“To get out of there,” Nami said indicating to the screen that showed three new sharks patrolling the hallway. It was a gruesome sight. There were still a few body parts floating around. One shark or another would snatch it mid-water and gulp it down.
Dillon shook his head. “No, they need to stay warm, or at least over the hypothermia line.”
His dad nodded. “Exactly. They are trained to stay submerged for hours and they have plenty of oxygen on them.”
“Exactly, Dad, is the plumbing still working?”
“Now that I have emergency power on, yes,” Dillon’s father responded.
“Isn’t there a bathroom associated with that room?” Dillon asked
“Yes….”
“If they crammed themselves in there and turned on the hot water and took turns being near it, wouldn’t that significantly elevate their ambient temperature?”
Dillon’s dad nodded vigorously. “And the ones that have breaches in their suits can fill up on hot water.”
Nami sat back, smiling as the others plotted out how they were going to fulfill Dillon’s plan.
She might not be all that savvy when it came to computers, but getting people going?
That she was an expert at.
CHAPTER 10
Nassar’s teeth chattered. He did not try to stop them, nor the shivers coursing over his body. There was no shame in it. It was not fear, but his body’s natural reaction to try to warm him up by using muscle activity.
He welcomed the shivers. That meant his body was actively fighting the hypothermia. Soon, all too soon, his body would give up. His shivering would stop. He would get sleepy then die once his body core temperature dropped low enough.
All in all, not that bad a way to die. Better than being cut in half by a shark. Or having your head bitten off.
No, he couldn’t think like that. He had to stay in a positive, forward-thinking mindset. If he thought he was going to die. He would die. It was that simple.
If he knew he was going to live, he would live.
And he was going to live.
Next to him the unusually tall man, Troy, stopped dog paddling and began to drift.
He tugged on him. ‘Stay awake, stay with it.”
The man nodded, groggily. He had been one of the men to take a glancing blow. The arm of his dry suit had been torn. Troy was fighting a battle ten times harder than Nassar’s. But Nassar couldn’t let him just give up.
Suddenly the emergency lighting began to flicker off and on. Great. One more obstacle.
He closed his eyes then forced them open again. He couldn’t let a little annoying light allow him to let down his guard.
“Captain…” Ajax said. “Um, it that what I think it is?”
Nassar stared at the light. It flickered on and off. On and off. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.
“Morse code,” he breathed out. Who in the hell would be trying to communicate with them through Morse code?
Callum. That was who.
“Bathroom?” Ajax asked. “Did I read that right?”
There was a side door to the room. They had already searched it and found nothing of interest and no way out.
“I guess we do what the man suggests.”
Nassar, even though his legs felt like dead weights, pushed off and headed to the door. He opened it and swam in. The rest of his men followed.
The emergency lighting the bathroom continued its message.
“Close door.”
Nassar complied. “Run hot water.”
What were they talking about? It was just a small sink with barely enough hot water to….
Then he got it. “Troy over here,” he said as Ajax turned on the water.
While not great pressure, the faucet did have some force. Nassar put Troy’s arm under the water and cupped the suit around the faucet.
“Ah…” Troy moaned as the warmth filled his suit, displacing the icy water.
“Who else has a breach?” Ajax asked, bringing those men forward first.
Whether it was real or imaginary, Nassar began to feel warmer and guess what? It didn’t matter if it was all in his head or not.
All that mattered was they were not going to die in the next few minutes.
* * *
Nick struggled up the stairs. The Russian woman wasn’t all that heavy, but in knee-high water straight up stairs with the shark bite in your leg throbbing? Even a baby would get heavy under these circumstances. But maybe he should have found a personal trainer in Seattle.
If it hadn’t been for the woman’s quick thinking, they probably never would have made it back there. Once she shot the shark, the QXs stepped in, taking the hits for the humans, either repelling the sharks or killing them. Nick was kind of okay with the killing of them. The fewer sharks they had to worry about the better.
Finally a QX picked Nick up by the back of his jacket and lifted him the last few feet onto the landing.
Nick sagged to his knees, laying the woman out. Even unconscious she was stunning. He had to tear his eyes away from her.
“Is it just me?” Tonaka asked as he dismounted his QX, “Or are these sharks more viscous than normal?”
“Yah,” Nick replied. “I think that’s the weaponized part.”
Even though the hatch was closed behind them, Nick could swear he could feel the water rising. So much for level 4.
He looked at the rest of the ragtag group. Most were either leaning on the wall or not bothering trying to fake it and lay out on the floor, panting. Some of them bleeding like his calf.
Nick hated to admit it but he was beat. “I think we have to accept the fact that we can’t do this on our own. We’re going to need the QXs to carry us.”
“Of course,” Tonaka stated as he looked over the group. “However I think even with that, we need some rest first.”
Thank God the older man said that because Nick didn’t want to have to be the one to admit he was too tired to go on.
“She’s bleeding again,” Tonaka said pointing to the downed Russian woman.
Nick knelt next to her, gently dabbing her forehead with his shirt. She roused, her eyelids fluttering. Her hand weakly rose to push him away, but he took it and laid her hand beside her.
