briefly washed over them, and they found themselves in a small cavern filled with a deep blue pool. It was so quiet, every splash seemed to echo back as if bouncing off a kettledrum. Waning light streamed from the outside and spilled down on the crystal-blue water. On the far side of the pool was another curved opening, which emptied into a darker passageway. They started toward it but abruptly haltedâa humming sound was coming through the tunnel, and a fin broke the surface right in front of them.
âMove!â hissed Lizzy in a frenzied panic. She waved them against the cave wall just as a large object with fish scales and fins, but stiff and mechanical, glided by.
Kai held her breath. The thing swept by her feet and moved to the center of the pool, then submerged, the tail whipping and flapping as it went. She quickly noticed the eyes were made of Plexiglas, with visible hinges and screws attached under the fins.
It left through the cave door and sped off into the hazy sea.
âWhat kind of freak contraption was that? Thatâs worse than running into a giant stingray!â said Jeff, aghast.
Lizzy peered into the tunnel. âWe must be headed in the right direction.â
They hugged the cave wall and swam along the dark passage for approximately fifteen yards. The water muddied as it fed into a larger pool-filled cavern, which was dim and cold and utterly dreary, apart from a few lights spotting the walls. There were only two structures that they could see: one was a metal staircase that wound up a six-story rock face to a platform above; the other was a dock sitting at one end of the pool, which lodged several watercrafts, fish-like, similar to the one they saw go through the tunnel.
Kai found a ledge and climbed up.
âWell, wellâsome more of those crazy subs,â she said, pointing toward the line of strange creatures bobbing life-like on the surface of the water.
âI hear voices,â Jeff suddenly spurted.
Ducking back into the tunnel, they watched as Dr. Krell and a lab technician walked out onto the dock and stood by the fish-subs. Krellâs mottled gray hair and glasses flashed a grisly orange in the lantern light. He pointed a long, bony finger at one of the golden-green subs docked nearby.
âTake Lilith out to the island and get some more tissue samplesâsheâs the fastest, and we need more for the procedure to work,â he said, his voice bouncing eerily off the cave walls.
âIf she doesnât kill me first,â the young man said testily. âSheâs been so moody latelyâprobably drive me right into the reef. Last week she chased after a whale for over a mile, and I completely lost control!â
âTsk, Tsk, Lilith, you bad girl!â said Dr. Krell, chastising the sub as if it were a naughty pet. âI will have Lee check her this week. Sometimes the mechanical technology is overrun by the fishâs neurons, and the animalâs instinct kicks in.â He paused and looked proudly over his fleet of subs. âBut the Bips are, without a doubt, the best suited to conceal our work.â
âBips?â
âYes, we shortened their namesâso much easier to say than âBiomechanical Pods.ââ
âShe does blend into the ocean incredibly well, and no one suspects a thing, but it does make for a wild ride when she gets distracted,â the lab tech complained. He gave Lilith an irksome nudge with his foot, and she turned and squirted water all over his shoes.
âAargh!âitâs time for the reprogramming room for you,â he snapped.
The fish-sub trembled and swished in reply.
Dr. Krell pulled a small handheld computer from his coat pocket and scrolled through a series of images.
âAnd how is our subject doing these days?â
âShe is despondent of late. We keep her sedated. Only one survived, and she violently protects it.â
âYes, yes, I heard she broke through the
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni