Was he observant? Nobody had ever said that to him. Quiet, yes, but he felt like he missed so many subtleties in the way people interacted.
Will’s stomach was getting the better of him, so he climbed on top of the bridge and wished the sun was out. He watched the people on deck and realized all of them were Sir Mallory’s men. None of his dad’s crew was outside.
They opened the secret boxes the English group had brought aboard, but inside, everything was either wrapped up, or Will couldn’t make out what in the heck the objects were. They left one large steel case untouched.
James, the tech guy, on the other hand, had all kinds of gadgets and computer stuff set up, including some kind of oscillating dish. He sat with it surrounding him in a circle in the center of the deck near the fire pit.
Nancy, of the long red ringlets, dealt with several medium-sized freezers, with younger girls helping her. Will tried to see what was inside of them each time she opened one to do whatever she was doing with them, but no luck.
The most mysterious of all, though, were the four guys, big, strong, unassuming, who stood off by themselves by a rail drinking coffee. They all dressed in padded green suits under their winter garb. Will had seen them when they boarded. Who were they, and what part did they play?
Just then, Ellen grabbed his arm and got in his face. He hadn’t heard her climb up. “Lady Katherine is all alone down there. Come on, Willie, let’s go talk to her. Maybe she’ll tell us why Sir Mallory was knighted.” She giggled, blushing.
“No way.”
“Oh, come on! I can’t go by myself! Plus, she won’t be rude to children. Please?”
He glanced at the elegant woman perched on a deck chair, shrouded in layers and coats. She read a book and her face was expressionless.
“Okay, I won’t make you eat tonight, and I’ll even throw the food out myself. Please?” Her big brown eyes begged.
“Oh, okay. Let’s go.”
They climbed down and approached Lady Katherine, who didn’t take notice of them until they stood a foot away from her. She looked up quickly. “Oh, hello.”
“Hi,” Ellen said with a quiver in her voice. “I’m Ellen, and this is my brother, Will. We wanted to meet you.” She smiled.
Katherine returned the gesture, but her lips seemed pinched, used to smiling when it was polite or for cameras. “Very nice to meet you. You’re Captain Miller’s children, correct?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ellen said, beaming.
Katherine closed her book. “And I suppose you have a question or two for me?” Her voice was smooth as silk, as cool as the flurries floating around them.
“Well, yes, actually,” Ellen continued. “We’re dying to know how Sir Mallory became knighted.”
She gave Ellen a half-smile, eyed Will carefully, and then said, “An assassin was hired to kill me. Jeffrey and I didn’t know each other at the time, but at a social gathering, the assassin took a shot at me. Jeffrey jumped in front of the bullet, saving my life.”
“And he got knighted for that?” Ellen blurted out.
“Well,” chuckled Katherine. “I have a direct bloodline to the queen. To save me ensured the queen’s highest gratitude. And he was knighted.”
“You didn’t know each other, but fell in love and got married after?” Ellen sighed. “That’s so romantic.”
“Hmmm,” Katherine hummed, opened her book and seemed to dismiss them.
Ellen looked at Will and shrugged. They walked away, and Ellen followed him to the roof of the bridge.
“It’s weird how Dad just changed his mind,” Ellen said once they’d settled in some blankets. She looked at him, but he was too embarrassed to meet her gaze. “I can’t believe you yelled at him like that.” Her voice, softer than the snow. “But you got through to him, and now…what happened after I left last night?”
Will finally looked at her. “I told him I wanted to. That I was ready.”
Ellen shook her head. “Dad’s ready, too. He loves this stuff, the rough seas, the challenges. You know what? I think when he saw it in you yesterday, it brought back something for him, something old and forgotten.”
“Like what?”
She pushed her brows together and leaned her head to one side. “He’s been smiling today. With his eyes, though, like he used to.” She looked at him. “He never worries about me. I’m just like Mom. Level-headed and open-hearted. Pretty simple way to live, Dad told me once, and that it was glorious. He used that word.”
