Shadow Cast: A Brock Finlander Novel (Coastal Adventure Series Book 3)

by E. J. Foster

  “I’m here,” I shouted as loud as I could manage, weakened by the struggle.

  The spotlight turned abruptly and blinded me, flooding the sea around me with light.

  “Dad,” I heard Katie’s gasp from behind the bright light.

  She had motored toward me, and before I knew it, I was bathed in the aura of light surrounding the boat.

  I pulled Jessa up onto the swim platform, and then climbed aboard. Jessa spluttered and coughed up some seawater. On my knees next to her, I closed my eyes, and said a silent prayer of thanks.

  Katiana, I thought. Where is she? I opened my eyes again and scanned the darkness but didn’t see or hear any signs of life.

  “Dad.” Katie rushed to me in tears. “You’re okay,” she said, hugging me. Her body spasmed as she sobbed, her head buried in my neck.

  “I’m okay,” I said, and looked down at Jessa.

  “Did I tell you that I can’t swim?” Jessa asked.

  “And, Jessa’s okay, too,” I laughed. Relief had buoyed my spirit.

  Katie pulled away from me and met my eyes.

  “Let’s get you guys home,” Katie said, smiling with pure gratitude, or was it joy?

  The thought of leaving here reminded me that we weren’t done. The mission was incomplete. We had made a pact with the captain. He would ignite the ship, and all the green gas with it, destroying those things, and the potential to create more of them. The captain would not be fulfilling his duties. I personally watched him change. Morph. Transform into something alien. Into something without a sense of duty, or honor, or responsibility. The captain was gone.

  No. We couldn’t go home. Not yet.

  Boarding that ship again was too dangerous. But how else could I complete this task? I’d have to ignite the fumes myself.

  “Katie, we can’t go home.”

  She shook her head in confusion. Her eyes narrowed on me.

  “What?” she asked, as if I spoke a foreign language.

  “That ship,” I started, trying to think of another way to say this. “The thing at your lab,” I reminded her and she listened more intently now, starting to understand my language. I pointed at the giant ship. “That ship is completely infected with…” I paused trying to communicate clearly. “Those things.”

  Katie’s eyebrows fell as her face slowly transformed into full understanding.

  52

  I’d have to find a way to finish this, but without the captain. How?

  “Katie,” I said. “Flare gun. Where is it?”

  Katie’s confusion was back; her face struggled with the thought, then her eyebrows flew up with understanding. She hurried back to the helm.

  “Come on, Jessa,” I said, helping the girl to her feet. “Let’s get you a life jacket.”

  Finn and Jules sat shivering inside the boat. Chum circled us as we entered.

  “Hey boy. You okay?” I said, and then Chum sat and barked once, and I gave him a scratch behind the ears. “Good boy.”

  “Can we get the hell out of here now?” Jules asked.

  Katie was back with an orange case in her hands. I took it from her, sat it on the table and opened it. The flare gun.

  “Not yet, Jules,” I said. “I have one more thing to do.” I picked up the gun in my hand. “Then, we go home.”

  I looked back to the gun case and my heart sank when I remembered.

  There was only one round left. I had used the others at Katie’s lab, trying to kill the tiniest of these things. Now, I’d have to kill all the rest of them, and I’d only have one shot to do it.

  From this rocking boat, I’d have to fire a flare and somehow ignite the green gas, hoping that there was enough of it to cause a chain reaction throughout the entire ship.

  “One shot,” I said out loud to no one in particular, still staring down into the orange case. I plucked the round up and loaded it into the gun, closing it with a click.

  “I can get you closer to the ship,” Katie started.

  “No!” we all responded together in a chorus of disagreement. Jules, Finn, Jessa and I were obviously on the same page about this.

  “I’ll do it from here,” I said.

  I went back out into the rain and wind of the stern and leveled the weapon at the massive ship.

  I stumbled under the turbulence of the bay and then recovered, steadying myself on deck.

  The wind whipped and howled. Katiana? Was that a scream, or was my mind playing tricks on me? Pellets of rain burned and sprayed my face, and I tossed the thought aside getting back to the matter at hand.

  I raised the gun higher, trying to gauge the distance, and the wind speed.

