“Roger,” came Jaim’s voice. “Wow. Big sucker! Would you look at that!”

Michaela craned her neck to peer down the irregular slope as the bottom dropped off into the indigo depths below. The creature rose from the shadowy deep, body elongated, but thicker in front. As it came near, she could finally make out its form. If she had to draw an analogy to a terrestrial creature, the three giant claws made her think of a lobster—but one without legs and made up of three armored backs conjoined along the ventral axis. Three eyes, each on a stalk behind its claw, nasty tripartite mandibles that clicked and gnashed around the central mouth. More to the point, the creature had to be a good forty meters in length, the claws measuring a meter and half from tip to hinge.

“Pus-sucking son of a bitch,” Casey whispered as the thing floated up to within a couple meters of the transparency.

Michaela’s mouth had gone dry, her heart hammering in her chest. She fixed on the closest of the eyes, a dark and gleaming orb. It might have been peering right through her soul. She ignored the frantic calls from the Pod, like everyone was yelling over everyone else.

“If that thing attacks . . .” Casey said hoarsely. “Shoot it, Michaela. Right now. While you’ve got the chance.”

“I . . .” She swallowed hard. Damn it, the thing was as big around as the sub. If the torpedo didn’t kill it . . . She accessed the firing control through her implant, her breath coming in hard pants. What the hell should she do? Some part of her brain was screaming: Too close! The detonation will destroy the sub!

“We’re leaving!” Varina’s panicked voice came through com. “Surface! Surface now!”

“Varina! No, wait!”

But it was too late. To Michaela’s dismay, through the hydrophones she could hear Varina’s sub blowing ballast.

Before Michaela could react to the movement, the thing shot past with incredible speed; its passage knocked the sub sideways with enough force to slam her viciously in the seat restraints. The last she remembered was the bang, lightning shooting through her head as it hit the monitor beside her. And a descending gray mist that . . .

46

Varina gasped when the great three-clawed apparition hit Michaela and Casey’s sub. From the way both monster and yellow sub bounced off each other—not mention the audible bang—it had to be quite a bump. Just the sight of the thing defied belief. Three claws, three carapaces that faded into segmented rows of armored plates running down the length of the tail. But most of all, those outlandish eyes on their stalks and the central mouth with its three triskelion-oriented mandibles.