Barracuda Page 18
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” James jumped in. “This barracuda attacked sharks on the Saratoga, and I think he either chased them out of the portal or followed them. Then he set up this deadly surprise attack to prove convincing dominance over the sharks. I bet we never see gray reef sharks in Bikini Atoll as long as this predator resides here. Territorialism is huge amongst the top predators.”
“But why now? Where did this big fish come from? Your earlier colleagues indicated that the atoll was flourishing with gray reefers, so where does this immense barracuda come from?” Micko asked.
“To exhibit the same abnormalities as other residents of the atoll, I’d say that it was here all the time,” Dr. Collins answered. “Maybe it was a juvenile that just matured and is just now becoming territorial, or maybe the radiation made it a docile giant until recently when adult hormones and testosterone kicked in.”
“Then why aren’t the sharks huge like the other mutated marine creatures?” Micko countered.
“Probably because they don’t live in the radioactive lagoon, and only arrive to feast, then depart.” Dr. Collins replied.
“That’s very interesting, Doctor, and I concur,” James agreed.
The two wise men were off on a tangent and in deep discussion. Micko was no longer listening. It had just occurred to him that there was another reason that this beast had been restrained—the goddamn hatch!
***
Tanya raced the powerful twin engines of the Happy Monkey for all they were worth. She had to get back to the dock before the armada blocked her way in order to set her plan into action before the night’s extravagant fireworks display.
The water was flat, and in no time the speedy boat cut in front of the barge with the train of smaller boats trailing. Tanya reached the wharf unimpaired by the snail-like flotilla.
Steve was waiting on the pier when she docked, and his anger was evident. She jumped off the unleashed boat and yelled, “Do your job!” with an air of sarcasm before running off toward the hotel.
Shaking his head, Steve tied up the boat’s bow and stern lines, and checked the fuel. He pulled out his cell phone and alerted his crew and recovery team that the Happy Monkey was back and would depart as soon as they all arrived. He told them that it was urgent they arrive at the dock immediately since the incoming barge would force him to wait on the water while the barge crew unloaded barrels of fuel and other provisions for the night’s festivities. Then the barge would be anchored in the middle of the atoll for the fireworks exhibition.
Most of Steve’s people were at the dock when Hiroshi stormed in. “Move the Happy Monkey out into the lagoon now!” he screamed. “Can’t you see my barge needs to pull in?”
“Mr. Hiroshi, can the barge wait two or three minutes?” Steve asked. “I need to gather my entire crew to complete this task safely.”
“No! Move now!” Hiroshi was beside himself with anger.
Steve could read Hiroshi’s body language and knew that arguing would be useless. “Peter, Joe, Mark, jump on board!” he called to his crew. “Carol, untie the lines.”
The Happy Monkey slowly left the dock and went a few hundred feet into the lagoon out of the way of the Lily I, Lily II, and the barge.
***
Tanya intercepted Hiroshi as he was walking from the hotel to meet the barge at the dock. Hiroshi always supervised the unloading of material from the barge and other delivery ships. Theft was a major problem that was absent when he was present.
“Oh, Mr. Hiroshi, I’m so glad that I caught you,” Tanya said. “I have some very disturbing news that I must share with you.”
“Not now. No time.” Hiroshi motioned her away as he brushed past.
“It’s about the Bible, Mr. Hiroshi,” she added.
Hiroshi stopped in his tracks. He knew that the Bible was his Sword of Damocles. His authority and reign were virtually unopposed on Shark Alley Island, but the Bible was the exclusive reason for the existence of the Majestic resort. “What about the Bible, woman? Speak up! I’m a very busy man,” he snapped.
“It was stolen last night by one of Andrej’s bodyguards….” She let her sentence trail off as she looked for his reaction.
Hiroshi stiffened, his eyes glowing with hate. “Where is it now?”
“In the bottom of the atoll along with the bodies of the New York cop, Disco, and Nike,” she told him.
Hiroshi stole a glance at the harbor and saw that he still had time. “What on God’s earth happened?”
