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he young couple stumbled out the door, through the pool area, and onto the beach. They hung on each other, groping and pawing, hormones raging throughout their bodies.
“I’m not going in there,” the young man flatly stated when the girl began tugging him towards the water.
“Oh come on you big baby,” she teased. “It’ll be fun. Besides, you’d be surprised what you might find in the ocean.” And with those words she seductively unfastened her bathing suit top and let it fall to the sand.
The young man’s desire for her was quickly overruled by his fear of the water. He fell to the ground, refusing to go any further. “No can do sweetheart,” he said. “Let’s just have fun out here on the beach.”
The girl’s annoyance was suspended when she looked into his eyes. She could tell that he was genuinely frightened. She sat down next to him. “Why are you scared of the water?”
“I was attacked by a shark when I was a kid. They caught it too; a nine-foot Bull Shark. Got a scar to prove it.” He pulled up his shorts to reveal a jagged, pink wound.
“God, that’s terrible.”
“Since then it’s been hard for me to go in the water, especially at night.”
The girl suddenly jumped up and began to dart away from him. “Fine then, but you still have to catch me.”
The man also stood up and began to chase after her.
A few hundred yards away a small group of teenagers gathered on the balcony of their hotel room. They were drinking heavily while waiting for other friends to join their party. One of them noticed two people stumbling along the beach.
“Hey guys,” he laughed to his buddies. “Check out those idiots down there.” He pointed to the figures on the beach. The others with him quickly stopped and looked. They all saw the two people chasing each other. But they also noticed a black shadow gyrating behind the two, approximately a hundred feet back.
Normally it could have been passed off as possibly a piece of driftwood or debris, but this shadow moved. And it moved like something that was alive.
The young pair was oblivious to the danger they were in. They simply continued on their way, stumbling into each other before falling to the ground in a fit of drunken passion.
It happened rapidly after that. The shadow was upon the couple in a flash, slithering forward wildly and smothering them in an instant. A few muffled screams drifted up into the clear night, and then all on the beach was silent except for the rolling waters. By the time the teenagers from the hotel reached the spot there was nothing left except a trail of blood leading straight to the water, some shredded clothing, and a sad reminder of two young lives snuffed out in their prime.
The newspapers immediately pounced on the tragedy.
“SEA SERPENT DEVOURS KIDS!”
“YOUNG COUPLE DRAGGED TO WATERY DEATH!”
The police department was quick to act. Due to the unusual and graphic nature of the murders a special force led by Detective Tom Phillar investigated the case. Teams of marine biologists and researchers were also involved, and together they were to determine what type of animal was capable of such a brutal attack.
But after two weeks passed with no leads the Oceanographic Research Institute was brought in, much to the dislike of Detective Phillar.
Tom noticed the small, slender woman. She wore her thick black hair in a tight bun, and he suspected the figure underneath the stereotypical white lab coat was quite attractive.
“Hello,” she said, noticing Tom staring at her. “Are you Dectective Phillar?”
Tom felt foolish for his behavior. “Yes, I’m Detective Phillar. But you can call me Tom.”
“I’m Dr. Amy Tensh. I understand we’ll be working together on the beach murder case.”
Tom, struggling for words replied, “”And who exactly are you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I work for the Oceanographic Research Institute. We’re to assist your department in the case.”
Tom couldn’t help his irritation showing through. “I see. I trust you’ve been briefed in the case?”
“Yes I have,” Amy replied quickly.
“Do you have any ideas yet Dr. Tensh, I mean Amy.” His annoyance was gradually being replaced by the animal magnetism between a man and a woman.
“Quite frankly, not yet. However, if I had to guess, off the record of course, I would have to say some type of crocodile.”
Tom couldn’t help himself and laughed out loud. “I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t a crocodile.” He didn’t like to dispute such an attractive and obviously well educated woman, but he’d been around the block enough times to know better.
“Obviously,” Amy shot back, annoyed with Tom’s attitude. She was already finding it difficult to like him, on either a professional or personal level. Without saying another word she turned her back on him and began talking with her colleagues. “I’ll keep in touch Detective Phillar,” she added without so much as turning around.
Tom shook his head in disgust and lit his first cigarette of the day. “Women,” he mumbled. “Women.”
