Lopez slapped his hands together. “Okay, so what’s next?”
No one answered, because the station did.
A loud crack filled the air. Then another.
That wasn’t good.
Even though the Megalodon was gone, that didn’t mean that the damage it had done to the station was any less. If anything, with every minute that went by, the water rushing into the station destabilized the integrity of the structure.
Then the room tilted, throwing everyone to the side.
Screams filled Nami’s ears.
* * *
Since Dillon had Nami, Nick grabbed Zoya and pushed her to the side so she didn’t fall into the bay as the room tilted sideways. He grabbed hold of a metal bar and held on tight.
Others weren’t so lucky, falling into the bay. Some thrashed on the surface until they were picked off by the sharks below.
“Hold on,” Nick told Zoya as he caught another metal bar with his other hand. The SEAL named Ajax had stopped struggling, hanging vertical in the water. The smartest thing to do if sharks were around. Give them less of a target.
Nick loosened a chain from the wall and tossed it down to the SEAL. The man wrapped his wrists around it and hauled himself up from the water. A smaller shark leapt, grabbing the man’s shoe, but he kicked that sensitive snout and the shark fell back into the water.
Ajax climbed the rest of the way quickly. ‘Thanks, man.”
“Don’t mention it,” Nick said patting the man’s wet jacket.
Ajax dropped the chain again and one of the Russian survivors, the older man, Pietrov, climbed up.
Soon the bay was empty again. Only a few had been rescued though. The rest had been lost to the Arctic.
Dillon was at the hatch which lay at an odd angle. “This way.”
“Ladies first,” Nick said to Zoya who climbed hand over hand across the wall to get to the hatch. She then swung herself out into the hallway. They had to evacuate quickly as water poured in from the cracked bay.
Soon the rest were out in the hallway and Dillon shut the hatch. Everyone had to brace themselves as the station listed even worse.
Lopez shrugged. “Hey, if I had destroyed the station, I would have done so to our advantage. Precision blasts, but noooo…”
Nassar turned to the corporal. “We can discuss all of our errors later. What we need right now is a plan.”
Yes, because they had such a great plan before. Now when they were at their worst point, they were going to come up with a great plan. Nick was thinking, not so much.
* * *
Tonaka held onto Callum. He’d taken a blow to the head back there. Blood trickled down his forehead. He seemed to have trouble keeping his feet under him. The others were batting around different ideas to not much avail.
“Hang on,” Tonaka said trying to blot the blood from his skin. In this shark rich environment, the last thing they needed was the scent of fresh blood. How far away could a shark sense a single drop of blood? Way too far off for Tonaka’s liking.
Callum nudged his hand away. “Thanks,” he said in that heavy Aussie accent of his.
Tonaka looked around. Quax was off on the other side of the hallway, helping the other survivors.
“Did you just speak English?” Tonaka asked.
Callum frowned. “I…I don’t think so.”
Tonaka smiled. “I believe, my friend, that you just did.”
He looked around, touching his throat. But it wasn’t his throat that had gotten hit, resetting his brain.
“Callum has regained his voice!” Shalie announced louder so everyone could hear. “Callum’s better!”
Dillon ran over. “Dad, is it true?”
Callum looked more stunned than anyone else. “I guess…”
Dillon grabbed his father and hugged him. “The doctors said another blow might cure you!”
That they did. The downside and why no one else had tried it was that another blow could shear a blood vessel or reopen the skull fracture or kill him. Tonaka felt Callum’s cranium, looking for problem areas.
“I’m fine,” he said, again in beautiful perfect English.
“I just want to make sure from a structural standpoint,” Tonaka said smiling at his friend.
Could it be? Could a miracle come from all of this destruction?
* * *
Dillon just sat there giddy. Sure the station was sinking and sharks circled, waiting to eat them all, but his dad was whole again. No more translating. No more awkward silences.
He hugged his dad who returned the gesture with his one arm hug.
“Guys I feel fine.”
Tears rolled down Dillon’s cheek. Even though his father had ended up surviving Salechii, it didn’t feel like he truly had him back until now. Nami rubbed Dillon’s back. She’d stuck through it all with him. He seriously needed to thank her properly.
“Um…” a Nick said from behind them. “This is fantastic, but we still need a plan to get to the surface and survive there until a rescue comes.”
“Remind me not to go on any rescue missions above the Equator,” Callum said.
Dillon laughed, a bit too much he was so giddy to hear his father’ voice. His true voice right out of his lips.
Nami was the one to speak first. “Lopez, why can’t we still execute your original plan? Use explosives to section off a floating, non-flooded part of the station?”
The corporal rubbed his hands together. “Nothing. Where’s the boom juice?”
The captain frowned. “Unfortunately all of our explosives are now in the belly of a Greenland shark.
“Which one?” Lopez asked.
“What does it matter?” Nassar answered.
“Um, a whole hell of a lot. We’ve got Mr. Shark here. I’m sure he can figure out how we can get those explosives back.”
All eyes turned on Callum. He felt uncomfortable with everyone relying on him. Look how well that had turned out before.
“Come on, come on,” Lopez egged him on. “We kind of are on like a little bit of a deadline here.”
