Phantom Prospect

by Alex Archer

  Cole smiled. “Yeah, but you’re not nearly as attractive as Annja.”

  Hunter nodded. “Granted.”

  “If you two are finished…” Annja said. She stared at Cole. “So, you saw it.”

  “I think everyone did,” Cole said. “It’s massive. Definitely a member of the carcharodon carcharias family. But I can’t tell if it’s a meg or not. Going by size, it certainly could be.”

  “Could it just be a great white?” Hunter asked. “Maybe a really big one?”

  “It might be, but the likelihood of it is remote. There’s not much of an indigenous seal population around here. Certainly not enough to sustain a creature of that size. It must have been forty feet at least. Probably six tons worth of weight on that beast. It was incredible. The dorsal alone—”

  “Maybe three feet,” Annja said. “It was terrifying.”

  “Did you see it up close?”

  Annja nodded. “It made its presence known to me pretty convincingly. Talk about smiling for the camera, holy crap.”

  Hunter took a breath. “All right, so what happens now? I mean, we’ve got a monster shark hanging around. How do we handle this? We’ve still got a business to run and something tells me that our being here won’t dissuade this shark.”

  “It won’t,” Cole said. “This shark is here to stay.”

  “Then how do we handle it?”

  “Carefully,” Annja said. “I got a look at those teeth and they’re saw blades, for crying out loud. We don’t play this right, then we’ll all be seeing the business end of them. And I don’t have any inclination to do so. No, thanks.”

  “You weren’t in the water with it,” Cole said. “I may never sleep again. We’re going to have to think about this long and hard because we can’t just go back into the water without a plan. A good plan.”

  “Hunter!”

  They all turned and saw Jax approaching. Hunter nodded. “Good work on that reversing there, Jax.”

  “We’ve got a bigger problem right now.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You’d better follow me to the engine room to see for yourself.”

  13

  With Jax leading the way, Hunter and Annja threaded their way through the narrow corridors of the ship and down into the engine room. Cole stayed on deck to clear his head.

  Annja could smell something burning and frowned. Fire on a ship is never a good thing. When Jax pulled open the engine room, clouds of dark smoke billowed out.

  “What the hell?” Hunter said.

  “Engine’s got something in it. Maybe some water, maybe we ground the gears, I don’t know.” Jax frowned. “But this is bad.”

  Hunter waved some of the smoke away. “The Seeker has brand-new engines. This shouldn’t be happening.”

  Annja peered around him and couldn’t see much of anything because of the smoke. She coughed. “It can’t be very good to stay in here. We’ll suffocate if we do.”

  Hunter nodded. He looked at Jax. “Blow the smoke out and get Sammy down here to look at this. The engines are his game.”

  “All right.”

  Annja turned and found her way out, coughing as she went. Behind her, Hunter coughed a few times, as well. In the corridor outside, Annja stopped and bent low to take a deeper breath.

  “Why are the engines doing that?”

  Hunter shrugged. “Sammy will be able to tell us. For right now, let’s worry about Cole. Even in a worst-case scenario, we’ll be able to get help from the mainland. It’s not like we’re fifty miles offshore, you know?”

  “Fortunately.”

  “But fire or anything burning worries me.” Hunter frowned. “I’m just not sure what to make of it all.”

  They worked their way back on deck and Annja saw Cole staring out at the ocean. “You feeling better?”

  He nodded. “I am now, thanks. And thanks for your help earlier. It must have been a little worrisome for you guys.”

  “A little, yeah.”

  Cole frowned. “I owe you an apology, Annja.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I wanted you to come in the cage with me.” He shook his head. “I’ve been around sharks a very long time. And I know the limits that are there before safety gets compromised. I thought for sure there wouldn’t be a problem, and yet…” His voice trailed off.

  “I think we can all agree this shark is something of an anomaly,” Annja said.