Several days passed and Amy and her team were working at a feverish pace; fifteen hours days slid into one another. She was frustrated. Despite all the hard work they only had a few possible leads, very little in the way of evidence, and more headaches than they could count. All theories seemed to funnel to dead ends. There simply was no known species of animal that would be capable of such an attack.
Rubbing her head Amy waved an empty goodnight to the last of her weary assistants. “See you in the morning Jerry,” she sighed. Jerry waved back.
Her concentration was broken by a knock on the door. It was Tom. He wore an impatient but glad- to- see- her expression.
“Doctor Tensh, I mean Amy, good to see you again.”
Despite her annoyance at being interrupted at such a late hour she politely invited him in.
Tom didn’t waste any time. “So, have you made any progress yet?”
Amy adjusted her lab coat. “To be honest detective—I mean Tom—no, not really. I’ve already consulted with the Marine Institute, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of Miami Marine Laboratory. There just isn’t any type of animal capable of such an attack, much less those tracks.
Tom leaned in close, too close for Amy’s comfort. His interest in the case, obviously due to Amy, was increasing. “Well then,” he whispered. “What’s your unofficial opinion then?”
Amy took a step back. “Between you and me, I would have to say possibly some form of Carcharodon Carcharias, or a close relative.”
“ English please.”
“A Great White shark.”
Tom didn’t know whether or not to laugh. “You’re pulling my leg right? You’re trying to tell me that a shark, a Great White no less, grew legs, walked onto a beach and ate two kids?” he always had an interest in evolution but this was pushing it.
“I’m not saying anything right now Tom, but there have been unexplained cases in the past.”
“Of what? Fish jogging around chasing people?”
“Of course not. However, off the southern coast of Africa four years ago a tiger shark was captured approximately half a mile off shore.”
“So.”
“It was pregnant. The embryos were discovered to have had strange growths on their undersides, almost like tiny legs. And six months ago in Australia a decayed carcass later identified as a stingray was discovered nearly five hundred yards inland. Nobody knows how it got there, but it can be a dangerous creature. Someone could have been seriously hurt. Evolution is a strange and wonderful concept if you really think about it. It is the product of two naturally opposing forces: one that introduces new variations and one that makes variants more common or rare.”
Tom was getting a headache. “Listen, I don’t know anything about sharks or stingrays, or too much about evolution for that matter, but I think it’s safe to say that that isn’t our answer. I trust you’ll come up with some better theories.”
Amy watched him turn and leave the room without another word. “Men,” she moaned. “Men.”
The sun was sinking fast in the cooling evening. Throngs of young partygoers were already setting their nighttime plans in motion, as older, more mature people were settling down for the night.
Amy pulled up to her apartment. The place was dark and empty as she flipped a light switch on, splashing the room with life. A small part of her ached to just once in her life to be able to come home to the sound of another person. Or the laughter of children. Or just some plain, old-fashioned company once in a while. She chose her path in life, the clinical, sterile, scientific path, because she always harbored a deep need to understand things and how they worked. To her there was nothing worse than a mystery, something that wouldn’t be explained or proven.
And she often felt that the price she paid for pursuing her career was the absence of any real connection with another person.
Tossing her jacket to the couch she wearily sauntered over to the balcony window and gazed out at the pending evening settling over the city.
“What are you?” she blurted out before she could stop herself. “And where did you go?”
A stray thought flitted into her tired mind. She thought of Tom, and for the first time not in the sense of a co-worker, or a detective, or even a hindrance to the investigation with his stubbornness and tunnel vision, but as a man. The one piece in the complex and lonely puzzle that was her life that was always missing. He drove her crazy, with his obnoxious ways and callus attitude, but in an odd way those same traits also interested her greatly. Plus, he was quite handsome.
She thought about calling him, but that might jeopardize their professional relationship, not to mention their commitment to the families of the missing teenagers.
But the nagging voice inside of her head wouldn’t be denied. She was a woman after all, even before she was a scientist, and that meant she had needs that should be addressed.
She walked over to the telephone resting on its base next to the couch. And with one swift motion, picked up the receiver and began to dial.
