Megatooth: A Deep Sea Thriller Read online

  12

  Time dragged on. They sat in the cabin as quietly as possible. They discussed any other safety precautions they could rely on (there were none, they found after those discussions), speaking in a whisper.

  “Any idea why it just sort of disappeared on us?” Bo asked.

  No one answered right away, but Carl ventured a guess. “The back end of the boat was hit pretty hard. And from what I could see, it just hit the boat with the lower half of its jaw. If it hit the blades on the propeller, it could have really hurt it.”

  “It did look a little dazed when it…” Steve said. “Well…when it came back up after it took Zoe.”

  They all chewed on this for a moment and fell quiet again. Emily didn’t think she had ever felt the progression of time moving so slowly.

  When the radio blared to life all of a sudden, all four of them were visibly frightened; a low-pitched shriek nearly escaped Bo’s mouth, coming out in a hiccup sort of sound.

  “MarineEx Vessel AS781, you still copy?”

  Carl got up from his seat—the bench where he had indicated the gun was located—and picked up the mic. “Yeah, we’re here.”

  “We just got confirmation that the Coast Guard helicopter is now exactly seventeen minutes out from your position. They were held up a bit due to the weather, but they are on their way.”

  “Roger that,” Carl said. “And thanks.”

  “Just let us know of any further events that might occur between now and when the Coast Guard arrives.”

  “Got it.”

  When silence once again fell over them, it felt heavy this time. It was like a horror movie where the absolute stillness of everything seemed to invite the monster. It was driving Emily nuts and she couldn’t stand it.

  “I barely got a glimpse of your boat when we were pulled on,” she said. “What’s that contraption on the side of the boat?”

  “It’s a vacuum system that we use as part of our deep sea mining operation,” Carl said.

  “How long have you been out here?” Steve asked.

  “This was the second day of a three day stint,” Bo answered.

  “What kind of stuff are you mining for?” Emily asked.

  Carl gave a nervous grin. “The pump system and deep sea rovers we are using are an experiment of sorts. It hasn’t really been cleared for use. As such, we can’t really tell you too much about what we’re doing.”

  “Those big things on the back of the boat,” Steve said. “Those were the rovers?”

  “Yeah. But, really…I can’t discuss it.”

  Emily let out a laugh and rolled her eyes. Such secrecy seemed a little foolish, given their current predicament.

  Bo got up from his seat and headed for the stairs. Even before he took the first one, Carl sat up, his eyes wide and alarmed.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Just to the galley,” he said. “I figure our guests might need some water after everything they’ve been through.”

  “That would be great,” Emily said.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Steve said.

  He inched a bit closer to Emily and she paid no mind. She wondered if this was him trying to seem protective to her or to come off as being her boyfriend in front of these two older men. She figured it made no sense to get upset about it. If this was how needed to deal with the stress of the situation, she’d let him have it. It was the least she could do after he had saved her life twice in one afternoon. Also, if they planned on making it out of this alive, she was going to have to get over her annoyance with him. Besides…she hadn’t been annoyed with him fifteen minutes ago when she had been balling her eyes out on his shoulder, had she?

  Bo came back up the stairs with four plastic bottles of water. Steve took two from him, immediately uncapping one and handing it to Emily. She took it gratefully and drank it, not realizing how thirsty she was until the water was down her throat. She forced herself to stop drinking, fearful that she might get a cramp.

  “Ugh, I can’t stand just sitting,” she said. She got to her feet and approached the front of the cabin, looking out of the window. The sea was actually quite beautiful in the moonlight, despite the remaining stray bits of wreckage from the boat that had carried her out here. Still, despite the near-serenity she felt by looking at the water, there was the fear that it could be broken by the sudden sight of an immense dorsal fin.

  She finally made herself look away. She turned to Steven and saw that he was looking directly at her. He didn’t bother breaking his stare when she caught him. He gave her a nervous smile which she did not return.

  Before things could get any more awkward, the radio broke the silence again. “MarineEx Vessel AS781, come in, please.”

  Carl took the mic and replied, “This is MarineEx Vessel AS781.”

  “This is Coast Guard Rescue Chief Hamlett,” the same voice replied. “We’re nearing your location but the rain is making it hard to see clearly. Could you please cut on a deck light or a search light?”

  “I thought of that,” Carl responded, “but didn’t want to give this shark anything to come charging at.”

  “I understand that loud and clear,” Hamlett said. “Do you have a flare gun?”

  “I do.”

  “Head out to the top of your vessel and fire it off into the air. Wait about three minutes before doing so, though. We’re still about ten miles away.”

  “Will do. And Chief Hamlett?”

  “Yes?”

  “This shark…well, it’s something else. I don’t even know how to explain it. Just please use caution.”

  “We always do, I assure you. See you in a bit. Just hold tight.”

  Emily listened to the entire conversation and knew that she should be relieved—maybe even happy. But instead, all she could see was that monstrous face coming out of the water, the dark eyes of some long-forgotten leviathan from the deep. She’d seen it take three people already and for some reason that her heart could not understand, she didn’t think she was going to get away from it so easily.

