"Uh, Magnus..." "I think I'm going to throw up!" "This is ridiculous!" "Hold on, I've lost lateral control!" "Okay, this is really not going well!" "I know!" "No lift." "I can't get any altitude!" "Bloody hell!" "Try hitting it with more sedation!" "Yeah, I'm already doing that!" "What the hell is wrong with..." "Magnus..." "Magnus, pull up." "I can't!" "Pull up now!" "Dammit!" "Oh, this is going to be nasty." "Just... just come on." "Just say it with me once..." "Reykjavik." "I love that word." "Yes, you've told me a dozen times." "But I'm talking vodka, good food, fresh-faced women with names like "goodmansdottir..."" "Stimulating conversation under intricate ice sculptures..." "Will, I've already told you, you can't go to the conference." "Why?" "Some things have come up." "Things?" "What things?" "Well, for starters, our sensors have picked up a very rare abnormal in the Gulf of Mexico." "And?" "Mutated vampyroteuthis infernalis, a vampire squid, incredibly shy." "I've only ever encountered one once before," "60-odd years ago in French Polynesia." "Okay, so a shy vampire." "There's a first." "Actually, the name is misleading." "They're amazingly intelligent and very docile." "It's believed that they're called "vampire"" "not because of a violent predilection, but more because of their superior intellect." "You know, this is fascinating, it really is, but... the beacon is coming from an abandoned oil rig off the Louisiana coast." "Okay, so one of our retrieval teams" "Will pick it up, bring it back, boom." "They're all in mission mode right now." "I'd rather not interrupt them for something as simple as this." "We Will charter a helicopter in New Orleans and fly out there." "Hey, take Kate." "Kate can't dive." "I need you." "Okay, okay, so..." "I'll miss the opening reception, but I'll still be there to give my presentation." "Fine, I'll go." "Actually, no." "I need you here for the next few days." "Why?" "I have a meeting in Berlin with my un security council liaison." "Very time sensitive." "Henry." "He's in Tasmania surfing." "The big guy?" "Is with him." "Kate." "Is not ready for an extended period of being in charge." "No, no, no, no, no, because I told you about this trip months ago, okay?" "I'm a guest speaker." "They're giving me a nice hotel room." "I'm touring fjords." "There's always next year." "Which is next year." "I'm sorry, Will." "This is not a request." "Magnus!" "Magnus!" "Magnus!" "Will?" "Will!" "Hey..." "Hey..." "You all right?" "I don't know." "My door kind of gave way when we, uh, you know, stopped." "What about you?" "Well, you know, any landing you can swim away from..." "What is it with you and flying, anyway?" "Two crashes in 158 years, that's not bad." "They only invented flying 110 years ago, so..." "Oh, great." "We lost our air tanks and half our scuba gear." "And our friend as well." "You think it's still around here?" "I'm sure it's long gone." "This bore well leads to open water." "Well, another rare abnormal stays rare." "Dammit, and we had him." "I've never seen something so big fit into such a small container." "Cephalopod." "Thankfully, a very passive one at that." "This one doesn't seem too pleased that we captured it." "It's much safer with us, believe me." "These creatures are so passive, they're often killed by other species very early in their life cycle." "Yeah, well, welcome to your new home..." "Squidly." "We Will not be calling it that." "Well, there are far more inappropriate nicknames" "I could give it." "I'm sure there are." "Good, there's still time." "For what?" "Connecting through Halifax, landing in the lovely city of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland." "Oh, come on, Magnus." "I mean, I know Kate is not your first choice, but can't she just hold the fort down for a couple days?" "I mean, I'm not going to be gone that long." "I'm sure she can, Will." "Ah, see, that's the Magnus I know and love." "But the answer is still no." "Prep it for flight, please." "Mayday, mayday!" "Mayday... the radio's broken or there's far too much concrete and steel in here for us to get a transmission out." "Meaning nobody can pick up the chopper's transponder signal, either." "How