Page 60 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 3

The USS Salamander cut through the Atlantic toward the rendezvous point, effortlessly reaching speeds over one hundred miles an hour. The amphibious military research vessel could transition from sailing on the surface to gliding underwater within minutes, making it an ideal craft for espionage or hiding important discoveries from enemy nations.

The Salamander’s speed couldn’t be beaten, much of its technology adapted from plans acquired from their Atlantian allies. The two civilizations shared infrequently, but the merpeople appreciated trade with the United States and some exchanges had been made, according to the files Matteo had read.

From the comfort of the co-pilot’s chair on the bridge,Matteo glanced at a digital sea chart indicating their current position. His squad wasn’t due to rendezvous with the merwoman commander for another fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, but they’d made good time throughout the evening.

He already dreaded the encounter. The majority of his team’s recent jobs had been quelling paranormal incidents, putting down the occasional troll in a sewer, annihilating cannibalistic creatures in southern hill country, or investigating ghost legends along the rural borders of Mexico. They didn’t babysit scientists, and the brains tagging along for their mission had been giddy as children about meeting an Atlantian in person.

His squad, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about it, and that was just what Matteo wanted. He didn’t need anyone deviating from the mission and ogling their guest, given the significance of their precious cargo down in the laboratory freezer.

Fucking zombies.

“Yo! Got something on the sensors coming at us from the south and fast,” Newsome said, jerking Matteo’s attention back to the screen.

“That’s unusual. What’s it look like to you?”

“Not sure yet. Anti-projectile shield isn’t stopping it. It’s not a missile, not at that speed.”

“Target sighted,” Banks said from the gun console. “It appears to be some kind of…giant squid?”

“What?”Matteo jumped out of his seat and crossed the floor in a few steps. “You’re bullshitting me, I hope. Maybe it’s a missile disguised as a squid. There isn’t a marine creature capable of moving that quickly.”

“Actually, they’re pretty quick at that size, and if it’s some manner of creature from Atlantis, the truth is that we couldn’t begin to estimate its speed. There are dozens, if not hundreds of undocumented ocean creatures protected by their—”

“This isn’t the time for a lecture on marine biology, Banks. If that thing is a danger to us, take it down.”

“Could be a friendly—”

“Would a friendly fucking creature zip through the water at us without a radio transmission forewarning its arrival first? Take it down.”

“Yes, sir. Firing on one,” Banks said, taking ahold of the targeting system. He counted down, and on one, released a missile that should have reduced their underwater stalker to bloody jelly.

The beast rolled and dove, evading the missile before putting on an insane burst of speed. The squid closed in on them as two additional blips appeared on the screen. The force of the crash shook Matteo off balance, though he regained his footing instead of falling to the floor.

Though their movement appeared unhindered, a red warning flashed across one of the displays. Their rear propeller had malfunctioned, causing the auxiliary to activate.“Second projectile on our six. Brace yourselves!” Newsome cried.

Banks remained at his station and switched to guns, though it did no good. Despite a hundred high-velocity rounds clipping through the aggressive marine animals, they crashed into the Salamander’s propeller. Bits of tentacle and blood clouded the water.

“What the fuck? Why aren’t the shields working?”

“They areworking. They automatically activate against offensive artillery attacks, not organic. Shoot a missile at this ship, it’ll deflect it. That’s not a missile though. These are fucking animals.”

Matteo moved squinted through the haze of blood and saw what he was searching for. “It’s not just an animal. It’s the Gloom.”

Assomething rippled across the sensors, fear tightened El’s gut and put her on the defensive. She tapped out a few commands on the dash and raised the sensitivity of the scanners monitoring her surroundings.

Her sensors picked up theGloom due west, a mass of abominations converging on a stationary object her display read as both Atlantian and human in design, likely one of the new stealth vessels their technicians had helped the humans develop. Swearing under her breath, she amped up the speed and zipped toward them. Several giant squids had wrapped around the craft, gumming up the propellers and disabling it.

The distress call reached her moments later, but she was already in action, hurtling toward the direction of the vessel due north of her. Fingers on the triggers, she unleashed a volley of precise bursts toward the squid entangled in their starboard propeller, releasing what remained of it. Her vessel skimmed over the water, passed them while shooting her portside guns, and spun on the water. A cohesive unit of six armed men fought on the deck, pushing back the monsters swarming to overtake them.

“Just hold on a little longer, boys,” she said, taking aim at the final squid locked into the rear propeller blades. One missile dislodged it, and as its body slipped away into darkness, El grabbed her spear from overhead and jabbed the ejection button.

It launched her from the coral glider at an angle toward the submersible vessel’s deck, the surface slick with sea and blood.As long as they were sitting ducks, they didn’t have a chance, and that meant she had to take care of it for them.

Their guns weren’t doing a thing against the creatures spilling over the rails of their ship onto the deck. Bullets penetrated their tough hides and splattered hemocyanin across the deck, but none of the rounds broke through the impenetrable exoskeletons.To make matters worse, the larger ones carried hitchhikers, like a combination of tick and crab, with hard and bulbous bodies and wicked pinching claws that scuttled at them faster than angry chihuahuas.

“The small ones have a weak spot!” Banks shouted. “Aim for the fucking joint between the head and thorax.”

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