Truthseekers (9 page)

That was the first time Stacey had heard David called that, or was she referring to Rocko? Stacey felt she best not ask, but she also felt Abbey was good at deflecting comment so she felt it best to reply.

“I met David, who I guess is the hottie…” Abbey just smiled “… a few years ago at a conference he was speaking at. I simply asked him for coffee and we struck up a friendship and then work came from it,” Stacey said.

“Oh Stacey, how could you not fall for him?” sparked Abbey

“I didn’t… um haven’t… anyway it’s ridiculous… Abbey… you made me blush. Let’s just say David and I aren’t that close… but I love the work. I have real purpose and Rocko just makes me laugh but he’s as loyal and tough as anyone could be. I’d hate to cross him if he ever got mad. The boys play it pretty hard and they end up in some weird situations, but I’m pretty protected from that. I just do my job and that’s what I love. I love to find out secrets and uncover things and I’m good at it.”

“Well Stacey, let’s hope you are good at uncovering sharks because we are here at the port. Oh there are those other guys that are coming. Looks like they have already met Socks.”

Abbey pointed to the two men, John and Jack, who were already on board the charter vessel. One of them was obviously talking to Abbey’s skipper, a black man by the name of Socks. Stacey delighted in the African names. Her room maid was Lovely and the reception man was Brilliance. Stacey noticed that Abbey seemed to feel a little uneasy at the sight of the two men, but to her they looked handsome, obviously brothers and probably German or Swedish, given the blond hair. Both were very tall and muscular. Stacey started to think this might not be a bad trip at all. Her and two strapping athletic guys in a cage together, adrenalin pumping. In fact she could feel the heat rise inside her. She hoped the cool morning air would not give away her secret.

Abbey pulled up next to the boat and got out introducing everyone and giving Socks some instructions in Afrikaans. His reply made Abbey give away a hint of a frown, with which John looked at Socks squarely in the eye. Socks turned away and went on with his preparations.

They soon cast off and headed out through the heads of the tiny marina that housed mostly fishing vessels and into the open waters. The meeting of the Atlantic and Indian oceans was known for its restlessness and this morning was no different. The boat jumped and bobbed as it puttered its way out to sea. It was just twenty minutes to the launching site and Abbey was impressed at how well Stacey was doing. She seemed comfortable with the roll of the boat and Abbey guessed she might have spent more than enough time at sea somewhere.

It was true, Stacey was a yachtie, or at least that is what her father called them; those who were born with the ocean in their sails. In fact Stacey felt more free on the ocean than anywhere on land and she had mounting excitement as she felt herself getting closer to one of her life’s goals – shark cage diving.

It was breaking dawn, now around 6am as Socks brought the boat to a complete stop and cast off the anchor to stabilise the boat into the prevailing current. Abbey started to lower the large shark cage on the back of the boat. Both the two men simply sat calmly on the side of the boat. They had hardly spoken and Stacey had noticed they looked almost disinterested in the whole experience. She even wondered why they would bother coming out. They obviously had little interest, or maybe that was just the way these types were. She had introduced herself and had not got even a smile in return. She had come to the conclusion that her vision of romance in a shark cage was to be truly disappointed.

The shark cage was almost as big as the rear quarter of the boat. In fact it made the boat plane a little under speed. Around the outside of the top of the cage was a safety yellow rubber floatation ring, which would identify the cage as it was lowered and keep it afloat. There were extra buoyancy bubbles as well on each of the four corners. It appeared to Stacey that Abbey and her brother were very careful people and big on safety, something that made Stacey feel strangely calm, even though she and the two men were about to don their wetsuits and climb into the twin oceans and mingle it with the great whites, the most ferocious monsters of the deep.

The two men had disappeared below deck obviously to change. Stacey waited until they re-appeared and then went below and put on her own wetsuit. She noticed that Socks and Abbey were whispering very quietly and Abbey kept smiling at her. This all seemed very strange to Stacey.

On her return from below she saw and her nose told her that Socks had emptied some pretty rugged material into the ocean. In fact it was barracuda heads and a mixture of blood and fish entrails. This blood and guts approach was sure to have the hungriest of the great whites circling the back of the boat in no time.

