Too slow. One gigantic hand closed around him.
The fingers went through.
No pain.
No contact or sensation at all.
The second claw swiped through the water. It would disembowel him.
But it passed through him.
Illusion!
With the last of his strength Quinn reached the surface. He gagged on air and vomited seawater from his stomach. The monster was gone.
Big Goof hauled him like dead weight into the boat. Quinn lay on the bottom of the boat, uncomfortable atop the oars.
“You okay?”
Quinn couldn’t answer. If he tried he knew he would retch again. His voice was not yet back. He still felt as if he were breathing through a straw. But he was alive.
And now it all fell into place. That monster. The sound it made. He knew them.
Cloverfield.
It was the monster from the movie. The exact monster, the exact sound.
He sat up and coughed.
Then he stood up in the rocking boat and saw Caine and his crew climbing aboard the two motorboats.
Caine caught sight of him and sent him a wintry, ironic smile. There was a strange girl with him. She, too, stared at him, but she did not smile. Instead, she bared crooked teeth at him in a grimace that was far more threat than smile.
An engine started, throaty and rough. Then a second.
Quinn stayed where he was. No chance he could take on Caine. Caine could kill him with a gesture.
The two motorboats chugged slowly, cautiously, away from the pier.
There came the sound of running feet. A rush of kids, some armed. Quinn recognized Lance, then Hank. Finally Zil, hanging back, letting the other two get out in front.
They reached the end of the pier. Hank stopped, aimed, and fired.
The shot hit the Zodiac. The air blew out in a sudden exhale. The boat’s motor chugged beneath the water as the stern collapsed and sank.
Quinn climbed halfway up onto the pier to see. His jaw dropped.
Caine, wet and furious, rose and levitated above the sinking Zodiac.
He yanked Hank and his gun up into the air. Hank soared, twisting, crying out in terror, helpless. Up and up and up, and all the while Caine floated as his companions foundered.
A hundred feet in the air, Hank came to a stop. And then, down he came. But not falling. Too fast to be a fall. Too fast for it to be mere gravity.
Caine hurled Hank down from the graying sky. Like a meteor. Impossibly fast, a blur.
Hank hit the water. A huge spout went up, like someone had fired off a depth charge.
Quinn knew the waters of the marina. It was no more than eight feet deep where Hank hit. The bottom was sand and shell.