“Last night, during the blackout, Nike used his passkey to steal the Bible during the disturbance. He gave it to the cop in exchange for immunity. He was selling you out to save his own skin.”
“And you know this how?” Hiroshi demanded.
“I sort of figured it out and sent Disco to beat the truth out of Flacka, the pool barmaid,” Tanya said. “She knows everything that goes on around here, and she set up the blackout with the rebels to help Nike and that cop get the Bible. She told Disco that the cop was going to hide the Bible on the wreck of the Apogon submarine this morning. I had Disco call Nike, and the three of us followed them to the dive site. The cop dove before we could stop and return the Bible. Disco and Nike dove after him and killed him, and Disco was supposed to get the Bible and dispatch Nike for being a traitor. Something went wrong, though, I think it was with the oxygen, and Nike and Disco killed each other.” She let her eyes grow convincingly wide.
“I just raced back here in time to tell you. Andrej will come up with some wild story, but it was his man who turned traitor and stole the ledger. He has disgraced you and placed all our lives in danger. If you deal with him, the home office will send you a new copy of the Bible and all will be back to normal, and you’ll control the journal from now on. I’m experienced enough to step in and take Andrej’s job, either in a temporary position or permanently. I will be your eyes and ears with the Russians. I hope that I just proved my loyalty to you and the organization.” Tanya had made her play, and she hoped it was convincing enough for her to profit by it.
Hiroshi gave her a stern look. “Keep all of this to yourself,” he ordered. “We will speak again later.”
11
The Thor drifted listlessly, waiting for the barge and its mini-flotilla to pass. Rat and the other Renegades were furious with the delay. The entire Renegade club was already dressed and geared up for their scavenger hunt.
“Let’s just run right over these runts,” Rat demanded.
Denise was quite calm as she answered, “It will only be a few more minutes, guys. Keep your pants on.”
The men grumbled and sat down, but a few of the women were extremely obnoxious.
“Hey, bitch, tell these annoying bastards to make room for us to pass!” one of them yelled.
Then a large woman named Sheila grabbed Denise by the hair and stated, “I will rearrange your face so that even your mother won’t recognize you if you don’t get us to the Saratoga right now!”
Sheila looked demented—and this scared Denise. She knew she could handle the men, but these manly women were too much.
“Shorty, see if you can cut through,” she yelled to the captain in the wheelhouse.
“You know we can’t do that, Denise!” he yelled back. “It’s a native tradition, and we must abide by the rules.”
“Do it or Blondie here takes a bath overboard!” Sheila screamed to the applause of the Renegades.
Shorty realized what he was up against, so he sounded his horn and slowly cruised between a few small fishing canoes, whose sailors responded with colorful curses. The Renegades returned more colorful expletives of their own as the Thor moved closer to the Saratoga mooring ball.
Denise had a bad feeling that the Renegades, who were already geared up, weren’t going to listen to her pre-dive lecture. She knew that they would go into the water and race to the hole as soon as the Thor was tied up to the wreck’s buoy. She would have little or no control over these animals. She was thankful that S
teve had closed the hole the day before. He should be done with the body recoveries and the permanent sealing of the hole by the time they got there. The Renegades would then swim aimlessly, looking for a place to penetrate the wreck—and they would be denied. Like minnows, they would follow her to the decompression stops. When the dive ended, she would be able to reclaim control and substitute a scavenger hunt on a shallower, less dangerous wreck. Otherwise, it would be a very long week of diving with these foul-mouthed brutes.
Steve, however, was antsy waiting for the barge to unload. He knew that although Hiroshi was barking out orders, the prick was in no hurry to help him. Steve maneuvered the Happy Monkey over to the Lily II and yelled over to her captain, “Hey, Mara! Can you get a few locals to pick up my team at the end of the pier and bring them to me without interfering with the off loading operation?”
“Sure thing, Steve,” Mara returned.
