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Contents:

Friends Until Death

Hanging Birch

A Dead Alibi

Friends Until Death

   “Is there, though?” asked James.
   He was annoyed because he had been planning this for ages and everyone knew, on the boat, how crucial it was.
   “I measured it myself,” said Harry, the captain and right-hand man of James. “It was the exact amount you had specified in the plans.”
   “The latest plans? The ones I sent to you via email on Tuesday? Two days ago.”
   Harry’s face creased in confusion.
   “What email?” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to check my emails recently. I’ve been too busy.”
   “Harry!” screamed James. “What we’ve got won’t be enough!”
   “Why not? What was wrong with your first calculation?”
   There was a moments silence as James seemed lost for words. The sun glinted off of the screws in his sunglasses.
   “Well, nothing. But we needed to add extra. Just in case.”
   Harry smiled.
   “You worry too much,” he said. “There will be enough to catch the sucker. And we’ll be rolling around in all of the money we’ll make from catching it.”
   Harry patted James’s bony shoulder as he squeezed passed him. He was a good head taller than his friend, but sported less hair on his head. Something James teased him about every time they went out for a drink.
   “I’m gonna check the rig. We should be coming up on its feeding area soon.”
   James was tense. He couldn’t believe how Harry was taking this so calmly. It was as though he didn’t care if they caught the greatest find of the century. A real life dinosaur of the ocean.
   He clenched the rail on the side of the boat until his knuckles were white. The burning sensation from the hot rail didn’t phase him at all.
   Sometimes his friend infuriated him.
   The rattle of the chains from the rig disturbed his brooding and he pulled away from the rail and headed for the front of the boat as far away from Harry as he could get.
   There was ping from the receiver in the cabin. James’s head shot up immediately.
It’s picked up the tracker!
   Everything was forgotten instantly as he ran into the cabin and checked the screen. Harry joined him soon after.
   “It’s a mile away.”
   James watched the screen for a few seconds.
   “Doesn’t look like it’s moving. Should be able to catch up with it soon,” he said.
   Harry took over the controls and increased the boats speed. James monitored the screen expecting to tell Harry to make adjustments to the direction at any moment.
   Soon they were directly over the image on the sonar.
   It was huge!
   They had seen it before, but for some reason it seemed bigger.
   Was it the same creature?
   It didn’t matter, thought James. The equipment they had was big enough.
   Harry killed the engines and moved to the back of the boat.
   “Give me the signal when you want me to dispatch the food,” he called out.
   James played around with the equipment. He’d spent years developing a technique for attracting different ocean species, whether it be for mating or for feeding. Now was the time to test it on a completely new species.
   He set the computer to play through the different calls over ten minute periods using the feeding call, which consisted of different species in distress and ready to be eaten by a predator.
   Now all they could do was watch and wait.
   They didn’t have to wait long.
   “It’s on the move,” James shouted out. “Start dispersing the food.”
   Harry released a lever and a mixture of fresh animal and fish carcases began emptying into the water from the back of the boat.
   The trail weaved its way away from the boat. Harry hooked a large carcass onto the giant hook hanging from the thick wire and dropped it into the water.
   The contraption, that resembled a truck winch, was something James had designed for catching the larger marine life. He’d had to significantly upgrade it for the creature they were trying to catch now.
   The boat drifted in silence.
   About two hundred metres from the back of the boat bubbles broke the surface of the water. Harry could see a giant dark object moving towards the trail of food. It surfaced quickly and Harry was shocked at just how big and terrifying it was this time round.
   The first time they had seen it eighteen months ago they were in awe. The way it moved in the water and the sheer scale of it. But now, seeing it out of the water, a fear ran down Harry’s spine.
   The long snout was probably half the length of the boat. Lining the mouth were pointy teeth that were the size of his hands. The beady eyes stood proud of its head.
   James quickly joined him and marvelled at the sight of the creature eating. His amazement suddenly turned to distress as the creature suddenly stopped and submerged.
   “No, no, no! Where are you going?”
   He moved closer to the boats edge to try to see what it was doing. The creatures form glided under them with an undulating movement. It disappeared under the boat.
   James ran around the boat checking all sides in the water, but the creature was no where to be found.
   He jumped back in the cabin and looked at the sonar.
   “No! Why have you gone back down?”
   “Maybe it’s a food snob,” said Harry with a laugh as he joined James in the cabin.
   James exploded in a fit of rage.
   “Is this all a big joke to you? We’re on the brink of capturing a real living dinosaur and instead of helping with some useful suggestions you make flippant comments. No wonder you’re just a boat-for-hire lackey. No drive to make things better. Make yourself better. You’ll be doing this until you die.”
   Harry was used to James’s bursts of anger, but he never got personal. This time he went too far.
   “You’re living in a fantasy world, James, if you think you can make yourself better. You don’t have the temperament or personality to be anything more to people other than an annoying failed biologist thinking he’s better than everyone else. Maybe if you’d used fresher kills other than the three day old rotting meat out there the creature would have taken the bait.”
   Harry slammed the cabin wall on his way out.
   James saw red. Something inside him flipped. He saw the machete hanging over the doorway and took it down. He charged out of the door and hacked into Harry’s neck until he fell dead to the deck, blood pumping out from the large wound.
   Still in a rage James’s first thought was the creature. He stared at his friends body.
   “Let’s test your theory shall we,” he said.
   He dragged Harry to the back of the boat and hauled in the unused bait on the hook. With a lot of struggle he eventually managed to discard the old carcass and replace it with Harry’s still bleeding body and drop it over the back of the boat.
   Returning to the cabin he set the distress sounds off again.
   It wasn’t long before the creature returned. It loomed large below James, now at the rear of the boat, who released the winch some more to spread Harry’s blood across the water.
It took the bait.
   Harry’s body disappeared into the large jaws and the winch whined as it unwound.
   James slowly applied the break to it, eventually stopping it dead. There was a pull on the rear of the boat, but it held steady.
   The water swirled and bubbled as the creature thrashed around trying to escape. The worry on James’s face relaxed only when the waters calmed down as the creature finally tired from its struggle. He smiled.
   “Looks like you were right after all, old friend,” he said to himself as he returned to the cabin and started the engines ready to return home.

The End.