The glow that fell into the water from the hangar made it impossible to see anything. At this depth darkness still remained. Somewhere under the water, it’s swimming very close – the profondosaurus. Its presence was felt. The captain experienced a strange sensation. Something was wrong. The water did not splash, maintaining a strange state in the form of a perfectly smooth coating. Not a single wave. What was it? The result of gamma radiation? Or it?

Sitting in the bathyscaphes, they looked at the captain, who first wished a happy ascent with a gesture, and then ordered them not to delay the dive.

Henry pressed the release button and the bathyscaphe rolled down the rail ramp into the pool. Second by second, the bathyscaphe sank, going deeper and deeper into the water. Until the very last moment, Henry and Kayla looked at the captain, until a horizontal strip of water blocked their view. The first bathyscaph sank into the water. Morgan pressed the button and the second device rolled down the rail ramp, plopping into the hangar pool. Giving the direction of the bathyscaphe, Morgan carried out the command that he gave to himself: «Ten-hut! There is an officer on deck!» Having not served a single day in the army, the ichthyologist followed the example of the first mate and also saluted Captain Luther de Bont. Only after disappearing under the water did Morgan align the bathyscaphe with the submarine, turning towards the bow.

The captain glanced at the crew members and pressed the button to close the pool. But something went wrong. The gateway began to close, when suddenly Captain De Bont noticed something flashing under the water, and at one moment something resembling the tip of a black fin, several human fingers thick, jumped out. After a few more seconds, something under the water produced an action, a movement of the tail fin, which pushed a powerful fountain of water into the hangar.

Knocked down, the captain hurriedly ran to the central compartment.

It twirled around the alien’s body as if performing a dance, moving so tightly that its shell was almost pressed against the alien. The profondosaurus was ready to embrace Amphibia as a lover. It circled around the stern, feeling serene, energized, charged and blind to everything. The stern of the submarine became the center of the universe for the monster, the source of life. Gamma radiation turned into a stream of voices that beckoned and begged not to leave. But it wasn’t going to. It is ready to stay close until the end of time.

What was it? It seemed to him that the stranger was a female. Something flashed past the right eye, which was still forty percent sighted. The profondosaurus sank a little deeper and looked under the female’s belly. It didn’t seem to him. She just gave birth to two cubs. He couldn’t allow strangers to breed here. This was his territory and he must defend it at all costs. And this is an attractive radiation. Perhaps it began to occur with the onset of labor and now it can be interrupted? It must be assumed that somewhere now a male is wandering in search of the female. If this is true, then it could appear at any moment. He needs to be ready. In the meantime, it is necessary to get rid of the cubs.

On the instrument panel in the bathyscaphe there was a display that transmitted images from a night vision camera installed in the tail. The flashing mouth of the profondosaurus appeared on the screen.

Without shouting anything, without raising unnecessary panic, Henry and Morgan followed the captain’s instructions. First, they unhooked the ballasts in the form of lead plates, which significantly reduced the total mass of the apparatus, and, as a result, the water began to push an object to the surface whose mass turned out to be significantly less than its own. The bathyscaphes rushed upward sharply. Kayla felt something creaking beneath the bottom, and less than a second later the bathyscaphe, like crazy, began to take off like a Shuttle, causing her to let out hysterical screams. With every cell of her body, she felt how she was literally sucked into the chair and her hips were pressed against the seat upholstery more and more tightly as the device accelerated its vertical movement. The ascent speed reached twelve meters per second.

The profondosaurus actively worked with its entire skeleton, noticeably shortening the distance. As he approached the first target, he opened his seven-meter-long mouth with sharpened teeth. Morgan noticed how the image in the night vision camera began to sink into the mouth of the profondosaurus until it turned into a black spot, and a second later he noticed how the ends of the gaping mouth began to appear along the sides. The first mate sharply pulled the steering wheel and steered the bathyscaphe to the side. The profondosaurus’s jaws slammed shut, biting through the water. Morgan and Hector heard the monster’s teeth grating tangentially along the body of the device, creating the effect of a crazy grinding sound that made them want to cover their ears with both hands, which is why Morgan almost released the steering wheel. Slipping out of the monster’s mouth at the last moment, the bathyscaphe rocked slightly. Having barely touched the target, the profondosaurus rushed forward with even greater speed.

