Vengeance from the Deep - Book Two: Blood of the Necala

by Russ Elliott

  John slowed the engines. He waited impatiently; rapidly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel until the frill came back around. His heart pounded loudly in his ears. He recalled the nightmare he’d recently had of the victims—their pale, lifeless eyes. He could see the ghost of Carlos pointing to Kate. “Bring her to me, John, like all the others. I know you won’t let me down!” The ghastly voice seemed to echo above the idling engines.

  “Shut up!” John blurted.

  “Are you speaking to me?” Kate questioned.

  “No,” muttered John, “just clearing my head.

  Kate glared back. “Oh no . . . don’t you go nuts on me now!”

  “A little late for that.”

  John’s hand trembled when he reached for the throttle. It shook so bad it felt like the throttle was jiggling on its own. The huge frill passed, and John pulled in behind its wake. The air filled with fluttering wings as startled seagulls lifted from various points in the water.

  The Sea Ray closed in.

  Along the ship’s starboard rail, passengers looked down in disbelief, frantically waving and pointing at the water as if John didn’t see the pliosaur. Their cries of warning rose above the boat’s engines.

  Guiding the boat closer behind the giant shadow, John could see the powerful striped tail gliding beneath the surface. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around and head in the opposite direction. A glance at the starboard rail showed passengers still pointing to the dark water just in front of him.

  Kate shook her head. “That thing looks a lot bigger from down here than it did in the chopper.”

  Carefully, John veered the boat twenty yards to his left and pulled ahead of the pliosaur. Then he slowly cut back toward the ship, drawing the alluring scent just ahead of the sensitive nose.

  But the creature didn’t take the bait.

  John looked back and saw the frill moving away from the boat’s crimson wake. Perplexed, he thought of slowing down, but knew that would be too dangerous. If the creature lunged suddenly, considering the load they were towing, they couldn’t accelerate quickly enough. There was only one other way—try again, but closer and faster. “We gotta go back and make a closer pass.” He noticed that his voice trembled, and he hoped Kate didn’t catch it.

  “Closer?” Kate looked at him with round eyes. “That looked bloody close to me!”

  “No, not close enough because he didn’t pick up the scent.” John banked to port and veered the boat away from the giant frill.

  He approached for the second pass, estimating the creature’s speed. He accelerated enough to pull ahead of the vast back, turned toward the nose and slammed the throttle. The boat sped toward a spot a mere ten yards in front of the monstrous snout.

  Closer . . . and it appeared as if they were going to ram the beast!

  Kate looked over in disbelief. “This is the plan?”

  At the last second, John cut the wheel away from the enormous head when he realized he was way off course. The boat had drifted twenty yards wide due to the fifteen-hundred-pound carcass in tow.

  The hull slid sideways across the water just in front of the creature’s nose as the bait shark skimmed across its head. The pliosaur thrusts its nose upward and roared so loud John’s body hair stood on end.

  He looked behind him, Kate clinging to his arm. The shark carcass soared through the air beside the boat’s starboard. It reached the end of its tether and jerked the stern from the water. The props screamed in the open air. Then the bait shark plunged into the surface beside the boat, stopping them dead in the water like an anchor. The deck trembled. The wheel spun wildly out of John’s hands. He felt the bait shark rolling between the boat’s hull and the top of the pliosaur’s head. The immense shadow of the beast shot beneath the hull. Regaining control of the wheel, John slapped the throttle, making sure it was wide open. The boat lunged forward. The props sputtered, dropping in and out of the water. The hull scraped across armor-plated skin until it passed over the enormous head.

  After they gained a short lead on the surprised creature, Kate looked back, wide-eyed. “Was that close enough for you? I think you got its attention now.” She circled an arm around his shoulders and said sarcastically, “You have driven a boat before, haven’t you?”

