The boy was jerked to the side as the crowd along the railing yanked the tether cord of his life ring. The beast chomped, missing the boy, and the creature wailed and dove as the boy was pulled from the ocean onto the deck.
A guttural shriek that sounded like a puppy getting dragged through a pool of cats rose above the commotion. No doubt the boy’s mother.
The sight of the boy almost being eaten sent people running for the two cabin entrances on each side of the boat, pushing and shoving in an attempt to get inside.
“Mayday. Mayday. We are under attack. To anyone listening, we are under attack.” It was Detmer on the emergency channel, too late to the party.
Lenah moved the Sea Hunter IV closer to Fate’s Fortune, and Splinter took two more shots, but they didn’t faze the animal. The beast turned and slammed into the large charter again, jolting and rocking the ship.
“Bring me alongside. Time to light it up,” Splinter said. He retrieved the gas bombs he’d made, but as he prepared to launch one at the beast, he considered the consequences. The beast was close to Fate’s Fortune. What if the charter caught on fire?
He strapped the two bombs to the gunnel using the bungies that held fishing poles.
“Brace for impact,” Lenah yelled.
The Sea Hunter IV rammed the beast as it surfaced behind Fate’s Fortune, and Splinter was thrown across the deck and crashed into the port gunnel. He dropped the rifle and it slid down the deck, past the submarine and off the transom into the water.
Splinter lifted one of his homemade harpoons and launched it at the creature’s back. It struck home, and the beast thrashed, rolling toward Fate’s Fortune and slamming into its port side.
When the beast righted itself, Splinter saw the harpoon sticking from the creature’s torso just behind its right flipper. Blood leaked into the water, but the beast appeared undaunted. It shrieked, and its jaws snapped like a panicked croc. Flippers pounded the water, and the beast’s caudal fin twisted as it dug into the sea.
Lenah backed the Sea Hunter IV away.
The monster breached in a dazzling knot of whitewater and launched at Fate’s Fortune like a missile. Its thirty-foot body glistened, its flat head pointed upward, jaws flexing open.
The beast landed on the bow of Fate’s Fortune, and the boat’s transom lifted from the water, revealing the vessels two large brass propellers. Passengers got tossed like marbles about the deck, and several bounced over the railings into the sea.
The creature rolled off the boat back into the ocean, and the rear of Fate’s Fortune dropped and smacked the water, causing a thunderous wave of whitewater. The surge pounded the Sea Hunter IV, and Splinter washed over the deck like a piece of chum. He slid aft, but managed to grab hold of the gunnel before he slipped into the Atlantic. The Sea Hunter IV bobbed and settled as Splinter got to his feet.
Fate’s Fortune had taken on a lot of water, and the vessel tilted to port and aft, the bow lifting in the air as if looking to the sky for help. People in the water screamed, and lifeboats were lowered into the Atlantic as Fate’s Fortune’s emergency klaxon wailed.
Splinter looked to the horizon for help, hoping an armada of coastie ships powered toward them, or maybe Silva in a plane or helicopter. But he didn’t see any of that. What he saw was the sleek black hull of Donny’s Jarred Bay luxury fishing boat. It cruised toward them and Splinter smiled. Now it was three on one.
33
Lenah swung the Sea Hunter IV around, spinning the wheel and rotating the vessel with the maneuvering thrusters. Splinter grabbed a harpoon and ran aft, hoisting it to his shoulder as he went. Sweat dripped into his eyes, stinging them, and he rubbed at his face with his free hand, wiping away the perspiration as best he could, but it was like he’d sprung a leak and his insides were spilling from every pore. He felt overheated, and pinpricks of white light danced before his eyes as pain shot up his back.
Screaming and the panicked cries of parents and children rattled around in Splinter’s head as the beast breached again, this time landing on Fate’s Fortune’s starboard deck, causing the boat to list severely. The creature rolled into the sea with a guttural yelp that sounded like a giant frog taking a shit. Waves surged toward the Sea Hunter IV and broke over the gunnel, swamping it again.
