Slither - Edward Lee [95]
Nora's blade blurred across her eyes, and severed the worm's head. It floated away, a squirming, pink lump.
The rest of the body unraveled, the clipped end re leasing a plume of tea-colored digestive enzymes as well as a slew of underdeveloped ova. In a split second, Nora watched those same corrosive enzymes burn up any ova it came in contact with.
She managed to kick away, as still more of the acids came only inches away from drifting into her face.
Her legs kicked independently from her mind. To escape the corrosive ooze, she'd kicked backward, farther into the trench, and then her back collided with something .. .
A moment of thinking passed.
Then she shot up to the surface, where her head broke the water only a few heartbeats away from the point in which she would've drowned ...
I'm alive! was her first genuine thought.
She was slowly treading water, to stabilize her metabolism out of shock. Her chest heaved as she sucked in breaths.
I have to get back to the others, she knew. But ...
But...
What had that been?
Not the worm, but the abutment she'd backed into just after decapitating the worm?
Something not right .. .
Her confusion waylaid her. She was swimming back down to the trench, knife in one hand, flashlight in the other.
What the hell was that!
She had to know. A culvert of some sort? An oil pipeline? But what purpose could such things serve twenty feet beneath the Gulf of Mexico near a useless island? She knew there were more worms down there, yet her curiosity seemed fevered. The worms had more than likely swum away, and the enzymes from the one she'd killed would have dispersed in the current. So...
I just have to see. She felt driven. What was that thing I backed up against?
Her flippers pumped furiously; she swam back down to the trench. Crystalline water glittered, prism-bright. Ys and Ws of coral branched out from the bank, skeletal fingers that seemed to be pointing to secrets.
Nora slowed her descent, then stopped.
The trench stretched onward, probably several hundred feet, and widened to thirty. The sun's angle kept the underwater gouge blotched in cool, teeming darkness. She couldn't see what she'd touched, and only knew that it felt out of place, but .. .
Something's there, she noticed through a squint.
She'd have to surface for more air in another minute, but not till she got a look.
She reached back out into the inkiness and felt it again: a smooth, flat surface, slightly curved. Like metal.
That's when Nora-mildly alarmed-veered the waterproof flashlight around.
She became severely alarmed when her eyes registered what she was seeing, and then she shot herself back to the surface, gulping air.
That's-that's-that's ... CRAZY! she thought.
What she'd seen lying in the trench was an object that could only be a naval submarine ...
(II)
He was supposed to be here an hour ago, the sergeant thought. He checked all of the rooms in the old control station. Where the hell is he?
The sergeant wasn't the overexcitable type. When something went wrong, he simply fixed it, with a calm professionalism. He'd sent the corporal out a while ago, to retrieve the climate sensors and the little bit of field equipment that had been posted outside, but there was no sign of him. Just what I need. A man away from his post when the mission's winding down .. .-
He was about to check the monitors when he heard footsteps coming down the hall.
The major walked in. "Good news, Sergeant. All of the project's findings have been logged and processed, and every duty protocol has been completed. It's time to leave. The colonel's very pleased with the mission's success."
"That is good news, sir."
"Looking forward to getting back to the post?"
"Yes, sir."
"Get the collection and security gear ready to take out. I'll be securing the specimen data. We'll debark tonight."
"Yes, sir."
The major eyed him. "You seem ... reserved, Sergeant. Is something wrong?"
The sergeant sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Yes, sir, it appears that there is."
"It appears ..." The ranking