Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii)

by Carolyn McCray

  This did not bode well for their survival.

  “We’re all going to die,” one of the remaining techs said.

  No one argued. At least not at first.

  Dillon seemed to recover from the shock the quickest. “Well, no matter how long we’ve got, we’ve got to get to the highest ground so we might as well get over there.”

  The tech stood her ground. “It isn’t going to be high ground in an hour.”

  “Well, that’s probably why we should hurry and get over there,” Dillon replied.

  His mother must have been an eternal optimist. He certainly didn’t get that quality from his father.

  Shalie followed Callum as he entered the pool. “It shallow enough, we shouldn’t have a problem.”

  Yes, well, he clearly hadn’t had to fend off an entire school of baby Hammerheadss. She stuck a toe in then pulled it back out equally quickly. Quax passed her by carrying the toddler in his arms and Tonaka on his back. How she wished she could climb on too.

  “I can come back for you, Shalie,” Quax offered.

  “No, it’s okay.” Closing her eyes, she stepped fully into the pond. She wasn’t attacked. Imagine that. Hurrying, she sloshed her way across, joining Callum on the other side.

  From this vantage point it became clear it was even worse than they expected. The pools were much deeper over here. More than enough room for any of the medium sized sharks to be swimming just out of sight. The only “dry” land anymore were the rooftops.

  “Who is up for some roof running?” Callum said, rubbing his palms together as he turned to Quax. “Do you have any kind of wire or string?”

  Quax nodded, held the toddler in one arm as he dug around in his abdominal compartment. He pulled out a spool of steel wire.

  “I am going to run this across then tie it to the other side to give you guys something to hang onto.”

  “Sure you don’t want me to do that, dad?” Dillon asked.

  Callum patted his son on the back. “I’ve got this.”

  Shalie certainly hoped so.

  * * *

  “I believe that I am the most obvious choice,” Quax stated.

  Tonaka had to agree. “He is the most efficient runner.”

  “And let him have all the fun?” Callum said with a snort. “No way.”

  He knew the director to be impulsive and impatient but Callum usually bowed his head to logic. Perhaps this was some sort of morale booster. Tonaka had never been very good at those.

  “Quax, tie this end to that post. I’ll run over to the other side and tie it there.”

  “Again, I could --”

  “No worries, mate,” Callum said then turned and ran. He leapt over the first small pool easily, landing on a rooftop of what used to be a communications relay building. Callum kept running along the rooftops, jumping each pool, stretching the wire out.

  For only having one arm, Callum had excellent balance and poise. Quax could have done the same job faster, but perhaps not with so much fluid beauty. Tonaka would have to remember that when designing his next phase of QXs.

  Then Callum jumped a rather large expanse. A Mako shark jumped up, trying to make the director a meal. Luckily Callum had enough air that he crossed over safely. The near shark encounter didn’t slow the man, he kept up the pace until he made it all the way across.

  He tied off the other end then waved them on. “Just be careful in the middle there.”

  Quax stepped up and didn’t even grab the line. Almost like it was a point of pride that he could have done it on his own. Very interesting. Perhaps Shalie was correct and somewhere in that emotional chip, bravery was forming.

  Unlike Callum, Quax didn’t run, he simply leapt from rooftop to rooftop, using his incredibly strong and flexible tail like a kangaroo would, sometimes clearing two rooftops at a time. He didn’t hesitate when he got to the middle section, although Tonaka noticed that he did jump higher than he had for any other rooftop.

  The Mako again tried to nab a snack out of the air, but Quax cleared the shark by far.

  Within a blink of an eye, they were on the other side with Callum.

  “Exhilarating isn’t it?” Callum asked.

  “I wouldn’t call it exactly that,” Tonaka said, climbing down off of Quax. And if he’d had to be the one jumping? Exhilarating definitely wouldn’t have been the word.

  * * *

  Nick stepped up next. Not because he necessarily wanted to go next, but because he didn’t want Nami to go next. He took in several deep breaths, grabbed hold of the guide wire, then launched onto the rooftop.

  The tiles were more slippery than either Callum or Quax had let on. He righted himself, getting traction before he headed to the next rooftop. Thank god for the wire. He never would have been able to nail the landing on the next roof without it. He had no idea how Callum had done it, freestyle with only one arm.

  The guy was crazy, but then again he was Australian so that kind of went with the territory.

  Nick made it to the middle rooftop. This gap was longer and apparently had a Mako shark to boot. For joy.

  He backed up making sure that he had plenty of speed and hurled himself as high and as far as he could. Sure enough the Mako made his scheduled appearance. Now it just looked like the shark was having some fun on the human’s expense.

  Landing hard, Nick’s ankle gave out under him, but he gripped that damned wire line for his life. He was NOT going down. And he didn’t.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, he tested his ankle. There was no pain, no weakness, the joint had just decided to give him a little scare.

  He pointed back to the pool he just jumped. “That is officially the Mako Crossing!”

  There was a nervous tittering of laughter from the other side. Okay, so it wasn’t that funny, but he had to do something to break the tension if not just for himself.

  Nick made it across with no further incident.

