Shark Wars (13 page)

GRAY FINISHED DOING DRILLS WITH HIS
shivermates and was ravenously hungry again. Combat drills had been ramped up since their battle with the bull sharks, and everyone took their bumps and bruises willingly. Gray was bigger, faster, and stronger, but he was also becoming very good at fighting both alone and in tandem with others. Goblin supervised the drills while Thrash and Ripper led them. Gray could usually beat Thrash, but the massive hammerhead still gave him problems. Rip was smart when it came to fighting and owned a lifetime of battle scars to prove his experience. Because of the T-shape of his head, the hammerhead had no blind spots in his vision, so it was very hard to get after his tail or attack him from above.

Gray's ego wasn't getting too big, though. Streak fought with such ferocity that she beat him in a one-on-one battle. He thought that Thrash would laugh at him, losing to the much smaller shark, but Streak had earned the respect of everyone long ago. And the fact that she also beat Thrash the same day certainly helped.

Gray enjoyed the battle drills, which kept his mind off unwelcome thoughts and feelings. He now knew he wasn't a reef shark and was actively hiding that. Where did he come from? Did his mother know he wasn't a reef shark? If so, why hadn't she told him? Gray missed having Barkley and the rest of Rogue Shiver around. Sometimes he was angry that his friends had chosen to leave; other times ashamed he hadn't gone with them, and still other times he was happy he had stayed. And always there was the uncertainty and sadness about not knowing if his mother were alive. Those thoughts swam around inside his head and threatened to overwhelm him.

Gray was just leaving the homewaters when Velenka joined him. “You're getting very good,” she said with a toothy smile. “Thrash was really annoyed.”

Gray grinned back. He had beaten the big tiger badly today.

“Aside from getting my tail kicked by Streak, it was okay,” he said. “Who knew there was so much more to fighting than ramming and biting?”

“Those are two very important parts, though.” She chuckled and nudged him in the direction of a secluded area. It wasn't good territory for hunting, but he allowed the mako to lead him. Sometimes Velenka seemed like she genuinely cared about him. But other times it seemed like she was
studying
him. She thought it would be best to keep his secret about being a megalodon from everyone for now, which was actually a huge relief. Gray was still new to the shiver and getting his fins underneath him. He didn't need to be known as Gray the megalodon-monster freak while trying to earn the shiver's respect as their fifth in the Line.

“If you were a leader, what would you do?”

“Umm, I don't know.” Gray was tired from the drills. And hungry. And Velenka was forcing him to answer questions when all he wanted was a nice, fat fish. “Help the shiver be the best shiver it can be?” There was a flash of irritation in the mako's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a look of deep sadness. He couldn't help but ask, “What's the matter?”

“Have I ever told you how I joined the shiver?” She put an odd, distasteful emphasis on the word
joined
.

“No.” Gray would have certainly remembered if she had. Now that he thought about it, Velenka never shared anything personal about her life with him.

“I was just a pup when Riptide Shiver came,” she began. It seemed hard for her to go on, but she did. “Goblin's mother led, with him as first. It was one of their last long swims into the Sific, which is where I was born. They destroyed my home. They took me prisoner.”

Gray tried to comfort her but couldn't think of anything to say. He hoped there was more to the story, but there wasn't. “I thought you liked Goblin. Liked the shiver,” he sputtered. “How can you stand it?”

“That's what life in the Big Blue is about: choices,” she said curtly. “I could choose to live or die.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Suddenly she was snout to snout with him. “Because you can change things!” she said with fervor in her eyes. “You could be the one to lead us into a new current, a new age!”

“Goblin is our leader!” Gray shot back without thinking. This felt all wrong! “You're his fourth! What are you talking about?”

The mako bumped him in the snout with steel in her eyes. “Under Goblin's leadership we've taken loss after loss! It's an endless cycle of death that won't stop until he's gone.”

“Velenka, I lost my mother, my friends, and my home,” Gray told her. “But you're not making sense. I'm not going to fight Goblin.”

The mako sensed his agitation. Her eyes became calmer. She sighed. “Of course not,” she told him. “Sending a leader to the Sparkle Blue to take his place would be wrong.”

