Into the Abyss (15 page)

Once these formerly weaker sharkkind grew into their bodies, they had learned something extra in the time the odds were against them. That also meant they were very hard to control.

Especially by me, Barkley thought. He took a deep breath.
“Well, I’ll let you in on a secret—
I
don’t want to be here, either! But we’re under orders, and they come straight from the top. So let’s make the best of it.”

Mari watched him from the ranks. In her eyes Barkley could see that his speech needed something else. But what? “Your lives depend on what I’m teaching here, and how well you learn it!” Snork was smiling and waving his bill in agreement. Barkley saw he wasn’t getting through to anyone else, though. “So get your snouts in that greenie and do it again!” The gathered sharks swam into the field, joking and tail slapping each other, not taking it seriously.

They don’t take
me
seriously, he realized once again.

Barkley saw Grinder shake his head in disgust and swim away from Silversun, who hovered outside the training area, watching. Barkley had chosen three of Silversun’s Vortex mariners to be in his special force, along with the two from Hammer Shiver. The rest were Riptide fins he already knew. But aside from Mari and Snork, they didn’t hold a high opinion of Barkley either. The Vortex Shiver sharkkind, though—a mako, a blue, and a bull shark—were the most receptive.

Of course they are, Barkley thought. They’re led by a small port jackson shark. They don’t judge me by my size because they don’t judge their leader by
his
size.

How did Silversun manage that trick?

“Mari, swim topside and yell out when you spot anyone! Last one found gets to leave early!” This did get a
whooping, enthusiastic reaction from the recruits. Mari waggled her long lobed thresher tail at him and nodded.

Barkley swam over to Silversun. The Vortex leader waggled his pectoral fins in a greeting. “Interesting lessons, subcommander.”

Barkley returned the greeting. “Yes, as you can see, I’m new at this. I need to get through to them, so, umm, this is kind of awkward, but can I ask—”

“I had to fight the biggest one,” Silversun said.

“What?”

“You swam over to find out how I came to lead my shiver,” the port jackson said. “It’s a good question for you to ask at this time. It shows understanding of your specific problem, and a keen mind to know where the answer might hover.”

“So, you’re really smart, then.” Barkley swished his tail back and forth.

“That remains to be seen,” Silversun told him with a smile. “Hopefully, smart enough to not end up with my head on Finnivus’s feeding platter.”

“Okay, back to what I wanted to ask. So you beat someone up?”

“Yes, I did,” Silversun said. “I’m not proud of it, but it had to be done. That shark is now first in my Line.”

“The huge hammerhead?” Silversun’s first was the biggest hammerhead anyone had ever seen! “That giant? You won a fight against
him
? Are you a Takiza-like, magical battler?” Barkley asked.

“Oh, no,” Silversun laughed, shaking his blocky head. “I’m
terrible
at fighting!”

“But, then—how?”

Silversun glided closer to Barkley. “He would have ripped me apart in any fair fight, but I knew I needed to lead the shiver. I
knew
I would be better at it than him. You see, being the leader was the only way to protect my family, friends, and everyone else in the shiver.”

“You cheated!”

Silversun waggled his tail sideways, meaning
not quite, but kind of
. “When the day came, I made sure that everything that could be in my favor
was
in my favor.” Barkley thought that over, and Silversun added, “If you want them to listen, you need to prove to them you’re worth listening to.

Barkley nodded thoughtfully. “Thanks, Silversun.”

Mari called out another shark that she saw in the greenie. Over half were spotted in the short time Barkley was gone. In the real world, that would mean they were now dead.

They just have to be better, Barkley decided, as he swam over to them.

“Okay, everyone form up!” he yelled, forgetting about using his gruff voice and saying it normally. “I have a new drill that I think you’ll enjoy. It’s called, ‘Beat up Barkley if you can!’”

Someone in the back said in a loud voice, “Now there’s a drill we can get behind!” and everyone laughed.

