by Alex Archer
Not when such a huge shark was on her tail.
Cole seemed restless. “I’m not sure if I can watch this. I feel like I ought to be doing something to save her.”
“I don’t know that she’s seen it yet,” Dave said. “She’s seems pretty calm right now.”
But then Sheila turned in the water and noticed the giant dorsal fin closing to within a few hundred yards from where she splashed through the water. She looked at the Seeker and shouted for them to help her.
“Even if we wanted to,” Jax said. “There’s nothing we can do. We’ll never reach her in time.”
“And should she be saved?” Dave said. “She almost killed Steve.”
“And you,” Annja said.
“I’m expendable,” Dave said. He grinned. “Sorry, it’s an old SEAL joke.”
Cole turned away. “I can’t watch this. Come find me when it’s over, Annja. We need to talk some things through.”
Annja turned back to the ocean. She didn’t feel particularly compassionate toward Sheila. She’d deceived her and made Annja feel like a fool for trusting her. And now, Sheila was about to get her due. Still, no one deserved such a violent death.
“Not much longer,” Jax said.
The dorsal fin cut through the waves, and seemed to be picking up speed. Annja thought it looked a bit strange. She frowned and had to remind herself that she was about to watch another human being be killed by a shark.
And yet, somehow she didn’t feel anything deep inside her.
Annja frowned. Have I changed? she wondered. Have I grown cold? Have I forgotten what it’s like to feel the fear that Sheila must be feeling right now?
Sheila screamed again as the fin bore down on her.
“God,” Jax said. “Here it comes.”
There was a sudden explosion of movement as the shark’s head reared out of the water. The massive form blocked everything from their view, but then, in an instant, it had clamped down and sunk completely back beneath the waves.
Sheila was gone.
21
Annja found her way to the galley for dinner. Tom was sitting at the nearest table eating toast and water. Annja nudged him. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” he said. “And I hear I’ve been missing out on all the excitement, which pisses me off to no end.”
“Just a few gun battles, a giant shark, that sort of thing,” Annja said. “Nothing you couldn’t experience any day of the week.”
“Thanks for rubbing salt in the wound.”
Annja smiled. “I’m getting dinner. Will it gross you out if I sit with you?”
“What are they serving?”
“Looks like spaghetti and meatballs.”
Tom blanched and bolted from the galley. Annja watched him dart past Cole, who had just entered, and shook her head.
“I’m guessing,” Cole said, “that he’s not actually all that well yet.”
“Doesn’t seem to be,” Annja said. “Listen, sorry about earlier.”
“About what?”
“Sheila and the shark.”
Cole let a small grin play across his face but his voice was grim. “Sounds like a bad sea ditty they’d sing down at a dive bar.”
“It does,” Annja said. “But I don’t want you thinking I’m some sort of bloodthirsty woman out for vengeance.”
“I don’t think that at all. I just couldn’t stay to watch it happen. Maybe because it goes against everything I’ve come to learn about sharks. For me, seeing something like that would cause me to question everything I know.” He shook his head. “It’s crazy, right? I mean, here I am spending all my life studying this incredible fish and then we encounter this one. And it acts like a bad movie prop.”
Annja shrugged. “All I know is it’s big and seems utterly deadly and hell-bent on eating people.”
“That’s the thing,” Cole said. “It’s what I don’t understand. I’ve seen other sharks in action attacking fish and whatnot. I’ve never seen something like this. Even the manner in which it attacked Sheila seemed wrong.”
“I thought you didn’t watch.”
Cole looked sheepish. “My scientific curiosity got the better of me. I peeked from the wheelhouse.”
“And what does your experience tell you about the shark?”
Cole shook his head. “To tell you the truth, I’m not so sure I’m ready to believe it is a shark.”
“Sure looks like one to me.” Annja helped herself to the pasta and then led them over to a table. “I mean, it’s got the dorsal fin, the teeth, and moves like a plane through the water. Isn’t that pretty much it?”
Cole bit into some garlic bread. “Remember when I mentioned to you earlier that something hadn’t clicked with me and I needed to mull it over some more?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I’ve mulled. And what I’ve come up with is going to seem a bit strange to you.”
Annja smirked. “Cole, you really need to spend a lot more time with me before you will succeed in shocking me. I can almost guarantee that anything you say won’t surprise me.”
“Genitals,” Cole said.
Annja shook her head. “Okay, I was wrong. That’s not exactly what I expected.”
Cole smiled. “What I mean is that I’m not so sure I saw any genitals on the shark.”
“No one did. All we could see was the mouth open and close down on Sheila. There wasn’t much else, honestly,” Annja said. “And it’s probably better that there wasn’t.”
Cole shook his head. “I meant earlier. When the shark attacked my cage. Right before it rammed and I got knocked unconscious, there was a moment—a flash, really—where I could see the entire underside of the fish.”
“And?”
“No genitals.”
Annja chewed a meatball slowly. “I don’t actually know what shark genitals look like, so obviously I’m going to have to take your word for it.”