deep do you think this goes?" "70 feet, maybe more." "Without scuba gear... it's much too far for us to try to dive to the bottom." "Okay, here's what I think." "Once we don't check in for a while, those lovely people we rented the chopper from" "Will come looking for us, right?" "I mean, isn't that how it's supposed to work?" "And if they follow the bogus flight plan that I filed, they'll be loooing for us 200 Miles west of here." "It's how we keep our work private, Will." "Okay." "Well, then, according to the mission plan, we're due back tomorrow night." "Once we don't show up, Kate's got to get suspicious, she'll just probably..." "Right, right, you're right." "We're totally screwed." "I'm sorry about your trip to greenland." "Iceland." "It's... it's Iceland." "I'm sorry your trip to Iceland was scuttled, but obviously we have a far more important problem on our hands." "Yeah..." "We always do." "What's that supposed to mean?" "What does it mean?" "It means whatever you want it to... whoa." "It's all right." "It just shifted position." "You think it'll hold?" "If the crash didn't bring it down," "I doubt we can." "All I know is the deposit you gave the rental company's history." "You know, Magnus, maybe everything you heard about this creature is wrong." "Maybe they're not as docile as you think." "Nonsense." "We captured it easily enough." "It offered no resistance." "Yeah, well, something freaked it out." "Flying, or the vibrations from the rotors, different altitude." "No." "Its container was specially designed to mimic its preferred atmosphere." "It should have been fine." "Well, how did it go from happy-go-lucky cephalopod to air-rage squid in a matter of a minute?" "I don't know." "You know, I should be learning icelandic phrases right now and discussing psychoanalytic theory over cocktails." "Yes, instead, you're stuck here with me." "You know what I mean." "Actually, I do." "This isn't about conferences or ice sculptures." "It's about some immature tryst with a woman you barely know." "Excuse me?" "Dr. Halstrom, or should I say Sigrid, your internet chat friend?" "Internet chat friend?" "She happens to be the foremost authority on deviant psychology in scandinavia, thank you very much." "Such an attractive element in a woman... she has a phd!" "Really, Will, it's about priorities." "My priorities?" "What is this, an employee training seminar?" "Why did you want me to stay, anyways, other than to ruin my fun?" "Do not pretend that this is some giant intellectual loss." "This is about your libido." "Come on." "If you think that this is all about me chasing... do not get self-righteous with me... whoa, hold on." "What?" "Something just swam past my leg." "What?" "Well, maybe that unhappy vampire squid that we have in here with us." "It's Miles away by now." "No, I'm telling you..." "Something is in here with us." "Something just swam past my leg, and it's slimy... you all right?" "Oh, I'm Miles away from all right." "You said it would break for open water." "Well, it should have." "Then why is it still here?" "I don't know." "And why does it hate me so much?" "It might have marked this as its territory." "Oh, that's wonderful news." "I've never seen such aggressive behavior in this species." "Come on." "You might want to get out of the water." "Good idea." "I'm going to fry you up..." "A little tartar sauce..." "I think those tentacles gave me a rash." "I've got an idea." "Why don't we just shoot it?" "I'd prefer not to." "It's a very... rare species of abnormal." "Right." "What we need to do is send it a clear message, at least until we figure out why it's behaving this way." "Whoa, incoming!" "It's really pissed now." "Do not touch the water!" "Okay, do it!" "Clear!" "You okay?" "Yeah." "Well, that seemed to have worked." "For now." "It'll be back, and..." "The battery's pretty much dead." "Hey, uh..." "Thanks for, uh..." "Of course." "So what now?" "Well, we can't send an sos." "Eventually someone will notice us missing and start a search." "In the meantime," "I want to know what turned this creature violent..." "Come on, we should change." "Otherwise, we'll freeze to death." "I'll change somewhere else." "Maybe, uh... maybe it's