Rich people. They were so bizarre and would spend money on the oddest things. Like sand through their fingers, money flowed. When McClay had first been pitched this “Shark Park,” Knightly thought he was in the middle of a wet dream. His first thought was that the concept was worth five hundred million, easily. Possibly if managed and marketed correctly? A billion, in its first few years. And the merchandising? Hasbro was going to have a cow and fork over more millions.
And now to have Flack pay a hundred grand for the weekend? Kevin might have underestimated the park’s potential. The park had a thousand rooms, at an average of twenty five hundred a night? That was a quarter of a million dollars a night. That was 75 million a month. That was 900,000 million in the first year.
And it was worth it. The islands, despite being completely manmade, looked as natural as could be. Kind of like Susie’s rack. Only the best for Kevin’s enjoyment.
Palm trees waved in the wind. The water that ran through the channels between the islands was a sky blue. Crystal. If he squinted really hard he could imagine seeing the sharks swimming amongst the coral reefs.
It was everything that Callum McClay had promised and more. Kevin’s eyes had glazed over as Callum had talked about the environmental benefits to the park. Blah, blah, conservation, blah, saving the planet, blah a million sharks unjustly killed a year for shark fin soup and some wacky Oriental aphrodisiac, blah. All Kevin had cared about was the park’s attraction to the world’s elite rich. He wanted to steal a little bit of business from Dubai.
“What are you looking at?” Susie asked, turning her chair around. Then she looked out the window and her mouth pulled into a perfect “O.” Her hand snaked down his thigh. “Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”
She gave his leg an inviting squeeze.
Maybe Kevin wouldn’t have to pull the trigger on that contract quite yet.
* * *
Dillon was vibrating with excitement. This was it. Today was the soft opening. He and his father had been working so hard for months it was difficult to imagine that this day had come. Visitors were arriving.
The first helicopter from Cairns was arriving. His dad seemed so relaxed. Even with one of his shirtsleeves tied off at the shoulder to accommodate his missing arm, his dad looked unfazed by the momentous day.
Once the helicopter set down on the helipad, Dillon and one of their Yashimoto robots, QX59, or as Dillon had named him, Quax, headed out to the helipad.
The QXs weren’t like “normal robots” all straight-backed and stiff. No, Yahimoto was a visionary and took attributes from the entire animal kingdom to build the most efficient robot he could build. Nothing off the rack for Salechii. They had their very own custom-built models. The top of the line all the way.
Which was why Quax and all the other QXs had a long, strong tail. They used it for all kind of locomotion styles. They could hop like a kangaroo. They used it to stabilize themselves when they ran at high speeds like a cheetah. But the coolest of coolest features was that unlike the kangaroo or cheetah, their tails were prehensile. They used them as an additional limb. Their tail tips were as sensitive and agile as a finger.
Right now Quax’s tail was up, the tip quivering. That indicated stress. Quax didn’t like to be up on deck, so close to the shark pens. He was so reluctant to help as a matter of fact, that he dropped down, walking on his knuckles like a gorilla, his tail sliding back and forth behind him, more like a big cat when it was displeased.
Yashimoto had motion captured hundreds of hours of footage of animals in nature and translated all of those motions into his robots. They were like an awesome mix of the coolest creatures in the world. Incredible really. And Dillon got to call one of them his friend.
“Quax, lighten up, buddy,” Dillon said, patting the robot on the back. “We’ll be in and out. No reason to get your tail so up in arms.”
“I’ll lighten up once we are below deck again,” the robot stated. Yashimoto had given all of the robots a light English accent, however Quax’s sounded more Scottish. Thick and rich. Dillon loved just listening to his friend.
They trotted up to the helicopter and helped the passengers out. Or at least that was how it was supposed to go.
Unfortunately the prettiest girl that Dillon had ever seen put her hand out for him to help her. Way out here there weren’t many girls, let alone pretty ones. Dillon tripped, falling into Quax who slammed against the helicopter’s door.
