Phantom Prospect Read online

  After ten minutes of free swimming, Cole climbed over the side of the boat, his flippers touching the deck while a huge smile blossomed across his face. “That was an adrenaline rush.”

  Annja watched him lean back, the smile growing wider by the second. “You really didn’t have to do that,” she said.

  He shrugged. “Free diving with them is an important part of the research for me. Along with their hierarchy, I also need to know how they behave when there’s a human in the water with more than one of them.”

  “Yes, but you had no speargun, no backup. If they had turned on you at any moment—”

  As if underscoring that fact, one of the big fish suddenly slammed into the side of the boat, splashing the water with its tail. Cole caught a shower of spray and wiped his face. “I think that was Martha,” he said.

  “You named them?”

  “You get to know the distinctive shapes of their dorsal fins,” Cole said. “And for me, it helps to establish that bond so I don’t view them as mindless killing machines. Surely you noticed that, too?”

  Annja grinned. “It was exhilarating, but I wouldn’t ever recommend doing what you just did to anyone.”

  “Neither would I. But I have to control my own life. My destiny is always in my hands, not in the hands of someone else. That’s what I love about my life so much. I make my own decisions. I know you understand that.”

  I used to, Annja thought. She watched one of the sharks break away from the boat suddenly and disappear into the depths.

  Cole noticed, too. “They’re bored now that there’s nothing in the water.”

  “No more food?”

  Cole sighed. “Sometimes I think it’s not just about the food with them. I think they realize that we’re curious and want to know more about them. They’re active in the research as much as I am.”

  “I don’t know,” Annja said. “I think that sounds sort of insane, but then again, I didn’t just swim naked with them like you did.”

  Cole laughed. “Annja, if you swim naked with anything, you’ll get eaten right away.”

  “Flattery will get you killed, Cole.”

  He winked at her. “Well, maybe.”

  They set about winching the cage back on board the boat and secured it to the deck. Cole patted it. “I told you that nothing would happen while you were inside. Didn’t you have a blast?”

  “I hate to admit it, but I did. They were fascinating to watch. I could see how they tried to mouth the tuna first before chomping into it.”

  Cole nodded. “Exactly—they’re smart. Not a lot of people give them credit for that. Oh, sure, scientists and researchers do, but the general public is still a long way from realizing how intelligent these fish are.”

  “Can you blame them?”

  “No, not when they’ve been exposed to so much fallacy. But if people knew how close they swim in proximity to these fish without ever being attacked, I think that would go far toward raising people’s consciousness.”

  “You won’t change opinions overnight.”

  “No, I suppose not. But we can expose people through research. Look at what we accomplished today, for instance. I got you to change your mind about them, didn’t I?”

  “Somewhat. I’m still terrified,” Annja said.

  Cole patted her arm. “No worries. We’ll have you free swimming with them soon enough.”

  Annja shook her head. “There is no way in hell I will ever do that, pal. Put that one out of your mind right now.”

  Cole laughed. “Okay, okay. Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  “Weren’t you scared?”

  “Absolutely. But this is the fourth time I’ve done it. The first was really terrifying. But when you get out there and touch them—”

  “Touch them!”

  “I give them a pat every now and again. I can grab their dorsal fins for a ride once in a while, as well.”

  “Good God.”

  “Once you do that,” Cole said, “it just becomes this marvelous experience. I can’t explain it without you doing it.”

  Annja nodded. “Yeah, well, that will have to be one experience I don’t go through.”

  Tom called down from the wheelhouse. “We set to go?”

  Cole nodded. “Fire ’er up.”

  The engines on the boat kicked into gear and the water behind churned into a frothy white of sea and spray. Wind blew through Annja’s hair, drying it as she held on while the research vessel skipped over the waves back toward shore.

  Cole busied himself jotting down notes on his observations. Annja went inside the cabin and changed back into her clothes. When she reemerged, Cole was still making notes. He glanced up at her.

  “How about dinner tonight? I know a little Italian place with a fantastic wine selection and a veal cutlet to die for.”

