race who were amphibious.
"I should be down there!" she abruptly cried, breaking the long silence. "That is MY element. Any monsters of the deep are my natural prey."
Mills responded with his usual bland mildness. "The sensors are probing for miles in every direction and down to a depth of three thousand feet. If any anomalies are detected, that would be the appropriate time for you to take action."
"You just don't have feelings," Jin continued. "A father and his child have been missing for the past few days. Before that, three teenage girls in their sailboat disappeared. This area is notorious for missing people. Only bits of wreckage have been recovered and you don't care."
The Trom turned his head to regard her without visible reaction to her tirade. Mills was a tall athletic man in one of the KDF black field suits. His short black hair and regular unremarkable features were offset by a pair of dark eyes that showed deep awareness and intelligence but no emotion. "I am what I was meant to be, Jin. Nothing will be gained by trying to provoke me."
"Arrrhh! I feel love! Anger! Sorrow! I have a heart. And you... you are like the cold machines you prize so highly!" she shouted right in his face.
"We are both true to our natures," Frank Mills responded in the same even tones he always used. "So far, sensors have detected nothing out of the ordinary. I intend to move closer to the shore and descend to three hundred feet. Under these conditions, we are not likely to be observed."
Folding her arms across her narrow chest, Jin scowled at the banks of pastel green and blue lights which filled the cockpit. Any one of those indicators turning red would have instantly gotten their full attention. After a long heavy silence, she grudgingly said, "You Trom say you value Human life."
"Yes," Mills answered. "We work behind the scenes in secrecy, but our goal is to improve conditions for Humans. We guide researchers to useful new discoveries and we release information conducive to reducing wars and violent crimes."
"You're not doing a very good job at that..." she grumbled.
"Events would have proceeded much more harmfully without our restrained interventions," Mills said. "As bad as history seems, it would have been much worse without the Trom pulling strings behind the scenes."
"So you say. Never mind. I am not like you, Trom. Sitting in a hard seat for six hours and circling the ocean is not what I was meant to be doing. I am a daughter of a warrior Race. Each Gelydra is born at the same time a shark hatches and the spirit of the shark lives in us!"
Instead of commenting, Mills pulled back on the stick and brought the CORBY to a hover. The pounding of the rain on the stealthcopter seemed louder because the engines were nearly silent. "Do you see that yacht tied to the dock directly below us?"
"What? Yes, of course. There is a small speedboat moored next to it."
"Watch as I enhance the sonar image."
After a few seconds, Jin hissed with an intake of breath. "Interesting. Very interesting." She unbuckled her restraint straps. "I will take a look."
"Let me extend the pontoons and land first," Mills said but he was speaking to an open hatch as Demrak Jin dove out into the darkness. Straight down three hundred feet she plunged, to punch down through the surface with hardly a splash. A normal Human would have been killed hitting water from that height, but the Gelydran womam took such a feat for granted.
Without showing any exasperation at his partner's impatience, Mills pressed a few buttons that extended the pontoons he had attached that afternoon and descended to a textbook perfect landing on the uneven surface of choppy waters. The advanced Trom impulse engines were still on, keeping the craft from capsizing or drifting. From behind his seat, he unhooked a helmet and fastened its lower seals to the high collar of his field suit. He had earlier fastened a short metal cylinder across his shoulder blades above the round disc of the gravity shield. When he lowered the helmet's visor, a fifteen minute oxygen supply would kick in.
His final action before exiting was to switch on the three running lights on the CORBY's lower hull where they could be seen from beneath the surface. Then, as smoothly as if he had practicing this all his life, Frank Mills dove out into the darkness of Long Island sound. The hatch slid shut behind him.
II.
As her gills opened and a flap closed off her lungs, Demrak Jin felt alive for the first time in days. As much as she loved Galvan and their little son, the Gelydra was never really comfortable on dry land for more than a few hours.
This was something she could never explain to her KDF teammates. How it felt as the currents played over her body, the myriad smells of different fish and plant life, the strange colorless vistas as her eyes saw deeper into the ultra-violet than Human eyes could. Thirty thousand years ago, her Race had been modified for underwater life by Darthan sorcery and she rejoiced at being in her element again.
Jin was wearing the snug long-sleeved tunic and pants of grey sharkhide with the rough denticles on the outside. Strapped across her back with its hilt up by her left shoulder was the three foot bone-bladed knife she had crafted and sharpened herself. She had removed the comically oversized boots when climbing into the CORBY. Her feet had grown so long that most people would stare at them. The webbed toes spread wide as she got her bearings and began swimming to her objective.
The hull of a hundred foot yacht showed ahead, clear to her vision even in night waters. Fastened below the hull was a wooden structure twenty feet to a side. The planks showed gaps and the single door was only loosely tied shut with cords. The structure was not intended to be watertight.
Very interesting. Humans wearing those Aqualung devices... Or perhaps merely Humans skilled at holding their breath for a minute or two... could enter this crude structure without being seen from the surface. But why? Using only her powerful legs with arms down by her sides, she kicked toward the strange sight. Behind her, concussion waves in the water told her that a large living thing had entered from the surface. Mills, of course. She turned her head and spotted the dark form gliding swiftly toward her. Of course the Trom would not swim like any normal creature, she thought sourly. He would use that gravity shield gadget to fly as quickly underwater as he did through the air.
In another second, Mills had caught up to her and came to a stop within arm's length. She knew the light enhancers in his helmet enabled him to see as well as she could under these conditions, perhaps even better. "You were right," she admitted. "This could be the clue we need."
From a speaker in the Trom's helmet, his voice answered with natural tones, "I'm not picking up any life forms in this structure or in the yacht above."
Jin took this as a suggestion to proceed, but she would have done so anyway. Her thin strong fingers quickly undid the simple knots on the cords holding the door shut and she immediately swam in through the opening. Frank Mills followed and both were silent as they looked around.
The walls of the simple boxlike room were filled with loot. Tightly wrapped in waterproof film that had been vaccuum sealed were dozens of bundles of money. Thousands of dollars worth if the bills were small, but probably a much higher amount. There were bundles of smartphones, laptops and cameras. More shocking in the implications, waterproof bundles of clothing lined the walls, as well. There was even a small assortment of eyeglasses. Further search showed bags jammed with necklaces, rings and wristwatches.
Tapping the wrapped collection of at least twenty eyeglasses, Demrak Jin growled, "This goes beyond mere theft, Mills."
"I am recording everything as evidence," the Trom replied. "There is a high degree of probability that all these personal items were taken from dead victims."
"I hate pirates..." she growled deep in her throat. "Look. In the ceiling." Overhead, a heavy trap door showed. Jin swam up and pressed both palms up against it and flung it open without ever thinking to check with Frank Mills first. Gripping the edges, she hauled herself up through the opening with nimble ease and scrambled to her feet. Immediately following, the Trom Monitor straightened up beside her.
The ocean water remained sloshing in the doorway at their feet. They stood in an air-filled cabin ten feet to each side, from which the furnishings had been removed. The only object was a mundane air compressor device which many people used to vaccuum seal food to maintain freshness. Overhead flurorescent lights were dark.
Mills regarded the screen on his scanning Link and put some emphasis into his bland voice, "This is significant, Jin. Fingerprints on every visible surface are smeared and illegible. Inspect these round marks on the walls and floors."
"I can barely see them," she complained.
"Let's try a different end of the spectrum." Mills tapped a contact patch on his Link and the device cast an eerie pale green beam around the cabin. Clearly visible were red marks scratched deeply into the wood. Three inches across, they were made of an outer ring with four sharp incisions within.
"Sucker marks!" gasped Jin, darting her hand up to grasp her knife hilt. "From a squid!"
"We have been searching this past year for the whereabouts of Squid Vicious." As Mills snapped off the beam, a door slammed elsewhere in the craft and angry voices could be heard arguing. Jin brandished her bone blade and seemed eager to confront the newcomers but Frank Mills whispered, "We need more information."
Giving him a sour grimace, the Gelydra hopped up and jackknifed to plunge down again through the opening in the floor. Frank Mills immediately followed. As soon as they were underwater again, both KDF members were seized around their bodies by rubbery tentacles which tightened to compress their rib cages.
III.
The next few seconds were a blur of furious action. Demrak Jin hacked with her razor-edged bone blade and sliced entirely through the black tentacle around her torso, but the severed end still clung to her so tightly she couldn't inhale. Frank Mills did not struggle. He simply tapped two control patches on his stiff left cuff. Instantly, the exterior of his field suit shimmered red and then white. The water around him bubbled and steamed, and the scalded tentacle whipped away frantically to release him.
As soon as he was free, the Trom grabbed Jin under one arm and activated his gravity shield. They shot up through the water and broke the surface like a missile fired from a submarine. The left side hatch of the CORBY was still open. Mills shoved Demrak Jin inside, none too gently, with a four foot length of the tentacle still adhering stubbornly around her. He himself glided around the nose of the stealthcopter and climbed into the pilot seat. As he pulled back on the stick, the CORBY ascended straight up so quickly it pressed them down into their chairs.
Cursing hotly with words only a Gelydra would recognize, Demrak Jin finally managed to rip the still wriggling tentacle segment off herself. Ragged holes remained in her sharkskin outfit from where the suckers' hooks had clung. "Ruined! Ruined! I only have one spare! Oh, heads will roll for this!"
"Are you injured?" asked Mills.
