Lenah sighed. “What the hell can we do anyway. Everyone’s out of the water.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“But we saw what happened. We have to tell them.”
“We will. Let’s go tag this thing and we’ll come right back here and give them the tracking frequency and explain everything.”
Lenah sighed, but depressed the throttle and the Parker picked up speed, kicking up seaweed and churning the ocean into whitewater. Thunder cracked, and a light rain fell, layering the boat with water and making everything slick.
“SONAR shows the creature heading two, one, four, closing in on Seagull Island,” Lenah said.
“Keep pace. What depth is it at?”
“Hard to tell. At least fifty feet based on what I’m seeing,” she said.
“It just ate, so it might be chilling out until it gets hungry again. Stay on it.”
Splinter went to the dart gun case and removed the other tracker dart. Made from stainless steel, the point was a barbed needle that could penetrate a thick hide. Splinter activated the transmitter in the dart, and a red light came on. It had a small battery and was also equipped with a drug chamber. Unfortunately, Splinter had nothing to put in it. The dart’s orange flight stabilizer was wrapped with a rubber band, and he took it off and pushed the dart into the rifle’s firing chamber and jacked it closed. Then he retrieved the M16 and slung it over his shoulder.
Lenah said, “It’s coming up. Thirty feet. Twenty. Ten. Off to starboard.”
Splinter went out on deck, headed to the stern, and peered through the binoculars. He let them fall to his chest on their lanyard and brought up the dart rifle. He sighted the beast, but it was still too far off.
“Get me closer,” he yelled.
Lenah cycled the motors up and the Parker increased speed to thirty knots, and the twenty-eight-foot fishing boat pushed up waves and fell into valleys. Seawater pummeled the Parker, crashing over the bow and soaking the windshield, but Lenah didn’t falter. She’d been out in ten-foot swells, and this was nothing more than ripples in her bathwater.
Poseidon joined Splinter aft, the cat sticking its head into the wind, spray leaving tiny droplets of water on her slick hair.
“You hold on buddy,” Splinter said.
“It’s picking up speed, Splinter. It must know we’re here.” Lenah’s voice boomed from the exterior speaker.
They were playing a dangerous game with the animal. Once it figured out it was bigger than the Parker, their advantage would be lost.
“Splinter, come look at this,” Lenah said.
Splinter went to the pilothouse and found Lenah staring at the SONAR screen. “What is it?”
“See these here, all those small blue blobs running along the bottom?”
“I do.”
“I think that’s a school of American shads, a species of anadromous clupeid fish that roam Florida’s coasts and swim up rivers to spawn. The creature appears to be heading toward them.”
“New source of food?”
“I’d think. Much smaller vibrations, but the beast probably sees them as easy prey.”
“OK, reduce speed and let’s see what it does. How far are we from Seagull Island?”
“Mile or so.”
“Shoot. We’re ten miles out already?” Splinter asked.
“Yup. Look there,” Lenah said. She pointed off the port bow.
Seagull Island was justly named because it was a barren, mangrove covered tidal island that thousands of gulls called home. There was no fresh water. No game. No beaches. No good reason to go there unless you were a bird.
“The beast going deep?”
“Not yet.”
“Any signs of pursuit from the Coast Guard?”
“Naw. Maybe the folks on the boat realized we were trying to help them?”
Splinter said nothing.
The rain came hard and cold, and Splinter and Poseidon stayed in the pilothouse. Lightning flashed, and thunder reverberated over the water like concussion bombs. The sea kicked-up and the Parker fought through the growing swell, the waves peaking at seven feet. The Evenstar’s bilge pump snapped on, sending a torrent of water jetting from the hull.
Eyes locked on the SONAR, Splinter watched the purple blob of the creature dive deeper, heading straight for the school of shads that moved fifty feet above the ocean floor.
The cabin was cold, and Lenah clicked on the heater, the rain still pounding them. “Looks like the creature is slowing,” Lenah said.
The beast turned south, moving around its prey, positioning itself to knife through the school like a whale devouring krill.
