Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [39]
Now, the whole pool was silent.
Rebound hovered in the pool, looking desperately about himself. The water was cold and the bullet wound in his shoulder stung, but he barely even noticed them now.
Mother was treading water next to him, her face watchful. Waiting, with tense anticipation. Legs’ body floated face-down in the water next to her, a halo of blood slowly fanning out from its head, seeping into the clear, blue water around it.
The four remaining French commandos were also still in the pool. They completely ignored Rebound and Mother, their battle forgotten, at least for the moment.
Last of all, Rebound saw the scientists – two women and one man.
Ten people in all were in the pool, and not one of them moved.
Not one of them dared to move.
They had all had seen the French commando go under moments before.
The lesson: if you don’t move, they might not take you.
Rebound held his breath as three massive shadows glided slowly through the water beneath him.
He heard a sudden click, and turned to see Mother holding her MP-5 poised above the surface.
Jesus, Rebound thought. If there was anyone in the world who had the balls to take down a killer whale with a gun, it had to be Mother.
More silence.
Don’t move . . .
And then suddenly there came an incredible roar as one of the whales exploded out from beneath the surface, right next to Mother.
It lifted half of its enormous body out of the water, turned onto its side in mid-air, and then ploughed into Legs’ motionless body. There was a series of sickening crunches as it caught the dead body in its mouth and clamped down hard with its teeth, breaking nearly every bone in it. And then the whale’s head went under and its tail appeared, and then the tail disappeared and only frothing water remained.
And Legs’ body was gone.
Rebound just stayed where he was, hovering in the water, his mouth agape. And then, slowly, it dawned on him.
Legs hadn’t been moving.
An unspoken understanding instantly spread throughout the nine remaining people in the pool.
The killers didn’t care whether they were moving or not . . .
The nine people in the pool moved as one, breaking out into frantic swimming strokes as the killer whales rose to the surface beneath them and commenced their feeding frenzy.
Up on what was left of B-deck, Book Riley swore again.
When Kirsty had seen the pool, seen the enormous black-and-white shapes in it, her lower jaw had started to quiver. Then, when she saw the first killer leap up out of the water and crunch through Legs’ dead body, she started to hyperventilate.
‘OhmyGod, ohmyGod,’ she sobbed.
Riley began to hurry. He quickly lowered his upper body out over the edge of the down-turned catwalk, so that he was now practically hanging upside-down, reaching for Kirsty with his free right hand.
Their hands were now only two inches apart.
He almost had her.
And then all of a sudden, he heard a soft whooshing sound from somewhere to his left.
Riley’s head snapped round.
‘No . . .’
The spot fire had ignited the flakes on the railing. The response was instantaneous. A small orange flame began to race along the length of the railing, devouring the dried paint flakes in its path, leaving a tiny trail of fire in its wake.
Riley’s eyes went wide.
The trail of fire was rocketing along the length of the railing.
And heading right for Kirsty’s hand!
Kirsty was still looking down at the killer whales in the pool. She swung her head up to look at Riley and in an instant their eyes met and Riley saw the absolute terror in her eyes.
Riley stretched down as far as he could, his whole upper body dangling upside-down, off the down-turned catwalk, in a desperate effort to grab her hand.
The orange flame raced along the black hand railing, its firetrail lighting up the railing behind it.
Riley’s hand was an inch away from Kirsty’s.
He stretched again and felt the tips of his fingers brush against the