“So what’s the crisis now?”
Shalie sighed. “Jack is still in lock up and Callum is going but doesn’t want Dillon to go along.”
“And Dillon doesn’t want Nami to come,” Dillon stated.
“Guess we’ve got a conundrum, eh?” Nami responded. “It feels like if it is important enough for Callum to go, Dillon should go. And if it is important enough for Dillon to go, I should go.”
“Following that logic,” her father stated as he joined the group. “Then I should go too. “Pretty soon the roof will be empty real estate.”
Nami frowned.
“You, young lady are going to sit this one out,” her father said, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her toward the apex of the roof where Quax, the toddler and their lone tech sat.
“But --”
“No, buts,” Her father said. “Dillon, tell her.”
“Please,” Dillon said taking her hand. “This is a quick in and out.”
“And what?” Nami retorted. “I’ll slow you down?”
“Never,” Dillon said. “But this is Jack we are talking about. I don’t want you anywhere near him.”
“Here, here,” her father chimed in.
Nami didn’t like it, but honestly her moxy to put herself in danger was wearing thin. Staying on this roof sounded kind of nice.
“All right,” Nami said, squeezing Dillon’s hand. “But you’ve got to come back.”
“I will,” Dillon promised.
“No, I mean it,” Nami continued. “I’m not going back to school without a boyfriend. You are so worth so many bragging rights.”
Dillon smiled “Promise,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek then turned to his dad. “Let’s get this over with.”
Then he was jumping off the roof and heading east.
She could only hope that his luck held out. Because as they had seen, on this island if you slipped an inch you were dead.
CHAPTER 26
Callum felt his son at his side as they jumped over the puddles and pools that stood in their way to the topside entrance to the underground lock up. In truth he really hadn’t wanted Dillon along. The boy had already risked so much that Callum didn’t want the boy to risk any more. He had already given up his childhood to his mother’s illness, then to Callum’s dream. How much more could he ask the teen to sacrifice?
And the truth was though, that he was glad to have Dillon with him. In diving you always had a buddy, it was nice to have his son as his.
“There,” Dillon said, apparently having far better eyesight then Callum.
He had to squint to see what the boy was talking about. A steel rod jutted up into the air. The homing beacon for ships. The power was back down so it didn’t flash which meant that the backup generator wasn’t working. Which meant that the lock up had already flooded.
Had they risked all of this to find Jack already dead?
It would weigh on his mind, but not all that much in truth. No matter his speech, Jack was scum and if he died it had been his own damned fault.
After a few more jumps, they landed next to the pole. The hatch was under a few inches of water.
“Ready?” Dillon asked.
Callum nodded.
* * *
Nami sat watching the horizon. Not waiting for a rescue boat, that just seemed silly, but watching for Dillon’s return. He and his father had disappeared over the ridge and had been gone for a while.
The skies overhead were actually clearing. There was a peak of blue every so often and rays of sunlight streamed through the storm clouds, illuminating the fine mist that surrounded them.
“What’s that?” the tech asked, pointing to the water. Something was coming at them in a serpentine motion. Nami was no expert but that looked like a seasnake.
“It’s coming to sun itself,” Shalie stated. “Everyone back. Don’t interfere with her.”
The sea snake was a beautiful color combination of yellow, oranges and coral. Nami knew it was striking in color to tell you, “don’t mess with me, I’m venomous.” The sea snake didn’t want to blend in, it wanted to stand out.
The snake came up to the edge and flickered its tongue, slowly crawling up the shingles until it found a nice warm sunny patch and curled up.
“I…I…” the tech stammered. “I hate snakes.”
“Well, snakes don’t care about you,” Shalie said, clearly trying to keep the woman calm. They really should have done better psychological testing for the employees for a shark park. So far they had not been the heartiest of them.
The woman started to slip on the roof. She gouged her fingernails into the shingles, stopping her descent.
“Quax! Get the snake” Nami shouted as she grabbed the woman’s wrist. The robot passed the toddler off to Tonaka and hurried down the roof. He grabbed the sea snake and hurled her far out to into the ocean.
The woman, clearly relieved relaxed a bit. Which was the last thing she should have done. Nami tried to keep hold, but the woman’s death grip on the shingles lessened and she slipped another down the roof, her shoe splashing in the water.
That was all it took. A shark grabbed the woman by the ankle and jerked her from Nami’s grip. The shark took the woman on a little tour of the lagoon. Her screams filled the air until she was pulled underwater.
* * *
Dillon heard screams carried on the wind. Or was it just the wind screaming? It didn’t matter. He couldn’t see over the small rise. He and his father had gotten the hatch open and now water was streaming into the holding cell area.
“Great, you calfers,” Jack yelled from down below. “Like I need more bloody water down here!”
His father rolled his eyes as he turned to go down the metal ladder. Dillon followed closely behind. They got to the holding cell to find it nearly underwater. Jack was treading water to keep his head above it. A few more feet and there wouldn’t have been anywhere for him to go.
They had gotten here just in time. Darn it.
His father swam over to the cell’s door. He punched in a code on the keypad, but it seemed fritzed by the water.
