Shark Lover (30 page)

            “Let’s
look quickly and then we can start the hunt. I just basically want to see the
entire day and what happened throughout the day. If she is still in that area,
I would like to go with you to find her. Mandy killed Marc and I must find her.
Do you mind if I take Carly with me? She’s been helping me out since I first
found out that Marc was missing. She’s been great. I promise that she won’t get
in the way at all. You’ll like her. She has experience in the field, she’s
going into criminal justice you know.” Cathy said as the proud sister that she
was.

            “Sure,
call her up. The more help we can get, the better. I do have some classes that
I am teaching today, but I can always call in another team member to take them
over. It’s not a big deal really. This is more important. Marc was a friend of
mine and I am going to help you out with this. I won’t tell anyone about your
decision either. If you want the shark dead, I understand and we won’t tell
anyone in the organization if you want to keep this anonymous.” He took his
eyes off of her and stared back into the screen. “This is the entire outlook of
the day in fast motion.”

            “Chris,
you don’t have to do that. I know how important your classes are to you. I can
take the boat out with some of the other members of Shark Savors. I don’t want
you to have to miss your classes,” She said as she looked at the screen. “Wow I
can’t believe how many times they come so close to the shore.”

            “Nonsense.
I’m coming with you. No arguments either. I want to,” He said closing the
argument. “They do come into shore quite often. It’s feeding time. The seals
are all out hunting, so the sharks are too. Look at this snapshot from the
morning. This dot here is Mandy,” He said pointing to the screen. “She’s once
again in the same spot where she attacked Marc. There must be seals in this
area. It’s a hunting ground. I’m surprised Marc would go out there in these
types of conditions. You would think since he was in marine biology, he would
know not to surf that far out.”

            “I’m
not sure why he would pursue surfing again. The last time I spoke to him, I did
tell him to give it another try. I feel so horrible, Chris. I shouldn’t have
pushed surfing. It was my idea not his. I believe that he went to Stinson Beach
because that was the last beach where his father surfed before he died. Marc
didn’t even tell me he was going to surf,” She said as sadness overcame her.
“If he would have told me I would have stopped him. I wouldn’t have wanted this
to happen to him,” She said inaudibly. “I don’t think I can look at this screen
anymore, it’s just too depressing. Are you ready to go on the hunt for Mandy?”

            Chris
put his hand on her shoulder in order to comfort her. “Cathy, just remember
it’s not your fault. You can’t control someone else’s actions. He decided to do
this, not you. I just don’t want you to continually blame yourself for
something that you didn’t do.” He removed his hand from her shoulder and put it
back on the mouse. “If you want you can get in my jeep and I will be out there
in a minute. I just want to check the screen one last time to get Mandy’s
direct location. I also have a portable tracker that I will bring, I just want
to be one step ahead of the game.”

            “Thanks
Chris. I really appreciate everything. Go ahead and do that. Do you mind if I
take some of your tomatoes for the road?” She asked glancing over at Chris’s
Aeroponics system in the corner of the room. “I didn’t get a chance to grab a
breakfast, I kind of just ran out of the house after I called you.”

            “Go
right ahead. Grab some for me too. They make a great morning breakfast. It’ll
just be a minute here. I’m writing down locations. I’m pretty sure it won’t be
too hard to find her.” He said not taking his eyes off the computer screen.
Chris looked determined and poised. He was making Cathy feel more confident
about catching this shark.

            “I’ll
grab extra tomatoes. I’m going to text Carly and have her meet us over there.
It might take her awhile to get here, I don’t know if she’s up yet. We can
always start the search without her and then come back and get her later. I’ll
be in the jeep. See you in a few minutes.”

            Chris
nodded and Cathy took more tomatoes from the corner of the room. They all
looked so ripe and fresh. She loved fresh tomatoes on a cool fall day. It would
be a slice of happiness that she could at least savor for a few minutes. She
threw three tomatoes into her book bag and then headed out of the lab. It
didn’t take long for her to discover Chris’s jeep. Even though it was dark out,
she always recognized his camo-colored jeep with the Shark Savor’s logo on the
side. She hopped in the passenger’s side just as Chris was coming out of the
building. He smiled and waved to her as he headed in her direction. He got into
the driver’s seat and started the jeep up. They were ready to take on the shark
that killed Marc.

*
* *

            “You
can just untie that rope over there. I think after that we are set to go. Are
you ready for this?” Chris asked as he started steering the large boat out to
shore. He put the mobile shark tracker in his pocket. He figured he would turn
it on when they were closer to Stinson Beach.

            “As
ready as I will ever be,” Cathy replied looking down at her watch. “I called
Carly, but she said she can’t take off another day from school. She’ll help out
later after her classes are over. I completely understand. I know how hard it
is to miss classes. Speaking of missing classes, I missed my class last night.
I’m also missing my class today. Professor Tyson isn’t going to be too happy
with me.”

            “I’ll
look forward to meeting Carly later then. Yeah, it is really hard missing
classes. I’m sure they would understand though, given the circumstances.
Dealing with losing a loved one is never an easy thing. Just call the school
later and explain what’s going on. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.” He
concentrated on taking the boat out towards the ocean. The waves fiercely
rocked the boat as they slowly approached the horizon.

            “I
don’t know, I told Professor Tyson that Marc was missing. I ran into him
yesterday at the school, but he didn’t seem to care. He kind of just blew me
off and continued on with his work. He was pretty rude, but that’s just his
personality I guess. I never saw him as being friendly or personable,” She said
as she tied her messy hair into a ponytail to prevent it from being blown in
the wind. “Is it supposed to storm today? The wind has really been picking up.”

