The Shark Rider (30 page)

The sub moved slowly into the tunnel. It was led by three bull sharks, two octopuses, a moray eel, and a couple of sea turtles. Four teens followed. Mia waved as they left.

Marsh and his driver entered the cavern cautiously. The rain of sleep darts had ended. Mia and the reef squid waited silently just below the surface. The cart stopped and the two men jumped out. They ran to the dock and leaned out over the water to shoot at the escaping teens. She signaled the squid. One by one the well-armed creatures swam up to the surface and shot a cloud of ink into the men's faces.

25

A CRAZY PLAN

C
OACH
F
RED AND
M
EG HAD TO LEARN HOW TO
operate the sub on the fly. It was slow-going and more than once they banged into the tunnel walls. The rest of the team stayed close, hoping the damage wasn't catastrophic.

The group paused at the tunnel exit and stared out into the night. Storm winds drove the rain horizontally and spray flew off the white-capped waves. It was either the worst squall yet or the edge of the hurricane. As the submersible moved slowly away, it began to pitch. Coach Fred and Meg were tossed about as if inside a tin can rolling back and forth. They angled the sub down and dove toward the seafloor. The teens watched it go and then stared nervously into the dark, storm-whipped seas.

Mia suddenly popped up beside the others. “Inked 'em good. Should buy us some time.”

“It looks rotten out there,” Rosina groaned, backing away from the cavern exit.

“Stay underwater as much as possible,” Tristan said encouragingly. “We can do this, especially with our friendly shark-mobiles. Just grab a fin and jump on. It's the best.” After he said it, Tristan turned to Hugh. Tristan couldn't wait to get back on the shark, but then he remembered how Hugh felt about sharks. He might have a heart attack at just the thought of riding one—a big shark with lots of teeth.

“I'll take crap weather and a shark ride over that psycho Marsh guy any day,” Hugh announced.

The others turned to him in shock, a look of complete disbelief on their faces.

Tristan grinned. “What kind of Kool-Aid have
you
been drinking?” He was stunned. Hugh's new adventurous spirit couldn't have come at a better time.

“C'mon. We should stay with the sub,” Sam urged.

“I'll tell the sharks to follow it,” Tristan added.

“Okay then, let's do this,” Hugh said.

“Hey, wait,” Mia said. “Anyone seen Hammer yet?”

They shook their heads and then dove into the stormy sea. Tristan ended up riding beside the sub on one shark. Sam and Hugh followed, riding together atop another. Mia hopped on the third shark and tried to help Rosina climb aboard. But Rosina was so nervous she swung onto the shark's back and then immediately slid off the other side. Tristan jumped briefly off his ride
to help Rosina get more firmly situated aboard her and Mia's shark-mobile.

They stayed close to the small submersible. Its lights made it easy to follow and gave the campers some comfort—at least for the moment.

Once Marsh finished spitting out squid ink and wiping it from his eyes, he radioed for a speedboat. He also called the yacht's captain telling him to depart and that he'd catch up after he took care of a few last-minute annoyances.

“I'll just have to take care of this myself. After all, one cooperative study subject is all we really need.”

When they were in the deeper water between Scar and Eustatia Islands, the submersible descended. The sharks and teens swam above it. Fortunately, the red pills seemed to have a useful side effect—they could somehow stay underwater longer than before. Still, every once in awhile they had to go up for air. But the surface was not a place anyone wanted to be. The waves and blasting wind made it like being inside a washing machine on the dark wash spin cycle. Getting a gulp of air meant sucking in seawater at the same time.

Tristan wished they could go faster, but the sub's top speed seemed to be at the pace of a slow walk. He was anxious and getting fidgety, wanting to speed ahead. Out of the corner of his eye, Tristan saw a brief flash. It was a reflection of the sub's light off something up ahead. He suggested to his shark transport they go check it out.

They approached warily. Tristan felt the shark tremble slightly and hesitate. He stroked it comfortingly and urged the shark on. They were literally on top of the thing before Tristan realized what it was—the other submersible. It was lying on the seafloor on its side and the acrylic bubble at the front was cracked and filled with seawater. The two men who had been inside were nowhere to be seen. On the sand in front of the sub was the metal barrel it had been carrying. Thankfully it was still sealed and didn't appear to be leaking. Seeing what was sitting on top of the submersible made Tristan smile so wide he nearly swallowed a bunch of seawater. Hammer was perched proudly atop the sub like a conquering and smashing hero. The attack shrimp jumped to the shark's snout and then crawled onto Tristan's leg. Tristan stopped smiling and prayed the mantis shrimp wouldn't decide to demonstrate the power of his punch. They went to rejoin the others.

As the team rounded Eustatia Island, the water began to get shallow. Tristan got off the shark and swam to the surface. He stared back toward Scar Island, but it was too dark and too rough to see much of
anything. Then Tristan heard a distant, but familiar sound. The others let go of their rides and popped up nearby.

“Boat,” Sam shouted over the wind, swiveling around.