In just under a minute Stacey and the group could make out three huge dark shapes nudging the rear of the boat. The sharks must have been right below them all the time. Their viewing time had arrived. The sea itself was also in quite a churn and the shark boat, which was only around thirty-five feet, was bobbing up and down restlessly.

“OK everyone, it’s time to get in the cage. There is enough room for eight in there so feel free to move around a bit, yet be careful getting in. The sea is quite rough today,” said Abbey who was standing by the wheel. She continued:

“Ladies first… Socks – could you help Stacey into the cage please?”

Socks got up and Stacey was already moving to the ledge of the aft of the boat. Two steps and a bit of dangling and she would be through the yellow ring and into the cage. As Socks was right next to her, the smaller of the two men, Jack got up and went alongside.

“I help,” he spoke in broken English.

Yet there was to be no help. A carefully disguised plan was always for Jack to ‘help’. He and John had decided that this had best look like an accident so even if police were involved their covers would allow them to give the necessary statements and then disappear, mission accomplished. Jack was to get Stacey up onto the lip of the cage, where he would produce a short but deadly cutting blade from the inside of the sleeve of his wetsuit. He would then assist and slice at the same time, cutting her deep on her exposed skin of her foot and drop her not into the cage, but use the roll of the boat to have her fall helplessly over the
side. The sharks already frenzying over the blood would do the rest. They had figured her screams from the cut would be taken as her losing her balance. The sharks would dispose of any evidence to the contrary. In essence it was a good plan to make a horrid crime look like simple misadventure.

Socks had been told by John at the dock, prior to Abbey and Stacey’s arrival, that no one of colour was to touch them or the white girl, playing the ultimate white man card with an African man. Yet Socks was never great at simply being a white man’s boy, so when Abbey asked him to assist he jumped up readily in indignation. John’s anger subsided, yet Socks could feel he had enraged the blond man.

The missing part and ultimate folly of John and Jack was their research on Abbey. Abbey was a wise and resourceful individual and she acted quickly. For her everything slowed right down at the moment Jack got up, almost as if she were in
The Matrix
itself and her instincts and training took over.

Jack moved past Socks and to the edge of the boat. He deftly and swiftly removed the blade from his sleeve and taking Stacey by the arm as she delicately balanced, prepared to slice her deeply across the foot and, as she screamed and went off balance lifting her leg, pretend to grab her only to push her into the now swirling frenzy below allowing nature to take its course. He never got the chance.

“You cut that girl and it will be the last thing you ever do.”

Abbey, sizing up the situation in a flash, had grabbed and loaded a spear gun she kept next to the wheel and had it aimed squarely at Jack’s chest. Abbey was a natural and this process of drawing the spear into a firing position had taken just a few seconds. Even John had felt he had only taken his eyes off Abbey for a second to watch the end of the researcher, his blood lust momentarily short-circuiting his common sense. It would be a moment he would forever regret. He considered making a move, but he knew he was just one step too far away.

Stacey’s mouth was agape, she had one leg over the side of the cage and she was literally holding onto her murderer for balance. Socks too
had stopped just one foot short of Stacey and Jack. It was then that everything went into slow motion and Stacey’s life past before her eyes.

Jack made a split-second decision. He lurched toward Stacey with his free right hand, wielding the knife and then realising he had been caught, changed his plan in a split second in his mind. Instead of slashing her foot and pushing her into the ocean he dragged her toward him, knowing that Abbey would fire instantly and that he could use Stacey as a shield her catching the spear. He knew that then Abbey would be spent and John would quickly dispose of her. He would then throw Stacey to the sharks as was the plan, then deal with the black man who seemed too thin to cause any issue. Then he and John would steal the boat and make their way. Sadly, like many macho men brought up in military style, he had totally underestimated Abbey.

