“Okay, I may asphyxiate, but that was totally worth it!” Lopez announced, looking down at his gauge. It was in the red, just like theirs all were. It wouldn’t be long now, whether by lack of air or shark attack.
At the least it would be over.
Nassar thought of his mother and the lame “he died in training” explanation they would give her. She would never know the true reason he died. Maybe in this case it was best. The only thing he’d been able to keep hold of was the gilded box. A lot of good it was going to do for him or his nation now.
The Leopard shark got a little braver, coming in for a look see. Lopez hit this one too, but it seemed less impressed with the maneuver, flicking its tail, getting just out of reach, continuing its death hunt, circling even tighter.
“The White’s coming!” Ajax yelled.
That he was. The shark seemed to sense that the Leopard shark was getting more aggressive and that its prey was about to get snatched right out from under its nose.
Jaws open wide, it came at them.
Nassar cringed, pulling himself into a tight ball, waiting for the pain of ripped flesh…that never came.
The shark was stopped dead in the water. A look of shock on its face. Its jaw snapped closed as it turned to find what had stopped it.
Huge tentacles gripped the shark’s tail, pulling it backward to its own gaping mouth. The shark tried to fight back, sheering off tentacles, but as soon as it bit one, another latched on with suction cups the size of basketballs.
A hook beak, white, shiny and looking sharp emerged from the squid’s mouth, it hurled out, hooking into the shark’s belly, gulping the Great White down even as it still thrashed.
The leopard shark tried to get away, but a tentacle lashed out, attaching itself to the shark’s pectoral fin. The shark fought, but another tentacle lashed out and grabbed its dorsal fin.
After what Nassar had seen, this shark was done for as well. It was just a matter of swallowing the Great White, then that beak would come out and game over.
Then their savior would become their hunter.
* * *
Callum watched with morbid fascination as the giant squid pulled the rather plump leopard shark toward its mouth.
On one hand, this was a monumental moment. No human had actually seen a giant squid feed before. The scientific community would be happy to know that the reality was a combination of all the theories up until now.
The tentacles were used first, then the hook, then the swallow.
If he survived this he could write the article of the century for Nature magazine.
However, they did have to survive a giant squid attack first.
As the last of the leopard shark disappeared into the beak, the giant squid’s eye rolled toward the SEALs. The orb was as large as a human head. A tentacle slowly moved toward the men. The guys tried to swim away, but the giant squid didn’t get this large by letting prey just swim off.
It flicked the end of the tentacle and grabbed the men around the waist. All three of them. Lopez tried to use his oxygen tank to loosen the squid’s grip but it was futile. Those suction cups held a shark at a standstill. A little prodding wasn’t going to save the men.
“Quax? Whatcha got?”
Callum thought they had been moving fast, and then Quax kicked it into a whole other gear. Callum had to hold on as they streaked through the water. Then like a bullet they hit the squid right in the eye.
They did not rupture the orb, but clearly hurt the squid. It recoiled from them. Quax backed them up and, in a storm of tentacles, hit the squid’s eye again.
This time the squid released the men, pulling its tentacles back to itself, shielding it eye.
“Again!” Callum yelled. Giant squid were known to be tenacious. Fighting sperm whales for hours until they simply tired the creature out or drowned it.
Quax put it in reverse then went up and over the squid and hit its other eye. This time the squid retreated rapidly, spraying them all with thick black ink.
That was the squid’s farewell as it descended quickly, out of sight.
One giant squid vanquished. Nature magazine here he came.
* * *
Nassar found Lopez floating next to him. Had the squid gotten him or lack of oxygen? He checked his tank. It was just barely above zero. He should have oxygen if the gauge was correct and undamaged by the shark attack.
“Lopez!” Ajax yelled, shaking his friend.
Callum and the other joined them, handing off fresh tanks.
“I’ve got him,” Callum said, holding onto Lopez as the robot rapidly changed the corporal’s oxygen tank.