“He’s never talked to me like that.”
“I bet he did last night. Did he?”
Will slowly nodded. “Yeah, he did. He listened. It was cool.”
“And now, we’re going to catch a prehistoric shark. How exciting is that?”
He grinned. “I hope we do.”
“Oh, me too. It would be incredible.”
They laughed too hard, one of those laughs that should have simply been a twitter, but evolved into gooning. They were breathing so hard that when the smell hit, Will’s heavy breathing picked it up right away. It was as though he had let fly the fish from the night before and stuck his face in it.
“God, what is that?” Ellen said, covering her nose, laughter forgotten.
Will wrapped his scarf up around his mouth and nose, scanning the air around them.
Then, he looked at the deck.
People ran everywhere. James and his people’s machines seemed to be in overload, with the dish spinning wildly. Nancy and friends dragged something enormous and clear into the water beside the ship, and then pulled the whatever-they-weres out of the freezers and threw them in the same place.
Sir Mallory and the four unidentified men carried giant fishing spears, all aiming south, where the wind blew the foul stench from.
The sea became restless while the snow swirled thickly. Ellen grabbed ahold of Will to keep her balance. Will tried yet again not to vomit on his sister, but it was from both the motion and the dead, rotting fish smell coming from everywhere.
He peeked over Ellen’s bent head to the south of the ship and gasped at what he saw. The very sea itself seemed to be rising, rising in a tunnel, flanked by waves, enormous. Rough ocean splashed around the central rushing funnel, and then Will saw it—a gigantic, white dorsal fin, one that could only belong to a shark of unbelievable size, coming out of the water behind the rushing sea. It stood so tall, so very high and tall, that Will grabbed his sister’s hand and with her, jumped off the roof of the bridge into the chaos of the deck.
Chapter 6
Instinctively, Will dragged Ellen to just behind Sir Mallory and the green-suited men, and most importantly, their spears. Will hoped desperately that the sedative Sir Mallory spoke of was in those—all of them. Because whatever was coming right here, right now in the late afternoon wasn’t slowing down, and the closer the disturbance in the water, and the nearer the fin came, he felt a shock of fear that whatever sedatives Sir Mallory had picked for this…this…this whatever it was might not be right, couldn’t possibly be strong enough.
The size of it. It was far away still, wasn’t it? Was it so big that distance was distorted?
Time was definitely distorted, moving both at high-speed and in slow motion at the same time.
One of the men beside Sir Mallory called out, “Steady, steady. We need it closer!”
They all braced themselves.
The thing came closer at an unbelievable speed. Ellen squeezed Will’s hand so hard his knuckles hurt.
The ship rocked to the side, away from the water rushing at it, from the fin and what it belonged to. The very force this creature’s size plowed on the water was almost capsizing the boat before it even reached them.
Every piece of tech gear went over.
Everyone called out commands. Will crouched down with Ellen, arm around her. She stared up with him at the sky, right where the sea and fin had been. They leaned forward, hard, trying not to slide on the wooden deck.
The green-suited men and Sir M
allory were in front of them on their knees, and one of the men yelled, “We can’t see her, we can’t shoot her!”
“Captain Miller will fix this!” was Sir Mallory’s reply.
It was Don Mack’s turn at the wheel, not his dad’s. Will glanced at the bridge windows.
Yes, Don Mack was there, but behind his father, who had somehow gotten there in time to…what? What could he possibly do?
Will’s attention snapped back to the sky in front as the ship came back toward the sea monster and its gigantic fin. The ship tottered down, but stayed somewhat tilted. Will couldn’t see the ocean, but yes, he could certainly see the long, thin white fin rising higher than Mt. Everest.
Will looked back at his dad, who had his focus completely on the horizon, not a thought seemingly on the fin.
And then Ellen screamed.
Will whipped his head around to see what freaked her out. Ellen wasn’t the screaming type. His jaw dropped when he saw, but no sound came out.