Mari’s eyes popped open. “Are you sure—”

“Yep! Today’s your lucky day!” Barkley exclaimed. All the tension in his spine disappeared with an almost audible
whoosh
. “And before we start, go ahead, tell me what you really feel about what I’m trying to teach you.” Barkley stopped right by the larger hammerhead, Sledge.

He became wary, as if Barkley were trying to trick him. He stiffened into attention hover with his eyes straight ahead and yelled, “Subcommander! I don’t know what you mean, sir!”

Barkley slid around the two Hammer Shiver sharks. “I’m not that kind of a flipper, to get you in trouble with Grinder. You have my absolute permission to tell me
exactly
what you think of my lessons. That is, if you’re brave enough to do that to my face.” Barkley swished his tail in a way that Gray told him was
really
annoying. “Well, are you?”

“You … want the truth?” asked Sledge.

“I do!” yelled Barkley in his face. “So out with it!”

“I hate this assignment!” the large hammerhead said, getting louder as he went on. “I was gonna be right in the thick of things when we faced Indi armada! I coulda been the one that sent that chowderhead to the Sparkle Blue! But instead, here I am, nosing around in the greenie like some kind of krill-faced muck-sucker!”

There was dead silence from everyone. Sledge looked embarrassed, afraid he’d gone too far.

But Barkley took it in stride. He swam before his
small company, feeling better than at any time since he was promoted. “Do the rest of you feel the same way?”

There was a weak, mumbled agreement. “Come on, you puffers! I asked: Do the rest of you feel the same way? Yes or no?”

This time there was a tidal wave of loud agreement. Barkley nodded, swimming in front of them. “I’m gonna let you rejoin your units.
If
you can beat me in the greenie. Any and every one of you that successfully tags me with a move that would send me to the Sparkle Blue gets out of this assignment—with my permission.”

There was excitement from the crew for the first time. There was even some respect in their eyes.

“But—and there’s always a but—whoever
I
tag stays with me until Tyro comes and says you’re done, with no more complaining. Do we have a deal?”

The sharks all snapped their tails and dipped their snouts, yelling, “Yes, sir!”

“Good!” Barkley told them as he swam toward the thick kelp bed. “Wait for two minutes, and then come after me. I will meet you in the greenie!”

It took only a minute for Barkley to totally disappear in the thick kelp of the Hydenseek. He felt serene as his unit came after him. He watched most everyone pass in their too fast and too wild search for him. A pair of Vortex Shiver sharks who had decided to work together swam within a tail length of him.

The third Vortex shark, and last of the recruits to come in the greenie, Barkley struck from below.

And so it went.

Barkley caught Peen as he came around a rock without checking first.

Sledge got a bump to the gills when he was lured into a thin gap by a brain coral formation.

The pair of Vortex sharks Barkley dealt with at the same time, both tail strikes.

He led two other recruits into the thickest greenie and thumped them in the flanks when they got turned around.

Snork he found lying in wait. The sawfish had picked an excellent spot but was given away when his gills puffed up too much sand.

And Mari—she was the toughest. She was already well-trained from the time they had spent together. But Mari was so busy looking for threats from below that she forgot to check topside. Big mistake.

Within two hours it was all over.

Barkley had stalked and ambushed each and every shark in his group. He earned their respect—and a nickname: Ghostfin.

After that, everyone listened. They kind of had to, after all ten of them were soundly beaten by a dogfish. Ha! And Barkley discovered he
had
picked the correct sharkkind all right. They were gifted, lightning quick learners. And since they were some of
the finest mariners in the armada
before
his training, in no time they could unleash complete destruction with the element of surprise that they now
always
had in their favor.

Soon, Barkley’s “students” could run ambushes against three and four times their own number of regular mariners. In a one-on-one battle inside the greenie, they were simply unbeatable. The other mariners in the Riptide United forces began referring to their special corps as
Barkley’s Ghostfins
, and the name stuck.