Splinter heaved his harpoon, but missed, the bolt striking the animal’s tough hide and bouncing off and disappearing beneath the sea. Splinter grabbed the Benelli single barrel pump-action shotgun, which held six shells.
The beast surfaced on the Sea Hunter IV’s port side, its giant jaws opening as it turned to make another attack run on the fishing charter. The passengers on Fate’s Fortune scattered like quail, running and screaming like children on a playground.
Splinter braced against the gunnel and fired. He pumped the gun, loaded another shell, and fired again. He fired four more times, the explosion of each shot sending a jolt through his body.
He hit the beast. There was blood in the water. That made Splinter smile and reminded him of the subway train analogy he used when he was trying to impress someone. The passengers are riding along, minding their own business, like the people on Fate’s Fortune, alone with their thoughts on the crowded train. Then the train goes dark as the power cuts out for a brief instant as subways are known to do, and in that instant everyone on the train is together, one concerned being that would deal with the problem together. Then the lights come back on and everyone is alone again, in the middle of a car full of people.
Were sea creatures like people? No, but blood in the water brought sharks, and that was both good and bad. Good because the great whites might help defeat the beast. Bad, because perhaps all the sharks would do is take sloppy seconds.
The crocosaurus circled the charter, disappearing around the bow to the port side.
Gunshots rang out and Splinter looked at the weapon in his hands, verifying it hadn’t been him who’d fired. Donny’s black luxury fishing vessel came into view. Will leaned over the gunnel and fired what Splinter figured was his old six-shooter service revolver. Will had missed the Glock era.
Fate’s Fortune listed as people clung to railings, deck equipment, anything they could get their hands on. It reminded Splinter of that crazy scene in the movie Titanic, when the luxury liner’s stern lifted from the water and people slid down the deck, with the star and his love interest bracing themselves on the aft railing. People aboard Fate’s Fortune were doing that, trying not to fall into the water with the beast, but what good would it do? Fate’s Fortune was going down, and there was no way to stop it.
Lifeboats were still being lowered into the water, but all it took was some fast math to see there’d be people left without a ride. There was no ship’s crew controlling the evacuation and the lifeboats were leaving Fate’s Fortune only half full, again similar to the Titanic.
The radio crackled to life, and Splinter barely heard it from his position out on deck. It was Will.
“Lenah, we’ve got to draw this thing away from Fate’s Fortune before all these people end up in the drink,” Will said.
“That’s a 10-4, but how? We’ve tried everything we can think of.”
Static. Then, “I’m going to put The Day After between the beast and Fate’s Fortune. You position yourself on its opposite side, and we’ll try and irritate it and nudge it along,” Will said.
Splinter yelled from out on deck. “That’s pretty thin.”
Lenah yelled, “You got another idea?”
He didn’t.
The Sea Hunter IV changed course and moved into position, as Donny piloted The Day After between the surging creature and Fate’s Fortune.
The beast rose from the depths, building speed, its caudal fin digging at the sea, flippers pounding the water. Its great jaws opened and clamped down on a women and man holding each other in the ocean. There was a horrible crunching sound as bones broke and sinew and muscle ripped. Blood filled the white froth as the kronosaurus dove, jaws opening and closing as it chewed.
Lenah set the Sea Hunter IV on a due west course as The Day After moved east. The creature passed between them and Lenah rushed out on deck, a double barrel shotgun in her hands. She ran past Splinter to the bow, fury written on her face like a bad B movie scream queen. She opened up with the shotgun, and the blast tore into the creature’s hind quarter.
The beast wailed and bucked, and a knot of whitewater rolled toward the Sea Hunter IV as the creature whipped its tail, caudal fin shooting from the water.
Splinter had a moment of panic, the fog rising before his eyes, red anger clouding his vision. The long tail rose like a sea serpent and came down with a shuttering crash on the bow of the Sea Hunter IV. It landed on Lenah, crushing her and knocking her into the sea.
Splinter ran to the gunnel, searching the ocean below, but she was gone.
Splinter screamed, all the anger coming out, the smell of gunpowder and roasting lamb filling his nostrils as Kabul came hurling back. He loaded the shotgun, and climbed up on the gunnel, preparing to launch himself at the beast when it surfaced.
