Before we could fathom where we were, we found our vessel being squeezed by internal esophageal muscles that bulged and prodded and clenched the submersible in an attempt to stymie our resistance.

Before we could sanely deal with our insane situation, the Valkyrie lasers scorched the stomach lining and evaporated the creature’s digestive organs—along with blood, arteries, sinew, all of it—as the Barracuda exploded out of our would-be killer’s new arse.

The entire journey lasted seconds.

The three of us yelled and laughed and whooped it up, leaving behind thirty tons of writhing, gurgling sushi for the monster’s two orphaned goliaths to consume—Only the creatures ignored their dying parent and came after us.

Ben quickly maneuvered the sub back into the current and accelerated. “I’m pushing thirty knots and can’t seem to lose them. Suggestions?”

Before I could reply we heard a metallic pop at the ship’s tailfin.

“We just lost our umbilical cord,” Ming announced.

My gaze shifted nervously from the sonar array to my monitor, the real-time images coming from the Barracuda’s aft camera. The night-vision lens had a restricted field of view and showed open water, but my sonar painted the two creatures as they independently swooped in and out from the perimeter, riding the current like dolphins as they gauged how best to attack their fleeing prey without getting seared by our laser’s afterburners.

“Doc, we got a serious problem. Losing the umbilical means we’re self-contained. If I don’t shut down the Valkyries soon, there won’t be enough juice left to make the ascent.”

“Do it.”

Ming’s voice crackled over our headphones. “I think that should be my decision, Zachary.”

“Actually, it’s mine,” Ben said, powering down the lasers.

Sensing the threat was gone, the two beasts grew more aggressive. Surfing the current, they attempted to snatch us in their awful jaws, each attempt inching closer to our hull.

“Doc, I can’t hold them off!”

My mind raced. They should have backed off by now. Why aren’t they tiring? Oh, hell. “Ben, get us out of this current. We need to wear them out.”

He pulled back hard on his joystick, bringing us up and out of the river flow.

Propelled by the seventeen-knot current, the two eels shot past us. I picked them up on sonar six hundred yards to the north, registering the disturbance as they left the flow to reengage the hunt.

Ben wasted no time in changing course, taking us on a westerly heading at twenty-five knots.

The creatures pursued us for close to two minutes before the costly expenditure of energy forced them to give up the chase. They faded into white noise as they headed south, no doubt to feed upon the remains of their mother.

“We lost them.”

“Thank God. So that’s what you dealt with in Loch Ness?”