environmental." "You know, something from the rig is poisoning its food supply." "No, scans didn't indicate any sea water anomalies." "Okay, fine, then it's just a crazy giant squid." "Honestly, Will, they are one of the most docile creatures in the entire ocean." "You got to stop using that word to describe it, 'cause it is not docile." "It feeds on plankton, it lives in coral caves, it can create entire mandelbrot mathematical patterns on the floor of the ocean." "I have never known one to attack another life form." "Really?" "Well, what about bringing down a chopper?" "'Cause this one did." "Delegates from around the world are going to be there!" "Plus, there's an intense discussion group on amygdaline mutation!" "I think it would really benefit our work!" "Would you tie off the other side, please?" "Yeah!" "Anyway, I think my being there would expand my knowledge of cutting-edge psychological theory!" "The cross-over in treating abnormals would be endless!" "Uh, Will, could you sit in the back, please?" "Just in case it needs sedation!" "Really?" "It..." "It seems fine." "Better safe than sorry!" "Sea creatures rarely like flying!" "All right." "All set?" "Let's go." "Whoa!" "Hey!" "Fuselage is intact." "What the hell made us crash?" "I remember a loud noise and then the squidapus went insane, so maybe it just really didn't like flying." "Possibly, though why it's still upset is anyone's guess." "Antenna's broken." "Means the radio is definitely out." "Hey..." "I should have come clean to you about sigrid." "I'm sorry." "What you do in your own time is your own business, just so long as it doesn't affect our work." "Granted, but..." "What's wrong with taking a little time off?" "Things have been pretty hectic around here." "What's your point, Will?" "Well, don't you ever want to take a break?" "Not really." "Stranded." "Well, we've got some flares." "We could wait till night, fire them off." "Flares only work if there's someone in the vicinity to see them." "This rig is Miles from the nearest shipping lanes." "Okay, well, you must have been stranded at Sea before." "Only once." "April 14th, 1912." "Really?" "I wonder how they serviced the drill apparatus when it was in here." "I mean, do you see right up there, right up by the lights?" "I bet you those air vents double as maintenance portals." "And the pattern continues down below." "Yeah." "How far do you think down that is?" "30, 40 feet?" "That's doable as a free dive, right?" "Yeah." "Okay." "So, we take the transponder from the helicopter, we swim down to the portal, out to the surface, and signal for help." "Unless, of course, the docile squid attacks us before then." "Well, if it attacks both of us, we don't stand a chance, but if one of us were to stay here..." "What, like as a distraction?" "It seems to hate you more." "Yeah, it really does, doesn't it?" "All right?" "Hold on a second." "All right." "You're good to go." "All right, if I make it out..." "Throw me down a sandwich." "And an uzi." "Hey..." "Are you sure you're all right?" "Yeah." "Come on." "Okay, so when you say priorities..." "Does that include drowning?" "Thank you." "Don't thank me." "The system purged itself." "You got lucky." "Of course!" "What?" "Why didn't I think of this earlier?" "If we can salvage enough wiring, we run an extension from the radio's internal antenna... right to the wall." "Yeah." "We can use the entire rig to boost the signal." "But isn't the battery almost dead?" "We should be able to get one last transmission out." "All right." "Bring on the hail Mary." "What?" "It's Worth a shot." "All right..." "Start with the avionic wiring." "We definitely don't need that anymore." "All right." "Rip as much wire as you can." "Start splicing." "So you never go on vacation, huh?" "I travel all the time." "You know that." "Yeah, on missions or for research." "I'm talking about, you know, flopping down on a beach with a good book, a never-ending supply of mojitos." "I own a villa in Italy, on Capri, near naples." "I go there every seven years." "Seven years?" "Yeah, for a long weekend." "Wow, I take it back." "You really do know how to unwind." "That's about as long as I can stand doing