Thor scowled. “What does it mean?”
“I don't know,” Connor replied. “But I don't think it's good. A lot of the guys have been uneasy lately. They think they've heard sounds coming from the Containment Cavern. They couldn't say what it was. They just said that whatever it was didn't sound happy. But I've managed to calm them down, so far. I've told them to just relax and do their jobs.” Connor shook his head, finally focusing on Thor. “You know a lot about languages, don't you?”
“Yes. I studied at the University of Paris. I am a student of all languages.”
For the slightest moment Connor stared at the red-bearded face, hesitating to compromise whatever small security clearance he had received to do his job. Decided to go against it.
“Have you ever heard the word leviathan?”
Thor leaned back, a disturbance surfacing.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I know the word.”
Connor waited. “What does it mean?”
“It is a word almost lost to time,” Thor replied, his tone submerged in Nordic coldness. “It is the ancient name for Dragon.”
* * *
Chapter 8
But there is no way to be certain,” Adler commented, settling behind his desk. “Surely, Dr. Frank, you have no means of being certain that Leviathan will achieve immunity to nitrogen. You don't even have any way to be certain that Leviathan has entered this ... this ...”
“Hunter-killer Mode,” Frank said, breathless.
“Yes, yes,” Adler said, nodding, “this infamous Hunter-killer Mode. If you wish to make presumptions, Doctor, you could presume that Leviathan's attack this morning was the result of a natural tendency to obtain food. We can all presume anything we please. But science demands data! We cannot leap beyond available facts.”
“I know this creature, Mr. Adler!” Frank slammed his hand onto the desk. “I know how it thinks! It would never have attacked the cell this morning unless some instinct prompted it.”
“And that instinct could have been for food” Adler responded. “It could also have been sheer bestial anger at being contained in the cavern! It could have been any number of things!”
“But it wasn't any number of things!”
“Has GEO confirmed your presumptions?”
“No, it doesn't work like that. GEO can only monitor Leviathan's body statistics like its heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, brain activity or whatever. The program chip that was designed to control Leviathan was never implanted, and it wouldn't do any good to implant it now because Leviathan's DNA has completed the instinct that the control chip was supposed to project.”
“What do you mean?” Adler stared.
“Forget it, Mr. Adler. It's complicated.”
“Yes, of course, Doctor.” Adler smiled. “But I am a complicated man. Explain it to me.”
Frank swore softly. “The part of Leviathan's brain that would have been controlled by the mission control chip has already been overcome by Leviathan's Hunter-killer Mode instinct. It's like ... like someone who has a weak eye when they're a child. If nothing is done to make that eye fuse the proper nerve connections to the brain, then that eye will always be weak. There won't be anything physically wrong with the eye itself, but the visual part of the brain that would have controlled that eye will be taken over by the other eye, the strong eye. And when that happens, it can't be reversed. The nerves are fused and that's it.”
Frank paused, catching a breath. “Leviathan can never be controlled, Mr. Adler! The part of Leviathan's brain that could have been controlled has already fused to something more powerful. It's been taken over by the Hunter-killer Mode. It's an instinct-reflex that regulates synapses.”
“Yes, I see,” mumbled Adler, nodding. “So all GEO can do is track Leviathan, tell us where it is. But as of this moment, Leviathan controls itself.” He leaned back, cradling the back of his head in his hands. “Yes. And just what do you propose we do, Doctor?”
“I propose that we totally abandon the island and initiate GEO's nuclear fail-safe.”
Adler was suddenly upright. “Surely you fail to understand what you are saying.”
“I understand exactly what I'm saying,” Frank rasped. “GEO has a nuclear fail-safe. It's built into the lowest center of the cavern, and it's strong enough to vaporize this entire island. It's designed to trigger itself if Leviathan ever activates the detectors at the island perimeter or if Leviathan is ever escaping without authorization into the ocean. You know that that was a safety measure I insisted on from the beginning, and I got it.”
“But Leviathan hasn't escaped,” Adler retorted. “GEO ... GEO cannot simply activate the—”