  “Not towing four hundred pounds of chum and a great white shark tied to the back of it, I haven’t!”

  ~~~

  A cheer rose across the starboard rail as passengers watched the cluster of fishing boats pull alongside the cruise ship. Before the boats even reached the ship’s sunken port side, people began jumping from the rail and sliding down the deck like a carnival slide. Women’s long gowns twisted, rolling up around them as they slid toward the water. Others lagged behind, having trouble prying their cramped fingers loose from the rail.

  The fishermen pulled in closer, looking up, overwhelmed by the avalanche of bodies flowing down the ship’s deck. Overhead, the majority of seagulls had already dispersed, heading northwest to follow the giant shadow.

  Near the bow of the cruise ship, a woman sitting atop the rail screamed hysterically, refusing to let go. “No! No! I’m not letting go. What if it comes back?”

  “That’s why we have to go now!” demanded her husband. He pulled on her hands until she fell forward and slid down the deck behind him.

  Joyce and her two daughters were among the first pulled from the water by the captain of the Hatteras. Once on board, tears of joy swelled in her eyes as she pulled the two little girls tight to her sides. “Thank you, Lord. Thank you.” She repeated her thanksgiving over and over.

  There was continuous splashing. More people slid down the deck, crashing into the water behind her. The boat started to tilt from people climbing over the starboard, not waiting to use the ladder.

  “Now, use all the boats. You blokes don’t all have to load onto this one,” the captain of the Hatteras hollered, trying to keep his starboard above water.

  Holding her girls, Joyce watched while dozens of people continued to slide down the angled deck, landing on top of one another as they crashed into the water in front of the boats. Almost instantly, the surface was crowded with nearly three hundred lifejackets huddled against one another—arms splashing, reaching out from the sea.

  The overloaded fishing boats struggled to hold as many passengers as possible, their hulls pressed deep below the surface.

  As the Hatteras quickly filled, Joyce walked to the corner of the stern to help make room. She heard a thumping in the sky. Looking up, she saw three naval helicopters approaching in tight formation.

  “Look at that; better late than never!” said a man in front of her. The helicopters broke formation and began to search the area surrounding the ship. Joyce turned her attention toward the distant waters. From her vantage, it was difficult to tell if the frill was as close to the speedboat as it appeared. Gusts of spray lifted behind what she guessed was some kind of bait. As the boat and the creature raced toward the horizon, Joyce tightly closed her eyes. “Give that boat speed, dear Lord. Give that boat speed!”

  Chapter 19

  PIER 21

  Knuckles white on the throttle, John looked down at the speedometer. Thirty-five miles an hour. Something was wrong. The boat was nowhere near top speed.

  He looked back as a spray of whitewater soared through the air behind one of the pliosaur’s front paddle fins. Just beneath the surface, he could see the creature furiously driving its head up and down to accelerate its bulk forward. Then water rolled up, shooting out to the sides of the accelerating frill as it knifed through the boat’s wake.

  Kate looked back, clearly terrified. “What are you waiting for? Hit the gas!”

  “I am! Something’s wrong. When we ran across its head it must have damaged one of the props!”

  “Was that part of the plan?” Kate shouted.

  Another glance back and John saw the monster growing closer, plowing through the sea like a locomotive. The colossal head rose and dropped with ea
ch thrust of its powerful paddle fins.

  John considered his options. He wondered if he could outmaneuver the pliosaur, but quickly realized they wouldn’t have a chance with the drag from the bait shark.

  “Okay,” John shouted. “This is far enough! Go back and get the hatchet. We’re gonna see what she can really do!”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice!” Kate said gratefully and sprang from her seat.

  John cautioned, “Wait as long as you can before you cut it. We want to draw the pliosaur as far from the ship as possible!” Kate reached into a compartment in the stern and pulled out a hatchet. “Okay, ready to go back here!”

  Leaning over the transom, Kate raised the hatchet above the thick nylon rope connected to the bait shark. She glanced back at the beast. “Okay, Big Boy, let’s see if you can hang with us now!” She slammed down the hatchet with a sense of relief. But, the rope didn’t cut; the dull blade only pressed it into the transom.

  “Do it!” John shouted.

  Kate raised the hatchet again and came down with everything she had. The nylon rope cut part of the way through, exposing a shiny steel cable in its center. “What? This fool used rope lined with cable! How am I supposed to cut through that?” Kate desperately tried to chop the cleat loose from the boat.

  As Kate hacked away at the transom, John looked portside to see nothing but armor-plated skin gliding beneath the surface. The water in front of the boat darkened as the blunt nose raced ahead of the bow.

  “Forget it, Kate! I don’t think it’s interested in the bait anymore!”

  Kate looked up from her hacking and saw the towering frill almost touching the back of the boat. The hatchet dropped to the deck. Kate stepped back and screamed.

