Mega 3: When Giants Collide (Mega Series) Page 20

  “Maybe it will live,” Gunnar said. “The whale is supposed to be designed to kill this shark.”

  “I should be in that water,” Darren grumbled.

  “I should be piloting this ship,” Lake said from his stool, “but every time I try, someone beats the shit out of me, and every time you try to find your whale, someone dies. I say we read the signs for what they are and cut our losses, D-Man.”

  “D-Man?” Darren frowned. “How many fucking beers have you had, Marty?”

  “Not enough,” Lake said as he looked about for another beer, but they were all gone. “Or too many. Not sure.”

  “D, look at the sonar,” Gunnar said. “How can it move that fast? It’ll be here in minutes.”

  “Hey, Grendel, get your asses in place. That fucking shark must have a rocket up its ass because it’s covered half the distance to us just since we’ve been talking.”

  “Fuck,” Shane said.

  “Shit,” Lucy added.

  “You’re fucking shitting me?” Mike said.

  Thorne just growled.

  ***

  Thorne kicked his way to the massive underwater gate that protected the entrance to the lagoon. He swam hard and fast, knowing that if he wasn’t in place in time, then there was no point to any part of the plan. Herding a shark the size of the one coming for them at an unopened gate would just piss it off.

  Herding.

  Thorne shook his head as he thought about what they were going to attempt. How the fuck does a massive shark the likes of which the world has never seen, get herded where it doesn’t want to go?

  The elves assured him the pineapples would work, but he’d been in the business long enough to know that relying on tech was a sure way to get yourself killed.

  Yet, there was no choice. It wasn’t as if he could wave his arms and scream at the creature to get it to go into the lagoon.

  Thorne stopped swimming as he came to the gate controls. He opened the access hatch, using the codes that Carlos had given him, and just stared.

  “Hey,” he said, “all I see is a big, red button.”

  “That’s all you should see,” Carlos replied over the com.

  “A big, red fucking button?” Thorne snarled. “That’s the extent of the system to this gate? Push a big, red fucking button?”

  “What were you thinking would be in there?” Ingrid asked. “An intricate number puzzle only solvable by the first full moon in October?”

  “What the hell?” Carlos asked.

  “Oh, sorry, I’ve been watching old adventure movies,” Ingrid replied.

  “When have you had time to do that?” Carlos asked. “I’ve been busting my ass getting shielding together for the-”

  “Will you two shut up?” Thorne asked as he looked from the big, red button to the huge gate. “I need to know how fast this opens up and whether it opens inward or outward.”

  “Hold on,” Carlos replied.

  Thorne turned himself so he could see the other Team members. Shane had just set his last pineapple by the ship while Lucy, Darby, and Mike, were still setting theirs. He mentally calculated the spacing between and realized that unless the shark came from the specific direction they wanted it to, then there was no point to plan at all.

  “Carlos?” Thorne asked when he still hadn’t received an answer to his question.

  “Hold on, I said,” Carlos replied.

  “I don’t have time to fucking hold on!” Thorne roared. Normally, he would have regretted losing his temper so fast, but damn if he didn’t hate that guy. “Tell me how fast it opens and in which direction.”

  “It opens at fifty feet per second,” Carlos replied, his voice cold and impartial, “and it doesn’t go any direction except in.”

  “In? You mean inward?” Thorne asked. “Towards the lagoon?”

  “No, I mean it goes into the island,” Carlos said. “It slides into the land at the opposite end from you. No inward, no outward, just in.”

  “The island has a pocket door,” Shane laughed. “Damn, I hate pocket doors. That’s just lazy architecture.”

  “Pocket doors can be very space saving,” Ingrid chimed in. “Sometimes, you can’t fit a regular door in the space you need.”

  “No, sir, don’t like ‘em,” Shane replied, “don’t like ‘em at all.”

  “No one cares, Reynolds,” Darby said.

  “Everyone shut up about the pocket doors,” Thorne said, “focus. If we fuck this up, and my daughter dies, because you fucktards refuse to pay attention, then I swear I will kill you all. If you happen already to be dead, then I will have a fucking psychic hunt down your ghosts and then I’ll exorcise you from God’s memory. Are we fucking clear on this?”

