Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [52]
Dave waved at her with a big smile. “Enjoy yourself!” he shouted.
Sheila aimed the gun in his direction, but no one aboard even moved. There was too much distance between them and the dinghy. The bullets would never reach their target.
“She just going to sit there?” Dave glanced up at the sky. “The sun’s going to be setting soon.”
Annja looked at the sky. Dave was right. The bright blue from earlier had given way to a darker sky stained with reds and oranges as the sun trekked westward on its daily route.
“I wouldn’t want to be out there alone at night,” Annja said. “That would just get a bit too freaky for me.”
Jax nodded. “I’d start thinking of all those scenes in Jaws. I wouldn’t be able to help myself. And then I’d really get scared.”
Dave sniffed. “You know, it’s not that bad. Sometimes the ocean at night can be quite peaceful. I remember being out one time in the South Pacific. A bunch of us in a Zodiac and it was kind of nice, actually.”
“You weren’t floating in waters where a forty-foot man-eating shark had been prowling recently.”
“This is very true,” Dave said. “And we also had a pretty impressive arsenal with us. There’s nothing like overwhelming firepower to make things better.”
“I don’t think her 9 mm counts as overwhelming,” Annja said.
Dave chuckled. “Not by a long shot.”
Annja looked over her shoulder at Hunter and Cole. They had gotten Steve up and were giving him some water. “Is he okay?”
Hunter nodded. “Seems to be. A little shaken up, but I suppose that’s to be expected.”
Cole looked at Annja. “Good thing you pegged Sheila the way you did. That could have been ugly.”
“Sheila lied to me,” Annja said. “She had me convinced she was a good guy. It’s Jax you ought to be thanking.”
Jax waved her hand. “Forget about it. Just doing my part to keep the safety of the ship intact. Besides, I didn’t like her, anyway.”
Hunter grinned. “You’ll get a bonus if this all works out.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” Jax said. “And don’t use ‘if,’ say ‘when’ instead. Makes me feel more confident.”
“Holy crap,” Dave said suddenly. “She’s actually going to swim for it.”
Annja spun. They could see Sheila standing in the dinghy. She seemed to be searching the water for something. She leaned over the edge.
“Careful,” Dave said.
The stalled dinghy bobbed in the waves. Sheila fell over and into the water, kicking the dinghy as she did so. The little boat skidded away from her. Sheila came up spouting water and coughing.
Dave sighed. “Well, this shouldn’t last too long. She doesn’t look very comfortable in the water.”
“It’s probably pretty cold out there, too,” Jax said.
“It is,” Cole said, coming up next to them. “And I had a wet suit on at the time. She’s in trouble if she stays in there long. She’ll go hypothermic and that will be the end.”
“I wonder if the shark likes Popsicles,” Dave said.
“Oh, my God,” Jax said. “Look!”
Annja looked where she was pointing, perhaps five hundred yards off the port side. The telltale silhouette of a triangular dorsal fin had risen out of the water.
The shark had returned.
“My God, that’s a big fish,” Dave said.
Jax leaned on the railing. “She’ll never make it.”
Annja watched as Sheila started swimming in the general direction of the mainland. But they were a good couple of miles from the coast. And even if Sheila had been an Olympian, she’d never make it in time.
Not when such a huge shark was on her tail.
Cole seemed restless. “I’m not sure if I can watch this. I feel like I ought to be doing something to save her.”
“I don’t know that she’s seen it yet,” Dave said. “She’s seems pretty calm right now.”
But then Sheila turned in the water and noticed the giant dorsal fin closing to within a few hundred yards from where she splashed through the water. She looked at the Seeker and shouted for them to help her.
“Even if we wanted to,” Jax said. “There’s nothing we can do. We’ll never reach her in time.”
“And should she be saved?” Dave said. “She almost killed Steve.”
“And you,” Annja said.