Up From The Deep Vaughn Jackson (book club suggestions TXT) 📖

to the teeth emerged from the sea and kept rising until it towered outside the frame of the camera. The sea birds screamed and scattered away. Whatever was recording the video adjusted accordingly. Skylar estimated that the creature’s neck alone must have been at least sixty meters tall. Taking that, the whole thing must have been at least one hundred meters from head to toe.

“It’s terrible isn’t it,” Kurtis said. “And they want to control it.”

“What?” Skylar’s head snapped around to look at Kurtis.

“Eyes on the screen.” He didn’t look at her.

Skylar forced her eyes back to the video screen. “Control it?” She watched as the creature, the Tempest Beast, tore its prey apart. Shark-like teeth carving out chunks of flesh as seagulls dove in and took their chance. The large predator ignored them as they picked off their own bits of the kill.

“These people call themselves Tempest. They believe this creature is a sign of their divine right to rule, as well as their weapon to enforce that rule.”

“And they took us…to make us figure it out.”

Kurtis nodded and handed her a pair of earplugs. “I suggest you put these in, wouldn’t want to damage your hearing.”

Skylar complied not a moment too soon. Even with the plugs in she could hear the monster’s bellow. She thought at first it might be another whale, but in the middle of the sonorous tone the noise pitched down becoming a harsh basso rumble that vibrated through her teeth and down into her chest. As the bellow ended, the creature let out a cry that reminded Skylar of accidentally scraping a metal fork on a ceramic plate. Only a thousand times worse. She cupped her hands over the top of her already plugged ears until it ended.

The video cut off.

“After that, the battery in the drone died,” Kurtis said.

Behind them, the sliding door hissed open, and the clicking sound of heels approached them. “So, what do you think of the creature?” Agent Ming placed herself between them, giving Skylar a questioning look.

“It’s,” Skylar searched for the best word, “awe-inspiring.”

Ming smiled. “Yes. And you get to be one of the first to research it.”

Skylar decided to push her luck. “To learn how to kill it?”

Kurtis’ eyes widened.

The agent frowned. It wasn’t a frown of anger, but one closer to concern. “It would be our preference simply to either capture it or figure out what attracts and repulses it so that we can keep it at bay.”

“Really?” Skylar feigned surprise. “I just thought like in the movies, you know, everyone just wants to kill the big scary creature.”

“I’m sure our counterparts in the military will be more than likely to take that approach, but we’re hoping to accomplish our goal before then. Will you help us?”

Kurtis watched Skylar with interest from behind the agent’s back.

“It’s been my life’s dream to research a real-life kaiju,” Skylar said. “What do you think?”

Agent Ming smiled brightly. “Then you have my thanks.” She turned on her heel and crossed to the door. “Oh, and Doctor Wagner, try not to distract her too much with your flirtatious advances.”

Kurtis’ face went bright red. “I, uh, no, sorry, what?!”

“Convincing Jason to let you two have some alone time in the soundproof room,” she said with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh...yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head and looked away when Skylar caught his eye.

Agent Ming left them there, soaking in the awkward silence.

Kurtis broke the silence. “It’s not—”

“We should get to work. Before they suspect us,” Skylar said.

“Yeah.”

As they exited, Jason gripped Kurtis by the shoulder and half whispered, half hissed, “You owe me.”

Kurtis said, “Yeah, you’re a good one, man.”

#

“Whales?” Kurtis asked. He glanced over Skylar’s shoulder at the notes she had taken but must have found her handwriting completely illegible as he squinted in confusion.

“More specifically, whale noises,” she said, dancing around to the other side of the work bench.

Kurtis spread his arms in a way that said, “Please explain.”

“I have never known a predator that won’t come where the food calls,” Skylar said, frustrated. “Instinct reigns supreme.”

“You plan to hijack the whales?”

Skylar blinked. “Physics. Right?”

Kurtis put on a straight face, ignoring the sleight at his profession.

“Okay, imagine this,” Skylar said. “You’re a giant predator that devours entire whales in a few bites.”

“An easy place of mind to put myself,” he said dryly.

Skylar continued, undeterred by his sarcasm. “You track your prey by listening for their calls in the depths of the sea, and you use your acute sense of hearing to do so.” She paused for a breath. “But what if it’s a trick? What if you hear the whale calls but they’re fake?”

“How would I know?”

“Exactly!” Skylar tossed her notebook at the other doctor. “You wouldn’t know.”

“You think we can lure the creature away with fake whale songs?”

“Real whale songs. Fake whales.”

Kurtis shrugged. “I can’t argue with that logic.”

“That’s because it’s right.”

Someone clapped behind her. Skylar wheeled around. Agent Ming clapped again, more enthusiastically this time. Skylar hated the woman’s penchant for popping up when she was least expected.

“That is truly brilliant,” Agent Ming said.

“Anyone here could have figured it out,” Skylar said. She mostly meant it.

“But there’s one problem.”

“What?”

“That would attract the creature, how would we repel it?”

Were you listening to what I said, or weren’t you? Skylar thought. “You can use it to the same effect. Just place the whale calls somewhere away from the places you want it to stay away from.”

“Ah,” Ming said, “and would this work without fail?”

Skylar screwed up her nose. “I don’t have much to go off of. A few videos and a giant tooth. I don’t even know if this is guaranteed to work. We don’t know how intelligent the creature is. I’d need more time to—”

Agent Ming interrupted her. “Time is not a luxury we can afford.”

“What?” Skylar snapped. “We can’t just put something out there that could get people killed. It needs to be fully tested.”

The agent fixed her with a cold stare. “People may die, but their sacrifice