Bait: A Novel (11 page)

“Hey!” yelled Kenny, coughing seawater. “Stick together!”

Nash treaded water, frightened by the vulnerability of his legs dangling in the liquid void below. The others lagged more than sixty feet behind. Nash waited for them to close the distance, turning his attention to the yacht. It looked much larger now with its bow pointed in their direction. Nash had little doubt it had pulled in closer to watch the show. He could see the shapes of three men on the bow more clearly. They all appeared to be holding something up to their faces.

“Cunts,” Nash sneered.

He looked back the way he’d come, gauging the progress. They’d made it a third of the way already. Nash felt pretty good about the remaining distance. The aching for junk was insufferable, but it was also the fuel that ignited his muscles and sinews with rabid desire.

“Come on! Swim faster!”

Felix led the others, Ginger and Maria just behind with Kenny pulling up the rear. They chopped the water with their limbs, white wakes forming behind them, the only interruption in a vast blanket of blue. When they were twenty feet away, something new sliced through the ocean’s surface and made Nash’s heart skip a beat.

“Shit.”

A large fin rose a foot out of the water and traveled toward them, a menacing periscope in reconnaissance fifty feet behind Kenny. It followed the group’s trail for several seconds before slipping back under.

“No, no, no,” Nash whispered. “This ain’t happening.”

Felix reached him, breathing hard. When he saw the horrified look on Nash’s face his exhaustion took an immediate backseat.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” Felix asked. “You look like you just been sentenced the max or something.”

Nash tried to answer, but a sudden knot tied off his throat under the Adam’s apple, allowing only a choked sound to leave his lips. The others reached him, trying to catch their breath. Nash coughed hard, dislodging the knot temporarily.

“We gotta keep moving. Come on.”

“Need rest,” Maria gasped. “Body hurts.”

Ginger nodded. “Yeah, we need a minute, Nash.”

“We don’t have a minute.”

“What’s the rush, man?” said Kenny. “The island ain’t going anywhere—”

“No time to stop. We have to move
now
.”

Kenny’s voice rose. “Look, I need a break or else I won’t be able to make it.”

Nash’s voice rose as well. “Kenny, we can’t waste time sitting here in the water.”

“Why?”

“Because—”

The knot returned, cutting him off again. Nash’s pupils became shifty, betraying the situation. The others eyed him uneasily, wanting context for the fear he exuded. Felix was most concerned, for he had an idea of what might be scaring Nash.

“What the hell’s got you so spooked?”

Nash flicked nervous glances between Felix and Ginger. He looked back to where he’d seen the fin. Nothing was there, but that didn’t give him any relief. What was once visible was now lurking somewhere below. Nash checked the water around his body, terrified of catching a glimpse of a gliding monster.

“I s-s-saw a fin,” Nash stammered. “It came up behind you guys and followed for a few seconds.”

All eyes widened, every jaw slackened. Kenny and Maria whirled in the water, frantically checking around their position.

“Shark?” Kenny cried. “You’re telling me you saw a
fucking shark
?”

“A
fin
,” Nash shot back. “It was just a fin I saw. Honestly, I have no freaking idea if it was a shark or not.”

Kenny stared Nash down, furious at the man who had persuaded them to enter the open ocean. Nash gulped, guilt adding another bulge in the knot, making it hard to breathe. Maria began to whine, trying to get something out of her pocket. She displayed the sharp rock she’d found on the beach to the others. Felix eyed it pitifully.

“Oh, yeah, like that’s gonna protect us.”

Maria gripped the rock tighter, but the dismay on her face could not be mistaken. She began to wail a mess of incoherent Spanish. Kenny and Felix could only swear and mutter. It was Ginger who attempted a calm voice.

“Dolphin,” she said. “It could’ve been a dolphin you saw, or a marlin or manta ray or something. There are plenty other things in the ocean with fins besides sharks.”

Nash nodded, trying to appear agreeable. He didn’t buy it, though. What had risen out of the water wasn’t any of the things Ginger spoke of. The fin had been too big, too pointed, too
motivated.

“Look, I don’t care if it was the spoiler on a fucking Ferrari you saw out there,” Felix growled. “I don’t wanna be in this water any longer than we have to be.”