  “Good show, mate,” Callum said, clapping him on the back. “Next!” the director shouted.

  CHAPTER 25

  One of the techs was standing in front of Nami. She tentatively stepped forward and grabbed the guide wire.

  “I’m really doing this,” the woman said before she jumped.

  Nami watched as the woman did the same as her father, readjusting her feet, digging the toe of her shoe into the shingles. She didn’t get nearly as much height as her dad, which wasn’t a problem until you got to Mako Crossing.

  You could tell the woman knew that too. She backed up to the very end of the rooftop and sprinted her way until she flung herself over the pool.

  The Mako snapped, nearly getting a shoe. The near miss threw the woman’s trajectory off and she landed on the side of the roof rather than at the apex. Still hanging onto the wire, the woman scrambled to get her footing as the Mako threw itself up onto the side of the roof.

  Finally the woman got to the top and the Mako slid back into the water.

  “You can breathe now,” Dillon said, rubbing Nami’s back. She didn’t even realize she had been holding it, despite the headache it was causing.

  She breathed more normally as the woman made it across to the other side. Her father helped the tech onto dry land.

  “Who’s next?” Dillon asked. The only other tech backed away.

  “Not me. I can’t… I can’t do it. It’s too dangerous. I’ll die.”

  Nami didn’t bother to argue with how dangerous it was. Duh. “What is the alternative?”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m just asking you what your plan is if you don’t cross. This piece of land will be underwater by the top of the hour and then the sharks will just cruise right up to you, so what is your plan?”

  The man’s mouth worked, but no words came out. His brow was furrowed so tightly that he now had a unibrow. Not his best look.

  “You’ve got to do it, so you might as well try to get in the right head space.”

  “I’ll go next,” Shalie said.

 
Dillon helped her over. Without hesitation Shalie launched herself.

  “See?” Nami said to the tech. “You’ve just got to commit.”

  Shalie was making it look easy, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. She even cleared Mako Crossing without a problem.

  “There you go,” Nami said. “You can’t let the fear paralyze you. I know from experience how that doesn’t work.”

  The man seemed to be relaxing a bit, nodding his head, although Nami wasn’t sure exactly how much he actually agreed with her or if it was just reflex.

  “I’m going to go first and stop on the far side of Mako Crossing. I’ll wait for you there, okay?”

  The man just kept nodding.

  “He’s all yours,” Nami said to Dillon as she stepped forward and grabbed the line.

  * * *

  Nami was quite the girl. How Dillon had gotten so lucky to meet her, he didn’t know, but dang, he was lucky.

  “Watch,” Dillon told the tech.

  “I won’t make it,” the man murmured.

  “If you think that, then you won’t,” Dillon said. “Nami is right, you’ve got to believe. You’ve got to know that you are going to make it.”

  The man backed away as Nami easily leapt Mako Crossing and waited on the other side as promised.

  “Dude, we don’t have time for this. We’ve got to get to high ground.”

  “Then go,” the man said.

  “And wait for the water to rise so the sharks can bite you off at the knees.”

  “If that is what happens, then yes,” the man choked out then sobbed.

  Dillon couldn’t drag the guy across as much as he wanted to. He hated giving up on anyone. “Please. We can do it together.”

  The man backed another step. “No.”

  Dillon looked across to the rest of the group. “I’m not leaving until you do.”

  The man shrugged. “Fine by me, but I am not going. Ever.”

  “Dillon!” his father shouted across the expanse. “Get over here.”

  “You’re sure?” Dillon asked the man.

  The man nodded his head so violently Dillon feared he would give himself whiplash.

  “All right, but if you want to cross, just let us know and if I can I’ll come back, but you’ve got to make up your mind soon.”

  The man backed away, slumping down to his knees, hugging himself. Shock.

  “Do you want Quax to come back and carry you?” Dillon asked. It was the perfect solution, but apparently the guy was too far gone to care. He just kept shaking his head, murmuring no, no, no.

  Dillon had to turn away. He hated it, but he had to.

  * * *

  Callum watched his son cross the rooftops. He made it over Mako Crossing and joined Nami. After a brief discussion they both continued on. Nick helped his daughter onto the islet.

  “I think I should go back,” Nami said.

  “No, absolutely not,” Nick stated.

  Dillon chimed in, “That’s what I told her, but even I think maybe we should send Quax back.”

  “Thanks for the volunteering, buddy,” Quax snorted.

  “I mean it, he’s going to die out there, otherwise,” Dillon stated. “It’s just a slow motion suicide.”

  While they argued, the woman tech shouted, “Look!”

  The tech had risen and gone over to the wire. His face was tear streaked and his eyes red rimmed, but he took hold of the wire and jumped.

  That first pool was pretty small and he crossed it easily. The man seemed to gain strength from that minor victory and leapt the next one with more gusto, which he was going to need to get across Mako Crossing.

  He leapt the third pool, landing a bit catawampus, but righting himself on the wire. He beamed a smile at them. He could do this.

  Callum watched as the man prepped to jump Mako Crossing. The nervousness was back. He fidgeted at the edge, biting his lip, mumbling to himself.