“Smooth move,” the robot complained, ironically rubbing his titanium arm.
“Sorry,” Dillon murmured to his friend not able to look up into the girl’s face. He tried to grab her bag, but it slipped through his fingers and fell onto the helipad, popping open. Bras and thongs got caught by the wind of an approaching storm, sprawling across the ground. “So sorry,” he said, gulping.
Dillon tried to pick them up, but couldn’t bring himself to touch a girl’s underthings.
“It’s okay,” The girl said, her cheeks red, “I’ll get them.”
“An auspicious start to our vacation,” a man behind her said. Then he stepped out into the light. It was Nick Flack. In the flesh.
If Dillon wasn’t already flustered to see his big screen idol in person? He was lucky he held in his bladder. Flack was the kind of movie star you didn’t just like, you worshipped. The kind of action star that you begged and begged your mom for weeks to go to the midnight showing and then get an extra-large tub of popcorn with double butter and throw some Milk duds in for good measure. You had to prepare for a Nick Flack film.
“Mr. Flack,” he said, doing a sort-of curtsy. How did you address Hollywood royalty.
“Dillon?” the heroic figure said. How did he know his name? Then Dillon realized he was wearing a Salechii name badge. Of course.
“Yes, sir, I am so sorry about your daughter’s luggage.” He thought the girl’s name was Nami, but he didn’t want to make a mistake.
Nick, like a conquering hero stepped out of the helicopter as his daughter ran around trying to catch her underwear.
“Don’t worry about it,” Mr. Flack said. “As a matter of fact I think it took her mind off her problems for the moment.”
What problems could you have if you were Nick Flack’s kid?
“High five?” Quax asked, holding up his hand. Dillon however, after his curtsy, drop all the lingerie move didn’t think he deserved one. “Come on,” Quax said, “You can’t leave me hanging.”
That was true. You never left a bro with his hand up. Never.
Dillon hit Quax’s hand, fulfilling the high five, deserved or not.
“See? How hard was that?” the robot asked.
Before Dillon could answer, the pilot yelled, “Get a move on,” he pointed to the west. “We’ve got another helo coming in!”
As a light rain began to fall, Dillon got it together and picked up as many bags as he could carry. Quax, of course, could carry four times as much. First off his titanium exoskeleton was hella lot stronger than Dillon’s skinny arms and Quax’s arms could articulate forward and back so he could stuff more luggage under there without dislocating his shoulder. Plus he had that super awesome tail.
Dillon helped the rest of the passengers off the chopper. He couldn’t help but notice that Mrs. Flack was not on board. There had been rumors flying all around that there was trouble in paradise, but Dillon refused to believe them. Nick Flack’s interview on Access Hollywood had convinced him that everything was fine.
But now?
As the helicopter’s rotors revved up, Dillon ducked down and rushed to help Nami get her things before they were blown into the water.
“Thanks,” the girl said as she stuffed the last of her things into her luggage and closed it.
“I can give you a tour if you like. We’ve got Great Whites, Hammerheads, Tigers and even a whale shark you can swim with,” Dillon said, realizing he’d been way too forward. “You know, to make up for the luggage debacle of 2013.”
That got a
grin out of her, not that he could look her right in the face or anything.
“No thanks. I’m not really into sharks,” she said.
“That’s an understatement,” her father chuckled but stopped once she glared at him.
“Okay, fine,” she sighed. “I hate sharks,” she admitted.
“Finally! Someone who understands my pain.” Quax exclaimed. For a robot built solely for the purpose of shark care, he kind of hated them too.
“Then why come here?” Dillon asked. This was after all a shark park.
Nami rolled her eyes and tossed her head toward her father. “Ask him.” Then the most beautiful girl he’d even seen strode off with a huff.
“What did I say?” Dillon asked bewildered. He didn’t understand girls at all.
