Danger Guys Hit the Beach (4 page)

“Part One!” I yelled, tossing the sword back to him. “You hold them off while I grab some scuba gear!”

He made a face, but swung the cutlass, and Baldy backed away. That gave me time to grab two masks, a couple of oxygen tanks, and some flippers.

“Part Two. We dive!”

Then that dark shadow passed overhead. Baldy and the Boss looked up.

Splash!
We disappeared into the water before they knew it. The boat tore off toward the wreck.

We swam to shore dragging the scuba gear.

“Quick,” I said. “Suit up before they blast.”

The flipper feet were big on us, but we strapped them tight. Then we pulled on the heavy oxygen tanks.

“Wait a minute,” said Zeek. “What am I doing? I barely remember how any of this stuff works. Besides, I
really
hate to get wet, remember?”

I looked at Zeek and patted him on the back. “Trust me on this one, pal.” I sucked on the spout that came from the mouthpiece. “You just do this. Remember?” I had dragged Zeek to scuba lessons a couple of summers ago.

He took a quick breath and smiled. “Oh, yeah. It's all coming back to me.”

“And another thing,” I said. “If something cool happens down there, don't give me the thumbs-up.”

“Um … Give me a hint …”

“Because underwater, thumbs up means to go to the surface. Do this instead.” I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger and stuck my other fingers straight up. “This is the okay sign.”

“Cool. The bunny sign.”

“Very funny. And this,” I said, running my finger across my throat, “means …”

“Something uncool. I remember already,” Zeek said. “Noodle, wait. What's the plan?”

The truth? I didn't have a plan. And Zeek wouldn't go for something dumb like Stop Those Bombers!

So I just smiled a big smile, snapped my face mask down, gave Zeek the new okay sign, and dove out into deep water.

A second later he was beside me. Yeah, I guess we're a team, no matter what.

It was a whole different world down there. The water was warm and green. Blue light rippled through it. It was beautiful, all right.

Then there it was, dead ahead. The wreck.

The long wooden ship was lying on its side. The hull was still together. Old ghostly rigging hung off the mast and quivered in the water.

Then we froze. The motorboat roared just above us. The motor shut off.

Three splashes. The Boss, Baldy, and Silver-Hair all dove in. They carried a black bundle.

Dynamite!

Maybe they won't see us, I thought.

Fwing!
A stun dart whizzed by my face mask!

Okay, so they saw us! We took off into the wreck. It was cramped and creepy in there. We swam up stairways and through hatches, paddling our flippers as fast as we could.

But Baldy was after us as though he had a motor strapped on him.

We just managed to escape out a tiny hole when everything went white with light. And two giant eyeballs glared at us from the depths.

The sea monster!

It shot up from the shadows.

Zeek looked at me with wide eyes and started for the surface.

He didn't make it. A huge snakelike arm snapped out and grabbed his leg in its claw.

Clamp!
Now it had me by the leg.

It was pulling us down.

I caught a last glimpse of Zeek as the shadows closed on him.

He was running his finger slowly across his throat.

NINE

“Zeekie!” I bubbled.

The monster's slimy arms dragged us down under its belly. We were locked tight in the grip of its claws.

Down we went.

I was waiting for huge jaws to open and for us to be eaten like little bugs.

But that didn't happen.

When we got down under the belly, I couldn't believe it. The bottom of the monster opened up, and the arms lifted us into some kind of small room.

Hey, I thought, monsters don't have rooms. Especially metal rooms, with ladders running up the side.

The claws let go, the floor closed up beneath us, and the water started to drain out.

I tore off my mask. Zeek did the same.

“Hey, Nood!” he said. “I figured it out. This is no monster! It's a … well, it's a …” He looked at me to fill in the word.

“Submarine?”

“That's it. Some kind of mini-submarine.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty exciting, no?”

“You bet!” he smiled. “But really, who's …”

Krrreeekkk!
The hatchway at the top of the ladder started to turn. It flipped open.

A face poked through the hole.

“You boys okay?”

“Mrs. Emerson!” Zeek and I shouted together. “Boy, are we glad to see you!” We started jumping up and down.

Then Mr. Emerson, the other half of the famous husband-and-wife exploring team, stuck his head down. “Noodle! Zeek! Come on. We've got a job to do!”

We were up the ladder in a flash.

“We saw you boys a little while ago,” Mrs. Emerson said. “But we had to dive before the big wave came.”

“Yeah, the Golden Crest almost sank our surfboard,” Zeek said. I nodded.

When we got to the small control room, we were amazed at all the computer screens, dials, switches, and other underwater equipment.

“This is incredible!” I said. “How long have you had this cool sub?”

“We've been looking for the wreck of Captain May's ship for a long time,” Mr. Emerson said. “We finally located it on sonar.”

