“Aye, Captain.” Yegor glided in to about twenty feet from the sheer cliff, and then shut down the engines. He increased pressure in the ballast tanks, and Prusalka slowly rose in the black water.

Dmitry counted off the depths. “Coming up to four hundred feet, three hundred, two hundred, coming up to cliff edge.”

“Slow now, hover at the lip. I want to take a peek first,” Jack said.

Dmitry nodded, grinning. “A few small physical signatures, but nothing significant.”

“All clear, here,” Greg said quickly.

“Nothing as well.” Cate looked up.

“Clear and clear.” From both Abby and Mironov.

“Okay, ease us forward, Yegor. We’ll proceed at three-quarter speed; take us about an hour to get back to the drop area. We stay quiet, and we move fast.”

Cate felt herself sink back in her seat as the powerful propeller spun faster, giving them an extra kick under the dark water. After another few minutes, Jack re-engaged the front viewing lights.

“Nothing.” He frowned. “There’s nothing out there other than a few jellyfish. Where’s all that weird and wonderful life we saw on the way in?”

“Maybe the dunkleo-thingy scared everything off,” Abby said, slightly rising in her chair.

“Or we did,” Greg added.

“Maybe,” Jack said. “Coming up on drop zone. We’ll surface and hook straight up to the comm line. See if the engineers can give us some advice on the prop shielding.”

“Wait.” Cate craned towards her small screen. “Slow down, slow down… what’s that on the bottom, about fifty feet out on my side, um, I think at about forty degrees, starboard.”

They had passed by the object, but she was sure she had seen something that wasn’t there the first time. She got to her feet, as Jack eased the submersible around. Cate went and stood behind him.

“There was something on the bottom. Something, I think not… natural.”

“Yegor, slow to two knots; we’ll do a quick scan and...” Jack sprang forward. “Holy Christ!”

The first thing they saw was the bright red coveralls. The human body, or the remains of it, was missing its legs, and now hundreds of tiny creatures that looked like spindly scorpions feasted on the stumps. The tattered remnants of its clothing were ragged and burned.

Not far away was another body. This one, eyes wide and looking waxen, and anchored to the bottom by wrist-thick worms that had risen from the ooze, their heads buried deep into the dead flesh.

“The ground crew,” Cate said, barely above a whisper.

“My engineers,” Mironov added.

“Something really bad happened up there,” Cate put a hand over her mouth.

There was rubble everywhere, and the water began to become cloudy. Jack flicked on the spotlight, immediately revealing the twisted spiderweb of steel and cable.

“Oh god no,” Jack grimaced. “That’s our goddamn crane.”

“They’re all dead,” Abby said softly.