His lurch immediately made Abbey release the trigger on the spear gun, yet she did not correct for his lurch as he had assumed anyone would. She would never do that. Her Special Air Services training that saw her serve in a variety of African countries and win countless battles against the pirates of Somalia and the jungle mercenaries of Rwanda was complete. She was a weapon and they had totally underestimated her. She had played games of life chess before and in a weird way she enjoyed the challenge. Immediately she had seen them talking to Socks at the dock, she knew they were there for some evil. It was almost as if they had played into her hands.

Jack was hit in his right lung, throwing him backwards at a tremendous force. He was almost covered by Stacey but in his jerking movement and surprise at being hit his grip loosened and he fell backward, releasing her and yet teetering for just a second to realise his demise as he reeled over the side of the ship on its upward sway, giving him an extra second to consider his life’s end. He hit the water and started screaming. It was to no avail. Sharks literally tore his limbs apart and he was soon quiet, a simple stain on the ocean of the world.

At the same time Abbey fired John launched at her. He was less stupid and knew she would always fire. He didn’t know who she was, yet he
knew she was something to be reckoned with. In one blow she finalised her shot into the chest of Jack and in a sweeping blow knocked John off his feet, the spear gun cutting across his face and leaving a deep gash in his right cheek.

Stacey had fallen hard on the deck and had crushed her pretty nose. The impact had knocked her a little senseless and she lay there, knowing blood was flowing from the bridge of her nose and not quite knowing anything more.

Socks had immediately stared in disbelief at the scene yet his natural instinct had made him turn and move toward Abbey. This was in the direction of John, who having just been smacked by the spear, and seeing his brother going over the side to a gruesome end had nothing but vengeance burning in his mind. He regained composure from the hit and as Abbey was coming to him for the second time she yelled “No, Socks!” He dived uselessly toward the stronger assailant, heroically blocking Abbey’s path.

John was quick to dispatch the amiable black man and with just one grab and click Sock’s torment in trying to fit in, his role in rebuilding apartheid, ended – his neck snapped and life force literally cut off in one motion.

This left Abbey and John facing each other.

“Who are you bitch?” John taunted.

“I am your ticket to judgment!” Abbey snarled back, looking down at the bleeding Stacey and her dead staff member.

John had been looking uselessly for a weapon of any sort, yet couldn’t find one. Abbey still clung to the now useless spear gun, yet she with all her training could make it a weapon and she knew John would be carrying a knife. He was.

John drew the knife and looked at her. It was a Mexican standoff with neither prepared to go first. John had found himself after the hit being circled by Abbey and as such was right near the wheel and throttle of the boat. He gunned the motors. Abbey thought instantly about attacking him, yet even with her deft training in seven different hand-to-hand combat
techniques she did not underestimate him, nor did he underestimate her. She knew that soon the boat would tug on its anchor and the whiplash would allow him to surge at her. It did.

As the boat hit its anchor the rush and strain made the front of the shark diving boat whip up. This threw John directly at Abbey; he had hoped she would not feel this and his move would allow him the rush off his feet so he could strike. She simply used her 4
^th
-dan Aikido skills and sent him scuttling past with urgency and momentum. In the off-balance world of the rough ocean she had slipped and fell in the manoeuvre and found herself unguarded from behind. She knew John would pounce and she knew that if he did his strike would be quick and somewhere she would feel the misguided and misplaced sense of heat from a knife strike. It always felt hot and she grimaced, yet on this day there was no heat. She leapt up and spun to face her foe.

There was no John. He had gone. She knew not where. The boat had shifted to a slow drag of the anchor across the bottom sand. The ride was jagged. Yet no John, there was no sign of him. It was like he had vanished into thin air. She watched out the back for several seconds, maybe ten or more before tentatively relieving the throttle and bringing Stacey to her knees. John was gone. Socks and Jack were dead, and Stacey was gushing blood from her nose and was in a stunned state. Not wanting to stop, Abbey dealt with the wrenching of the hull due to the anchor and brought a shaken Stacey to her knees, sheltering her from the fallen Socks.

After some minutes she brought the boat to a stop. She hauled anchor and attended to Stacey all the time being on watch. Stacey had regained her thoughts and was starting to place things. But she was struggling to understand what could have happened.