One of those many variables.
With her gloved fingers, she reached for it — just as a shadow loomed over her.
Following Ben’s warning from earlier in the day, she grabbed the weapon by its tail. She whipped around as the mercenary plunged his dagger toward her back. She easily avoided the strike, taking advantage of the man’s overconfidence.
She swung and struck the stonefish into the man’s neck. Spines pierced his flesh. Venom pumped. The effect was instantaneous. His body stiffened. He dropped his dagger and pawed at his neck, knocking the impaled fish away — but the damage was done.
His body thrashed in the water. The pain so maddened him that he ripped off his mask and regulator. Fingernails clawed at his face. Then his limbs slackened, falling away leadenly. He hung in the water. His blind eyes stared back at her. She didn’t know if the pain had killed him, or the poison, or if he’d simply drowned.
She knew only one certainty, picturing the ravaged body of Kelly’s father.
Good riddance.
Gray scrambled along the rope as it wound a serpentine course through the old rockslide. He hauled with arms and kicked off purchases with his feet. His shoulders remained hunched by his ears. At any moment, he expected the charges hidden along the passageway to explode, to send the pile crashing down atop him.
His only hope was that Hoffmeister would wait until he was well clear of the coastal cliffs before he risked using his transmitter. The oceanographer must know the blasts could cast off massive boulders that would pound into the water around him.
But would the panicked bastard be that cautious?
Gray grabbed the rope with both hands and yanked his body around another turn in the tunnel. As he continued, the line suddenly went slack. The next pull only drew the rope toward him.
Gray cursed, knowing what this meant.
Hoffmeister had cut the safety line.
Gray took care not to pull on the rope. He needed its draped length to lead him out of here. Still, the stirred-up silt made it hard to see the line. He had to proceed with greater care — which slowed him down considerably.
I’ll never make it now.
But then, impossibly, a light appeared out of the murk ahead.
Daylight.
He hurried again, rushing the last of the distance. As he burst out of the tunnel, he found Hoffmeister only ten yards away. He was crouched low to the seabed.
Gray was shocked to find the man so near. He quickly hauled the spear gun from his shoulder.
Hoffmeister had nowhere to flee.
Gray was wrong.
From the seabed, a yellow torpedo shot upward, jetting away from the oceanographer.
It was the ANFOG glider.
Suddenly, Hoffmeister was torn off his feet. His body flew after the glider, dragged in its wake. The man had clipped and tethered himself to the glider by a length of cable. He plainly intended to escape using his own tool, likely manually setting the glider’s motor to maximum power a moment ago.
Gray fired after his retreating form, but his shot didn’t come close.
He even tried to swim after the bastard but quickly recognized the futility. In less than a minute, Hoffmeister would be far enough out into open water to use his detonator.
It’s over.
But as Gray watched, the yellow torpedo suddenly made a sharp left turn, banking quickly. It rolled Hoffmeister like a ragdoll through the water.
Confused, Gray swam out farther to follow its trajectory.
The glider aimed for the wreck of the catamaran — and the frenzy of bull sharks drawn by the blood of Hoffmeister’s murdered colleague. The oceanographer must have sensed the threat, even more so when the glider began to slow as it neared the wreckage.
Hoffmeister frantically tried to unclip his line from the glider before it dragged him into the sharks. As the torpedo decelerated, the oceanographer finally broke free and fought his way from the danger.
But sharks were not the only predators hunting these waters.
From the wreck below, a dark shape shot upward, jaws impossibly wide. Yellow teeth clamped on Hoffmeister’s left arm and shoulder. A thick armored tail whipped in a circle, sending the crocodile’s half-ton mass into a wrenching spiral.
Hoffmeister’s body went flying away — minus his entire left arm.
Still, the man lived. With blood pouring from his shoulder, he kicked and pawed with his one arm. Then a bull shark swept down, snatched him up, and with a whisk of its powerful tail, vanished into the sea.
Aghast, Gray retreated toward the sea tunnel. He glanced to the passageway. He suddenly suspected the source for the glider’s deadly turn.
Hoffmeister wasn’t the only one who knew how to operate the glider.
So did a certain lowly graduate student.
Poor girl…
Seichan watched Kelly drop the glider’s control unit to the sand. Gray had left the device here before diving into the waters after Hoffmeister. It was Ben who had suggested the girl use her past experience with the underwater drones to monitor the seas beyond the cave.
Little did the Aussie know how fortuitous such a suggestion would prove to be.
Kelly remained on her knees. Ben was beside her. He hooked an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest.
“Nicely done, Kelly… nicely done.”
The only response from the girl was the shaking of her thin shoulders as she sobbed silently into Ben’s chest. Though Kelly had exacted her revenge, it would not bring back her father.
Seichan stepped toward the water, leaving the girl to her mourning, knowing there were no words to ease that pain.
Instead, she stared up at the glowing stars, trying to find meaning. Long ago, greed had led a mutinous crew to a tragic end here in this cavern. And centuries later, it was greed again that led to more bloodshed and death.
Were some places simply cursed?
She remembered Captain Cook’s name for this corner of the world.
Cape Tribulation.
She shook her head.
Maybe this place wasn’t cursed, but it had certainly lived up to that name.
A low groan drew Gray’s attention to the left. He lifted his face from the padded doughnut of the massage table and stared over at the source of the complaint.
Seichan lay on the neighboring table. She was naked, covered only by a modesty towel over her buttocks and a row of steaming stones along her spine. He stared at the line of Steri-Strips closing the shallow laceration down her upper thigh.
“You okay?”
“More than okay,” she said with contented sigh. “Like I said earlier, this is more than enough of an adventure for me.”
He grinned and settled back to his table.
A heated stone was gently placed on the center of his lower back.
It was his turn to groan.
He allowed himself to drift in the pleasure of the attention. Earlier, Ben had facilitated their escape from Cape Tribulation, keeping them out of the ensuing limelight. Ben had also promised to protect Kelly in the weeks ahead, determined that the recognition for the discovery of the Trident go to her and her father — along with the gold.
In turn, Kelly intended that the treasure be used to finance her father’s passion.
Protecting the reefs.
It would be the perfect way to honor the man’s sacrifice.
Seichan made another noise — this time more thoughtful.
He glanced over again. “What now?”
She rested her cheek on the table, staring back at him. “I was just thinking about where we should go next.”