“Let me get this cleaned up,” he whispered.
She licked her lips. “The others?”
Nick dabbed the blood on her lips. “Everyone survived. In no small part, thanks to you.”
A grin flickered on the edge of her lips. “You weren’t so bad yourself.”
Nick brushed a golden lock from her forehead. “I do play an action star.”
“Don’t just play,” she slurred just before her head lolled to the side.
Nick checked her pulse. It was strong and steady, she was just trashed, like the rest of them.
“I think we’d better move,” Tonaka said as water trickled down the hallway.
For some reason, Nick felt like he could not just walk, but run all the way back to the security station.
* * *
Dillon raised his hand and Quax high-fived him. “We rock!”
“We certainly do,” Quax answered while cueing up “Who Let the Dogs Out” on his speakers. “There are some benefits to this new body.”
“And while I am proud of all of you, the water is rising, rapidly.” His father stated and Quax translated.
His father was on it already. Typing as fast as his fingers could type. “We’ve got several pressure doors down,” he explained through Quax. “And I can’t shut them remotely. Someone is going to have to go and shut those doors manually if we have any hope of stopping the water from reaching this point.”
Those words quieted the room right down.
Nami looked at Dillon. “Got anything up your sleeve?”
“Nothing flashy,” Dillon stated. “Just QX and I going out and getting it done.”
His father shook his head. “Nyet,” he said. Quax didn’t even bother to translate that part.
“Quax and I will go,” his father said.
Dillon cocked his head. “Dad, come on, don’t make me say it.”
His father’s eyes squinted.
The great Dr. McClay was an amazing man, but sometimes a bit tunnel-visioned.
“One arm?” Dillon stated. “If Quax gets incapacitated, someone is going to need two arms.”
His father’s face clouded. In most ways Callum McClay could do as much as a two armed man. In this situation that was not true.
“I want to come then,” Nami said.
Dillon shook his head. “I want you watching those shark cams like a hawk. I don’t want any nasty surprises.”
“But your dad,” Nami stated rising from her chair.
“I promised you’d be here when your dad got back,” Dillon said, urging her back into her chair. “Besides we both know you’ve got better eyes than any of us.”
Nami’s lips turned down in a pout. That look usually got her whatever she wanted from him, but not this time.
“You told me to step up, Nami, and that’s what I’m doing and I really need you sitting right here.”
His girlfriend sighed, her shoulders sagging in acceptance. “Fine, I’ll sit here and watch for stupid sharks.”
Dillon leaned over and kissed the top of her head. Besides being the daughter of a famous action hero, she was a star in her own right. What other girl in high school would be here, let alone agree to safeguard his life?
His father came over and handed him a tablet incased in a waterproof sleeve.
“I’ve highlighted the most crucial doors,” he stated. “Some are going to be questionable by the time you get to them. If you think it is unsafe, just move on.”
His father pointed to a Russian dry suit. “Put this on,” Quax echoed his father’s intent.
Dillon accepted the suit. Even in the tropics if you were down long enough, a dry suit came in handy. Funny, this one had a huge red sickle and hammer on the chest.
When really it should have a big old grey shark on it with a great big circle with a line through it. Dillon thought he’d order one if he made it through the next hour.
* * *
Callum fiddled with one of the controls and finally got some of the security cam footage up. Now they didn’t have to rely on sharks to know what was going on.
The first room he located was the first level bathroom. The men seemed to be doing well. Well, as well as you could be, trapped in the head with sharks swimming just a few meters away.
The men who had intact dry suits helped the men who had comprised suits. His heart felt for them. While there had been friction between him and the Captain, that didn’t mean that Callum didn’t respect the men.
He even missed his camaraderie. That one for all and all for one mentality. Not that his current team wouldn’t do anything and everything for one another, there was just something visceral about the connection you had with your military team members.
Squinting, Callum caught sight of a glimmer of gold. What the heck was that?
The team certainly didn’t bring that with them to the station.
He switched screens to the outer room. A large safe stood with its door ajar. You could see the scorch marks on the metal. A few papers still floated in the water.
So apparently Nassar found the item he was seeking.
Callum hoped it was worth it. They had lost how many men? Three? Four? For a gold box?
Besides losing his arm, this was why he had given up on military service. Too many wild goose chases. Too many men at the bottom of the ocean for nothing.
“Everything okay?” Nami asked.
“Da,” Callum answered.
Nami seemed to understand that meant yes, but didn’t seem to believe him. Rapidly he typed on the screen, in English.
“I think I figured out what happened,” He typed then pointed to one of the screens then continued to type one handed. It was a bit like a circus show. “Someone intentionally unlocked one of the shark pens and hid it from the board. Every five minutes a pen would be opened. And once the larger sharks got into the smaller shark pens with their weaker steel.… We know how that goes.”
They both intimately knew how that went. His fingers went to the ragged scar on the back of his head. Sharks had cost him an arm and the English language.
