Kraken - Rookie Burwick (latest ebook reader txt) 📗

a circular motion, taking his body with them. His head tightened and throbbed, and now the queasy feeling was returning, and fast. His thoughts began looking back to when he was under the water. He had seen something. Something odd in color. Something big.

He shook it off, and focused on the storm. He looked up into the sky and was blinded momentarily by another flash of lightening. Flashbacks of the cargo ship followed, screaming around his brain, embedding themselves in his thoughts. He blinked a few times to get them out, but they only stuck harder. He blinked again, in hopes that, this time, the storm would disappear. Everything about this situation would disappear. He wished he could be back at home right now, in bed, fast asleep. He wished everything would change in an instant. . . but it didn't. He blinked, but the storm was still there.

And it continued on for the rest of the night.

 

 

FOUR

The speedboat soared through the water at an amazing speed, and was already half way to its destination. The driver, Benni Luchas looked up from the steering wheel and peered over into the thin morning mist and smiled. He had always enjoyed its soft feeling and its fresh moisture content, but this morning's batch seemed a little bit dry. The sky above was clear and the sunlight was beaming brightly down onto the boat, its rays stretching over the ocean like the East coast. But it wasn't the bright, sunny day or the sweet mist that had drawn them out here. No.

Luchas looked over the steering wheel and latched his eyes on the gages beyond it. He looked them over and made sure everything was in check, and then he picked up speed. The loud noise coming from the motor grew louder, and then boat heaved forward an extra two feet. Inside the boat with Luchas were his assistant and navigator Jim, along with the camera monitor, Wanda, and three professional divers, Matt, George, and Brid. All of them were on that boat for the same reason . . . to explore a crack 120 feet below the surface. Or at least that's what the job description had been.

"This ought to be good. Can't wait to see what's down there," Matt said.

"Yeah, I can totally agree," Brid smiled.

"Calm down, boys. We'll be there soon enough," Luchas called over his shoulders.

He heard a few faint shrugs, and giggled. He was always amazed at how much those guys loved to dive, especially with something like this. He had gotten the call from a Navy person just yesterday, and got right to setting everything up. Now, he was on the way to exploring a large and unknown section of the underwater world through the cameras that the divers would be taking down. The excited feeling he felt burning inside him made him smile even wider. He wondered what they would find, if anything, and how large it would be.

"Hey Jimmy, how far are we from the spot?" he asked in a loud tone.

"According to radar we'll be there in about a minute," the young man replied.

Luchas said nothing, but kept his eyes up ahead of the boat, on the sparkling water. His eyes began to sight-see around the area. He couldn't help it, the area was beautiful. A two miles off the their left sat a ring of small rock formations that had to be a couple hundred years old, and were a sight for sore eyes. They were simply astounding. Another three miles to their right was a fairly large patch of land that held high cliffs on its surface. Everything was so pretty, especially this morning with the sun shining and the mist disappearing.

"We're here!" Luchas' thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Jim's shouting, and he quickly slowed the boat to a stop.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yes sir. This is the exact spot of that lady's directions were correct."

"Right. Let's get this thing going."

Both Jim and Wanda went right to work. Wanda began preparing the cameras for the underwater dive, while Jim began setting up the computers and monitors. The three jumped to their feet to get on their gear on. Luchas watched as everyone prepared for the mission. It was going to take nearly two hours, maybe longer depending on what they found, and how long it took them to actually get down there, search, and then get back up.

"Listen up everyone," everyone turned to Luchas, but kept working. "We need this to go as smoothly as possible. Matt, George and Brid know what they need to do. Just get down into that opening and find out what you can. But don't report it to me. Report it to the Navy Combat Ship 26, understood?"

The three men nodded as they slipped on their steamer wetsuits.

"Good. Now, Wanda should know what to do as well. She's going to be monitoring the film that the divers take down there, and also make sure that nothing bad happens. Jimmy is going to keep track of your depth and air compression, and will warn you if your air tank gets low for any reason. Got that everyone?"

"Yep, got it," Jim replied first.

"Right," Wanda followed, rolling her eyes.

Matt, George and Brid just gave Luchas a thumbs up after finishing with their diving masks. Jim assisted George in getting his oxygen tank on while the others did so independently. Wanda took stood near the computer screen, setting it all up by connecting cords and hitting buttons. It didn't matter to Luchas. Just as long as everything went well. He turned and picked up a small, handheld radio and pushed down on the button.

"This is Luchas to NLCS 26. Do you read?"

A voice returned the call within a few moments. "This is Captain Briche of the NLCS 26. I read, over."

"We're sending down the divers now."

"Good. Be sure to have them report everything to me."