  “Just jump before you psych yourself out!” Nick yelled.

  The man nodded backed up and leapt. He cleared the Mako easily and looked to have a good trajectory, then one of the baby Hammerheadss jumped from the water, grabbing hold of the man’s ankle. Then another grabbed his pant leg and yet another latched onto his hand.

  “We should have just let the mother eat them,” Shalie said next to him, wrapping her arms around her body. “Maybe she knew something we didn’t.”

  “Maybe she did,” Callum answered as the tech flailed as more Hammerheads babies came at him. The man missed the roof completely and lost his hold of the wire. He splashed into the water. Everyone rushed forward but before anyone of them could even get onto the first rooftop, the Mako came and dragged the man under.

  Everyone stood there in silence as the bubbles broke the surface then were no more.

  “Self-fulfilling prophecy,” Tonaka muttered as he turned to head up the hill.

  * * *

  Everyone else had moved off, but Shalie couldn’t get her feet to move. She was transfixed there, staring at the spot the man had gone down. That could have been her. It probably should have been her. Why hadn’t she killed the baby Hammerheadss when she had the chance?

  Her lab was equipped with its own mini nuclear option. Once out of the supply room, she could have zapped those little freaking vicious creatures, but back then she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  She had reasoned that that babies were just doing what they needed to survive. She couldn’t blame them.

  Now? Now, she could blame them.

  Little bastards.

  “Shalie?” a voice asked behind her. She had thought Callum might come back to her but the voice was feminine. It was Nami. “You okay?”

  “Yah,” Shalie answered not sounding at all convincing even to herself.

  “Tell me about it,” Nami chuckled. “This is as much my fault.”

  Was Shalie’s guilt that obvious that Nami felt she needed to take some of it from her?

  “No, if I’d handled the babies when I could have this never would have happened.”

  “And if I had been able to talk him across while I was still there, this wouldn’t have happened. If the saboteur hadn’t done everything he did, this wouldn’t have happened. If Callum had followed Dillon’s mother to Montana, this wouldn’t have happened. How far back do we go to assign blame?”

  Shalie looked down at the young girl. “How did you get so damned smart?”

  Nami shrugged. “You try having a boozed up lesbian mom and action star dad. You learn some shit, fast.”

  Shalie couldn’t help but chuckle. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” Nami said heading back up the hill. “My life does tend to put other people’s in perspective.”

  Shalie guessed it did. She looked up the hill. The others were already staking out their spot on the slanted roof. They were lucky it was one of the flattest roofs on the island, but that didn’t mean it was going to be easy staying up there for hours at a time, if they had that as the surf splashed higher and higher up the bank.

  Most of the other buildings were only marked by their antenna sticking up out of the water. And even some of the lower buildings you couldn’t even see that.

  Callum’s grand accomplishment nearly all water-logged. They only positive in this scenario was that the storm really was letting up. The deluge had lessened to a driving rain, then down to a sprinkling. The tiny rain drops still stung due to the high winds, but it was a definite improvement.

  Shalie followed Nami up the hill. Callum reached his hand out and helped Shalie up onto the roof.

  He leaned in to kiss her but said, “Crap.”

  Shalie frowned. Was their love souring already? “What’s wrong?”

  “Jack.”

  “What about Jack?” Shalie asked, pulling out Callum’s embrace.

  “I left him in lock up.”

  “So?”

  “He’s going to drown if I don’t go get him.”

  “Again, so?” Shalie asked. “He le
ft me to die.”

  Callum rubbed her arm as he spoke. “And I can’t stoop to his level.”

  Shalie knew he was right, but she didn’t want him to go. They’d just gotten to relative safety.

  * * *

  Dillon joined his dad and Shalie. It was a little weird to see them so close together, his father’s hand on her arm. But it was nice. Actually it was great. Weird but great.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” his father answered way too fast.

  His dad was good at many, many things. However, he was a lousy, lousy liar. “Seriously, dad, you’ve got ‘trouble’ written all over your face.”

  It was Shalie that answered. “Your dad just realized that he left Jack in lock up.”

  “So?” Dillon asked.

  “That’s what I said, “Shalie answered, “However your father feels compelled to go save him.”

  “Why?”

  His father frowned. “Because we aren’t the type of people to leave a man to drown to death when we could have stopped it.”

  “Even with a scum like Jack?”

  “Especially when it is a scum like Jack. Human life is human life. Either you embrace that or you are definitively on the slippery slope.”

  “He is right, of course,” Tonaka stated. Dillon hadn’t even heard him approach. “We must allow the law to dispense its justice to Jack, not take it into our own hands.”

  “Fine,” Dillon said. “We’d better hurry.”

  “No,” his father said. “I’m going alone.”

  “Like heck you are,” Dillon stated. “According to you it is incumbent upon my soul that I help free Jack so let’s get going. My soul is in a hurry.”

  “Hey, guys, what’s up?” a voice asked behind Dillon. He adored that voice at any other time he would have welcomed it. But right now he did not need Nami in the mix.

  * * *

  The loud silence that accompanied her question pretty much confirmed her suspicions. A bunch of people standing around having an argument was never good on shark park.