Shadow Code: A Brock Finlander Novel (Coastal Adventure Series Book 2) Read online

  Shadow Code

  Coastal Adventure Series Book 2

  E. J. Foster

  EJFosterBooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by E. J. Foster

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Photo by JoAnne Schnaitman

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

  Gandhi

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Epilogue

  Books by E. J. Foster

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  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  1

  George lifted his head to the cool morning breeze. His eyes slid closed against the shower of light drifting down through a near-cloudless sky. The sun stroked his cheeks, soft, warm, like the caress of a long lost love.

  There was no better way to describe it than that. No other way to explain how much he missed being out on the bay. As if it was a whole other part of him lost and aching.

  Home.

  It was his third day out on the water. Though every minute felt like a reclamation of time needlessly sacrificed. A month away from fishing, from sailing, from the peaceful solitude it was to be the captain of his own vessel, in command of nature as much as he was at its mercy.

  A month away from the only place that truly felt like home, and for what? All for the sake of some bureaucratic red tape.

  No one knew what the closure was really for. No one could offer any insight beyond a vague notion of government agencies swooping in and clearing the waterways of a menace that should have never been in the bay from the start. Then they disappeared, leaving the town with nothing but rumors to fill the empty silence and appease the memories that haunted their dreams.

  Giant crabs. Who would have thought? Though it was the last thing George ever wanted to see again. They weren’t just giants, like some oversized haul that made the stuff of legends. These hadn’t been legends.

  They were monsters.

  George opened his eyes and inhaled one stiff breath of salty air. Glints of light reflected off the shifting waves. They were heading further out into the bay, near the borders of where the Atlantic Ocean made its way into their sleepy little corner of paradise.

  How could so much have gone so wrong in such a short amount of time? No one knew where they came from, not the crabs nor the government agency responsible for taking them out. It had been several months since the incident took place. But just like an exterminator following up on an infestation, George figured it was just as important for a routine check of waters once overrun by monsters to be made.

  Only one beacon of hope shone in a world of lingering uncertainty. The closure brought about a replenished supply of marine life. The bay soaked up all the time to rebuild, to flourish, and to fill George’s fishing grounds with a whole new bounty to be tended.

  They had drifted to a stop, sitting out on the water for several hours now with nothing but the dragging of nets and their thoughts to occupy their time.

  “It’s been a good day,” Liam said, clapping his gloved hands together and reaching for the end of the net.

  George eyed his partner cautiously, watching each movement as if replaying a scene from a horror film. He called it a fisherman’s intuition, the gnawing ache in his stomach that ate away at him like the rancid stench of decay.

  Something was wrong.

  He could feel it. In the shifting of the boats, the sudden calm in the waves, the feeling of danger that nagged at him like an albatross dangling about his neck.

  Liam’s eyes slanted as he appraised George’s sudden bout of paralysis. “George?”

  “Yes.” George shook his head, choking down the hardening lump in his throat. He forced a smile. “It definitely has. We’ll be making a pretty penny off of this haul.”

  “We have to bring it on deck first.” Liam gestured toward the ropes. “So if you wouldn’t mind lending a hand.”

  George nodded. Each step landed beneath him with the weight of a man cursed. All blood rushed to his head, hammering against his ears in a full-fledged assault. He let his mind linger in fear for too long, reminiscing about giant crabs he’d never even seen and government conspiracies that could be no more than the work of bored gossips.

  They set to work pulling up the net. In the past two days, they’d already snagged an incredible haul of blue crabs and some fish. Nothing unusual beyond a harvest that was well worth the wait. Most of the boats they passed were out closer to the docking area. He could no longer make out any on the horizon.

  They were alone. Completely isolated in an expanse of endless blue.

  The net tugged back, nearly dragging George and Liam overboard as it snagged against something heavy.

  “What was that?” Liam asked.

  George shook his head. “I don’t know. Let’s just get it up. Together now.”

  They yanked two times before the snag gave way. A claw the size of a car tire mater
ialized between the netting, and George released it without a second thought. Liam surged forward, clearing the edge of the boat just as George caught hold of him. He hauled his partner back over and inside the boat, watching the ropes slowly sink back into the water.

  “What the hell was that about?” Liam snapped.

  “You didn’t see it?”

  “See what?”

  “The crab.”

  “For Christ sakes,” Liam said. “If it is a giant crab, then I’m sure as hell bringing that up. Now help me.”

  George stared at the ropes and his partner. His feet remained fused to the floor.

  “George,” Liam said, this time a command.

  He shook his head. Perhaps it had all been in his head. The crabs were supposed to be gone for good, no trace of them left. And whatever it was he’d seen, it didn’t look alive anyway.

  They resumed pulling up the net, the contents spilling out onto the deck like marbles scattering across the floor.

  Except for the crab.

  It sat there, lifeless, dripping wet. The smell of rotting fish permeated the air, and George struggled to hold down his breakfast.

  “It’s dead,” Liam said.

  “It’s huge.” The monstrosity was practically the size of an SUV. Massive pinchers spilled over the sides of the boat as the two fishermen gazed in horror.

  “I never saw one this close.” Liam reached out to touch it. The crab twitched, and both men jumped backward.

  After another minute of stillness, George pulled out his phone and dialed the number of the only person he knew would know what to do in this type of situation.

  “Who are you calling?” Liam’s voice rose above each labored breath.

  “Brock Finlander.”

  2

  I pressed my eyes together, forcibly trying to erase the words coming through on the other side of the phone. My pulse caught in my throat. Every muscle in my body tensed, restricting everything from air to blood flow.

  “You’re sure?” The words crossed my lips like a foreign language as if they’d been spoken by another man a thousand lives away from this one.

