Mega 3: When Giants Collide (Mega Series) (23 page)

“So, where’s the vault?” Tank Top asked Ballantine as he walked over to the still unconscious form of Kinsey that lay tied up next to the door into the server room. “Tell me, Ballantine, or the junkie gets a kick to the head. Every second you hesitate she gets another kick. How many do you think that noggin of hers can take?”

Ballantine didn’t say a word. Tank Top drew his foot back, looked at Ballantine one last time, then lashed out, nailing Kinsey just above her ear. The woman moaned and grunted, but didn’t wake up. Tank Top kept his eyes on Ballantine then drew his foot back again.

“Fine,” Ballantine said, “I’ll show you where it is.”

“Good,” Tank Top said, “but let’s keep the doctor here on his task until I know for sure that there actually is a backup.” He looked at Gil and Lug. “Gil, you’re with me and Ballantine. Lug? You stay here with Bokeem.”

“Stay here and babysit?” Lug complained. “Bokeem can do that.”

“Can I?” Bokeem grinned. “Is that what I’m doing? Babysitting? Or am I studying the codes the doctor is inputing to access the servers?”

“Uh, probably the last part,” Lug said, “sorry.”

“You’re here to watch the door,” Tank Top said. “You don’t let anyone in except for me and Gil, you hear?”

“Don’t let anyone in?” Lug laughed. “There’s no one here. All the Grendel dipshits are on the ship and you’ll have Ballantine with you.”

Tank Top stared at Lug for a second then looked down at John Bill’s corpse.

“Oh, right,” Lug said, “whoever did that could be here.”

“Don’t forget about Dr. Morganton,” Ballantine said, “she’s somewhere loose, remember?”

“Come on, smart ass,” Tank Top said as he pointed his carbine at the door, “move it. I want those backups now.”

“Yes, sir, Jason, sir,” Ballantine saluted then kick marched his way out the door.

“Fucking asshole,” Tank Top growled as he followed with Gil right behind.

“Could you do that?” Lug asked Bokeem as he pointed at the corpse. “You’re a big guy.”

“You’re a big guy too,” Bokeem frowned. “Can you do that?”

“No fucking way,” Lug said.

“Then neither could I,” Bokeem said. “I’m not some fucking monster.”

***

“We are in the water,” Thorne said over the com, “getting to our positions now.”

“Okay,” Darren replied, “good luck, guys.”

“Hey,” Lucy said.

“That was a generic ‘guys’, Luce,” Darren replied.

“I know, just busting balls,” Lucy laughed.

“Keep busting them,” Darby said.

“No ball busting during working hours,” Shane said, “it leads to an unproductive and hostile work environment. Plus busted balls. Busted balls suck.”

“Guys, focus please,” Darren sighed, “this shit is going to be cut close.”

He looked at the sonar reading as the shark raced towards the island. Then he looked at the dead space that was the island’s lagoon. The sonar wouldn’t penetrate that protected area and he ground his teeth with frustration at not getting even a glimpse of what he had been hunting for most of his adult life.

“Maybe it will live,” Gunnar said. “The whale is supposed to be designed to kill this shark.”

“I should be in that water,” Darren grumbled.

“I should be piloting this ship,” Lake said from his stool, “but every time I try, someone beats the shit out of me, and every time you try to find your whale, someone dies. I say we read the signs for what they are and cut our losses, D-Man.”

“D-Man?” Darren frowned. “How many fucking beers have you had, Marty?”

“Not enough,” Lake said as he looked about for another beer, but they were all gone. “Or too many. Not sure.”

“D, look at the sonar,” Gunnar said. “How can it move that fast? It’ll be here in minutes.”

“Hey, Grendel, get your asses in place. That fucking shark must have a rocket up its ass because it’s covered half the distance to us just since we’ve been talking.”

“Fuck,” Shane said.

“Shit,” Lucy added.

“You’re fucking shitting me?” Mike said.

