It came from the outside and it rang against the port side, then the starboard. The rhythm was the same, unbroken. Danniels knew somehow the noise from both sides were made by the same agency. Something with a twelve-foot reach.
Something that knew the Morse code.
Da-da-da. Dit-dit-dit. Da-da-da.
S. O. S.
Help.
"It's not the police," Julie said. "We've heard it before." She added, "They used to dump non-dangerous amounts of radioactives into the lake," as she decided the police boat had gone past and started up the engines again.
Danniels never forgot that call for help. Not as long as he lived.
III
The electron microscope revealed no significant change in the pattern of the bacteria.