  I closed my eyes and said a prayer, pulling the trigger. A hiss of orange flames lit up the night sky and arced a trajectory across the dark expanse, leaving a trail of white smoke in its path.

  The flame got smaller in the distance until it diminished to a pinpoint, and finally disappeared into the bridge deck of the ship with precision, straight through the hole created by the captain when he burst free of it.

  The entirety of the glass enclosure went bright orange, exploding, and tearing the structure apart. For a moment, night became day in the deafening blast.

  Glass and wood particles rained down in all directions, and after a moment, settled back, returning only to sounds of the dark storm.

  All ten of our eyes trained on the ship in the darkness, waiting, hoping for something.

  Hope washed away. It didn’t work.

  Then, an explosion rocked the other end of the mighty ship, bursting a hole in the side of the great hull. Orange and green flames shot out of it. Another small rainbow blast came from the center of the ship.

  A chain reaction. It was happening.

  Explosions came from everywhere at once.

  “Hang on,” Katie yelled. The engines roared and the boat started moving under my feet, throwing me to the deck. Katie had pushed the throttle to the stops, and we were speeding away from the giant inferno.

  One final crescendo of explosions, and the entire bay was illuminated with the light of a noon-day sun.

  The heat from the floating furnace warmed my face, as bits of wreckage landed behind us.

  I got back to my feet and stared down the blaze. Muffled sounds of cheering and barking came from inside the salon.

  I smiled with relief. We were going home.

  53

  Watching a ball of fire sink into the bay was surreal. The last gasps of light shrank as we sped away. I stood at the stern, facing aft as the cool night air rushed over me, thankful that I had my family.

  The kids were safe, and so was Jules, but I couldn’t help feeling defeated. Like we weren’t entirely whole.

  Loss ate at me from deep within and prevented me from enjoying the moment. Katiana.

  Old wounds ached again. The last time I left a soldier behind was over Iraq during Desert Storm. We engaged an enemy MiG, and I made a reckless maneuver. My wingman was thrown into my jet wash and sent into a flat spin. His F-18 was never recovered, nor was his body.

  And now Katiana. Had I made a mistake, again? I retraced my memory, searching the past few hours and tried to pinpoint the error. Could I have done something differently?

  Confusing thoughts drifted in and out of my head.

  What did all this mean?

  And what exactly were those things? Aliens? I guess I’ll never know, for sure, if they were trying to harm us. Trying to take over this planet. Or if they were merely refugees seeking asylum.

  Were there more of them? Ice shot through my veins at the thought. I grimaced and shook my head as if I could make it false. “No,” I said out loud but didn’t believe it.

  All the thoughts in my head mixed and scattered and suddenly became too much to take in. I shook my head again as if trying to erase the Etch-a-sketch, blanking my mind.

  I was just glad to have my family.

  I turned and saw them but couldn’t hear them from outside the enclosed salon. Katie
was at the helm, a true-born leader. Finn and Jessa held hands, forehead to forehead, and stared intensely into each other’s eyes. They seemed to be savoring this moment together as if it were their last. Chum laid on his back in the middle of the settee as Jules rubbed his belly. He waggled under her, trying to get every scratch he deserved.

  I was alone, again. I guess I had gotten used to it lately. But discovering Katiana made me rethink my life and want more from it.

  Boom!

  An explosion rocked me back and got my attention. A wave of warmth rolled over me. I refocused on the ship, but it was gone. One final explosion and the flames of the great ship extinguished, and the last of it sank to its final, watery grave.

  I felt our boat accelerate under my feet as Katie touched the throttle, getting us farther away from this night.

  54

  It had been almost two months since the incident. Sometimes I still had nightmares. Katie and the kids, too. I had been spending even more time at Katie’s house, sometimes sleeping there in the guest bedroom. I guess we all felt a little safer staying close to one another.

  Almost losing your family will do that to a person.

  Being out on the boat today, basking in the sunshine, helped me to forget some of it.

  I was anchored here, in the exact same spot where I had almost lost them. My family.

  It felt strange to be back here.

  I kicked my feet up on the cooler, as the island music drifted around my yacht, easing me into a calm.

  The sun warmed my face, and the breeze gently waved the dive flag I was flying. A white diagonal stripe on a field of red. Diver down. Another summer, another treasure hunter.