"No. Of course not." Then, softening her tone, she remembered to reply, "How about you?"
"Minor bruising. That was not the mutated being we call Squid Vicious. Look at the sensors image."
On the windscreen of the CORBY was projected what the advanced Trom scanners wee detecting. Moving around the yacht at a depth of fifty feet were three immense images, each a solid white object against the black water. The main portion was a blunt arrowhead shape with ten long waving tendrils emerging from the front. The creatures were circling each other in a pattern.
"The mantles of those organisms are six meters long," Mills observed. "More than twenty feet. These are considerably larger than any recorded specimens of Giant Squid."
"I know these brutes," Demrak Jin said. "I have fought them. My people ride them into battle, they are our War Squid. Not as intelligent as a horse of the surface world, but they can be somewhat broken and forced to obey commands."
"A serious threat indeed," Mills said. "We will report back and confer to decide the KDF's next move."
"What? No! Are you a coward? Lure them to the surface with our searchlights. The 30mm chain guns will shred them. Let's get this over with. I'M not afraid of them."
The Trom still did not rise to the bait in her words. "We have no idea how many more of these creature are nearby, nor do we know who is controlling them. For decisive results, it would be best to collect information. We will report to Sable."
"Fine! Fine!" Jin exhaled explosively. She wrestled the slimy length of dark tentacle off her and slid it through the clear partition behind them into the back compartment of the CORBY. "Maybe you're right! But, Grelok's horns, if I were in charge...."
IV.
On that overcast drizzling night, with no visible lights showing and its radar realignment system functioning, the black CORBY descended unnoticed through the open roof of the KDF building on East 38th Street. Possibly, if some late night stroller had been standing directly on that spot and had been looking up in the few seconds when the CORBY swiftly landed, they would have seen it. But no such reports were ever made.
Securing the craft to its mooring chocks and powering down the engines, Frank Mills disembarked. Emerging from the other hatch, Demrak Jin was carrying the limp and now slightly odorous four foot length of tentacle. They had announced their arrival through their Links and now hurried down the steps from the hangar. Since this tenth floor had originally been the roof of the building, the elevator only reached the ninth floor. The two teammates rode down switfly to the second floor and strode through the open door of the conference room.
Here was the long oak table where five generations of heroes had assembled since 1937. In the subdued lighting and cool dry air, the current team sat waiting eagerly to begin a new crusade.
Seeing Jin rather unceremoniously slap the tentacle down on the table, Unicorn snorted. "Sushi AGAIN! I know you love seafood, but come on..."
At the head of the long table, Lauren Sable Reilly rose to her feet. "Frank.. Jin. I do not sense signs of significant damage to either of you."
"Minor bruising which requires no attention," Mills replied, pulling out a vacant chair next to the Unicorn.
"Only my pride was hurt," snapped Demrak Jin. "Look at this! I know a War Squid when I see one. They are seldom found in this real world away from my Ulgor."
Sable lowered down to her seat again. "I declare this emergency action session of the Kenneth Dred Foundation open. First, reports. Frank, you start."
Speaking rapidly, forming sentences bristling with detail and yet clear and easy to follow, the Trom recounted the night's events. To her chagrin, Demrak Jin found herself with little to add and could only repeat details about her realm's War Squid. Her voice trailed off with uncharacteristic hesitance.
Sable gazed out over her team. She was a handsome woman in her mid-forties, with long black hair brushed back from a high forehead. Just over half her life had been spent leading these Tel Shai knights and the Kenneth Dred Foundation, leaving her serious but not yet grim. "Well. Jin, did you smell any traces of other Gelydrim in the area?"
"None, captain. We are distinctive. If one of my Race had been within a mile, I would have known it."
"And Gelydrim have never been known to rob surface people for loot," Sable said.
"They have no need for American money or for our phones or gadgets. So, despite the presence of War Squid, I think we can discount this being a Gelydran ring operating as pirates."
The shining platinum hair swung as Unicorn jumped up. "We all know who it has to be! Squid Vicious! We've been looking for that freak for over a year now."
"Sit down, Ashley," Sable ordered gently. "Yes, I'm sure we've all reached the same conclusion. His various criminal enterprises faded out eight months ago for some unknown reason. No one in his gang seems to know what happened to him."
Frank Mills had been scanning the length of tentacle with his Link, which he now clicked off. Seeing expectant faces questioning him, the Trom said, "This is not from the known species commonly referred to as Giant Squid or Colossal Squid. My DNA analysis suggests its ancestors diverged long ago. Jin is correct. This is a specimen from her adjacent realm."
The Gelydra sniffed as if mildly offended at being doubted but said nothing.
"It's starting to stink," Ashley observed.
"Traces of ammonia are being released," explained Mills. "I will store it in a preservative jar in my lab for later study."
Clasping her hands together in front of her, Sable studied the faces of her partners waiting for her to decide the next action. Leadership was an old familiar weight on her shoulders. "I feel we should send a team back immediately to investigate further. Jin, you obviously are best suited of all of us for this mission. Frank, with your gravity shield, you can move underwater faster than any swimmer. Ashley, your specific ability with the Unicorn horn would not be appropriate for this situation but I want you as pilot. You can remain on alert in the CORBY."
"Sounds good to me," said the little blonde. "I'll be back-up or rescue as needed."
Sable glanced further down the table to where Jocelyn Garimara had been sitting silently. "And your Red Spectre can function under those conditions?"
"Absolutely." An Aboriginal from Northwest Australia, she had the thick straight black hair and rich brown skin tones one might expect. But Jocelyn's deep dark eyes were always thoughtful in a way that made people wonder what she was thinking. "My Ganmel is not electricity, you know. She is pure gralic force. Salt water does not affect her."
"Excellent. Our other members are accounted for. Galvan is with little Demrak Pol of course, and Carlo is at Tel Shai undergoing his final passage. Timothy and Josef are on assignment in Eastern Europe after the Red Crane organization. I do not wish to recall them except for extreme emergency."
Frank Mills rose and hefted the length of tentacle. "It will only take a few minutes for me to store away this specimen."
"No. Leave it. I'll stick it in one of the tubes in a sterile solution. Better that the team leave without delay. You're all in your field suits, Ashley has the Unicorn horn with her. I want your team to return to the scene at top speed and investigate. As always, be careful and good luck!"
Demrak Jin, Frank Mills and Jocelyn Garimara leaped to their feet and rushed from the conference room. It was Unicorn who paused in the doorway to call back, "Cap, I'd wipe that table off with Pine-Sol, too. Ick!" Then she was running to the elevator as well.
V.
Keeping the CORBY well below Mach One because they were near populated areas, Ashley Whitaker rose to a ceiling of five thousand feet. Despite her deliberately flighty mannerisms, she was one of the three best pilots in the KDF. Her mother, the first Unicorn, had raised Ashley from childhood to a life of adventuring in the Midnight War. "Every light is green and blue," she said. "Not feeling any tremors in the hull but boy! Sometimes I wish I had a chance to disengage the rotors and crack the sound barrier in this baby. That's a thrill like no other."
To her left in the co-pilot seat, Frank Mills made no reply. He was studying the sensors as they scanned the choppy waves below. If anything, the downpour had increased to a genuine storm and a regular Human tech helicopter would have been forced to turn back.
Seperated from the cockpit by a clear plastic divider, the passenger compartment was a plain box with metal floor. One wall was taken up with rows of locked drawers holding equipment. Against the other was a simple bench on which Jocelyn and Jin sat strapped down, waiting and worrying. "I've read a little about your War Squid," Jocelyn remarked finally. "They're not really domesticated, are they? Or even fully tamed?"
Demrak Jin snorted. "Hah! Hardly. We break them into obeying our orders but they remain unruly and dangerous. Many a Gelydra has been killed by a War Squid turning on him. Still, as living weapons, they are invaluable."
"That's what bothers me about this," the Aboriginal woman continued. A decade of extensive travel had softened and muted her accent into a general Pan-Pacific sound. "If the man we call Squid Vicious is behind this, how is he controlling the monsters? He doesn't have the training or time a Gelydra has to break these huge creatures."
"I don't know...." Jin said quietly. "It doesn't seem possible."
From the pilot seat, Ashley announced, "Coming up fast on the coordinates you guys fixed. One minute and counting. Joss, time to get your helmet and air tank hooked up. Frank's already suiting up."
Kneeling on the floor, Jocelyn strapped a three foot cylinder to her back. Made of a lightweight alloy, this tank held thirty minutes of compressed air which fed into her helmet. Demrak Jin assisted her. "You know, Ashley, you don't intend to leave the CORBY but I'd suggest you suit up, too."
"Gotcha. I've got a ten minute tank already set up. Makes sitting in this chair uncomfortable but whaddaya gonna do? And of course our helmets do have an oxygen membrane built in."
"Allow me to remind everyone of the membrane's limitations," Frank Mills said. "They will extract enough oxygen from water to sustain your lives but not more than that. Do not attempt strenuous activity while relying on the membranes."
"You're not kidding," laughed the Unicorn. "I tried swimming across a lake underwater with just a membrane and I was short of breath the whole time."
Mills tapped on the windscreen to get her attention. "There is the yacht. Every light seems to be on."
"Hmm, yeah," Ashley agreed. "I count five people on deck. Check the infra-red, would you?"
"Two more Human sized heat sources below decks," Mills announced. "And one life form active at room temperature."
Peering forward through the open divider, Jocelyn said, "That must be Squid Vicious! We've got him."