  Cole grinned. “Biggest one I’ve ever seen. I mean, whale sharks get huge, too, but not ones like this…well, I guess we’ll call it a great white for right now until the jury comes back on the whole meg thing.”

  “Still clinging.”

  “Yup.”

  Annja sat down next to him. “You must have been terrified when you saw it coming for the cage.”

  Cole smirked. “I found myself very glad that I’d insisted on the custom job rather than the stock cage they wanted to ship me. That extra bit of steel helped cushion the attack.”

  “Such as it was.”

  “Indeed.”

  A breeze blew over them. Annja could see the surface of the ocean had gone still again—it looked like the polished glass of a mirror. She marveled at the different facets of an ocean—how it could go from a swirling maelstrom in one moment to pure calm.

  And it never revealed the secrets that it kept concealed beneath the waves.

  “What happens now?” she asked.

  Cole shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m still replaying everything in my head. Not that there’s all that much, mind you. Getting knocked out cold on the first pass wasn’t exactly my game plan for the day.”

  “What are you replaying exactly?”

  Cole shrugged. “Something doesn’t seem right. About the shark, I mean. Maybe I’m trying to drive the square peg of a great white’s behavior into the round hole of what just happened, but something isn’t making sense.”

  “Like what?”

  Cole frowned. “Not sure yet.” He glanced at her. “You ever have a gut instinct about something and you can’t actually rationalize it or at least verbalize it? And yet, you know there’s something, something that doesn’t feel quite correct.”

  “More times than I can tell you about.”

  “Figured you would.” Cole nodded. “I just have to let my subconscious process things for a while and work through it that way. But there’s something there all right. It’s weird.”

  Annja patted him on the shoulder. “You going to get changed out of that wet suit before lunch?”

  “Guess I should.” Cole stood. “I won’t be so anxious to get you in the water the next time we get a visit from that thing. I’m not sure I’m going to be anxious to see it again, myself.”

  Annja nodded. “Well, I guess we’ll handle that when the time comes, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  Cole got up and walked toward the crew quarters. Annja watched him go and then turned back toward the ocean. She closed her eyes and felt herself expand outward, searching with her subconscious. What was it about this situation that had Cole upset aside from the obvious fact that something huge was swimming in these waters?

  Something didn’t feel right to her, either.

  She’d had strange things happen to her before on her adventures. But she wondered what could be going on now that lurked out on the dive site. She knew it had Cole spooked and not just because he’d almost died.

  There was more to it than that.

  And Annja would have to find out what.

  “THAT’S THE PROBLEM.”

  Hunter stared at the rusted three-inch-long screw and frowned. “Where’d you get that? A yard sale?”

  Sammy, the boat’s mechanic, wiped a layer of soot from his face. He stood about five feet tall and almost as wide, leading Annja to wonder how he could work in the close confines of the engine room. He huffed and pointed at the screw. “That’s your culprit. Jammed up the gears on the engine transmission. That’s why we started smoking
. And if I hadn’t found it in time, it probably would have wrecked the engines outright.”

  Hunter picked up the screw. “But what’s it doing in our engines? Ours are brand-new. This thing looks ancient.”

  Sammy shrugged. “That’d be a bit beyond my department, boss. The fact that it was in the engines leads me to wonder who might have put it there.”

  Annja stared at him. “You think someone sabotaged the engines?”

  “Screws like that don’t appear out of nowhere. Someone had to put the damned thing in where I found it, which was tucked back nicely so a cursory examination would have missed it on the first few passes.”

  Hunter frowned. “A saboteur on the boat?”

  Annja stared down at her chowder. In truth, she hadn’t felt like seafood, but there wasn’t a lot of alternative cuisine on the boat, so she tucked into it and found it delicious. The warmth of the soup made her feel a bit more relaxed than she had been when she’d come in from the deck.

  But now, the idea that someone on board was actively looking to disrupt the treasure hunt made her worry. Especially when she thought back to her own encounter with the person or persons who attacked her.