“Get me out of here,” Jack hissed through his chattering teeth.
“Maybe I should try just about as hard as you did with Shalie?” his father asked.
“You bloody well know she locked herself in there. You locked me in here, now get me out!”
Dillon searched around. If the electronics were fritzed, they were going to need to find a physical way to unlock the door. There wasn’t much around.
“Where are the keys kept?” Callum asked just as a bang resounded from the door that lead to the offices. A shark was trying to get in.
“Yah, he’s been trying to get in for a while,” Jack stated. “Freaking eating machines. Don’t they ever get full?”
By the incessant banging, apparently not.
Dillon, dog paddling himself, nodded toward the door. “The keys are kept on the officer of the watch’s desk out there.”
He could see the look cross his father’s face. So much for that idea.
Dillon looked to the cell’s lock. “We need to pop the electronics off,” Dillon stated. And jury rig the internal bolt system.”
His father nodded. “Good idea.” He pulled a knife from his belt, put it between his teeth, took several breaths, then dove under the water.
Dillon pulled his own knife, repeated the procedure and joined his father. The electronic pad came off pretty easily. Something the security company they hired to build the cell might want to take a look at. It shouldn’t be this easy to break someone out.
There was just a simple latch mechanism on the inside. Normally the electronic bolt was held in place, but now there was no juice it was fairly easy for him to pry the bolt loose, which allowed Dillon to lift the latch, freeing Jack.
One more bang and the metal door warped, allowing light to flow from the other room into the holding cell.
“Move!” his father shouted. Dillon
was all over it, striking for the ladder. He was climbing up, Jack on his butt and his father following behind. Another bang and the door came off its hinges.
A tiger shark raced into the room, heading straight for the splashing. Jack climbed over Dillon which was fine by him. The further away Jack was the better. Dillon came back a few steps and grabbed his father’s collar, hauling him further up the ladder.
The tiger shark lunged, but missed. Frustrated, the big boy circled around and around the room.
“Thanks,” his father said. “Now let’s get out of here.”
* * *
Nick put his arms around his daughter’s shoulders and pulled her back up the rooftop. She still had her hand out where she had been holding the woman.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Nick said smoothing her hair. He’d seen Nami like this before. It hadn’t been pretty. “You did everything you could.”
“Did you hear that?” Shalie asked.
“What?” Nick responded. He cocked his head. He could hear the wind, the water lapping at their rooftop and Tonaka’s nasal breathing but that was about it.
“Yes,” Quax stated. “It is coming from the west.”
Nick strained to hear, but just couldn’t.
Nami brightened, picking up her head. “I can hear it too.”
Was Nick the only one who couldn’t hear it? Tonaka shook his head. Great. The oldies but goodies were left out.
Then he spotted a shimmer on the horizon. It was coming from the west.
“Is that…?” Shalie didn’t seem to be able to finish the sentence.
Nick knew how she felt. He didn’t want to jinx it either.
“Is that a helicopter?” Nami asked, jumping to her feet.
“Damn right it is!” Shalie exclaimed, lifting her hand as if to high five Dillon, only he wasn’t here. Nami completed the high five.
“Yes!”
As the seconds ticked down, the helicopter became clear, its nose down, speeding in their direction.
Nick waved his arms, probably completely unnecessarily, but it felt good to do it.
“Here!” Nami shouted, again probably not necessary but they all needed to find something to do with their excited energy.
The helicopter approached, then slowed, hovering over their position.
A steel ladder unrolled, ending just above their heads.
“Quax go first with the toddler and Tonaka.”
The robot nodded and headed up.
“Nami, next, then Shalie. I’ll follow.”
The girls clambered up the ladder above him. He grabbed hold of the first rung and pulled himself up. Nick looked over his shoulder at the island that was now nearly underwater.
The island was now tilting, looking to go down vertically.
“Can’t say I’m sorry,” he whispered to the shark park, then headed up the ladder to sweet, sweet freedom.
* * *
Callum dropped to the ground just as his world tilted sideways. Jack grabbed hold of a tree stump, but Dillon was sliding past, heading straight for the water. There were times when only having one arm sucked. This was one of those times. If he released his hold on the hatch to grab his son, he wouldn’t have any purchase.
Luckily he’d had decades to figure stuff like this out. He wrapped his ankles around the hatch’s wheel and lashed out, grabbing Dillon’s hand as he slipped past. His son, grabbed his sleeve with both hands, pulling himself up.
“There you go,” Callum said as Dillon reached the hatch.
This was going to be a bitch of climb up the island and they had to get a move on if they were going to race the water to the top. Then what though? Even if they reached the rest, it just meant they were all going to die together.
Up ahead, Jack stood on top of his stump waving his arms. Why was he waving his arms? Why wasn’t he climbing? With Jack you could never tell.
Then Callum heard it.
The sound of a rotor wash. Dillon’s face brightened. “Is that really a chopper?”
“By god, it is,” Callum answered.
“How?” Dillon asked.
“I have no freaking idea,” Callum admitted. “But I’m not going to argue with the timing.”
