He was right. A flutter of anticipation went down my spine. If Adaro wasn’t going straight to Utopia, then he was going somewhere else, first—and what could be more pressing than what was happening in Utopia?
My ribcage seemed to compress. Whatever happened, we were about to confront Adaro for the last time.
Meela met my gaze. I could see in her eyes she wanted to say a thousand things but couldn’t.
The helicopter passed overhead again, a mechanical thrum beyond the surface. For the amount of times it kept passing, I was sure—
A sudden pain ripped through my head, pressing from every direction. I cried out. My hands shot to my ears. Every cell in my body was vibrating. What was happening?
I couldn’t see. My brain seemed to swell, pressing against my skull. My eardrums were going to burst.
My ears.The pain was coming from sound. A barge of sound, impossibly loud, was pulsing towards us. I couldn’t tell which direction it came from. I couldn’t think.
Meela and Spio were covering their ears, too, agony twisting their faces. The net floated away.
Spio caught my eye and jerked his elbow skywards. Moving in a fog, I followed him to the surface.
At once, the pain stopped. We bobbed in the waves, gasping for breath and staring at each other in stunned silence. The sound was still in the waves, buzzing over my skin like toxic jellyfish.
“What is it?” said Meela. My ears were still ringing. A moment passed before I understood what she’d said.
I shook my head. Spio, too, was uncharacteristically silent. I’d heard plenty of strange noises in my life—the distant rumble of earthquakes, shifting ice, huge creatures from the deep sea—but never had I experienced anything like this.
We turned in the direction we had last sensed the serpent. I could no longer feel her. The sound interfered too much.
By sight, she was invisible, hidden beneath the waves. But something else had broken the flat horizon, coming towards us.
“A ship,” whispered Meela. “That’s what’s doing it.”
“You think?” I said.
Was the noise intentional? Was this another attack by the humans?
I looked around. We were alone except for the ship and the helicopter.
The ship coasted towards us, hazy through the mist. It was enormous and blocky, like a tanker. For a long moment, we stared at it. I didn’t know what to do. We could continue swimming with our heads above water—but then what?
No sooner had these thoughts crossed my mind when a black giant rose from the water and towered over the ship. I watched it happen as though in a dream. The serpent’s massive jaws parted.
She had not yet struck when the ship crumbled from below. It was like the hull had popped, tipping the ship sideways. It shuddered. Then her upper head curved to meet the deck. Her body writhed, her jaws biting everything she could reach without restraint.
Meela cried out. “The crew!”
The painful vibrations against my skin stopped abruptly. Whatever had been making that sound, the serpent had destroyed it.
My relief was overshadowed when Meela dove. I shot after her.
“Mee, wait!”
A pungent smell hit me as I submerged, poisonous and chemical.
Spio was close behind. “Right. I guess we’re moving towards the toxic pool of death, then.”
From the ship, a thick, black cloud flooded towards us like lava. Meela stopped some distance away, looking on in horror.
Over and over, the serpent’s fangs pierced the hull, tearing the frame. Oil and chemicals spilled from every hole. It flowed around the serpent, clouding the water and obscuring her black scales.
“We need to get out of here,” said Spio. “Don’t let that crap get on you.”