“And we've just finished mapping it with laser photography,” Mrs. Emerson said, pointing to one of the built-in computer screens. “This shows a complete picture of the wreck.”

“Wow!” Zeek said. “Tech stuff! I love it.”

I cracked a smile.

But Mrs. Emerson frowned. “Then these looters came along and started blasting for treasure. Now this rock ledge is weak. Look at this!”

She showed us another screen with lots of squiggly lines on it. “If we don't raise this ship soon, the whole ledge will crash down and destroy it.”

“Raise it?” Zeek said, his eyes going wide. “How are you going to raise that old wreck?”

“By placing balloons in the hull and inflating them,” Mr. Emerson said. “This control here …”

“But, listen,” I cried. “There isn't going to be any wreck, any us, or any Mayville unless we stop these maniacs! Look!”

One of the screens flickered in front of us.

“There they are!” I shouted.

The picture was hazy, but we could see the Boss, Baldy, and Silver-Hair dropping bundles of dynamite into a small hatchway in the wreck.

Mr. Emerson looked at Mrs. Emerson. “Noodle's right. We've got to stop that blast.” He pulled on a pair of oxygen tanks.

“Sorry, Mr. E.,” I said. “We've been through that wreck. The passages are so tight only a kid could get through in the time we've got. Zeek will place the balloons. I'll go after the dynamite.”

“No, boys,” Mr. Emerson said. “You can't do this. We can't let you. It's much too—”

Suddenly Zeek jumped.

“That's it! That's the word! Finally, someone's going to say it! Sure, it's been different. And fun. And exciting. But it just got officially—
dangerous
!”

Zeek snapped his fingers and punched his thumb in the air. He grinned a big grin at me.

“Noodle, this is incredible. I place the balloons, you do the dynamite. What could be better? Holy cow, I can't believe it took all day to get dangerous!”

TEN

“Listen carefully, Noodle.” Mr. Emerson frowned and looked right at me. I gulped.

“The dynamite will be connected to a detonator box by four colored wires. Usually red, green, yellow, and blue.”

“Simple,” Zeek said, nodding at me. He was feeling great.

“You must disconnect all the wires carefully,” Mr. Emerson continued.

“Yeah. Or, like,
Boom
!” Zeek added, laughing.

I didn't laugh back at him.

I couldn't believe I had said I would do the dynamite.

“Don't worry,” said Zeek. “It's a cinch placing these balloons.” He held a bunch of flat rubber sausages. “As soon as I finish, I'll be there for the big moment!”

“Yeah?” But I was starting to hate my plan. “And, Noodle.” Mrs. Emerson said. “If that ledge starts to break apart, you get out of there!”

Great, I thought. Can you make it any more dangerous?

We climbed down into the water chamber.

Fwump!
The hatch closed.

Water jetted in and the bottom slid open. We dropped out into the water.
Blub. Blub.

Zeek swam off to the front of the wreck with a pack of those party balloons. He waved at me.

Me, the bomb expert.

I waved back.

I took a closer look at the ledge. It was like a giant stone shelf. It's going to collapse any second, Mrs. Emerson said. Yeah, just my luck.…

Rrrrrrr!
I looked up. The motorboat roared away. Okay. There was no time to spare.

I squeezed through the little hatchway. It was a tight fit, all right. No way could Mr. or Mrs. E. have done this.

I looked around. There it was, in the shimmering blue water. A pile of long ugly sticks.

There were the four wires running from the sticks to a humming black box. That was the detonator, the thing that actually triggered the blast.

Simple, Zeek had said.

Yeah, right! I'd seen enough movies to know that if I pulled the wires out the wrong way the whole thing would blow.

Something rumbled overhead. I poked my head up through the hatch.

Crrraaacckkk!
A rock rolled off the ledge and crashed onto the hull. Another fell. Then another.

The ledge was cracking!

I dove back in the hatch. I looked at the wires. This was it. Do or die. I had to start.

Pick a color, any color. Eenie-meenie-meinie—Something in my head said—green! Yes, I'll pull the green wire first!

But just as I reached for the green wire, the cabin door burst open and bubbles filled the tiny room.

It was Zeekie! He raced over to help.

But he swam in too fast and slammed into my oxygen tank.

I couldn't believe it! Clutzy thing number three!

I fell forward. I grabbed for something to catch my balance.

Riiip!

I stared at my hand.

I was holding the black box.

And all the wires were dangling from it!

ELEVEN

KA-BOOM!
(I thought).

But I was wrong.

Nothing happened.

Well, not really nothing. The black box stopped humming. That was good. And bubbles fizzled out of it. That was good too.

Then bubbles started to fizzle out of Zeek's mouth.

Blub. Blub.
Was he saying something?

No. I think he was laughing.

And he gave me the okay sign.

Suddenly, I had to laugh too. I couldn't believe I had done the dynamite. And we were all still alive!