            “That’s
a bummer about your professor. I hope he comes to an understanding for you. I
mean he should. A loved one died, he should at show some respect,” He said as
he gazed out towards the ocean. “The waves look rough. I don’t know how long we
should really stay out here, but I know this is important. If it gets really
bad, we can always head back. It’s not a problem. I don’t mind like I said, I’m
here for you.”

            “You’re
the best Chris,” She said smiling at him. She moved to the bow of the boat to
check out the weather along with the waves. “It’s not looking too bad so far.
I’ll check the weather on my phone. Hopefully it won’t storm until later in the
day. Thanks so much for doing this Chris. I can’t thank you enough for taking
the day off to help me.”

            “Check
the weather and let me know. We should be there soon. I’m trying to get there
as quickly as I can,” He said as he pulled out the mobile shark tracker out of
his pocket and turned it on. “We’ll see where she is. Hopefully this storm will
blow over or at least wait a few hours. And don’t mention it. This is important
and we need to do this.”

            She
pulled out her phone and checked the weather. “It looks like it’s going to rain
in about an hour. Do you think that’s enough time?” She questioned looking at
him with curious eyes.

            “We
should be alright. I have some raincoats just in case it does start pouring.
Hopefully this is a quick capture and we can bring her back to the lab.”

            Cathy
stared down at the boat and then looked back up at Chris. He was wearing a
thick sweatshirt and sweatpants. He must have known how cold it would be out on
the water. Cathy shivered in her jeans and t-shirt. She wished she would have
grabbed her jacket from the lab. She had gotten so caught up in finding Mandy,
she hadn’t thought to remember her coat. Chris peered at her from underneath
his ball cap. When he wore a hat, he looked like a true athlete. She couldn’t
help thinking he looked just like a professional baseball player. He must have
sensed her feelings when he looked at her with an inquisitive expression.

            “Do
you want my jacket? You look cold.” He took off his jacket and handed it out to
her.

            “Are
you sure? I don’t want you to be cold either.” She came over to him and took it
from his hands.

            “Of
course. I’ll be fine. We’ll be moving around in a minute here anyways. We’re
almost there.”

            She
looked all around her and started noticing all of the rocky cliffs of Stinson
Beach. The air and the water seemed colder here. Maybe it was just her mood or
the fact that she was in the place where Marc had died. She didn’t like being
here, but she knew she had to stick through it for Marc. If she could capture
Mandy, it would be well worth it. The sky clouded up above them as she
shivered. Even with Chris’s jacket on, she felt a rush of cold flowing through
her body. She wanted to get it over with and fast.

            “We’re
getting pretty close to her,” He said as his mobile shark tracker started
beeping loudly. “Could you get the fish ready? We’ll capture her with a big
slice of tuna on a hook and line.”

            “Sure
thing. I got it.” She went to the back of the boat and got the tuna fish out.
She put it on a large hook and tied it to the line. “How does this look?”

            “Perfect.
Okay, she appears to be right beneath us. Let’s drop it in the water on the
side of the boat to the left. Once we get her on the line, I’ll pull her up.
Now it’s important that you don’t stand too close to me while I’m doing that, I
don’t want you to get hurt,” He said as he stabled the boat by putting the
anchor out. He grabbed the tuna fish and threw it overboard. The boat started
rocking back and forth fiercely in the wind as Chris tried to stabilize it.
“Here watch the line while I try to get the boat to steady. The wind is really
picking up. I guess the rain is coming in.”

            “I
got it. I hope the rain holds off at least for a while.” She held the line when
all of the sudden it started tugging her off of the boat. “Chris! I think Mandy
grabbed the tuna. Hurry!” She struggled to hold the line as it started slipping
through her hands. Chris ran over and quickly took the line from her hands and
started pulling it in with all of his might. In one full thrust he pulled the
creature from the sea into the boat. Both of them stared down at it shocked.

            “A
seal? How did this happen?” Cathy asked as she tried untangling it from the hook.
He was bleeding from the lip and crying out as she tried to remove the hook.
“Oh, I feel terrible for him. What should we do Chris?”

            “It
is feeding time, I’m sure this little guy mistook the bait as his lunch. Don’t
worry I got this,” He said as he grabbed a towel and started patting down the
seal’s lip. “Don’t cry little guy, I’ll get you unhooked from here.” He
untangled the hook from the seal as the seal shrieked in pain. “It’s okay, here
boy let me bandage you up.”

            Cathy
watched Chris with the seal in approbation. He was so good with animals and the
way that he comforted the seal made her have more respect for him. Since he was
a hardcore military man, she didn’t expect for him to have such a sensitive
side. The way he bandaged up the seal’s lip made her smile. He took such good
care of him, talking to him while he was trying to ease his pain away. She
rubbed the side of the seal to try to help him as well. Chris finished
bandaging up the seal and looked at her.

            “I
think he’s ready to go back into the sea. What do you think?” He asked
smirking. “You’re the marine biologist.”

            “Let
me take a look at him.” She knelt down and took a look at the seal’s face and
eyes. He appeared to be healthy looking and ready to get back to the water. “He
looks okay, I don’t think we damaged anything that would really hinder him
while he was swimming. I think it was just his lip. We bandaged it up, so he
should be good to go. I do however think that we should use a hoist to get him
back into the water. It would be less painful than just throwing him overboard
the boat.”

            “Good
idea,” He said as he ran over to get the hoist. “Let’s lift him up and set him
on it.” They both took an end of the seal and put him on the hoist. Chris then
lowered it slowly down into the ocean. They both watched as the seal swam back
to life. Cathy was glad he wasn’t hurt. She had been worried for a while. She
didn’t plan on injuring another creature. She almost wanted to give up the hunt
for Mandy, but they were too close to finding her that she couldn’t give up
just yet.

            “Do
you still see Mandy on the tracker?” She asked Chris as he pulled up the anchor
and started steering the boat again.