Callum took in a deep breath. “We will need to isolate the shark and get it to vomit up the explosives.”
“Say again?” Nick asked.
“I mean normally I would wait for it to defecate out the bag,” Callum answered, “But we don’t have that much time.”
Nick squinted his eyes. “And how exactly are we going to get a Greenland shark to vomit?”
“I’ve got a plan,” Callum reassured Nick.
Lopez’s arm shot up. “I’m in.”
* * *
Nick frowned. This sounded like a really, really bad plan. And he’d been party to several really bad plans before.
“This sounds crazy,” Nick said.
“I know,” Lopez counted. “That’s why I like it so much. Good job, mate!” Lopez said, raising his hand. Callum reluctantly fulfilled the action.
Zoya stood next to Nick. “But how exactly? I have been trying to uh… wrangle these sharks months now with little success. And to get close enough to one to induce vomiting?”
Callum seemed to find his footing. He always did best when challenged. “We will chum the waters of a structurally sound room. Any shark we don’t want there, we simply electrify the waters and chase them out. Once we have the shark we need, we rig the door to close from the outside.”
“And then what?” Zoya countered. “You jump in the water and put your hand down its throat?”
“I like it. Mano-a-sharko,” Lopez interjected, not all that helpfully.
“We give it an injection,” Callum replied. They weren’t barbarians.
Zoya frowned making her seamless skin crease. “I say we kill shark, and take explosives.”
Callum turned to the Russian. “It isn’t this shark’s fault. I will not kill it in cold-blood. We induce vomiting or you can count me out of the plan.”
The Russian woman frowned. “Just wait until you are in water with it,” she snorted, �
�then we will see if you stick to your plan.”
Nick stepped forward. “Callum, I gotta say, I’m not loving this plan either.”
“Trust me, I’m not a huge fan myself,” Callum said. “But it is the only way to get those explosives and detonators back without killing the Greenland. And remember, it might be easier to get it to vomit than it would be to kill it.”
While shaking her head, Zoya stepped back, not arguing any further.
“Who is going in?” Nick asked.
“We’ve got three QXs plus Quax, myself and I am assuming the rest of the SEALs.”
Nick counted off. That made four humans and four robots. Was that going to be enough?
“No,” said Dillon as he held up his hand to his father. “And dad, no matter what language you speak in, the answer will still be, I am going.”
Callum opened his mouth, then closed it. The teen did look pretty defiant.
“You aren’t thinking about going, honey, are you?” Nick asked, praying his daughter said no.
“Are you kidding me?” she replied. Nick held his breath. “Not in a million years.”
He breathed out a sigh of relief.
“We could use your help though, Nick,” Callum said.
Nick pointed to his chest. He knew he sounded squeaky. “Me?”
“Don’t worry. Not in the water, but to stand by to help any of us out if we get injured.”
“Sure, sure,” Nick said not wanting to look the coward in front of Zoya. “I can do that.”
Um, no, no he wasn’t so sure he could, but he wasn’t about to admit that to the entire room or to the beautiful Russian Lieutenant.
CHAPTER 16
“I go too,” Zoya said. “But in water, with shark. I can do.”
She could tell the movie star was not very happy to be helping out because he was used to stunt men and such. In Russia there were no stunt doubles. If you wanted the role, you did the stunts. In movies or not.
Callum shook his head. “I think we’ll be fine.”
“What? A woman can’t do the same as man?” Zoya demanded.
Zoya had enough of that from the motherland. Despite communism and supposed gender equality, it was not like that in the workplace. Even in the military women were looked down upon as the lesser sex. She had fought, literally fought, to gain her rank. Zoya had thought the Americans more enlightened than this. Clearly she was wrong as all the men frowned.
Lopez chuckled. “No, it’s worse. A Russian can’t do what an American can.”
Zoya turned on the soldier. “I was here long before you rode in on your white horse.”
The shark expert stepped between them. “No offense, Zoya, but it was kind of your guys fault we are in this situation in the first place.”
“You are going to decline experienced diver because I am same nationality of Putin?” She spat on the floor to accentuate her point.
“If you want to risk your life alongside mine,” the boy said extending his hand, “I’m good with it.”
Zoya shook the teen’s hand. That seemed to seal the deal. No more arguments.
Now it was to the matter at hand. “I think I know the room,” Zoya said. “It is in the inner perimeter but has its own ballast to keep it steady. You may not like, but it should work.”
* * *
What had the lieutenant meant, Nassar wondered. Did it really matter? They had to move double time. The station was creaking and groaning, clearly just waiting to collapse altogether.
They had to get the explosives to blow off a section of the station to keep them afloat if they planned to survive for any length of time topside. As they trotted down the hallway, Zoya kept up a fleet pace, Lopez whistled. Yes, whistled as they rushed to their possible deaths.
Even the teenage son of the shark specialist looked at the corporal sideways.
Then Nassar realized the tune the corporal was whistling, “Highway to Hell”. Yes, Nassar felt that was probably appropriate.
He was certainly glad however that he was not Lopez’s CO. Thank Allah.
Nassar feared that the corporal and he would come to blows if they actually had to serve in the same unit.