  Cole took the screw from Hunter and turned it over in his hand. “How well do you know your crew, bro?”

  Hunter frowned. “I thought I knew them all well enough to trust them with the delicate aspects of this operation.”

  “It would seem that’s not exactly the case. Someone might be playing for the other side.”

  Annja looked up. “What other side?”

  Hunter smirked. “Cole gets a bit paranoid about this stuff.”

  “It’s not paranoia. It’s a genuine concern.” He looked at Annja. “Any time you’re talking about treasure, there’s always the risk that someone else will hear about your hunt and then take steps to, shall we say, throw up challenges to your operation.”

  “So you think this is an active attempt to derail this treasure hunt?” Annja frowned. “That would mean the traitors are still among us.”

  Hunter glanced around at the few other diners in the galley and frowned. “I don’t like looking at any of my people like they’re criminals.”

  Sammy cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, like I said earlier, that screw didn’t find its way into the engines by itself. You’ve got a rat on board, Mr. Williams. God knows what they’ll try next.”

  Cole watched as Sammy ambled away. “He’s right.”

  Hunter nodded. “I know it, dammit. But the prospect of treating everyone like a suspect doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve had my own run-ins with the law before. I know what it’s like to face questioning. It’s not something I take lightly.”

  “No one’s accusing you of being a hard-ass,” Cole said. “But for the sake of this trip, we’ve got to find out what’s going on. Our investment’s at risk and our lives could very well be in jeopardy. Combine this with the attack on Annja and we’ve got a real problem to tackle.”

  “And the shark?” Hunter asked.

  Cole chuckled. “Well, fortunately for us, the last time I checked, sharks don’t come on board the boats they stalk. I think he’s innocent in the engine room sabotage and the attack on Annja.”

  “I meant, what about studying it?”

  “I know what you meant, bro.” Cole took a drink. “But I think that we have to put a stop to everything until we get to the bottom of this. We can’t risk being distracted with anything else right now.”

  Hunter stared at his brother and then nodded. “You’re right. We’ll get this done and then finish the hunt.”

  “Good.”

  “Where do we start?” Annja asked.

  Cole looked at Hunter. “You have personnel files on everyone on board?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Why not?”

  “Things in this business are a bit looser than that. Hell, you think I’d have gotten Jax if she had to fill out some elaborate background check?”

  Cole shrugged. “Not sure that would be a big deal, honestly.”

  “She’s good, bro. She knows her stuff. And if wasn’t for her putting the boat into reverse earlier, Annja would never have been able to snag your cage and get you out of the drink. You were on a dead run with that shark when we winched you out of the water.”

  Cole looked at Annja. “That true?”

  “Yeah. Jax might be rough around the edges—”

  “They’re serrated.”

  “But she knows her stuff. It’s obvious.”

  Cole took a breath. “Guess I wasn’t sure how dangerous things got out there. Me being out of it and all.”

  “It was hairy.”

  Cole looked at Hunter. “All right, so what do you have?”

  “Résumés and the like. Everyone gave me one of those.”

  “But you didn’t check any of them out?”

  Hunter nodded. “I called the reference numbers.”

  Cole sighed. “Easy enough to dummy those up. We don’t have any leads to go on.”

  Annja finished her chowder and stood. “Well, there’s always the direct approach.”

  “Which is what?”

  Annja gestured around them. “Make an announcement and then start interviewing the people. One of them has to be guilty.”

  “And if it’s more than one?”

  Annja shrugged. “We could always cut them up and use them to attract our shark.”

  14

  Hunter set them up his quarters, which really weren’t that much better than the crew quarters Annja shared with Cole. But there was room enough for a small table and space for them to sit behind it. Annja nursed a cup of coffee while Hunter and Cole went through the résumés.

  “How many?” Annja asked.

  “Ten,” Cole said. “Not including us or Tom.”

