Megatooth: A Deep Sea Thriller Page 11

  When Carl waded back into the central cabin, he had to pause a moment to get his bearings straight. The ceiling was now serving as the far right wall and the far right wall was now serving as the floor, which was completely covered in water. More water surged in through the doorway to the stairs. It also came into the cabin in the form of tiny little rivulets through the binding of the windshield to the body of the boat.

  Roughly half of Trevor’s control panel was still above water. There were two screens—one of which had gone completely black—and his laptop. The laptop was secured into a metal frame where all of the other equipment fed into it through some sort of router system that Carl didn’t understand. He figured he could probably operate the system from the laptop. That, plus the remote, would have to do. If it got too complicated, it might be like the blind leading the blind but…well, he just had to hope. Hopefully, the hardest part was going to be positioning the ROVs. He’d only had about fifteen hours or so of simulated tests with the rovers (compared to Trevor’s one hundred hours or more) but that was going to have to be enough.

  On the plus side, with the controller and the laptop as his tools, there would be much less of a risk of electrical shock and he was far more comfortable with a laptop than the over-the-top technical systems that were even now continuing to be overtaken by the water that continued to pour in.

  With the controller held up over his head (even though he knew that it was waterproof, as was much of the other equipment that was currently submerged), Carl slid into the water. It came up to his waist, making footing in the tilted room tricky to master. And although he knew the vast majority of the electrical equipment in the room was waterproof to some degree, he also knew that he could get badly electrocuted at any moment. He wondered which would be most painful: electrocution or being eaten alive by a shark.

  “Let’s act fast and not find out,” he muttered to the room.

  He made his way over to the console and loaded up the software that he had seen Trevor use so many times. Carl knew the basics of the programs and how to operate everything, so he had some level of comfort when he saw the interface. Seeing that the Collector was online but powered down, he brought up the command to start it. Before kicking it into gear, though, he also brought up the camera feeds on all six of the different rovers. They were all online and the five that had been unharmed by the events that had transpired over the last few hours were waiting for instruction. The sixth was completely unresponsive. He couldn’t even find its current position with the software while the others were clearly represented with little green dots. He powered the working ROVs up and then looked to the controller once again.

  When he saw that all of the rovers were responsive to the remote’s commands, he started leading the first one directly over towards the Collector. The rover moved slowly, but they had all fallen next to one another. Better still was the fact that none of them seemed to be very far away from the Collector. As he moved the first one, Carl craned his head back and half-yelled up to the top.

  “Everything is running and it looks like we’re good to go. These ROVs are slow, though, so try to be patient.”

  There was silence for a while and then a slight commotion from up above. A few seconds later, he saw Emily come slipping into view on the far side of the glass that had once looked straight ahead out to the ocean.

  “How much longer?” she asked.

  “Five minutes, maybe?”

  “I don’t know if we have that much time,” she said, her voice thin and scared. “It’s come back.”

  “Where?”

  “It’s swimming around the area where the helicopter went down.”

  Carl did his best to think but the fear that invaded his heart was too much to bear. There was only one thing to do, anyway. It would be risky and could like out a dent in his already fragile plan. But he saw no other alternative.

  “I can set these alarms whenever I need to,” he said. “If it starts coming closer to us, stomp on the boat up above. I’ll set the alarms early.”

  “Okay,” she said. He saw that she was close to crying and suddenly felt far too responsible for her. She was a stranger but chivalry wasn’t as dead as people thought. He felt an inherent need to rescue not only her, but Steve as well.

  He watched her slip back out of her view, climbing back to the top (or, more accurately, the side) of the boat. Carl looked to the laptop screen as he directed the first rover over to the Collector. It was moving excruciatingly slow and as he watched the red dot that served as its location on the laptop screen, he was overcome with the idea that this plan of his was probably not going to work.

  18

  The megalodon was swimming in a large circle, remaining in the area where the helicopter had gone down. As Emily climbed back up after having filled Carl in, she spotted its dorsal fin easily. It moved slowly, like it had no real reason to be there—just to keep them scared and on their toes. Emily wondered, not for the first time, if it was really that smart or diabolical, or both.

  The rain had stopped, but the surface of the side of the boat was still slick. She looked to the raft and, not for the first time, found the idea of seeking any sort of safety in it borderline ridiculous. She recalled how flimsy it had felt when she had shared with the helicopter pilot and didn’t like the idea of hopping back into it. How long would they be expected to play leapfrog from one meaningless means of safety to the next? It seemed like utter madness.

  Still, even she could tell that Carl’s boat was sinking pretty quickly. She also knew that the more water it took on, the quicker it would sink.

  After what felt like hours but was in actuality less than two minutes, she heard Carl’s whispered voice. It was hard to hear because he was trying to remain as quiet as possible and the constant drone of the ocean almost drowned it out. All she could hear was a simple, “Hey guys!”

  Emily and Steve walked closely together to where the edge dropped off to make way for the cabin’s walls and the side deck that separated them. She felt Steve’s hand on her arm and feeling that extra support made her a bit more confident in walking along the slick surface.

  “Yeah?” Emily asked.