Tom was a little late arriving at the restaurant. He was caught off guard by the call from Amy and struggled to get his stuff together when she suggested meeting him for dinner. He wasn’t used to such forwardness from a woman. But far be it from him to reject such an offer from an attractive lady like Amy.
“Tom! Good to see you again,” Amy called out when she noticed him walking into the restaurant.
Tom waved back and quickly took his seat opposite Amy.
“We’re here strictly personally right?” he joked, a warm smile sliding onto his face.
Amy blushed. “Of course,” she replied with an equally bright grin. “No work talk tonight. Just two people getting together for dinner.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Me too.”
The evening wore on with Tom and Amy discussing their likes and dislikes, their childhoods, their friends and family. Surprisingly, they both discovered that they had quite a few things in common.
Tom felt a connection forming between the two of them that hadn’t had a chance to grow during the stressful situations of the case. And he allowed that connection to continue to form, enjoying it as much as he could.
“Thank you for a wonderful night,” Amy cooed. “I really enjoyed myself tonight.”
“I did too,” Tom answered softly.
And with a move dictated by animal magnetism Tom leaned in for a goodnight kiss.
Amy responded with a gentle arching of her neck to one side to allow Tom access to her lips.
Tom shielded his eyes from the sun, and began to stroll down the white quartz sand on the beach towards the scene of the crime; the undeniable possibility that he might be getting too old for the force weighing heavily on his mind. The previous night he’d spent with Amy was trying to dominate his thoughts, but he pushed them aside. Today was a new day and that meant back to business. There was a crime to solve.
And then something caught his eye.
It was small, nestled in the sand, and glinted sharply in the sunshine. Tom walked over to it and scooped it up in his hand. His eyes grew wide when he saw what he was holding.
It was a shark’s tooth!
How they could have missed such a potentially important piece of evidence was beyond him, but he knew what he was going to do with it. He was going to take it straight to Amy.
“Yes, is Dr. Tensh in please? This is Detective Phillar.”
“Hello, this is Dr. Tensh speaking.”
“Yeah Amy, this is Tom. I wanna bring something over to you right away. I might be connected with the case.”
Amy was surprised to hear from Tom so soon and struggled to come up with words. “Hello Tom. I really had a good time last ni—”
“I know—I know, so did I, but this is something that might be really important.”
Amy’s face took on a sullen look. She quickly reverted back to her clinical, sterile ways.
“Tom, what is it?”
Tom sighed into the phone. “It’s . . . it’s a tooth. Some type of shark’s tooth. And I found it right where those kids went missing on the beach.”
Amy straightened up. “Bring it to the lab. I’ll be here all day.”
Tom was excited about his discovery, feeling it might be just the break he needed for the case. Without delay he drove over to the Oceanographic Research Institute and literally ran up to Amy’s lab department.
“Here it is,” he declared proudly as he presented the tooth to Amy.
“We don’t know what it is from yet,” Amy stated, tempering Tom’s enthusiasm. “But it’s quite possible it’s from a shark, perhaps a Carcharodon car—”
“A Great White?”
“Yes, a Great White.”
Amy set the tooth down on a nearby table and looked at Tom. Her heart ached in her chest to really open up to him and release all the years of pent-up emotional frustration within her, but she forced herself to suppress the urge. There were far more important things to worry about right now besides her feelings.
The two boys slipped off their school clothes and wriggled into their swimming trunks. A full day of classes, coupled with eighty-five degree heat, had them both anxious to take a swim.
The sand leading up to the water was cluttered with various refuse. Driftwood, strings of soggy seaweed, residual papers and crushed beer cans littered the beach. Despite the nuisance it proved for bathers the debris offered perfect camouflage for the venomous snails. Each possessed a virulent toxin, potent enough to kill a grown man. The creatures were learning to adapt to their new environment fairly quickly, and with it the new opportunities for prey.
The snail’s tiny radula blindly waved up out of their shells, mindlessly searching for something, anything to inject. Mice, birds, insects, anything that came
close enough to be stabbed by their darts was a potential meal. Humans would be far too large to eat though, but an exposed foot would not be immune to an instinct-triggered attack.
The younger boy screamed as the dart shot into his flesh with blinding speed. He had been stung by a Textile Cone Shell, one quite capable of causing paralysis, and even death. The other boy barely managed to get him to the hospital in time.
