The Steel Shark

Chapter 33

Vivian hated wetsuits. She hated stuffing herself inside one, like a sausage into a tight casing. Probably how the sharks viewed it. Gift-wrapped lunch.

She’d met the crew — six guys with varying degrees of facial hair and hygiene. Captain Glascoe, Marshall, two guys who disappeared every time they spotted her, and two burly blond guys named Billy and Bob, who had turned up to watch her suit up and train. Lots of testosterone on deck.

Captain Glascoe slipped easily into his suit. Had he coated the inside with Vaseline? There had to be a trick to it.

“Do you need a hand with that?” asked Marshall.

“I got it.” She tried not to fall off the swim platform and yanked the wetsuit up to her waist one-handed. Now for the top.

“You won’t get the sleeve over your cast.” Marshall stepped forward and took the arm of her wetsuit. He drew a folding knife out of his pocket, unfolded it, and slit the wetsuit to the elbow. She was glad that Tesla had paid for the suit, as it was basically ruined. Still, it was the only way she’d get it on.

“Thanks.” She put her casted arm through and then put on the other arm. “How will we keep this arm from leaking?”

Marshall picked up a roll of gray tape. “Duct tape solves all problems.”

She held still while he taped her arm in. He was quick at it.

Once that was done, she reached back for the long zipper pull and zipped herself in, then donned the dive hood. The suit was originally intended for Tesla, but it fit her just fine. Tesla was supposed to join her for training, but he was puking in his cabin with his dog.

“You and I will go off the back with our DPVs. You can learn how they work, and then we’ll get back on course,” Glascoe said.

“Sounds good.” Vivian wasn’t sure it did.

Glascoe put on his BCD and tank, and she followed suit. She’d told him the extent of her scuba training before they started. He’d stifled a wince. At least Tesla had diving experience.

She took a deep breath and approached her DPV. DPV stood for diver propulsion vehicle. They looked like propane tanks cut in half and painted black. With their tiny engines, divers could cover a lot of ground without a lot of effort. Tesla’s plan involved using them to get close to the sub. Originally, he’d been intending to go on his own, but Vivian had insisted on going with him, so she had to be trained. She suspected that, despite what Tesla had told Glascoe, he’d never used one of these.

Glascoe grabbed his device and slipped off the swim platform like an otter. She followed clumsily, slipping her regulator in her mouth and falling into the water like a log, her good hand holding the DPV.

Glascoe had talked her through the controls on the boat, and it took only a couple of tries to get her buoyancy under control, then she grabbed on with both hands, and opened up the throttle on the surface to see what the DPV could do.

Awesome.

She’d be in the ocean all the time if she had one of these.

Her DPV reminded her of an underwater motorcycle. She curved a wide circle around the boat, passing Glascoe. He increased his speed, but she was lighter. So long as she stayed in a hydrodynamic position, he’d never catch her. She let him get close, then opened up the throttle and left him behind.

After she’d had time to think it over more, she slowed. No point in antagonizing Glascoe. He caught up and held up one hand in a fist to tell her to stop and they surfaced together.

“Nice work,” he said. “I want us to do a side-to-side run about a hundred meters from the ship, exactly two meters under the surface. That’s what you’ll be doing on your mission.”

She removed her regulator. “Roger that.”

“Do you need a refresher on your controls?”

“Nope.” She’d been paying attention on deck. A lot of attention.

“Then off we go.”

They put the regulators back in their mouths. She reset the DPV’s buoyancy and started to sink. Cold water closed over her head, and she gritted her teeth against the rubber mouthpiece of her regulator. It reminded her of leaving the sub.

But in a couple of minutes, she was fine. Light green water above, dark green below, and nothing ahead.

She kept an eye on her navigational equipment, turning right when she hit the hundred-meter mark. Glascoe stayed in position throughout the turn. They headed straight back to the ship, and Glascoe climbed up first. She levered herself up and out with one arm. With the broken arm and the tank and the DPV to haul around, she was glad she’d put in her time at the gym.

“Ahead full!” Glascoe called, and the ship started to move.