Steve knew that, being a local, Mara could coax a few sailors to dock at the far end of the pier and take passengers out to the Happy Monkey. This way he could race out to the Saratoga. A few minutes later, an older native with a thirty-five-foot Boston Whaler braved the curses of Hiroshi, picked up the rest of Steve’s rescue team, and delivered them to the waiting boat.
“Thanks, Mara,” Steve said with a smile and a wave. “The beer is on me tonight!”
“You better hurry,” Mara told him. “I just saw the Thor cut through the tail end of the convoy, and she’s headed for the Saratoga.”
Steve hated it, but he knew he would have to do the same thing and disrupt native tradition. He knew that if the Renegades dove on the wreck before he properly secured the opening, a few swipes of a sharp knife would allow them access and a disaster would result. Those irresponsible idiots would enter the wreck and race into the interior until they got entangled, became lost, or ran out of air—and suffer the same fate as the brothers. He pushed the throttle, swamping three natives in their dugout canoes in the process.
***
“Take a heading for the Saratoga, Celestial!” Micko yelled to the Hummingbird’s captain. “I have a very bad feeling.” He gathered the men into the wheelhouse and explained how the Barrett brothers had entered and died in the Saratoga as part of a scavenger hunt, and that twelve Renegades would dive there that morning.
“What does that have to do with the barracuda?” Dr. Collins asked.
“I’m not sure,” Micko responded, “but I think the Barretts may have unintentionally released the barracuda. It may have been trapped in the hold of the ship for years. Maybe generations of barracuda were born, lived, and died inside. They would have adapted to their new environment, but now that this one’s been released, we are seeing strange aggressive behavior.”
“So, why the urgency?” James wondered.
“If the barracuda has a den inside the carrier, it will protect it with the same immoral viciousness it extended to the sharks. The Renegades will be annihilated if we don’t stop them from diving. In fact, all diving must cease until this fish is destroyed. Period.”
***
“Look, Rat!” Bulldog yelled. “There are two boats coming from different directions. I think they’re trying to head us off!”
Rat looked toward the Majestic harbor and saw a sport fishing boat bounding across the atoll at top speed in their direction. Bulldog pointed across the lagoon in the opposite direction, and Rat saw another boat bearing toward them at a high rate of speed.
“Shit!” Rat cursed. “That bitch ratted us out! She must have used her cell phone.”
The Renegade leader gathered his club around him and discreetly announced a new plan.
The Thor pulled up to the mooring line, and Shorty killed the engines as Denise reached down to tie into the buoy. Suddenly, Sheila pushed Denise overboard and the entire Renegade club leaped off the Thor and into the water.
***
It had been very busy fighting sharks and feeding, and now It was full and tired. It swam into Its den, past the dangling remains of Billy Barrett. It was keeping Billy hanging as a lure for large fish that would then become a meal for the big barracuda. This was a new life for It. The den was home, but the atoll had become Its domain. No longer was It confined to the interior of the carrier. The carrier was huge, and it was the only world that It had known. Now the lagoon was much larger and Its world had expanded.
It circled the den until It found a spot that afforded It cover from the rear and a view from ahead. It never closed Its eyes, but went into a trance-like state that would give It rest and recharge It.
***
As the Hummingbird grew closer, all the men gathered in the wheelhouse and nervously watched. It was like a death race. If the Happy Monkey or the Hummingbird arrived first, a lifesaving warning could be issued. If the Renegades entered the water not knowing what might lie ahead, a catastrophe was imminent.
Both boats arrived at the same time from opposite directions, just as the Renegades launched themselves overboard. Denise was just climbing back onto the Thor as Steve was yelling at her to get the Renegades back on board.
“I didn’t get a chance to shore up the hole or recover the bodies yet!” he yelled.
“I couldn’t stop them!” Denise cried. “I don’t even have my dive gear on. They pushed me overboard so I couldn’t prevent them from their stupid scavenger hunt.” She was furious.
As the Hummingbird got closer, Micko called out, “Do you have a diver recall siren on your boat?”
“Yes, we do,” Denise shouted. “Shorty, give it a try!”