But it didn’t surface, and neither did Lenah.
It was a nightmare. Another death he’d caused, more blood on his hands. If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have been out here. This was all on him. Everything.
For a heartbeat Splinter heard nothing. Fog engulfed him, and he wasn’t one of the people fighting for his life any longer. He was the butcher of Kabul, and this animal was going to pay.
The Day After disappeared from view as it turned south and passed behind Fate’s Fortune, picking people out of the water as it went. Splinter grabbed the two fire bombs he’d strapped to the port gunnel, all concern of burning the charter gone, all rational thought abandoned.
The giant crocodilian monster surfaced, its gray eyes studying the Sea Hunter IV. It opened its jaws, revealing blood stained teeth, and Splinter had a horrible thought. Was that Lenah’s blood? Pieces of her beautiful body stuck in the teeth of the leviathan? Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard Lenah’s voice trying to guide him from the fog. But he was too far gone. She was gone, and he had nothing left to live for except to exterminate the creature that had killed her.
Eighty percent of Fate’s Fortune had passed beneath the waves. Passengers got sucked beneath the ship as it went down, people climbed onto the roof of the conning tower, but that would just delay the inevitable. Others jockeyed for position, and Splinter’s anger rose. People were pushing and shoving, struggling to stay above the water at all costs, survival at its worst. All because they couldn’t find anything better to do on a bright Florida day, and because a captain was desperate for charters to pay his bills.
Splinter went to the command console and spun the wheel, putting the bow perpendicular to Fate’s Fortune. When the beast came up he’d ram the thing to hell.
The beast did come up, but on the opposite side of Fate’s Fortune. Gunshots rang out, no doubt Will firing his peashooter. Splinter had one harpoon left, a loaded shotgun, and he’d use his hands if necessary.
That thought made him laugh, a full laugh from deep down, a bit fake and unhinged. That surprised him, and he remembered a book he’d read called Meg, in which the alpha hero cuts out the heart of a giant megalodon from the inside while it was still alive. Splinter remembered how stupid that ending was, then asked himself if he could do the same, even though he knew he couldn’t.
“Splinter! Splinter!”
It was Will, The Day After had come around the aft side of the charter, and Will waved to him, gun in hand, yelling. Splinter couldn’t move, every muscle frozen in place. He saw himself standing next to himself, and he was shaking his head admonishingly. His double said, “You killed Lenah dipshit. You didn’t bite her in half, but you might as well have. Why don’t you just give it up? Throw yourself in the sea. When Will finds out he’s going to shoot you anyway.”
Will continued to call to him, but Splinter had run out of time.
Croczilla launched from the sea, landing on the Sea Hunter IV’s deck, flippers acting like stabilizing arms as it held itself up, staring across the deck at Splinter as Guppy’s boat sank beneath the waves, bow lifting to the sky. The beast’s jaws snapped open and closed, head thrashing.
Then Splinter saw it was chewing on something. The remains of a person.
Oh, Lenah, I’m so sorry.
The beast pushed forward, driving the Sea Hunter IV down, and Splinter was forced to jump into the ocean to avoid being caught in the beast’s flexing jaws or sucked under with the boat.
He hit the water hard and lost the shotgun as he went under. Sounds from above were muffled and nondescript, and as he sank into the depths he felt at peace, the fog fading, his life finally to coming to a close. A life that would have been better had it never been. The world was better off without him, and Lenah was gone so what did he have to live for?
He didn’t fight as the ocean pulled him down. He let go of his burdens, everything that had weighed him down since Kabul, and perhaps long before that. He was finally going into the abyss and he smiled.
Something snagged under his arm, and he fought to free himself as he was pulled upward. He broke the surface sputtering and coughing. Will hung over the side of The Day After, a long telescoping boat hook fully extended, its hooked end tugging at Splinter’s armpit.
Splinter floated in the Atlantic, staring up at Will who was yelling and waving his arms, but Splinter ignored him. He didn’t want to hear him. All he wanted was the sweet embrace of the abyss, and an end to his constant anger and worry.