“Don’t worry, son,” Flack said, patting Dillon on the shoulder. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
Dillon stood flat footed as Flack walked away. He’d called him son and patted him on the shoulder. The man who had single-handedly saved the world from a sentient volcano, the moon crashing into the earth and crazed sea bats, of course not in the same movie, although Dillon would kind of like to see that one someday, had patted him on the shoulder.
Following Quax, Dillon was no longer walking on the ground, he was floating on air.
* * *
Nami grinned as she walked off. She still thought this trip wasn’t just lame but dangerous, however that Dillon might make up for some of it. Sure, he’d sprawled all of her bras across the tarmac for all to see, but the way he blushed? His liquid blue eyes? That light Aussie accent?
Yah, that went a long way to making this trip at least bearable. Not great, nothing could do that, there were sharks everywhere after all.
She turned as the robot, she thought Dillon had called him Quax, as he trotted up to her. The sight was one to see as he shifted all of the luggage onto his back. Stabilizing it with his tail so that he could lean forward and walk on his knuckles.
“Do you really hate sharks?” he asked, his silver eyebrows bunching together. “Because that would make you part of the very, very small minority here.”
“Yes,” Nami responded. “A Great White took one of my friend’s legs.”
“I am so sorry,” Quax stated. Funny, a robot being sorry. Especially one walking on all fours. “They truly are dangerous beasts, aren’t they?”
“Hey, preaching to the choir here,” Nami stated. “We shouldn’t be here visiting them, we should be doing our best to avoid them.”
“That’s what I keep saying!” Quax exclaimed. “Why are we concentrating the danger? Talk about a shark powder keg.”
“I know,” Nami added. “And bringing kids here? Are we trying to give the shark little pre-packaged treats?”
“I used the same argument,” Quax said. “Obviously one that was not popular on the island.”
“Okay, okay,” her father said, cutting in between them. “Not sure how much this is helping Nami get over her phobia.”
“Technically it’s only a phobia if --”
“Yes, yes,” her father said, guiding her away from the robot. “I know, it has to not be a real threat. Why don’t you go off and do whatever you robots do and I’ll get my daughter settled in.”
Did the robot really look like his feelings were hurt?
“I’ll see you around,” Nami said trying to take the sting out of her father’s words. Quax smiled bowed his head and was off.
Nami elbowed her father’s ribs. “You didn’t have to be so rude, I think you hurt his feelings.”
“What? Now robots have feelings and I have to care about them? How far has PC gone now?”
“Clearly not far enough and yes, you do need to be respectful of them,” Nami stated. She tried to put it in terms her father could understand. “They are probably the next segment of movie goers. You are going to need to start building your fan base.”
Her father looked at her sideways, shaking his head.
“Or you could just be nice out of the goodness of your heart.”
“You really aren’t your mother’s daughter. Are you?”
“Dang right.” Something she was pretty proud of as a matter of fact. While her therapists kept telling her that it wasn’t her mother’s fault about the way she acted, that didn’t take the sting out of her never being there. Not even here. Her mother would rather be at some local fashion show than with her traumatized daughter at Shark Park. Seriously there weren’t more important times to be a mother.
“And I’m so glad that you aren’t,” her father said, hugging her.
Okay, he was a dweeb most of the time, but her dad was here. He’d always been there for her. When her mother had refused to even hold Nami for the first time, her dad had stepped in. He’d even gotten one of those faux nursing systems. The kind where you hung the milk container around your neck and taped a tube to your nipple so the baby could suckle more naturally than a plastic bottle.
If only TMZ could get a hold of those photos. A big bad action hero faux nursing his newborn daughter.
But that was her dad. Even this completely misguided, ill-fated trip was him caring. She knew that he had her best interests at heart. He only dragged her here because he truly believed it would help. It wasn’t going to of course, but at the least he was trying, unlike her mother and so many of her friend’s parents. That fact didn’t get past Nami even as she felt fear well in her belly. She hugged her dad back.
