“Are they blaming us for any of it?”
“Not us specifically, and not even One Planet. Except for a few conspiracy theory websites that think it was all an elaborate false flag attack to do… hell, I don’t know. Who can tell what’s going on in some of those people’s pretzel-twisted minds? But there are some tense international talks going on between Japan and other countries regarding who is to blame and what’s going to be done about it. The media does have its one face to plaster all over the place and blame, though, so they don’t seem interested in investigating further.”
“Mercer?”
Kevin nodded.
“Where is she now?”
“She’s in custody, although there’s still an argument going on about who gets to take her. She’s an American citizen that was with an American crew who committed a terrorist act against Japan in Mexican jurisdiction. It’s going to be a while before that get’s wrapped up.”
“But is she talking?”
“Basically repeating everything she told us. I’m hardly in the loop when it comes to her interrogations, but judging from what little has leaked out I don’t think anyone is taking her claims that someone duped her seriously. They think it was just a rogue act by two idiot kids.”
“So we still know nothing about who was behind this?”
“No. Nothing.”
“What about Smith and his boat? There were plenty of witnesses. Gary must have even gotten some footage.”
“A little, but nothing that says anything we need to know. There’s no sign of its wreckage around El Bajo, so it must have gotten away from Teddy Bear, right along with any evidence it might have provided.”
“So it’s going to stay a mystery,” Maria said. “I hate mysteries.”
Kevin smiled. “You’re a scientist. You love mysteries.”
She sighed and nodded. “I love mysteries. I can’t wait to get the hell out of here and solve this one. But that leaves only one thread left you haven’t talked about. El Bajo.”
Kevin’s smile got even wider. “I know I shouldn’t be smiling given all the horrible things that have happened but, well, they’re back. And they seem to be back to normal.”
“You mean the hammerheads?”
“The numbers seem to have dwindled a bit over the past few days. I’ve got Boleau and the Gutsdorfs out monitoring them right now, although Cindy and Simon apparently have somewhere else they need to go sometime soon. They send their love, by the way. But it doesn’t look like the numbers are going to drop too much more. Teddy Bear must have attracted hammerheads from all over the world, and El Bajo seems to be their home again. Or at least for as long as mating season goes on. I’m unsure how that’s going to work, since Teddy Bear seemed to throw off their normal mating schedule as it was.”
“But you really think they’re here to stay?”
“It looks that way. We’ll have to do a lot more studies, but El Bajo for now looks like the rich ocean habitat it was always supposed to be.”
“But what about Teddy Bear? Is she still there? If she is, she could still send the sharks back into a frenzy.”
Kevin shook his head. “She’s gone, but thanks to the transmitters we know exactly what path she’s taking. There’s been a lot of discussion by the various governments involved about whether or not she needs to be hunted down and destroyed. We’re the only ones with the exact frequencies to the transmitters at the moment though, so we’re the only ones who know where she is and how to control her.”
“So it worked? The transmitters really do disrupt whatever she was using to control the other sharks?”
“Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It looks like we were definitely on the right track with our theory, but there are odd little inconsistencies that I haven’t been able to explain yet. There’s still a lot more work that needs to be done, but given that it wasn’t my theories or transmitters that did the work, I figured it was only right to offer control over the project back to my buddy. He gracefully accepted, after a whole lot of ungraceful cheering and fist-pumping. I hope you don’t mind.”
Maria emphatically shook her head and immediately regretted it. Her sense of equilibrium was still off and it made her dizzy. “No, go right ahead. It’s not like I bear Teddy Bear any ill will, but my God do I hope I never see her again.”
“So far we’re only controlling her enough to steer her away from populated areas. Other than that we’re letting her be free. We’re hoping she’ll lead us to more like her, if they’re out there.”
“Hopefully not too many,” Maria muttered. She looked down at the bed sheets and the flat spot where her leg should have been. It was finally starting to dawn on her that she had lost that part of herself forever. And she wasn’t entirely sure if it had been worth it. She could have waited and let the Navy take care of Teddy Bear. They would have killed her, but was the life of that creature really worth what she had given up?
Kevin again joined her on the bed and hugged her. Whatever the answer to that question might be, at least she wasn’t going to have to answer it alone.
Epilogue
Doug Vandergraf had spent the last three days on a whirlwind press tour. He’d been on practically every news magazine show that mattered, agreed with every political talking head that would have him on their show regardless of what side of the political spectrum they were on, and had meetings with no fewer than a dozen networks wanting him to produce their next hot reality show about bored drug-addled housewives or championship comic book collecting. This, thankfully, was his last stop. He’d tried to just get his benefactor to discuss their arrangements over Skype¸ but Vandergraf had already learned that this person was old school. Only a face-to-face meeting would do, and it had to be in a remote location. But did it really have to be the half-way-around-the-world sort of remote? That struck Vandergraf as going a little overboard.