An absolutely giant mouth full of row upon row of eight-inch teeth bore down on their tilted ship, coming down right on the deck where they all were. A small house could fit in that mouth, Will thought weakly, and then had no other thoughts. He was blank with confusion and disbelief.
“Fire!” Sir Mallory bellowed, and all five of them shot their enormous fishing spears into the oncoming tooth-filled maw.
They all landed, one hitting the tippy-top of the pointed white nose that showed above the mouth.
The mouth closed instantly, taking the million teeth with it, but the boat kept tilting, the creature’s approach not slowed in the least.
Will’s dad did something, and the boat flipped to where Will saw sky again just as the giant shark slammed its face into them. The entire ship skidded like a skipping stone across the icy water’s surface and came to a slow slippery slide at what felt like two hundred yards away from where they’d been hit.
The boat righted almost immediately upon its momentum slowing.
Will puked all over his coat.
Will’s father’s voice came from the coms. He told his crew to reinforce the hull, check the ship for damage, fix, fix, fix. But he stayed at the wheel, now eying the horizon where they’d been moments ago.
Will looked, too, and stood, helping Ellen up.
He could see the thing now. He figured it all out now.
Nancy and her girls had been throwing in some kind of net with food for the Megalodon. The shark had been ensnared before it had hit them, or perhaps when. Sir Mallory and the green-suited men had shot sedatives, but what kind?
The thing had to be forty, forty-five feet long. It was shining, pure snow white, from the tip of its bleeding and stuck nose to its flopping tail splayed sideways in the water. Only its gills stood out, blood red and fluctuating madly.
What had they used on it? And was it enough? It wasn’t sedated like you’d put down an elephant, asleep, but he guessed that might be hard to do with a fish. He wasn’t even sure if sharks slept. This thing writhed and yanked around slightly, but stayed in place.
The boat was mostly steady, and his father turned them toward the giant shark, still twisting and twitching in the water.
Will’s gut said, stay away, go back and forget this. This was a bad, bad idea. But, his heart pumped with adrenaline, and he felt a little smile on his lips, eyes wide. He wanted to see what happened next, absolutely had to, no doubt.
Right there, in front of him, was a Megalodon. And he was a part of the team who caught it.
When they got about twenty feet from the enormous beast floating in Nancy’s clear net, Sir Mallory and his men shot it again, but this time with some kinds of handguns with darts. They aimed for those bright red gills.
The Megalodon turned upright and swam in place in its enormous clear net, almost as though awaiting instructions from its human gods.
“Thought it’d be bigger,” a green-suited man said.
Sir Mallory nodded. “Me too.”
“Still twice as big as a great white,” Don Mack said from behind them. He’d joined soundlessly, and Will smiled at him.
“Did you see it?” Will asked him.
“I sure as shit did. And I sure as shit was glad when your dad took over, ‘cause he saved us all.”
Sir Mallory turned to Will as Nancy and her girls maneuvered the seemingly hypnotized gigantic shark to the back of the boat. “He’s the only man alive who could sail against one, and you’re the only man alive who could bring that desire out in him. See?” He smiled. “We all play our parts.”
Will smiled back. “How are you getting it to act like that? It’s like a robot. I’m not even scared of it when it’s like this. I mean,” he said quickly, knowing Sir Mallory would see right through his bravado, “I was terrified before, and it’s still freaky, and I’m worried it’ll change to bad again, but what did you give it?”
“I consulted Nancy on it, and my theory proved correct on great white sharks. First, a paralyzing agent. That was in the fishing spears. Not enough to stop the heart or needed functions, but the right amount to immobilize it.” He leaned in. “This next part was my idea. It’s called zombie dust, but the chemical is tetrodotoxin. Do you know what that is?”
“No.” He shook his head, mesmerized.
“In Haiti, they make a dust out of it that they blow into people’s faces. It makes them zombie-like, obedient. I used this in the darts. Look.” He turned and pointed at the Megalodon, now attached to the back of the ship, looming out behind them for what seemed like miles. Peaceful. Just under the water. Enormous white fins swishing, a tail the size of their boat moving softly. Tall dorsal fin just showing a tip at the surface. A pup along for a walk. “We have to monitor it, but we have it. And now we’ll take it to the compound. We’ll be there before midnight.”