  “I’m looking right at it, Brock.” Each word trembled as George spoke. The more he talked, the more animated he grew. Like a man who’d seen ghosts, or witnessed his own death. “I’ve never seen one this size before. It’s the size of an Explorer.”

  “A small one, at least,” I said.

  “A what?”

  “Nothing, George.” I shook my head. “I’ll be right there.”

  My thumb hovered over the cellphone long after I ended the call with George. I made my way through the contact list, scrolling until I landed on the only other person who deserved to hear the news.

  Katie.

  She was the one who helped me defeat them in the first place, along with my grandson, Finn, and his friend, Jessa. Without them, my story might have had a very different ending.

  But there was no reason to get her all worried without knowing the details. I set the phone aside and pushed the throttle of my boat forward. That was one good thing about enjoying the sunrise every morning on my boat. I was already out on the water when George called me. My boat was yet another reminder of that brief encounter with unnatural creatures. The ones who inspired my darkest fears and waking nightmares.

  How was I supposed to forget something like that? Supposed to forget giant pincers tearing a man apart like he was a loaf of bread, of crabs so huge they spread across two lanes of traffic?

  On nights when the nightmares were considerably worse, I reminded myself of all the good the experience brought me.

  My daughter and grandson for one. I came out here just to be close to them, to reconnect. They hardly even considered me family at that point. I was just another struggle in Katie’s life. One she wanted to overcome so desperately.

  Now, we were a family. A still somewhat shaky and hesitant family, but we made it work. I found a place in town and spent as much time on my boat with my family as possible. The incident brought us together, but it hadn’t resolved everything. As with all things, it just needed a little time. I’d been given a second chance, but what I wouldn’t have given to start all over again.

  With a clean slate.

  I followed the coordinates George sent me until his boat appeared in the distance. He was a few hours out into the bay, which meant the ride home would be hell. But this was important, it would all be worth it to uncover the truth.

  Had we seen the last of these beasts, or was this just the beginning?

  George leaned out over the side of his boat, delivering one sharp wave to acknowledge my arrival. I dropped the fenders of my Hudson Bay 540 and tied off to George’s vessel.

  “Permission to come aboard?” I asked.

  “Thanks for coming so soon.” George ignored my formal request and extended a hand out to me. “I wasn’t sure what to do with this,” George said, motioning to the stern. “We’ve still got another day of fishing, but it didn’t seem right just dumping it back into the bay.”

  George dabbed at his brow with a worn scrap of cloth. His face bore all the signs of a man who made his living at sea: dark amber skin forged from the sun’s rays and deep-set wrinkles that formed a treasure map of memories. Reflexively, I smoothed a knuckle across the crease in my forehead.

  I was getting too old for this.

  I followed George to the stern. Liam stood over the crab carcass, rubbing one hand across a chin full of prickly, white whiskers. He turned toward me. A smile lit up his face as if he’d bagged the great white whale he’d been hunting for years.

  “It’s one of them, isn’t it?” Liam asked. “One of those crabs that was killing people? We reckoned you sort of had experience with these things. Never seen anything like it in my life.”

  The thundering roar of my pulse returned as I neared the crab. There was no mistaking it from this distance. It was maybe half the size of some of the ones I’d seen, but nothing to sneer at either. A crab this big could pop a man’s head off in one quick swipe. Like he was nothing more than a cork being drawn from a wine bottle.

  Each step closer sent tiny jolts of electricity to my heart. It was as if the universe was trying to revive me. But rather than destroy me with this violent attack, it woke me up with enough voltage to bring me back to life.

  What was I saying? Was I actually happy about the crabs returning?

  I stared down at the carcass in front of me. So help me, if this thing isn’t really dead.

  “I remember back in the day, there were stories of voices coming from the water,” Liam said. “I don’t know. Do you believe in mermaids?”

  Mermaids. I stifled the laugh forming in my throat. Had someone asked me months ago if giant crabs existed, I would have laughed that off, too. “I wouldn’t say I do.”

  George shifted closer. One trembling hand pointed out a space on the creature’s abdomen. “There’s a number engraved on it. Looks like a serial number.”

  I leaned forward. The numbers on the crab looked different from any tracking method I’d seen used when studying animals. If they left one or two of the crabs in the water to study, they’d place tracking devices on them, not serial numbers. Wouldn’t they?

  My stomach twisted into a roiling cluster of knots. Every sharp pain bubbled up into my chest with the promise of a past that was not yet ready to be forgotten. The rotting stench of decay drifted up to my nose. I closed my eyes and fought down the bile building in the back of my throat as images flashed across the back of my eyelids.

  “What was it like killing these things?” Liam asked.

  I shook my head and thought, I hope you never find out.

  3

  Katie had read the same paragraph in front of her twelve times. No matter how far into the paragraph she managed, she emerged with swirling thoughts that stole more time than she cared to admit.

  What did it all mean, anyway?

  Time.

  How she spent her time lately seem
ed like the most critical contemplation in the world. And the most exhausting. Most of her time was spent simply thinking about how best to occupy her time, then stressing over the fact that she’d wasted any time at all.

  She was bored. With life, her job, all of it. And she hadn’t the slightest clue why.

  All she knew was the thought of going back to school in the fall felt as close to imprisonment as a person could get. Oh, the work was rewarding in its own way. She certainly felt like she was making a difference and impacting the lives of others.

  Falling into the role of the new science teacher felt like the only natural solution. The work was gratifying, and she felt like she was contributing to something meaningful. Plus, it allowed her to work in close proximity to her son, even if he did avoid her as much as possible during regular school hours. What she did made a difference in the lives of so many.

  So why did she still feel like something was missing?

  The work could never compare to how she felt working at the lab. That provided a different level of satisfaction. And after obliterating a hoard of killer crabs with her estranged father several months ago, she was more than ready for a quiet life of simplicity.