After many hours flying into South America, Vandergraf was met at the airport by a taciturn man in a limo driver’s suit. Although Vandergraf repeatedly asked him where they were going, the driver wouldn’t speak, and eventually Vandergraf gave up. They spent many more hours driving, which would have bored Vandergraf to tears if the limo hadn’t been equipped with all the champagne he could drink. He was more than a little tipsy when the limo finally stopped somewhere along the coast. Vandergraf thought this might be the rendezvous point, but the limo driver instead showed him to a small private yacht, where again he was expected to wait hours as the yacht made its way to its destination. There was no champagne this time but there was a well stocked bar, to which Vandergraf graciously helped himself.
He’d fallen into an alcohol-induced doze when the yacht jolted to a stop and woke him up. The captain came down just long enough to gruffly inform him they had arrived, then left before Vandergraf could slur a question about where they had arrived at. His contact had not said anything about any of this, but given how much this benefactor had paid Vandergraf for his part in the El Bajo incident, right along with his leap to fame afterward, Vandergraf figured he owed this person at least this much.
When Vandergraf came out on deck, he found that it had become full-on night. There was barely even a moon in the sky to light his way, and the lights on the yacht didn’t catch all the shadows on the deck. He thought he could hear sounds in the water like another small boat was tethered to the yacht, but he was wobbly enough on his legs that he didn’t want to approach the side and be sure. The captain was nowhere to be seen, but after a few seconds of searching Vandergraf realized he wasn’t alone. A woman stood near the back of the yacht, her smart business suit and ridiculously tall high-heels an improbable sight here on the ocean. Yet she had no trouble keeping her balance. Unlike Vandergraf, she seemed at home on the boat’s shifting deck.
Vandergraf approached her, but she was standing just outside the lights and he couldn’t get a very good look at her face. He recognized the voice when she spoke, though. “Vandergraf, thanks for meeting me here.”
“You
, huh? Wasn’t expecting that. Why are we here, anyway? Couldn’t we have this meeting somewhere a little more comfortable? And less prone to make me sea-sick?”
“We could have, but then I wouldn’t have been able to give you a sneak peek at what’s coming next?”
“Coming next? What do you mean?”
“I mean Teddy Bear was only the first.”
“First what? First giant hammerhead shark?”
“The first of my creations, dumbass. You don’t think an enormous hammerhead shark that can control other sharks just spontaneously came into existence, do you? I’ve been busy. Teddy Bear was only a test run, the least interesting of my experiments.”
Vandergraf stood dumbfounded. The boat rocked beneath him as though a huge wave had hit it and he stumbled closer to the edge. His benefactor, however, kept her balance perfectly.
“Wait, where even are we?” Vandergraf asked.
“Just off the Galapagos Islands,” she said. “It amused me to put one of my laboratories in a place so closely associated with evolution.”
The yacht rocked again. It wasn’t as though something had hit it. More like something gigantic had just swum underneath it.
“Wait, why are we here?” Vandergraf asked. “If you want me to film whatever you’ve got hidden here, why wouldn’t you have told me in advance? Weren’t you happy with how the footage turned out at El Bajo?”
“Oh, I was very happy. You have no idea. Everyone played their part beautifully, even the ones who didn’t know what they were a part of. Especially the ones who didn’t know.” She paused and put a hand to her chin in thought. “Although what happened to Quintero was unexpected. If I want to continue using her, I’ll have to give her some incentives. Incentives she’s unaware she’s receiving, of course.”
“So that still doesn’t explain why we’re here.”
The woman stepped out of the shadows and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her tanned face lacked all the youthful innocence of a naïve One Planet volunteer that he had seen on her a few days earlier. Instead the cold, calm look she gave him put years onto her appearance while simultaneously making it hard for him to tell just how old she might really be.
“You are here because you’ve become a liability,” the woman who had been calling herself Cindy Gutsdorf said. “And because I wanted to give my next creature one final test before I declare it ready for the next phase.”
And with that she shoved him overboard.
Vandergraf went under and, in the darkness, struggled for several seconds to orient himself and get his head back above the surface. He gasped, trying to expel water from his mouth but only managing to take more in. He knew how to swim well enough to tread water, though, and shortly he found himself floating in a more stable position.
“Whatever you’re planning, don’t do it!” he screamed as she grasped the railing and looked over the side at him. “You can still use me for whatever you have planned next. You wanted the El Bajo Incident all over the news. Didn’t I deliver?”
“You sure did,” the woman said. “A little too well. I do thank you for making Maria Quintero famous. I can use that. But you, on the other hand, were supposed to stay behind the camera. I can’t trust someone that hungry to make himself famous. If I let you live, I would never know when you might go out to the world and tell everyone all you know about my brother and me.”
“But I don’t know anything!”
“Correct. And it’s going to stay that way. Oh ‘Simon?’” The way she said that last word clearly implied there were supposed to be quotation marks around it. Vandergraf heard something behind him and struggled to face the opposite direction in the water. The man he had known several days earlier as Simon was in a smaller boat right alongside the yacht’s captain, who made a point to keep his back to Vandergraf as he listened to an iPod. Simon saw where Vandergraf was looking and smiled. “We promised him that he didn’t have to look.” He popped one of the captain’s earbuds out. “You might want to crank up the volume. There’s probably going to be screaming.” The captain nodded and put the earbud back in. The music became so loud that Vandergraf could hear it even from here: John Denver’s “Calypso.”