Shorty pressed the button that emitted a loud siren that divers know as a recall. It ordered all divers to return to the boat immediately because a dangerous condition had come about topside—an injured diver needing medical attention on land, or some other emergency.
The problem with the siren was that it was so loud that no one could be heard yelling over it. Micko was unable to tell Denise about the barracuda danger as he watched her climb into her dive gear. It was obvious that she was going down after her fold.
He yelled over to Dr. Collins, “Quick, Doc! Set the gas mix on your re-breather for 180 fsw!”
The professor was way ahead of him and was already conjuring up the re-breather for the dive. Micko had help from James as he put on his weight belt and fins. The professor was giving Micko a few last-minute instructions as he put on his mask and quickly submerged. Micko knew that the hatchway was at the 140 fsw level, not 180, but he wanted an extra cushion of safety since his last dive was on the extreme level.
He quickly acclimated himself to the close circuit diving system and dove headfirst down the buoy line, catching Denise at the one-hundred-foot level. He grabbed her by the fins, and when she looked back at him, he gave the diver danger sign followed by the diver up sign. She looked at him quizzically for a second, and then shook her head no. She was about to continue down when a most frightening sight played out before them.
***
Rat had hit the water first and done a negative descent. He hadn’t put any air into his BC vest, so he sank like a stone. Several of the other Renegades did the same, floating down like parachutists coming in for a landing. There was nothing smooth or dainty about the descent. It was all about speed. Each Renegade wanted to be the first into the hole in the carrier so they could be the winner of the scavenger hunt.
Sheila actually landed on the flight deck first. She landed hard because she had weighted herself down with extra lead just so she would sink fastest. Looking up, she saw Bulldog coming down at a high speed and Rat dropping right into the old fish netting on the bridge superstructure. She adjusted a loose fin and dropped over the port side of the Saratoga and down toward the hatchway.
She reached the hatch with Bulldog right behind her, and raced right through without even attempting to secure a wreck reel. Bulldog shook his head in disbelief as he unhooked his own wreck reel from his BC vest. While looking for a place to tie off the free end, he noticed a line was already attached.
Shit! he thought. Somebody beat us to the hole! Deciding to forego the reel, he too raced into the bowels of the carrier. He didn’t get far before he saw Sheila struggling with some steel tentacles dangling from the ceiling. She was blocking his way, and he could hear the exhaust bubbles of other divers now converging on the hole. He wondered if he should help her get untangled or push his way past her so he could seek out the bandanas. Hearing the recall siren from the dive boat, he decided this was the only chance they would get. One recovered bandana could turn out to be enough to win the scavenger hunt if it were called off.
Bulldog pushed Sheila sideways like a pendulum, and when she swung far enough out of his way, he rushed past her into the next corridor.
***
It was startled out of Its slumber, and all of Its defense mechanisms came alive. It didn’t know what had caused It to come out of Its trance, but Its instincts told It that danger was near. It sensed that large prey had entered Its lair. The lateral lines that ran the length of Its body started picking up erratic movements and struggling, which sent almost invisible waves through the water that were picked up on the lateral lines.
It did not recognize the source of the intrusion. It knew the movements of other fish and was only concerned about the sharks if they were to corner It. These were not the sleek, subtle movements of the sharks. Then came the noise that irritated his auditory canal and raised the danger level to attack mode. It acted in self-defense and launched through the den and corridors until It reached Its opponents. It knew that there were numerous antagonists, so Its senses were on full alert as It initiated the attack.
***
Micko could see a large number of bubbles coming from below the flight deck in the area of the hatch opening. He knew that the rope must have been removed and that divers were probably inside the wreck. He just hoped that the barracuda was not at home.
He was about to swim down and grab Denise a second time when he saw a wide-eyed diver speeding up toward him like a human cannonball. The diver just flew out of a wall of bubbles, and Micko had to dodge the man at the last second or else the diver would have crashed right into him. The look of terror on the man’s face made Micko grasp the fact that his worst fears had been realized. The monster was home and defending his castle from intruders.