  “Damn, Uncle Vinny,” Shane said, “we got it covered, so chill, and don’t say fucktards. You’re way too old to say fucktards. Leave that for the kids, okay?”

  “Shane?” Thorne growled.

  “Shutting the fuck up now, sir,” Shane replied.

  “Here it comes,” Darren said over the com. “Are the pineapples in place?”

  “They are,” Ingrid said.

  “I was asking the Team,” Darren responded.

  “Oh, sorry, I thought you were asking me since I can see them on my tablet,” Ingrid said.

  “Team?” Darren sighed. “All set?”

  “Set,” Mike said.

  “Set,” Lucy said.

  “Setarooni,” Shane said.

  “Set,” Darby sighed.

  “You people going to tell me when to hit the button?” Thorne asked. He turned his attention back to the big, red button. Then that attention was drawn to what was peering at him through the slats in the gate. “Holy ten kinds of fuck.”

  “Now, that I like,” Shane said. “You should totally say shit like that more. Holy ten kinds of fuck. That’s brilliant.”

  “Whale,” Thorne said.

  “Okay, you’ve lost me now,” Shane said. “Is that like a hipster term you heard somewhere? Because I’m just not feeling it. Whale? Nope, just doesn’t hold up.”

  “I am looking at the whale,” Thorne said, “or it’s looking at me. Considering the size of its eye, I think it wins.”

  Thorne continued to stare at the huge whale eye that watched him. Then the creature turned and swam back deeper into the lagoon. Thorne watched it go, its massive body undulating through the crystal blue water like it had no care in the world.

  Thorne felt horrible for a brief second knowing that the poor thing’s world was about to be torn apart. Probably literally.

  “Give me plenty of warning,” Thorne said as he placed his hand next to the big, red button.

  “We will, Commander,” Carlos said. “Get ready.”

  ***

  The sonar beeped several times then a loud claxon began to sound in the bridge. Darren and Gunnar stared at the shape of a shark on the screen as it came at the ship.

  “You know, if this doesn’t work we are going to be sunk in less than a minute, right?” Darren asked. “That is a two-hundred ton meat missile coming right at us.”

  “Meat missile,” Lake snickered. “Bet Gun would like that.”

  “You’re a dick when you get drunk,” Gunnar said to Lake.

  “Sorry,” Lake burped, “bad day and blah, blah, blah.”

  “This will work,” Ingrid said. “I just hope everything else does once we’re done with this stupid shark.”

  “Everything else?” Darren asked then looked at Gunnar. “What’s she talking about?”

  “I don’t know,” Gunnar said.

  “Dammit, Ingrid,” Carlos snapped, “one piece of the puzzle at a time! Don’t you ever listen to Ballantine?”

  “Sorry,” Ingrid said.

  “What the hell is she talking about?” Darren asked again.

  “Yes, what is she talking about?” Bokeem asked over the com.

  “Shit,” Darren said.

  “Shit,” Carlos said.

  “Sorry,” Ingrid said
again.

  ***

  “Tank? You hear that?” Bokeem asked.

  “Yeah,” Tank Top replied over the com, “switch to private.”

  Bokeem switched the channel on his com. “Read me?”

  “Loud and clear,” Tank Top said, “I’ll try to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”

  “You do that,” Bokeem said then looked over at Kinsey as she started to stir. “Little girl is waking up. Want me to have Lug send her back to dreamland?”

  “You think she can handle another smack to the head?” Tank Top asked.

  “Probably not, she doesn’t look so hot,” Bokeem said.

  “Why keep her around? We should just kill her and not deal with the hassle,” Lug asked.

  “We keep her because she has value to the trained killers out in the water and on that ship, and until we know that we’re in the clear, we don’t kill her,” Tank Top responded.

  “Okay,” Lug said, “just wondering.”

  “Don’t wonder,” Bokeem said, “it makes your fucking face look stupid when you do.”

