Tonaka smiled. “Can you just get the number off the shark and give me the password?”
On the screen Zoya shrugged, then followed the shark as Ajax was doing. She read off the number from the top of the shark’s head cam. Tonaka entered it.
Ah, old age. Not that long ago he could have remembered all of those numbers, along with the pass code. And still could have calculated out to the tenth digit of pi. Not anymore. He could barely remember the number of his favorite meal at Burger King.
Such was life.
“Got it,” Tonaka announced. The data might have been collected downstairs, but more than likely there was a dedicated back up that Zoya, who was not a computer technician, might not have realized was there.
“Well, I’ve got the shark’s web cam up. I might have to scroll back through it,” Tonaka stated. “I’m scrubbing…”
Everyone watched the Greenland shark move backwards on the screen. Below his feet the Greenland moved slowly, almost sluggishly. Was it full? Could this be the shark they needed?
Then the shark suddenly seemed to realize it was trapped in the pen. The high of the chum had worn off. He began attacking the gates. That was thick steel, but against an angry Greenland? Tonaka doubted the confines would last long. He imagined that the Russians had lured the sharks into the pen then subdued them pharmaceutically quickly. Not allowing the sharks to challenge the pen this badly.
“Guys, I need to know now or I’m going to have to let him go,” Callum said over the line. They couldn’t allow the shark to damage the pen. They had other sharks to catch.
But what if this was the one. Sharks were smart enough to remember a trap. If this was the shark, this was their only chance at catching it.
“Oh my…” Tonaka said, “This is the one. This is the shark with the explosives.”
CHAPTER 17
Callum heard it.
“We’ve got a plan, let’s stick to it,” he said as Zoya opened the floor hatch.
“Let’s go make a shark puke!” Lopez yelled, pumping his fist in the air.
Callum didn’t even have time to process what just happened, only that it did.
The divers gathered around the opened hatch.
“Remember, these sharks are agitated rather than repelled by our shark prods. Use them only as physical reprimands, do not zap them.”
Callum waited as he scanned each face making sure they understood. Lopez just chuckled, tossing the prod away. “Please, I am doing this barehanded or not at all.”
The corporal was a grown-up. Callum couldn’t expend the energy to worry about him.
“On the count of three…”
They didn’t need a countdown, the Greenland shark banging on the gate was their metronome.
“Now!” Callum yelled and the group jumped in at once.
Immediately the Greenland turned on them. Now more interested in what was in the pen than what was out of it. They were ready though. Rapidly the divers spread out into a semi-circular pattern. The Greenland wasn’t the fastest shark in the world. It was fast. But not faster than expert divers ready for it.
“Remember,” Callum spoke into his mic. “We need to flip him as soon as possible.”
The shark came straight for Callum, just as they had hoped. Once the shark bypassed the other men, they darted in.
The shark tried to turn on him, but Dillon was there. He swung his prod, popping the shark right in the sensitive receptor area on the nose. The shark spun away, opening his mouth striking at a QX who heaved back and punched the shark in the same area. The Greenland thrashed back and forth, frustrated, in pain, confused, and now getting drugged.
“Flip him!” Callum shouted.
Everyone rushed forward, grabbing the shark’s pectoral fins. Spinning him over, belly up.
The shark immediately stopped thrashing. It was an old shark-handling trick. Not every shark responded to it, but if it worked, it worked.
They could all breathe a slight breath of relief.
“Zoya?” Callum asked.
* * *
She was pretty sure Callum had called her name. Her pulse was pounding so loudly in her ears that it was hard to tell for sure. As everyone’s eyes turned to hers, she guessed he had.
Zoya lifted the syringe to show him that she had it. The medical instrument was filled with Apomorphine. One of the most potent emetics in the world. Added bonus, it was also a tranquilizer.
Callum gave the thumbs up.
And jabbed the needle deep into the shark’s flesh.
“Get ready people,” Callum announced.