  At that moment, the frill disappeared, and in its place the pliosaur’s head burst from the surface. Suspended above the stern, gigantic jaws sprang open wide, showering Kate with water. She stared up in disbelief as the creature caught the bait shark in midair. Swallowing the twelve-foot carcass whole, the creature rolled into a dive beside the boat, sending up a tremendous swell. The boat listed, tossing Kate into the gunwale. The cable stretched taut until the cleat and a small section of the transom ripped from the stern and followed the great mouth into the water.

  Out of control, the boat rolled so far starboard, it nearly capsized. John fought the wheel, trying to ride out the fifteen-foot swell. The craft leveled off and lunged forward, its speed increasing after losing the bait shark. The trembling boat ride became noticeably smoother as the hull rose higher above the surface.

  Getting up from the deck, Kate scrambled back to the cockpit. “Did . . . did you see that?”

  “What happened?”

  Kate caught her breath. “Let’s just say that earlier, when I laughed at you for soiling your trousers . . . my apologies.” Laughing and crying at the same time, she looked past the bow. “So, you think it’s gone?”

  “I don’t—” John stopped midsentence. The frill was thirty yards off starboard, easily keeping pace with the boat’s increased speed.

  “How fast are we going?” Kate shouted, her drenched hair blowing back from the wind.

  “Forty-two miles an hour. And we’re at top speed,” yelled John glancing down at the speedometer. “The chum barrels must be weighing us down.”

  Slowly, but steadily, the gigantic frill inched its way up the boat’s wake. John yelled, “I think it’s safe to turn off the chum lines now.”

  “I’ll do better than that.” Kate raced back to the stern.

  From between the two barrels of chum, Kate looked back as a mound of water rose in front of the speeding frill. Resembling a surfacing submarine more than a creature of the sea, the leviathan continued to rise. Unhooking a nylon strap, Kate placed a hand atop the first barrel. “Time to lighten the load! Okay, big boy, catch this!” The barrel hit the surface, throwing up a red curtain behind the boat. It rolled across the monster’s head, shot up the frill, and spiraled off twenty feet into the air.

  With a grunt, Kate pushed back on the second barrel. “This ought to lighten the load a bit more. This one’s still half full!” The barrel slammed the water, spitting blood as it bounced end over end past the speeding giant. Still the creature did not alter its course, but only lowered itself beneath the surface.

  For a moment, the frill dropped back another thirty yards and then began to close in. “It’s as if we’re slowing down, it’s coming up so fast,” Kate yelled, and behind her, John indeed was pulling back the throttle. With one eye on the approaching monster, Kate backed up to the cockpit, catching her breath. “You know this isn’t about the chum line anymore. That thing’s after us!”

  “I know,” John said, easing a bit more off the throttle.

  “Hey, we are slowing down,” Kate looked at John then at the throttle. She did a double take. “Hey! What are—? Push that back down!”

  Without looking away from the windshield, John said, “When you dumped the chum barrels, we gained too much of a lead.”

  Kate’s eyes were bulging as she swept around to face him. “Excuse me . . . but isn’t that the general idea?” Another glance back and John saw an empty wake. The creature was gone. He squeezed the throttle in frustration, then eased it back. “I knew we shouldn’t have dropped the chum barrels. Now we’ve lost it. I knew it!” He was enraged.

  “That thing was right on top of us!” Kate gasped. “We didn’t have a choice. If we hadn’t dropped the barrels, we would have never picked up enough speed to get away.”

  John scanned the surface in frustration. It’s almost like the thing can read my mind.

  “Well, look at the bright side.” Kate looked toward the distant shore. “At least we got the pliosaur a good ways from the cruise ship.”

  John knew Kate was right. He realized that their plan had actually seemed to work, not to mention the small miracle that they were still alive. But this was far from over. Slowly, he brought the boat down to idle speed.

  Kate’s face flushed pale. “What are you doing? We’ve accomplished our mission; it’s away from the ship. We can go in now . . . John?” She saw the burning rage in his eyes, and the realization sank in. “Your plan was never just to lure it from the ship . . . all this time you were baiting it.” Her eyes darted over the water. “Now, only God knows why, but you’re waiting for it!”

  John raised a finger to his lips, listening.

  Kate shook her head, “No way.” She lunged across the cockpit, reaching for the throttle, but he caught her wrist.

  “NO!” he demanded. “Not yet!”

  Kate jerked her wrist from his hand. She backed away, eyes glaring. “What’s that thing done to you?” She glanced at the sea. “Don’t you remember what Steven said about it being an ambush predator? This is insane!”

  John’s heart rate began to slow. His adrenaline faded, and his mind started to clear. He heard the idling engines, saw Kate’s terror-filled eyes. What am I doing?

  Something tapped him on the shoulder. He looked down at a golf ball-sized clump of seagull droppings on his shirt. Slowly they both looked up as nearly a hundred squawking seagulls collected over the boat.

  “That’s not a good sign,” Kate whispered.

  The boat trembled.

  “Hit it! GO! GO!” Kate shouted looking down toward the water.

  John went.

