CHAPTER 34

The side cavern narrowed further, and she paused. She extended the tip of a long, serpentine arm deeper into the crack, into the increasing flow of water. Here, the particles in the current were dense, overwhelming. Tasting of waste, of life, of food. Elongating further directly into the flow, the arm tip made contact. Something was blocking the source of the outflow, but allowing water to pass through it.

Lightly, the tip of the complex appendage explored the obstruction. It was hard, encrusted in barnacles. But there were uniform openings in the heavy steel lattice, through which the water flowed.

She was intrigued by this concentrated scent of food, which drifted steadily toward her now in the light current. But the impulse that had driven her through life—hunger—had faded some, and was weak at the moment.

She moved farther into the deep crack, into total darkness. She had been here before. Into this side cavern. From the remains outside its opening, far below at the dark bottom of the main fissure, she knew this was a den frequently used in the past by her own kind. Others had dispelled waste material from this space many times over thousands of years, to sink to the bottom of the pit.

This place was not unlike the one she had been raised in, in which she had remained, devouring most of her siblings until she was strong enough to venture out and hunt the deep ocean. The current was ideal here, its steady flow bringing oxygen and freshwater. And the space was just adequate. It narrowed quickly, was compressed laterally, and the lack of extra space would make it easier to protect.

But for now, there was still nothing to protect. For now, she needed to satisfy her other, constant urge.

She manipulated her body, slowly turning it, and squeezed back out the mouth of the broad crack, into the main shaft of the fissure.

Her immense form nearly spanned the entire shaft as she rose toward the light above, snakelike arms trailing many yards behind her, toward the gaping mouth of the submarine pit. Then she emerged quietly from the gloom.