And when Finnivus finally arrived—now less than a week away—Barkley was determined that he and his ghostfins would help defeat the Black Wave armada.

“WHY DOES MY STOMACH HURT SO MUCH?”
whined Finnivus. He lolled sideways against the Speakers Rock atop the blue whale that carried him. The royal court rode behind the Indi armada, which led the way, its many mariners seeming to combine into a mega-predator. Drafting in the armada’s wake, the royal court had an easy time of it and didn’t even slow down for eating. The current was leading them inexorably to Velenka’s old home at Riptide. She couldn’t wait to see the death and destruction that the armada would inflict on Gray and his friends.

But
I
want to be the one who gives the order, she thought.

Finnivus groaned again. “Oh, I—
we
—hate this!”

“Perhaps you’d like a little something to settle your stomach, My Magnificence?” Velenka asked. Finnivus
got himself to a more regal posture. He always liked it when she called him
My Magnificence
.

Finnivus smiled, clicking his perfectly aligned, notched teeth dramatically. “Perhaps we should keep our strength up! Tydal!”

“Yes, Emperor!” Quicker than a sea snake, Tydal the First Court Shark was there. “What is your wish?” The finja had nothing on Tydal in terms of sneaking around invisibly. And he was stuck with an epaulette shark’s bright yellow and brown pattern all over his body! These were in addition to the two prominent black dots, one on each flank, which should have made him even more noticeable. But somehow, Tydal did abide.

“Have the royal seasoners prepare something.” Finnivus gave it some thought and then added, “Sunfish, I think. Yes, sunfish. Let’s make it hot and sweet, just like me.” Finnivus led the court in a group laugh, until it ended with a deep, rattling cough.

Velenka smiled to herself. The emperor looked so pale and frail. His skin had turned a grayish color, quite unlike its former robust sheen. She had recently fed the prisoners a large amount of the poisonous revulent greenie. Just one more good dose should be enough to carry Finnivus to the Sparkle Blue.

“Why not a prisoner, Emperor Finnivus?” she asked.

Finnivus turned. “What?”

“Shouldn’t we eat a prisoner to whet your appetite
for when you’ll devour Gray?” Velenka put an adoring fervor into her eyes when she asked this.

Finnivus considered and called out to his court. “See why I, umm,
we
, plucked this mako from the muck and transformed her into a member of my royal court!”

Velenka felt herself actually preening. Apparently, she had grown fond of receiving attention from this fool! The sooner he was dead, the better.

Tydal zipped off but returned in a matter of moments.

“Your Majesty! The prisoners are all dead!”

Finnivus was in a good mood, though. Instead of flying into a rage at the epaulette, he smirked. “That’s impossible!
We
did not order them that way!”

Tydal bobbed his head to the sandy seabed they were moving over. This was hard to do and maintain your distance from the royal blue whale, but the epaulette didn’t put a fin out of place. “Forgiveness, Emperor Finnivus, I misspoke.”

“Well, speak without doing that! You are beginning to
opud
.”

Velenka sighed. The emperor was still trying to make everyone use the stupid word he made up.

Tydal dipped his head again. “What I meant to say is that all of our prisoners have died, without being killed by your order, or any of our sharkkind doing it. In fact, there are no bite marks.” And then Tydal looked straight at Velenka. “It’s as if they were … poisoned.”

Velenka grew very still.

He
knows
.

The emperor roused himself, realization lighting up his eyes. His rage grew. “Tydal, are you saying the reason I am ill is because I—
we
—are poisoned?”

“I believe so, Your Majesty.”

“STOP! STOP EVERYTHING!” Finnivus bellowed. The floating court slowed and then halted, sinking to the uneven ocean floor. The armada mariners didn’t know what was going on, but the new mariner prime was no fool. He split his forces into battle fins and circled the court in a defensive screen.