  13

  Without asking, Emily assumed that Carl had been the man in charge of their experimental little journey. She could sense it in the way Bo responded to him and how Carl himself seemed to take initiative for everything. It was obvious that he was nervous as he walked below to retrieve the flare gun but he moved like a man with a purpose—a man that would not be swayed from his duties.

  “Need any help?” Steve asked as Carl headed down the stairs.

  “No thanks,” Carl said. “You guys stay inside. Stay safe and hold tight.”

  Steve seemed relieved to hear this answer. He was once again standing directly by Emily and she was pretty sure that he was clumsily trying to take her hand. She nearly reached out and took it—for comfort and to placate him in the moment—but ended up moving to the other side of the cabin instead. She looked out into the night again, waiting for the red streak of Carl’s flare to arc through the sky. She thought of the last flare she had seen and how terrified she had been, floating in the ocean with an eighteen year old that would be dead less than three hours later.

  That hadn’t been too long ago and although she was in a somewhat better position now, the threat was still the same. And it all came down to a flare again.

  When Steve scurried up beside her, she ignored him at first. She kept looking out, waiting for the flare.

  “I’m sorry,” Steve said quietly.

  Emily looked at him, perplexed. “Sorry for what?” she asked.

  “Being obsessive,” he said. And now, for the first time since she could remember, he wasn’t looking at her. He looked to the floor after his apology. “I know I have been and I know your reaction to me over the last few months has been warranted. I never meant for it to be like this. I liked you right away. Even before you approached me in the quad and I gave you that James Tate book. I just…I don’t know. It sort of festered. Even when I knew you were being as polite to me as you could by not telling me to get lost
, I kept going. So, I’m sorry.”

  “You’re a good guy, Steve,” she said. “And yeah, I think obsessive is the right word to use. But why in God’s name are you telling me all of this now?”

  “Because of what we’ve been through,” he said. “Call it macho or whatever you want, but I want to make sure you’re safe. I know you can take care of yourself. I have no doubt about that. But I care for you and want to help keep you safe. That’s out of genuine caring…not that dumb obsessive part of me.”

  She was fairly sure he was being genuine and it made her feel much more comfortable about being in this horrifying situation with him. She smiled at him and tried to think of what to say but before she could form a word, the flare went off.

  It arced to the right, a perfect little stream of flame that went upwards in a U-shape and then came scaling back down towards the night-streaked water. As soon as the flare had died out, they could hear Carl’s footsteps coming back down towards the main cabin. When he came trundling up the stairs, he was wet with rain and looked pale.

  “You okay?” Bo asked.

  “For now,” he said. “I saw its fin. About thirty yards out. I barely saw it and shot the flare in that direction just to be sure. It was there. I hope the flare may have distracted it.”

  “It was still out there?” Emily asked.

  “Yeah,” Carl said. “It’s almost like it was waiting for us—like it knew we had to move eventually.”

  “Are sharks that smart?” Steve asked.

  “Most are, yeah,” Emily said.

  “Well, if it knows the boat is here, why doesn’t it just plowing into us like it did with Cliff’s rental?” Steve asked.

  “I don’t know,” Emily said. She wondered if the megalodon had some sort of base prehistoric drive where it enjoyed the hunt as well as the meal itself. She’d never heard of such a thing but then again, she also hadn’t believed megalodons existed up until about four hours ago.

  “Here’s a question,” Bo said. “If we’re supposed to be quiet to keep it from attacking us, how do you think it will respond when a helicopter starts hovering directly above us?”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Carl said. “I just didn’t want to say it out loud and scare the hell out of everyone.”

  “We should all be out on the roof before we even hear the helicopter,” Emily said. “That way we’ll at least see if the thing comes for us.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Bo said, already heading for the stairs.

  “Life jackets are down in the galley, under the bench seats,” Carl said as they started down the stairs. “There are emergency beacon lights, too. But maybe we shouldn’t use those in this case.”

  “Probably not,” Emily agreed as they came into the galley.

  All four of them got a lifejacket and suited up right away. They then ventured out onto the stern and made their way quickly and quietly up the metal ladder than led to the top level of the boat. The rain was coming down harder than it had been when Emily and Steve had come aboard and it made it hard to see clearly.

  Bo went up first, followed by Emily, then Steve with Carl bringing up the rear. When they reached the top, Emily nearly lost her footing due to the slick surface. When she regained traction, she couldn’t help herself; she looked out to the right, looking for any sign of the megalodon. She saw nothing more than the black waves of the sea at night. Seeing it stretch out endlessly beneath her was dizzying and she had to look away.

  She then looked down to the back of the boat. The damage the shark had caused was visible but not obvious. There was a very obvious upward buckle in the deck and one of the rear rails had come dislodged. Two of the six ROVs that Steve had asked about seemed to have come unfastened from the latches that apparently held them to the boat. She also saw the vacuum that Carl had been so secretive about attached to the side of the boat, and wondered how much the machine might be worth. If the megalodon tore through this boat, how much money would be lost? She’d seen the computers and other electronics inside, so she assumed the loss of this boat would mean a significant monetary hit to whoever MarineEx was.