Eager nods all around. Nash and Felix both took the lead, staying neck and neck as they front-crawled with newfound desperation. The others followed close behind, trying hard to keep up. Nash’s eyes opened wide under the water, constantly searching for danger. Only dark blue lay below, the oceanic variant of a black hole in space. Small relief came only after every third stroke, when he turned his head out of the water to breathe, glimpsing the blue sky and white clouds above.

Keep your eyes on the prize, not down below.

But he could not. The routine threatened to drive him insane: three strenuous strokes facedown in terror, followed by a breath of hope. It took all of his strength, mental and physical, to keep moving forward. Then one sight wrecked everything. Nash turned his face into the brine and his blurred vision fixed on something new. A different color showed against the blue beneath.

You’re mine too,
the new color seemed to say.

Fifteen feet below, an elongated gray-green shape swam in lithesome fashion across Nash’s field of vision. It was big and sleek, seemingly oblivious to the fresh meat floating on the surface. Except that it wasn’t. It had detected the bioelectricity of the swimmers long before.

Jesus, look at the size of that mother,
Nash thought.

The sight of it sent another glut of bubbles rushing past his ears as panicked air escaped his lungs. The new visitor cruised slowly and without menace, an apex predator with all the time in the world, its very presence portentous enough. Nash froze, floating facedown, watching the shape glide away until it faded into a fold of ocean darkness.

All mine,
it seemed to call back.

Nash pulled his head out of the water to gauge the remaining distance. Halfway, he figured, if they were lucky. As he treaded water something slammed into his back. His cry of shock was reflex.

“What the hell, Nash?”

Nash spun, realizing it was Ginger and for once happy to see her. She bobbed in front of him, wiping water from her cheeks. Even as she yelled, Nash was relieved.

“Why are you stopping, fool? Keep swimming—”

Ginger fell silent. Nash’s face paled, bulging eyes suddenly fixing on something behind her. She turned slowly until she saw the very thing she prayed she wouldn’t. The fin had climbed out of the water again, closer this time and moving toward them with more intent. One look and Ginger knew it wasn’t a dolphin, or marlin, or manta ray.

“
Shark!”
she screamed.

The others snapped their heads out of the water. One by one, they caught sight of the gray triangle heading for them. Felix let out a guttural roar, bracing for the beast’s arrival, smacking the water’s surface with his big, black hands. Kenny and Maria imitated him with high-pitched screams, striking the surface with no less ferocity.

“What do we do?” wailed Ginger.

Nash beat the water white around him. “Make noise. Try to scare it away.”

Ginger copied, hoping to dissuade their would-be attacker. Before it reached them, the fin broke left and slipped under, implying a change of direction. The five swimmers waited breathlessly. The fin did not resur- face.

“I think . . . think we scared it off,” Kenny panted.

A quivering smile cracked Ginger’s otherwise terrified face. “Yeah, yeah, I think you’re right. I think we did.”

“A shark that size ain’t gonna be scared for long,” roared Felix. “Let’s
move
.”

Felix plowed through the water, the others right behind. Nearby, the yacht slowly turned and began to cruise parallel to them. The three figures on the deck were joined by a fourth. They moved starboard side to watch the proceedings. A voice with an unmistakable Southern accent called out.

“Thought you’d like to know, they got a taste for human blood.”

Laughter from the others followed. Nash swam hard, but couldn’t help checking over his shoulder, looking for the fin closing in. He was so concerned with what might come up behind, he failed to see what came up on his right. In fact, none of the swimmers saw the dorsal fin of the seventeen-foot tiger shark traveling beside them before it submerged again seconds later.

“Almost there!” Felix yelled. “Only a couple hundred yards!”

New hope welled up within each of them. Nash could see the beach ahead clearly, the distance between it and him shortening with every frantic stroke and kick he delivered into the sea. He was sure they’d make it.

“C’mon, we can do this.”

His newfound faith was shattered by a single scream. Nash whirled to see Kenny bobbing in the water, face pale and mortified.

“What?
What?!
” Nash demanded.

“Something
bumped
me,” screeched Kenny.

“Aw, Jesus, are you bitten?”

Kenny looked down, searching for any sign of shark or blood. There was neither.

“No, I don’t think so,” he wailed. “Looks like I ain’t been bit.”