“That shark showing up is the worst possible thing that could have happened,” Lenah said. She gripped the wheel so tight her fingers were red, and she stared intently through the rain-soaked windshield.
Splinter didn’t know what she meant. “Why’s that? It might have helped. If the sea monster had attacked the boat, it might have gotten everyone.”
“True. But now the authorities will think the shark has been causing all the problems.”
“Not entirely bad. They’ll still be searching for the shark.”
“Assuming it’s not already gaffed,” she said.
To that Splinter had no response.
Fifty-eight feet below the surface the mystery animal gobbled shads in his huge flat jaws. On the surface, rolling waves pounded the Parker, tossing it back and forth like a leaf.
“Would we still be in range if used Seagull Island to block some of these waves?”
“No, and there’ll be no place to hide there. The natural flow of the waves is east to west, but this storm is standing everything up and turning the ocean into a choppy mess.” She minimized the SONAR and brought up the long-range weather report, which had an accompanying satellite photo taken four minutes prior. “This stuff should blow out in the next hour, and it should ease up.”
Splinter said nothing.
“What do you figure the creature will do when it’s done feeding and the sun comes out?”
“If it’s what we think, some kind of mutated reptile, then I’d think it would come up and sun itself.”
“Soon as the storm passes, it’s secret sauce time. The thing seemed to like it.”
“It did indeed.”
The mystery creature didn’t go far, spending the next two hours eating shads. The sun started its descent to the horizon, leaving streaks of orange and white through the thinning clouds. The storm had moved out, and it was hot and humid.
The two-foot chop was like a kiddie pool compared to the last twenty-four hours, and the Evenstar cut through the still water, the Yamahas barely audible as they rotated at 2300RPM.
Lenah slowed the Parker because the monster had slowed. It was moseying upward and west, slowly coming to the surface and heading back toward the mainland. Seagull Island was ten clicks to starboard, and several boats dotted the horizon.
Lenah ladled some of her chum into the sea, its rank smell making Splinter cough. Lenah laughed and so did Splinter, spittle dripping from his mouth.
“Why don’t you cover your nose?”
“Wow. Never thought of that.”
“Why are you such a wiseass?”
“It’s all I know,” Splinter said. “You see anything?”
Lenah said, “It’s on the SONAR. Should be here soon.”
“Camera ready?”
“Right here. Dart?”
“Check.”
Banter and business completed, Splinter prepared for his shot. If everything went perfectly the creature would come up behind the Evenstar, following the chum slick, and Splinter would wait until the monster was fifty yards out before he fired. Then Lenah would gun the motors, and it would be a chase.
He laid the M16 flat on the deck within reach and put the dart rifle to his shoulder. Small whitecaps dotted the ocean, and patches of seaweed and dirty foam from the storm formed a patchwork across the undulating sea. He felt salt in his nose a
nd eyes and his skin had tightened like piano strings. He was afraid to laugh for fear of ripping his face.
Both spotlights were on, and in the fading light Splinter saw one hundred yards out.
“It’s coming in on the port side, Splinter. Shit, it’s not going after the slick. Something’s wrong,” Lenah said. She backed down the throttle and the boat slowed to fifteen knots.
Splinter strained to see in the gray of twilight, the spotlights blackening everything beyond their glow. A splash brought Splinter’s head around and a giant white torso rolled in the ocean. It looked like a whale, and an eye the size of a baseball examined them. With a flick of its caudal fin the creature was gone.
“It’s under us, Splinter. The thing is huge. Thirty-feet.” She put the motors in neutral.
The sea tumbled over the Parker, bubbling and snapping against the hull. A cacophony of seagulls floated over the black ocean, their chirping and screeching a welcome sound in the stillness. The glow of the control screen lit the pilothouse with a faux neon that mixed with the white gauge lights creating a kaleidoscope of color that reminded Splinter of light shining through a diamond.
“Anything?” Splinter said.
“It’s cruising at around twenty feet. Steadily spiraling up. Chum?” she said.