"Yes sir."

Luchas let go of the button and turned back to the divers who were now all set to go.

"All right men, there's no turning back now," he said rather sternly.

"We understand that, sir," Matt replied with excitement in his voice.

"Now, get going before we lose any more time."

Without hesitation, the three of them leaned against the side of the boat, and plunged into the shiny water, leaving a big splash behind them.

The temperature of the water was slightly cold, but warmer than they had expected, especially up against their thin wetsuits. But they quickly began making their way down. The further down they went, the darker the surrounding water got. It became murkier, and even colder.

George heard a voice through his little ear radio. "Do we have any lights?"

"Yes Brid, it's attached to your mask," he replied.

In the following moments, two small LED lights were switched on, and soon enough, Matt joined in. The black abyss became lit up with the vision-blinding light, and then they could clearly see the ground rise, just six feet below them. They quickly swam towards it, and soon saw more detail.

"Holy crud! Look at that! It's like a valley buried underneath this whole thing!" Brid said.

And it did look like just that. A hidden valley underneath the bottom of the ocean.

"We need to report all this to the NLCS 26 before we go any further," Matt pressed a button on his small, waterproof radio wrapped around his wrist. "This is Diver #2 to NLCS 26, do you read me?"

"Yes, we read you. Report."

"We've found the ground rise."

"What do you see?"

"It's cracked open at the top, and the whole thing tore apart. There's a trench beneath the rise, and we're entering it now."

"Alright, proceed."

The three of them continued on, and swam towards the opening. It seemed to be so much darker than what they had come through so far, mainly because they couldn't see anything down in it. Slowly but surely, they entered, engulfed by darkness. Their lights were the only things to guide them through the pitch black painting they seemed to be in.

"Man, it can't get much darker than this," George muttered.

 "Nope. You wouldn't think so," Matt replied.

The darkness wasn't just empty, but also silent. But that didn't bother Matt. He didn't mind quiet, because that usually meant they were safe from earthquakes or a cave-in, or anything else. But, for some reason, Matt felt uneasy right now. Though it was silent, he sensed movement. But he didn't see anything, and he wasn't going to get off course to relieve his senses. The three of them were still together, and that showed that nothing was wrong. He thought about asking the others if they had the same feeling, but he didn't. It wasn't worth the time.

They kept on moving forward, shining their lights in every direction, and having a good look. So far all they had encountered was rock. Rock that made up a perfectly round tunnel that seemed to go on forever. Brid's feet were beginning to get tired from waving them up and down to propel himself forward, but he pressed on.

"How much further do you think we need to go?" Brid asked suddenly.

"Are you kidding me? We need to go on until we find something worth reporting to the NLCS 26. Push on," Matt replied.

"Right."

 

                                           *  *  *

 

 

Luchas leaned forward and took a closer look at the screen.

"Doesn't look like they're gonna find anything," he said with a smirk.

"No, it doesn't," replied Wanda.

They both watched as the image in front of them moved slowly on, showing everything the divers down below were encountering. And so far, it hadn't been very entertaining.

"How far have they gone?"

"According to the sonar sir, they're about sixteen feet into the tunnel."

"That far?"

"Yes, they are sir."

Luchas only nodded, and silently watched as the camera pushed on. He turned to Jim.

"How's their oxygen?"

"They're all set."

"Good. Don't let that get out of whack."

"Right."

He turned back to the screen, and watched closely. But, as he watched the screen, he caught a glimpse of something in the top right corner of the camera lens.

"What's that?" he pointed to the area.

Wanda paused it and rewound it. Then, he saw it himself, and hit the pause button again.

"That, sir?"

"Yeah, that."

The image wasn't quite clear, and he couldn't tell what it was. All he could see was that it was moving.

"That doesn't look good," Jim said, gasping.

"Warn them."

 

                                       *  *  *

 

Matt stopped at the sound of Luchas' voice beaming through the radio.

"Hello down there, can you read?"

"Yes, I read," Matt replied.

"We have an un-identified object in the area. Do you wish to proceed?"

Matt paused for a moment. "Yes, we do. I'm not worried."

"Alright then, just keep an eye out."

They continued on, pressing forward through the water of the tunnel. Matt kept his eyes open as wide as he could for anything odd. But as they swam deeper and deeper into the darkness, he didn't see anything. Bubbles echoed from every direction. And they were massive bubbles. Matt couldn't believe how big they were. They seemed to be coming from small holes in the walls, like some sort of volcanic tube. Only underwater.

But then, he looked up and saw something far more amazing than the bubbles. His mouth hung behind his mask at the sight of it. It was the entrance to a large,