The path to Zoya’s selected room was not difficult. It was dry, or at least only thin layer of water on the ground. Not even a tadpole could attack them in water that shallow. Nassar seriously doubted if anywhere in the station was truly dry by now.
Finally Zoya took them into the room.
Now he could see why she said they wouldn’t like it. It was lined with embryos and parts of sharks. This was some kind of autopsy room? Or sharkopsy room? There was a large winch above them and a hatch in the glass floor.
“This is where we collected the carcasses and brought specimens up to be worked on,” Zoya explained.
Nassar’s stomach was rolling enough. He didn’t really need to hear any more. The acrylic jars were quite enough, thank you very much.
“This will allow us easy entry to and exit from the water below.”
She was right. It was kind of perfect.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Lopez said, as he went over to the wall that was lined with dry suits.
Too late to back out, Nassar, Ajax, and their last man, Hatterly joined the corporal.
* * *
Nami settled into the seat in this new room. It was a storage room, but it was becoming their last stand. She pulled her feet out of the icy water. She crossed her legs as Tonaka set up one of the remaining QX. The rest, including Quax had gone with Dillon, her father and the rest to get the explosives they needed.
This was going to make one hell of a “what I did on spring break” essay at school.
The screen bloomed to life in the QX’s chest. Shalie worked on a wireless keyboard trying to pick up the signal of the security cameras.
Static was replaced by the sight of a room underwater. A large squid bellowed his way around the room as a jellyfish floated by.
“That’s not it,” Nami stated, although Tonaka was already on it, flipping through the various rooms until she found the one with their group getting ready to chum the water.
“What is that?” Nami asked her nose cringing at the sight. If she wasn’t glad she hadn’t gone before, she certainly was now.
“I believe specimen jars and tubes.”
Yep, that’s what Nami had thought too, but had hoped she was wrong.
They watched the screen as Zoya opened the hatch and Nami’s father poured a bucket of chum into the water. Now they just needed to hang out and wait for a shark to come into the pen.
It didn’t take long. A great white cruised in, looking for a snack like this was the concierge lounge at the Biltmore. It was not.
Zoya hit a button, electrifying the water. The shark did a quick one-eighty and exited the pen.
Nami looked to Tonaka. “Do you really think this is going to work?”
Tonaka’s lips spread into a slight grin. “I haven’t had a confident thought since we had to jump from the airplane, so I am not the person to ask.”
Nami nodded. “I just wish Dillon wasn’t so quick to volunteer for stuff like this.”
* * *
Dillon shivered despite the dry suit. He was pretty sure it wasn’t from the cold. They’d had several sharks take the bait, literally, but none the Greenland they needed. Maybe he wasn’t all that hungry after eating the three SEALs.
Wouldn’t that be the epitome of irony? They’d all die because a shark was full?
Dillon looked around the room. Quax was standing next to him. Stiff, his tail up. Quax didn’t seem to realize that he could retract the thing. Of course he had been so nervous this whole trip, there probably wasn’t time for him to be relaxed enough to have it down.
His father was on the far side of the room, grouped with Nick, Nassar and Zoya. They were watching for sharks coming into the pen.
The room was still super creepy. Light passed through the various specimen containers, reflecting their gruesome
contents. This place had been created as the antithesis of Salechii.
The shark park had gone horribly, but at the least its origins had been of the highest motives. To help educate about sharks. To help save the species.
This place though? This station had been built with the sole purpose of corrupting the very species. To use them to ill ends. To manipulate their natural behavior to fulfill a madman’s wishes.
Dillon’s stomach contracted at the thought. And now they might have to kill an innocent shark for doing what he was born to do. Environments needed apex predators. They needed a species to keep the other species in check. Otherwise a long slow death due to illness or starvation would be the norm.
All over the world, whenever the apex predator was removed, mainly because they were in competition with humans, the rest of the ecosystem collapsed. The areas fell into ruin.
Dillon tried to imagine the oceans without sharks. It was crazy. More crazy than even this place.
“We’ve got one!” his father announced, in English no less. “A Greenland!”
Dillon rushed over with the rest to watch the large shark cruise into the pen.
“Is it the one?” Dillon asked.
Nassar frowned. “It all happened so fast…”
Ajax tilted his head, walking in circles, following the shark. “The one that attacked us in the room had a scar over his nose, remember Nassar?”
The Captain shook his head. “All I remember was that it was missing its two front teeth. It seemed so oddly human.”
“We could kill it and see?” Lopez suggested.
Dillon’s father shook his head. “No. I told you. We induce vomiting.”
Dillon agreed. Lopez just shrugged. “Just saying it might be faster and easier.”
“Perhaps,” Dillon’s father said, “But not easier on my soul.”
* * *
Tonaka watched the screen as the group debated whether or not this was the correct shark.
He had an idea. “Zoya, don’t the sharks all have transponders?”
The woman nodded on the screen, “Da.”
“I’m going to need the access codes to your database. Maybe I can backtrack the shark’s movements and see if this is the one.”
Zoya shook her head. “The tracking equipment was in the lowest level. I have tried numerous times to access it, but cannot.”
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 45