Finishing with his tank, Nassar breathed in fresh air. His lungs sagged in relief. Ajax took a few puffs then gave a thumbs up.
They turned their attention to Lopez.
“He’s got air,” Dillon said.
Nassar looked into Lopez’s mask. He looked like he was just sleeping, a lazy smile on his face.
“Lopez!” Nassar yelled shaking the corporal.
The man’s eyelids fluttered as he regained consciousness.
“No worries,” he sighed as he righted himself. “Just passed out from the awesomeness, and you know, low oxygen.”
Nassar slapped the corporal on the arm. “Don’t do that to me again.”
“What? Nearly get eaten by sharks, be saved then attacked by a giant squid then get saved by a robot? ‘Cause I was thinking we get in line to do it over.”
Shoving Lopez away, Nassar looked into the distance. All seemed quiet. Would the squid come back for revenge? How many other sharks were left? How many other dangers were deep in the cold water?
Could the robot save them from all of them or would they meet an opponent that even their combined skills couldn’t overcome?
“I was just saying,” Lopez stated, moving away so Nassar couldn’t whack him again.
Nassar turned to Callum. “Thank you,” he said extending his hand.
Callum declined though and indicated to the robot.
“You should be thanking Quax and my son for wholeheartedly believing in him. I think it’s catching.”
The man’s son beamed as the robot took Nassar’s hand. “My pleasure.”
Okay, so Nassar didn’t wake up this morning thinking he was going to be shaking a robot’s hand. That was for sure.
Ajax followed suit, glancing sideways to Nassar as if saying “can you believe this.”
Lopez was next pulling the robot into a bro hug, made a little awkward by his dry suit, but still the corporal made it work somehow.
“Time to head home?” Callum asked.
“Yes, that would be appreciated,” Nassar stated, heading toward the survivor’s station.
Could they really beat the odds and make it out of here alive?
From Lopez’s hearty laugh, Nassar was beginning to think they could.
CHAPTER 23
Tonaka worked on a fairly elaborate and, in his mind, eloquent algorithm. He was trying to track all the variables associated with keeping twelve people alive in a small space floating in the Arctic Ocean.
Once he started writing them down, he was shocked at how many there were. And these were just objective variables. Water consumption, calorie count, ambient temperature, sustained temperature, and host of others.
Waste management became an issue about day four. Water wasn’t too bad since they had an ice pack above them, but temperature control, now that was a tricky one.
It was fuel that was going to be their limiting factor. Generating heat was their priority but that action consumed their most precious resource.
Tonaka glanced around the room. Right now everyone was cooperative. But what happened if that stopped? Then the subjective factors kicked in. Personality clashes, uneven resource usage, bullying.
He sighed, it was simply human nature. You get more than two people in a room and needs started to clash.
All in all, the bottom line was they needed to get off this
station as quickly as possible before any of the factors turned to the negative.
Like the potential saboteur. A single act of espionage could unhinge his carefully constructed matrix.
He looked over to the old man who was still rocking and mumbling. Now though he had a bit of foam at the corner of his mouth. He seemed to be getting more and more agitated.
Zoya was watching him carefully, to the exclusion of all else it seemed.
What if he did have explosives under his coat? Was waiting it out really going to work? However if they provoked him, could they trigger an explosion?
Tonaka had run the numbers. It was a 50/50 call. And Zoya knew her Russian counterparts the best, so it was left for her to decide.
Tonaka was simply glad it wasn’t up to him. The only action he had taken was to edge the QX closer to the man in case sudden action had to be taken. He felt a sense of relief as the soldiers returned on the monitor. They would be here soon and then they would at the least have someone who knew how to subdue a potential saboteur.
“They are coming, yes?” Zoya asked her eyes narrow and focused.
“Yes, they should be here any minute,” Tonaka confirmed.