Cole held up his hand and formed it into a blade. “They’re kind of like these claspers that the sharks use to hold on to each other prior to fertilization. It’s quite fascinating, actually, when you see them in action—”
Annja stopped him. “Shark porn is not going to do a damned thing for me. Like I said, I’ll take your word for it. If you say you didn’t see any genitals, then that’s enough.”
Cole fell silent for a moment and then looked back up at Annja. “Of course, that begs a fresh question.”
“What’s that?”
“If it’s not a shark, then what in God’s name is it?”
“Another species of fish? Some type of underwater mammal?”
Cole shook his head. “Can’t be a mammal. It would need to surface to breathe and we haven’t see any incidents of that. No, can’t be a mammal.”
“How about a reptile? Maybe something like the Loch Ness Monster?”
Cole frowned. “I don’t see it. This thing swims like a fish, and acts like a fish to some extent. I’ve got to assume it is a fish. But the lack of genitals is truly bizarre. How would it procreate?”
“Are you sure it would?”
Cole fixed a stare on Annja. “You’re kidding, right?”
Annja leaned back. “I’m just saying that it’s a big fish. Maybe it’s the last of its kind. Maybe it doesn’t reproduce because there are no others like it.”
Cole shook his head. “I can’t buy into that. It had to come from somewhere, right?”
“I guess.” Annja went back to eating her pasta while Cole chewed on the same section of garlic bread he’d been gnawing on since they sat down. She regarded him for a moment. She could see he was going to stew about this for the rest of the night.
“I already know what you’re thinking,” Annja said.
He looked at her. “And what is that?”
“You want to get back in the water with it.”
Cole smiled. “You’re right. That’s exactly what I want to do. I have to be sure about what I saw. And there’s only one way to d
o that. I’ve got to get close to the shark.”
“Hunter is going to freak out.”
“Then maybe we shouldn’t tell him.”
“Oh, great, you want an accomplice. Hunter will get pissed off at me, as well.” Annja swirled some of the spaghetti strands around her fork. “We’ll both be in the doghouse.”
“At least we won’t be lonely.”
“And when are you thinking about revisiting your friend the shark?”
“How about after dinner?”
Annja looked at Cole. “You’re not serious. Tell me you’re just joking about this.”
“I’m not.”
Annja laid her fork down. “Okay, so allow me to point a few things out here. First, there’s the whole nature of getting back into the water with that thing. And bear in mind that I only recently saw it devour Sheila, so I’m not especially keen on a repeat performance.”
“Granted,” Cole said with a vague smile on his face. “Go on, please.”
“Well, the next thing is kind of obvious. Or at least it seems to me it damn well ought to be.” She eyed Cole. “It’s night. In other words, it’s dark out there. And I’d imagine it’s going to be pretty dark underwater. Just how are you supposed to be able to see anything?”
“I’ve got a flashlight. More of a spotlight, actually. It should do the business well enough for me to see what I need to.”
“The genitals.”
“Or lack thereof, yes.” Cole wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Listen, I know it’s crazy. I’m not trying to convince you otherwise. Odds are I probably need to get my head checked. Any normal person wouldn’t even dream about doing this. I understand that. But I also understand that unless I settle this question, then the fear of this thing is going to immobilize everyone in this entire situation.”
Annja leaned back in her chair and took a breath. “You know, I thought we’d all agreed that we wouldn’t worry about the wreck or the possibility of treasure until we got to the bottom of who was sabotaging the ship.”
“I pretty much thought we’d laid that question to rest with the discovery of Sheila and her subsequent demise.”
Annja shook her head. “I was under the impression there was someone else.”
“Why?”
“Well, because—” Annja stopped. “Well, Sheila told me there was.”
Cole nodded. “So much for that.”
Annja frowned. “She did admit that she’d attacked me in my room yesterday. Even after I asked if there’d been someone else. She said it was just her.” Annja sighed. “All right, maybe we are safe now.”
“Which means we can talk about diving again,” Cole said. “The main purpose for us coming here.”
“I thought that was the shark,” Annja said.
“Well, yeah, but it’s all connected.” Cole took a bite of a meatball and chewed. “So, are you with me on this? I could use your help.”
“If I say no, you’re probably going to do it, anyway, aren’t you?”
“It will take me a lot longer if I have to do it alone,” Cole said. “There’s the whole winch thing and clambering into the cage. It’s not a very easy process working alone like that. Especially if I’m trying to do it on the sly.”
“Like when everyone else is asleep?” Annja said. “I think that would probably be the smartest move, if you could even say any of this is smart.”
Cole thought that over. “All right. We can wait until later. I don’t think it will really affect the lighting situation. It’s going to be dark any way we look at it.”
“And this light of yours will work underwater?”
“Professional rig,” Cole said. “I’ve used it before off the coast of South Africa…” He frowned.
“What?”
He looked up. “Huh?”
Annja pointed at him. “You frowned and your voice trailed off. What is it? Did you just think of something?”
Cole’s frown deepened. “I guess I did.”
“Please share with the rest of the class.” Annja rested her chin on her hands. “Hopefully, it has something to do with not going through with your desire to dive into the pitch-black ocean.”
