Extinct (17 page)

“They’re upriver, camping next to an old beaver dam.”

“How do you know that?”

He stepped out onto the small wooden dock and undid the boat’s stern line. Carolyn pitched the bow line over the boat’s windshield. “Maybe you should stay here,” he said. “It’s only a couple of miles. I’ll be back with them in a few minutes.”

“Are you crazy?” she said, dropping into the craft. She slid behind the steering wheel and turned the ignition key.

The motor roared to life.

*   *   *

At the sound of the outboard motor starting, Fred looked across his shoulder in the direction of his daughter’s house. He was far enough downriver that he couldn’t see even a faint glimmer of lights now, but the motor sounded as if it had started right behind the house.

Now the motor opened wide. Even at its distance, the whine as it wound to full power came clearly through the dark.

Paul looked up the river toward the sound.

*   *   *

Carolyn’s dark hair whipped in the wind streaming past the craft. “I asked you how you knew where they were?” she said over the roar of the motor.

He stood next to her, his hands on the top of the windshield. “Some deputies saw them earlier today. The deputies didn’t know about the attack in the Sound. They’d been on the river all morning.”

“What were they looking for?”

When he didn’t answer immediately she looked at him.

“Alan.”

“Two fishermen disappeared a couple of nights ago.”

She looked at the throttle, but it was leaned forward as far as it would go. Behind them a wide wake rolled out to crash into the bank on one side of the channel and cause the tall water grass on the other side to weave back and forth like it was dancing.

Ahead of them trees rose from both sides of the river. A minute later they passed in between them.

“They said only a couple of miles,” he repeated. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

Ahead of them the wide beam of the bow light brightly illuminated the center of the channel and reflected out against the trees to each side.

Behind them the boat continued to form a wide wake, now spreading out to crash into the banks to each side of the river and slosh back toward the center of the channel.

A bug glanced off Alan’s cheek and ricocheted to the side.

“There,” he said.

Carolyn pulled the throttle back.

A small wave building in front of its bow, the boat settled lower in the water and coasted toward the gap in the dam.

Carolyn edged the throttle forward and turned the wheel, lining up the boat perfectly and passing through the gap with inches to spare on each side.

Dark outlines of three tents could be seen to one side of the slough. No fires burned. No one moved about.

“Daddy!”
she called.

“They’re fishing,” he said.

She spun the wheel, turning the boat sharply, and pushed the throttle forward. Branches protruding from the dam brushed roughly against the boat’s side as it sped though the gap toward the center of the channel.

Carolyn shook her head.

“Which way?”

CHAPTER 20

“Hang on!” Armon yelled and laughed loudly.

San-hi’s long arms yanked back and forth spasmodically with the darting motions of the big fish he had on the line.

Paul leaned out over the side of the boat as he looked back at the jerking line.

“Not too far out, Paul,” Fred called from the other boat.

“You’re not keeping the line tight,” Paul said to San-hi.

“Paul,”
Fred called, “I’m going to make you put on your preserver.”

Paul eased his upper body back inside the boat, but kept his head and neck extended out over the water, dimly glowing red from the craft’s stern light.

San-hi lost the fish.

Armon roared his laughter.

The Vietnamese stared across the water at his friend.

Paul nodded knowingly. “I told you,” he said.

San-hi stared at him.

Armon laughed again.

Fred smiled.

The water swirled several feet out past the side of the trailing boat.

“A big one,” Paul said. He lifted his cork from the water. Leaning forward, he flicked the end of his pole, flipping the baited hook out as far as he could. It landed several feet short of where he’d seen the swirl.

He frowned. Behind him, Edward yanked his pole, and his hook popped clear of the water.

“I’m glad Martha fixed a lot of sandwiches,” Fred called from the other boat.

The water out in front of Edward swirled, and a big bass came half out of the water after a dragonfly.

“Read it and weep, Edward,” Armon called from the other boat. “That’s the one you lost.”

Then a rapid swirl in the water a few feet to the side of where the bass had disappeared, followed by a long ripple running several feet across the surface pulled Armon’s eyes to the spot.