The lungs were working to the limit, pumping oxygen at full capacity. Their performance has already begun to decline under the influence of gamma radiation, although this has not yet been clearly noticeable. Everything was still ahead. Captain De Bont increased the trim on the bow to forty degrees and set full speed, plunging back into the depths of the Atlantic.

In the absolute darkness of the Atlantic waters, death followed them.

Top! Top! Top!

In the moments when you expect to see your end, every second floats by like a bottomless eternity, stretching out the painful anticipation of your death as much as possible in time.

TOP!!! TOP!!! TOP!!!

And with every step this sound of an approaching threat becomes stronger.

The first mate has already escaped the monster’s open mouth four times with a slight movement of the helm. Morgan and Hector began to believe that no one was waiting for them in heaven today. They managed to escape from danger, but were late for the flight that was about to go to heaven. They will have to return their tickets and postpone their departure to infinity for an indefinite period. Three times they were on the verge, allowing the predator to lick the body of the bathyscaphe with its sharp teeth.

And he was pretty tired of it!

The profondosaurus made a sharp turn, bending to the limit as far as its own skeleton allowed, after which it unclenched like a spring and its giant tail cut through the water, slapping the bathyscaphe. The blow hit the starboard side.

Henry and Kayla surfaced almost level with the second device. It was dark in the depths. But they still managed to see something in the faint glimpses and reflections of metal objects that fell under the edges of the glow emanating from the spotlights. They caught a glimpse of the edge of the monster’s tail. Explosion of bubbles. Scattered wreckage. And then, at the very edge of the spotlight, traces of a cloud of blood and fragments of human bodies appeared, which were first hit by the tail fin of the profondosaurus, and after the destruction of the bathyscaphe gondola were flattened by the excessive pressure of the water.

– COME ON!!! – Captain De Bont shouted at the top of his voice, leading the Amphibia into the depths. He increased the distance and hoped that the monster was about to return to him for radiation, like a gazelle returning to a pasture where a cheetah was waiting for it. In the meantime, the cheetah is desperately trying to sink to the bottom.

The center of gravity shifted, causing the bathyscaphe to slowly rotate during its ascent. The spotlights swung their light around without encountering any objects. The night vision camera located in the tail was also blind.

– Wh… where is it? – Kayla repeated, clinging to the seat belts with both hands.

The engineer focused on the review. Not noticing any movement around, he guessed out loud:

– It is possible that the source of radiation began to move away significantly and it returned to depth.

Kayla always knew that when words like «possibly», «not excluded», «maybe» and everything like that are heard, it means no worth to believe a single word. Otherwise, you should relax, and all the assumed probability collapses like a house of cards, and life turns into a solid thriller: you should breathe a sigh of relief, when suddenly…

Seven-meter-long open mouth of the profondosaurus fell from above onto the gondola of the bathyscaphe, trying to bite through the layer of heavy-duty plastic and the titanium frame that went around its edges. Kayla’s screams were no longer isolated. Henry supported her, shouting a short but very loud word with a loud letter «F», conveying the fullness of the fear that suddenly fell on him. Under the pressure of the jaws, from which double rows of sharp teeth protruded, the plastic shell on the bathyscaphe cracked. The gondola turned out to be a little too big and the plastic sphere slipped out of the clenching jaws of the profondosaurus. The bathyscaphe recoiled a couple of meters to the side, continuing its ascent. The crack on the gondola began to grow.

The cubs of this female had some suspiciously hard scales. The second continued to wander through the water, without making any movements, but at the same time developed an impressive speed. Very strange individuals. The second cub jumped out of the mouth at the last moment. The profondosaurus intended to make another leap, but suddenly noticed that it was starting to get colder around him. The water temperature decreased again. If he does not return to the source of heat, which was hidden in the female’s body, he risks losing the sensitivity of his body, which will lead to immobility, as a result of which a complete failure of the nervous system will occur and he will be pulled to the bottom like a stone. And then darkness will come.

The cub had to be released. It was necessary to catch up with the female before the blood circulation deteriorated. It was a matter of survival.

The profondosaurus went into the depths.

Captain De Bont felt sweat running down his face. It’s getting more and more difficult to breathe. The limbs are trembling. And it’s not all from tension. The effect was gamma radiation, which became stronger every minute. The sonar signaled the approach of an object. Luther opened all the valves of the bow and stern groups of ballast tanks. The resistance of the Amphibia’s hull with water became much less and the dive speed increased by several more meters.