Everyone dog paddled, staying in place until they saw the shark’s belly quiver.
“Do it!” Callum yelled, reverberating in her ear.
They heaved the shark over again, right side up. If the shark vomited while upside down, it could kill it and Callum for some reason was dead set against that.
Sharks had one of the most forceful of vomit reflexes in the animal world. Probably because they ate anything they came across. They let their stomachs decide whether or not it was edible. Something as small as a duffle bag filled with explosives wouldn’t trigger it. More like a boat engine, something like that would induce the vomit reflex.
For this they needed the injection.
Within moments the shark reflexively opened his mouth and as if it was launched by a rocket the first item was expelled from the shark’s body.
* * *
Dillon had to look away. All he needed to know was that what came out of the shark was not a duffle bag. From what he saw, it was a head. He really didn’t want to look to be sure.
Blood clouded his vision as something else came out. Again, he really didn’t feel like he needed to know what exactly it was.
“A torso,” Quax informed him.
Dillon held up a hand trying to keep from retching. He didn’t know why he was having this response. How much horror had he seen? How many people killed or eaten by sharks?
But it was quite another thing to have them come back up, half-digested.
“I’ve got it!” Ajax yelled in Dillon’s ear.
“Let’s get out of here!” Callum yelled.
Dillon looked over to find Ajax gripping the slimy duffle bag to this chest as he rose up to the hatch.
The QXs gave a boost to the humans, popping them out of the water.
“He’s waking up!” Zoya yelled.
Dillon was nearly there when Quax grabbed him by the dry suit and flung him up and through the hatch.
As he flew up and out of the water, Dillon watched as the shark turned, making Quax his next target.
* * *
“No!” Dillon screamed loud enough that Nick could hear him through his face mask. Still Nick grabbed the teen, preventing him from diving back into the water. Most of the others were out of the hatch. Only Callum and Lopez were still down there.
Dillon tried to pry his way out of Nick’s grasp, but he wouldn’t let the boy go. He held him tight as the shark attacked.
Quax certainly wasn’t the same robot as he was at Salechii that was for sure. Was it the new body or had Quax just transcended his fear?
The robot cocked his arm back, slamming a good left hook into the shark’s nose, however the drugs seemed to block the usual pain reflex. The Greenland opened his jaws, grabbing Quax around the waist.
“No!” Dillon sobbed in Nick’s arms.
Zoya jumped back into the water, splashing like crazy. Given the fact that Quax didn’t flail or bleed, the shark spit him out, going for a much more appetizing target.
In a truly disgusting manner, the Greenland ate back up that which they had made it throw up. Nami would probably say “That’s gross.” She wouldn’t be wrong.
“Grab hold!” Nick yelled, putting his arm down into the water groping for Zoya’s hand.
Instead the Russian turned to watch as the shark came right at her. There was nothing to stop the creature from swallowing her whole.
Then Lopez was t
here. Grabbing the shark by the dorsal fin, straddling its back.
“Tell me when I’ve hit eight seconds!” he shouted.
The shark bucked, swishing back and forth trying to dislodge his rider like an underwater bronco.
“Wahoo!” Lopez yelled. His antics gave Nick enough time to pull Zoya from the water. Quax used his jets to jump from the water into the room.
Dillon and Quax rushed into each other’s arms. Those two were really BFFs.
“Lopez! Come on!” Callum shouted as Nick helped him into the hatch.
“Open the gate!” the corporal yelled. “In three seconds, open the gate.”
Zoya grabbed the controls counting down, then opened the gate.
The shark instinctively turned to the exit. Just as it was about to pass the gate, Lopez jumped from the shark and landed on the metal gate. “Close it! Close it!”
Zoya did so just as the shark turned around and tried to eat the person who had annoyed it so badly. The Greenland rammed into the fence but it held.
“Off the hook!” Lopez yelled, pumping his fist in the air.
