“Forward.” Lemnov yelled as he unlocked the reel and walked forward. Then he locked down again and ordered the same thing. Gradually, by repeating this process, they began to win their battle with the fish.

  Chekov walked down the rock platform all the way to the waterline and held up his flashlight, pointing it at the line as it came in.

  “I see something,” he yelled over the sound of the grunting men. “Here it comes. Prepare the gaff hooks.”

  The two men behind Dardov grabbed up the long poles with wicked hooks bigger than their hands. They got down close to the water, braced themselves, and held them in both hands.

  “I see it,” one announced and then both men got each side of the line. “One more heave, Lemnov, it’s coming up.”

  Lemnov did as asked, and then both men shot their gaff poles forward and dragged them back to sink the big hooks into the fish.

  They tried to drag it up, but the fish was too big to get up and over the lip of the rock ledge.

  Yuri saw the danger of the fish getting caught on the rocks and pointed at the other men standing around. “Everyone together.” The entire group came to assist – holding the men, the line, or the gaff hook poles. They all strained and then, in one great surge, the massive fish came up and over the lip of the rock ledge.

  The men continued to pull back, faster now, until the fish was ten feet from the water. The huge purple-hued fish lay on its side gulping air.

  “Now, that is one weird fish,” Yuri said.

  Amazingly, the fish grunted like a pig and then righted itself and began to use four lobed fins to try to walk-drag itself back to the water.

  “What is this?” Yuri said. “You’re not going anywhere.” He held out his gun and shot the fish in the head.

  The lights went out.

  The loud report in the cave echoed for miles, as the men quickly switched on their lights.

  They waited. And then the lights began to come back on. It was like a wave of blue luminescence approaching them as whatever creatures were creating the light gradually assumed the threat had gone, and lit themselves back up.

  The group looked down at the fish. It was at least eight feet long and about 350 pounds if it was an ounce. It was covered in thick armor with each overlapping scale the size of a fist. The enormous thick-lipped mouth stayed open and they saw it was full of needle-like teeth.

  Yuri crouched and grabbed one of the weird fleshy fins. He squeezed it. “It’s like it’s got finger bones in there.” He looked up. “Mozgi, do you know what is this fish?”

  The small man had been staring at the creature. “I think I’ve seen pictures of something like it. I think it’s a coelacanth. They’re nocturnal, so living in caves is what they like.” He looked up. “Everyone thought they were extinct. They are a very ancient form of fish that might be 300 million years old.”

  He crouched and, like Yuri, grabbed one of the thick fins. “This line of fish is called a lobed-fin fish, you can see why. It might have been where walking animals evolved from.” He looked along its length. “Some species still exist, but they don’t get this big. This one seems more ancient.” He shrugged. “It’s different.”

  “I know what this one is.” Yuri looked up.

  “What?” Mozgi asked.

  “Bait.” Yuri guffawed, and then snapped his fingers. “Some for bait, and some as steaks for our dinner.” He patted Lemnov on the shoulder. “Good fishing.”

  The crew began cutting up the fish. They set aside most of the thick fillets, which was around two hundred pounds of meat, for their meals. But the front end, which was a heavily armored head, gills, and weird hand-like fins, and still probably weighed 150 pounds, they fixed to the massive hook on the iron cables.

  The tackle and bait were heavy and would tax even the winch wire, which was a double strand of high-tensile and flexible steel. If one strand broke, the other would hold long enough to get whatever the creature was they had hooked close to the boat. Or shoreline.

  “I think we have a problem.” Chekov stood looking down on the fish head with hands on his hips. “It’s heavy. How do we get it out there? I mean, further than the edge of the rocks.”

  Yuri walked up to the huge lump of bleeding flesh and gave it a small kick. It didn’t budge an inch.

  “Good question.” He looked from the bleeding lump of fish meat to the pitch black sea, and then walked a few paces down the rock shelf and stood watching the water for a moment.

  “I think the tide is still going out, and that’s a good thing.” He snapped his fingers. “Old fisherman trick – we float it out.”

