Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [31]
The head dropped back into the water with a splash.
Annja screamed.
Cole had turned toward the commotion and, even at distance, Annja could see his frantic movement as he registered the massive fish in the water. The dorsal fin broke the surface and stood fully three feet out of the waves.
“Hunter!” Annja shouted.
She heard him racing down the stairs. More crew members joined them on deck. Annja pointed. “Look at it!”
“Jesus Christ,” Hunter said. “That’s huge.”
“Understatement,” Annja said. “How big is your boat?”
“Just over a hundred feet.”
“How big would you say that fish is?”
“Maybe forty feet long?”
Annja nodded. “It’s heading for Cole.”
She watched as the dorsal fin sliced through the water. She could see Cole shifting in the water to brace for the impact.
When it came, Annja thought the shark had lifted the cage almost completely out of the water. But it crashed back down into the surf. Cole’s body seemed to bounce off one side of the cage.
“Haul him in!” Hunter started working on the ropes, undoing the knots that held the cage in place.
Annja and two other crew members helped him. Hunter was sweating furiously. “Jax!” he bellowed.
“Yo!”
“Get us closer to the cage! We’ve got to help Cole.”
“Roger that.”
Annja heard the engines kick into reverse and saw the churn of ocean water kicking up white as the Seeker reversed course. Hunter had his knots undone and started hauling the cage toward them.
“Where’d it go?”
Annja frowned. The dorsal fin had vanished. “I don’t know. But we’ve got to get Cole back here. If he was knocked out by that ramming, he might drown.”
They yanked on the ropes and slowly the cage started coming toward them. “That’s it,” Hunter said. “Reel him in.”
Annja’s stomach cramped and she leaned back, yanking the ropes hard.
There was a sudden spray of water as the shark’s head broke the surface again and its teeth sliced through the ropes.
“Shit!” Hunter ran for a gaff and leaned out, trying to hook the edge of Cole’s cage, which floated just out of range.
“I need more room!”
Annja yanked him back as the shark raced through the expanse where Hunter’s body had been a second before. “Get down!”
They toppled back onto the deck. Hunter disentangled himself from Annja’s grasp. “Jax! I need us back by that cage now!”
The engines kicked up faster and they were closing in on the cage. Hunter got the winch hook ready and handed it to Annja. “As soon as it comes in range, hook it and I’ll get him out of there.”
Annja nodded. “Got it.”
She watched as the cage drifted closer. She could see the dorsal fin still cutting through the surf farther away from the ship. The crew was watching in awe as they saw the fish circling.
Annja couldn’t think about it. She heard Hunter cranking the winch to life. “Get ready, Annja!”
“It’s coming back again!” she shouted.
Annja risked a look and saw the dorsal fin turning back toward the boat. It was on a direct path to intercept Cole’s cage again.
“Hunter!”
“Almost there!”
She saw the cage coming closer. She just needed a little more space. She leaned out, aware that she’d just screamed at Hunter for doing the same thing.
But she couldn’t risk Cole taking another hit like he’d sustained earlier. She didn’t think the cage would handle it.
She could see Cole drifting in the water but he seemed unresponsive. He must have been knocked out against the bars when the shark hit the first time.
“Look!” someone said.
Annja saw the fin dipping below the surface. “It’s going deep,” she heard herself say. And she felt certain this attack would come from the bottom, lifting the cage clear as it hit.
The cage came closer slowly and then Annja realized that she was leaning way out toward it. “Almost there…”
She snapped the hook into place and jerked herself back. “Now, Hunter! Now!”
She heard the hiss of the hydraulics pulling the cage free of the water. Cole slumped as the water receded and then lay down near the bottom of the cage, hoisted