Then out of nowhere Pietrov leapt across the room, tackling the confused old man. Shouting and mayhem filled the room. A little girl’s scream echoed off Tonaka’s skull. There was a flash of metal. Pietrov buried a blade into the old man’s gut. Once, then twice, then three times.
The old man put an arm out toward Tonaka, clearly asking for help. The QX jumped in, grabbing Pietrov and pulling him away from the old man.
Zoya rushed over, dropping to her knees next to the downed man. She put pressure over the wound. “Hold on. Hold on.”
Tonaka rushed to the first aid kit, grabbing sterile bandages, it wasn’t much but it was something.
Zoya leaned over the old man’s mouth, “What did you say?”
But the injured man’s mouth bubbled with blood froth as his head tilted over, his eyes wide with death.
“He had this,” Pietrov said, showing her a brick of C4.
Only Tonaka had the best angle and he’d seen Pietrov pull nothing from the old man. Yet he held his tongue. Pietrov still held the knife, pointing down, but apparently ready for use if he needed it.
Zoya took the explosive. “So he was the saboteur?”
Tonaka wasn’t so sure of that, but long ago he had learned the importance of timing. With the soldiers just a few minutes away, he’d best hold his tongue.
Pietrov nodded. “I only meant to stop him…”
Another lie. The Russian officer had stabbed the old man repeatedly. Over and over, calculated to doing the most damage in the least amount of time.
Tonaka did not yet reveal there was a murderer in their midst.
* * *
Nami held the little girl, Marie, tightly. The dog had jumped on her lap as well. They were all in the corner trying to recover from the sudden violence. Zoya put a sheet over the old man, which immediately stained with blood.
She tried to keep Marie angled away from the horror, although apparently the little girl had seen far more during the initial attack. Still, it didn’t mean she needed to see more.
Any time the little girl drifted off to sleep, her body would jerk and spasm as she cried out. Marie was going to need some heavy duty PTSD counseling when she got home. Just like the rest of them.
The tension in the room was palpable.
The bloody dead body in the middle of the room wasn’t helping.
Something wasn’t right. Pietrov still had the knife. Which was weird, right? If he had acted in self-defense, wouldn’t he want to get rid of that bloody knife? Or had she just binge-watched way too much CSI on the flight over here?
No, Tonaka looked odd too. She knew the robotics expert. He was the image of calm, even under the worst circumstances. Now though? His eyes darted back and forth and he nervously typed what Nami thought was a bunch of gibberish, his fingers moved all herky-jerky, not his usual precision.
Nami needed to be ready for anything. She already spotted a large piece of metal they could hide behind if that knife came into play.
God, she missed her Dad, Dillon and even that funny guy Lopez. She just wanted to go back to reading nursery rhymes to Marie.
The dog licked her face, as if to tell her everything was going to be okay. Nami snuggled Marie tighter. She certainly hoped the dog was right.
* * *
Nick was feeling pretty stoked. You didn’t get to participate in a rescue that epic every day. Just wait until he rubbed it into Michael Bay’s face. Too old for an action hero, huh? I’ll see your giant robots and raise you a giant squid. He still had black ink all over his dry suit to prove it.
Everyone was in a jovial mood, even Captain Nassar. That’s what happens when you make a narrow escape with your life like that.
“Beers are on me!” Lopez announced even though there wasn’t a drop of beer on the station. So far all they had found was some cheap vodka that was probably better used to burn for heat than to drink.
Quax opened the hatch and they stepped into the main room of the remaining station.
Nick didn’t understand why the men’s guns all came up until he looked past Quax to find a body, covered in a bloody sheet on the floor.
“What the hell happened here?” Nassar asked.
Nick sidestepped the soldiers to find Nami holding the girl and the dog. He went over to his daughter as Zoya stepped forward. “Pietrov noticed some C4 under the man’s coat. He went to confront him. There was a struggle and the man was killed.”