  Lug’s features scrunched up.

  “Yeah, like that,” Bokeem said, “just stand there and watch her. If she fully comes to then we’ll-”

  Bokeem stopped and looked up at the ceiling high above them.

  “What?” Lug asked, following his gaze. “You hear something?”

  “Shhhh,” Bokeem warned. He kept studying the ceiling, and a large air vent in the middle, then reached out and gripped Boris’s shoulder.

  “Ow,” Boris said, “what did I do? Why are you hurting me?”

  “The ventilation system in this facility is supposed to be sealed and unbreachable,” Bokeem said, “even through the air vents themselves. They are laser protected, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah, right. It keeps the more nimble and flexible of my creatures from moving about in an unwanted fashion,” Boris said. “Can you let go of my shoulder? It’s hard to type when you’re pinching my nerve like that.”

  Bokeem let go of Boris’s shoulder. He kept his eyes locked onto the air vent far above. For a second he could have sworn he saw something looking back at him.

  “How big are those ventilation shafts?” Bokeem asked. “Can a person fit in them?”

  Boris stopped typing and looked up at Bokeem.

  “Oh, those shafts could hold something much larger than a person,” Boris said, “much, much larger.”

  Bokeem popped the magazine out of the M4 he held and checked to make sure it was full. “Tank?”

  “Hold on,” Tank Top said, “we’re here. I need to watch Ballantine’s ass closely.”

  “I don’t think we’re alone,” Bokeem said, “pretty sure we have company up in the ventila-”

  He didn’t finish as the air vent was kicked from the ceiling and came flying at him. He dove out of the way and barely got clear as the heavy vent slammed into the floor right where he had stood. Boris screeched and fell sideways out of his chair, the vent having just missed him by an inch.

  There was a roar from above and Bokeem looked up in time to see a mass of brown fur falling at him.

  “Holy fuck!” Bokeem shouted. “What the fuck is that?”

  ***

  “Here it is!” Ingrid yelled. “Move, move, move!”

  Mike, Lucy, Darby and Shane didn’t have to be told twice as they swam as fast as they could back to the B3. They wanted to be on the safe sides of the pineapples before Ingrid did her thing.

  Thorne, still by the big, red button, looked out at the open ocean and had to use all of his willpower not to gasp and swallow a fuck ton of seawater.

  The shark was bigger than he could imagine. Even with the glimpses he had had of it before, he was still shocked by what he saw racing straight at the B3. The creature defied imagination. Hundreds of tons of killing power all wrapped up inside a sharkskin suit.

  “Ingrid,” Thorne said, “now.”

  The shark swam at the ship, its tail whipping left and right, propelling it forward at a blinding speed.

  “Ingrid!” Thorne shouted. “Now!”

  There was no answer from the woman.

  “Darren? What’s happening?” Thorne asked.

  There was still no answer.

  “Fuck!” Thorne roared, as the shark was only about 100 yards from the B3. “FUCK!”

  He slammed his hand against the big, red button and the gate slid away.

  “Hey, whale!” Thorne yelled even though he knew the creature couldn’t hear him. “Time to get to work!”

  ***

  “What the fuck is going on?” Darren shouted as all instruments went dead on the bridge. “Did we just lose power?”

  “We just lost power!” Ingrid shouted as she ran onto the bridge. “Someone killed the engines! There must be another one of the mercenaries on board!”

  “Son of a bitch,” Darren growled as he pulled his 9mm from his hip. “Gun? You up for a fight?”

  “Who’ll watch things up here?” Gunnar asked as he looked over at the passed out form of Lake slumped against a control console.

  “I will,” Ingrid said, waving her tablet at them. “I can activate the pineapples from here as soon as you get the power back up.”

  “Good,” Darren said. “Come on, Gun.”

  He raced from the bridge with Gunnar right behind him. They sprinted through passageways, down stairs, through more passageways then came to a skidding halt.

  “Max? What the fuck are you doing?” Gunnar asked as Max came limping out of the infirmary with a crutch under one arm and his sniper rifle in the other. “You need to be resting or you’ll open those sutures and risk bleeding to death!”