Unicorn tapped the right ear pod on her helmet. "Hey, guys. Are any of you hearing a kind of high-pitched whine?"
"Yes," Jocelyn said, adjusting her own receivers. "Never heard anything quite like it."
"It is definitely organic, not mechanically produced," Mills ventured to say. "In a few seconds, I should be able to see any significance in its cadence."
"Hey!" shouted Ashley so sharply that everyone gave a start. "Something big rising. Looks like a mile across!" As she spoke, she pulled back on the stick but in the instant before the CORBY would shoot upward, an object thick as a Redwood slapped into the stealthcopter and broke it into unequal halves.
VI.
The front section of the CORBY continued rising for a few seconds before the Trom impulse engines cut out, while the back half tumbled away. Acting entirely on instinct for self-preservation, all four KDF members on board tugged open their hatches manually and dove out into the waters fifty feet below. For Demrak Jin, this was hardly a challenge. Ashley and Jocelyn had both undergone strenuous training and practice in high diving and both cut through the waves without being harmed, immediately swimming downward and away to avoid falling debris.
Frank Mills activated his gravity shield even while still inside the cockpit and rose up away from where he knew the deadly rotor blades were still spinning. He did not curse himself for not having been aware of the menace in time. Such recrimination was not in his emotionless nature. He simply noted his failure and would not repeat it in the future.
Swinging around, taking in the situation more rapidly than a Human could, he spotted where each of his teammates were just then hitting the water. The wreckage was not going to strike them. Both Ashley and Jocelyn had their air supply tanks ready and of course Jin did not need one. For the next few seconds, they were out of immediate danger. Frank Mills pivoted in midair and swooped down toward where that immense tentacle was still waving above the water surface. It was too large to belong to a natural organism, he thought. This battleship-sized squid was a product of sorcery, its structure reinforced with gralic force... and thus, beyond what Trom science could understand. The tentacle dropped the beneath the surface,
In his earpods, he heard Ashley Whitaker's frantic voice, "Roll Call! Roll Call!"
"Jocelyn here, I'm fine."
"Jin responding, I am also okay."
"And I'm not hurt. Frank? Frank?"
"I am unharmed as well," the Trom said. "At the moment, I am hovering fifty meters above the surface. The CORBY is a total loss. I see no sign of the creature that struck us."
"Oh, Hell," cried Unicorn. "I'm gonna get blamed for losing our bird, right? I won't live long enough to pay for it out of my stipend."
"If I might suggest our next move," Mills went on, ignoring her worry, "We would be safer by gathering closely. I can see your Link signals from up here. Ashley, remain treading water where you are. Jocelyn, can you locate her by her Link?"
"Just a second.. Yes. I got her, she's only a few meters away. Stay put, Ash."
Demrak Jin's voice added, "All your splashing is as good as shouting where you are. I'm swimming toward you two but you should be as quiet as you can. Remember the situation."
"War Squids could be circling us now," the Unicorn gulped. "Frank, are you watching out for us?"
"My helmet sensors aren't picking up anything larger than fish native to this area," he said. "I will remain at this height to keep watch."
"Nice to know you've got our back," Unicorn replied. "I bet if I fell off a cliff, I'd...AWRKK!" The last noise was a squawk of alarm as she spotted an enormous rounded shape slide through the water almost within reach. Its bulk loomed up from the uneven waves as high as a two-story building. "Gah-DAMN! It's the biggest squid in history! Frank, what the hell, dude? I thought you were watching for it."
"My sensors do not function well on gralic-charged beasts."
"More bad news. The damn thing seems to be swimming away. Wait, is it coming back?"
"Let it come!" shouted Jocelyn Garimara. Crackling up from her body emerged a red outline of a Human figure outlined in a sparking aura. The Red Spectre rose up and then flashed like a sentient lightning bolt through the rain to sear a hole entirely through the top ridge of the gigantic monster's mantle. Thrashings of an unprecented nature flung thirty foot waves in all directions. The three KDF members in the water were spun head over heels and sent away from the tumult.
Regathering as the ocean calmed again, Ashley said through the communications link, "Way to go, Joss. Your little pal always comes through."
The gralic manifestation flashed back to plung back into the Aboriginal woman's body. "Lightning's only happy when it strikes," she said.
Treading water next to her teammates, Demrak Jin broke in, "I smell War Squid nearby. Getting closer." She whipped out her bone-bladed knife and brandished it back and forth.
Swooping down to hover just above their heads, Frank Mills held out his hands. "Ashley and Jocelyn, grab hold. Jin, follow us closely." It seemed likely he intended to lift the two women up out of the water but he didn't have a chance. More of the thick black tentacles flashed up from below. One cracked against the Trom fast as a whip to send him spinning far away, and another snapped across Jocelyn's upper back with bone-breaking force. She went limp and sank. Emerging from another direction, two more of the rubbery appendages wrapped around Unicorn and Jin, pinning their arms down by their sides. The Gelydran woman lost her weapon as she struggled without success to free herself. In less than a full second, the two KDF members were pulled down beneath the surface.
VII.
Rushing through the turbulent ocean at rocket speed from the enormous squid's siphon expelling water, unable to draw a full breath against the crushing constriction of those tentacles, neither Unicorn nor Jin were fully aware of how long the trip took. It felt endless. Ahead could be dimly seen a dark vertical mass as they approached the coastline and then utter blackness replaced the murky gloom. Both KDF members were flung upward and released by the tentacles... and to their utter surprise, they spun through open air to land with a savage thud on a hard stone surface.
Much tougher and more resilient than a Human, Demrak Jin recovered first from both the mental and physical punishment. She rolled over onto her hands and knees and leaped up, fully ready to fight any attacker. But no one was in sight. The rocky
cavern fifty feet high was lit by a string of naked incandescent bulbs fastened along one wall, its cord extending back into the darkness. Set into the rough unfinished wall was a rectangular steel door. A crude semblance of a throne had been chiseled from a block of stone in front of them, and littered around it were piles of gnawed and splintered bones. One human skull sat upon that gruesome midden, and other bones were visibly from rib cages or femurs.
Sprawled where she had landed, Ashley Whitaker groaned dramatically and moved her arms and legs in seemingly random directions. Jin instantly dropped into a protective crouch by her teammate. After a few more seconds, the Unicorn propped herself up on one elbow and said, "Oh, I do not like the looks of this place AT ALL."
"Can you stand?"
"I think so. Ugh, legs are a little wobbly. Jin, that was insane. The two of us were grabbed by a monster squid and brought here. I thought we were goners. Look at the bones! Is he saving us to eat later?"
The Gelydra began pacing around the dimly lit cavern, fingers tensed into claws, alert and tense. "No. That beast would not make such a neat pile of the bones."
"Well, duh. I should have figured that out. Hey. My helmet's communication seems fried somehow, all I'm getting is static." Unicorn drew the seven inch combat knife with its serrated edge from its sheath on her thigh and handed it over to the Gelydra. "Here. You can use this better than I can in a fight."
"Yes. Thank you. My own weapon is at the bottom of the Sound now."
"Along with my horn, the wreckage of the CORBY and all its equipment," Ashley said. "When this is all over, we'll have to dive down and salvage as much as we can. Heh. Imagine the insurance claim we'll have to file..."
Not having a noticeable sense of humor under the best conditions, Demrak Jin went over to examine the primitive throne. Ashley joined her, staring somberly down at the jumble of human bones. "That's another unpleasant chore for us," she said. "These poor people have to be identified. Not the regular police, Department 21 Black will have to be called in. I hate those guys, they're useful but you can't always trust them...."
A faint trickle of water dropping made both women pivot sharply toward the surface of the entrance to that cavern. A grotesque figure heaved up into the air and onto the cavern floor. It most closely resembled a Human male, well over six feet tall and broad. But its naked moist skin was grey and rubbery, and four tentacles waved from its rib cage, two to each side. The hairless head rose to a conical point above two black unblinking eyes and a cruel slit of a thin-lipped mouth. Some vague vestige of modesty had compelled the creature to retain a pair of baggy black swim trunks around its loins.
For an unbearably tense twenty seconds, no one moved or breathed. Then, with a croak as if unused to speech, the monster chuckled, "You! I remember you," as he pointed all four tentacles accusingly at Demrak Jin.
"As well you might!" snapped the Gelydran woman. "Squid Vicious. You look less Human than when we met. The Darthan curse continues to change you?"
"Yes, yes. I have no wish to reverse it or even slow the mutation. I am the only one of my kind! But the ten-limbed ones obey me and the air-breathing apes do as I say."
"King of the squid world, huh?" asked Ashley as her normal insolence asserted itself. "Let me guess, you're going to make a fortune selling frozen calamari?"
The monstrous being studied his captives for a moment, then grumbled. "I still dimly remember the lust I felt for women such as you. A year ago, two years ago, I would have kept you both alive as playthings. But that is all in the past. Now I will have my slaves keep your clothing to be sold later, and you yourselves are only my next meals."
VIII.
Pain and confusion created a numbing haze from which she could not emerge. As her healing factor kicked in more fully, Jocelyn Garimara regained enough awareness to realize she needed to clear her head. What had happened? Where was she? Her eyes focused. She was underwater, drifting in the current without purpose. Now she remembered. It hurt so much to take each breath. But between the Trom armor under her field suit and her enhanced healing, the unexpected blow had not killed her or left her incapacitated. Even broken bones would seal up and be good again in an hour or so.