If any of the bathyscaphes managed to avoid death, then the rescue of the crew members remains a matter of time. So now it was possible to move away from the surface as much as vital forces allowed.

Captain De Bont looked at the instrument readings. The depth did not suit him. The main thing is to save the strength to press one single key. The rest was no longer important. Driven by a thirst for warmth, the profondosaurus approached.

The crack was growing. A thin but powerful stream of water sprayed inside. The on-board computer’s voice came from the speakers:

– Attention! Depressurization detected! Depressurization detected!..

– Miss Fox! – Henry shouted, trying to reach the panic-stricken Kayla. – Miss Fox! Look at me! At me! Take a deep breath! – Henry put his right hand on Kayla’s near shoulder and continued to instruct: – Try to move less! We need to conserve our oxygen supplies! Deep breath! Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. That’s it.

Henry then began to remove one-liter nitrox cylinders that were fixed between the seats. As soon as the engineer took the cylinders in his hands, he felt a suspicious lightness in his right. He took a closer look. The latex gasket on one of the cylinders was damaged. It was empty.

The distance was getting shorter every second. Captain De Bont continued to sit in his chair, never ceasing to watch the depth readings. He had to take the Amphibia as far as possible from the bathyscaphes.

A strange sensation filled the tip of his left little finger. Luther touched his finger. The nail began to peel off.

– So! Miss Fox, listen carefully! – Henry said, trying to shout out the noise of splashing water that was breaking through a crack in the nacelle of the bathyscaphe. – Try to move less! Soon the water will cover us and there will be no air left here! We’ll have to breathe through the cylinder! The second one is empty! So we’ll take turns breathing! Try to move less! Agreed!

Kayla nodded several times in agreement.

– Fine.

They were left alone in the whole ocean. And this is not a figure of speech. Now self-control and composure determined the chances of survival. The water was rising and the rate of rise gradually decreased due to the increase in mass. The bathyscaphe crossed the nine hundred meter mark and continued to rise.

The biologist tried her best to even out her breathing, realizing that the amount of time that would be allotted for the path to the surface depended on this. She opened her breast wide, constantly looking at Henry, who was doing the same.

The water was rising and already touching their chins.

In a restrained tone, Henry said:

– Calm down, Miss Fox. Calm down. That’s it. Fine. Breathe. Breathe.

A split second before the water came to his lips, Henry managed to say:

– Now let’s inhale deeper and hold.

The deep-sea monster was already spinning around the stern, devouring the product of the collapsing nuclear reactor. Captain De Bont felt a wild fever. His mouth was dry. The left eye became cloudy. But the depth was still only six and a half thousand meters. So it’s too early to press the «red button». Luther’s body was still struggling with radiation.

Henry brought the nitrox cylinder to Kayla’s lips and slightly unscrewed the valve. Oxygen-rich gas began to flow into her lungs. She soon signaled that she had inhaled enough. The engineer immediately turned the valve until the oxygen in his lungs was exhausted and he needed another breath of oxygen.

Another curved stripe appeared on the crack. The depth was eight hundred meters. The ascent speed was reduced to ten meters per second.

They looked straight ahead, without making unnecessary movements and their eyes glued to the depth sensor.

Outside, even through the thickness of the water and the battered hull of the submarine, the satisfied groans of the profondosaurus, similar to an animal growl, could be heard. The left hand began to tremble. The little finger, which had lost a nail, was shaking especially violently. The heat became more and more intense. Luther struggled to remain conscious. He was preoccupied with the depth readings and the OK key, which Henry Mills had turned into a red button. And this is not a figure of speech.

The crew members of the bathyscaphe took their ninth sip of nitrox. Henry looked at the needle that showed the level of nitrox in the cylinder. The cylinder was sixty-eight percent full. Then he looked at the instrument readings. They were at a depth of seven hundred and ten meters. Nitrox reserves were using up very quickly. In less than two hundred meters, more than thirty percent was spent. Another three and a half times greater distance had to be covered. These supplies will not be enough for them.

Kayla took another breath and closed the valve herself, returning the cylinder. Henry didn’t move. His gaze was glued to the dashboard, where the readout displays were gradually failing as water seeped into the interior. The pressure inside the gondola increased.

Henry brought the closed hole to his lips, and a few seconds later he handed the cylinder to Kayla. She unscrewed the valve, inhaling a new portion of nitrox, and suddenly noticed how Henry twitched convulsively. Salty ocean water rushed into his respiratory tract, filling his lungs. He gave his supply of nitrox to Kayla, increasing her chances of survival.

