Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [47]
Sarah and Abby were long out of the water and were now hurrying into the tunnels of E-deck. Not far from them were Rebound and Mother. Rebound was kneeling over Mother. He appeared to be applying pressure to a wound of some kind on Mother’s leg.
On the other side of the pool, Schofield saw the two surviving French commandos, also safely out of the water. Soaking wet, they were just getting to their feet on the deck. One of them saw Schofield and began to reach for his crossbow.
Just then, a sudden movement caught Schofield’s eye and he turned and saw a familiar black shadow whipping down the length of the pool.
Wendy.
Three larger black-and-white shapes raced through the water behind her. The killers in pursuit.
Wendy was travelling at tremendous speed, just below the surface. Her flippers would occasionally sweep backwards with a powerful stroke and then fall in by her sides so that her body remained as streamlined as possible. She looked like a bullet shooting through the pool, alternately appearing and disappearing in the murky red clouds that stained the icy water.
She was heading for the deck, for that part of the deck on which the two French commandos stood. And she wasn’t slowing down.
In fact, it looked to Schofield like she was picking up speed as she sped toward the deck with the three black-and-white spectres racing through the water behind her.
Schofield then watched in amazement as, within a metre of the deck, Wendy suddenly launched herself out of the water. It was a flat, graceful leap, and she landed smoothly on her belly on the deck and slid forward a full three metres. She slid right past the two bewildered Frenchmen standing next to her.
But she didn’t stop there. No sooner had she stopped sliding than she was up on her fore-flippers and galloping as fast as she could, away from the water’s edge.
For a fleeting instant, Schofield wondered why she would do that. Surely once you were out of the water, you were safe from the killers.
And then Schofield discovered why Wendy did what she did.
Like a demon rising from the depths, one of the pursuing killer whales roared out of the water and hurled its massive body up onto the deck, landing on the thick metal grating with an enormous crash. The huge whale slid fast across the deck, carried forward by the weight of its own inertia. It rolled smoothly onto its side as it moved, so that its jaws opened vertically, and then, with almost effortless grace, it caught one of the Frenchmen in its mouth and bit down hard.
The big animal’s sliding movement stopped and it ground to a halt, with the French soldier – screaming madly, blood pouring from his mouth – held tightly within its jaws. The whale then began to shuffle its enormous frame awkwardly backwards along the deck. After a few moments, it reached the edge and fell back into the water, taking the screaming Frenchman down with it.
Wendy had known. You weren’t truly safe from the killers until you were well clear of the water’s edge.
The six people remaining on the deck understood at once.
Get away from the edge.
Schofield saw Gant join Rebound on the other side of the pool. Saw them both hurriedly pick up Mother by the shoulders and start to drag her away from the edge. As they did so, Schofield caught a fleeting glimpse of Mother’s lower body. The bottom half of one of her legs was missing.
At that moment there came a sudden, resounding whump! from behind Schofield and he felt the deck beneath him shudder violently. He spun instantly, faced the pool, and saw the smiling face of one of the killer whales sliding across the deck toward him!
The whale slid across the deck fast.
Schofield was still on his knees.
The whale rolled onto its side, opened its mouth wide.
Schofield dived away from the massive creature, saw the battered ejection seat lying on the deck four feet behind him. If he could just get to it, and leap over it, he’d be safe. Schofield scrambled across the deck on his hands and knees, toward the big ejection seat.
The whale