Automatically, she looked at the luminous screen of the Link on her left wrist. Only eight minutes of air left in her tank. So she had been dazed longer than she had thought, at least fifteen minutes. Wait! Where were everyone else? Unicorn, Jin, Frank? Full awareness snapped back. Into her helmet's communication system, she called, "Jocelyn here. Where is everyone? Can I get a roll call?" But no answers came, only a buzz of static. She tried again, then switched channels and attempted to contact Sable back in Manhattan. No luck with that either.
"Bloody hell," she grumbled, then continued with a few stronger phrases only Australians would recognize. Communications down. That must have been quite a blow, she was lucky her helmet wasn't leaking. Trying to take slow, calming breaths, Jocelyn brought her wrist up close to her visor and tapped the Link's screen. Three pale green blips blinked, each with an identifying number. Ashley, Jin and Frank were less than two miles away, toward the shore. She realized grimly that the signals didn't mean they were alive and unhurt, only that their Links were functioning. She fine tuned the signals and saw with immense relief the three regular wavy lines of her teammates' heartbeats. Thank God.
Nothing for it but to start paddling, then. Back in the CORBY had been a pair of swim fins for each member but there had hardly been time to grab them when the copter had been smashed apart. No matter. She was as fit as any Olympic athlete and even wearing the field suit with its inner armor and dozen gadgets, covering a few miles would not be a serious challenge. She rose to the surface, lifted her visor and shut off her remaining supply of air to conserve it for the fight ahead. Then, with a strong unhurried stroke she could maintain for hours, she began swimming toward her friends as a cold anger collected in her heart.
IX.
"Wait," said Demrak Jin. "I have a better offer. You know that I am a daughter of Ulgor? That we Gelydrim are creatures of the sea even as you are?"
"And? What about it?"
"Think. You have Human criminals who work for you and they have their uses but they can not breathe underwater. And you have your legion of squid, who are also useful but they have limitations too."
The grotesque face did not show emotion readily but the voice changed to show interest. "What are you saying?"
The Gelydra jabbed a thumb to her own chest. "I am at home in both worlds. I can swim with the squid to sink ships and bring back loot. I can also walk among the air-breathers freely. I can be a liaison for you between your two armies!"
"Interesting," Squid Vicious muttered. "Yes. I can see how you might be of value. But why should I trust you? You are with my enemies, the knights of Tel Shai."
"They mean nothing to me. I am an exile from the royal court and I needed a place to stay on the surface world. They pay me little and exploit my abilities. You and I can negotiate terms which will satisfy us both."
Unicorn's voice cracked with outrage. "Jin, how COULD you? After all we've been through?"
"Shut up, Human slut," the Gelydra snapped. "Think about it, Squid Vicious. I will be a great help to you."
"I am not convinced. And yet... I do need a servant who can move among my squid. Come closer. Let me see your eyes as you speak so I can tell if you are lying or not."
"Listen to my voice," Jin said, moving toward the creature. "I will swear allegiance to you in the name of Grelok Himself." From ten feet, the Gelydra sprang without any tensing to give her intentions away. The combat knife she had been concealing up behind her arm swiped down right at Squid Vicious' throat. But for once she was outmatched. One tentacle lashed out faster than a whip and struck her across the face hard enough to have instantly killed any Human. Another tentacle coiled around her torso and lifted Jin up so she was dangling with both feet clear of the floor. The knife had been sent spinning away.
Squid Vicious made an inhuman hissing noise and bared pointed teeth as he shot out a tentacle to wrap around Unicorn, holding her arms down by her sides. A small metal ovoid dropped from her right hand to clatter on the stone floor of the cavern. It was one of the miniature flash-bang grenades that KDF members carried in their field suits. Seeing it, Squid Vicious hissed again and said, "Ah, I see you Tel Shai knights are more dangerous than I suspected."
"Ow! Hey, take it easy, I'm just a little girl," Unicorn retorted, kicking with both legs at empty air.
"Enough of this. Time to crush the life out of both of you. It won't affect the way you taste."
X.
In the next three seconds, two separate events made everyone gape and swing their gazes back and forth. The steel door shimmered, its surface seemed to turn clear as glass and then it vanished completely. Through the opening, Frank Mills strode forward and held up his beam projector. At exactly the same instant, Jocelyn Garimara surfaced in the water and grabbed onto the edge of the cavern floor with both hands. Up from within her body roared the dark outline of the Red Spectre, crackling with furious raw energy as it hovered at head height.
"Glad to see you guys," Unicorn managed to gasp.
Squid Vicious was utterly confused. That hideous head turned to face first one of the new intruders and then the other but he obviously could not process the situation.
"Keep your Spectre back, please," Mills said in a tone not quite an order. "Ashley and Jin might be harmed." The Trom extended his arm and touched the trigger patch on his beam projector. A barely visible thread of light shone out and, where it touched one of the monster's tentacles, that tough rubbery flesh evaporated instantly. The amputated limb fell to the stone floor, still wrapped around the Unicorn.
"Hey, the disintegration effect, right?" Ashley laughed as she tried to free herself. "Megan never did use it in front of me."
Squid Vicious still held Jin up in one tentacle, but he was preoccupied with the seared wound on his side where the beam had destroyed flesh. The monster was hyperventilating and obviously in panic.
By this time, Jocelyn had climbed up onto the cavern floor. Her Ganmel floated close to her, its aura making a noise like static. "You! Squid Vicious. Put our friend down and maybe you'll live a little longer."
The creature staggered back, still holding Demrak Jin off the ground. "Get out of here! This is my throne room. I order you to leave. Guards! Guards!"
"Oh, he's lost it," Unicorn said. "That's it, his mind is broken. Don't worry, Jin, we just have to choose if Frank or the Spectre gets you loose."
"If I could reach that knife, I'd carve him into strips!" yelled Demrak Jin. She did not seem so much relieved at the rescue as still furious she could not free herself.
The Trom lowered his beam projector and stepped toward Ashley. He held out his other hand and for the first time everyone noticed he was holding a slim spiral of ivory three feet long, tapering to a sharp point at one end and capped with a silver band at the other.
"My Horn!" yelped Ashley, seizing it eagerly. "Oh my God, thankew thankew thankew."
"I took a minute to retrieve it from the CORBY wreckage," Frank Mills said. Was there the faintest possible note of amusement in his tone? Or was he merely adding subtle inflection to make his voice sound natural?
"Now I get to contribute something to this case," the Unicorn laughed. She held the talisman high and cried out, "With this Horn I remove thy power!"
The strange body of Squid Vicious shuddered violently, shrank and reverted to become the mundane form of a middle-aged overweight man. All three remaining tentacles vanished, which left Jin falling. She caught herself nimbly on her toes and fingertips. The man who had been Squid Vicious collapsed unconscious to the ground. On his left side under his arm was a black patch of dead skin where his tentacle had been destroyed.
Jocelyn sighed as the Red Spectre slid back into her body. "Bloody Hell, that was a busy few minutes, weren't it?"
"I'm just glad to see you guys are okay," Ashley told her. "Everything happened so fast, there wasn't really time enough to worry about whether you were all right. But look how it turned out. We're all fine, okay maybe a little bruised. And we caught the bad guy."
Demrak Jin snatched up the combat knife and tapped its blade against her palm. "Now I will gut him and stretch his intestines out on the ground."
"Whoa, whoa, hold on...!" Unicorn protested without moving to intervene. She was not eager to get between a Gelydra and an enemy.
"No." The single word from Frank Mills had such calm authority that it stopped even Jin short. "We will interrogate him. His Human hirelings must be identified and arrested. We must learn what other criminal activities he had in operation. He must tell us how many War Squid he controlled so we can drive them back down into the depths they usually inhabit. He can not answer our questions if he is dead."
Demrak Jin's cloudy blue eyes were mere slits in that wide flat Gelydran face. She did not immediately respond but hefted the knife thoughtfully. "Torture may be called for."
"We will see if the Veratilin serum works," Mills replied. Something in his complete self-assurance had a calming effect. Jin slowly turned and handed the knife back to Ashley.
"Thanks," said Unicorn as she slid the blade back into the sheath on her thigh. "I'm just relieved to get my Horn back. There's no way to replace it. We're gonna be busy for a week seeing what we can salvage from the CORBY. Some of that equipment is worth millions."
"Yeah, there's a lot of work ahead but I don't mind," Jocelyn added. "Truth be told, I'm so glad we all came out of this whole and healthy. It didn't look great for us."
Ashley Whitaker gave Jin a quizzical glance. "I knew you were trying to trick Squid Vicious when you pretended to want to join him. I get that. But what was that crack about 'Human slut?'"
7/12/2023
4/6-4/7/2023
I.
Few helicopters would have been cleared to fly during such a storm. Even the US Coast Guard would have weighed the risk to a crew against any rescue mission. And for a flight intended for only research purposes, no copter would have launched into the heavy rain and gale force winds over Long Island Sound that night.
But the CORBY was like no craft available to any Human nation or organization. Sleek and sharklike in its contours, the black stealthcraft tore through the downpour as steadily as if it was flying on a calm summer afternoon. No visible lights showed. With its radar alignment systems working, the CORBY was as good as invisible in the darkness as it sped over the northern coastline.
