“Good news,” Beth said. “The surface is okay.”

Norman was staring at the screen, thinking about the fact that sunlight was recorded. He had never longed for sunlight before. It was funny, what you took for granted. Now the thought of seeing sunlight struck him as unbelievably pleasurable. He could imagine no greater joy than to see sun and clouds, and blue sky.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking I can’t wait to get out of here.”

“Me, too,” Beth said. “But it won’t be long now.”

Pong! pong! pong! pong!

Norman was checking Harry, and he spun at the sound. “What is it, Beth?”

Pong! pong! pong! pong!

“Take it easy,” Beth said, at the console. “I’m just figuring out how to work this thing.”

Pong! pong! pong! pong!

“Work what?”

“The side-scanning sonar. False-aperture sonar. I don’t know why they call it ‘false-aperture.’ Do you know what that refers to, ‘false-aperture’?”

Pong! pong! pong! pong!

“No, I don’t,” Norman said. “Turn it off, please.” The sound was unnerving.

“It’s marked ‘FAS,’ which I think stands for ‘false-aperture sonar,’ but it also says ‘side- scanning.’ It’s very confusing.”

“Beth, turn it off!”

Pong! pong! pong! pong!

“Sure, of course,” Beth said.

“Why do you want to know how to work that, anyway?” Norman said. He felt irritable, as if she’d intentionally annoyed him with that sound.

“Just in case,” Beth said.

“In case what, for Christ’s sake? You said yourself that Harry’s unconscious. There aren’t going to be any more attacks.”

“Take it easy, Norman,” Beth said. “I want to be prepared, that’s all.”

0720 HOURS

He couldn’t talk her out of it. She insisted on going outside and wiring the explosives around the ship. It was an absolutely fixed idea in her mind.

“But why, Beth?” he kept saying.

“Because I’ll feel better after I do it,” she said.

“But there isn’t any reason to do it.”

“I’ll feel better if I do,” she insisted, and in the end he couldn’t stop her.

He saw her now, a small figure with a single glowing light from her helmet, moving from one crate of explosives to another. She opened each crate and removed large yellow cones which looked rather like the cones that highway repair trucks used. These cones were wired together, and when the wiring was completed a small red light glowed at the tip.

He saw small red lights all up and down the length of the ship. It made him uneasy.

When she left, he had said to her, “But you won’t wire up the explosives near the habitat.”

“No, Norman. I won’t.”

“Promise me.”

“I told you, I won’t. If it’s going to upset you, I won’t.”

“It’s going to upset me.”

“Okay, okay.”

Now the red lights were strung along the length of the ship, starting at the dimly visible tail, which rose out of the coral bottom. Beth moved farther north, toward the rest of the unopened crates.

Norman looked at Harry, who snored loudly but who remained unconscious. He paced back and forth in D Cyl, and then went to the monitors.

The screen blinked.

  I AM COMING.

Oh God, he thought. And in the next moment he thought, How can this be happening? It can’t be happening. Harry was still out cold. How could it be happening?

 I AM COMING FOR YOU.

“Beth!”

Her voice sounded tinny on the intercom.

“Yes, Norman.”

“Get the hell out of there.”

DO NOT BE AFRAID , the screen said.

“What is it, Norman?” she said.

“I’m getting something on the screen.”

“Check Harry. He must be waking up.”

“He’s not. Get back here, Beth.”

 I AM COMING NOW.

“All right, Norman, I’m heading back,” she said.

“Fast, Beth.”

But he didn’t need to say that; already he could see her light bouncing as she ran across the bottom. She was at least a hundred yards from the habitat. He heard her breathing hard on the intercom.

“Can you see anything, Norman?”

“No, nothing.” He was straining to look toward the horizon, where the squid had always appeared. The first thing had always been a green glow on the horizon. But he saw no glow now.

Beth was panting.

“I can feel something, Norman. I feel the water… surging… strong…”

The screen flashed:

 I WILL KILL YOU.

“Don’t you see anything out here?” Beth said.

“No. I don’t see anything at all.” He saw Beth, alone on the muddy bottom. Her light the solitary focus of his attention.

“I can feel it, Norman. It’s close. Jesus God. What about the alarms?”

“Nothing, Beth.”

“Jesus.” Her breath came in hissing gasps as she ran. Beth was in good shape, but she couldn’t exert herself like that in this atmosphere. Not for long, he thought. Already he could see she was moving more slowly, the helmet lamp bobbing more slowly.

“Norman?”

“Yes, Beth. I’m here.”

“Norman, I don’t know if I can make it.”

“Beth, you can make it. Slow down.”

“It’s here, I can feel it.”

“I don’t see anything, Beth.”

He heard a rapid sharp clicking sound. At first he thought it was static on the line, and then he realized it was her teeth chattering as she shivered. With this exertion she should be getting overheated, but instead she was getting cold. He didn’t understand.

“-cold, Norman.”

“Slow down, Beth.”

“Can’t-talking-close-”

She was slowing down, despite herself. She had come into the area of the habitat lights, and she was no more than ten yards from the hatch, but he could see her limbs moving slowly, clumsily.

And now at last he could see something swirling the muddy sediment behind her, in the darkness beyond the lights. It was like a tornado, a swirling cloud of muddy sediment. He couldn’t see what was inside the cloud, but he sensed the power within it.

“Close-Nor-”

Beth stumbled, fell. The swirling cloud moved toward her.

 I WILL KILL YOU NOW.

Beth got to her feet, looked back, saw the churning cloud bearing down on her. Something about it filled Norman with a deep horror, a horror from childhood, the stuff of nightmares.

“Normannnnnn…”

Then Norman was running, not really knowing what he was going to do, but propelled by the vision he had seen, thinking only that he had to do something, he had to take some action, and he went through B into A and looked at his suit but there wasn’t time and the black water in the open hatch was spitting and swirling and he saw Beth’s gloved hand below the surface, flailing, she was right there beneath him, and she was the only other one, and without thinking he jumped into the black water and went down.

The shock of the cold made him want to scream; it tore at his lungs. His whole body was instantly numb, and he felt a second of hideous paralysis. The water churned and tossed him like a great wave; he was powerless to fight it; his head banged on the underside of the habitat. He could see nothing at all.

He reached for Beth, throwing his arms blindly in all directions. His lungs burned. The water spun him in circles, upended him.

He touched her, lost her. The water continued to spin him. He grabbed her. Something. An arm. He was already losing feeling, already feeling slower and stupider. He pulled. He saw a ring of light above him: the hatch. He kicked his legs but he did not seem to move. The circle came no closer.

He kicked again, dragging Beth like a dead weight. Perhaps she was dead. His lungs burned. It was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. He fought the pain, and he fought the angry churning water and he kept kicking toward the light, that was his only thought, to kick to the light, to come closer to the light, to reach the light, the light, the light…