  Yuri ordered one of his men to run back to the boat and scavenge some of the old canvas, Styrofoam-filled life jackets tucked under the seats. It took the man thirty minutes, but he came jumping and jogging over the cracks and pools in the rock platform holding three stiff, red jackets.

  Yuri had the men then tie them to the giant lure, and then he stood back surveying his work.

  “This should allow it to stay above water. Or at least off the bottom.”

  Now, all he needed was for it to work long enough for the tide to drag it out to deeper water, so the scent trail was picked up on whatever currents operated out there and spread outward, up and down the coast.

  “In it goes.” He snapped his fingers and pointed to his men. Several of them lifted the huge chunk of bloody fish meat, dragged it to the water, and then on the count of three, heaved it in.

  Sure enough it sunk, and Yuri held his breath for a moment. But then the red vests broke the surface, meaning the meat was suspended below them. Slowly it began to bob its way further out.

  Yuri pointed to Lemnov. “Time to really test your fishing skills, Mr. Lemnov. Man the winch.” He turned back to the impenetrably black sea. “And now we wait.”

  Lemnov and a few of the men stood by the winch. Its base was now bolted to the rock. The others stood around and smoked, talked, or laughed at some or other joke.

  Yuri and Chekov stood close to the lip of the rock ledge and watched their bobbing makeshift float as it slowly moved away from them, taking the heavy cable, and huge, baited hook with it.

  “Do you think we’ll catch it?” Chekov asked.

  “I think we will catch it or one of its kind. Or maybe some other huge thing that lives out there,” Yuri said. “But we have several mountains to climb – the first and smallest is catching it. Then we try to reel it in without losing our winch and cable.” He turned. “And then what do we do when we get it close to the rocks? If this thing is as big as we expect, I doubt we’ll be able to pull it up onto dry land.”

  “I see.” Chekov nodded. “Do you have a plan?”

  “I always have a plan.” Yuri smiled, supremely confident. “We get it close to the rocks, and we shoot the monster to death. Then we use the boat to drag its carcass back out through the cave.”

  Chekov turned. “Be easier if those bastards got back with our supplies. And their boat.”

  Yuri nodded. “If I find out they decided to even have a cup of coffee, I’ll dock them a week’s wages.”

  They stood in silence for a moment more. Chekov looked upward at the cavern’s ceiling high above them. Yuri followed his gaze.

  There were twinkling blue lights that seemed to be stars in a pitch-black night sky. But weren’t.

  “I wonder how big this place is,” Chekov said.

  Yuri continued to look up, and then frowned as he thought he saw something moving across the ceiling. It was just an outline as it passed over the sprinkling of lights, but he thought it looked a little like a man with long arms. Or maybe a giant bat with folded leathery wings.

  “It seems to be a cavern of unimaginable size. There’s life in here. Lots of it. And large animals that could only exist in an equally large place.” He exhaled and looked back out at the ocean. “The Russian science department will be very interested in what we have found.” He turned and half smiled. “After we have finished taking a few cold rooms full of fish and making some good money.” He pointed to the plastic sheet under which they had stored the coelacanth meat. “We only need to catch a few dozen of those to have a good foundation catch.”

  Chekov nodded, but then tilted his head to look at his captain. “I would feel better if we had the Boris Yeltsin with us.” He looked around. “In here, it feels like we are a long way from home.”

  “We are.” Yuri snorted.

  “No, I mean, a long way in time.” Chekov exhaled slowly through his nose. “It is like this place is very ancient, and we modern creatures shouldn’t be here.”

  Yuri scoffed. “High risk, high return. Sometimes it is the captain’s duty to make those calls. And it will be the difference between the men getting a full catch bonus, and just minimum wages.” He turned briefly. “Or nothing.”

  Chekov nodded but didn’t reply.

  Yuri watched the bobbing lure, which was now a good hundred feet from the rock ledge.