Thorne just growled.

***

Thorne kicked his way to the massive underwater gate that protected the entrance to the lagoon. He swam hard and fast, knowing that if he wasn’t in place in time, then there was no point to any part of the plan. Herding a shark the size of the one coming for them at an unopened gate would just piss it off.

Herding.

Thorne shook his head as he thought about what they were going to attempt. How the fuck does a massive shark the likes of which the world has never seen, get herded where it doesn’t want to go?

The elves assured him the pineapples would work, but he’d been in the business long enough to know that relying on tech was a sure way to get yourself killed.

Yet, there was no choice. It wasn’t as if he could wave his arms and scream at the creature to get it to go into the lagoon.

Thorne stopped swimming as he came to the gate controls. He opened the access hatch, using the codes that Carlos had given him, and just stared.

“Hey,” he said, “all I see is a big, red button.”

“That’s all you should see,” Carlos replied over the com.

“A big, red fucking button?” Thorne snarled. “That’s the extent of the system to this gate? Push a big, red fucking button?”

“What were you thinking would be in there?” Ingrid asked. “An intricate number puzzle only solvable by the first full moon in October?”

“What the hell?” Carlos asked.

“Oh, sorry, I’ve been watching old adventure movies,” Ingrid replied.

“When have you had time to do that?” Carlos asked. “I’ve been busting my ass getting shielding together for the-”

“Will you two shut up?” Thorne asked as he looked from the big, red button to the huge gate. “I need to know how fast this opens up and whether it opens inward or outward.”

“Hold on,” Carlos replied.

Thorne turned himself so he could see the other Team members. Shane had just set his last pineapple by the ship while Lucy, Darby, and Mike, were still setting theirs. He mentally calculated the spacing between and realized that unless the shark came from the specific direction they wanted it to, then there was no point to plan at all.

“Carlos?” Thorne asked when he still hadn’t received an answer to his question.

“Hold on, I said,” Carlos replied.

“I don’t have time to fucking hold on!” Thorne roared. Normally, he would have regretted losing his temper so fast, but damn if he didn’t hate that guy. “Tell me how fast it opens and in which direction.”

“It opens at fifty feet per second,” Carlos replied, his voice cold and impartial, “and it doesn’t go any direction except in.”

“In? You mean inward?” Thorne asked. “Towards the lagoon?”

“No, I mean it goes into the island,” Carlos said. “It slides into the land at the opposite end from you. No inward, no outward, just in.”

“The island has a pocket door,” Shane laughed. “Damn, I hate pocket doors. That’s just lazy architecture.”

“Pocket doors can be very space saving,” Ingrid chimed in. “Sometimes, you can’t fit a regular door in the space you need.”

“No, sir, don’t like ‘em,” Shane replied, “don’t like ‘em at all.”

“No one cares, Reynolds,” Darby said.

“Everyone shut up about the pocket doors,” Thorne said, “focus. If we fuck this up, and my daughter dies, because you fucktards refuse to pay attention, then I swear I will kill you all. If you happen already to be dead, then I will have a fucking psychic hunt down your ghosts and then I’ll exorcise you from God’s memory. Are we fucking clear on this?”

“Damn, Uncle Vinny,” Shane said, “we got it covered, so chill, and don’t say fucktards. You’re way too old to say fucktards. Leave that for the kids, okay?”

“Shane?” Thorne growled.

“Shutting the fuck up now, sir,” Shane replied.

“Here it comes,” Darren said over the com. “Are the pineapples in place?”

“They are,” Ingrid said.

“I was asking the Team,” Darren responded.

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were asking me since I can see them on my tablet,” Ingrid said.

“Team?” Darren sighed. “All set?”

“Set,” Mike said.

“Set,” Lucy said.

“Setarooni,” Shane said.

“Set,” Darby sighed.

