Dinosaur Lake (23 page)

Lassen snickered from the cockpit. “Yes, mother, I’ll be careful.” Francis could almost feel the sub shifting slightly to the right and gliding through the dark liquid, so often had he driven it and so attuned was he to the machine. The headlights would be roaming the rocky floor like a hungry eye as the swishing gurgle of the water coursed up through the radio.

“Yep, you can sure tell there’s been earthquakes down here,” Lassen kept up the chatter, a link to the land as the men above observed the scenery through the Rover’s eyes. “It’s a mess in this section. The crustal plates are cracked and have shifted up and onto each other. The sediment’s a mile thick in some places. There’s rising steam everywhere.”

“We’re getting clear photos of it up here. Fascinating what nature can create, isn’t it? The view’s even got Greer’s attention. Made him put that notebook of his down and he hasn’t checked that pocket watch of his for the last ten minutes at least, either.”

More chuckles.

Greer, in his neat suit, was hovering behind him at the makeshift base in the abandoned boat chained to the dock. Dr. Harris was next to the man, making faces at the video screen; waiting for the elusive creature to make an appearance so he could coo over it.

Justin Maltin, scribbling something on a notepad a few feet away, was getting ready to return to John Day’s to do some more research.

Francis liked the young paleontologist, having found him not only affable but highly intelligent. He even appreciated Greer, rough and enigmatic as the man was on the outside, he was probably a decent guy beneath the steely exterior.

But that Harris fellow. Francis wasn’t sure he was for real. Such a pompous ass, a nuisance. Always underfoot. Always hatching schemes to make money, gain fame off the situation.

“There!” From the boat, as he watched the sub’s progress, Francis directed his friend in the submersible. “Veer directly to your left. Sharp. That’s it.

“See that crater to your right, Mark? It looks like a miniature volcano in a volcano?”

“They’re all over. There’s a truly impressive one below me now.”

“We see it. Watch those silicate columns starboard, buddy. Cutting it awfully close, aren’t you?”

Lassen was weaving in and out of the columns with the submersible, a pinball in a giant pinball game. He was scaring his friend.

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, Jim. This is fun. Great stress reliever, dodging around these rocks. Like bumper cars but underwater. Whoopee!”

“Not like bumper cars. You don’t want to
hit
them.” Francis put his fingers over his eyes, shaking his head. “And I thought you were a sane man.”

Lassen played around a little longer and then said, “Stop nagging me. I’m heading towards those caverns now. I know my time’s running out.”

Francis wished he was below in the lake and Lassen was on top with Harris and his whining. The man was driving him nuts. He never shut up. Always making plans for what he’d do if the creature showed up, if they caught it. Blah, blah, blah. Another half hour of Harris’s babbling and he’d knock the guy senseless just for some peace and quiet.

The Rover was skirting along a series of cave openings, all of them too small to take it. Lassen was describing and reporting what he saw as he went. He’d moved halfway around the arc of the lake when he exclaimed, “There’s this large cavern down here, behind the rocks. I mean big. The entrance opens in an o shape. Don’t know how I ever missed it before.”

He gave his GPS coordinates, pinpointing his exact location for the ones listening above.

“Something’s hiding in it. Something….

“I’m going in.”

Francis watched through the view screen as the Rover glided into the opening.

“The cave appears to have been well-used, and recently,” Lassen continued the commentary. “The stone around the opening is freshly scratched and there’s loose debris and rocks everywhere.”

“Watch yourself, Mark,” Francis advised, his eyes glued to the story the cameras were sending back. It was difficult to see much beyond the sub’s lights, the water was so misty. “This could be the hiding place we’ve been searching for.”

“Could be,” the pilot’s answer crackled across the space through the radio channel. “I’ll keep my eyes open for any unfriendly monster cave dwellers.”

Only Patterson laughed. Evidently, he didn’t believe in the monster either.

Dr. Maltin, from a chair in front of the console, gave him a dirty look.