“No such luck, toots.” Cole took a drink of his soda. “Another thing just struck me about our friend the fish.”
“Yeah?”
“The manner in which it attacks.”
“What about it?”
Cole shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense. It’s not natural.”
“What are you talking about?”
Cole pointed at her. “Remember when it attacked my cage?”
“Sure, I was there.”
“But how did it attack my cage?”
Annja shook her head. “What exactly are you getting at? It rammed it. You know that. You felt it, I’m sure.”
“Yes, that’s what I wanted to hear. It rammed the cage. From a horizontal level. Right?”
“Well, yeah, its dorsal cut through the waves like it did when it attacked Sheila just a little while ago.”
“It attacked horizontally.” Cole nodded. “There is definitely something wrong with this picture.”
“Then could you explain it to me, please? Because I’m not following you.”
“It has to do with how most sharks track their targets. Most of them—not all, but most—will stay close to the bottom and use the light from above to silhouette their targets against the surface of the ocean.”
“Okay.”
“Once they’ve gotten a bead on the target, they will accelerate and attack vertically. They do it by coming up from below and biting. They don’t attack from the side usually.”
“But this shark does.”
Cole nodded. “Right. Which is one more thing that just doesn’t ring true about the nature of this beast. Great whites—which is what I think this fish is related to—are known for their vicious attacks from below. They will literally breach the water in South Africa. I’ve seen them decimate seals that way. But it’s always the same thing—they attack from below. That way, the victim has little chance of seeing them. It’s a sneak attack that has devastating results.”
“Maybe this shark is different.”
“Oh, it’s different, all right. And that’s what we’ve got to find out. Because, as I’ve told you all along, sharks are remarkably intelligent. They don’t want to go into battle and risk injury to themselves. They choose the path of least resistance, attacking so suddenly that their prey has little time or ability to fight back.”
Annja nodded. “So, then why does this shark attack differently.”
“I don’t know,” Cole said. “But I intend to find out.”
22
Annja crept out of her quarters and made her way down toward the stern deck. The luminous hands on her watch read twelve-fifteen and the dark turtleneck she wore with black pants helped her blend into the shadows.
At the entrance to the deck, she paused to make sure everything was clear. She knew Jax would be in the wheelhouse keeping watch. She and Hunter had come to an arrangement about that. And Hunter had made no secret that he intended to turn in after what he called a “long and exhausting day.”
The coast seemed clear. Annja made her way out on to the deck. Cole had planned to arrive about twenty minutes before Annja, to get things ready for his descent into the inky water.
Annja waited. She saw Cole skirting the edge of the deck by the rail. He had the cage righted and clasped to the winch line. Annja could also make out oxygen tanks and the rest of Cole’s diving gear. She took a calming breath. He certainly seemed ready to go through with his plans.
Annja walked over to him. They couldn’t be seen from the wheelhouse unless Jax stepped outside and heard noise. She’d still have to come down the stairs in order to ascertain what was going on.
The chances of that seemed remote.
“You all right?” she asked.
Cole nodded. “I’m almost set to go here. Just need to get the winch fired up.” He put
a hand on Annja’s shoulder. “We won’t have much time when we start that up. The noise is bound to draw attention. But I’ve got to do this, so whatever happens, try to stall them from hauling me back, okay?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will.” Cole pointed at the cage. “I’m going to do it a little differently this time.”
“How?”
“I’ll be in the cage when you winch it overboard. I don’t want to take a chance of missing the opening in the dark. It’s safer that way.”
Annja almost laughed. “I think this is the first time I’ve heard you suggest that you do something that qualifies as ‘safe.’”
“Maybe I’m changing.”
“I doubt that.”
“Me, too.”
Annja watched Cole scramble up the cage and sit on the top as he cinched down his weight belt and tanks. He gave her the thumbs-up and then lowered himself through the opening. He dropped in lightly, without making much noise.
“Let’s do this,” Cole whispered.
Annja moved over to the winch and fired it up. The noise of the hydraulics hissing seemed incredibly loud compared to when they weren’t sneaking around.
Figures, she thought. Things are always noisier when you’re doing something wrong.
She pressed the winch into action and watched as it extended and started to lift the cage off the deck. Cole grabbed onto the bars and nodded at Annja. With the regulator in his mouth, he looked like some type of alien. Annja smiled and waved once as she directed the winch over the edge of the boat.
The cage touched the murky blackness of the ocean and started to slide beneath the depths. When it was buoyant, the top of the cage rested just below the surface.
Annja slid away from the winch and walked toward the side of the boat. She watched as Cole switched on the brilliantly bright spotlight and started shining it through the water.
Now it was just a matter of waiting.
Annja leaned on the rail and tried to peer through the darkness. There was no way she could see what was coming until the last minute. She imagined that huge fin cutting through the darkness, headed straight for Cole’s cage.
Her stomach cramped up at the thought. What would she do if it went bad? What if the shark was able to ram its way into the cage? How would she save Cole? She could try to winch him out, but if the shark bit down, she’d be dealing with its weight, as well. And that would cripple the crane.