  ~~~

  Below the surface, the creature twisted through a curtain of bubbles. All four massive paddle fins pumped wildly to bring the tremendous bulk back on pace. The giant head moved from side to side, seeking the familiar vibration. Almost instantly, the highly developed sensory cells inside the creature’s snout pinpointed the churning props. Speeding toward the sound, the surface light revealed the torpedo-shaped hull soaring above. The beast rose, speeding toward the surface.

  ~~~

  Thirty yards off port, John saw the enormous head rising beneath the waves. He cut the wheel in the same direction and pressed the throttle forward, amazed at
how much better the boat handled without the heavy barrels of chum. Glancing back, he eased off the throttle until the frill drifted into their wake. That’s it. Come on. Three powerful strokes, and the monster was back on track.

  Kate flopped back in her seat. John could see she was exhausted, thoroughly soaked, and panicked—not typical form for Kate. Suddenly, she grabbed John by the shirt and shook him. “Are you ever gonna tell me what you’re trying to do, or am I supposed to die confused?”

  John kept looking ahead. “Do you remember near the final scene in Jaws?”

  Kate released his shirt and stared at him like he’d finally snapped.

  He locked eyes with her. “Just go with me on this, Kate. Remember on the boat, when they tried to lure it into the shallows to drown it?”

  “Not really. But the part where it sinks the boat and eats its occupants is quite vivid!”

  John returned his gaze to the waters in front of him. “Do you know if the beach straight ahead has shark barrier nets?”

  “I don’t care about what’s ahead! I’m more concerned with what’s behind us!” She pointed at the frill which drew horribly close now that John had eased up on the throttle. It was John’s turn to holler now. “Come on, Kate! Do you know if the beach is netted or not?”

  Kate frowned and looked ahead. Her mouth twisted as she thought, then said, “See that pier in the distance, at eleven o’clock? That’s Pier 21. That’s the pier we saw on our way out earlier. The one with all the sharks at the end of it; where those fools were chumming for the pliosaur.”

  “Yeah, I remember. But what about the shark barrier nets . . . does the beach that’s straight ahead have them?”

  “That’s what I was getting at. On the news this morning, I remember hearing someone from the Sharks Board complaining about the chumming so close to land. He said some of the great whites that were drawn in kept getting tangled in the shark barrier nets beside the pier. I’m not sure about the beach straight ahead, but I know the beach area beside the pier is netted!”