The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 64 Under currents

"Bloody amateurs they've scared all the Fredding fish away!" Sir Percy said but swiftly dropped the shotgun as he felt yet another really big bite on the ancient rod that he was using.

"I spoke too soon!" Sir Percy said, "My god! Do you think that this could be Granddad carp him very Fredding self? He is pulling like a mule."

It was no ordinary fish taking the bait, and Sir Percy had trouble holding on to the rod. The fish was pulling so strongly that soon the whole boat was moving down the lake despite the anchor, which could gain no firm purchase on the soft mud below. Vladimir tried to wind the rather ineffectual piece of ironmongery back into the boat but it seemed to stick half way so he gave up and started the engine. He had a suspicion what it was stuck on and he didn't like the implications one bit.

Suddenly Bláznivý Marek and Slepý Bobek had found pedalling rather harder than before. Both had already had their breathing masks on, as the air inside the small craft had become hot, sticky and lacking in oxygen.

"It feels like we dragging something!" Slepý Bobek said. Although through the mask it sounded more like a series of mumbles

"Try taking mask off and say again you bullock." Bláznivý Marek suggested taking his own off temporarily to just before he sneezed.

"It feels like we dragging something!" Slepý Bobek repeated.

"I have nasty idea about what we dragging." Bláznivý Marek said, "it is possible that it is Sir high and mighty's boat. Have look through periscope."

"But you bullock! We don't have periscope!" Slepý Bobek rebuked. "remember you said 'We don't need periscope'."

"Oh but Bobek we can't just keep pedalling." Bláznivý Marek complained. "I am running out of oxygen and is not pleasant when I sneeze."

"Then simply stop pedalling you bullock!" Slepý Bobek suggested. "Boat will drag us to shore!"

First the anchor cable went very taut and then as the boat turned around and drew level, finally coming directly over the strange submarine, the line went very slack. The fishing line had also gone slack Sir Percy looked perplexed.

"Can the peasant explain this Malik?" Sir Percy asked nodding at the slack line because his hands were full with both of them on the rod. Malik asked Vladimir.

"Tell the old pig that Granddad fish has probably gone to bottom to wait it out." Vladimir explained. He is directly below us now!"

The Honza translated but mid translation he got a message from Spencer that changed everything.

"Make for shore now Vladimir! Someone is trying to blow up reservoir." Honza Malik shouted and then turning to Sir Percy. "Sir we must make for shore now!"

"But I don't want to stop now I have the biggest fish ever on the end of my line!" Sir Percy said stamping his foot on the planking at the bottom of the boat in his temper. The old boat had not been made for such temper tantrums and the plank beneath him splintered and the boat started to take on water through the corking.

"That does it," Vladimir said, spitting into the water, to underline his determination. He started the engine, "we will have to make for shore now before we get swamped and sink or this idiot breaks my boat. Tell his majesty to hold onto whatever he can and if he can hold onto rod then maybe we can land Granddaddy carp from jetty like I advised in first place. That is if we are not all swept down river like driftwood and end up in next country!"

The little boat lurched forwards and then slowed, weighed down by the submerged carp shaped craft as the anchor line line went taut again. Sir Percy was almost pulled overboard and Malik and the remaining guard had to hold onto him to prevent him from doing so.

Below them the submarine started to move sluggishly at first but was quickly gaining momentum,

"We are going off course again!" Bláznivý Marek said.

"We must turn around then." Slepý Bobek suggested.

"No. Let's pedal in direction that boat is headed," Bláznivý Marek said. "we can park her under jetty.

"Angling fins so that we ride higher in water!" Slepý Bobek, "Blow some of ballast. We don't want to get stuck in mud when it gets shallower."

Bláznivý Marek blew the ballast on one side and then the other causing the craft to lurch to one side and then back the other way, until eventually it righted itself. Above them in the boat the effect was noticeable.

"Thanks God, we make progress at last!" Vladimir said, "Boat she is free of whatever kept us back."

Malik translated.

"The line has gone slack again." Sir Percy complained.

"Tell him to reel fish in then!" Vladimir said. "If he is man enough but I will not stop this boat. I have very very bad idea what will happen."

"He says to start reeling in fish sir." Malik said. "But to hold on to boat because your life depends on it."

"Oh!" Sir Percy said sarcastically. "Of course why didn't I think of that?"

Down below, the little craft felt the tug as the line tautened once more and now they seemed to be being propelled towards the jetty faster than just their pedalling could have done. The extra buoyancy was helping to reduce the drag and they suddenly felt that the pedalling was powering them through the water. There was a scraping sound as the underside of the craft grazed a rock on the bottom of the lake.

"More buoyancy?" Bláznivý Marek asked his voice muffled by the respirator.

"Yes. Blow lot, you bullock," Slepý Bobek shouted, "I can keep us just below surface using fins at this speed."

As the little craft got nearer and nearer the surface, an outline of the sub's mouth began to be visible from the boat. On seeing the sheer size of what he thought was a fish, Sir Percy abruptly stopped trying to reel it in.

"That's more like a whale than a fish." Sir Percy said in shock and awe. "Perhaps I should cut the line. We can never land this monster. Quick take pictures of the beast. The boys at the club will never believe me if we don't have pictures."

His feet were beginning to get wet. There were centimetres of water in the bottom of the boat but they were now making good progress toward the jetty. The guards dutifully took pictures of the fish and then one of them spotted a smaller but still large fish swimming freely to one side of the large one.

"Look sir there's another one!" One of the guards said, "He's not as large as the really big one but this one looks angry."

Granddaddy Carp, was indeed angry, in his grumpy fishy manner. He had finally found himself what in his dim eyesight and failing faculties seemed like the paramour of paramours. She was a lady carp of such dimensions that she fulfilled all of his dreams, well some of the racier ones anyway. She had a nice firm body, he knew that for certain, he had felt most of it, she smelled intoxicatingly of the best lake bed mud, courtesy of its launch from the boathouse. Now some nasty carp murdering humans were dragging his poor princess away with their boat.

Granddaddy Carp resolved to give chase to the boat and rescue this substantial damsel in distress and woo her with his, well he couldn't remember quite what you woo damsels with any more, he would just have to play it by fin.

For a fish it is always difficult to know if mating was succesful unless you happened to be the only boy in the pond, but he wasn't going to let a thing like a bad memory stand in the way when his perfect mate swam by or rather was dragged by a ruddy great boat.

Granddaddy Carp remembered something somewhere in the muddy backwaters of his mind. It was what his own granddad had said more than once. "Attack is the best form of...", whatever it was, "oh yes.... attack", and so he hurled himself out of the water in front of the boat and made a huge splash.

"Did anyone else see that fish?" Sir Percy asked. "It Fredding well rammed us!"