“Okay, then, keep moving. We’re almost—”

Nash rocked hard in the water as something crashed into his legs below. A large, rough body scraped his shins, feeling like some kind of fuselage covered with sandpaper. The massive pectoral fin clipped his dangling feet as the tiger shark passed. He squealed and pulled up his legs, looking down in time to glimpse a monstrous tail before it flicked and disappeared. He waited to see if the water would cloud red from a fresh wound. It didn’t.

“Move, move, move!”
Nash screamed.
“This shark just found its balls!”

Nash tore through the water, swimming with head up at all times, scanning the surrounding surface, picturing rows of razor teeth around a black gullet lunging for him from a nearby wave. Within a minute another scream from Kenny stopped everyone.

“I’m going back!”

Felix couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What?”

“Something bumped me again,” Kenny sobbed. “Fuck this, I’m turning around.”

“Don’t be retarded, we’re almost there.”

Kenny became hysterical. “Screw you guys! This was a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. Can’t believe I fucking listened to you. I’m going back!”

Nash raised his voice as much as he dared. “Don’t you dare do it, Kenny, we have to stick together.”

They all swam to the kid, forming a loose circle around him. Their closeness brought no comfort.

“I said I’m going back and that’s final.”

Before Nash could say anything more, a hand gripped his shoulder. It was Maria. She pulled, turning him so they were face-to-face. Her eyes were as cold as steel, her gravelly voice even more so.

“No, let the coward leave. The
diablo
wants him. Let the
diablo
have him.”

“Fuck you, bitch!”

Kenny struck out at Maria, the back of his hand catching her hard across the cheek. Her head flew back, submerging for a second. She resurfaced, coughing seawater. When she turned her eyes on Kenny they were ablaze.

“Bastardo.”

There was something in Maria’s hand when she struck back. They all saw it. The sharp stone cut into Kenny’s forearm as he raised it to block the attack. Everyone watched in horror as a four-inch gash opened, spilling blood into the sea. A wail rose from Kenny’s throat. The stone dropped from Maria’s hand into the water with a plunk.

“Maria, what have you done?” croaked Ginger.

Maria said nothing. Her eyes remained steely as she watched the blood pour. Felix lunged forward and grabbed the woman by the hair, wrenching her sideways, making her yell out in pain.

“What did you do, you crazy bitch?” Felix bellowed.

Maria pulled away with a howl, leaving a clump of black curls in his grip. Felix lunged at her again, but she was already out of reach and swimming for the island. Kenny looked to the others for help, but they kicked away from him, avoiding the growing cloud of blood in the water.

“Oh, God, I’m bleeding. I’m bleeding all over the place. Please, you gotta help me stop it. Help me stop the blood.”

Nash’s mouth went dry. “Sorry. I’m . . . so sorry, kid.”

“Don’t leave me here!”

Nash kicked farther away. Kenny began to cry. Ginger fought her survival instincts and tried to swim back to the boy.

“Ginger, don’t,” said Nash.

“We can’t just leave him, Nash. We have to try—”

Another fin, this one smaller and with a white tip, cut the surface ten feet from Ginger and silenced her.

“We got a new guest!” Felix cried.

He flicked nervous glances between Kenny and the island, unsure of whether to stay or swim on. Nash shook his head at Ginger, warning her to forget the suicide mission she was considering.

“Kenny, you can make it to shore if you want to,” Nash said. “
Swim
for it, man, before they get a fix on you. You got time.”

“I can’t—”

“Yes, you can.”

“C’mon, sweetheart,” Ginger pleaded. “Follow us to safety.”

They started to swim, trying to lead Kenny along. Nash could hear the kid sobbing behind him, but he refused to look back. Ahead, he saw the large fin of the tiger shark emerge and cut across his path before disappearing. The safety of the beach was less than a hundred yards away, Maria almost halfway to it. Nash could even make out a dark cube, the second trunk, lying on the sand. He whispered a prayer, his first in years, pleading for divine intervention.

“Please, God, we’re almost there. Let us all get there in one piece.”

God wasn’t taking requests. Another shriek rang out before Kenny was dragged under, water garbling the rest of his cries. Nash spun in time to see one of the boy’s flailing arms submerge, the tiger shark’s fin sinking down on top of it. A violent thrash of tail followed, splashing the surface, then nothing.