  It is a strange sea, he thought. And why wouldn’t it be? A sea hidden by a glacier that might have locked this place away for millions of years, only temporarily opening when there were warming periods. Or at least that’s what Mozgi thought.

  Yuri felt good, very good. “I think this place is going to give us everything we dreamed of.”

  ***

  Captain Yuri Zagreb squinted along the dark, rocky coastline. He was sure there were plants along there, tall odd-looking things that had to be trees, but they were just shadows in the gloom and might be nothing more than weird rock formations.

  His curiosity urged him to explore, but he knew he had to stay focused and leave it for another time. Or perhaps another team.

  From behind he heard Lemnov make a small sound in his throat. Yuri turned to look over his shoulder at the man, and saw him, staring dead straight out at the water, gaze unwavering, and his hand on the winch controls. The man then fractionally tilted his head as if listening to the wire.

  Yuri turned back to the water and saw that their float was now about 150 feet out. Was it sitting lower than before?

  And then the float went under, fast, and things started to happen all at once – Lemnov yelled, the heavy cable ran out with a whirring sound, and men scrambled.

  Yuri watched as the line vanished into the dark water, and then it started to move down the coast. Lemnov yelled for them to get out of the way, as he swiveled the winch. It didn’t have a lot of mobility other than simply up and down, left and right, but at least he could face the way the line was being dragged.

  After a moment, he slapped the lock on. The cable wire went so taut that water flicked from it with the sound of a harp being plucked, and the toughened metal of the winch where it was fixed to the ground moaned and complained as it was put under enormous pressure.

  “Here we go!” he yelled.

  Lemnov’s lips pressed together as he started to wind the crank handle on the winch. For now, he just tried to turn the beast, as it seemed to have swallowed their gift and was heading down the coast.

  When the sound of the steel bending began to become ominous, Lemnov let out a little of the cable. But after a few more seconds, he snapped the lock back on, and began winding the cable back in.

  About ten feet came back, and then five more.

  “She’s turning.” Lemnov grinned. “She’s turning.”

  He managed to reel in another ten feet, and Yuri estimated he had about another 150 to go from where he thought the float had been taken.

  The Russian captain could feel his pulse rise as the cable slowly came in – the man was actually doing it.

  Yuri turned. “Ready with the guns,” he said and felt for his own pistol at his hip. “Try to shoot for the eyes. I want as little damage to the carcass as possible.”

  More line came in, and then it started to move, from the left where it had been dragged, to then change direction, as the fish started to swim back the other way.

  “It knows it is hooked now,” Chekov said.

  “If it pokes its head up, it’ll know it’s been shot as well.” Yuri drew his pistol.

  The line came in a little slower now, and the toughened steel cable was increasing in its speed, back and forth, as the monster began to fight with them.

  “How much more line is out?” Yuri yelled.

  Lemnov, eyes wide with excitement, glanced down. “Another seventy feet. It’s close now.”

  The men turned back to the water in time to see a head breach. It was enormous, and in the darkness the serrated triangular teeth shone white, and the massive black eye on one side stood out sharply in the corpse-pale head. It seemed to hang there momentarily, regarding them as a snake might regard a mouse.

  Yuri lifted his gun arm and shot, the sound frighteningly loud. He hit it. But he had forgotten the effects of sound on the lights above them, and everything immediately went dark.

  Men yelled and water thrashed, and just as the lights were coming back on, the monster surged, throwing up a geyser of water, and in that second the strengthened wires went tight, tighter, and it wasn’t the winch that gave away, but the overextended wires.

  One of the strands snapped like the sound of a giant guitar string being plucked. The single cable wire whipped back to its home, passing by most of them and on its way back to the winch . . . and Lemnov.

  Yuri turned and saw the big fisherman lifting his head just as the whipping wire reached him. The wire never slowed, or even deviated on its path, and it went right through his face – from his open mouth and out the back of his neck.

  Yuri’s jaw dropped open as Lemnov continued to work the winch even faster as the top of his head flicked away into the darkness.