  Max waved his rifle up at the emergency lights that glowed faintly in the passageway.

  “Lights went out,” he said, “and the backups don’t look so hot.”

  Darren and Gunnar both studied the emergency lights spaced throughout the passageway.

  “The engines are out and now the backup power is draining,” Darren said, “what the fuck is the going on?”

  “Let’s find out,” Max smiled.

  “No,” Gunnar said, “you go lie the fuck downnow. We’ll go check on it.” Max started to argue, but Gunnar jabbed him in the chest. “No arguing, Maxwell Reynolds. You are not coming with us. Do you hear me?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” Max said, “I’m not coming with you.”

  “That’s right,” Gunnar said, “let us handle the engines. You go lie down. Now!”

  “Yes, Doctor,” Max said, “I’ll go lie down.”

  “Good,” Gunnar said.

  “Come on,” Darren said, “we’re wasting time.”

  They took off down the passageway and neither of them bothered to look back at Max as they hit the stairs and rushed down to the next deck.

  “You know he’s not going to lie down, right?” Darren said.

  “Yeah, I know,” Gunnar replied. “Fucking Reynolds.”

  ***

  The creature came at him so fast that he barely had time to get the carbine up to block the swipe from the beast’s claw.

  “Mother fucker!” Bokeem screamed, as he lay flat on his back and stared up at the huge, white canines that gleamed inside the black mouth that loomed over him. “What the fuck are you?”

  The beast snarled and tried to snap at Bokeem’s face, but the man was able to get a knee up under it and shove with all his strength, sending the creature flying up over his head. Bokeem rolled over and tried to take aim with his M4, but the weapon was kicked from his hands and he had to scramble away to keep his face from being kicked from his head.

  He crouched by the far wall, his eyes locked onto the creature as it stood up. It was close to nine feet tall, covered in brown fur, and looked very familiar.

  “You were in the Menagerie,” Bokeem said. “How the fuck did you get out?”

  Shots rang out and Bokeem flattened himself against the floor as Lug ran towards the creature, his carbine barking fire.
Not a single bullet hit the creature and for a split second, Bokeem wondered how the fuck he’d ever thought hiring Lug was a good idea.

  “Die, you fucking-” Lug shouted then was cut off as the creature reached out and gripped him by the neck.

  “Oh, fuck,” Bokeem said as he watched Lug’s face turn purple.

  Then the man’s head popped right off as the creature squeezed all the way through his neck.

  “Holy fuck! Doctor!” Bokeem yelled as he got to his feet and then dove for his carbine. “Doctor! How do I stop this thing?”

  The M4 was in his grasp then it wasn’t as a hairy foot that must have been a size twenty slammed down on his hand. Bokeem screamed as every bone in his left hand was pulverized into dust and sharp shards that ripped up through his flesh.

  “Stop him?” Boris asked as he got back in his seat at the terminal. He just sat there smiling down at the wounded merc. “You don’t stop him. Boy, have I learned that over the years. When Ronald gets a goal in his head, he tends to be single minded until he moves on to the next goal. Right, Ronald?”

  “Goal?” Bokeem screamed. “What are you talking about?”

  The creature attached to the hairy foot crouched low and put its face right in Bokeem’s.

  “I’m a goal oriented being,” the creature said. “I like to have my life planned out, step by step.”

  Bokeem was yanked to his feet as the creature grabbed him under the shoulders and lifted him up as if he was made of air. There was the faint smell of monkey mixed with something else.

  “Are you wearing cologne?” Bokeem asked the creature then immediately shook his head and closed his eyes. “You’ve lost it, man. You think you’re talking with a giant ape. You must have been hurt earlier and now you’re hallucinating.”

  “While hallucinations can be associated with head trauma at times, they are not as common as intense headaches and dizziness,” the creature said. “Are you experiencing any intense headaches or dizziness?”

  Bokeem opened his eyes to the inquisitive gaze of the creature.

  “I, uh, no,” was all Bokeem could say.