Yet somehow he still loved them. They were pure in their intent, unlike whoever it was that had opened those pens.
And it wasn’t the shark’s fault that they were weaponized, whipped into a fury at the punch of a button.
He made the hand motion of going back, rolling his fingers over the other then typed, “I’m not sure I can lock them again, and honestly with the admixture of sharks, I’m not sure I would want to.”
Nami nodded. “I agree. While I wouldn’t mind some of those sharks taking out some of their own, we can’t risk it going into a feeding frenzy. Then all behavioral cues are null and void.”
Callum nodded. The girl knew her sharks.
* * *
Tonaka looked around him. The robots had their tails high in the air, stabilizing their gait as they ran down the hallway. Anyone who was strong enough, rode on the backs of the QXs. Anyone who wasn’t was carried by the robots. Silver arms keeping them safe during their hurried flight.
The water was rising rapidly and Tonaka didn’t want another episode like the last one. It was only ankle deep, but he knew how quickly that could change. They made the stairwell and the QXs took the steps two at a time.
It was a bit jarring, but Tonaka wasn’t going to complain, not one bit.
Finally they reached the top floor and the QX sprinted toward the security room. They burst in to find only Callum and Nami. Dillon and Quax were nowhere to be found.
Nami flew up from her chair meeting her father with a big hug and kiss on the cheek. “You’re on a roll!”
Nick chuckled as he helped get the Russian woman down from his QX. “We’ve got a lot of wounded. Do we have any medical supplies?”
Nami indicated to the far wall. “It’s not an infirmary, but they are pretty well stocked.”
Beyond that the QXs had extensive medical programming. Tonaka trusted them to do the basic triage and treat the multitude of minor wounds. While Nick carried the Russian woman over to the first aid area, Tonaka sought out Callum.
“What’s happened? Where’s Dillon and Quax?”
The shark biologist frowned. Clearly without Quax, Callum was reluctant to speak. Tonaka waved a QX over. “He can translate, however not in your voice.”
Callum spoke immediately, cruising through several sentences before the robot could catch up.
“The pressure doors were forced open so Dillon and Quax went to close them. The SEALs went down to the lowest level to retrieve some item from the inner vault but got attacked and are now trapped inside a bathroom using warm water to stay alive.”
Tonaka nodded. That all sounded pretty par for the course. “And what are you doing now and how can I help?”
Callum swept his hand over the control. “You’re the computer expert.”
CHAPTER 11
Nassar could have braced against the wall to conserve strength, however he needed to keep his heat up. Even with the warm water, it had only increased the temperature of the room up a fraction of a degree. You had to be right on the sink to feel any of the warming effects.
“Cap, I think the water is cooling,” Ajax said as he helped Troy to stay near the faucet.
Kicking off the wall, Nassar made his way to the sink. He put his hand under the stream. Ajax was correct. The water was decidedly cooler than it had been before, which was miles warmer than the surrounding water, however that wasn’t going to help the injured men. They needed warm water.
He turned around to look at the emergency lighting. It glowed a steady red.
No message from the others on why the water was cooling.
Ajax pointed to the ceiling. “Looks like they’ve got the security cameras on. A lit
tle red light confirmed Ajax’s assessment.
Nassar swam over to the center of the room and made the hand motion of turning on and off the water.
There was nothing for a good few seconds, then the emergency lighting began blinking again. He looked to Ajax.
“They say we’re on emergency battery which cuts off the water heaters when it falls under fifty percent. They are trying to override the safeguard.”
The light stopped blinking.
Nassar pointed to the door, clearly asking if the coast was clear to leave.
The blinking started again in earnest.
“They say there are three Greenland sharks in the hall and another dozen between us and the upper level.”
Nassar went open his mouth, but Ajax continued. “All but the top level are flooded. They say to stay put until they come up with a plan.”
How he hated this. Trapped. Waiting on civilians to get them out of this mess. How had things gone so sideways so quickly?
Perhaps this anonymous little gold box wasn’t worth it after all.
* * *
Dillon kept his back to the wall. He wasn’t quite sure how that would help in an emergency situation, but it did make him feel better. Because beyond the sharks there was a human component here. Someone rigged the pressure doors. Someone opened the shark gates. Someone who most likely was still on the station.
Boy was he glad he had Quax, although the robot seemed more nervous than he did.
“This sounded way better back at the security center,” Quax commented. “I really need to remember to keep my mouth shut.”
Dillon smiled, that was his BFF that he’d missed so much. Dillon pointed up to the security camera which now blinked red, signaling that it was on.
“They’ve got our backs,” Dillon stated.
Quax sighed. “Yes, but what about our fronts?”
Dillon was about to elbow his friend when there was a clank from up ahead. Both of them stiffened, coming to a dead halt.
“That can’t be a shark…” Dillon said hoping it were true.
“Flip you for who goes first,” Quax suggested.
Dillon shook his head. The robot was sophisticated enough to know how much the coin weighed and the exact leverage to put on his toss to make sure his side came up. Even calling it in the air was useless since the robot could calculate the spin and call it correctly every time.
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 40