  Emily reached out behind her, found Steve’s hand, and took it. He accepted it eagerly as they all looked up through the rain, waiting for the helicopter. She looked in the other direction and saw the debris from their boat. It was strewn everywhere and some pieces had likely sunk to the bottom of the ocean, having taken on too much water.Her train of thought was derailed when she heard a noise that was almost like what she imagined machine gun fire must sound like. It was coming from her left and when she turned in that direction and saw the distant white light in the sky, her heart dared to hope. Maybe they were going to make it out of this alive after all.

  The noise became clearer—the sound of the approaching Coast Guard helicopter. As the white light got closer, the shape of the helicopter could be see through the night and the rain. It started to descend as it got closer, its light falling on the MarineEx boat.

  “Hell yeah,” Steve said under his breath. Emily saw him take one nervous look back to the water, as if he was certain that this easy rescue was too good to be true.

  The helicopter came directly over the boat, the cyclic motion of the blades causing the rain to fall around them in bizarre patterns that felt like sleet on their faces. It churned overhead and, to Emily, sounded like looped mechanical thunder. She wondered how it might sound to the megalodon, potentially waiting for its chance to strike underwater.

  When the helicopter was positioned over the boat, no more than twenty feet overhead, a single line was thrown down. It uncoiled like a snake, in the spotlight along the side of the helicopter. It missed the edge of the boat by about a foot and when it was completely straightened out, a man came to the edge of the helicopter side door and looked down. The helicopter moved a bit, dragging the line over a bit. When it struck the edge of the boat, it made a solid sound, almost metallic.

  Without much hesitation, the man came down the cable quickly. It was hard to see from the rain and the lack of light, but Emily thought that he was attached to the cable with some sort of pulley-like device. When he was halfway down, a second man came out over the edge of the door and started down the cable as well. This one came down with what looked like a large steel basket beneath him.

  The first man was down in less than ten seconds. He was dressed in a black skin-tight suit and wore protective eye gear. When he spoke, he did so in a shout so he could be heard over the rain and the whirring of the blades twenty feet above them.

  “Is anyone injured?” he asked.

  The four of them answered in the negative. They were all looking into the sky, eager to get to the safety of the helicopter.

  “Okay. Then we’re going to take you up in the basket two at a time.”

  By then, the second man had arrived. He was checking the hooks that connected the basket to the cable, making sure they were good and secure. With a nod of satisfaction, he stepped out of the way.

  Carl nodded to Emily and Steve. “You guys first,” he said.

  Emily stepped forward towards the basket. As the second man reached out to help her in, she could hear a very faint voice coming from an earpiece in the man’s ear. It was so small that she had not seen it until now.

  She couldn’t hear what the tiny voice said, but whatever was said alarmed the man right away.

  “What is it?” Carl asked.

  “Something in the water,” the man said, turning to look.

  Everyone else turned that way as well. In the dark, it was hard to see the dorsal fin clearly, but it was there. It looked like a moving whitecap of one of the waves, coming at them with incredible speed. As it neared them, it seemed to grow taller until the massive back of the megalodon started to show.

  “Shit!” Carl screamed. “Hold on to something!”

  But even as he shouted this, the command fell dead in the air. They were on top of the boat and there was nothing to hold on to.

  “In the baske
t, now!” the rescue diver shouted. He grabbed Emily’s arm and drug her forward.

  She got one leg in and was swinging the other one over into it when the shark struck the side of the boat. It felt like a small explosion as the entire starboard side of the boat pitched violently to the side. A cacophony of screams pounded out over the rainfall and helicopter noise. Emily felt the metal basket slide out from under her leg. She went airborne for a moment and then struck the roof of the boat. The air went spiraling out of her lungs in a painful gasp but before she had time to register this, she felt herself slipping.

  The boat was now canted at an angle, the shark still engaged with it. Emily reached out for the basket but missed it. As she scrambled for purchase, one of the rescue divers was able to grab her arm and stop the slide. He helped her to her feet as there was yet another violent shaking of the boat. This time there was a massive surge to the side, as if the shark were a cat and the boat was nothing more than a ball of yarn.

  The first rescue diver that had come down the cable went sailing, falling over the side. He fell into the dark water below as Emily finally started to get a sense of the situation. Not only was the first rescue diver gone, so were Steve and Carl.

  The second rescue diver was frantically pulling at the basket, trying to get it straight. Overhead, the helicopter was working to get re-positioned. The moving light had a nearly strobe-like effect that made Emily wince.

  Finally, the boat stopped moving. It was at an angle, as the starboard side was essentially destroyed. Three of the six ROVs had become dislodged and splashed into the water. That side of the boat was at a massive slant of splinters and beams. Emily figured that as that side took on more water, the boat would basically flip over, revealing its port side to the sky.

  “Where’s Steve?” she asked the diver. Of course, he had no idea who Steve was and only shrugged. “We have to get you off of this boat.”