“Naw. We’ve been wasting it. The thing wants our asses, not some nasty fish possum stew.”
“Splinter, what are we doing out here?”
He said nothing.
“I get you’re damaged and obsessed, but why are you doing this? How did this become your fight? My fight?”
Splinter said, “You know that answer better than me.”
“I do. I’m here for you and you’re here because you’re obsessed.”
“Obsessed?”
“You know we should go to the coasties, tell them what we’ve seen.”
“We’re about to tag this thing and get proof for the cops and you’re preaching at me? We’ve been through this,” he said.
“I know, I just keep getting this nagging feeling that we made the wrong decision, like we’re crying wolf, and when we need the coasties they’re not going to be there for us.”
“Stay with me for a few more hours. Sunset tomorrow, and if—”
“Port bow. Twenty yards,” Lenah said.
The ocean erupted, and Splinter went out on deck and sighted the dart gun on the mountain of whitewater. He saw no white skin, no teeth. He waited for any sign, anything to shoot at, but as the water flattened and cleared, the creature dove sharply to starboard and cut beneath the boat. A surge of water pushed the Parker up and it jumped from the sea and landed with a splat.
A roar sounded in the darkness. A great braying that made Splinter think of dinosaurs. The monster surfaced, snapping its saw-like jaws, chomping on seawater as it disappeared beneath a fist of whitewater.
“It’s moving southeast toward Seagull Island. Fast.” Lenah’s voice boomed through the exterior speakers.
Splinter sighed the dart gun, but the creature had already disappeared into the gray of oncoming night, leaving only its wake behind.
“Get on it, Lenah. Full speed,” he yelled.
The Yamahas purred, and the Parker sprang from the water with a spray of seawater.
A knot of water came at the Evenstar as if an invisible boat steamed across the ocean intent on colliding with the Parker. It was a hundred yards out and closing.
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Lenah brought the Parker to a full stop. Splinter braced against the gunnel as the boat tossed side-to-side as their wake smashed into the transom. The creature’s flat head and long mouth broke the surface, jaws opening.
Splinter took his finger off the trigger guard and placed it on the trigger. The beast was sixty yards out.
“Be ready to drop the hammer as soon as I fire,” Splinter yelled.
“10-4,” Lenah said. She watched from the rear pilothouse window, her hand poised over the throttle controls.
The creature opened its massive crocodilian mouth, revealing a row of sharp teeth. Its caudal fin smacked the water as it flicked back and forth, its two forward flippers pounding the sea.
Fifty yards.
The wind picked up and Splinter adjusted his aim. His hand and arm hurt from staying still for so long. The creature’s torso surged from the water and in that brief instant, Splinter thought he saw gills along the creature’s front flank.
Crocs didn’t have gills. They needed air to breath.
Splinter fired, and the dart streaked from the holding tube, whizzing through the air as its flight stabilizer expanded and guided the dart. The wind pushed it off course, but the dart struck home above the beast’s right flipper.
“Hit it!”
The Parker leapt from the water, the twin 150HP Yamahas clawing at the sea. Splinter got tossed against the transom and he dropped the dart rifle into the water and it sank below the churning ocean.
“Shhhhiiitttttttt,” he yelled, but then he remembered it didn’t really matter. He had no darts left, and he’d tagged the beast. Mission accomplished.
If it didn’t take them down.
The creature breached from the sea in its fury, launching itself at the fleeing Parker. The dart had stirred the animal into a frenzy, and it landed feet away from the Evenstar. A torrent of seawater poured over the gunnel, and Splinter swam across the deck. The bilge pump kicked on the boat started draining, but the Parker was swamped.
Lenah reduced speed due to the floodwater, and the Parker moved sluggishly as she changed direction, moving away from the thrashing creature.
The giant mutant-croc surfaced in the Parker’s wake, head pointed forward like an arrow, its rear fin and mid-flippers digging at the sea like boat propellers. The Yamahas shrieked and moaned with the crest of each wave.