  It was a ghastly scene and Yuri wished the lights had remained out, as the upright body was still obeying the last orders from the man’s brain and trying to reel the fish in.

  Yuri wondered if, somewhere off in the darkness, the top half of the head was wondering why it was on the ground as its eyes blinked in confusion.

  Men screamed and moved away, and then, after another second or two, Lemnov’s body fell to the side, twitched a few times, and then lay still with the pump of thick dark blood slowing as his heart stopped.

  The rest of the cable still had the shark hooked, but with another ferocious tug, the winch was pulled completely off its base by the remaining wire strands, and it lay flat on the rocks, with the wire still extending out into the water, but hanging limply. There was a splash from behind Yuri and he turned to the dark sea.

  Several hundred feet further out in the dark water, the now sagging life vests rose, obviously still attached to the wire, but the shark was free. The massive conical white lump of the shark’s head lifted from the water again. The snout was turned at an angle and the massive maw gaped open. One black eye as soulless and dark as polished obsidian stared at them, remembering them. Yuri had a cold thought: It is marking us down for vengeance.

  It could have broken free any time it wanted. It’s laughing at us.

  Yuri lifted his gun again, but didn’t fire, conscious of the fact he’d throw them all into darkness once more. After what had happened to Lemnov, he knew it would panic the men.

  He lowered the gun. “Next time,” he whispered.

  The shark slid back beneath the water. He saw the huge fin rise, and further back the tip of the tail fin. He guessed it must have been around fifty feet separating the fins. A quick calculation to include the long snout put the beast at sixty-five feet, maybe seventy. A monster.

  Yuri still had the crazy idea he could catch it. He had a spare hook back in the inflatable. Plus there was still plenty of cable on the winch, although it was broken from its base now. He bet if he could get the beast a little closer he could still kill it by shooting through its eye and into the brain.

  He saw the fin rise again, this time going in the opposite direction.

  Yuri snorted. “So, you think you are going to hunt us now?” He pointed his gun and mimed shooting. “I think we’ll kill you before you kill us, dumb fishy.”

  He holstered his gun and turned, sighing heavily. “Collect our comrade’s body. All of it. We will take him home.”

  “The winch?” Chekov asked.

  Yuri shook his head. “Leave it. And leave the wire out there. Maybe we can repair and rerig it later. Perhaps we can have another chance at our monster tomorrow.

  “We’ll take our fish meat back to our base camp. Make some steaks for dinner. When the other boat gets back with our supplies, we can send Lemnov back in it for the freezer to be taken home.” He shook his head. “Today, we lost. Tomorrow, we will win.” He took one last look at the wire leading out toward the bobbing red life vests. He hoped the chunk of meat was still there, and he hoped the shark would choke on it.

  ***

  It took the Russian crew another fifteen minutes before they could begin the trek back along the shoreline rock platform. They’d been fishing for hours and the tide had come in at least six feet. The shallow river they had previously crossed by wading was now a broad and dark expanse of water.

  “Looks like we are stuck here,” Chekov said.

  “No, the boat will pick us up. We just need someone to go and get it.” Yuri turned to the group. “Mr. Ivanoff, you are our best swimmer. Get across and get Belakov and our boat. Come back and pick us up.”

  Ivanoff looked at the inky black water for a moment and frowned. But then reluctantly he began to take off his clothing. He stripped down to his underwear, leaving his clothing in a pile on the rocks. He pointed to them and then one of the other crew members. “Bring those.”

  The man nodded.

  Ivanoff stood at the river’s edge, which was now a large inlet from the sea to the cliff wall. He waited there for a moment, staring across as if marking his position and deciding where he would emerge.

  He waded in, and then dived. When he surfaced, he immediately began to stroke hard and fast. Within seconds he was already a third of the way across.

  But that was as far as he got.

  Surging in from the dark sea, the massive Megalodon came up into the shallow water like a steam train. One second the swimming Ivanoff was there, then he raised an arm as if to ward off the white predator. But he was a tiny morsel to the monster, whose massive jaws opened and went all the way over him.

 

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