The pod’s bay doors slowly rotated into place.

I shook in fear, feeling the ground reverberating beneath me as Momma Plesiosaur approached.”

“‘Take up the slack, Ashlynn. Take it up now!”

A long moment’s delay, then my head raised and the pod lifted off the ground. I waited until the hydraulic lock sealed the compartment shut before I peered out the glass using the helmet’s night vision.

We were rising quickly, swaying some seventy feet off the ground when the monster suddenly appeared in the darkness below and leaped for the pod, nearly stopping my heart. I couldnae make oot Momma Plesiosaur’s features, but her skull was as long as my body and her nostril big and round and it came within a bairn’s breath of striking the pod. When she hit the river, the splash flung muddy water ontae the glass.

I laid back inside the SAM suit and removed the helmet, my pulse pounding. “Ashlynn, any word from Zachary?”

“Not yet, but he’s alive. We’re registering pulses from all three of the crew on their ECU jumpsuits.”

“Thank the Lord.”

“True, did you see it?”

“See whit, lass?”

“I thought maybe you saw the biologic; it was fairly close to you.”

“Sorry, darlin’, maybe next time.”

Water and ice flowed past the window, signifying the beginning of my ascent. That’s when my mind started thinkin’.

I ken I could git the egg back tae the dome, but how could I git it tae Scotland? It’d have tae be smuggled oot of Antarctica and taken back tae the U.K. in a private charter. The job called fer someone who was resourceful, devious, and lacking in all morals.”

“Ashlynn, is it possible tae make a phone call from yer command post when I return?”

“I just might be able to arrange that. Who are you calling—not your wife?”

“No rings on these fingers, darlin’. No, it’s a business call. I need tae speak wi’ Angus Wallace, Zachary’s father.”

16

… Dr. Wallace, Captain Hintzmann, please respond. Vostok Command to Dr. Liao, Dr. Wallace, Captain Hintzmann, please respond…

The voice was muffled in a subconscious encased in sand. Gradually, the grains dropped away, and the voice grew louder until its persistence became maddening, an irritant demanding my attention.

I opened my eyes, confused by the brightness of the LED lights and the cool air blowing on my face.

“This is Vostok Command. Dr. Liao, Dr. Wallace, Captain Hintzmann, please respond.”

My arms and legs were down there somewhere, refusing to cooperate as my mind tried to convince me to hit the snooze button.

Then an explosion of sound shocked me out of my paralysis.

Before I could test my new-found limbs, a concussion wave swept the submersible up in its vortex and flung me out of my seat.