“You people going to tell me when to hit the button?” Thorne asked. He turned his attention back to the big, red button. Then that attention was drawn to what was peering at him through the slats in the gate. “Holy ten kinds of fuck.”

“Now, that I like,” Shane said. “You should totally say shit like that more. Holy ten kinds of fuck. That’s brilliant.”

“Whale,” Thorne said.

“Okay, you’ve lost me now,” Shane said. “Is that like a hipster term you heard somewhere? Because I’m just not feeling it. Whale? Nope, just doesn’t hold up.”

“I am looking at the whale,” Thorne said, “or it’s looking at me. Considering the size of its eye, I think it wins.”

Thorne continued to stare at the huge whale eye that watched him. Then the creature turned and swam back deeper into the lagoon. Thorne watched it go, its massive body undulating through the crystal blue water like it had no care in the world.

Thorne felt horrible for a brief second knowing that the poor thing’s world was about to be torn apart. Probably literally.

“Give me plenty of warning,” Thorne said as he placed his hand next to the big, red button.

“We will, Commander,” Carlos said. “Get ready.”

***

The sonar beeped several times then a loud claxon began to sound in the bridge. Darren and Gunnar stared at the shape of a shark on the screen as it came at the ship.

“You know, if this doesn’t work we are going to be sunk in less than a minute, right?” Darren asked. “That is a two-hundred ton meat missile coming right at us.”

“Meat missile,” Lake snickered. “Bet Gun would like that.”

“You’re a dick when you get drunk,” Gunnar said to Lake.

“Sorry,” Lake burped, “bad day and blah, blah, blah.”

“This will work,” Ingrid said. “I just hope everything else does once we’re done with this stupid shark.”

“Everything else?” Darren asked then looked at Gunnar. “What’s she talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Gunnar said.

“Dammit, Ingrid,” Carlos snapped, “one piece of the puzzle at a time! Don’t you ever listen to Ballantine?”

“Sorry,” Ingrid said.

“What the hell is she talking about?” Darren asked again.

“Yes, what is she talking about?” Bokeem asked over the com.

“Shit,” Darren said.

“Shit,” Carlos said.

“Sorry,” Ingrid said again.

***

“Tank? You hear that?” Bokeem asked.

“Yeah,” Tank Top replied over the com, “switch to private.”

Bokeem switched the channel on his com. “Read me?”

“Loud and clear,” Tank Top said, “I’ll try to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”

“You do that,” Bokeem said then looked over at Kinsey as she started to stir. “Little girl is waking up. Want me to have Lug send her back to dreamland?”

“You think she can handle another smack to the head?” Tank Top asked.

“Probably not, she doesn’t look so hot,” Bokeem said.

“Why keep her around? We should just kill her and not deal with the hassle,” Lug asked.

“We keep her because she has value to the trained killers out in the water and on that ship, and until we know that we’re in the clear, we don’t kill her,” Tank Top responded.

“Okay,” Lug said, “just wondering.”

“Don’t wonder,” Bokeem said, “it makes your fucking face look stupid when you do.”

Lug’s features scrunched up.

“Yeah, like that,” Bokeem said, “just stand there and watch her. If she fully comes to then we’ll-”

Bokeem stopped and looked up at the ceiling high above them.

“What?” Lug asked, following his gaze. “You hear something?”

“Shhhh,” Bokeem warned. He kept studying the ceiling, and a large air vent in the middle, then reached out and gripped Boris’s shoulder.

“Ow,” Boris said, “what did I do? Why are you hurting me?”

“The ventilation system in this facility is supposed to be sealed and unbreachable,” Bokeem said, “even through the air vents themselves. They are laser protected, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, right. It keeps the more nimble and flexible of my creatures from moving about in an unwanted fashion,” Boris said. “Can you let go of my shoulder? It’s hard to type when you’re pinching my nerve like that.”

Bokeem let go of Boris’s shoulder. He kept his eyes locked onto the air vent far above. For a second he could have sworn he saw something looking back at him.