“But who would know we needed to get rescued?”
Again, Callum had no earthly idea.
* * *
Someone grabbed Nami’s hand and helped her up into the helicopter. She looked up to find startling green eyes, like a green you could only get with colored contacts, black straightened hair and heavy eyeliner.
“Mom?” Nami gasped out. Then repeated it because she couldn’t believe it. “Mom?”
“Oh, please, Nami, I am a most wretched mother, but I’m not going to ignore a “We are all going to die” voicemail.
And Nami had sent that back on the boat when it had been more hyperbole than reality. Thank god she’d overreacted.
“I flew out of Sydney as soon as I could and when the authorities couldn’t reach you, I hired this helicopter but they wouldn’t let us take off until the storm blew itself out.”
Nami threw herself into her mother’s arms. She knew that with her attachment disorder that her mother hated it, but she couldn’t help it.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Nami murmured, then looked up into her mother’s beautiful cat-lined eyes. “You are never going to have to remember another one of my birthdays!”
“Good,” her mother said, backing away a comfortable distance. “Because I probably won’t.”
Then her dad was in the helicopter. “Talia?”
He sounded as shocked as Nami had been.
“You don’t have to be quite this surprised, guys. Seriously, I’m not my mother.”
Even her dad, rushed forward and hugged his estranged wife, kissing her on the cheek. “You know everything bad I ever said about you?”
“Do we have the time to list them?” her mother asked.
“I take them all back!” her dad announced.
* * *
Shalie was glad for the happy Flack family reunion, but she had one of her own to get to.
“Pilot,” she yelled over the chopper sounds, “Over there!”
She pointed to where Dillon, Callum and unfortunately Jack were. With the island vertical, they were all an inch away from falling into the shark-laden waters. Jack was on a stump and her two were hanging on to a hatch.
Jack jumped from his tree stump to a tangle of dislodged walls and wires. Dillon swung back and forth until he had enough momentum to swing over to the same pile.
Could Callum achieve the same feat with only one arm. As he swung to safety, Shalie could see that he could.
The helicopter hovered over their position, the ladder swinging just over their heads. Jack went to go up, but Callum pushed him back, having Dillon go up first.
Callum indicated for Jack to go next, but he tried to move forward but was caught somehow. He tugged and tugged but couldn’t get loose.
Leave him, just leave him, Shalie thought so hard that she felt like Callum should have been able to hear her.
But he didn’t or he ignored her psychic pleading and let go of the ladder and turned back to Jack. Water sloshed at his feet, he helped Jack.
* * *
Jack and his moronic utility pants. He’d gotten one of the loops stuck on a piece of wire. If you were going to pretend to be a “shark hunter” you might want to be slightly more coordinated.
Callum climbed over Jack and pulled one of the many knives he had tucked into those ludicrous pants. He sliced through the fabric freeing Jack. Instead of being, oh, grateful, Jack stepped on Callum’s head and hurled himself up the ladder.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, Callum tried to climb up after Jack. There was room for everyone. Even this douche. However the island lurched and gave out under his feet. One minute the island was there, the next it wasn’t. Callum barely had a finger hold on the bottom rung of the ladder. Again, being one-armed sucked.
“
Jack!” he called out, the shark hunter was half way up the ladder.
From the top of the ladder, Dillon turned around. “Dad!”
Callum could see his son start to turn around. Risking himself one more time.
He couldn’t let him. Not again.
Callum did a few quick calculations.
He wasn’t going to make it. There was no way anyone could help him, not even Quax at this angle. He couldn’t risk anyone any more.
“I love you!” he shouted out to Dillon and Shalie, then let go of the ladder.
* * *
“No!” Dillon screamed. He tried to get back down the ladder, but people had grabbed his shirt, tugging him up.
His father had gone under, but then nothing. No dorsal fin. No blood. Nothing. They could still save him.
Dillon let go of the ladder, hoping to plummet to the ocean, but the others had too tight a grip and dragged him, kicking and screaming into the helicopter.
“No!” he screamed again. “Let me go!”
But no one would. Especially not Quax.
“Please, please, please,” Dillon begged his robot friend. “Rescue him.”
“He made his decision,” Quax said.
“No,” Dillon sobbed. “No…”
Nami came and enveloped him in her arms, but even that didn’t help the pain that seared his heart.
“I’m all alone,” he sobbed. His mother gone. His father snatched from him. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair.
Then Shalie’s arms were around him and Quax’s.
“You’re never alone,” Shalie murmured. “Never.”
Dillon just sat there and cried and cried. No matter their words, he felt so alone. Then he saw Jack right himself on the ladder and start to climb up.
“No,” Dillon stated. “He is not getting on this helicopter.”
He tried to break the ladder off, but it was bolted to the floor of the helicopter.
“Dillon!” Shalie scolded, but he didn’t stop. That man was not living while his father died.
Then Jack let go of the ladder with one hand and whooped. “Jack the Shark --”
His self-gratifying jubilation was cut short as Gabby hurled from the water and snatched him right out of the air. She dove back down with him. They disappeared beneath the surface.
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 29