“Get in here,” Nassar ordered.
“You’re just jealous you didn’t invent shark bucking.”
* * *
Nami turned to Tonaka. “I think they are trying to give us a heart attack.”
“Or an epileptic fit,” Tonaka replied. “On the up side, I believe I have determined the best locations to place the explosives.” He pointed to his tablet. “It will isolate this room here. It has its own back-up generator, flotation pontoons and double layered walls.”
Nami couldn’t really tell which room was which but she nodded. If Tonaka figured it out, it must be correct.
Things were finally turning around. It felt good to have hope again.
A siren went off from their remaining QX. Nami turned to the robot and frowned.
“It looks like there are other survivors,” Nami stated. “Look.”
The QX’s chest showed a live feed of three people in a small storage locker. Water was rising fast. Even in the lower levels some of the rooms had escaped flooding, until now.
Tonaka pulled up the schematics. The room was two floors down and on exactly the opposite side of the station from the room the men were in.
Nami had the same thought as Tonaka stated. “They aren’t going to survive until the guys get back.”
Ice flowed through Nami’s veins. The crystals pricked her veins, arteries and nerves. She felt slashed from the inside. There was no way she wanted to go out there, yet there was every indication that she was going to.
Tonaka seemed to understand Nami’s internal struggle.
“It’s okay. No one expects you to go,” The robotic expert reassured her.
But Nami instinctually knew that wasn’t going to be enough. “No, I’m going. I have to.”
“I must stay here to oversee the explosives deployment,” Tonaka said sounding ashamed and relieved that he couldn’t come along.
“It’s okay,” Nami said patting his back.
“No, I mean you can’t take the QX. All of our lives depend on doing this correctly.”
Nami tried really hard not to let it show on her face that her heart had just sunk to her knees. Her courage had been artificial. As artificial as the QX.
“Again, Nami, you don’t have to go,” Tonaka stated.
Nami sighed. She loved the old man, but a realist he was not at times.
“I need to go even more now,” Nami stated, walking over to the dry suits and finding one her size. “I can carry enough oxygen for five.” Nami stated.
Thank goodness the Russians were safety conscious enough to have dry suits and oxygen around practically every corner.
Because she was going to need them.
* * *
Nassar swam fast and hard. Lopez was behind him, and surprisingly for a non-SEAL was keeping up.
They had divided the C4 and were swimming in pairs to deliver it to the most efficient junctions to blow off a section of the station for their very own.
“Did I tell you already that I suggested this like an hour ago?” Lopez asked.
Nassar rolled his eyes. Lopez had told them all that like a dozen times already. Nassar allowed the statement to roll past him as he did the water. So far no sharks. Tonaka was trying to monitor them, giving them a head’s up on which hallways to avoid.
So far. So good.
Checking his pack, Nassar made certain that he still had the package. This entire mission was predicated on getting this gold box. It wouldn’t be very successful if he died before delivering it to his commanding officer.
More than his life, he wanted to fulfill his mission.
He only had Ajax and Troy left. He had to honor his men’s memories. He had to complete his objective or their deaths would mean nothing.
“Here we go,” Lopez said. “Second juncture from the main hoist, lateral to the main support beam.”
Nassar double-checked his schematics. Lopez was correct.
As Nassar secured the C4 and shoved a detonator into the plastique, Lopez sighed. “I really wish we had a speed boat.”
“Yes, we all wish we had a way off this station.”
“No,” Lopez said still sounding melancholy. “I mean I want to race a shark, wouldn’t that be awesome?”
Nassar really had no idea how Lopez’s CO did it. He would have punched the guy in the mouth a hundred times over if Lopez was really his teammate.
“Beware, one of the Great Whites is heading your way,” Tonaka said in his ear. The man had been able to reroute communications so at the least they would coordinate.
The news that he bore was not good though. Especially because the Great Whites here were humongous. Callum said it was something about body weight to surface area ratio and keeping them fat to combat the frigid waters.