Kneeling down, Nick kissed the top of Nami’s head. “You okay?”
She nodded with tears hanging off her eyelashes. “Yah, but something’s not right…”
No kidding.
Nassar took a step forward to Pietrov. “I’m going to have to ask you to put down the knife, sir.”
Pietrov looked down at his hand as if he were surprised there was a knife there. Still he didn’t drop it.
“Sir, this is your last warning.”
Nick’s eyes were focused on the Russian’s hand. He saw the muscles of his wrist relax and the knife clanged to the floor.
Relief swept over Nick. They’d had enough drama already.
Unfortunately it wasn’t over.
* * *
Nassar sucked in a breath as Pietrov opened his coat and pulled out a red button detonator. He was strapped with enough C4 to bring down the station.
“Pietrov!” Zoya hissed.
He turned to his comrade. “You saw what they were doing here. It had to be stopped.”
“But to kill everyone?” Zoya recoiled. “To kill us now? What have you become?”
“A coward,” Lopez stated. When everyone swung around to glare at the corporal he said, “What? I’m just being honest. If he was going to blow himself up, he could have done it at any time.”
While Lopez wasn’t wrong, he also wasn’t helping.
Nassar put a hand up, taking it from his gun, putting more pressure on this guy was probably not going to resolve the problem. “Pietrov, clearly you don’t want to do this.”
“But what other choice do I have?” the Russian asked. “There is blood on my hands, not even the ocean can wash away.”
Zoya stepped forward. “Then kill yourself.”
Okay, the spectators really weren’t helping much.
Pietrov’s eyes narrowed. “That is exactly what I am going to do.”
“No,” Zoya said, shaking her head. “You are going to kill us all. Why?” The lieutenant pressed. “You have made your point. Putin will be disgraced. Why must I die for your political beliefs?”
Despite the unorthodox method, Zoya’s words did seem to give Pietrov pause. His finger was to the side of the detonator and his hand shook slightly.
They weren’t going to get blown up, at least not in the next few moments.
* * *
“You understand,” the man said
, turning to Callum.
Callum almost wanted to point to his own chest, me? But he didn’t, the man’s stare was obvious enough.
“No, no I don’t,” he answered honestly. From the glare he was getting from Nassar, that wasn’t the correct answer.
“But what they were doing to the sharks? To nature itself. An affront,” Pietrov said, however it sounded a bit like desperation to Callum.
“Oh, I agree with you entirely on that. This place goes against Nature.”
Pietrov nodded vigorously. How Callum wished he could keep on agreeing with the Russian, but he couldn’t. “But how you have handled it is equally unnatural.”
The Russian frowned, gritting his teeth. While Nassar looked upset, it was Zoya who took another step forward.
“You are Russian, Pietrov,” she barked at him. “You have the strength of the Mother Bear coursing through your veins. Do not dally. Go to the ocean. Let it decide your fate.”
Pietrov’s features clouded and he looked ready to cry.
“What have I done, Zoya?” he asked, sounding about five years old.
Callum might have felt sorry for him except for all the bodies they had found. You didn’t get to commit such atrocities and then receive any sympathy for how badly you felt about doing them.
Zoya nodded to Nick who opened the door. “Let this be your legacy, Pietrov. You will be a hero to the Ultimatum. It will be you who is remembered for stopping Putin’s horrific plan.”
Finally the man nodded. “I shall let the cold waters embrace me.”
“Yes, yes,” Zoya said, urging him out the door. “It will be a hero’s death.”
Callum wasn’t so sure of that. Hypothermia and suffocation hadn’t felt so good when he’d nearly expired that way, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. Not with the glare he was getting from Nassar.
* * *
Dillon watched as Pietrov exited the hatch. Nick closed it behind him.
“Is he going to the outer hatch?” Zoya asked Tonaka.
The older man nodded.
“Shouldn’t we try to disarm him or something?” Dillon asked. This was all so horrible.
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 50