“Locking up the wheelhouse. I caught that reporter snooping around in there.”
Haruki lowered another bomb down to Riggs as he prepared another hole.
“Help me steady the rope here,” Haruki told Delbert. “If one slips past him it will blow under the whale.”
“Haruki, would you listen to me for a moment?” Delbert pleaded with him.
“Don’t waste your breath,” Haruki cautioned him.
“That shark, she is one of a kind, Haruki. For all we know, she might be the last one. We just don’t know. You can’t just kill her.”
“Actually, I can,” Haruki laughed.
Delbert shoved his hands in his pockets and backed away from him.
Barry and the others, intrigued now, crept closer to the back of the ship to watch what was going on. He was the only one to notice that only one rope anchored the whale carcass.
“We can cut it loose,” Barry whispered. “We just let it sink. The bombs he is planting will blow that carcass apart and get rid of their bait.”
“Barry, we can’t do that,” Misty said. “You’ll kill Riggs, and besides, what would stop them from going after more whales?”
“Hmmmm, methinks you have a point. A diversion is in order,” Barry said.
He quickly crawled across the desk and grabbed one of the bombs, which he brought back to them. He stood up, ready to heave it over the side, but Jethro took it from him.
“Allow me,” Jethro said, “Shot Put Champ, class of ’74. Long Beach Regional Divison.”
“Really?” Barry asked as he handed the primed bomb to him. “I had no idea you were that old. You hide it well.”
Jethro took the bomb from him, clearly displaying his middle finger as he did so. Jethro wound up and slung the bomb out into the ocean. It hit the surface making a tiny plopping sound, then dropped quickly outside of sight.
“Come on, run,” Barry warned them. “Hurry. Get to the other side of the boat.”
They kept to the shadows as they scurried over to the other side. Barry looked down, over the railing, and could see McGill in the boat below them. McGill looked up and waved at him, beckoning him to jump.
A few seconds later, the bomb detonated. Ghostie and a few other sharks erupted from the water, clearly startled by the explosion. Riggs lost his footing and slid into the water, then disappeared under the whale carcass.
Riggs fought to find his way back to the surface. He pushed past a few smaller sharks that had gathered under the whale’s corpse to feed. Ghostie rose up directly in front of him, however did not seem to see him, and moved on by.
Sputtering and fighting for air, Riggs dragged himself to the top side of the whale. The surface was greasy from all of the torn blubber, making movement painfully slow. The last thing he wanted to do was slip back into the water with all of the sharks present, especially now that he was covered in so much effluence from the whale.
He cast about with his hands, pushing them through blood and blubber until he located the rope used to lower the bombs, and pulled himself up to the fantail of the ship. Haruki and Delbert helped him cross the last few feet over the open water.
“What the hell happened?” an angry Riggs asked.
“I don’t know,” Haruki answered. “Thought at first you had maybe dropped one of the bombs. Did you?”
Riggs glared at him and raised his fist to punch him, then thought better of it and let his hand drop back to his side.
Haruki didn’t even flinch.
“Maybe it was that fucking reporter,” Delbert contributed. “I caught him snooping around the wheelhouse a little while ago.”
Haruki stepped to the edge of the fantail and look down at the torn up whale carcass bobbing on the water.
“Only four bombs down there right now . . . . ”
“It’ll have to do,” Riggs snapped, “because I’m not going back down there.”
All three men instinctively stepped back when Ghostie’s huge head rose up out of the water. She bit into the edge of the carcass then shook hard, dislodging a huge chunk of blubber.
“We’d better hurry,” Riggs continued.
Riggs, Delbert, and Haruki, using winches, maneuvered the mesh cage into the water.
“Hurry up! She’s right there!” Riggs yelled at them.
The three of them wrestled with the cage and managed to get it right underneath her.
While their attention was focused on fighting with the cage, Jethro dashed out from the shadows and grabbed another bomb then lobbed it one handed over the side of the ship. After a few seconds, it exploded, startling the shark again.