  “I’ve got three of the rovers positioned directly next to the Collector. Once I get the other two situated, we’re in business.”

  “How much longer?” Steve asked.

  “Maybe three minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  They remained where they were and looked back out to the raft. “Any idea how we’re going to get into that thing?” Steve asked.

  “I’m thinking about just jumping. I’m pretty sure we could make it.”

  “You’ve got an athletic build, though,” Steve said. “I’m about thirty pounds overweight and spent my extra time in the art rooms and computer labs in college. That’s one hell of a jump for me.”

  “Then I’ll jump in and bring it over to get you.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll find something to help me paddle it over.

  “No.”

  “That’s how it’s going to have to be. Look, you saved my ass at least twice already today. We can do this. Just trust me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “It’ll be okay. Besides, if those alarms are as loud as Carl says, I don’t even think it’s going to matter if you do fall in the water.”

  “Maybe so…but I’d rather not fall in if it’s all the same to you.”

  Emily looked back out to the raft again and now it seemed like a longer jump than five feet. Maybe it was seven or eight. Or maybe the darkness and the movement of the water were making it hard to judge.

  Carl’s voice came wafting ghostlike towards them again. “Third one is in place. Going for the fourth one now but…well, I’m getting some popping noises in here and little shocks here and there.”

  “Get your ass out of there,” Emily said.

  “Another two minutes or so,” Carl replied. “I’ll be okay.”


  Emily wanted to argue further, but not being able to see him made her feel like she was responding to voices in her head. And with nothing more than a black abyss of death and mysteries all around her, that was not a comparison that she wanted to make.

  Emily looked back out to the water, looking for the fin. It was no longer in the area of where the helicopter had gone down. In fact, she couldn’t find it anywhere. It made her wonder if the megalodon had gone underwater to build up speed, its sights set on the ruins of Carl’s boat.

  That idea made her knees tremble and for reasons that made no logical sense to her, she found herself wanting to leap into the raft right then and there. Maybe she should; after all, wouldn’t it make more sense for one of them to be in the raft when Carl gave his final go ahead to move?

  “Steve,” she said, her heart already starting to thrum in her chest.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m going for the raft,” she said.

  “But we don’t even know where the damn thing is.”

  “I know. But—”

  “The fifth one is lined up,” came Carl’s forceful whisper.

  With that news, Emily was not so keen to jump into the raft. It felt too much like an endgame scenario…and they didn’t even know the rules of the game yet.

  “So we’re good to go?” Steve asked.

  “Good to go.”

  Steve looked to Emily and she was unable to look past the caring in his eyes. He was scared for her, but there was something there beyond that—something beyond what she had pegged as an emotion that flirted with obsession. There was fear there, sure, but the other thing she saw in his stare made her feel confident and almost safe.

  For one thing, it made her feel more confident in her ability to make the jump from the ship to the raft.

  “Ready?” Carl asked from beneath them. He sounded like he was in pain and trying his best to hide it.

  “Go for it,” Steve said.

  Emily stepped closer to the edge of what currently served as the boat’s roof. Looking into the water, she was sure that the boat had sunk another foot or so in the last few minutes.

  There was silence for a good ten seconds. Emily felt her knees bending almost instinctively as she angled herself along towards the raft. One moment, it looked like she could almost step into it and the very next moment, it seemed a mile away. She tried to focus on it, to somehow make herself see it as a stationary object, but the rolling water made it impossible.

  “Alarms are all blaring,” Carl reported. His voice was louder now and Emily was more convinced than ever that he was in pain.

  “Carl, are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah, just wait for my word…”

  Emily looked to Steve, a concerned look on her face. “He’s hurt,” she said.

  “Maybe, but we don’t have time to check.”

  “But what if he—”

  “Okay, I see it coming!” Carl’s voice was excited now, although clearly pained. “I see it on the ROV cameras…it’s coming in fast. Get to the raft now!”

  There was desperation in his voice. It almost sounded like he was crying.

  Still, Steve was right. There was no time to check on him. If their window of time was as small as Carl had said, then she’d already wasted too much of it.

  With guilt already starting to invade her heart, she sprang off of the side of the boat, aimed directly at the raft. She felt herself arcing and then falling and for a moment, she was sure that she was going to miss it by about a foot. But then as she fell, the raft settled off of a small wave. Emily fell onto the side of it, half in and half out. She hit hard and, with the air rushing out of her stomach, bounced in an awkward flip into the raft.

  She scrambled to her knees as quickly as she could. She looked back to the boat and her heart shuddered at what she saw. Steve was walking away from the edge of the boat, heading for the area where they’d watch Carl come and go from the lopsided cabin.

  “Steve!”

  He turned back to her and gave her a thumbs up and a smile. He then hunkered down on his knees and slid down onto the side deck and out of sight.

  “Damn it,” Emily screamed.

  And once the scream had left her, she realized that she was utterly alone. The sea lapped at the raft and somewhere underneath her, a massive prehistoric shark was hopefully pursuing technologically advanced machines that could potentially kill it. She felt something like lunacy coming on the heels of that and all she could do to keep it away was to look at the boat and wait for Steve to reappear.