nothing." "British, remember?" "Wait a second." "Let me get this straight." "You own a villa in Italy, and you never told me about it?" "I own a lot of things you don't know about." "Really?" "What about a working helicopter?" "Yeah, several." "She's nice, you know." "Sigrid." "She's friendly and charming." "She's chair of advanced psychology at Stockholm university." "She sounds lovely." "You know, ever since Clarr, things have been kind of... lonely." "Yeah." "Well, goes with the territory, I'm afraid." "Yeah, but doesn't it make us all more productive if we have, you know, normal, healthy relationships?" "You're not being serious, are you?" "What am I talking about?" "Nothing we do is normal." "I don't think the bout of occasional loneliness is too High a Price to pay for what we do." "Maybe you do." "You just should have told me about it when you recruited me." "But then you never would have taken the job." "Probably not." "And you'd be miserable." "So, what's your cover with sigrid, greeting card salesman?" "Fire insurance." "Oh, God..." "All right, ready?" "Hang on a second." "You think this'll work?" "It should do." "I've never been stranded for too long." "So, uh..." "The Titanic?" "I was fished out of the water by Molly Brown." "She hauled me into her life raft." "I was very lucky." "Mayday, mayday, mayday!" "This is a-star 350, n-zero-x-one-seven-j." "Aircraft down." "Requesting immediate assistance." "We are at 27 degrees North by 89 degrees West." "Two souls onboard." "Mayday, mayday, mayday..." "Oh, come on..." "No." "The battery's gone." "You weren't kidding about the hail Mary." "Do we have any food?" "Yeah." "There's mres in my gear bag." "Well, did you move it?" "It was right there." "Maybe it got knocked into the water." "You don't think it took it, do you?" "What, the squid?" "After the shock we gave it, highly unlikely." "Besides, it wouldn't be remotely interested in our emergency rations." "They're kind of a last resort for me too." "What is this?" "Some kind of residue the squid left behind when it attacked?" "Adult vampire squid don't secrete anything remotely like this." "Well, then, what the hell... quiet." "Holy crap." "Don't tell me it's another squid." "Maybe one of its Young." "It explains why it gave us such a hard time when we tried to take off." "Now, we have to be extremely careful not to hurt or frighten it." "Okay, that is definitely not a baby vampire squid!" "Southern hemispheric sea scorpion!" "Very rare, extremely dangerous!" "How the hell did it get inside the chopper?" "I knew I wasn't that bad a pilot." "Hey!" "I think I'm going to throw up!" "This is ridiculous!" "Hold on, I've lost lateral control!" "Okay, this is really not going well!" "Looks like it climbed onto the tail as we took off." "Crawled inside the exhaust louver." "It must have got trapped in the engine compartment." "That's why I lost flight control." "I thought vampire squid weren't aggressive, that other creatures killed them off?" "Yeah, ordinarily, they're the victim." "It could be that the Sea scorpion is the one species that triggers its fight response." "Both these creatures must have claimed the rig as their territory." "They'll fight to the death if we let them." "So it's a turf war?" "Wonderful." "It must have sensed its adversary was nearby when we loaded it into the chopper." "But see, if the scorpion hates the squid so much, why doesn't it just jump into the water, and they can, you know, do battle?" "It's a bottom-dwelling arachnid amphibian." "It can't swim." "The squid can." "Ah, so it needs solid ground to settle the score." "They're actually very well suited as enemies." "The Sea scorpion is also more intelligent than it looks." "It's just that it's incredibly vicious." "It's the vicious part that I'm worried about, not so much the smart." "Whoa!" "It unlocked the hatch?" "How did it know how to unlock the hatch?" "I told you it was intelligent!" "Hold on, Will, I'm coming!" "Will, you have to load the harpoon!" "What is t about me that makes these things hate me so much?" "Where is it?" "It's gone to the other side!" "I can't see it!" "Will, it's coming 'round this side!" "Magnus!" "Hello, beastie." "Will!" "The other hatches are sealed." "This should hold it for now." "I now officially hate seafood." "We have to get these two creatures as far away from us as possible." "Agreed..." "But how?" "We drop the chopper." "Okay." "Okay, so... scorpion can't swim, the squid won't leave until it gets the scorpion." "We cut the helicopter loose, squid Will follow it down." "How are we going to do that?" "The acetylene torch from my diving Kit." "It should be able to cut through those wires." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second." "So we're goong to use... a torch on top of a fuel-soaked chopper that has a Sea scorpion trapped inside so the giant vampire squid will follow it down?" "Sounds like a plan." "No beaches." "No mojitos." "No fancy villas." "These cables are really thick." "It'll take me forever to get through." "Just try weakening the major stress points." "Yeah." "So the un." "Yeah, what about it?" "Well, why does the liaison want to meet with you?" "Uh..." "He wants to talk to me about how I exposed Emma Correia as a mole in our network." "In person?" "You averted a major security breach." "Couldn't you just do a teleconference?" "I don't mind." "Munich's lovely this time of year." "You mean Berlin." "Right." "Yes, of course, I mean Berlin." "Berlin..." "Because you said Munich..." "Yeah, both are in Germany, Will." "Yeah... but isn't Munich where..." "Olaf lives?" "Who?" "You think I don't know about you and Olaf Von Ausburg?" "Super-rich guy, he owns the Bremen soccer club." "I haven't seen him in decades." "Okay..." "You look me in the eye and tell me that you were going to meet the un liaison and not Olaf." "I appreciate the offer, Olaf, but it's not a good time right now." "It never is, Helen." "Honestly, I don't know why you keep asking." "Because even you need some time off once in a while, especially after everything you've been through." "Please..." "Let me be there for you, hmm?" "You need this." "He offered me a weekend away." "I was considering going." "I knew it!" "It was a romantic getaway, wasn't it?" "It's my prerogative how I spend my personal time." "Oh, but when I try to get away," "I get the speech about priorities?" "Double standard much?" "I've been doing this a lot longer than you have, Will." "Which I respect, but just don't give me a hard time when I try to take care of myself." "Oh, please." "With sigrid?" "Yeah." "You can do much better than that." "Oh, and Olaf is some prize catch?" "The guy looks like a MaseratI salesman." "It doesn't matter anyway." "I'm not going." "Why?" "Magnus?" "Far too many things going on." "That clears the air." "Well..." "I think you should have taken him up on his offer." " Look out!" " Will, hold on!" "Will!" "Don't move!" "Any sudden movement, and it will strike!" "Okay." "Will, look out!" "Get out of there!" "Ah, that's not good." "The squid can't win." "We have to end this, and now!" "Well, that thing ain't coming down any time soon, not without something stronger to cut those cables." "Stay here." "Hey, where are you going?" "How deep can you dive?" "Light it up!" "Whoa!" "Wow!" "Wow!" "You just blew the whole thing!" "It's just... gone!" "You're crazy, you know that?" "You're absolutely certifiably insane." "That was pretty cool." "Cool, yeah!" "That was, like, James Bond, die hard cool." "Better than room service in Reykjavik?" "Yeah, way better." "Never let it be said that I don't know how to show someone a good time." "Yeah, you got it, believe me." "Tuesday is Ashley's birthday." "That's the real reason I wanted you to stay." "I just..." "I didn't know how to ask you." "Oh, Magnus, i..." "I guess it didn't help that I was desperately trying to get away to Iceland." "It's hard, isn't it?" "To find someone worth a damn." "You're kidding, right?" "I mean, there's plenty of fish in the sea." "No, no, no...." "No, no, no, you... you didn't just make that joke." "You didn't just make that joke right here." "You laughed." "No, I didn't." "I... it was derisively, out of pity." "Ah, a laugh's a laugh." "Yeah, no, I was just choking on helicopter fuel." "You know... we sent up a pretty good flare just now." "I think so." "You think anybody'll see it?" "I don't know." "With my luck..."