Tom ordered another drink. Nearly a month had gone by without any solid leads; his instincts were running on empty, as was his patience. He was starting to entertain the notion of chucking it all, grabbing whatever cash he had and heading to another part of the world, somewhere where there weren’t unsolved killings. But the image of Amy usually pulled him back to reality. He took a sip of his drink, swishing the sour liquid around in his mouth. It was just another bad habit he needed to give up. An orange, setting sun peeked into the bar through a grimy set of small windows on the far wall, something the owner had regretted installing.
“Hey buddy, you want another one?” the bartender asked while wiping out a glass, his round, friendly face coated with a smooth layer of sweat. He was used to hearing people’s problems, and considered it a part of his job to listen to them.
“What do you think of sharks growing legs and eating people?” Tom asked, all too aware that the alcohol was doing the talking.
The bartender looked sharply at him. “I think you’ve had one too many.”
“No seriously. Those two kids killed on the beach a month ago . . . a shark ate them.”
The bartender was silent for a minute. Tom tried to gauge his reaction, but could hardly see straight. Pulling a small, worn stool up to the bar the bartender seated himself quietly. Leaning in he stared at Tom before whispering in a hushed tone, “You know what I think. I think one day it might just be possible. Who’s to say that it couldn’t happen? Billions of years ago single-celled organisms dominated the entire planet. Then multi-cellular animals appeared and diversified rapidly.
I mean if we all evolved from single-celled organisms then why couldn’t other branches of life, such as sharks, might, over time, evolve to a higher form as well?”
Tom nodded in agreement, his head swaying back and forth slightly.
The bartender continued. “I think there came a time when those single-celled organisms slithered out of the water onto dry land. Granted, it didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen.” His face tightened and he adjusted his seat. “Maybe some animals in the sea have learned, for lack of a better word, that there’s better hunting here on land. Pretty scary when you realize that ninety-five percent of all life on Earth lives in the water.” He leaned in close to Tom. “Lot of nasty things in the sea ya know. Not just sharks, but barracudas, jellyfish, giant squid.”
Tom head swam with the frightening possibilities. Terrible images of people being attacked by a variety of ocean-dwelling creatures filled his foggy head.
His cell phone interrupted his train of thought.
“Tom, this is Amy. You’re not going to believe this, but you have to head down to Point Warren right away.”
“Amy? W—what’s the matter?”
“There’s a situation going on down here. Suffice to say that it’s unusual. But you have to hurry.”
Tom was confused. His heart wanted to blindly follow what Amy was saying but his head needed more information.
“Amy, you have to tell me what’s the matter.”
“Tom, our fears were correct. The thing that probably attacked those kids; I think it’s here!”
Tom sprinted towards his car, his phone wedged up against his ear.
“Amy, I’m on my way.”
A tall, well-dressed handsome man greeted Tom as he exited his vehicle. Tom wasn’t sure if he was a member of the force or an acquaintance of the victim. Either way he decided to play it cool.
“Detective Phillar?”
“Yes, I’m Phillar. Now where’s it at?”
Annoyed at Tom’s brevity the man gestured to a large beachfront house approximately a thousand yards down the beach. Tom could see the outline of it in the advancing dusk. He also could see many people milling around the structure, and bright yellow crime scene tape cordoning off the area.
“I’m Ben Olvery from the Institute up in Miami. I work with Dr. Tensh”
Tom nodded as he made his way along. “So you know Amy?” He tried to sound professionally distanced.
“Why yes. I’ve been on her staff for the better part of two years now.”
Tom felt a tinge of jealousy well up inside of him, but suppressed it.
“So Ben what have we got?”
“The homeowner says it attacked his house, slamming up against the front bay window while he was working at his desk. The guy’s a writer of some sort and was trying to finish a zombie novel.”
Tom let an amused grin show. “Zombies?”
“That’s right. Anyway, the poor guy’s dog ran outside barking up a storm and was instantly killed. Personally I think it’s a prank of some sort. I mean how could a shark do that?”
Tom stopped in mid-stride. “Did you say a shark?”
“Why yes, or at least that’s what I’ve been told so far. I haven’t seen it yet though.”