“That's more like it,” Gray said. “Did you eat a bad fish or something?”

Velenka snapped her tail, slapping him in the belly hard. “No, I did not ‘eat a bad fish'!” She calmed, again. “I'd like you to think about the future, Gray. Goblin will fight against Razor until one of them is dead. If he loses, can I count on you to step up and lead the shiver?”

“I don't know how to lead! Besides, Ripper is the first!”

The mako cut him off. “It's your destiny! Do you really want Ripper making decisions for everyone? He's strong, but stupid. I wouldn't put him in charge of a clam shell.” Maybe she had a point. “Or Thrash? Or, Machiakelpi's fin, do you want to put Streak on the Speakers Rock?”

Gray nodded. Thrash would be worse than Ripper, much more unpredictable. And Streak seemed scared, somehow. Who knew what either would do if they were leader? “What about you, Velenka?” he asked. “You're the smartest fin I know. And you're tough!”

Now the mako smiled a smile that lit up the ocean around Gray. “Thanks for the compliment, but I like staying behind the scenes. A shiver leader needs to be imposing and strong. You're made for it!” Velenka scraped against his flank. “I suppose I could advise you, though.” The light hit her black top half just so, and a rainbow rippled across her graceful form.

“Umm,
if
anything should happen to Goblin,” Gray stammered. “If…” He looked around to make sure no one was hearing this very dangerous conversation. And no one was. Not even a single bottom-feeding dweller. It was odd. Absolutely nothing lived here. The entire area was a dead zone for some reason. They were in the perfect spot for the conversation to remain private. Had Velenka planned this? Gray couldn't be sure, but it seemed possible. “But you'll be the first if I'm leading. That's unless Razor Shiver doesn't send me to the Sparkle Blue. Or Ripper, Thrash, or Streak. Or if something else doesn't kill me before that.” Gray chuckled, bumping Velenka to join in his laughter, which she did eventually. “I'm hungry. Want to come along?”

The mako shook her head. “No, I have things to do.” Velenka swam off. Gray sincerely hoped none of those things she had to do were related to this conversation. He wanted to make sure but found to his dismay she was already gone.

IT WAS A PERFECT SUNNY MORNING IN THE WARM
waters off the reef and there were fish everywhere! “What a great time to be a fin in the Big Blue!” Barkley exclaimed, the water whisking past his gills. Suddenly, there was Yappy, right in front of him. Oh, the little flipper was such a talker, but Barkley didn't even care! “Isn't it great to be alive?” he said to the sea dragon.

“Snap out of it, already!” Yappy yelled. Well, that was rude! And then the colorful sea dragon slapped Barkley in the face with his tail. And the slap was really hard! Much harder than Yappy's little tail should be able to deliver, anyway.

“Yappy, what are you doing?” he asked as the sea dragon began to fade away like a ghost. “Hey! Where are you going?” But the sea dragon was gone and the reef disappeared, too.

“Who the heck is Yappy?” Shell asked Snork as he hovered nearby, a look of concern on his face. The bull slapped Barkley again with his tail.

“Okay, stop it,” Mari told Shell. “He's awake.”

“I think he deserves another couple whacks for getting us into this mess!”

Barkley wasn't at the reef at all. It all came rushing back to him. The ambush! The fight! And now they were—where?

“They put us in a cage!” said Snork before he could ask. Barkley looked around. It
was
a cage of sorts, made out of a whale skeleton attached to a coral reef. The ribs were the main bars, but razor-sharp coral grew between the large gaps, forming smaller ones. Even Yappy wouldn't have been able to wriggle through, although there was room for water to circulate so they could breath. No way the coral was accidental! It had been put there on purpose and then cemented in place to make the spaces between the whale ribs smaller. How would a shiver make a deal with crabs, mollusks, and whatever else, to do this? That was a question for another time. Right now they were prisoners.

“Is everyone okay?” Barkley asked.

“We've all got bumps and bruises, but nothing too bad,” Mari answered. She hesitated for a moment, and then asked, “Do you think that Gray was a part of this?”

Barkley answered instinctively, “No.”

