White Shark (40 page)

It felt the shark first, a surge of pressure in the
water.
 
Then it saw the gray shape, the
conical head,
the
gaping mouth.

Still, it was not afraid, for it knew it had an
advantage; it had a brain that could innovate.

As the shark charged, relentless but unthinking, the
creature ducked away and blew air from its lungs.
 
Confused by the blast of bubbles, the shark
hesitated; it rose up, exposing its white belly.

The creature flexed its fingers and lunged forward,
driving its claws deep into the soft flesh, pulling downward.
 
The flesh separated.
 
The claws pushed deeper, and now blood
billowed from the ten slashes in the belly.

The body of the shark twisted, contorted, and each
movement tore more of its flesh.
 
Viscera
swelled and oozed through the wounds.

The claws withdrew.
 
The shark hovered for a moment,
then
began to
sink away.

A searing ache suffused the creature's lungs, but it
forced itself to watch until the shark was consumed by darkness.

Then it surfaced, drew a deep and nourishing breath
and savored its triumph.
 
It felt
fatigue, but fatigue relieved by elation.
 
It was back, whole again.
 
It was
Der Weisse Hai
.

Now it must seek land, where it could hide and
hunt.
 
Using its webbed hands, it turned
in a slow circle, until it located its goal:
 
a single light on a lone island, not far away.

45

It was nearly dark when Chase and Tall Man reached the
island; a sliver of pink still lit the western horizon, but the sky overhead
was a blanket of blue-black, broken by the golden dots of the evening's first
stars.
 
The only lights on the island
were in the windows of Amanda's little house.

The tide was high, so Chase could drive the boat close
to shore without fear of hitting submerged rocks.
 
Tall Man stood in the bow and shone a
powerful flashlight on the passing land.

Everything seemed normal, undisturbed.
 
The flashlight's beam fell on a raccoon
feeding on a fish on a flat rock, and the animal froze, its eyes glowing
red.
 
A fox fled the light, scampering
away into the underbrush.
 
Only the sea
lions seemed agitated, huddled together by the mouth of their den, rocking back
and forth.

"Maybe it turned north," Tall Man said.
 
"Napatree would've been closer for it
than here."

"I hope," said Chase.
 
"I still want to get Amanda and the kids
into town... just in case."

"She won't want to leave her sea lions."

"I don't plan to give her a choice."
 
Chase had made up his mind on the way back
from Block:
 
if there was a chance, even
a remote possibility, of that thing coming to Osprey, he would evacuate the
island.
 
They could return tomorrow, in
daylight, with the police and as much heavy weaponry as they could muster, and
scour the island from end to end.

When he had circled the island and seen nothing out of
the ordinary, no dead animal or fresh trail, Chase returned to the dock and
swung the Mako into its slip.
 
He turned
off the motor, and stepped onto the dock.
 
"Stay here," he said, looping the bow line over a cleat.
 
"I'll go get them."
 
He started up the path.

Tall Man stood on the dock, listening to the sounds of
the night:
 
crickets, birdcalls,
the
lap of lazy waves on the shore.
 
Suddenly he sensed that something was out of
place, or missing; it took him a moment to realize what it was.
 
The heron.
 
Where was Chief Joseph?
 
Normally, by now the bird would be standing
in the water by the dock, demanding food with its irascible glare.
 
He looked over the side of the dock, but the
cove was completely dark, he couldn't see anything, so he returned to the boat,
fetched the flashlight and shone it on the tidal pool.

The bird wasn't there.
 
Where had it gone?
 
He swung the
beam up to the boulders, then to the shore.

Amid a tangle of brush he saw a feather:
 
long, blue-gray.
 
He walked up the path, stepped into the
brush,
parted
it with his hands.
 
The brush felt sticky, and when he shone the
light on his fingers, he saw blood.

He yanked a clump of brush out by its roots, clearing
a space.
 
There, in the dirt, was the
heron's head.
 
It had been torn from its
neck, and its eyes were gone.

A rush of panic flooded Tall Man's chest.
 
He turned and ran toward the house.

46

"Because there
aren't
any guns," Chase said to Amanda.
 
"I don't like
them,
I've never kept any around."

They were in the kitchen.
 
Max and Elizabeth sat on the floor; they had
been playing War with two decks of cards.

"I can't leave the sea lions, Simon," Amanda
said.
 
"They're like my
children.
 
I couldn't do it."

"You
have
to.
 
We can't defend ourselves here.
 
If that thing comes ashore here—"

"I won't go.
 
You take the kids to
town,
leave Tall Man here
with me.
 
We can bring the big boat to
the dock, I'll try to get the girls aboard, and—"

The kitchen door flew open.
 
"It's here!
"
Tall
Man said, stepping inside and locking the door behind him.

Max started, and repeated Tall Man's words for
Elizabeth
.

"Where?" asked Chase.

"I don't know, but it killed Chief Joseph.
 
It's here, Simon.
 
Somewhere."