Panic returned. The pulse increased. Kayla’s breathing increased and the oxygen reserves in her lungs began to be used up faster.

Captain De Bont was slightly delirious. His body filled with heaviness. Blood accumulated in the mouth. Luther parted his dry lips and blood flowed onto the floor. It was liquid like water and pale scarlet in color. The captain continued to monitor the depth readings, saying out loud:

– One, two, three, four, five. We’ll go far for dive. We won’t sleep until dawn. Cause somebody will be lone…

At a depth of two hundred and ten meters, the bathyscaphe stopped ascending. The pressure in the gondola was increasing, and Kayla was already beginning to experience it herself. She did not dare to leave the bathyscaphe. The pressure outside was much greater. She could have simply been flattened.

She looked at Henry’s immobilized body and imagined herself the same in a few minutes. Not understanding why or how this could help her, she tried to even out her breathing and slow down the consumption of nitrox, which was less than ten percent left. She didn’t know why suddenly, but she wanted to do this after she looked at Henry. He asked her about it. Breathe evenly, move less and save oxygen.

– …The first one was shot dead. The second one was strangled. The third was drowned. I’ll be the fourth. Well, the fifth one will be… you.

A malicious smile appeared on the face of Captain Luther de Bont. He raised his hand to the key. The index finger hovered over the «red button». Amphibia XXI completed its last mission, reaching a depth of seven thousand eight hundred and ninety meters. The last words that Captain De Bont said in parting, he said while looking at the profondosaurus on the big screen:

– Welcome back home.

In the entire service of Captain Luther de Bont, this was the most powerful salvo. This salvo disabled all systems, and the main one was the pulse of the profondosaurus.

The monstrous surge of energy burned every part of it, right down to the bones. The explosion of the nuclear reactor shook gigantic volumes of water at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and its traces rapidly expanded in all directions.

Staying inside meant a quick death, and going outside meant dying too quickly. This is exactly the case when there was no choice. The result in both cases promised to be disappointing. Kayla’s pulse quickened again. She inhaled and exhaled faster and faster.

The pressure inside the bathyscaphe increased a little more and the device began to descend. The depth began to grow. Meter by meter Kayla moved away from salvation, falling more and more into the arms of death. A feeling of fear ate her from the inside, forcing her to breathe more often and deeply, and to move as much as possible. Movement is life. That’s what everyone says. But there are cases when even an unnecessary movement of a little finger brings one closer to death, literally taking away vital resources.

In panic, Kayla screamed, releasing a stream of bubbles, and then absorbed another dose of nitrox, which evaporated into vain while she let out a cry of despair muffled by the thickness of the water. Just as the scream was not heard, her tears dissolved in the water in the same way. Kayla herself didn’t really understand whether she was crying or not. Her mind was confused. Nitrox supplies were running low. Little by little, carbon dioxide began to penetrate into her lungs. Deadly lightness. Vague images flashed through the head. Something similar to a conceived fetus, which, as the birth approaches, turns into a monster that has lost all signs of a human body. A submarine flashed before the eyes. It floated somewhere far beyond the boundaries of the universe, where the source of the death of the entire human race lives. And in all this, Kayla was assigned some special role that determined the outcome.

One spotlight went out. The pressure and temperature sensors have failed. The bathyscaphe continued to descend into the depths.

During the voyage, Kayla pondered what would happen if their expedition turned out to be fatal for the entire crew. She reasoned like a biologist and came to the conclusion that, in fact, nothing terrible would happen. Every person before birth into this world lives in amniotic fluid. We all emerge from water, and there will still be some degree of logic if we return to it. But when it comes to personal experience, all theory and rationalism collapse in an instant, forcing us to return to judgment, which comes from natural instincts and reflexes.

The glow of the second spotlight was cut off. It was completely dark outside. The depth reached almost three hundred meters. The interior lights began to blink. The heating system has failed. Cold water enveloped the entire body. The shiver went straight to the bones. Any movement took away oxygen. Lack of movement guaranteed quick frostbite of the limbs.

Now Kayla had no doubt. She cried. The gigantic and endless ocean absorbed her tears, which imperceptibly dissolved in it.

A person cannot be satisfied with one theory – Kayla once said when responding to Stephen Frost’s job offer.