“I think if I survive this weekend I should get a pony.”
“Okay, now you sound a little like your mother.”
CHAPTER 2
Tonaka Yashimoto followed his wife, Nica, as she shuffled forward in her walker. He held up the umbrella trying to protect her from the gathering storm. The rain had gone from a misting, to a light sprinkle to a full out downpour in a matter of minutes and the dark clouds on the horizon only promised more.
If this establishment wished to truly be a 5-star accommodation, they would have to install some sort of breezeway to protect guests from the elements. Granted the archipelago enjoyed fun-filled sun 300 days of the year, the other sixty-five, however, could get pretty nasty.
“Let me help you,” one of the robots said and picked up his wife.
Tonaka beamed with pride. This must be QX59. It was his first robot with a small emotional intelligence chip. He’d clearly been able to transfer some empathy into QX59. For all the science fiction propaganda about making feeling robots, it turned out to be far harder than it sounded. Emotions were tricky things. QX59 was the first robot that took to the emotion chip. It had failed in all other models. Even though QX was only a second generation model, they were up to V5 by now, he was still the only one that showed emotion.
The robot truly was a piece of art. To his fully expressive face. All of the QXs had the same number of “muscles” in their face that a human did. Forty three. They could emote every emotion the same as a human, so of course Tonaka had to add an emotion chip to take advantage of that fact.
This QX’s face showed sympathy and concern for his wife.
Nica, wrapped her arms around the robots titanium neck and leaned into the robot’s chest seeming to resonate with the robot’s care.
Ever since the series of mini strokes she’d had last year, moving, even shuffling had become very difficult for her. And she’d been such an active woman her whole life.
She’d taken such a gamble on him. Marrying a boy at seventeen with his head filled with dreams but no money in his pocket. All of those lean years in a studio apartment in Tokyo. Raising their first two children there. She’d hand-built a set of rice paper walls to give them privacy in their tiny abode.
How could he have built a multi-billion dollar robotics company without her? Yet now, even the kids urged Tonaka to put her in a home. They thought him too frail to care for their mother.
He too was bent by the passing of over seventy years but seeing QX59, he had an idea. Why not build caretaker ro
bots? He could be the ultimate beta tester.
“Do you wish to go to your room?” QX59 asked.
“No,” Nica said, shaking her head. “I want to see some sharks.”
“Really?” QX59 replied.
“Yes, really.”
Even though they only had to travel from Tokyo, it had been a long ten hour flight, then the connecting flight to Cairn and the helicopter ride, it had been a long, hard fourteen hours.
“Are you certain?” Tonaka asked his wife.
“I’m not senile as well as feeble,” Nica shot back in Japanese.
“No, you are not,” QX59 answered. Of course the robot had understood his wife. He was equipped with over six thousand languages including a half dozen dead languages. You never knew when a robot might need to speak ancient Egyptian.
The robot continued in Japanese, with a Tokyo accent, Tonaka noted. He would have to commend his language techs. “However I do not go into that section of the park. I will pass you off to a robot that does.”
Tonaka tilted his head to the side. That was odd. Before he could ask why QX59 did not go into the shark areas, another robot approached and took Nica. Although Tonaka noted that he was not nearly as gentle with her as QX59 had been. In his caretaker robot, he would have to be sure and expand upon the emotional intelligence chip.
As QX59 walked off in the opposite direction, they turned a corner and entered into a glass tube. Tonaka’s feet stalled out as the ocean opened up all around him. Above him. Below him. Around him. It was simply stunning. The waters were teeming with life. Fish in reds, greens, and blues flitted about, swimming in and out of the orange and yellow coral reef. He found himself holding his breath. It was amazing to have this 360 degree view and not be actually wet.
Callum had done exactly what he had set out to do. A completely immersive underwater experience. The light shown through from above, creating a kaleidoscope of colors reflected in the water. An eel stuck his head out of the reef, not a foot from Tonaka.
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 5