Chase looked at the children.
 
"We can't leave, then."

"Why not?"

"We don't dare take the chance.
 
It could be anywhere.
 
Suppose it's in the bushes by the dock."

"It would've jumped me," Tall Man said.

"Maybe not, maybe you're too big, but it'd sure
as hell go after one of the kids."

Amanda started for the door.

"Where are you going?
"
Chase
said.

"To get the girls, bring them up here."

"Are you
nuts?
"

"They'll follow me.
 
I'll be quick about it."

"I don't care.
 
It's
pitch black out there.
 
Three hundred yards each
way.
 
You'll never make it."

"I have to."
 
Amanda unlocked the door.
 
"I'll stay out in the
open,
I'll be able
to see it coming."

"They're animals, Amanda!
"
Chase said.

"Not to me."
 
Amanda gestured at Max and Elizabeth.
 
"Not to them."

"I won't let you."

"You can't stop me."

"Yes, I can."
 
Chase took a step toward her.
 
"If I have to, I'll tie you down."

"Stop it, Simon," Amanda said, and she
opened the door and darted out into the night.

Chase ran to the door and looked out, but Amanda was
already rounding the corner of the house and running down the lawn.

"Well, shit," Tall Man said.
 
He picked up a butcher knife from a rack over
the sink, slipped it into his belt and took the flashlight from the counter
where he had put it.

"What do you think you're doing?
"
Chase said.

"Maybe you were right, Simon, maybe it won't go
after six foot of redskin Terminator."
 
Tall Man stepped through the door and was gone.

When Chase had locked the door, he looked at Max and
Elizabeth.
 
They had stopped playing
cards and were sitting side by side, ashen, holding hands.
 
He knelt beside them, put a hand on theirs
and said, "This'll be okay.
 
It's
probably hiding somewhere.
 
We'll get the
police here at first light, and—"

"But Dad...
"
Max
said.
 
"What if..."
 
He let the rest of the thought go unspoken.

Chase didn't answer, for he had no answer.
 
Instead, he forced a smile and said,
"Hell, Max, can you imagine
any
thing
getting the better of Tall Man?"
 
His mind raced, flitting between possibilities like a mosquito in a
crowd of people, trying to decide where to land.
 
If the thing found Tall Man, or Amanda, if Tall
Man didn't kill it, what could they do?
 
They couldn't shoot it, couldn’t stab it,
couldn't
flee from it.

There were no answers, and yet Chase knew one thing
for certain:
 
he would do anything,
including sacrifice himself, but Max and Elizabeth were going to survive.

He stood up and turned, and as he glanced through the
door into the living room, his eyes fell upon the steel cylinder bolted to the
floor.

Max saw him looking
a the
cylinder and said, "What about the decompression chamber... you called it
Dr. Frankenstein?"

"What about it?"

"We could get inside and lock it.
 
The thing could never get in."

"It doesn't lock from the inside," Chase
said.
 
"The only way—
"
 
He
stopped,
for an idea suddenly appeared in his mind, inchoate, like a cloud.
 
He didn't rush it, but let it slowly take
shape until it became a possible answer.

47

Tall Man caught up with Amanda halfway down the
hill.
 
He had shouted to her, told her he
was coming, and why, and she had stopped running.
 
As they walked, he swung the flashlight from
side to side.

They heard a bark, then several more — quick,
high-pitched, frantic.

"No!
"
Amanda
yelled, and she started to run.
 
Tall Man
reached for her, to stop her, but she was lighter than he, and quicker, and on
the downward slope the best he could do was maintain a distance between them of
ten feet.

She reached the pool area first; he stopped beside
her.
 
They could hear the sea lions
barking, a cacophony of shrieks, but they couldn't see them.
 
Tall Man shone the light toward the sounds.

Two of the sea lions were huddled against the side of
the equipment shed, rocking on their flippers, their heads bobbing as they
barked hysterically.
 
He swung the light
to the right.

Something was crouching by the rocks on the far side
of the pool, something huge and grayish white.
 
They could see only its massive back, for its head was bent out of
sight.
 
But as the light fell on it, it
rose and turned.

Amanda screamed.
 
Tall Man felt his heart jump and adrenaline surge through his arms and
shoulders.

It was as large as an ape and as gray as ash.
 
Through the blood that covered its face they
saw the glitter of steel teeth, and through the gore that dripped from its
hands, long steel claws.
 
Its body was
hairless; the sinews in its arms and legs stood out like whips; where once had
been genitals, now there was but a crudely stitched patch of mottled hide.
 
Its eyes, as the light struck them, gleamed
like reflectors.

Behind the thing lay the partly eaten carcass of a sea
lion.

The thing opened its mouth, uttered a glottal roar and
took a step forward.

"Go!
"
Tall Man said
to Amanda.

"I... but
... "
 
She
stood frozen.

"Go!
 
For
crissakes, go warn them!
 
Go!"

Amanda took a step backward, turned and ran.