San-hi stared, too. “I think an alligator just got your bass, Edward,” he said.

*   *   *

The spotlight on the bow cast a wide beam of bright light in front of the speeding boat. Carolyn shut the spotlight off and stared ahead of them down the channel in the dark.

She couldn’t see any lights at all.

*   *   *

The two small stern lights raised on short shafts at the aluminum boats’ rear illuminated the boys in the craft in a red glow and cast a circle out over the water.

Armon slapped at a mosquito on his broad forehead. The young blond on the seat in front of him passed him a can of insect repellant.

Armon sprayed it liberally up and down his arms, around his tennis shoes, and onto his palms, then rubbed his hands around his face. In the other boat, Paul’s cork jerked under the water. He yanked up on the line to set the hook.

The end of the pole suddenly bent into a sharp curve. The line sped toward the front of the boat. The older blond ducked as Paul’s pole swung over his head.

“What’n hell?” Armon said as he looked across the water.

The line circled the bow, straightening the pole toward the water. The fish rippled alongside the boat. Edward ducked as the pole came around over his head.

The fish splashed near the stern and its thin body, four feet long and spinning, jumped clear of the water.

“A gar,” Armon said. He laughed.
“Catch it, Paul.”

Paul’s arms strained as the fish dove deep, pulling the tip of the pole underneath the water, clanging the side of the pole against the edge of the boat.

The fish splashed clear of the surface again, dove …

And the line snapped.…

The tip of the pole popped into the air and vibrated.

Paul frowned.

*   *   *

Carolyn caught the faint glow of the red lights ahead of them. She switched off the bow light to cut its reflection off the water.

“Is it them?” she asked above the roar of the motor.

“It’s two boats.”

Carolyn looked at the water flying past the speedboat’s side. It had never seemed so black to her before. She looked across the windshield again and caught her lip in her teeth. Ahead of them, the red lights moved slowly toward the edge of the marshland.

*   *   *

Somebody slapped at a mosquito.

Fred used a paddle to guide the boat toward the narrow channel running off the river into the marsh grasses.

Armon turned the other boat with him.

The sound, of a speedboat approaching from the rear grew quickly louder. A bright spotlight glowed from its bow.

There was an audible plop.

“Son of a bitch!”

“Armon!”

“Sir, the little bas … he hit me with a water balloon.”

Holding his arms out, Armon looked down at the water soaking the front of his T-shirt and jeans. The younger blond brother stared out across the water.

“Milton,” Fred said.

The boy kept his stare out over the water.

“Milton.”

The boy’s face slowly came around.

Fred didn’t say anything.

Slowly, the boy slipped two water-filled balloons out from behind his hips and placed them in the bottom of the boat at his feet.

“Milton,” Fred said again.

A half dozen still-unused balloons came from behind the boy this time. Armon leaned forward, grabbed them and stuffed them into his jeans pocket.

The light behind them became blinding and the speeding craft coming downriver turned directly toward them and slowed.

Paul raised his hand in front of his face and looked back into the light.

“Daddy,”
Carolyn called.

Paul frowned.

Carolyn guided the speedboat between the two smaller boats.

“Daddy, there’s been another attack—in the Sound. There might have been another one here on the river. There’s two men missing and deputies found their boat and said it has teeth marks across its stern.”

Paul’s face tightened.

Fred’s face had a questioning expression across it.

Alan nodded. “I know it sounds crazy. I haven’t seen the boat. But the deputies told Jonas that’s what it looks like.”

The boat paddled by San-hi came around the right of the speedboat. Fred’s boat, rocking gently on the small waves created by his daughter’s boat, drifted on toward the shallow channel running through the marsh grasses.

“Tie the boats here,” Alan said, “and we’ll take you back.”

Fred looked across the width of the river toward its far bank. “Okay, you take the boys and let me take the boats over there. I can bring my pickup down the street and load them in the morning.”

“Daddy, no. We’ll worry about getting the boats later.”