Haruki and the others temporarily lost their grip on the cage, but quickly regained control.
“Dammit!” Riggs yelled, “I’m going to toss that reporter’s ass into the drink.”
“Later,” Haruki shouted. “We’ve got her. Hurry up.”
Riggs left the two of them holding the guide rope for the cage, making them look like a two-man tug-of-war team. He turned on the winch and a small pony engine fired up, pulling the sides of the mesh cage up around Ghostie. Instantly, she started to fight it, and the entire ship shimmied and vibrated.
Delbert and Haruki released the guide rope to avoid being yanked into the water. While Riggs continued to snug up the cage, Haruki retrieved a gun from one of the nearby crates, He checked the magazine and then opened fire with the automatic weapon. Bullets peppered the crates where Peter, Jethro, and Hobart were hiding, sending them scattering towards the front of the boat, looking for better cover.
Misty dashed in the opposite direction, towards the back of the boat, and struggled to release the rope holding the whale carcass. Barry saw what she was doing and scurried back through the shadows behind the crates to help her. Together they were able to free the carcass, which quickly drifted away and began to sink with all of the rolling about that Ghostie was doing.
Several seconds later, the carcass hit the fifty foot mark and the cluster of bombs detonated just below Ghostie, who reacted violently and fought even harder to get free.
The ship pitched back and forth from her efforts.
Bloody spray thick with ropey chunks of whale blubber rained down on them, making the deck’s surface extremely slick. Misty flipped forward and landed hard on the deck. She struggled to get up, shaking her head to clear her vision.
Barry grabbed Misty’s hand and dragged her forward on the ship. They skidded and went down several times as the deck dropped out from beneath them. The winch at the back groaned loudly and started to fail as the enormous shark fought the cage.
They met up with Peter and the others who held onto the railing above the bow, trying to keep on their feet. Barry pointed over the side and said to them, “Come on! Now’s the time to jump. That shark isn’t going anywhere.”
“Are you nuts?” Jethro hissed at him. “There’s more sharks down there. I’m not jumping in.”
The ship pitched more wildly and more of the bombs flew past them and landed in the water.
Explosions went off on both sides of the ship. Ghostie’s thrashing was taking its toll on the hardware holding her tightly. Some of the support structures holding the winch in place started to break. Wires and bolts snapped free and rained down on Riggs and the others.
A frightening groaning sound issued from the ship. The protective side rails started to peel away as the ship was being twisted from below. Debris rained down on top of them.
Ghostie continued to fight for her life, and was killing the Riker vessel in the process.
“What do you say, Riggs?” Delbert asked. “Ever seen a fish do that before? Is she still just a paycheck for you? Just another fish to kill?”
Riggs shot him an angry look then started for the back of the ship. The deck canted badly to one side, causing crates not lashed down to flip over and skid across its surface. Riggs managed to dodge one that slammed into what was left of the guardrail, ripping the remaining support away. It rolled over the side and crash
ed into the water below.
Haruki ran up the other way, closer to the bow of the ship, and worked at wrestling the harpoon gun from its mooring. He managed to slide it free and loaded it with explosive rockets, then dragged the heavy thing back towards the fantail of the dying boat.
Riggs continued towards the back and slipped his dive knife, strapped to his lower leg, free. Ghostie had twisted herself in the cage, actually tightening the grip of the metal mesh. Her gigantic head had come up above the level of the fantail and pounded ferociously against the back of the boat. Riggs maneuvered around her thrashing head and reached for a cotter pin that held the cage closed. He stepped up onto the back of her head, holding on and inching his way across.
“What the hell is he doing down there?” Haruki yelled.
“The right thing would be my guess,” Delbert said, as he held onto a portion of twisted railing that was still bolted to the deck.
“I have to kill it!” Haruki shouted at him. “That fucking shark is going to destroy us.”