Whatever it was, it was disconcerting.
They plastered themselves against the wall as the Great White swam around the corner. Its head swayed side to side as it tried to sense them. Lopez had the good sense to hold his breath. It was known the scuba equipment’s bubbles could attract the sharks.
With nothing to tell it that they were prey, the Great White looked like it was going to cruise on past, which was just fine by Nassar. He’d had enough shark attacks to last a lifetime.
Slowly the Great White slid on by. Occasionally pausing to swing its head to and fro.
Just go on already
Nothing interesting to see here…
However as it moved on Lopez pointed. “Is that a saddle?”
Dear Allah, it was. Someone had fitted the Great White with a saddle. What in the hell were these Russian’s thinking?
“Oh, I can’t pass this up,” Lopez said. “It’s like God is daring me.”
“No!” Nassar shouted, but it was too late. Lopez pushed off the wall, landing in the saddle as the Great White wigged out.
CHAPTER 18
Tonaka watched as Lopez “rode” the shark. What scientific value did putting a saddle on a Great White serve? Madness. The essence of madness.
Doubled by Lopez’s own madness.
“Hurry, someone find another shark with a saddle so we can race!”
The Great White did not buck and lurch as the Greenland shark had. No, this White was smarter than the more sluggish ambusher Greenland. No, this White was actively trying to knock Lopez off his back. It would swim as close to the ceiling as possible. Lopez had to bend over, lying nearly flat against the shark’s back to avoid getting clobbered by metal scaffolding.
Laying over on its side, the Great White tried to ram Lopez into a bulkhead, but the corporal was too fast for that. Lopez could duck and weave with the best of them.
Tonaka changed to another screen. Nami was swiftly making her way down to level three. Most of the sharks had been attracted by the chum in the procedures room.
He flipped to another screen. Nassar had moved off from his primary site and now was alone sinc
e Lopez was off shark-riding. Another screen showed Callum, Dillon and Quax planting their C4. The next screen showed Ajax and Pietrov along with a QX going down a few levels to plant theirs. And the last screen showed Nick, Zoya and a QX actually going outside the facility to place some C4 on the outer struts.
Everything was going according to plan, with the exception of Lopez, of course. He was that wild card variable every situation had. You never could quite have a perfect equation. Not with humans involved.
Switching back, Tonaka watched Lopez go through another hatch, nearly getting decapitated. The shark was growing so desperate that it was willing to injure itself to get the corporal off his back, quite literally.
Shaking his head, Tonaka flipped back to Callum and his son. He couldn’t help Lopez, but perhaps he could help his friends.
* * *
Callum heard the chatter over the comm. Lopez, once again had gone cowboy, in a very literal sense and was off riding a shark.
“I know it’s wrong on so many levels,” Dillon stated. “But come on, you can’t blame the guy.”
Callum was so glad to have his son back. Not that he had lost him in any real way, but it was heartwarming to see the compassion come from him again. For the longest time Dillon seemed cut off from himself, let alone the rest of the world.
“Since we’ve placed the last of it, can we head down to Nami?” Dillon asked.
“Of course,” Callum said, heading toward the stairwell. These were the most dangerous locations. If you got stuck in one with a shark, you were pretty much done for.
“Tonaka, anything down this stairwell?”
There was a few second delay. “No, nothing,” the robotics expert stated. “But I’ve got a few blind spots once you get out on the third floor, so be careful.”
“Roger that,” Callum replied, glad to hear his own voice. It was only now that he realized just how freaking annoying speaking Russian had been. He could only imagine how agonizing it had been for his family.
“Alright, son, let’s move out.”
Dillon smiled back at him, remounting Quax’s back. Callum was glad to see the joy again. A boy and his robot best friend. To Dillon riding Quax was a form of honoring their bond. A form of closeness. To Callum it was a safety issue. Quax would keep Dillon safe or die trying.
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 46