Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [46]
‘Try faster!’
Riley stretched his arm out under the platform, tried to reach the switch marked ‘M’ on the grip that activated and deactivated the Maghook’s powerful magnet.
As he did so, however, a strange thing happened.
For a brief second, Riley could have sworn that he heard Kirsty speaking to someone on the bridge above him.
‘Help the diver, Wendy. Help the diver.’
Riley blinked to himself. Must be hearing things.
Down in the pool, Schofield thought it was all over. The two killers on either side of him were closing in as they circled, shutting off any possible escape route.
Suddenly one of them seemed to break out of its circle and swing around. Schofield swallowed. It was coming round for the kill.
The killer turned in a slow, wide arc until it was pointing right at Schofield. Its body was only a foot or so beneath the surface, and its high dorsal fin sliced easily through the waves in the pool. It was moving at such powerful speed that it created a rolling bow wave in front of its submerged, black-and-white head.
The bow wave raced across the water, on a collision course with Shane Schofield.
Schofield looked around himself. There was nowhere to go this time, no weapon to use.
Out of sheer desperation he pulled out his Desert Eagle pistol, raised it above the water.
If it had to come to this, he thought, then it had to come to this.
The killer charged toward him.
And then suddenly, a black missile-like object plunged into the water right in front of Schofield’s face, right in between him and the killer whale.
Whatever it was, it was so sleek that it entered the water with barely even a splash, and once in, it zoomed away from him at phenomenal speed.
Both killers saw it instantly and immediately lost interest in Schofield. Even the one that had been charging at him only seconds before abruptly altered its path and raced off in pursuit of this new quarry.
Schofield was stunned. What had it been? It had looked almost like a . . . a seal of some sort.
And then, miraculously a Maghook dropped into the water right in front of Schofield.
Schofield grabbed it before it sank and immediately looked upward. Up on the bridge, he saw Book Riley lying on his belly, with one arm stretched out underneath the bridge.
Schofield looked at the Maghook and suddenly felt a new lease of life come over him.
Just then, a small, pointed black head popped up out of the water right in front of him and he fell backwards in surprise.
It was Wendy. Kirsty’s little Antarctic fur seal.
Her cute red collar glistened with wetness and her soft black eyes looked right into his. If it were possible, Schofield could have sworn that the little seal was smiling – having a ball of a time swimming around in the pool, evading the less agile killer whales.
Then he realised. Wendy must have been the object that had dived into the pool in between him and the charging killer whale.
Suddenly Wendy’s head snapped left.
She’d heard something, sensed something.
Then she gave what looked like a final, happy nod to Schofield before she ducked back under the water and sped off down the length of the pool.
She swam fast. Speeding just underneath the surface of the water like a tiny black torpedo. Cutting left, ducking right, and then disappearing suddenly as she dropped into a steep vertical dive. No sooner had she moved than three black dorsal fins appeared behind her and immediately gave chase, before they them-selves vanished beneath the surface in hot pursuit.
Schofield took the opportunity and swam for the nearest edge. He was three feet from the deck when a sudden surge of water rocked him and Schofield rolled in the water as the giant body of one of the killers swept past him at a frightening speed. Schofield immediately tensed for another fight but the whale just barrelled past him, in search of the elusive Wendy.
Schofield breathed again, swam forward, and grabbed hold of the deck. He climbed up out of the water, and saw the battered ejection seat lying crumpled on its side on the deck in front of him.