Up From The Deep by Vaughn Jackson (highly recommended books txt) 📕

how much time had passed, but she imagined she must have been staring off in thought for a while for him to come and check up on her. He poured a small amount of clear liquid into the petri dish. A sharp burning smell wafted through the air. More acid.

“Huh?” she said, blinking. “Hey!”

He held up a hand. “Your sample is fine, look.”

The new cells that had formed during observation dissolved away, but the original tissue remained. As soon as the pungent odor had appeared, it vanished. Skylar mentally marked that down as another oddity.

“When we first got the sample, it had been frozen. Imagine our surprise when, during transport, it began to re-grow. Fast.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this. I mean, starfish, and some lizards, but that takes time; this is insane.”

“Is that your best scientific assessment?” he chuckled.

“Is that your best attempt at a joke?” she snapped.

His mouth snapped shut and his shoulders slumped. “You’re right, that was in bad taste. I’m sure this is fascinating, and hard to process. Trying to ease the tension, mostly.” His mouth twitched like he wanted to smile but was keeping himself from doing so.

“The thing is, the regeneration has no point,” she said.

“I would think it’s a survival mechanism,” he offered.

Skylar squinted at him. “Another joke?”

His mouth opened a minute and he returned her confused look. “Yes? Maybe? Depending on what you say next, I guess.”

“That’s not how jokes work. But no, what I meant was that the regeneration has no order. Starfish can regrow limbs specifically. Lizards, tails. This is just random tissue growing into more random tissue.”

“What does that mean?”

“In theory, as fast as this tissue regrows...this creature is unkillable. Immortal, even.” She wasn’t sure which of her emotions showed more on her face, fear or excitement, but she could see the terror on the other doctor’s face.

“Everything has a weak point though, right?” His eyes were darting around, looking for something.

“Like I said, in theory. What I can say though is that it won’t be easy to put it down if we have to. That is what we are researching, right? How to kill the giant monster.”

Kurtis gripped the glass acid container so tightly Skylar worried it might shatter and burn off his hand. She reached out and gently took the beaker from his hand, placing it safely in a holder. “Are you okay, Dr. Wagner?”

Her question snapped him out of whatever internal conflict he was having. “Oh. Yeah, right. Do you want to see the creature?” His gold eyes flicked to the door, lingered for a moment, then settled back on her with a pleading look.

“Of course,” she said. “I wanted to see if I could determine what type of creature it was first but given these results...I would like to see the owner of the tooth.” She gave a small smile. Whatever it was he was worrying about, she had a feeling he would use this opportunity to tell her. At least that’s what she hoped.

He gestured for her to follow him to the back of the room. The other people went about their business as they passed. A woman sat behind a computer, her glasses reflecting the green on black image of a terminal. Her eyes flicked up and Skylar made her best attempt at trying to act like she hadn’t been staring.

As they reached the back of the room, Skylar realized something she hadn’t before. A wall of thick glass separated the monitors from the rest of the lab. A dark-skinned man in a black suit watched them approach from behind blue aviator lenses.

“Jason,” Kurtis said. “Gonna show the newbie our beastie.”

“You know I have to go in with you.” His voice vibrated in Skylar’s chest like the bass at a dance concert.

“About that, we were gonna watch the roar, so I understand if you don’t want to.”

“Shit man, I hate that sound. So loud...and my wife’s already getting on at me about fucking up my hearing.” He lowered his sunglasses and glanced between the two of them. “Damn, just don’t tell Ming, alright? And be quick about it.”

“You got it, man.” Kurtis held up his fist.

Jason frowned at him, sucked his teeth, and said, “Get your ass in there.”

Skylar pushed Kurtis into the room to spare herself any further secondhand embarrassment. The door sealed behind them with an audible hiss.

“Soundproof,” Kurtis said, “because some of the videos get a little loud. We can talk in relative privacy here. Just keep looking at the screen. It’s interesting enough anyway.” He walked over to a panel on the wall, and the lights dimmed. All twenty-five monitors, five by five, changed to the same blank screen. A crystal-clear video appeared; one massive image split across all the screens. Skylar remarked at the video quality.

“I’m sure you know this, but most of us are not here by choice.”

“Yeah.”

The video showed the ocean, waves cresting and crashing. A shadow appeared beneath the waves, a great black spot that twisted and writhed with the sea. The carcass of a whale breached the surface, staining the water a deep, churning red. Great angry scars wrapped around the blue-grey flesh as the water mixed and frothed with the blood. Birds flocked around, landing on and pecking at what to them appeared as a free meal. She could hear the whale’s wounded call, almost drowned out by the celebratory caws of the sea birds.

“Do you know who these people are?” he asked.

“Not the FBI?” she said.

“No. I’ve tried asking Jason, but he gets pretty tight lipped about it. I do know that the ‘agent’ is in charge.”

“Gathered that. What are we doing here?”

A second, larger shadow appeared beneath the whale. Skylar felt her breath catch in her chest. Three rows of teeth emerged on either side of the whale carcass and snapped together like a bear-trap in slow motion. The razor-sharp teeth tore through the sea mammal’s flesh like it was butter, severing it into two parts. Skylar gasped. The head attached