  I had the feeling that the divers would never stop dreaming about sunken treasure and the hopes of finding it.

  My dive charter today had been adamant about coming here. She claimed that she knew for sure that there was sunken treasure. I was all too happy to oblige. I loved a good customer, and she was a beauty.

  I was also starting to rethink all the legends I’d heard about sunken treasure, after what I’d seen in the dark that night. Or what I thought I’d seen.

  Who knew for sure? Maybe there was more truth in these rumors than I knew.

  When my diver finally resurfaced, I went to the swim platform to help her back on board.

  She removed the mouthpiece and threw her goggles onto the boat. I extended a hand down to her.

  “Katiana,” I said, my eyes flirting with her.

  “Oui,” she responded with a grin and a twinkle in her eye. I pulled her aboard and into my embrace and kissed her.

  Katiana and I had been spending all our days together, lately. Finding her was one of the best things that had happened to me.

  I had gone back out that night to search for her, and I thanked the heavens above that she had been a seasoned sailor with good survival skills. I had found her clinging to debris from the lifeboat.

  Katiana had me bring her to this spot almost every week, convinced that there was sunken treasure. I had some thoughts on the matter, too. Maybe there was. Maybe what I saw was real, and it lay here at the bottom of the bay.

  Katiana stood there on the swim platform in her bikini, arms above her head as she pulled back her mane of blonde hair, tying it up out of the way, preparing to dive again, searching for her treasure. The sun glinted off of her wet body, creating irresistible shadows and curves.

  As for me, I had already found my treasure, and I wasn’t letting her go anytime soon.

  The End.

  Books by E. J. Foster

  Book 1 - SHADOW CLAW - Coastal Adventure Series

  Book 2 - SHADOW CODE - Coastal Adventure Series

  Book 3 - SHADOW CAST - Coastal Adventure Series

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  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading Shadow Cast! I hope you enjoyed stepping out of your world and into Brock’s for a little while.

  If you enjoyed the book, please consider reviewing it HERE on Amazon. It can be as brief as you’d like, and such a small act of kindness can help us self-published authors more than you know. If for any reason you’re considering giving Shadow Cast a one- or two-star rating because there was something that really irked you, or something you just didn’t like, please consider sending an email to ej@ejfosterbooks.com. I write these stories for you. If there is anything you would like me to change or improve, I would love to know about it. The great thing about self-publishing is that the story or a mistake is never set in stone. If you discover a mistake, I assure you it was one of oversight rather than laziness—and one that can be quickly corrected.

  About the Author

  E. J. Foster is an emerging author of coastal adventure novels.

  In 1986, for a high school writing assignment, Foster submitted a one-word essay and was awarded an A+ grade from his English teacher on the work. It was that moment when he realized he had a gift for concise writing.

  In 2011, Foster began work on a TV comedy series, writing four complete scripts and outlining an entire 13-episode series. Although Amazon ultimately decided not to produce the show, Foster continued telling stories.

  In 2014, Foster began writing satirical news stories for a national satire web site. He eventually partnered with Paul Horner to create a new website and publish some of the most popular viral fake-news hoaxes garnering national attention. They continued writing fake-news comedy until Horner’s untimely death in September of 2017.

  Foster spent over a decade working at NASA on the team that designed, built, tested and installed new upgrades for the Hubble Space Telescope. His team was responsible for training astronauts on the use of custom tools and instruments to be installed on the telescope during on-orbit servicing missions. Foster helped develop a system to catalog and organize over 250,000 photos and video of space flight hardware, tools, training methods and spacewalk choreography for use during Hubble servicing missions.

  He also worked on many other smaller NASA missions before being recruited by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as the ground systems engineer and satellite analyst for the US National Search and Rescue Program, known as SARSAT, and collaborating with NASA, the US Coast Guard, and US Air Force. For over a decade, Foster has continued to serve as an Analyst for the US Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking program.

  Today, Foster lives on an island in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay just across from Annapolis and the US Naval Academy and writes a Chesapeake Bay Coastal Adventure series of novels featuring ex-astronaut Brock Finlander where he dreams up fantastical action-adventure stories that lean heavily on plausible science fiction.