Chapter 7
The weather in the Drake Passage was unpredictable at best, unforgiving the rest of the time. Within an hour of capturing the Megalodon, the flurries hardened into hail, with an easterly wind so forceful that walking on the hail in the gales kept everybody inside.
It drove Will mad, and he felt so damn sick huddled on the bridge with only cracked windows. He just wanted to watch the Megalodon. That’s all. That’s it. But no, this horrible place had other plans.
Day faded to night and the weather got worse. His father hadn’t slept in two days. He had to do this sailing. Nobody else could, not even Don Mack. Not even for a moment. It was going to take a couple more hours to get to the Elephant Island compound in this weather, his dad said.
Will knew he’d stay up the whole night. Nothing could make him even think about drifting off, his adrenaline was so pumped.
His dad didn’t talk much as he sailed, and Will had little to say. He’d gotten a fresh coat, but it was a little small on him.
The sea was awfully rough, and he was afraid that even though he’d only eaten breakfast, he’d barf bile if he opened his mouth.
Time passed this way, and Will kept thinking about that Megalodon they tugged behind them. Sir Mallory had said they grew to be sixty feet, but this one was smaller. What if it wasn’t a Megalodon, but some other Antarctic giant shark they’d found? As far as Will knew, some bottom feeder sharks were huge, but nothing like the thing they’d caught that day.
Had his father really known what to do earlier, or had it been instinct? Had he gone up against this thing before? Will was dying to know, but didn’t ask. Not only was he afraid to open his mouth out of fear of projectile vomiting, but the time wasn’t right. His father was deep in concentration with no sleep. Will would ask once they’d rested at Sir Mallory’s compound.
The evening passed that way, quiet except for the wind and the sound of hail hitting the ship. It never slacked off for a second.
Will looked at his watch around midnight, knowing it was frigid outside, but also knowing if he didn’t get into some fresh air soon, his stomach would spill out and he would heave until he passed out from exhaustion.
He glanced back at him. “Stay wrapped in blankets and no longer than ten minutes or you’ll freeze.”
“Yes, sir.”
He dashed to the door, and even though the hail pelted him and the gales stung every inch of his face, he felt relief.
He stumbled down the bridge stairwell and to the deck, hanging his head over a railing, willing it to come, to get over with. And, finally, it did, and he retched into the Drake Passage stomach acid and water, then nothing at all over and over until he could breathe again.
Will took huge gulps of the freezing air, head pointed at the hailing sky, trying to get his head to stop spinning.
“Hey, you okay?”
He slowly turned to see Nancy, a few red curls coming out of a thick hood revealing who she was. “Yeah, just seasick. Alright now.”
“Aw, you poor guy. Take anything for it?”
“There’s nothing.”
She patted his arm. “What a shame. Don’t worry, we’ll be at land in no time.”
Will appreciated her comfort. “What are you doing out in this weather, anyway?”
“I’m watching the Megalodon. Came to get food. I have a tent set up in back, plenty warm. I don’t suppose…” She smiled at him and jerked her head toward the back of the boat.
“You mean…actually go sit in the tent and…I can, like, watch it? I mean, it’s too dark, right?”
“We have spotlights on its head. We take every precaution. Have to be sure the sedatives keep working.”
The zombie dust.
“How much of that stuff do you have?”
She laughed. “Enough to take down twenty of them! Now, come on, and don’t slip.”
He thought about running and telling his father so he wouldn’t worry, but excitement got the better of his judgment. He followed Nancy to the back of the boat where, indeed, there was a very warm-looking tent. One whole side was clear glass facing out on the head of the netted and obedient Megalodon, lit up by four spotlights. Will could only see the front of the ship from the bridge and had no idea all this was happening back here.
Megalodon: Apex Predator Page 4