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“Copy. I’ll run interference. When I get close, start heading this way and go immediately up the stairs. Nik, get ready to block off the passage at the top.”
“Copy,” Nik replied as he whipped around and disappeared back up the staircase.
I swam to Tom’s body and clasped the back of his neck, bringing what was left of him to my chest like a shield. I kept eyes on the shark as she looped to head back toward the galley, and motioned for Zee to make a swim for it.
The shark was good-sized, maybe as much as nine feet, probably five hundred pounds or so. Her movements had been slow, lazy. Despite the dead look in her round eyes, she’d alerted to the scent of Zee’s blood and the thrash of her movements. Her massive body curled, her tail flicked to change speed. I had to prevent her from intersecting with Zee’s escape.
Using Tom’s torso as a blocker, I rammed her blunt, snubbed snout to knock her off Zee’s path. The shark’s jaws flashed wide. Jagged rows of serrated teeth glinted under my headlamp as they sank into Tom’s dead flesh. Pushing off, I power kicked to the stairwell, hot on Zee’s fins as she coiled up to the third deck.
Nik was already moving large debris to block the shark should she try to pursue us. I helped him finish the job as Zee popped out of the bridge windows. Once we were in the open water above the bow, we slowed our pace and visually checked one another over to ensure we were in fact intact.
“Shit, that was crazy. Everyone okay?” Nik said over the comms. “Was that a—”
“Bull shark! Yes!” Zee jammed her finger to her lips, her eyes begging him not to verbally mention Tom. “One of the biggest I’ve seen.”
Behind his diving mask, Nik’s green eyes went dark as it dawned on him that the pirates we’d been so worried about had already come over the horizon. They’d been aboard our ship the whole time.
