Read Something in the Water for Free Online

localised plasma streaming as well …’
    ‘You’ve lost me.’ Gwen turned and waved to Professor Len, who was still watching from the road. He was only just visible now, a distant grey figure standing by the car. He saw her and waved back.
    ‘More chronon discharge,’ said Toshiko, and there was a note of caution in her voice now. ‘Something up ahead, in the mist.’
    Automatically, Gwen drew her gun. It was a semi-automatic, Torchwood-customised with laser sights. She brought the weapon up and quickly found the tiny red dot of light in the grass ahead of them, reflecting from the dips and pockmarks where water gathered in wide, shallow puddles among the reeds.
    ‘What makes you think it’s hostile?’ whispered Toshiko.
    ‘Experience.’
    ‘You may have a point.’ Toshiko raised the scanning device, made a few alterations to the controls. The scanner bleeped and she studied the readings on the little screen, her soft features lit by its blue luminescence. ‘But these readings … they’re not like anything we’ve picked up before.’
    They’d reached a standstill in the middle of the field. Gwen stood with her back to Toshiko, gun arm outstretched. Toshiko fiddled with the scanner, muttering technical responses to herself as she worked.
    ‘So what d’you reckon it is, then?’ Gwen whispered. It was so quiet here – silent, in fact, except for the two of them and the softly gurgling earth.
    ‘I don’t know. But it’s out there and moving.’
    Gwen gripped the automatic tighter, tried to keep her breathing slow and regular. No point in panicking. Yet.
    ‘Ten o’clock,’ Toshiko said quietly.
    Gwen switched her aim, momentarily losing track of the laser dot.
    ‘Eleven.’
    Gwen twitched the gun to her right. Still nothing. She looked back towards the road, but there was no sign of Professor Len in the mist now.
    ‘Want to go back to the car?’ said Toshiko.
    ‘No way. I want to know what the hell this is.’
    ‘So Torchwood. No wonder Jack loves you.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘No wonder Jack loves having you on the team. He saw it straight away – saw that you were a natural, like the rest of us.’
    ‘Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean I’m not scared.’
    ‘Twelve o’clock. It’s circling us.’
    Gwen started forward, trudging through the mud, ignoring the cold water splashing around her ankles. She’d had enough of standing still and being scared; it was time to move in and do something.
    Gwen had gone no more than ten paces before Toshiko called out after her. ‘It’s gone.’
    ‘What?’ Gwen turned, swinging the torch beam around, finding Tosh. ‘What d’you mean, gone?’
    Toshiko held up the scanner. ‘It’s blanked. Whatever was here has just disappeared.’
    Gwen frowned and then turned slowly back, keeping the gun up, staring into the darkness. ‘No it hasn’t.’
    ‘Scanner’s not registering, Gwen …’
    ‘Doesn’t mean it’s gone. Doesn’t mean it’s not here.’ Gwen lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘It’s just hiding.’
    Toshiko caught up with her with a series of little splashes. ‘The scanner doesn’t work like that …’
    ‘You said yourself it’s not like anything we’ve seen before. Maybe it can block the scanner, or scramble the readings or something.’
    Silence.
    ‘Tosh?’
    ‘Gwen, I’m sinking.’
    She turned and found Toshiko looking almost comically short besides her. She shone the torch down at her feet and found the mud rising up to Toshiko’s knees. Instinctively Gwen stuffed her gun into a back pocket and then grabbed hold of Toshiko.
    ‘I thought you said there wasn’t any quicksand,’ said Gwen. She wasn’t panicking yet, but she needed to get Toshiko out of the mud.
    ‘It’s marsh,’ Toshiko said. ‘Remember, some patches are firm, other patches grow over deep water. I must have stepped off the path.’
    ‘Can you try to step out?’
    ‘What do you think I’m doing?’ There was a hint of real anxiety in Toshiko’s voice