Greer and Ranger Shore had been discussing other caves they’d known, but fell silent, as they hulked anxiously over the radio set. He’d overheard Shore say he’d done some cave climbing when he’d been a teenager. But, it turned out, Greer was the expert spelunker. He’d been in over a hundred caves.

“Caves,” Greer announced, “are one of my obsessions. And the only variety of cave I haven’t explored is precisely the type of cave I’d bet Lassen is in now…an underwater lava cave.”

“An underwater lava cave?” Shore asked.

“Yes, and they’re often treacherous and unpredictable.”

“Ha, any cave is treacherous and unpredictable,” Maltin snapped. “Things can fall on your head any time.” He whispered, “I hate caves.”

Francis wasn’t listening to them, instead he was fretting over his friend in the caves below. He had an uneasy premonition something wasn’t right.

“It’s a maze of passageways,” Lassen was describing in an echo of a voice that seemed far away. “It keeps twisting, and turning one way and then another…a true labyrinth. Magnificent! Some tunnels are too narrow to navigate through….I’m backing up, going another way. Now I’m in a much larger one. Good, there’s more room to maneuver.”

“Jim, all of you up there, you ought to see this! I mean the full up-close effect, not just what the cameras are picking up. It’s breathtaking. Wait a minute, there’s light directly above me. I’m going up.”

The sub moved upwards at a steep angle. The eerie light grew brighter. Warm glowing crimsons and whitish oranges. It kept getting closer.

The Deep Rover surfaced from the water into what looked like an above water cavern full of wreathing bluish smoke and watery air. The walls were covered with dripping stone and lime formations. “Wow, this cavern is something,” Lassen murmured. “Looks real old. Prehistoric even. There’s multicolored lava rocks glittering along the walls, rising in spirals from the floor. They’re so delicate looking. Can you see them? And look at those rocks embedded in the ceiling. What fantastic shapes and colors. A rainbow.”

“We see all of it, Mark,” Francis sent back. “It’s on camera now. Even from here it looks spectacular.”

“It is. See the live lava river?”

Along one side of the cavern there was a moving stream of sluggish lava creeping its way into the adjoining tunnels and pillowing into the water less than fifty feet from the submersible.

It meant the cavern and the nearby water’s heat would be extreme. It also meant the warm cave could be a home to a living creature. The men on shore realized that.

“With all that active lava,” Francis spoke into the mike, “it must be hot in there.”

“It is. The instruments are recording a steep jump in temperature. It isn’t a dangerous heat level…yet. But it could be if it keeps building. See the steam?”

“I see it,” Shore spoke up.

“This chamber probably leads to another exit,” Lassen reported. “To my right. See? I wish I had the time to explore this place more thoroughly. It’s truly unique.”

“Not by yourself, mate,” Francis told him. “Too dangerous. We were only to locate a possible lair, not toddle around in it, peeking behind rocks, twists and turns.”

He didn’t have to explain that what he’d meant was they weren’t to take any chances like that
not without weapons
. Weapons that hadn’t arrived yet. Weapons the Rover didn’t have.

“I know. I’m going back down. Get out of here. It’s getting a little spooky. Shadows all over the place. Strange noises.”

“Yeah, better safe than monster chow.” Patterson snorted.

Francis gave the man a dirty look. He was uneasy enough.

“I’m leaving the cavern now,” Lassen’s voice sounded strained. “Those shadows are creeping me out. They’re…moving.”

His audience was holding their breath until the craft submerged again, leaving the fiery chamber behind, and wound its way through the tunnels towards the cave’s entrance.

“That explains why the water temperature’s been rising. The earthquake must have opened those old caverns and released the magna flows,” the pilot was speaking as the sub descended. “That cavern deserves further study. It could ruin the delicate ecology of the park if enough lava is pumped into the lake.”

“I agree,” Lassen said. “You returning to base now?”

“Sure am. I’m hungry. What’s for lunch?”