The conning tower, with the neon logo, began to fold up. The logo broke free and fell to the deck, firing off thousands of sparks as it shattered. The tower folded in half, then hit the deck.
Delbert tried to reason with Haruki.
“Once he lets it go, we’ll be fine. Don’t do it!”
Haruki ignored him and worked at setting the gun up, propping it against a few crates that remained lashed to the deck. Horrified, Delbert realized he was going to try and fire even while Riggs was out in front of him, working at cutting the huge shark loose.
He rushed forward and knocked Haruki down.
At the bow of the bucking ship Barry, Hobart and Jethro found some rope and tied it off. They quickly sent Misty over the side, down to the smaller ship with McGill on board. McGill maneuvered the boat underneath her. She dropped the last ten feet into his arms.
“Okay, you’re next,” Barry said to Peter.
Chapter 31
Delbert and Haruki continued to fight near the back of the quickly-disintegrating ship. Just as Riggs managed to get the cotter pin loose, Haruki fired off a rocket, but the shot went wild and propelled him backwards. The rocket punched a hole down through the body of the ship, tearing through the engine room and starting a massive fire that blew through the lower decks of the ship, torching everything in its path.
Haruki landed nearly thirty feet away and lost control of the gun, which balanced for a moment on the pitching deck of the ship, then flipped over and fired another round through the crate containing the rest of the ordinance.
The pressure from the shell ignited the remaining bombs, and a massive fireball lit up the ship bright white for several moments as the powerful bombs blew apart.
The deck of the Riker vessel separated from the ship and jumped upwards into the air. Everyone and everything was thrown into the air, like a dog shaking water from its back.
Delbert was tossed overboard and landed on top of Ghostie just as Riggs managed to free her. The concussive effect of the explosion displacing the air hit him squarely in the face, dislocating his jaw and shattering the bones in his face. The mesh cage dropped away on one side and Ghostie rolled over, crushing Delbert against the mesh, killing him instantly.
Riggs, too, flipped up into the air then hit the open water and immediately started to swim towards McGill’s boat. Although he was aware of the large number of big predators in the water with him, Riggs wasn’t worried about them at the moment. He believed that the chaos erupting on the surface was creating havoc down in their world as well, and most—if not all—of them would vacate the area as quickly as possible. His main concern was the leviathan he had just freed. Riggs had never felt fear from sharks, even when he had witnessed firsthand their brutal, primeval abilities to kill. He knew it, down to his marrow, though, that the shark—that shark—would look for him for what he tried to do to her.
Riggs knew this was irrational, but it wasn’t from fear. He was slipping into the illogical thinking of someone entering a full-blown panic. He had swum in waters with great whites and tigers and bull sharks, without a cage, never fearing the consequences because he knew he was better than them, smarter them, and more brutal than them.
But not this time. She wasn’t supposed to be here. Something as huge and primordial and pitiless as she was trumped everything Riggs had.
He swam with jerky strokes, trying to cover as much distance as possible, sure that any second now she would be upon him.
Barry, Hobart, and Jethro were lobbed up and over the bow of the ship and landed in the water. McGill, when he saw the Riker vessel start to break up, moved a safe distance away while Misty scanned the dark water for survivors. The fire on board the dying ship shed enough light that she was able to spot them in the water. McGill quickly powered up the cruiser and headed for them, just as Riggs was able to swim into their group.
McGill eased alongside Barry and Riggs while Misty reached down to help them. Riggs pushed past Barry and yanked himself up onboard so quickly that he knocked Misty back and then scrambled over top of her, pushing her down hard onto the deck and bruising her cheekbone with his knee. He ran along the deck until he reached the gunwales then dropped down and looked back out over the water. Misty rolled onto her knees and helped Barry up, who then started towards Riggs, hands balled into fists, but Misty stopped him. Both of them could see the fear on his face.
When the ship exploded, Peter had been tossed backwards and landed in what was left of the mesh pontoon cage. He became trapped in the web that rolled and twisted in the heavy swells. Hobart and Jethro heard him yelling for help and swam to his aid.