“Okay, we’ll tie ’em together and anchor them in the grass. Armon, paddle us over there.” Fred pointed to the water grass to his right. Armon lifted a paddle from the bottom of the boat and leaned over the bow.

“You need to call Mother, too,” Carolyn said. “She’s going to see the news, if she hasn’t already—she’ll be panicking.”

Fred’s boat was half within the entrance to the narrow channel now. San-hi’s was still out in the river, but right behind them. Fred looked toward the cooler and his backpack lying in San-hi’s boat in the space between its middle seats.

“Mack, my phone.”

The older blond brother leaned forward, but Paul’s hands reached quicker. He pulled the backpack’s flap open, felt inside the pack, found the phone and battery pack and pulled them out. San-hi used his paddle to guide the bow of the craft toward the left of Fred’s boat.

Paul stood. The boat rocked slightly under his feet.

“Paul,” Carolyn said.

“Careful, son,” Fred said.

Paul nodded and waited for the two craft to come together.

A wide head burst through the surface in an explosion of water between them. The mouth gaped wide toward Fred. The bow of San-hi’s boat ran into the creature’s back and lifted. Paul, still clutching the telephone and battery pack, fell sideways into the water. Carolyn screamed. The shark turned partially in the direction of what struck him and splashed back under the water. San-hi’s boat, pushed to the side by the wave created by the splash, hit the side of the speedboat and tilted. Edward rolled over its side into the river.

Fred dove from the other boat into the water. Alan was trapped from entering the water by San-hi’s boat directly beside him. He vaulted over the seat to the rear of the speedboat, came up on its stern with one foot on the motor, and dove in a flat racing dive for the water.

Paul paddled as hard as he could for the speedboat. Edward’s head came up in front of him, and went under again. Paul stopped swimming and grabbed for him. Paul sunk under the water. Fred and Alan reached the spot together. Paul’s head came up. He sputtered and pulled hard with his arm. Edward came up, Paul’s fingers twisted tightly in the neck of the boy’s T-shirt. Alan grabbed Paul. Fred grabbed Edward. The speedboat’s motor roared as Carolyn backed toward them, hitting the aluminum boat with San-hi and the older blond and spinning it around.

“Watch out!”
Carolyn screamed as she jerked the gear into neutral and the boat continued coasting backward. The stern slammed hard into Alan’s ribs as he reached up for its top, but he was able to grasp the rim and hang on. Fred’s big hand grabbed next to his. Carolyn jammed the gear forward and pushed on the throttle.

The prop spun close to Alan’s leg. San-hi’s boat, slowing its spin, still sat partially out in the river. Edward clung to Fred’s neck as Fred, holding the speedboat with one hand, reached out with his other hand and grabbed the aluminum boat. His arms stretched painfully. He grimaced, but held on. Alan pushed Paul over the rear of the speedboat, where he went sprawling into its bottom as its bow slammed into the other small boat in front of them, knocking it and the wide-eyed boys within it farther into the shallow channel between the marsh grasses. Fred’s hand slipped loose from the speedboat as it sped into the channel. Burdened by Edward’s weight, he disappeared under the water.

His arm rose up through the surface, splashed, and grabbed the side of the aluminum boat. His head and shoulders popped above the water, Edward clinging to his neck. The shark’s head rose up out of the water behind him. Fred dove under the small boat. The blond vaulted over its side onto a small, triangular-shaped wedge of marsh grasses. He sunk in water to his ankles. San-hi splashed into the grass beside him. The shark’s wide head crashed down on the boat, submerging it under its thick body.

Fred’s head popped to the surface. He pushed Edward ahead of him, and scrambled up onto the small section of grass.

CHAPTER 21

Four bright orange preservers floated on the water. The cooler bubbled and sank beneath the surface of the river. Fred, San-hi, the older blond-haired brother, and Edward stood on the spongy, triangular-shaped section of ground not much larger than a dining room table. The last boy from the other aluminum boat scrambled over the side of the speedboat and rolled into its bottom. Their small boat drifted backward past Alan, standing in water up to his mid-thighs next to the speedboat’s stern.

“Come this way,” he said. “It’s too shallow for it to come in here.”