Simon’s grin broadened. “Ha! I couldn’t have planned that dramatic irony better if I’d written this movie myself.” He reached down into the boat and pulled out what looked like a dead, bloody bird. “Blue-footed booby,” he said. “It absolutely loves these.” And as the air filled with the sultry sounds of John crooning about the joys of sea life, Simon threw the dead bird straight at Vandergraf’s face. Vandergraf screeched as the carcass broke his nose and blood ran down his face. He didn’t think most of the blood was his, though. He cleaned just enough of the blood off his face to see as Simon pulled out another dead booby and pulled back to pitch it at the yacht.
“Wait, you idiot!” Cindy said. “Wait until I’m back down in the boat with you first. I don’t want to be on the yacht when our friend decides it’s covered in food.”
Simon nodded and said something else, but Vandergraf didn’t hear. He was too busy thinking back to what Cindy had just said.
Wait, covered in food?
Something came up from below, the only sign of its approach the churning water surrounding him. Then its mouth closed over his head.
The last thing he heard was Simon singing along with John Denver. He wasn’t very good at it.
Maria Quintero and Kevin Hoyt will return in
Galapagos Below
Read on for a free sample of Sea Raptor.
ONE
Glenn Flynn wanted her, right the hell now!
Play it cool, man. Wait for your opening.
He wondered if he could wait much longer as the bikini-clad redhead bent over the cooler. Glenn ran his eyes up her smooth legs, stopping at her nice tight ass.
My God, she was hot!
“Yo, Glenn. Catch.”
Sara Monaghan tossed him a beer. Despite the gentle bobbing of the speedboat, he caught it.
“Woo-hoo! You got good hands,” Sara cheered.
“You don’t know just how good these hands are.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Glenn.” Sara giggled and blushed. She took a swig of beer and turned on the MP3 player. A deep, thumping beat blared from the speakers. Sara lifted her arms and swung her hips.
Glenn didn’t think he could get any harder.
“Don’t just stand there,” she said. “We’re here to party. C’mon.”
Glenn recognized the look in Sara’s eyes. He’d seen it before in many of his other conquests. That inviting look.
His opening.
Sara cheered as they grinded against each other. Glenn ran a hand up and down her side. She gave him a seductive smile.
High school girls are so easy. It didn’t take much to impress them. He played football for Temple University. He came from a well-to-do family. His father had a sweet boat which he let him borrow whenever he wanted.
To a 17-year-old hottie, he was god-like.
When they finished dancing, Glenn drained the rest of his beer. The cool liquid felt good going down his throat, what with the blazing July sun beating down on him.
“How about some more?” Sara shook her empty can in front of him.
“Sure.” Glenn would have rather had her than another beer, but this next one would be Sara’s fourth. In his experience, the more booze a chick had in her, the harder it was for them to say no.
One more and I’m in like Flynn. He smiled at the catch phrase the Temple broadcasters used whenever he caught a touchdown.
Sara chucked her empty can over the side. So did Glenn. He stared at Sara’s fine ass as she grabbed two more beers. When she straightened up, she looked at the water and tilted her head.
“What’s that?” She leaned closer to the side.
“What’s what?”
“That.” Sara pointed to a spot of water a few feet away.
Glenn stared hard, then shrugged. “I don’t see anythi
ng.”
“There was, like, a shadow. A big one.” She turned to him with a distressed look. “Do you think it’s a shark?”
“So what if it is. It’s not like they jump into boats. Besides, I’m here to protect you.” He put and arm around her waist.
“Glenn.” She giggled and pressed her body against his.
Yup, it was almost time.
He leaned in, ready to plant a kiss on Sara’s neck.
That’s when she squirmed out of his grasp.
“What the hell?” he blurted.
“Oh, keep your pants on. At least for another minute.” She flashed him a big smile.
Glenn looked down at the bulge in his swim trunks. He doubted he’d be able to keep them on another second, never mind an entire minute.
Sara reached into her handbag and pulled out her cell phone. “I wanna record this and send it to my friend Maddy. She’s gonna be so jealous that I hooked up with a stud like you.”
She leaned against him, one arm around his waist, the other holding out her cell phone. Glenn wondered if he could convince her to record them doing it. Some of the other girls he’d nailed had been willing, and his sex vids were always a hit with his friends at parties.
“Hey, Maddy. Just wanted you to see the really, really hot guy I’m with at The Shore. Think about me and think about him while you’re on your lame family trip to New Hampshire, because we’re gonna—”
A splash of water erupted behind them. Glenn turned.
Something heavy slammed down on the boat. The bow rose out of the water. Sara screamed as she and Glenn fell. He hit the deck hard. His head throbbed. He closed his eyes and grimaced.
Sara screamed louder.
Glenn’s eyes cracked open, then went wide.
A maw of razor-sharp teeth hovered over him.
He tried to move, to get the hell away. Fear paralyzed his muscles.
The teeth clamped down on his head. Glenn Flynn felt a moment of intense, piercing pain.
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