Chapter 1
The Invitation
Huaka?i: trip, voyage, journey, mission
Carpinteria, California
February 1998
Minnow felt the shark before she saw it. She always did. A prick of her senses and she spun around in the dark water until she spotted the enormous animal looping around in a wide, exploratory circle. As it closed in, she could sense its agitation. She glanced around to see where the boat was, but there was no sign of it. The dark edges of panic began closing in...
And then she heard a loud, jolting ring.
It had taken her a while to fall asleep, by way of counting octopuses, but she had finally managed to drift off. Without turning on the light, she fumbled for the phone, knocking it onto the wooden floor in the process. It was probably a wrong number, and the intrusion annoyed her, cutting into her fiercely guarded sleep time.
“Hello?” she mumbled.
“May I speak with Dr. Minnow Gray, please?” said an unfamiliar voice.
“Speaking.”
“Minnow, this is Dr. Joe Eversole from University of Hawai‘i. I’m sorry to call so late in the evening, so I’ll get right to the point here. I think we have a problem. And I’m hoping you can help.”
Oh shit.
She sat up and switched on the light. “Don’t tell me there’s been another incident.”
A slight pause. “So you’re familiar with our... situation.”
The way he saidsituationcaused an itch under her skin. What had been happening in Hawai?i was more than a situation, and it alarmed her on many levels.
“Of course I am. Sharks are my world.”
Anyone with a television or newspaper knew what had gone down in the past few days. A deadly attack and a missing person along the same rugged stretch of Hawaiian coastline, plus shark sightings galore.
He spoke in rapid fire. “Got it. And yes, there’s been another incident. This one not fatal, but the victim is in bad shape, and it’s got me worried because this is number three, not to mention the near misses. People are freaked out, and I worry what’s coming next. It could get nasty.”
“What kind of help are you looking for?”
“Well, I’m short-staffed. Our whole team is in Australia for a symposium, and I could use a white shark expert who knows their shit. Someone to help me figure out what’s going on—why all in this location. I can’t say for sure yet, but my guess is this latest is another white shark.” He paused to catch his breath, then added, “I was hoping you might be able to come out to Hawai‘i for a week or two. Maybe more.”
“What about Doc Finnegan? I’m surprised you didn’t ask him.”
Men were top of the food chain in this field—in all of marine biology, really. Doc Finnegan was a leading white shark researcherwith a big ego and territorial tendencies. He was also her mentor. Doc had spent time in Hawai?i, so he seemed like the natural first choice.
“Yeah, I tried to get him, but he’s in Guadalupe for the next few weeks. He’s the one who recommended you.”
Of course. She knew that. But dropping everything and jetting off to Hawai?i was a big deal. Especially now. There were so many reasons to say no, number one being she had scraped together and earmarked nearly all her savings to finally get a vessel of her own, and aside from that she had seventy-four dollars to her name. Her new little nonprofit, Sea Trust, wasn’t even off the ground yet, and she had been planning on writing grant proposals and securing funding and a hundred other things this week. Not to mention her therapy sessions. Leaving now would derail everything.
She tucked a misbehaving lock of hair behind her ear. “As much as I’d love to, I don’t think I can swing it,” she said.
There was a long pause. “This is a chance of a lifetime. A known great white in Hawai‘i. Could be a game changer for you.”
Somewhere between those words was the unspoken truth of her predicament. A way of letting her know he knew of what had happened on the Farallon Islands last season. The events that had broken her a thousand ways.
Joe was right, though. It could be just what she needed. A chance to gain a foothold on her own, since there would be no going back to the Farallones. Not now, not ever.
“IfI say yes, could you pay my way there?” she asked.