Will swatted him on the head with the tip of the boat pole and Splinter’s head went under and he took in a mouthful of water. This cleared the fog, and as his head bobbed above the waterline, he heard Will screaming.
“Shark! Shark!”
Splinter searched about him and didn’t see any sharks. What he did see was a three-foot dorsal fin slicing through the water, coming toward him, throwing spray like it had a propeller.
Splinter smiled and waited for the peace and finality of the abyss.
34
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Splinter struggled to stay above the surging sea. Will braced against The Day After’s gunnel, firing his six-shooter. The shark veered away, wagging its caudal fin. It was a big one, and the twelve-foot great white smiled at Splinter as it darted past.
Splinter floated dumbfounded. Had that just happened? Splinter’s death wish fled like the coward it was, and like a switch had been flipped, he wanted to live.
Fountains of blood and whitewater sprouted from where the .35 caliber bullets hit the shark, and the beast thrashed. Croczilla threw itself sideways into The Day After, and the thirty-four-foot sport fisherman rocked, tuna-tower swaying, but the vessel bounced back level. Donny gunned the engines in an attempt to get the kronosaurus with the propeller, but missed.
Croczilla dove, its white shape gliding beneath the boat and disappearing off the port bow. The shark turned west, making a slow arc back toward Splinter. Will tossed out a life ring, and Will and Donny pulled Splinter to the dive platform where he climbed from the water and scrambled up the stainless-steel ladder to the main deck as the shark snapped at his heels.
“Good to see you, buddy. Saved my ass again,” Splinter said.
“Not yet,” Donny said. He rushed back to the controls. The Day After was drifting into the sunken Sea Hunter IV, which was upside down, floating listlessly in the rolling waves. Passengers from Fate’s Fortune had climbed onto the sunken ship, struggling to stay out of the water.
“Where’s Lenah?” Will asked.
Splinter said nothing. He looked at Will, a tear leaking from his right eye. His left eye would never betray him like that. It was his aiming eye.
“Splinter? Oh, no, Splinter. What happened?” Will said.
“She’s gone, Will. I’ve lost her,” Splinter said. Then like a dam breaking, Splinter’s emotions spilled out in a series of crying jags, screams of pain, and constant streams of self-d
eprecating excuses, none of which he was able to sell himself.
Will said nothing, anger, fear, then sorrow passing across his face like flashcards of emotion.
Donny yelled from the command console, “What do you want me to do?”
“Find it!” yelled Will before Splinter could answer.
Splinter nodded and clapped his friend on the shoulder.
Will turned to him with a face that made Splinter understand this old man, his friend, had once been a cop. “We’re not done. This just isn’t the time,” he said, and turned away and went down into the galley.
Splinter stood there alone, mind spinning out of control. Lenah left a crater hole in his life, and its dark maw beckoned to him, another abyss of his making. He struggled to keep from falling, fought the urge to embrace the fog and end it all.
Croczilla wailed and the womp womp of helicopter blades cut through the moist air. A copter came in from the west, a black spec sliding across the clear blue sky.
Silva. Below the whirly-bird, several coastie and harbor patrol boats formed an armada as they headed for the emergency scene, their wakes leaving a thick white line of foam. Lifeboats trailed away in jagged lines as survivors tried to put ocean between themselves and the monster.
The beast’s caudal fin surfaced behind the sunken Sea Hunter IV, its flat head lifting from the sea, jaws opening.
Splinter grabbed the gunnel, but there was nothing he could do but watch the beast take a bit out of the Sea Hunter IV, along with three people, who yelled and screamed as they were eaten alive, the creature’s jaws smacking down, cracking bones and ripping muscle. Blood filled the water and the shark knifed through what the creature had left behind like a cub following a lion.
Donny spun The Day After around, putting the boat’s bow on the Sea Hunter IV wreck.
The sound of the helicopter grew louder. Soon they’d have help, the copter was now a large black smudge, but it was still a couple of minutes off.
Shadow Of The Abyss Page 21