“There’s something else, sir.”
He heard the desperation in his own tone. Miller looked at him.
“The University of British Columbia has a primary document from Eriana Kwai. They must have bought it from the island ages ago. I’m not sure. But it mentions a serpent.”
“What is it, a book?”
“Parchment. It was transcribed. I think it was an oral legend.”
“So it’s a story.”
“Sir, you’ve seen the serpent with your own eyes. You know it’s not a story.”
The trail narrowed, and Reeves fell into step behind the large teardrop of sweat on the back of Miller’s shirt. They jogged in silence, following the winding clifftop. Far below, the sea glistened, peaceful and unassuming. Waves purred against the rocky beach.
“Does the legend tell anything about an attack plan?” said Miller.
“Plan? No, sir. It talks about—”
“All right, look.” He stopped and turned, forcing Reeves to an abrupt halt. “I appreciate the research you’ve done here, but save your breath. We’ve already decided we’re going to nuke it.”
“Nuke—what? No!”
“You’re choosing to believe a legend over science. You want something this big gone, use a nuke. That’s a fact.”
“We can’t blow up the ocean!”
Miller turned and resumed jogging. Reeves followed after a stunned silence.
The officer concentrated on navigating the narrow path for a moment before saying, “You seem opposed to retaliating against the mermaids—even before the whole thing with Perseus happened. Not a good quality in my number one man. Something going on with you?”
Reeves’ stomach flipped. It was lucky Miller’s back was to him, because he was sure his face betrayed him in that moment.
“No, sir. It’s just—I don’t know if nukes will work.”
“Of course they’ll work!”
“Sir, would you have believed a few weeks ago that this serpent could have existed?”
Miller said nothing.
“Me neither, sir, which is why I think we should be careful of what we assume about it.”
“We need to get rid of this thing—”
“The legend says it’s completely indestructible.”
Miller hesitated. “Well, the legend was written before we had modern technology.”
“I saw it chew up seventeen supercavitating torpedoes like a bowl of cereal!”
“Look, we’re tracking the serpent on the most high-res satellites we have access to. Every time it surfaces, we plot it. It won’t be long before we close in.”
“That’s great, but—”
“The problem is that we don’t yet know its pattern. We don’t know where it’sgoingto be, so we don’t know who to evacuate or where to send the helicopters. We’re at an estimated thirty thousand deaths, Reeves. That’s thirty thousand too many. So unless you know where it’s going to attack next—”
“The serpent’s power is passed by blood, sir.”