“Help me!” Peter screamed. “Get me out of here!”
“Don’t panic, boss,” Hobart called out to him.
“We gotcha!” shouted Jethro, swimming up next to the cage.
Ghostie was right below them and pushed upwards, towards Peter, but could not get to him because of the layers of mesh from the cage. Misty watched the drama unfolding and shouted to McGill.
“Look! There they are!”
McGill headed the boat towards the cage, which had started to sink. Peter was folded up in layers of the mesh that Hobart and Jethro fought to free him from. McGill got the cruiser right up next to the cage and Barry grabbed hold of edge and held on as he powered the boat away.
Riggs finally jumped forward and grabbed the mesh, aware that Ghostie was right below them. He saw the massive eye looking up at him as she slid underneath the webbing, tossing Peter and Jethro and Hobart about like corks on the water. His fear was dissipating and, instead, he felt respect for this creature that had been hunted and nearly killed for another man’s vanity.
“Go, go, go!” Riggs yelled at McGill, who tapped the throttle forward a bit more.
Barry and Riggs held on as tightly as they could. The folds of mesh started to straighten out and Peter was able to swim free. He, Jethro, and Hobart got on board the cruiser as quickly as possible. Ghostie dove deep and disappeared from sight. The Riker vessel—what was left of it—started to slide under the waves. They saw Haruki get sucked under the water, then resurface about twenty feet from the stern of the wounded ship. McGill started towards him, but as Haruki struggled to grab hold of some floating debris, he was attacked by several of the other sharks coming back into the area. McGill could see that at least one was a great white, and two others were tiger sharks.
Haruki never had a chance.
Ghostie surfaced again and swam past the carnage, her white body glowing in the moonlight. Small rivers of blood from the detonated whale trickled over her back, contrasting starkly with her pearly hue. She remained on the surface a few moments then sounded again and disappeared into the black.
The Riker vessel slipped completely under the waves, and it would take several minutes for the wreck to hit the bottom, some fifteen hundred feet down. A few small pieces of the ship, still burning, floated on the surface that had been made shiny and smooth from the whale blubber.
McGill kept them a safe distance away.
Bit by bit, the floating embers sank away, and before long there would be no evidence remaining of the ship ever having been there.
Ghostie did not reappear.
“Do you think she got away?” Barry asked.
McGill pointed into the wheelhouse, where his equipment was beeping away and recording her location.
“She’s heading northwest right now,” McGill said to him.
Misty pointed at the recording device. “How long will that keep . . . ?”
“Recording her position?” McGill finished her question.
“Yeah.”
“Battery is good for years.”
Everyone got very quiet.
They had all come to the conclusion that slaughtering the huge, ivory-colored beast just to hang on a wall in Japan seemed sacrilegious. She was an amazing ghost from the past and truly needed to stay in her own world, far from the likes of man.
“Wow,” Jethro said with remorse, “all that work to hide where she is . . . ”
“Seems like you wasted your time, man,” Hobart added.
“Can you just shut it off?” Peter asked. “So she can’t be tracked anymore?”
“You know, she might lose it,” Barry said. “It could just fall off.”
“Really, there is only one thing to do, and I think you know it,” Riggs said quietly.
It took him a few moments, but finally McGill picked up the device tracking Ghostie, headed out the door of the wheelhouse, and tossed the device overboard. It would fall to the bottom of the ocean as well, where it could rest in peace with the wreckage of the Riker vessel.
Pensively, McGill stared into the water where the machine had disappeared. He startled everyone when he shouted, “Barry!”
“What?” Barry asked anxiously, assuming Ghostie was headed straight for them.
Barry and the others scanned the water, fearful of what McGill had seen.
“What is that?” he asked, pointing out into the water.
Barry popped a gaffing hook from the side of the boat and fished whatever it was out of the water. He and McGill carried it back inside the wheelhouse and placed it on a table.
Big Ass Shark Page 14