Tom resisted the urge to throw up. “I wouldn’t be so sure of your prank theory though Ben. From what I’ve heard lately, nothing’s impossible.”
The two men made their way towards the house. Tom’ s mind was straying in all directions, and none of them were good.
As they were approaching the home Tom noticed a large, dark shadow off to the side of the building that was surrounded by several people talking excitingly. He recognized one of the voices as Amy’s. With each step closer his fears slipped across the threshold between nightmare and reality.
The huge, gleaming dorsal fin jutted straight up from the great white’s back, covered in slick, bloody water. The creature’s head grotesquely displayed its interior, courtesy of the homeowner’s gunshot, and its mouth hung open, spilling gore-stained bits of a dog and its own residual brain matter. Tom walked up to it slowly, almost as if he were afraid it could still attack him. He was face to face with the impossibility haunting his dreams, and he found himself struggling to accept it.
“Tom?” Amy said as she excused herself from the other people nearby. “I’m glad you could make it. I believe that this creature might be the one responsible for . . .”
The scream cut through the moist Florida air like a fire alarm. It came from down the beach, a few hundreds yards away. It was a woman’s voice.
“My God! Help me! Help me!”
Tom immediately took off for the woman, pulling his gun out as he ran. Olvery and a few of the other men followed.
When they reached the woman they found her cowering up against a tree. Her blouse had been torn and streaks of blood trickled down her face and arms. At first Tom thought she might have been the victim of an attempted rape or robbery but then he noticed the rutted trails slicked with seaweed and bits of what appeared to be pieces of some kind of tissue.
And the trails led away from the woman and straight into the water.
“Are you okay miss?”
The young lady was in shock and could only nod her head erratically.
Tom and Olvery helped her to her feet. The woman’s eyes reflected the horror she’d seen, but still refused to believe any of it. In her mind what had attacked her simply could not have been real.
Amy came running along the beach. She scooted right up to Tom and took the woman’s arm. “It’s all right honey,” she consoled. “We’ll get you to a hospital right away.”
Tom stood there, flanked by Olvery and two other men. He sauntered along the strange trails in the sand looking for any clues as to what might have caused them. And when he found the barbed stinger, courtesy of a large–sized stingray, embedded in the sand, slick with blood, he knew in his gut he’d uncovered what might have attacked the poor woman.
Amy looked back at Tom as she ushered the injured lady along. Tom scooped up the stinger in his hand and held it up for her to see. The shock on her face was matched only by her fear.
Olvery stepped up behind Tom, an expression of disbelief across his chiseled face. “Is that what I think it is?”
Tom sighed deeply. “Yeah, I’m afraid it is.”
“What does it all mean? How will people ever be able to go swimming again?”
Tom let a smile escape. “I for one am never going to go swimming again.”
Olvery nodded. “I still can’t believe that sharks are attacking people like this.”
“And that’s not all,” Tom added.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s not all. It isn’t just sharks. Barracudas, jellyfish, giant squid, you name it. They’re evolving, and much faster than anyone realizes. Much, much faster.” He glanced down at the bizarre trails leading into the water.
Olvery didn’t say another word.
Tom whirled around and threw the stinger back into the ocean. It landed in the water with a splash, and disappeared beneath the waves.
“Much, much faster,” he repeated as he turned and headed away from the beach. His mind was torn between the dangerous future mankind faced and what the going price for land was in Colorado, or Utah, or Kansas, or anywhere inland, far away from the ocean.
Jenny and Melissa giggled while playing with their dog on the beach. Their parents watched them from nearby lawn chairs, occasionally glancing past them towards the vast rolling waters of the Mediterranean. They didn’t notice the small, ugly fish slowly waddling towards the bare feet of the children, its sharp array of dorsal fins erect. The Stonefish’s reputation as one of the world’s most virulent animals was well deserved. Its venom could arrest a man’s heart in minutes.
The fish moved closer to the children with silent determination. Humans weren’t normally on its diet, but it was desperate. It hadn’t eaten in days.
The girls continued to play, unaware of the well-camouflaged fish now just inches away from them. They played and played and played, tossing a volleyball back and forth, enjoying the sunshine and the warm breeze in their hair.
And then Melissa felt an intensely sharp pain in her foot. |
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