Gray couldn't. He wouldn't!

Would he?

Mari saw the doubt on his face and got worried.

Snork trembled. “I'm scared.” Barkley patted him on the flank but didn't say anything. He was scared, too.

“Okay, I'm getting us out of here!” Shell told everyone. The big bull furiously churned his tail back and forth to gain speed and rammed one of the smaller ribs of the cage. It did nothing except cause him to yelp “Oww!”

“Think you're going to bust your way out, eh?” came a voice from below. A lichen-covered rock separated from a wall to which the whale skeleton was anchored. But it wasn't a rock at all! It was some sort of fish that looked like a rock! It said, “Not likely. Not likely at all.”

This scared the kelp out of Snork. “Talking rock! Talking rock!” he shouted, jamming himself behind everyone.

It was without a doubt the ugliest fish Barkley had ever seen in his young life. Did they live at the reef, too? If they had, he would never have noticed! The fish was dirty, with thin strands of moss and greenie waving from its mottled brownish hide. Its scales, if they could be called scales, were malformed; some bumpy, others wispy. It actually looked like something that swam the Sparkle Blue for a while and came back to life after not liking it. The entire group backed away from the fish, which was only as big as Shell's front flipper.

This was ridiculous. It was just a fish, after all.

Barkley swam forward and Shell shouted, “Watch it, Barkley! That's a stonefish. It's the lionfish's uglier and even more poisonous cousin.”

Stonefish? Well, the name was right on, Barkley mused.

The dweller took offense. “Who you calling ugly, krillface? I'll slice you good!”

“You're calling me krillface? I'll grind you up!” sputtered the bull.

“Just try it, bullhead!”

“No one is slicing or grinding anyone!” Mari said forcefully. “Let's all calm down.” She introduced herself and the group, then asked the fish its name.

The stonefish used its stubby fins to flutter slowly in a circle. “Guess it don't matter much since we're all goners anyway. I'm Trank.” He shook his head. “Youse fins got yourselves in way outta your depth, huh?” The stonefish spoke with a weird accent. “That Velenka's a piece o' work, eh?”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Barkley.

“Only Velenka and Goblin know about this cage,” Trank told them. “And Goblin don't use the cage. Goblin eats youse if he's gotta problem with youse. He's a direct flipper, if youse know what I mean.”

Even though the situation was dire, Barkley became a little happier. Gray didn't do it! It was the sneaky mako who was behind this. “Velenka! I knew it!” he said. “And how did you get in here?” Barkley asked Trank.

Trank hemmed and hawed. He didn't want to say anything until Mari reminded him, “Like you said, it doesn't matter, right?”

The stonefish nodded. “I'm in here because I know too much,” he said. “Gafin loaned me out on a job. I'm his best hitter, see?”

“What?” asked Barkley, not understanding.

Mari told him, “Trank's an assassin.”

Barkley opened his mouth wide, but nothing came out. An assassin?

The stonefish laughed. “At least yer not all from the boonie-greenie. Anyway, she makes a deal with Gafin for me to do one thing, then changes her mind and wants me to take out the fifth in the Line, name of Hawley. Well, that's not how it works, and besides, Hawley was a good fin.” Trank shook himself and a cloud of dirt fell away, floating down to the sand. “She put me here and got someone else to do the job instead.”

Barkley's mind spun from the sheer deviousness of it. He had heard about the mysterious death of Hawley when he was in Goblin Shiver. Velenka got rid of Goblin's best friend and put herself in the Line to be his adviser! And now she was holding on to him and the rest of Rogue Shiver in case Gray didn't do whatever she wanted.

Trank continued, more to himself, “Gafin's gonna be one angry urchin if he ever finds out. Not that he'll get a chance, though. Once the Tuna Run's done, she'll kill him, too.”

“What's happening at the Tuna Run?” Barkley asked.

“The Run is where
everything
is gonna go down! That's where she makes her move on both Goblin and Razor and takes everything for herself.” Trank chuckled. “After that, youse, me, and every dweller she doesn't like is chum. Come to think of it, she and Gafin would make a nice couple, if youse know what I mean.”