At the combined cyclic/collective stick, the Trom who called himself Frank Mills kept his eyes moving constantly. From the row of small monitors screens showing views from all sides of the CORBY to the luminous windscreen which worked with both light enhancement and ultra-violet projectors to the sonar pulses lancing down into the black waters a thousand feet below, he saw everything he wanted to.
In the co-pilot seat, Demrak Jin shifted her weight irritably. Patience had never been one of her strong points. At first, she seemed to be only a rather short, thin woman with a wide flat face and sullen dark blue eyes. But further scrutiny of the stiff bristly white hair and odd facial bone structure would prove unsettling. In bright sunlight, a close examination would reveal three barely visible lines in a row on either side of her throat. These were gill slits. Demrak Jin was a Geldydra from the realm of Ulgor, a Cousin Race who were amphibious.
"I should be down there!" she abruptly cried, breaking the long silence. "That is MY element. Any monsters of the deep are my natural prey."
Mills responded with his usual bland mildness. "The sensors are probing for miles in every direction and down to a depth of three thousand feet. If any anomalies are detected, that would be the appropriate time for you to take action."
"You just don't have feelings," Jin continued. "A father and his child have been missing for the past few days. Before that, three teenage girls in their sailboat disappeared. This area is notorious for missing people. Only bits of wreckage have been recovered and you don't care."
The Trom turned his head to regard her without visible reaction to her tirade. Mills was a tall athletic man in one of the KDF black field suits. His short black hair and regular unremarkable features were offset by a pair of dark eyes that showed deep awareness and intelligence but no emotion. "I am what I was meant to be, Jin. Nothing will be gained by trying to provoke me."
"Arrrhh! I feel love! Anger! Sorrow! I have a heart. And you... you are like the cold machines you prize so highly!" she shouted right in his face.
"We are both true to our natures," Frank Mills responded in the same even tones he always used. "So far, sensors have detected nothing out of the ordinary. I intend to move closer to the shore and descend to three hundred feet. Under these conditions, we are not likely to be observed."
Folding her arms across her narrow chest, Jin scowled at the banks of pastel green and blue lights which filled the cockpit. Any one of those indicators turning red would have instantly gotten their full attention. After a long heavy silence, she grudgingly said, "You Trom say you value Human life."
"Yes," Mills answered. "We work behind the scenes in secrecy, but our goal is to improve conditions for Humans. We guide researchers to useful new discoveries and we release information conducive to reducing wars and violent crimes."
"You're not doing a very good job at that..." she grumbled.
"Events would have proceeded much more harmfully without our restrained interventions," Mills said. "As bad as history seems, it would have been much worse without the Trom pulling strings behind the scenes."
"So you say. Never mind. I am not like you, Trom. Sitting in a hard seat for six hours and circling the ocean is not what I was meant to be doing. I am a daughter of a warrior Race. Each Gelydra is born at the same time a shark hatches and the spirit of the shark lives in us!"
Instead of commenting, Mills pulled back on the stick and brought the CORBY to a hover. The pounding of the rain on the stealthcopter seemed louder because the engines were nearly silent. "Do you see that yacht tied to the dock directly below us?"
"What? Yes, of course. There is a small speedboat moored next to it."
"Watch as I enhance the sonar image."
After a few seconds, Jin hissed with an intake of breath. "Interesting. Very interesting." She unbuckled her restraint straps. "I will take a look."
"Let me extend the pontoons and land first," Mills said but he was speaking to an open hatch as Demrak Jin dove out into the darkness. Straight down three hundred feet she plunged, to punch down through the surface with hardly a splash. A normal Human would have been killed hitting water from that height, but the Gelydran womam took such a feat for granted.
Without showing any exasperation at his partner's impatience, Mills pressed a few buttons that extended the pontoons he had attached that afternoon and descended to a textbook perfect landing on the uneven surface of choppy waters. The advanced Trom impulse engines were still on, keeping the craft from capsizing or drifting. From behind his seat, he unhooked a helmet and fastened its lower seals to the high collar of his field suit. He had earlier fastened a short metal cylinder across his shoulder blades above the round disc of the gravity shield. When he lowered the helmet's visor, a fifteen minute oxygen supply would kick in.
His final action before exiting was to switch on the three running lights on the CORBY's lower hull where they could be seen from beneath the surface. Then, as smoothly as if he had practicing this all his life, Frank Mills dove out into the darkness of Long Island sound. The hatch slid shut behind him.
II.
As her gills opened and a flap closed off her lungs, Demrak Jin felt alive for the first time in days. As much as she loved Galvan and their little son, the Gelydra was never really comfortable on dry land for more than a few hours.
This was something she could never explain to her KDF teammates. How it felt as the currents played over her body, the myriad smells of different fish and plant life, the strange colorless vistas as her eyes saw deeper into the ultra-violet than Human eyes could. Thirty thousand years ago, her Race had been modified for underwater life by Darthan sorcery and she rejoiced at being in her element again.
Jin was wearing the snug long-sleeved tunic and pants of grey sharkhide with the rough denticles on the outside. Strapped across her back with its hilt up by her left shoulder was the three foot bone-bladed knife she had crafted and sharpened herself. She had removed the comically oversized boots when climbing into the CORBY. Her feet had grown so long that most people would stare at them. The webbed toes spread wide as she got her bearings and began swimming to her objective.
The hull of a hundred foot yacht showed ahead, clear to her vision even in night waters. Fastened below the hull was a wooden structure twenty feet to a side. The planks showed gaps and the single door was only loosely tied shut with cords. The structure was not intended to be watertight.
Very interesting. Humans wearing those Aqualung devices... Or perhaps merely Humans skilled at holding their breath for a minute or two... could enter this crude structure without being seen from the surface. But why? Using only her powerful legs with arms down by her sides, she kicked toward the strange sight. Behind her, concussion waves in the water told her that a large living thing had entered from the surface. Mills, of course. She turned her head and spotted the dark form gliding swiftly toward her. Of course the Trom would not swim like any normal creature, she thought sourly. He would use that gravity shield gadget to fly as quickly underwater as he did through the air.
In another second, Mills had caught up to her and came to a stop within arm's length. She knew the light enhancers in his helmet enabled him to see as well as she could under these conditions, perhaps even better. "You were right," she admitted. "This could be the clue we need."
From a speaker in the Trom's helmet, his voice answered with natural tones, "I'm not picking up any life forms in this structure or in the yacht above."
Jin took this as a suggestion to proceed, but she would have done so anyway. Her thin strong fingers quickly undid the simple knots on the cords holding the door shut and she immediately swam in through the opening. Frank Mills followed and both were silent as they looked around.
The walls of the simple boxlike room were filled with loot. Tightly wrapped in waterproof film that had been vaccuum sealed were dozens of bundles of money. Thousands of dollars worth if the bills were small, but probably a much higher amount. There were bundles of smartphones, laptops and cameras. More shocking in the implications, waterproof bundles of clothing lined the walls, as well. There was even a small assortment of eyeglasses. Further search showed bags jammed with necklaces, rings and wristwatches.
Tapping the wrapped collection of at least twenty eyeglasses, Demrak Jin growled, "This goes beyond mere theft, Mills."
"I am recording everything as evidence," the Trom replied. "There is a high degree of probability that all these personal items were taken from dead victims."
"I hate pirates..." she growled deep in her throat. "Look. In the ceiling." Overhead, a heavy trap door showed. Jin swam up and pressed both palms up against it and flung it open without ever thinking to check with Frank Mills first. Gripping the edges, she hauled herself up through the opening with nimble ease and scrambled to her feet. Immediately following, the Trom Monitor straightened up beside her.
The ocean water remained sloshing in the doorway at their feet. They stood in an air-filled cabin ten feet to each side, from which the furnishings had been removed. The only object was a mundane air compressor device which many people used to vaccuum seal food to maintain freshness. Overhead flurorescent lights were dark.
Mills regarded the screen on his scanning Link and put some emphasis into his bland voice, "This is significant, Jin. Fingerprints on every visible surface are smeared and illegible. Inspect these round marks on the walls and floors."
"I can barely see them," she complained.
"Let's try a different end of the spectrum." Mills tapped a contact patch on his Link and the device cast an eerie pale green beam around the cabin. Clearly visible were red marks scratched deeply into the wood. Three inches across, they were made of an outer ring with four sharp incisions within.
"Sucker marks!" gasped Jin, darting her hand up to grasp her knife hilt. "From a squid!"
"We have been searching this past year for the whereabouts of Squid Vicious." As Mills snapped off the beam, a door slammed elsewhere in the craft and angry voices could be heard arguing. Jin brandished her bone blade and seemed eager to confront the newcomers but Frank Mills whispered, "We need more information."
Giving him a sour grimace, the Gelydra hopped up and jackknifed to plunge down again through the opening in the floor. Frank Mills immediately followed. As soon as they were underwater again, both KDF members were seized around their bodies by rubbery tentacles which tightened to compress their rib cages.
III.
The next few seconds were a blur of furious action. Demrak Jin hacked with her razor-edged bone blade and sliced entirely through the black tentacle around her torso, but the severed end still clung to her so tightly she couldn't inhale. Frank Mills did not struggle. He simply tapped two control patches on his stiff left cuff. Instantly, the exterior of his field suit shimmered red and then white. The water around him bubbled and steamed, and the scalded tentacle whipped away frantically to release him.
