The bone-chilling water, combined with his soaked clothing, were zapping Justin's strength. Through blurred vision he saw Amber fall overboard, the now-empty Zodiac left to cut wide circles across the surface.

Pathetic. Okay, boat first, then Amber…

He kicked for the vessel, never hearing the whines and yelps from the deer, his heart skipping a beat at Amber's bloodcurdling scream.

"Amber?" Justin stopped swimming and spun to his left. Through the fog-laced surface he saw something dark and massive breach a half dozen boat lengths away, rolling and twisting in a frenzy of movement that whipped icy water and warm fleshy shrapnel at his face.

A column of deer swam past him, whimpering and gasping with their exertion.

Justin tried to move, but couldn't, not until the attack ended with one final heavy splash.

The silence that followed was petrifying.

With trembling hand, Justin touched his forehead, smearing away gobs of blood and bone fragments.

"Amber…"

The whine of the approaching Zodiac grew louder, snapping him into action. Justin swam as hard as he could, then lunged for the passing water craft, his chest bouncing off the inflatable's side, his fingers managing to catch the raft's trim line.

Too weak to pull himself on board, Justin managed to loop his wrists around the rope, his weight counterbalancing the Zodiac's trajectory.

The motorized raft raced away, towing its semiconscious passenger along with it.

I'm fifty-nine years old, lived here all my life. When I was fourteen, we had a local farm, down here at Drumnadrochit. My late brother and late mother were in the car with me, and we were headed to Inverness. I was looking out at the Loch, its surface flat and calm, when I yelled, "Stop the car!" My brother stopped, and we all saw this huge commotion right in the center of the Loch, just opposite Aldourie Castle. The monster was gray-brown, and massive, the size of a bus. It flipped over, just flipped right over like that, crashing down. You could see it, and the waves from that point were about three feet high and ebbed to each side of the Loch.

—RONALD MACKINTOSH, RETIRED SALESMAN

I was making a routine road report call to my office using the AA box at Brackla when I turned and saw, across the water and a few hundred yards out, a head and neck and broad humped body moving from side to side. It was something out of this world, as if a dinosaur had reared up out of the Loch. After seeing it, I swore never again to venture out on Loch Ness in a small boat.

—HAMISH MACKINTOSH, AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION PATROLMAN, 2 FEBRUARY 1959

Chapter 19

I am soaring through darkness, the world deaf and silent. I am underwater… entering a cave. I am floating. Free.

Below me lies the body of a man, stretched out on jagged rock. Naked and broken. A lifeless soul. I hover closer.

It is me.

"No! No!"