Retracting my arms from the metal sleeves, I pushed up on the inside of my headgear. With a hiss, the upper torso of the dive suit gave way, separating from the lower half.

Sucking in a few breaths, I stood in the suit, shoulder-pressing the weight of the ADS's upper torso off my shoulders, then carefully laying it on the ground next to me in case I chose a hasty retreat.

Inhaling a dank breath of air, I climbed out of the lower half of the ADS, then snatched up my handheld light, scanning the perimeter.

The eels gurgled at me from the shadows, their bright eyes luminescent in my beam.

I was terrified and totally exposed. The air in the chamber was stale and acrid, making it almost impossible to breathe without coughing.

The light flickered and dimmed to half its remaining candlepower.

My blood seemed to chill within my veins.

The eels slithered toward me from the shadows.

I started choking uncontrollably, the chamber spinning in my head. Shining my handheld light on the broken backpack, I tore away a canister of air, holding it up to my face to breathe.

The Anguilla eels close to the water's edge scrambled for cover as the Guivre emerged from the river, its gruesome collection of teeth dripping lengths of saliva.

A thick coat of slime coated its head, mane, and serpent's neck, and in the dimming circle of light I saw the colors of the spectrum briefly shimmer.

Colors?

I inhaled deeply, confirming the heavy scent.

It was oil! And it was everywhere, dripping down from the ceiling, coating the river.

I searched the ground for the utility belt… where the hell was it? There, beneath the upper portion of the Newt Suit!

My light blinked off, and I desperately banged it, momentarily resuscitating the beam.

The monster's head rose higher, the creature using its forward pectoral fins to glide its snakelike torso from out of the stagnant waters, while the eels slithered out from the crags of rocks behind me!

I kicked bones and rock at one hissing eel as I tore a G-SHOK cylinder and cap from the belt. Snapping them together, I tossed the armed explosive at the stagnant pool of water, then ducked.

Wa-boosh!

A flash of white light, and then a wave of searing heat scorched my face as I was slammed backward against the rock face.

For a long moment I remained curled in a ball, my throbbing head ringing like a bell.

Get up, dipshit! Open your eyes!

I shook the cobwebs from my brain and sat up, choking on the thick air. Anguilla eels were darting this way and that, and through my blurred vision, I could see a few of their dark hides blazing in flames.

The pool of water was on fire, as was the ceiling, and the fissure above the collapsed section of tunnel on my far left belched blue flames.