As soon as he was free, the Trom grabbed Jin under one arm and activated his gravity shield. They shot up through the water and broke the surface like a missile fired from a submarine. The left side hatch of the CORBY was still open. Mills shoved Demrak Jin inside, none too gently, with a four foot length of the tentacle still adhering stubbornly around her. He himself glided around the nose of the stealthcopter and climbed into the pilot seat. As he pulled back on the stick, the CORBY ascended straight up so quickly it pressed them down into their chairs.
Cursing hotly with words only a Gelydra would recognize, Demrak Jin finally managed to rip the still wriggling tentacle segment off herself. Ragged holes remained in her sharkskin outfit from where the suckers' hooks had clung. "Ruined! Ruined! I only have one spare! Oh, heads will roll for this!"
"Are you injured?" asked Mills.
"No. Of course not." Then, softening her tone, she remembered to reply, "How about you?"
"Minor bruising. That was not the mutated being we call Squid Vicious. Look at the sensors image."
On the windscreen of the CORBY was projected what the advanced Trom scanners wee detecting. Moving around the yacht at a depth of fifty feet were three immense images, each a solid white object against the black water. The main portion was a blunt arrowhead shape with ten long waving tendrils emerging from the front. The creatures were circling each other in a pattern.
"The mantles of those organisms are six meters long," Mills observed. "More than twenty feet. These are considerably larger than any recorded specimens of Giant Squid."
"I know these brutes," Demrak Jin said. "I have fought them. My people ride them into battle, they are our War Squid. Not as intelligent as a horse of the surface world, but they can be somewhat broken and forced to obey commands."
"A serious threat indeed," Mills said. "We will report back and confer to decide the KDF's next move."
"What? No! Are you a coward? Lure them to the surface with our searchlights. The 30mm chain guns will shred them. Let's get this over with. I'M not afraid of them."
The Trom still did not rise to the bait in her words. "We have no idea how many more of these creature are nearby, nor do we know who is controlling them. For decisive results, it would be best to collect information. We will report to Sable."
"Fine! Fine!" Jin exhaled explosively. She wrestled the slimy length of dark tentacle off her and slid it through the clear partition behind them into the back compartment of the CORBY. "Maybe you're right! But, Grelok's horns, if I were in charge...."
IV.
On that overcast drizzling night, with no visible lights showing and its radar realignment system functioning, the black CORBY descended unnoticed through the open roof of the KDF building on East 38th Street. Possibly, if some late night stroller had been standing directly on that spot and had been looking up in the few seconds when the CORBY swiftly landed, they would have seen it. But no such reports were ever made.
Securing the craft to its mooring chocks and powering down the engines, Frank Mills disembarked. Emerging from the other hatch, Demrak Jin was carrying the limp and now slightly odorous four foot length of tentacle. They had announced their arrival through their Links and now hurried down the steps from the hangar. Since this tenth floor had originally been the roof of the building, the elevator only reached the ninth floor. The two teammates rode down switfly to the second floor and strode through the open door of the conference room.
Here was the long oak table where five generations of heroes had assembled since 1937. In the subdued lighting and cool dry air, the current team sat waiting eagerly to begin a new crusade.
Seeing Jin rather unceremoniously slap the tentacle down on the table, Unicorn snorted. "Sushi AGAIN! I know you love seafood, but come on..."
At the head of the long table, Lauren Sable Reilly rose to her feet. "Frank.. Jin. I do not sense signs of significant damage to either of you."
"Minor bruising which requires no attention," Mills replied, pulling out a vacant chair next to the Unicorn.
"Only my pride was hurt," snapped Demrak Jin. "Look at this! I know a War Squid when I see one. They are seldom found in this real world away from my Ulgor."
Sable lowered down to her seat again. "I declare this emergency action session of the Kenneth Dred Foundation open. First, reports. Frank, you start."
Speaking rapidly, forming sentences bristling with detail and yet clear and easy to follow, the Trom recounted the night's events. To her chagrin, Demrak Jin found herself with little to add and could only repeat details about her realm's War Squid. Her voice trailed off with uncharacteristic hesitance.
Sable gazed out over her team. She was a handsome woman in her mid-forties, with long black hair brushed back from a high forehead. Just over half her life had been spent leading these Tel Shai knights and the Kenneth Dred Foundation, leaving her serious but not yet grim. "Well. Jin, did you smell any traces of other Gelydrim in the area?"
"None, captain. We are distinctive. If one of my Race had been within a mile, I would have known it."
"And Gelydrim have never been known to rob surface people for loot," Sable said.
"They have no need for American money or for our phones or gadgets. So, despite the presence of War Squid, I think we can discount this being a Gelydran ring operating as pirates."
The shining platinum hair swung as Unicorn jumped up. "We all know who it has to be! Squid Vicious! We've been looking for that freak for over a year now."
"Sit down, Ashley," Sable ordered gently. "Yes, I'm sure we've all reached the same conclusion. His various criminal enterprises faded out eight months ago for some unknown reason. No one in his gang seems to know what happened to him."
Frank Mills had been scanning the length of tentacle with his Link, which he now clicked off. Seeing expectant faces questioning him, the Trom said, "This is not from the known species commonly referred to as Giant Squid or Colossal Squid. My DNA analysis suggests its ancestors diverged long ago. Jin is correct. This is a specimen from her adjacent realm."
The Gelydra sniffed as if mildly offended at being doubted but said nothing.
"It's starting to stink," Ashley observed.
"Traces of ammonia are being released," explained Mills. "I will store it in a preservative jar in my lab for later study."
Clasping her hands together in front of her, Sable studied the faces of her partners waiting for her to decide the next action. Leadership was an old familiar weight on her shoulders. "I feel we should send a team back immediately to investigate further. Jin, you obviously are best suited of all of us for this mission. Frank, with your gravity shield, you can move underwater faster than any swimmer. Ashley, your specific ability with the Unicorn horn would not be appropriate for this situation but I want you as pilot. You can remain on alert in the CORBY."
"Sounds good to me," said the little blonde. "I'll be back-up or rescue as needed."
Sable glanced further down the table to where Jocelyn Garimara had been sitting silently. "And your Red Spectre can function under those conditions?"
"Absolutely." An Aboriginal from Northwest Australia, she had the thick straight black hair and rich brown skin tones one might expect. But Jocelyn's deep dark eyes were always thoughtful in a way that made people wonder what she was thinking. "My Ganmel is not electricity, you know. She is pure gralic force. Salt water does not affect her."
"Excellent. Our other members are accounted for. Galvan is with little Demrak Pol of course, and Carlo is at Tel Shai undergoing his final passage. Timothy and Josef are on assignment in Eastern Europe after the Red Crane organization. I do not wish to recall them except for extreme emergency."
Frank Mills rose and hefted the length of tentacle. "It will only take a few minutes for me to store away this specimen."
"No. Leave it. I'll stick it in one of the tubes in a sterile solution. Better that the team leave without delay. You're all in your field suits, Ashley has the Unicorn horn with her. I want your team to return to the scene at top speed and investigate. As always, be careful and good luck!"
Demrak Jin, Frank Mills and Jocelyn Garimara leaped to their feet and rushed from the conference room. It was Unicorn who paused in the doorway to call back, "Cap, I'd wipe that table off with Pine-Sol, too. Ick!" Then she was running to the elevator as well.
V.
Keeping the CORBY well below Mach One because they were near populated areas, Ashley Whitaker rose to a ceiling of five thousand feet. Despite her deliberately flighty mannerisms, she was one of the three best pilots in the KDF. Her mother, the first Unicorn, had raised Ashley from childhood to a life of adventuring in the Midnight War. "Every light is green and blue," she said. "Not feeling any tremors in the hull but boy! Sometimes I wish I had a chance to disengage the rotors and crack the sound barrier in this baby. That's a thrill like no other."
To her left in the co-pilot seat, Frank Mills made no reply. He was studying the sensors as they scanned the choppy waves below. If anything, the downpour had increased to a genuine storm and a regular Human tech helicopter would have been forced to turn back.
Seperated from the cockpit by a clear plastic divider, the passenger compartment was a plain box with metal floor. One wall was taken up with rows of locked drawers holding equipment. Against the other was a simple bench on which Jocelyn and Jin sat strapped down, waiting and worrying. "I've read a little about your War Squid," Jocelyn remarked finally. "They're not really domesticated, are they? Or even fully tamed?"
Demrak Jin snorted. "Hah! Hardly. We break them into obeying our orders but they remain unruly and dangerous. Many a Gelydra has been killed by a War Squid turning on him. Still, as living weapons, they are invaluable."
"That's what bothers me about this," the Aboriginal woman continued. A decade of extensive travel had softened and muted her accent into a general Pan-Pacific sound. "If the man we call Squid Vicious is behind this, how is he controlling the monsters? He doesn't have the training or time a Gelydra has to break these huge creatures."
"I don't know...." Jin said quietly. "It doesn't seem possible."
From the pilot seat, Ashley announced, "Coming up fast on the coordinates you guys fixed. One minute and counting. Joss, time to get your helmet and air tank hooked up. Frank's already suiting up."
Kneeling on the floor, Jocelyn strapped a three foot cylinder to her back. Made of a lightweight alloy, this tank held thirty minutes of compressed air which fed into her helmet. Demrak Jin assisted her. "You know, Ashley, you don't intend to leave the CORBY but I'd suggest you suit up, too."
"Gotcha. I've got a ten minute tank already set up. Makes sitting in this chair uncomfortable but whaddaya gonna do? And of course our helmets do have an oxygen membrane built in."