The creature was gaining on them.
“I think I pissed it off,” Splinter said.
“You’re good at that,” she said.
The creature chomped at the boat, jaws snapping closed with a terrible crack.
Lenah jerked the wheel right and the Parker arced away from the beast. Splinter retrieved the M16 and ran to the stern. A thin mist from the churning propellers hung over the water at the back of the boat, but Splinter saw the beast’s massive frame disappear beneath the waves.
He sighted the swirl of water where the animal had submerged and squeezed off eight shots, each pop echoing over the ocean. The sea calmed, and the whitewater dissipated. Splinter’s heart hammered in his chest, his lower back screeching with pain. “Where is it?” he yelled.
“It’s coming up beneath us,” came Lenah’s voice from the pilothouse.
“How long?”
“Sixty-feet and rising,” she said.
The Parker lumbered through the sea at ten knots. The hull rocked and heaved as it cut through the chop, and several fishing poles fell from where they hung along the gunnel.
Splinter worked his way around the pilothouse to the bow, peering into the dark water. It was fully dark, and it was impossible to see more than a few feet into the churning sea.
“It’s right under us. Splinter!”
The front of the Parker rose from the water as the creature pushed the vessel upward, the force of its massive body shaking the Parker and driving the bow from the ocean. The engines screamed and sucked for water.
The creature dove, and the Evenstar fell back into the water with a bone rattling crash. Seawater pounded Splinter, and he got washed across the deck like a dead fish. His arm shot out and grabbed the corner of the pilothouse, stopping his slide toward the transom.
There’d been no crunch of fiberglass, but Splinter knew from past encounters the Parker couldn’t take many more hits like that. He got to his knees and pulled himself to his feet. He’d lost the M16 and it sat wedged between the gunnel and transom, tangled in a gill net. It was useless until he had the opportunity to fully clean it, and the ammo was most likely water damaged.
“It’s circling now, Splinter,
” Lenah yelled above the din.
Splinter pushed through the water, working his way to the pilothouse. If he could get the rifle maybe he’d find it in him to put a bullet between this thing’s eyes.
The beast bellowed again and headed right at the Evenstar.
It struck the boat on the port side, and Splinter saw Lenah’s head disappear behind the command console as she went down.
Anger built in him, the fog coming on, his mind racing back to Kabul, all the old fears and hatreds rushing back. He slid open the pilothouse door and jumped down the steps into the cabin. He grabbed the rifle and searched for the box of bullets. When he found it on the galley table, he tore it open and jacked a round into the firing chamber, and put a handful of shells in his pocket.
Splinter didn’t hear Lenah as he ran through the pilothouse back out onto deck. She was trying to tell him something, he could see her mouth moving, tears leaking from her eyes, but Splinter was gone, back in Kabul, and all that mattered was killing the beast.
The creature smashed into the port side, driving the Parker across the water at an odd angle, and the Yamahas coughed and struggled to draw the water necessary to cool the engines. The boat spun and before Lenah could kill the motors the propellers dug in and pushed the Evenstar toward the creature’s open maw.
The Parker slammed into the side of the beast’s head and the sound of crunching fiberglass made Splinter wince. The creature’s slate-gray eyes bulged from recessed eye sockets, its slick white skin covered in seaweed as it surfaced.
Lenah dropped the boat into reverse, and the Parker’s bow pulled away from the leviathan. The beast appeared stunned from the impact and floated listlessly, waves breaking over it in the darkness.
Splinter turned the floodlights on the beast, and that seemed to rouse the animal. It tossed and rolled, throwing water and turning the ocean into a boiling mess. He killed the lights.
Lenah put the boat in neutral and spun the wheel, pointing the bow away from the creature. The engines coughed and stalled as Lenah depressed the throttle. She put the boat in neutral and turned the key and spun-up the motors. They restarted, and she dropped the hammer and the propellers dug in, pushing the boat forward. The bilge pump was going full tilt, but the water above deck wasn’t lessening.
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