Billy and Bob started down toward them, but the captain waved them off.

She took off her BCD and closed her tank valve.

“You’re one hell of a diver,” he said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have some experience.”

“Nope.” She sat on the deck for a second to catch her breath. “Pretty straightforward.”

“Do you think your boss can do it?”

Vivian was torn. Truthfully, she had no idea. “He has a lot more scuba experience than I do.”

“He’s a civilian,” Glascoe said. “And a computer nerd.”

“I’m a civilian,” she pointed out.

“Not hardly,” he said. “I’m guessing Army, because you don’t seem to like the water that much.”

“Former Army.” No point in lying about it.

“But your Mr. Tesla wasn’t in any kind of service.”

“No, he was not.” She removed her hood.

“I’m not exactly sure what you guys are going to do once we intercept whatever it is you’re looking for, but I’m guessing it’s not entirely legal, and I know it’s risky.”

“I imagine you were paid enough to take whatever risk you think you’ll be taking.” She pulled off her fins and laid them next to her BCD. “Tesla might not look like much, but he’s got a cool head in stressful situations. He’s the smartest guy I’ve ever met, and he doesn’t have a death wish. If he has a plan for getting in, he has a plan for getting back out, and he believes he has a good chance of executing it.”

Which didn’t exactly guarantee success.

“For your sake, I hope so.” Glascoe stood, lifted up his tank and DPV, and walked off.

Vivian leaned her head back and drank in the sunshine. The Atlantic was cold. And when she went in next time, it would be dark and dangerous. Tesla worried her, but he did dream up some exciting adventures she’d never get to do otherwise. She’d crossed some items off her bucket list on this job.

“You beat Glascoe in a race.” Marshall stood between her and the sun. “Nobody else can do that.”

Because you guys are too heavy. “Beginner’s luck.”

Marshall flopped next to her. “Doubt it.”

She shrugged and inched away from him so she was back in the sun.

“Lots of cool equipment came on the ship before you and your boss arrived.”

“What do we have here?” She pointed to a cable running off the ship and disappearing into the sky.

“That’s a towed airborne lift system. The cable attaches to the winch on this end. There’s a parachute on the other end. The parachute is holding up a bunch of surveillance gear. So we can spot other vessels before they can spot us.”

Then they could follow the yacht from a far enough distance that they’d remain undetected. Very Tesla. “Do we have any drones?”

“Yup,” he said. “Top of the line. A couple black ones for night flying. All the lights blacked out. Illegal, but good for taking pictures of things that don’t want to be photographed. A couple blue ones for flying during the day. We even have a submarine drone, but I don’t know what that’s for.”

Putting the transponder on the giant submarine.

She pointed to a bow leaning against the side of the boat. It looked like the bow Tesla used to shoot at the little flags underwater, but on steroids with a grip on one side, a cable and pulleys on the other. “What’s that for?”

“That’s ours.” Marshall picked it up and handed it to her. “It’s a compound bow. We use it for bowfishing. I’ve even shot sharks with this baby.”

Vivian studied it. It looked like a regular compound bow, but the arrows next to it had fishing line attached to the back. The line was coiled up on a reel. “So you shoot the fish and reel it in?”

“Yup. Range is about forty yards, long for bowfishing. But you want to aim for fish that are close to the surface. It loses power fast once it goes underwater.”

“Too bad Tesla’s under the weather. I think he’d like to play with this one.”

“He chartered the boat and everything on it.” Marshall took the bow back. “He can play with it if he wants. I like to shoot it down here or from the bridge. You can see everything from up there.”

Tesla would panic on the bridge. All that glass.

“Maybe he will.” She stood and unzipped her wetsuit.

Marshall cut the tape off her suit so she could take her arm out.

“Ex-Navy?” he asked.

She might as well get her unit number tattooed on her forehead. “Army. You?”

“Ex-Marine,” he said.

“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” she quoted.

“Semper fi,” he answered back. Always faithful.

“Is there coffee somewhere?”

“I’ll show you where to hose off your gear and store it, then I’ll make you a pot myself.”

Marshall wasn’t so bad.