“Whatever they’re having on special at the closest restaurant in town. My treat.”

“Sounds good to me.” They could see Lassen was exiting the mouth of the underwater cave, the Rover gaining speed. The rear cameras were giving a wide view of all behind him.

Greer was stepping away from the monitors to inquire something of Dr. Harris when Shore cried out. He’d been studying something on the edge of the screen. “Lassen, behind you! It’s behind you! Get the hell out of there!”

The following seconds were chaos. Dr. Harris and Greer scrambled back to watch what was happening on the cameras.

“Oh, my god,” Lassen could be heard exclaiming from inside the sub.

Dr. Maltin, who’d left his chair and moved over to the screen, cried, “Oh, my god, there it is!”

For what seemed like an unbelievable amount of suspended time the men stared at the
thing
outside the sub’s portals.

“It really exists
,” Patterson gasped, as a scaly wall of emerald skin filled the portals of the Rover, trapping the wide-eyed Lassen inside. The creature pulled away and everyone could see it clearly framed in the windows. “Well, I’ll be damned. An honest to god dinosaur. Would you look at that thing!”

Francis, along with the other men, were. He was as shocked as Patterson. He hadn’t believed in the creature, either.

Outside in the inky water they caught patchwork glimpses of the monster: a belligerent eye peering in, a huge tail swimming by a window. Teeth when the thing snarled.

Lassen was trying hard to hide his panic, but his trembling voice gave him away. “It does looks like some kind of dinosaur, Ranger Shore, just as you and Dr. Maltin said. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life or in any of my sea explorations. Oh, Lord…
it’s so
big.
”

All the men around the screen found they couldn’t take their eyes off the apparition.

Ranger Shore took the microphone from Francis. “What are you going to do?” he demanded softly of the man in the sub, knowing what he was feeling–absolute terror–because he’d been there. Felt it.

“N..n..nothing. I don’t think it even notices me.”

“Don’t underestimate it, Lassen. It sees you all right. Get out of there. Now, while you can.”

Lassen moved the submersible away, forgetting completely their big rock-on-the-bottom-of-the-lake strategy. Apparently all Lassen wanted to do at that moment was get as far away from the creature as he could.

Francis didn’t blame him one bit.

Stationary, the monster examined the metal craft with glittering eyes. Then it opened its tooth-filled mouth and silently roared. Bubbles exploding from its mouth. Its claws came up to its chest and flailed in the water. It almost seemed to the men watching that it was waving at Lassen.

“How long can
it
stay underwater before it has to go up for air?” Lassen voiced meekly.

“I don’t know.” Dr. Maltin’s face had a stricken look on it. “Just tell him to get away.”

“I’m increasing speed.”

Dr. Harris’s eyes were glued to the screens, too, but the glint in them was one of greedy excitement.

The submersible sped faster through the dark water.

The beast became smaller in the sub’s windows as the distance grew between them.

Faster. Faster.

Francis was breathing again when the monster begun to move, churning the water like a giant paddle wheel, neck stretching out, tail pushing it along. Francis had never seen an underwater creature move that quickly. Not even a shark or a Great White. It was eating up the water.

It was coming after the sub. After Lassen.

“Gonna try to outrun it,” Lassen under toned, his demeanor still calm.

Not for long though. His friend must be so afraid, Francis thought, putting his hand to his brow. They never should have put the submersible in the water, but how were they to have known the monster was
real
? Or so gigantic…and curious?

By the instruments he could tell the Rover had ratcheted up to its top speed. The monster easily caught up with it as if it were idling in the water. Through the radio lines there was the sickening sound of claws scrapping metal as the beast reached out and captured the sub in its embrace, holding it prisoner.

By then Lassen’s coolness had evaporated and he was groaning loudly as the giant tail encircled his metal sanctuary. There were more scraping, scratching noises. Now the sub was motionless. Lassen was screeching something but none of the men above could make out the words, there was so much background noise.