Jay survived ingestion. So did Architeuthis. Twenty suckers ringed in sawblade teeth screw into Jay’s neck. He feels his wetsuit hood tighten, then a liquid gush. It’s his throat slit, lifeblood slurping out. No, the fluid’s too cold—it’s the slicing open of his neoprene hood, the compression seal disrupted, saltwater flooding in. Icy liquid slaloms down his torso and exits from the whale-tooth rip in his wetsuit’s right side. Jay pulls away, but where’s he going?