The waves tossed the teens and the wind battered their heads, but they stayed at the surface, treading water, searching for the boat. They could hear it, but couldn't tell where it was or which direction it was headed. Tristan actually wished Ryder was there and could jump up to see better. He rose up higher and spun around, scanning the area. He thought he saw a glimmer of light—in the direction they came from. Then he heard another sound. It was the grinding screech of metal against sand and rock.

Tristan looked around and then down. “Oh no.”

A little way ahead and not far below was the sub. To its right was a coral reef that rose steeply to the surface. Beside the reef was the sub—stuck in the sand with its top nearly poking out of the water. Tristan figured they must have seen the reef too late and turned into the sand while trying to avoid it. The campers tried to push the sub out. Coach Fred gunned its propellers. The small submersible was hard aground. And its lights were filtering up through and reflecting off the surrounding white sand making it resemble nothing less than a lit-up otherworldly spaceship.

Tristan went back to the surface. The noise of a boat engine was now distinctly louder. He turned toward the sound and could make out a light and a white dot—the hull of a boat speeding toward them.
He turned to warn the others and nearly ran face first into a dolphin. It bypassed Tristan and headed straight to Sam. Another dolphin appeared and the two of them began pushing Sam with their beaks. Moments later, Tristan felt something brush his leg. He turned—the manta ray.

“Speedboat heading this way,” Sam shouted. “Not a friendly one.”

With the sub all lit up, Tristan figured the people on the boat were homing in on it like a beacon. He immediately dove down and tried to tell Coach to turn off the lights. But from inside the sub's acrylic sphere, the man couldn't hear him or understand the crazy hand gestures Tristan was making. He went back to the surface. The boat was still pretty far away, but it was definitely headed their way, aiming directly for the sub at ramming speed.

The teens looked at each other and then to Tristan. He knew they had to do something and do it fast. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.
C'mon, think
, Tristan said to himself—if only they had a rocket-launcher or a grenade-dropping frigatebird. The boat was getting closer. He could make out two people aboard and one held a powerful spotlight. They needed a distraction while they tried to free the sub, but what? Then he thought of something, but it was truly crazy, probably the worst plan he'd ever thought up.

Tristan explained his idea to the others; they all agreed it was ridiculous. Then again, it was the only thing anyone had come up with. The other teens made
a few suggestions to add to the absurdity of the idea. Tristan then talked to the sharks and manta while Sam communicated with the dolphins. Hugh and Mia took care of the rest of the team.

Hugh and the two octopuses dove to the sub. They began pulling armfuls of sand out from under its front end. Mia and the sea turtles went to the back. She directed each turtle to wiggle its way under the sub. Hunching up on their flippers, they began to slowly lift the sub up like undersea car jacks.

Meanwhile, Tristan and the others swam toward the racing speedboat. When they were as close as they dared, the dolphins dove. With a pump of their tails, they rose up under Sam and launched her into the air. She rocketed skyward, waving like a madwoman and yelling at the people on the boat to get their attention. But they had miscalculated. In the dark rolling seas and whistling wind, she was still too far away for them to see or hear her. Marsh and his driver hadn't changed direction in the slightest. They remained on a collision course with the sub. Tristan shook his head—even the first part of their crazy plan was a failure. He didn't know what else to do. In minutes, Coach Fred and Meg would be toast, crushed inside the sub.

Suddenly, something else jumped out of the water—literally leaping right in front of the speeding boat. It was large, had slightly webbed feet, and blonde surfer-dude hair. Tristan couldn't believe it. Sam and Rosina appeared equally shocked.

The boat swerved sharply and then slowed. Hugo
Marsh aimed the bright spotlight out over the water in search of the jumper. Staying out of the beam, Tristan nodded to Rosina. She looked scared, but determined and ready for the next part of their hare-brained scheme. The manta ray swam beneath her and she grabbed onto its wing-like fins. As the manta shot out of the water next to the boat, from its back Rosina flung a giant glob of mucus into the driver's eyes, shouting, “Take that!”

On the other side of the boat, a dolphin flung something else up and in. It resembled an overgrown thick green arrow and landed with a heavy thud on the deck. The moray eel slithered to the driver's ankle and clamped on with its super sharp teeth.

The driver was now slime-blinded with an eel clamped onto his leg. He dove from the controls and the boat swerved wildly. Marsh grabbed the wheel and cut the engines. The driver wrestled with the eel on the deck. But the moray's body was coated with slippery, slimy mucus, making it nearly impossible to hold on to. The boat came to a standstill and pitched violently in the stormy seas.

The next part of the teens' plan kicked in. A bull shark swam up to the boat and its club-armed hitchhiker whacked the hull several times in rapid succession. A spider-web of cracks developed at the stern near the boat's heavy twin engines. Water began trickling in. Hammer whacked it again.

Marsh found a tranquilizer gun and began shooting wildly. He shot the moray eel and then aimed into
the water at anything that moved. Tristan felt a dart whoosh by his head. One struck a shark and another just missed hitting Sam. Marsh then tried to restart the boat's engines. They roared to life, but Rosina had also filled the cooling water intakes with mucus. The engines began to smoke, sputter, and then, were silent. The stern began to sink. As water filled the boat, Marsh spun around in a panic trying to keep his balance. He was definitely not calm or relaxed.