Beth was silent.
“Yes,” Hoffman continued, somber. “I knew it had finally come for me. But it never came, you see. It was only my darkest fears. My darkest, darkest fears. There was never really a monster in the darkness.'‘
“And now there is,” Beth said quietly.
Hoffman paused. “Yes, Mrs. Connor. Now there is. Now it is truly there in the darkness. And it is coming for us.”
Beth closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall. After a while she heard Hoffman finally rise, sensed him standing in the red glowing gloom, staring. Then his soft steps reached out to her across the room. When she opened her eyes again, he was gone. The door was closed.
She looked down at Jordan, and a startling moment passed as she saw the soft blue eyes staring up at her, so bright and beautiful. The child was widely alert, watching. Beth smiled down, gently caressing his head, comforting, finding comfort.
“Mommy,” he asked quietly, “is the monster going to get me?”
Beth caught a painful breath, smiling.
“No, honey. The monster's not going to get you.”
Jordan stared. “I’m scared.”
Beth smiled, cradled his head in her lap. “That's okay, honey,” she whispered. “It's okay to be scared.”
A long silence.
“Will you sleep with me?”
“Yes,” she whispered, “I’11 sleep with you.”
His eyes began to close.
“Okay,” he whispered.
Beth cradled him and watched him until he was fast asleep.
And then she watched the darkness.
***
In a wild conclave under the red lights, circled like a primitive war council, they huddled in the middle of the cavern. Chesterton rested wearily on a crate but Connor stood on his feet, not allowing himself to relax.
With a tired expression Chesterton spoke. “All right, we've got to get organized.” He turned his head sharply. “Barley, station men at the three entry points of this cavern and resupply everyone with as much ammo as they can carry. Issue phosphorous grenades, antipersonnel grenades, whatever anybody wants. I don't care if they're qualified or not. And give everybody a LAW. One of those will take a little steam out of its stride.”
“Yes sir,” Barley said, was gone.
“Now, Doctor,” Chesterton focused on Frank, “I want to know why that thing didn't use fire when it came down that corridor. It had us dead to rights. It could have blown us all to Kingdom Come with that flame-throwing stuff. Why didn't it?”
“It was exhausted,” Frank answered. “Leviathan had used all its flammable gel defeating the tank.”
“How long before it can do it again?”
“A few hours. Maybe less. I don't know for certain.”
“Can it melt that vault?”
“No. There's no way it can melt niobium-titanium alloy.”
“That's good, son,” Chesterton growled, wearily wiping his face. “It's about time we had a little piece of good news.” He sighed. “That brings a little joy to my old battle-weary heart.”
“But titanium is brittle,” Connor said, stepping forward.
Chesterton stared up gloomily. “What?”
“I mean,” Connor continued, “that titanium can withstand heat and compression better than steel. I know all about it because I used to work in a pipe plant. Titanium's half the weight of steel but twice as strong and that's why they use it in aircraft and ships. Or pipes. But titanium is brittle. That's why they don't use it to make knives or drill bits. It won't hold an edge. It chips and cracks too easily.”
“Niobium-titanium is different,” Frank interjected. “It has a higher means ratio. It can withstand stress and impacts a lot better than normal titanium, Connor. That's why it was created.”
“But it's still basically titanium, Frank.” Connor leaned forward. “And titanium can be broken a lot more easily than steel. It was a mistake to use it in those vaults.”
“All right, all right,” Chesterton broke in. “Let's just calm down a little. We'll deal with all that later. Right now we need to cover something else.” He paused. “Frank, let's deal with this cause I'm not sure. Is there any way for Leviathan to escape this cavern?”
“Only through Crystal Lake.”
Chesterton shook his head. “I thought so,” he mumbled.
“What do you mean?” Connor asked.
Frank spoke quickly. “Don't you know about Crystal Lake?”
“Yeah, I know about it,” Connor said, scowling. “Crystal Lake is located in a cavern just past the power plant. You have to go through the power plant to reach it. It's a ninety-acre lake with underground streams that connect to the Atlantic Ocean.” Connor stared. “Oh no ...”