Chapter 8

chapter 8

ELLE

Once I was alone, I sat down on my bed and turned the tablet on. It flashed, scanning my face quickly, and then the screen went live with a video from Arcus Marlow himself.

"Doctor Kepzler, welcome to my Aquatic Life Research Installation, I hope my other employees are helping you to feel right at home."

I felt my eyebrows crawling up my forehead. If I'd been given some Arcus Industrial employee indoctrination video, I was absolutely going to violate my NDA at the nearest topside bar.

But then the image changed away from him, showing a view from a remotely operated vehicle, shining a light beam into the dark.

"I've selected you to be given an extraordinary research opportunity. First dibs on a find from an unknown civilization," he narrated over the ROV's footage as a structure came into view.

Due to the way light traveled down here, I couldn't see past five feet out the entire time, but once the ROV got closer, I realized it was traveling in front of a wall which seemed to be covered in writing. It seemed to glow slightly, like the ROV's light was setting off some latent bioluminescent organism in the carvings .

I instantly knew it didn't match any writing I'd ever seen.

"This is the outside of an unknown structure, Doctor Kepzler. I need to know what monster species this is from, how old it is, what it says, what culture it represents—I want to know everything about it."

I did too. In fact, I was practically drooling over the screen. But why just me, why not a huge team?—

"We're in international waters. Depending on which species it belongs to, there may be jurisdictional issues. And if we're found out ahead of time, any other group with enough money to excavate it can claim it's salvage."

I swallowed—he was right. Any time we did a dig we had to be careful to get the permissions of the groups involved, which was sometimes a morass of legalese, depending on local politics, or if the monster species had any current descendants that we could find. Oftentimes I was in a race against builders who would bribe their way into paving over whatever I could study rather than letting me have at it for a year or two—and I'd read an article recently about people claiming rights over the remnants of the Titanic .

The deep ocean was the wild west, especially where artifacts were concerned.

"So right now, it's just you. You will go down, investigate the site, and see if you can't figure out which species or political entities we need to be coordinating with based on your expansive knowledge of monster histories and communications. You give me something solid to start with, I'll confirm it with other scientists, and we'll go from there." The ROV's footage finally reached the base of the structure—it was at least three stories high.

I was in awe.

"The rest of the data on this tablet is all the information we've accrued on the site remotely. You'll be downloading your data into this same tablet every night, and we will retrieve this tablet the next time we send a submersible for exchange. I will expect weekly reports for as long as you're down there, and no finding is too small, Doctor."

I nodded, like he could see me, and then gave a soft laugh.

"And one more thing—while you should follow the instructions given to you by the rest of your crew as though they were me, everything you do in the water and see in the water should be kept confidential. Do not share any of your findings with them. They are merely crew."

That sounded harsh, but I supposed billionaires weren't known for being trusting.

"If you agree with these stipulations, and still want to take on this opportunity, say the word, ‘Understood.'"

"Understood," I said quickly—and then the video stopped and a screen full of neatly labeled folders appeared.

I had the gist of everything they knew so far in fifteen minutes, but I pored through every ephemeral piece of documentation I was given afterwards for the next several hours, scans done by remotely controlled vehicles, infrared, sonar, core samples near the freakin' thing. Donna brought in my dinner for me, and I only grunted at her, so lost in what I was reading.

"Wait!" I called out, just before she left. "Donna—can I get some paper?"

"Sure," she said. "But we only have pencils, not pens."

That made sense—the pressure change to get here would cause ink to leak.

"And don't go crazy," she said, returning with both for me. "We don't get another shipment of supplies until next week, and that's when we send out the out-going requisition forms. So if you run out, you won't get it till the week after that."

"Got it," I said, then went back to my desk to stop the footage repeatedly and try writing out the "words" to start a rudimentary cryptanalysis, based on image repetition and frequency.

I could've probably figured out how to have the tablet help me, but I liked to get into my work. It was the rubbings I'd made of the avian tongue that helped me solve it. And I was glad my suit was tactimetal—it'd give me a limited amount of feeling, so I could "touch" the words myself, tomorrow.

But before then— oh God —I remembered something else was going to have to touch me.

I pulled back to the tablet's main screen and looked around for a Bonding-with-a-Kraken Manual, then considered doing a search for it, only to realize that there was no Google down here at the bottom of the deep. I got up to stretch my legs and started pacing back and forth in my narrow quarters.

Had the structure been made by ancient krakens? Was that why there was a kraken assigned to the project?

I didn't even know if krakens had any technology. In fact, I didn't know much about them past their obscene strength and telepathy. They kept to themselves, and humans generally avoided them. I'd never given a shit about them because they were a living species.

But they must have had some way to pass along information from one generation to the next. Was this structure something they'd lost? Did it pre-date them, or was it part of their mythology?

Six hours later, when my body was telling me I needed to sleep even though I disagreed, I bothered to take a few bites of my now-cold food, and when I was done, I went to go look out the window.

This whole situation was perfect. It was the kind of work I could throw myself into for the next few months—hell, decades, depending on what we found. With Arcus Industrial at the wheel, I'd never have to beg for grants or wonder when the money would run out.

And if I had my druthers, I'd never resurface again. Grant could just forge my signature on the divorce papers for all I cared.

But thinking of him—I realized I still had my wedding ring on my left hand. It was a simple gold band, the only jewelry I wore. My diamond solitaire engagement ring was safe in a jewelry box at home, because I never wanted to take anything fancy out to worksites—maybe Grant could give it to his new baby momma when he found her.

I imagined him bouncing all the children he could have without me on his knees.

Fair, I spat in my mind, just how he'd said to me.

I twisted it off my ring-finger and then came to a sudden decision, walking out of my room and back down to the dock.

The square of ocean there was every bit as mesmerizing as it had been earlier, rippling just behind the magical forcefield that kept us safe. I walked until I was six feet in front of it and hurled my ring at it without a second thought.

It plunked into the water and then tumbled almost straight down inside.

I'd been hoping it'd go further, but I couldn't see it now, and that was good enough.

Whether I liked it or not, I was free.