The Deep Read Online Free Page B

real.”
    It didn’t seem real . Luke understood that. He’d felt the exact same way the day his son had gone missing.
    “I’m so sorry, Leo.”
    Leo sawed his palm across his nose. “It’s all percentages, Doc. Life is percentages. When Mona came down with it, hardly anyone had gotten the ’Gets. Less than 1 percent of the population. But that’s the thing about percentages—no matter how small, they’ve got to affect someone, right? After Mona passed I sold the house, packed up, and caught on as a commercial boat captain. When the ’Gets started spreading, a few guys at my company started ferrying supplies to the Hesperus .”
    Luke said: “Is that what I am, then? Supplies?”
    Leo smiled. “The work keeps my head straight. I like to think I’m doing a bit of good here. When your brother went down . . . I’m not a religious man, but I prayed he’d find answers. Not for me. The one it could’ve helped is gone from my life. But I harbor that hope all the same.”
    The marine band radio squawked.
    “What’s your ETA, Bathgate?” someone asked.
    Leo consulted his monitors and then keyed the mike. “This is Bathgate. Thirteen hours, twenty-two minutes. Over.”
    “Bump it up .” A prolonged silence. “Something has surfaced from the Trieste . It’s . . . Is Dr. Nelson with you now?”
    “He’s right beside me. Over.”
    “What’s surfaced is . . . You better get here as soon as you can manage .”
    A knot—something as hard and sticky as clay—twisted in Luke’s stomach.
    “I’ll go full bore, then. Bathgate out.”
    Leo adjusted his controls. The turbines churned. The yacht surged.
    “Home again, home again,” Leo sang. “Jiggedy jig.”

8.
    THE HESPERUS HOVERED against the horizon, holding its position against the rising sun.
    God of the Evening Star—Venus. That’s what Hesperus meant in Greek, Luke had been told. But it was frequently mistranslated in Latin as Phosphorus . Namely, Lucifer. Of all the names in creation, why risk that invocation?
    There wasn’t anything especially demonic about the Hesperus . The research station looked a lot like an offshore oil rig. It sat atop the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in any ocean. The trench went down six miles—the same distance to reach the top of Mount Everest. And Luke’s brother was two miles below that, in the heart of a narrower fissure called Challenger Deep.
    The Hesperus floated on huge nitrogen-filled bladders. Each one can shoulder ten tons, Leo had told Luke earlier. The Hesperus floats on thousands of those things.
    Its sheer enormity was staggering. Though squat—most of its structures were only a single story—the station sprawled across the water like a raucous frontier town. Ten thousand metric tons of low-slung architecture, salt-whitened scaffolding, and waterproof storage canisters. Dozens of ships were moored around it like moons ringing a planet.
    Leo said: “Impressive, huh? That’s what happens when a bunch of first-world countries toss their moolah in a big pot.”
    “It is amazing,” Luke said.
    “Not half as amazing as what’s happening down below.”
    A shiver cat-walked up Luke’s spine. They were now floating above the Trieste —above Clayton. And Luke would be down with his brother soon enough.
    Something has surfaced . . . get here as soon as you can manage .
    Leo nosed the yacht alongside the Hesperus and docked neat as a pin. By the time Luke had gathered his belongings and returned topside, stationed soldiers in camouflage fatigues had swung a gangplank into position.
    Who the hell wears camouflage on the ocean? Luke wondered.
    “Should we go?” he asked Leo.
    “Not me, Doc. All this”—Leo nodded at the soldiers—“is above my pay grade.”
    How long had Luke known Leo? No more than a few hours. Seemed much longer. He wanted Leo to come with him, pay grades be damned. But he could only shake his hand. “Pleasure meeting you. Thanks for the lift. And the