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

a hand on the side of its neck and gently stroke, careful not to slice his hands open on the razor-sharp scales. “Approach slowly,” he said to Skylar without turning around.

The girl’s breath hitched in her chest behind him.

“So far it hasn’t bit me,” he said in a comforting voice.

“I’m pretty sure it was just about to tear my face off.”

“You scared…him?” Devonte cast a glance down at the creature’s nether regions but saw nothing to confirm or deny his assessment.

“He scared me!”

“Everyone is scared,” Devonte said. “Come pet the damn monster.”

Tentatively, Skylar approached the creature. It watched her lazily, its eyes barely tracking to follow her. As she got closer, it shook out its frills and turned to look her head on. Devonte’s hand never left its neck. Skylar reached out a slow, trembling hand and placed it on the creature’s snout. It gurgled in response.

“Now that it’s not trying to kill me…”

“It’s kind of adorable right?” Devonte said with a laugh.

“Yeah.”

“I thought of a name for it.”

“Do tell.”

“Akuma.”

Skylar made her best “not bad” face, and said, “I can get behind that.” She looked up to the creature. “What do you think, Akuma?”

The creature, now informally dubbed Akuma, cocked its head to the side.

“I think he likes it.”

“There is one pressing matter,” Skylar said. “How are we going to get it into the cage now?”

“Maybe we could lure it with fish?” Devonte shrugged.

“And after that we can go study radioactive earthworms?” Skylar said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

“I mean, if the big ones eat whales, I just figured the little ones—”

“Also probably eat whales…caught by their parent,” Skylar finished with a know-it-all smirk.

“Fish worked for Matthew Broderick,” Devonte grumbled.

“Did they really though?” Skylar’s pocket buzzed. She pulled out her phone and grimaced when she saw the message displayed across the top banner. “He’s here,” she said. “Kurtis.” She looked up to see Devonte’s scowl. “I take it you don’t want to come.”

“Can I hit him?”

“Probably not.”

“Have fun, then.” Devonte turned back to the creature, pretending to give it an extremely detailed investigation. “Now,” he said, “are you a boy or a girl?”

“Right,” Skylar said with a sigh, “do me a favor though. Get a blood sample. I want to check out this thing’s DNA because,” she looked it up and down, “I have a feeling there is something weird going on in there.”

“Sure thing,” he said with a wave.

#

Kurtis was locked down like Hannibal Lector or the Joker. Skylar almost couldn’t help but feel a little bad for him. She was sure this wasn’t what he had expected when they’d agreed to work with him. He gave her an inscrutable look as they led him down the hallway to his “consulting office” as the general called it. A prison cell is what it was.

“Is all of this really necessary?” she asked.

The guards escorting him said nothing in reply.

She followed them on the long trudge down the winding corridors until they came to the cell. Kurtis was wheeled into the room, his restraints were undone by one guard while the other kept his gun trained on him. He was shoved to the wall opposite the door, and the two guards backed out of the room before locking it and tucking the two keys away, in each of their pockets.

“He’s all yours,” one guard said in a gruff voice before sauntering off. The other guard posted himself by the door to the cell.

Skylar looked through the reinforced glass window into the cell. “Can he hear me?” she asked.

“Yes, he can,” Kurtis said, before the guard could answer. “I will admit, this is not what I had in mind.”

“They don’t trust you. You can’t blame them.”

“And you?”

Skylar stared at the ground. “Try not to betray us again,” she said, fists clenched. “The mission leaders will be by soon enough to begin planning our actions.” She turned, excited to get back to Devonte and Akuma.

“Where will you be?”

Skylar froze.

“Skylar?”

“Busy.”  She exited the holding area.

#

Kurtis took a deep breath and sat cross-legged in the middle of the cell with his eyes closed. “So,” he said, “are you going to kill me now or…?”

“Shut up,” the guard said, “General’s orders are to keep you alive.”

“And Tempest’s orders?”

He heard the guard shuffle uncomfortably outside his cell. “You live.”

“She’s going to use me to get information on their plans to counter her plans.” Kurtis frowned. “Through you?”

“I was hand chosen for this mission.”

“Just you?”

Silence.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Kurtis said. “Are you the one who took my watch, by the way?”

The guard grunted in the affirmative.

“Do you think I could have that back? I’d like to know how much time I end up wasting here.”

“Can’t. You aren’t allowed any technology.”

“My watch is analog, look at it!”

He heard the guard’s sharp sigh, and the sound of rustling. “Brown leather band?”

“That’s the one.”

“It’s got a lot of buttons for an analog watch.”

“It’s a very expensive watch. Maybe a bit above your paygrade. You’re welcome to mess with all the buttons to ensure there is nothing high-tech about any of them.” Please be as stupid as I assume you are.

An irritated grunt was all the response he got, so now he just had to wait. Soon enough, a soft beeping rang out through the holding area.

“What is that noise?” the guard barked.

“It’s just the alarm.” Kurtis smirked to himself. “It’ll go off soon enough.”

There was a loud buzzing sound, and the smell of ozone filled the air. The guard let out a choked gurgle. Kurtis heard him collapse to the ground. The scent of burning flesh wafted over the top of the ionized air. Kurtis let out the breath he’d been holding. This won’t curry me any favors with the people here, he thought. “Hey! If anyone can hear me, I think this guard just died!”

The general, whom he’d met once, rounded the corner in conversation with an older man, Raymond, Kurtis remembered, and the female soldier he’d taken in with Skylar, whose name he couldn’t place. The general