  Annja nodded. “Who are we starting with?”

  Cole sighed. “Doesn’t make sense to question Sammy or Jax right now. Both of them are doubtful on the suspicion meter, but we’ll check them out later. I’ve got a friend I can radio back on the mainland who can look into their pasts if I want. I’d rather keep them where they are right now. Jax is manning the wheel?”

  Hunter nodded. “She’s not due to get relieved for a while. But everyone else is fairly suspect. Sammy’s working on the engine to get it all fixed and make sure there wasn’t any other damage.”

  “Good.” Cole looked at the top résumé. “So that means we start with this guy…Dave Crosby.” Cole looked at Hunter. “What’s his position?”

  “Dive master. He’s good hands-on for the dig itself. He knows how to work the vacuum that we use to extract the sand without damaging anything under it.”

  “Let’s get him in here.”

  Hunter picked up the intercom and paged Crosby to the captain’s quarters. Five minutes passed and someone knocked on the door.

  “Enter.”

  A man came in. Annja had seen him before. He was an average-looking guy with short sandy hair and blue eyes. But his chest looked like a barrel, no doubt from his diving experience.

  Hunter smiled. “Just a few questions for you, Dave. Then you’ll be on your way. All right?”

  He nodded. “This about the engine room fire?”

  “It wasn’t a fire,” Cole said. “Just a bit of smoke.”

  “Okay.”

  Annja eyed him. “You’ve been diving long?”

  He looked at her. “Almost twenty years. Got my start in the Bahamas where my folks ran a dive shop. I left and joined the Navy.”

  “What’d you do there?”

  “I started on a frigate and then put in my application for the SEALs.”

  “How’d that work out for you?”

  Dave smirked. “You want my BUD/S class number?”

  Annja smiled. “Sure.”

  “It’s 263. Hell Week was in the middle of winter. We nearly froze undergoing surf torture.”

  Cole and Hunter looked at Annja, who was still staring at Dave. “Go on.”r />
  “You know about it?” Dave asked.

  “I’ve met a few of your fellow comrades over the years. They told me something about what you guys go through to wear the Budweiser.”

  Dave smiled. “Less than four hours of sleep over the course of the entire week. You know what sleep deprivation can do to you?”

  “It’s not pretty,” Annja said. “I take it you passed?”

  “Everyone in my boat crew did. None of us would have quit if you’d put a gun to our heads. We just weren’t wired that way.”

  “What happened after you graduated?”

  “I saw action abroad. Not really sure I can talk about any of it.”

  Annja nodded. “When’d you graduate?”

  “In 1996.”

  Annja counted back in her head and came up with a half dozen possible overseas assignments that Dave could have reasonably been expected to participate in. “When’d you get out?”

  “After Afghanistan, 2002. Before they sent us into Iraq. I went back home and kicked around there awhile. People find out you were a SEAL they want to live vicariously through you. Tell you how they did something almost as tough as what you went through. But there’s really nothing I’ve heard of that even comes close. Kinda sad, really.”

  Annja smiled at him. “Did you sabotage the boat?”

  Dave chuckled. “If I wanted to sabotage this boat, it wouldn’t be floating. I know at least three dozen ways to blow this thing in two and send her right to the bottom.”

  “I’ll bet you do.” Annja looked at Hunter and shook her head.

  “All right, Dave, you’re secure. Thanks for your time.”

  “No sweat. You find out who’s doing this, I hope you’ll let me have a crack at them. I don’t like traitors.”

  He left. Hunter looked at Annja. “You sure about that?”

  Annja shrugged. “Just didn’t get that vibe from him. He seems very switched on, and the fact that he was a SEAL—”

  “Unless he was lying,” Cole said.

  Annja shook her head. “Doubt it. Anyone who goes through Hell Week never forgets their class number. They’ll rattle it off without a second’s thought. I think he’s legit and he’d certainly know how to blow this ship up if he wanted.”