Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [45]
Despite the chaos all around him, Shane Schofield kept his eyes locked on the retractable bridge three storeys above him. He took in the distance.
Thirty feet. Maybe thirty-five.
He wasted no time, raised his Maghook, flicked a switch marked ‘M’ with his thumb – and saw a red light on the head of the grappling hook activate – aimed and fired.
The grappling hook shot up into the air. However, this time, the claws of the hook didn’t spring outward. This time it was set on magnet.
The bulbous magnetic head of the Maghook thunked into the underside of the retractable steel bridge, and stuck there.
Schofield did some quick calculations in his head. ‘Shit,’ was all he said when he finished.
Then he handed the launcher to Kirsty and said, ‘Three words, honey: don’t let go.’
She took the launcher in both hands and looked at Schofield, puzzled.
Schofield smiled at her reassuringly. ‘Just hold on.’
Then he pressed down firmly on a small black button on the grip of the Maghook.
Suddenly, Kirsty flew up out of the water as the Maghook reeled her upwards like some bizarre kind of fishing rod.
She was light, so the Maghook had little difficulty whisking her up to the bridge. Schofield knew it would have been considerably slower if his weight were also being –
A killer whale shot up out of the water after Kirsty.
Schofield’s jaw dropped as he saw the massive whale lift its entire body out of the water in a magnificent vertical leap.
Kirsty was still moving rapidly upward, pulled up by the Maghook. She looked down and saw the whale emerge from the water beneath her like the Devil coming out of Hell itself. Saw it come roaring up toward her, its body rotating as it rose into the air.
And then all of a sudden Kirsty came to a jarring halt.
The whale kept coming upward.
Kirsty squealed in surprise, looked up, and saw that she had hit the underside of the bridge.
She couldn’t go any further up!
The whale opened its jaws wide as it reached the zenith of its leap . . .
Kirsty gripped the Maghook as hard as she could and quickly brought her legs up tightly against her chest just as the killer’s teeth jammed shut with a loud crunch, coming together barely a foot below her butt, the lowest part of her body.
Kirsty watched as the huge black-and-white whale fell away beneath her, diminishing in size until it disappeared back into the pool below. The animal must have been at least thirty feet long, and it had lifted its entire body vertically out of the wat –
Suddenly a hand appeared in front of Kirsty’s face and she almost had a heart attack, almost let go of the Maghook.
‘It’s okay,’ a voice said. ‘It’s me.’
Kirsty looked up and found herself looking into the friendly eyes of the Marine she knew as Mr Book. She took his hand and he hauled her up onto the retractable bridge.
She was breathing heavily, almost crying. Buck Riley held her, looked at her in amazement. After a second, Kirsty reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic puffer for her asthma.
She drew in two long puffs, and caught her breath. When, finally, she was able to speak she looked at Riley, shook her head, and said, ‘They definitely don’t have that at Sea World.’
Schofield was still down in the pool. Two of the killer whales circled him ominously. Schofield noticed that these two appeared to be smaller than the other killers. Juveniles, maybe.
Schofield tilted his head upward, and yelled, ‘Book! I need my Maghook!’
Up on the bridge, Riley immediately dropped to his belly and leaned out over the edge of the narrow metal platform. He reached out underneath the platform and tried to deactivate the magnet on Schofield’s grappling hook.
‘I need it now, Book!’ Schofield’s voice sailed up through the shaft of the ice station.
‘I’m trying!