"Allow me to remind everyone of the membrane's limitations," Frank Mills said. "They will extract enough oxygen from water to sustain your lives but not more than that. Do not attempt strenuous activity while relying on the membranes."
"You're not kidding," laughed the Unicorn. "I tried swimming across a lake underwater with just a membrane and I was short of breath the whole time."
Mills tapped on the windscreen to get her attention. "There is the yacht. Every light seems to be on."
"Hmm, yeah," Ashley agreed. "I count five people on deck. Check the infra-red, would you?"
"Two more Human sized heat sources below decks," Mills announced. "And one life form active at room temperature."
Peering forward through the open divider, Jocelyn said, "That must be Squid Vicious! We've got him."
Unicorn tapped the right ear pod on her helmet. "Hey, guys. Are any of you hearing a kind of high-pitched whine?"
"Yes," Jocelyn said, adjusting her own receivers. "Never heard anything quite like it."
"It is definitely organic, not mechanically produced," Mills ventured to say. "In a few seconds, I should be able to see any significance in its cadence."
"Hey!" shouted Ashley so sharply that everyone gave a start. "Something big rising. Looks like a mile across!" As she spoke, she pulled back on the stick but in the instant before the CORBY would shoot upward, an object thick as a Redwood slapped into the stealthcopter and broke it into unequal halves.
VI.
The front section of the CORBY continued rising for a few seconds before the Trom impulse engines cut out, while the back half tumbled away. Acting entirely on instinct for self-preservation, all four KDF members on board tugged open their hatches manually and dove out into the waters fifty feet below. For Demrak Jin, this was hardly a challenge. Ashley and Jocelyn had both undergone strenuous training and practice in high diving and both cut through the waves without being harmed, immediately swimming downward and away to avoid falling debris.
Frank Mills activated his gravity shield even while still inside the cockpit and rose up away from where he knew the deadly rotor blades were still spinning. He did not curse himself for not having been aware of the menace in time. Such recrimination was not in his emotionless nature. He simply noted his failure and would not repeat it in the future.
Swinging around, taking in the situation more rapidly than a Human could, he spotted where each of his teammates were just then hitting the water. The wreckage was not going to strike them. Both Ashley and Jocelyn had their air supply tanks ready and of course Jin did not need one. For the next few seconds, they were out of immediate danger. Frank Mills pivoted in midair and swooped down toward where that immense tentacle was still waving above the water surface. It was too large to belong to a natural organism, he thought. This battleship-sized squid was a product of sorcery, its structure reinforced with gralic force... and thus, beyond what Trom science could understand. The tentacle dropped the beneath the surface,
In his earpods, he heard Ashley Whitaker's frantic voice, "Roll Call! Roll Call!"
"Jocelyn here, I'm fine."
"Jin responding, I am also okay."
"And I'm not hurt. Frank? Frank?"
"I am unharmed as well," the Trom said. "At the moment, I am hovering fifty meters above the surface. The CORBY is a total loss. I see no sign of the creature that struck us."
"Oh, Hell," cried Unicorn. "I'm gonna get blamed for losing our bird, right? I won't live long enough to pay for it out of my stipend."
"If I might suggest our next move," Mills went on, ignoring her worry, "We would be safer by gathering closely. I can see your Link signals from up here. Ashley, remain treading water where you are. Jocelyn, can you locate her by her Link?"
"Just a second.. Yes. I got her, she's only a few meters away. Stay put, Ash."
Demrak Jin's voice added, "All your splashing is as good as shouting where you are. I'm swimming toward you two but you should be as quiet as you can. Remember the situation."
"War Squids could be circling us now," the Unicorn gulped. "Frank, are you watching out for us?"
"My helmet sensors aren't picking up anything larger than fish native to this area," he said. "I will remain at this height to keep watch."
"Nice to know you've got our back," Unicorn replied. "I bet if I fell off a cliff, I'd...AWRKK!" The last noise was a squawk of alarm as she spotted an enormous rounded shape slide through the water almost within reach. Its bulk loomed up from the uneven waves as high as a two-story building. "Gah-DAMN! It's the biggest squid in history! Frank, what the hell, dude? I thought you were watching for it."
"My sensors do not function well on gralic-charged beasts."
"More bad news. The damn thing seems to be swimming away. Wait, is it coming back?"
"Let it come!" shouted Jocelyn Garimara. Crackling up from her body emerged a red outline of a Human figure outlined in a sparking aura. The Red Spectre rose up and then flashed like a sentient lightning bolt through the rain to sear a hole entirely through the top ridge of the gigantic monster's mantle. Thrashings of an unprecented nature flung thirty foot waves in all directions. The three KDF members in the water were spun head over heels and sent away from the tumult.
Regathering as the ocean calmed again, Ashley said through the communications link, "Way to go, Joss. Your little pal always comes through."
The gralic manifestation flashed back to plung back into the Aboriginal woman's body. "Lightning's only happy when it strikes," she said.
Treading water next to her teammates, Demrak Jin broke in, "I smell War Squid nearby. Getting closer." She whipped out her bone-bladed knife and brandished it back and forth.
Swooping down to hover just above their heads, Frank Mills held out his hands. "Ashley and Jocelyn, grab hold. Jin, follow us closely." It seemed likely he intended to lift the two women up out of the water but he didn't have a chance. More of the thick black tentacles flashed up from below. One cracked against the Trom fast as a whip to send him spinning far away, and another snapped across Jocelyn's upper back with bone-breaking force. She went limp and sank. Emerging from another direction, two more of the rubbery appendages wrapped around Unicorn and Jin, pinning their arms down by their sides. The Gelydran woman lost her weapon as she struggled without success to free herself. In less than a full second, the two KDF members were pulled down beneath the surface.
VII.
Rushing through the turbulent ocean at rocket speed from the enormous squid's siphon expelling water, unable to draw a full breath against the crushing constriction of those tentacles, neither Unicorn nor Jin were fully aware of how long the trip took. It felt endless. Ahead could be dimly seen a dark vertical mass as they approached the coastline and then utter blackness replaced the murky gloom. Both KDF members were flung upward and released by the tentacles... and to their utter surprise, they spun through open air to land with a savage thud on a hard stone surface.
Much tougher and more resilient than a Human, Demrak Jin recovered first from both the mental and physical punishment. She rolled over onto her hands and knees and leaped up, fully ready to fight any attacker. But no one was in sight. The rocky
cavern fifty feet high was lit by a string of naked incandescent bulbs fastened along one wall, its cord extending back into the darkness. Set into the rough unfinished wall was a rectangular steel door. A crude semblance of a throne had been chiseled from a block of stone in front of them, and littered around it were piles of gnawed and splintered bones. One human skull sat upon that gruesome midden, and other bones were visibly from rib cages or femurs.
Sprawled where she had landed, Ashley Whitaker groaned dramatically and moved her arms and legs in seemingly random directions. Jin instantly dropped into a protective crouch by her teammate. After a few more seconds, the Unicorn propped herself up on one elbow and said, "Oh, I do not like the looks of this place AT ALL."
"Can you stand?"
"I think so. Ugh, legs are a little wobbly. Jin, that was insane. The two of us were grabbed by a monster squid and brought here. I thought we were goners. Look at the bones! Is he saving us to eat later?"
The Gelydra began pacing around the dimly lit cavern, fingers tensed into claws, alert and tense. "No. That beast would not make such a neat pile of the bones."
"Well, duh. I should have figured that out. Hey. My helmet's communication seems fried somehow, all I'm getting is static." Unicorn drew the seven inch combat knife with its serrated edge from its sheath on her thigh and handed it over to the Gelydra. "Here. You can use this better than I can in a fight."
"Yes. Thank you. My own weapon is at the bottom of the Sound now."
"Along with my horn, the wreckage of the CORBY and all its equipment," Ashley said. "When this is all over, we'll have to dive down and salvage as much as we can. Heh. Imagine the insurance claim we'll have to file..."
Not having a noticeable sense of humor under the best conditions, Demrak Jin went over to examine the primitive throne. Ashley joined her, staring somberly down at the jumble of human bones. "That's another unpleasant chore for us," she said. "These poor people have to be identified. Not the regular police, Department 21 Black will have to be called in. I hate those guys, they're useful but you can't always trust them...."
A faint trickle of water dropping made both women pivot sharply toward the surface of the entrance to that cavern. A grotesque figure heaved up into the air and onto the cavern floor. It most closely resembled a Human male, well over six feet tall and broad. But its naked moist skin was grey and rubbery, and four tentacles waved from its rib cage, two to each side. The hairless head rose to a conical point above two black unblinking eyes and a cruel slit of a thin-lipped mouth. Some vague vestige of modesty had compelled the creature to retain a pair of baggy black swim trunks around its loins.
For an unbearably tense twenty seconds, no one moved or breathed. Then, with a croak as if unused to speech, the monster chuckled, "You! I remember you," as he pointed all four tentacles accusingly at Demrak Jin.
"As well you might!" snapped the Gelydran woman. "Squid Vicious. You look less Human than when we met. The Darthan curse continues to change you?"
"Yes, yes. I have no wish to reverse it or even slow the mutation. I am the only one of my kind! But the ten-limbed ones obey me and the air-breathing apes do as I say."
"King of the squid world, huh?" asked Ashley as her normal insolence asserted itself. "Let me guess, you're going to make a fortune selling frozen calamari?"
