“How convenient,” she remarked. “Bob can treat your toenail fungus in prison.”
Bob’s voice rose in a squeak. “Prison?!”
“Yes, prison,” snapped Carter. “For kidnapping, assault, industrial espionage, and conspiracy to manipulate the stock market.”
“Industrial espionage?” Jim repeated, bewildered. He was the one Fen had nailed with a can of Sprite, and he had a soggy bandage on his head.
“What conspiracy?” Al demanded, sounding worried.
“Eldon scammed you,” said Fen. “Remember when Carter disappeared for a year, and then he reappeared with a story that most people didn’t believe, and Howe Enterprises’ stock crashed and the company nearly went under? Your Most Ridiculous Game thing was an excuse to get you all to commit the crime and leave his hands clean. Eldon wanted us both to disappear for a while and then reappear with a story that absolutely no one would believe. We’d look like lunatics, and Little Bit’s and Howe Enterprise’s stock would crash. Then TicTech would reign supreme, as the cavemen say.”
A dead silence fell. The kidnappers squirmed and shot nervous glances at each other.
“I don’t know anything about any of that,” said Al.
“Me neither,” said Jim.
“It wasn’t kidnapping and assault,” said Horace. “It was a prank. A boys will be boys kind of practical joke.”
Fen fixed them with a glare that made all five of them shrink back into the mud. “It was kidnapping. And assault. And battery. And if I hadn’t happened to have spent some time in this very swamp—er, swimming with Great Swamp Sharks, it’s the extreme version of swimming with dolphins—and if I hadn’t gotten close to one particular Great Swamp Shark, you’d have gotten away with it.”
Carter added his glare to hers. “If you don’t want to be on the hook for the conspiracy part, you can testify about who hired you.”
The kidnappers all shot each other nervous glances. Belligerently, Horace said, “It’s our word against yours!”
A wave of muddy swamp water crashed over them as the Dunkleosteus heaved itself out of the water. The kidnappers shrieked and tried to scramble away as Norris lunged for them, his great jaws snapping.
“Horace, you moron!” Bill yelled, and smacked him hard across the back of the head. “Take the deal before she feeds us to that thing!”
“All right, all right!” Horace gasped. “Call it off! I’ll testify!”
Fen snapped her fingers at Norris, who dragged his great bulk back into the water. Like the Cheshire Cat, his toothy jaws were the last thing to disappear.
Carter beckoned to her to step away from the kidnappers. They went far enough away that they could watch them while being able to speak privately.
“We have to figure out what to do with them,” he whispered. “Their boat is destroyed, and we can’t tie them up.”
“We could ditch them on the island,” she whispered back. “They might swim for it, though.”
His grin lit up his entire face. “Not if they think Norris is guarding them.”
They returned to the kidnappers.
“Listen up,” said Carter. “We’re leaving you on this island with the Great Swamp Shark guarding it. You’ll be safe as long as you don’t go in the water.”
“Or too near the shore,” Fen added. “As you just saw.”
“The sooner we get out of the swamp, the sooner you’ll be rescued,” he said.
“And by ‘rescued,’ he means arrested,” she put in. “Still, better than getting eaten. Right?”
The kidnappers unenthusiastically nodded.
“So where are we, and which way is out?” Carter asked.
“Georgia,” said Al. “Or maybe Florida. The swamp’s right on the border. Keep heading north, and you’ll be out in a day or so. It’d be faster if you had a motorboat, but…”
“You can’t leave us here for two days,” said Horace. “There’s no food! It’d be murder!”