With a jerk of her finger, Kayla discovered that the valve on the cylinder was slightly closed. She unscrewed it and breathing became a little easier. Nitrox reserves were negligible.

Suddenly something hit the bottom of the bathyscaphe. Kayla was sure that something had gone wrong on board the Amphibia and the profondosaurus had returned for her. But it felt strange. It’s like an earthquake. The bathyscaphe was drifting somewhere. Kayla avoided panic when she noticed that the depth readings were rapidly decreasing. It was a blast wave that faded as it approached the surface. She picked up the piece of metal and plastic, taking it with her. The bathyscaphe was spinning with crazy force. Kayla managed to turn off the valve on the cylinder before it fell out of her hands.

At the moment of the next turn of the bathyscaphe, when the power of the blast wave had subsided, Kayla noticed some glare from outside, and then looked at the dashboard. A split second before the sensor failed and the screen went dark, the depth was three meters.

As if she had gotten a second wind, Kayla perked up, unbuckled her seat belts and reached for the entrance hatch. She used all the remaining strength she had to move the hatch handle. The hatch cover handle rotated like clockwork. But the hatch cover itself remained in the same position as if dead. The interior light flickered again and only now did Kayla notice a slight deformation at the edge of the entrance hole; the dent left by the jaws of the profondosaurus.

The bathyscaphe was sinking. The depth increased to eight meters. The oxygen reserves in the lungs were exhausted and Kayla began to row down in search of the cylinder. Last sip. With new strength that could hardly be called fresh, she again rushed to the hatch cover. Another attempt to turn the handle further failed. Out of anger, Kayla grabbed the round handle with both hands and began to shake it. There was a small creak. Something was wrong with the hatch. The lid was being held back by something. The handle was unscrewed all the way. It just had to be pushed with all the might.

The depth was twelve meters. Even water could not extinguish this creak. Kayla instinctively wanted to bare her teeth from tension, but she pressed her lips together just in time. Her strength was clearly lacking. If Henry had lived, he would have pushed that lid off long ago. But he already gave too much. With a creak, the lid was pushed aside and the gap gradually widened. Kayla found support for her leg and now leaned on it with all her weight. The creaking went from intermittent to incessant.

Fifteen meters. That’s how long separated Kayla Fox from the surface. As soon as the gap was large enough for her body to fit through, Kayla rushed away.

How much oxygen she lacked. She rowed with her last breath, overcoming the numbness in her limbs. The oxygen in the lungs was depleted. Trembling ran from head to calves. Sensitivity in the feet and palms has subsided. It began to seem to her that the cold was creeping up to the marrow of her bones. The fingers were so cool that Kayla didn’t even feel how her hand began to come out of the water into the air.

Her head literally jumped out of the water and her lips parted wide as she took the deepest, most welcome breath of her life. This breath of oxygen turned out to be as priceless to her as life itself. But numb limbs did not allow her to stand stably on the water. The body went under water. A couple of seconds later, Kayla surfaced again, and this time she managed to open her eyes, turning her panicked gaze to the clear night starry sky. She was breathing non-stop, gulping air greedily. Kayla coughed up the remaining salt water that had gotten inside. She looked around, glancing at the sheer darkness and the reflection of the moon.

Kayla remembered. But she could hardly feel her fingers, and this made the task much more difficult. She tried to grab the fourth tooth on the left side of the upper jaw with her fingers. The tactile functions of the tongue were preserved, and so Kayla decided to count the teeth with her tongue, and after she reached the fourth, she began to move her fingers around the oral cavity until her tongue felt contact with her index and thumb. She squeezed the bionic prosthesis as far as the cooled skin would allow and began to twist it clockwise. Unscrewing the attachment from the thread, Kayla activated the beacon, which was implanted in all crew members a week before departure.

The signal has been sent.

But where was she? She did not inquire about the coordinates of the Amphibia at the moment when they moved to the bathyscaphes. How much longer can her body withstand this cold? With every second, sensitivity decreases and it becomes more and more difficult to stay afloat. The shoulders and head were shaking. For the umpteenth time, she hit the water with her hand because her body stopped obeying her and she was being pulled to the bottom.

Suddenly Kayla heard some voices. A bright, blinding spotlight appeared from somewhere. A low male voice kept repeating the same thing:

– Ei! Você ouve!? Nadar aqui! Nadar aqui!

But Kayla didn’t understand Portuguese.