Suddenly, the entire sphere rocked with a great thump, and Aleksey spun around. He was staring into Colter’s horrified eyes. Stark against the vast maw of teeth that held it, he seemed to have been caught in his last thought: fuck,shark.
The great white peeled away, grazing along the glass, and it took a very, very long time for its entire body to pass. It was considerably bigger than the ten feet he had to swim. He removed his second boot and stripped out of his jeans. He felt a hand on his bare leg, but for the first time in his life ignored it. Groggily, Ben rose to standing. He was wobbling and pale, sweat beading his brow. Aleksey caught him around the neck and hugged him. ‘One minute,min skat, and we will be free.’ Ben nodded, but he wasn’t looking at him, he was watching with a hypnotic, dazed expression as his blood dripped slowly through the open hatch to swirl and dissipate in the darkness beneath them.
Aleksey lowered himself into the water, took a breath and ducked beneath the sphere. Pushing away from the glass, he swam for the surface with as little splash as he could manage. He came up into the air, flicked the hair out of his eyes, and—
He looked wildly around, stretched up, swam to the stern. There was nothing to hold onto! He heard a thump from below, peered down, saw Ben’s wide, frantic eyes and dived back down and in, and Ben heaved him up with his good hand just as the sphere took an almighty blow from the side, the whole cylinder rocking and cracking and straining, water sloshing up inside, bubbles escaping as the vast shark came at them once more. Its mouth fastened around them as if it could bite and the glass would shatter, but it only worked free and passed them by, its piggy, boorish eyes glinting in the external lights. Aleksey realised he was panting, stooping, hands on knees. He straightened. ‘I need to—
It came again, crashing into them, more water sloshing in. Ben fell against him, and he cried out as his hand was jolted. He slipped over, nothing to hold onto, and went down hard, slithering on the soaking glass walkway over the lip and head first into the open hatch. Aleksey grabbed his boot, braced his legs wide on the seating and hauled him back in as the vast creature turned more aggressively and smashed at them again. He got Ben back into the capsule, grabbed at his own discarded jeans and added them to the makeshift bandage. They were both gasping for breath now, shocked, shaking. Aleksey began to finish what he’d been trying to tell Ben, but the enormous predator came at them from the dark and pummelled them. The water was now up to the lip, bubbles of their precious air leaving in great gulps as they watched the creature once more flick away into the darkness.
Seeing his chance, Aleksey gave a last despairing glance to Ben and slid into the water. He pushed for the surface, didn’t bother trying to find a handhold, but swam fast towards the bow. He was praying Colter had left the winch cables hanging over the side. If he could reach one, he could climb. He tried a number of times to stretch up enough to grab the rail, but it stayed out of reach, and every time he tried, the splash he made froze his blood.
The cables were not hanging down. Colter, captain of his ship and stowing things correctly, had brought his boat right up and onto the deck. Aleksey ignored his fear and continued to swim around the bow, checking the other side. Nothing. He began to swim back down the starboard side. When he was halfway down, he tried a final time to reach the rail, and lifting his head out of the water saw it behind him—a vast black fin twenty feet away and closing fast.
He dived.
The shark was faster than he was. He knew he couldn’t reach the cylinder where Ben, face pressed against the glass, was desperately shouting something he couldn’t hear. Suddenly, he hit a propeller. Instinctively, he ducked into the tiny recess it emerged from. The shark bit right through one of the blades, but diverted from its quarry, it bashed past aggressively with the fibreglass fin still wedged in its mouth. Aleksey, running out of air, swam for the capsule. He was sluggish, couldn’t think straight and reached blindly for Ben’s hand, hardly able to help when he felt himself being pulled into the air.
There was a great deal more blood in their little sanctuary now. He had a huge gash on his bicep that was welling bright red, rivulets pouring down his arm. ‘Oh, God. I thought it had you.’ Ben was trying one-handed to tear his own shirt to use as a bandage.
Aleksey nodded, rasping air in so fast it seared his throat. ‘Me too.’ He glanced down at the wound. ‘I think this was the propeller though.’
Ben made a small noise in the back of his throat. Aleksey whipped his head around. They could see it coming at them, fifteen feet off, just into the arc of the spotlights. It was like being hit by a freight train, andRogue Waveitself seemed to shudder as the hydrosphere took the full force of the deadly blow once more. They were juicy meat inside a fish bowl it could not smash, and its fury seemed to give intelligent calculation to the previously dull, unblinking ignorance of its gaze.
‘Why do you keep coming back!’
‘I think it’s planning on eating us, Ben, that’s why!’
‘Not the fucking shark. You! Why do you keep coming back!’
What!’
‘You need to get the hatch open! Stop coming back!’
‘Are you serious?’ He stared furiously into Ben’s face. ‘What the fuck do you think I’m trying to do? I can’t climb up anywhere! I’m not out there paddling about for my own fucking amusement!’
‘Stop swearing. Jesus. I’d be able to climb up!’
‘Oh, well, maybe you would. SAS can fucking do everything. What a shame I’m just boring old spetsnaz.’
‘Yeah, and twenty years ago at that.’
‘Seriously? Are you saying I’m old?’
‘I wouldn’t have to if you’d been able to climb!’
They wrapped their arms around each other’s necks, laughing quietly. He kissed Ben’s warm skin. He suspected Ben was in a great deal more pain than he was, but he needed the warm reassurance of flesh. ‘Pirates, Ben. He did it to stop fucking pirates boarding.’
‘I wonder if that was his last thought: wish I’d left that ladder.’
‘It might have been his penultimate one, yes.’
Ben pushed him gently away. He glanced down and pointed out the obvious by raising one boot, which was now standing in water. Bit by bit, bubble by bubble, their air was escaping. He suddenly groaned and squatted down, arms over his head, and Aleksey braced once more against the seat.
The bang was terrific as the great white hit them head-on, its long snout glancing straight off but its vast maw of stinking, bloodied teeth grazing, squeaking against the glass. It seemed to bite in sheer frustration and fury at not being able to get its prey. Then it heaved itself away and swam out of sight beneath the boat. Aleksey peered over the seat. ‘I am beginning to quite like polar bears.’
Ben was trying to do something with his good hand, cursing. ‘Help me.’ He indicated the button on his jeans. Aleksey didn’t even feel tempted to make a joke about Benjamin Rider-Mikkelsen’s excessive and sometimes inappropriate sex drive.
‘You need a grappling hook. We can make one. Come on! Help me!’ Aleksey ripped at Ben’s boots and pulled off his jeans. They used their teeth to tear strips and knotted them together. ‘Put my boots back on! Quick.’ Without arguing, Aleksey did as he was told, and once Ben had them on, he balanced on one leg, eyed his target and gave a savage kick to the metal stairs. Before they could assess his efforts, Aleksey shouted, ‘Brace!’ and they were hit again. Ben, off balance, fell once more. Aleksey tried to catch him but was knocked sideward into the open hole.