  19

  “Alarms are all blaring!”

  Carl hoped they couldn’t hear the pain in his voice. He thought he was hiding it pretty well. But the truth of the matter was that he was hurting like crazy. While the laptop was still secure and free of water—for the moment—Carl was beginning to experience minor shocks from everything else around him. He had no idea which equipment was responsible for them, but they were hitting him via the water. A few of them had been minor, nothing stronger than bee stings. But two had hit him hard, making him gasp and fear for his life.

  “Carl, are you okay?”

  This was Emily’s voice. She sounded tired and concerned. Maybe he wasn’t hiding the fact that he was in pain as well as he thought.

  “Yeah, just wait for my word.”

  He used the controller to direct the third ROV to the Collector. He tried not to think about the shocks that could light him up at any moment. Instead, he focused on the thought of lining this last ROV up, switching on the pump, and getting the hell out of there.

  As the ROV neared the Collector, the system on the laptop provided a warning in the form of a small flashing message on the screen: OBJECT APPROACHING. POSSIBLE INTERFERENCE.

  Carl looked to the third ROV’s camera and saw something huge approaching, darkening the glow of the small lights atop the rover.

  “Okay, I see it coming!” Carl yelled. As he did, he was shocked yet again. This was a small one, but it lasted longer than the others. “I see it on the ROV cameras,” he added, trying to distract himself. “It’s coming in fast. Get to the raft now!”

  He waded over to the side of the room, briefly losing his footing and nearly dropping the laptop into the water. It was up to his stomach now. He was already going to have to ditch the laptop to crawl back out of the cabin and onto the side of the boat. But if the water got any deeper—as in, more than three more inches—the water would start submerging the monitor he was using to operate the pump. If the damned shark didn’t act fast, this was all for nothing.

  From outside, he heard Emily scream Steve’s name. She sounded scared and a little pissed. On the laptop screen, he saw the shark getting closer to the ROVs, their alarms still shrieking out underwater.

  “Come on you bastard,” Carl said through gritted teeth.

  To his right, something made a popping noise. He looked over and saw that the wall (or, rather, what had once served as the floor) was buckling. He could see flickering lights under the murky water as a variety of electrical equipment displayed error lights.

  “Hey man,” came a voice from his left.

  He turned and saw Steve. He was struggling to hold himself up by the frame where the window had once been. He was looking into the cabin and the shock on his face was apparent.

  “Don’t come in here,” Carl said “I’m getting shocked every few seconds. Get outside and get in that raft.”

  “You coming with us?” Steve asked.

  When Carl answered, it was the first time he had seriously felt the weight of the decision he had made. “Probably not.” He looked back to the laptop screen and there was the megalodon, barreling towards the ROVs. “Go! I’m about to hit the pump. If I can make it out, I will. Just go!”

  Steve nodded and said, “Good luck, man.”

  When the megalodon was inches away from the auxiliary cutter ROV, Carl gave it the command to turn on. The blades and diggers started up instantly. He then gave the
same command to the others, but left them stationary, around the Collector. When the sediment and muck began to fly, Carl reached out to the monitor along the slanted console. He typed in the command to start the pump, just three simple buttons.

  He was used to hearing the attachment alongside the boat start to hum when that command was entered but there was nothing now. The collector was working independently below him, sucking up debris and muck into nothing. A message popped up on the screen as water began to overtake it.

  ATTACHMENT A-121 NOT ENABLED. PUMP SHUT DOWN?

  Carl reached out and pressed N on the small keyboard beneath the monitor.

  Behind him, there was another pop—this one like a firework. He turned to see what it was, but never got the chance.

  He barely saw the small rack of computer equipment come sliding off of the wall. The external hard drives and other equipment he had never fully understood came crashing down into the water, already spitting out sparks. He saw the cables behind them, active and working, spilling out like guts into the water.

  He felt the shock like a bullet as the current raced through the water and slammed into his body. This time, it did not let up. Carl’s head rocked back as his body spasmed. He was unaware of the other popping and cracking noises from behind him. He was even barely able to see the laptop as he dropped it into the water.

  Before he died, he took the smallest bit of gratification in the fact that the megalodon seemed to be fighting against the Collector as two of the three ROVs still stood upright, tearing into its flesh.

  He even thought he saw its blood darkening the screen. It clouded up like mud from the bottom. He grinned in spite of himself. It was the best find the damned equipment had managed to come across all day

  That was the last thing Carl saw as the current continued to tear through him. Even when he was dead, his body continued to tremble with the jolt as the boat continued to sink all around him.

  20

  Emily was both livid and hugely relieved when she saw Steve re-appear along the side of the boat. In the thirty or so seconds that had passed since he had gone down to check on Steve, it looked as if the boat had sunk another two feet or so. Seeing Steve, she realized that she had never even bothered to try getting the raft closer to the boat. Because it was an inflatable raft, there was nothing in the way of an oar or rope. The only accessory was a small blinking white light on the front of it. And being that the raft was pretty large—big enough to accommodate up to ten people if she had to guess—there was no way she could paddle it over by simply using her hand.