The monstrous being studied his captives for a moment, then grumbled. "I still dimly remember the lust I felt for women such as you. A year ago, two years ago, I would have kept you both alive as playthings. But that is all in the past. Now I will have my slaves keep your clothing to be sold later, and you yourselves are only my next meals."
VIII.
Pain and confusion created a numbing haze from which she could not emerge. As her healing factor kicked in more fully, Jocelyn Garimara regained enough awareness to realize she needed to clear her head. What had happened? Where was she? Her eyes focused. She was underwater, drifting in the current without purpose. Now she remembered. It hurt so much to take each breath. But between the Trom armor under her field suit and her enhanced healing, the unexpected blow had not killed her or left her incapacitated. Even broken bones would seal up and be good again in an hour or so.
Automatically, she looked at the luminous screen of the Link on her left wrist. Only eight minutes of air left in her tank. So she had been dazed longer than she had thought, at least fifteen minutes. Wait! Where were everyone else? Unicorn, Jin, Frank? Full awareness snapped back. Into her helmet's communication system, she called, "Jocelyn here. Where is everyone? Can I get a roll call?" But no answers came, only a buzz of static. She tried again, then switched channels and attempted to contact Sable back in Manhattan. No luck with that either.
"Bloody hell," she grumbled, then continued with a few stronger phrases only Australians would recognize. Communications down. That must have been quite a blow, she was lucky her helmet wasn't leaking. Trying to take slow, calming breaths, Jocelyn brought her wrist up close to her visor and tapped the Link's screen. Three pale green blips blinked, each with an identifying number. Ashley, Jin and Frank were less than two miles away, toward the shore. She realized grimly that the signals didn't mean they were alive and unhurt, only that their Links were functioning. She fine tuned the signals and saw with immense relief the three regular wavy lines of her teammates' heartbeats. Thank God.
Nothing for it but to start paddling, then. Back in the CORBY had been a pair of swim fins for each member but there had hardly been time to grab them when the copter had been smashed apart. No matter. She was as fit as any Olympic athlete and even wearing the field suit with its inner armor and dozen gadgets, covering a few miles would not be a serious challenge. She rose to the surface, lifted her visor and shut off her remaining supply of air to conserve it for the fight ahead. Then, with a strong unhurried stroke she could maintain for hours, she began swimming toward her friends as a cold anger collected in her heart.
IX.
"Wait," said Demrak Jin. "I have a better offer. You know that I am a daughter of Ulgor? That we Gelydrim are creatures of the sea even as you are?"
"And? What about it?"
"Think. You have Human criminals who work for you and they have their uses but they can not breathe underwater. And you have your legion of squid, who are also useful but they have limitations too."
The grotesque face did not show emotion readily but the voice changed to show interest. "What are you saying?"
The Gelydra jabbed a thumb to her own chest. "I am at home in both worlds. I can swim with the squid to sink ships and bring back loot. I can also walk among the air-breathers freely. I can be a liaison for you between your two armies!"
"Interesting," Squid Vicious muttered. "Yes. I can see how you might be of value. But why should I trust you? You are with my enemies, the knights of Tel Shai."
"They mean nothing to me. I am an exile from the royal court and I needed a place to stay on the surface world. They pay me little and exploit my abilities. You and I can negotiate terms which will satisfy us both."
Unicorn's voice cracked with outrage. "Jin, how COULD you? After all we've been through?"
"Shut up, Human slut," the Gelydra snapped. "Think about it, Squid Vicious. I will be a great help to you."
"I am not convinced. And yet... I do need a servant who can move among my squid. Come closer. Let me see your eyes as you speak so I can tell if you are lying or not."
"Listen to my voice," Jin said, moving toward the creature. "I will swear allegiance to you in the name of Grelok Himself." From ten feet, the Gelydra sprang without any tensing to give her intentions away. The combat knife she had been concealing up behind her arm swiped down right at Squid Vicious' throat. But for once she was outmatched. One tentacle lashed out faster than a whip and struck her across the face hard enough to have instantly killed any Human. Another tentacle coiled around her torso and lifted Jin up so she was dangling with both feet clear of the floor. The knife had been sent spinning away.
Squid Vicious made an inhuman hissing noise and bared pointed teeth as he shot out a tentacle to wrap around Unicorn, holding her arms down by her sides. A small metal ovoid dropped from her right hand to clatter on the stone floor of the cavern. It was one of the miniature flash-bang grenades that KDF members carried in their field suits. Seeing it, Squid Vicious hissed again and said, "Ah, I see you Tel Shai knights are more dangerous than I suspected."
"Ow! Hey, take it easy, I'm just a little girl," Unicorn retorted, kicking with both legs at empty air.
"Enough of this. Time to crush the life out of both of you. It won't affect the way you taste."
X.
In the next three seconds, two separate events made everyone gape and swing their gazes back and forth. The steel door shimmered, its surface seemed to turn clear as glass and then it vanished completely. Through the opening, Frank Mills strode forward and held up his beam projector. At exactly the same instant, Jocelyn Garimara surfaced in the water and grabbed onto the edge of the cavern floor with both hands. Up from within her body roared the dark outline of the Red Spectre, crackling with furious raw energy as it hovered at head height.
"Glad to see you guys," Unicorn managed to gasp.
Squid Vicious was utterly confused. That hideous head turned to face first one of the new intruders and then the other but he obviously could not process the situation.
"Keep your Spectre back, please," Mills said in a tone not quite an order. "Ashley and Jin might be harmed." The Trom extended his arm and touched the trigger patch on his beam projector. A barely visible thread of light shone out and, where it touched one of the monster's tentacles, that tough rubbery flesh evaporated instantly. The amputated limb fell to the stone floor, still wrapped around the Unicorn.
"Hey, the disintegration effect, right?" Ashley laughed as she tried to free herself. "Megan never did use it in front of me."
Squid Vicious still held Jin up in one tentacle, but he was preoccupied with the seared wound on his side where the beam had destroyed flesh. The monster was hyperventilating and obviously in panic.
By this time, Jocelyn had climbed up onto the cavern floor. Her Ganmel floated close to her, its aura making a noise like static. "You! Squid Vicious. Put our friend down and maybe you'll live a little longer."
The creature staggered back, still holding Demrak Jin off the ground. "Get out of here! This is my throne room. I order you to leave. Guards! Guards!"
"Oh, he's lost it," Unicorn said. "That's it, his mind is broken. Don't worry, Jin, we just have to choose if Frank or the Spectre gets you loose."
"If I could reach that knife, I'd carve him into strips!" yelled Demrak Jin. She did not seem so much relieved at the rescue as still furious she could not free herself.
The Trom lowered his beam projector and stepped toward Ashley. He held out his other hand and for the first time everyone noticed he was holding a slim spiral of ivory three feet long, tapering to a sharp point at one end and capped with a silver band at the other.
"My Horn!" yelped Ashley, seizing it eagerly. "Oh my God, thankew thankew thankew."
"I took a minute to retrieve it from the CORBY wreckage," Frank Mills said. Was there the faintest possible note of amusement in his tone? Or was he merely adding subtle inflection to make his voice sound natural?
"Now I get to contribute something to this case," the Unicorn laughed. She held the talisman high and cried out, "With this Horn I remove thy power!"
The strange body of Squid Vicious shuddered violently, shrank and reverted to become the mundane form of a middle-aged overweight man. All three remaining tentacles vanished, which left Jin falling. She caught herself nimbly on her toes and fingertips. The man who had been Squid Vicious collapsed unconscious to the ground. On his left side under his arm was a black patch of dead skin where his tentacle had been destroyed.
Jocelyn sighed as the Red Spectre slid back into her body. "Bloody Hell, that was a busy few minutes, weren't it?"
"I'm just glad to see you guys are okay," Ashley told her. "Everything happened so fast, there wasn't really time enough to worry about whether you were all right. But look how it turned out. We're all fine, okay maybe a little bruised. And we caught the bad guy."
Demrak Jin snatched up the combat knife and tapped its blade against her palm. "Now I will gut him and stretch his intestines out on the ground."
"Whoa, whoa, hold on...!" Unicorn protested without moving to intervene. She was not eager to get between a Gelydra and an enemy.
"No." The single word from Frank Mills had such calm authority that it stopped even Jin short. "We will interrogate him. His Human hirelings must be identified and arrested. We must learn what other criminal activities he had in operation. He must tell us how many War Squid he controlled so we can drive them back down into the depths they usually inhabit. He can not answer our questions if he is dead."
Demrak Jin's cloudy blue eyes were mere slits in that wide flat Gelydran face. She did not immediately respond but hefted the knife thoughtfully. "Torture may be called for."
"We will see if the Veratilin serum works," Mills replied. Something in his complete self-assurance had a calming effect. Jin slowly turned and handed the knife back to Ashley.
"Thanks," said Unicorn as she slid the blade back into the sheath on her thigh. "I'm just relieved to get my Horn back. There's no way to replace it. We're gonna be busy for a week seeing what we can salvage from the CORBY. Some of that equipment is worth millions."
"Yeah, there's a lot of work ahead but I don't mind," Jocelyn added. "Truth be told, I'm so glad we all came out of this whole and healthy. It didn't look great for us."
Ashley Whitaker gave Jin a quizzical glance. "I knew you were trying to trick Squid Vicious when you pretended to want to join him. I get that. But what was that crack about 'Human slut?'"
7/12/2023
