Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [42]
Riley watched in amazement as Schofield sailed through the air, over the massive diving bell, and arced down toward the icy pool.
He fell fast. But as he did so, Schofield did a strange thing. He raised his right hand and unholstered something from behind his shoulder.
When he hit the water, his feet entered first – with both legs splayed wide so that he wouldn’t go far underwater – while both of his hands held the object he had pulled from behind his back.
Kirsty instinctively turned away as the water next to her exploded.
At first she thought it was one of the killer whales bursting out from beneath the surface to take her under, but as the water fell back down on top of her and she was able to see again, all she saw was a man hovering in the water next to her.
It was one of the Marines. In fact, it was the one she had met before, the nice one, the leader. The one who wore the cool, reflective silver sunglasses. She tried to remember his name. Seinfeld, she thought, or something like that.
‘You okay?’ he said.
She nodded dumbly.
His silver glasses hung askew from his nose, dislodged by his landing in the water. He swiped them off quickly and for a brief second Kirsty saw his eyes and she gasped.
Suddenly one of the killers whooshed past them and Kirsty didn’t care about Schofield’s eyes anymore.
The towering, black dorsal fin sailed right past both of their faces and then slowly, very slowly, lowered itself into the water until finally the tip of the massive fin dipped below the surface and disappeared.
Kirsty began to breathe very fast.
Beside her, Schofield immediately started to look down into the water beneath them. They were treading water in one of the sections of the pool that hadn’t yet been contaminated with blood. The water beneath them was crystal clear.
Kirsty followed his gaze and looked down into the water beneath her –
– just in time to see the wide open mouth of the killer whale rushing up at her feet!
Kirsty screamed like the banshee but beside her, Schofield stayed calm. He quickly lowered his Maghook beneath the surface and for a terrifying half-second, waited until the killer was right up close . . .
And then he fired.
The grappling hook, with its bulbous magnetic head, thundered out of its launcher into the water and slammed into the killer whale’s snout, stopping the massive creature dead in its tracks.
Four thousand pounds per square inch of thrust had launched the grappling hook. Whether or not it had truly been enough to stun a full-grown, seven-ton killer whale wasn’t entirely clear to Schofield. Hell, the whale was probably just shocked that something had dared to fight back.
Schofield quickly pressed down twice on the trigger of the launcher and the grappling hook immediately began to reel itself in.
He turned to face Kirsty again. ‘You still in one piece? Got all your fingers and toes?’
Kirsty just stared at him, saw those eyes again, nodded dumbly.
‘Come on then,’ Schofield said as he pulled her through the water.
Sarah Hensleigh reached the edge of the pool and clambered up onto the deck as fast as she could. She turned back and saw Conlon and Abby splashing through the water toward her.
‘Hurry up!’ Sarah yelled. ‘Hurry up!’
Abby got there first. Sarah grabbed her hand and yanked her up onto the deck.
Conlon was still two yards away, swimming hard.
‘Come on, Warren!’
Conlon swam for all he was worth.
One yard away.
He looked up desperately at Sarah, and she dropped to her knees at the edge of the deck.
He got there. Slammed into the metal rim of the deck like a Olympic swimmer hitting the wall at the end of a race. He reached up, grabbed Sarah’s outstretched hand. Sarah was just beginning to haul Conlon up onto the deck when suddenly the water behind him parted and one of the killer whales burst up out of it. The big whale opened its mouth wide and enveloped Conlon’s body from foot to chest.
Conlon went bug-eyed as the killer clamped down hard on his chest and Sarah tried desperately to hold onto his hand, but the killer was too strong. When it