He’d counted fifteen cultists so far. They seemed human. Mostly. There were probably more, and somebody had to be in the wheelhouse trying to steer the boat through the storm. They’d formed a circle, and a larger figure moved between them, giving directions to aid in their summoning spell. Franks tried to keep track of that one, but he couldn’t get a good angle through the air holes. There was a brief view of legs ending in goat hooves, and then the demon was out of sight. He caught the stink of sulfur before the storm tore it away.

“Target acquired,” he said, not even knowing if his radio signal would reach through the wood and weather.

“Copy.” Special Agent Myers’ voice was barely discernible through the static. “The USS Cheyenne is shadowing you. Bravo Team is on a Coast Guard cutter heading for your position. ETA ten minutes.”

The waves had taken on a strange rhythm that matched the fevered chanting of the cultists. He had seen enough black magic rituals to know where this was going. They didn’t have ten minutes. “Requesting permission to engage.”

His superior sighed. “Why do you even bother to ask when I know you’re going to anyway?”

“Protocol.”

“Hold on. . . . I’m being told there’s seismic activity directly beneath your position. We’ve got something on satellite. There’s a thermal bloom at the ocean floor. They’ve woken something up . . . Dear Lord! It’s huge. Stop that ritual, Agent Franks. Stop it now!”

Myers’ command was the best thing he’d heard all night. “Yes, sir.”

Someone began bellowing orders, far louder than the cultists’ chanting. “It is time, brothers! The leviathan is coming.” The demon that was providing the cult their black magic intel was his target. Take it out, and these morons wouldn’t be able to boss around a shoggoth, let alone a great sea beast capable of devouring whole cities. “Let there be light so that we may look upon his glory.” Brilliant beams shined through the holes of the crate as the cultists turned on several big spotlights. “Gather the virgin for sacrifice. Hurry, brothers! Spill the virgin’s blood upon the circle with the sacred blade so that the leviathan may witness our devotion.”

During the raid, he’d found a female tied up and drugged, loaded in a crate in the back of a truck. He’d figured she had been meant for something like this. Even though he’d been injured and had used up all his ammo on cultists, Franks knew it was his best chance to find his target, so he’d dumped the girl, taken her place, and then ordered his men to fall back enough to let the cultists escape. Sure enough, a minute later a bunch of losers who stunk of fish and Elder Things had piled in and they’d been on their way to the docks.