  Annja nodded. “I’m starving, actually.”

  Cole finished his notes. “Great, I’ll go make the call.”

  Annja followed him into the wheelhouse. Tom stood behind the wheel. He looked a lot younger than his twenty-four years. Fresh out of college with a degree in marine biology, Cole had scooped him up as his assistant and they’d been fast friends ever since. He smiled at Annja as she came in. “Feeling a bit more human again?”

  “I need a shower to do that,” Annja said. “This salt water is probably not doing wonders for my hair.”

  “Looks fine to me.”

  Cole elbowed him. “Mind your manners, boy.”

  Tom chuckled. “Why would I let the old guy have all the fun?”

  “Old guy? I’ll have you know I don’t turn forty for another year yet.” Cole grabbed the ship phone and dialed into Montauk. He spoke for a moment and then hung up. “All set. Reservations for seven o’clock. That should give you enough time to grab a shower and change into something that will make me drool.”

  Annja punched him in the stomach. “Watch it, pal. I might get the impression all of this was done just to woo me, instead of in the name of science and the betterment of humankind.”

  Cole held up his hands. “Oh, hey, it’s definitely for the betterment of humankind. I’m just starting out with me first.”

  Tom shook his head. “You know he’s incorrigible, right?”

  “Apparently,” Annja said. She walked back into the main cabin and slid into the booth. Cole came in a second later and sat down across from her.

  “I’m really glad you came out here, Annja.”

  “Me, too.”

  Cole leaned back. “The great whites we have access to here are among the largest in the world. They feed in the deep waters and it always astounds me how big they are.”

  “What’s the biggest one ever caught?”

  “You’d have to go back,” Cole said. “There have been claims of thirty to forty feet about a hundred years back. Nowadays, it’s rare you see one over twenty feet in length.”

  “That’s still three times bigger than a full-grown man. Plenty of room to fit in the belly, huh?”

  “That’s nothing compared to the long-lost ancestor of great whites, the megalodon. Now that was something to behold.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “It was at least forty feet long when it cruised the prehistoric seas. Its teeth were as big as your hand with the same deadly serrations as great whites. Terrifying in its destructive power.”

  “Glad they’re not around anymore.”

  Cole frowned. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

  Annja smirked. “C’mon. They died out ages ago. There’s no way they could survive in today’s oceans.”

  “Why not?”

  Annja stopped. “Wouldn’t someone have seen one by now?”

  Cole shook his head. “Not necessarily. You know what’s amazing about the oceans? Every year we find new species of fish or rediscover species we thought had long since died out. The depths that we are able to gain access to through advances in technology are enormous. We can’t swim miles below the surface, but the
robots we’ve built that have journeyed there have recorded a fascinating world.”

  “But giant sharks?”

  Cole leaned forward. “Take the giant squid. For years, people swore it couldn’t exist. We had corpses wash up on shores or sometimes get caught in fishing nets, but never found a live specimen. And then that Japanese team got the first video footage of it swimming in the silent depths. And we know that sperm whales love to eat those things.”

  “And you think that somewhere out there a megalodon could be swimming around?”

  “Why not? We don’t know everything and, sometimes, even the most implausible ideas turn out to be true.”

  Annja shrugged. “I guess. I just can’t see it. I mean, a meg swimming out there would need to feast on a lot to sustain it, wouldn’t it? So, I guess my question would be, if it’s not extinct, then what is it eating?”

  “I don’t know,” Cole said. “Perhaps it dines on the sperm whales that dive after giant squid. Maybe it’s taken to living down far below the ocean surface where it can remain unseen except in its native habitat. All I’m saying is, we can’t discount its existence merely because we haven’t see one.”

  Annja shivered. “The idea of something that large and dangerous doesn’t exactly make me all warm inside.”

  Cole laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, I wouldn’t try to free swim with it, either.”

  “Well, there’s a brilliant decision.”

  Cole smiled. Annja glanced around. “Are we close to the harbor? Sounds like Tom’s throttled down.”

  Cole slid out of the booth and looked outside. “Yep. We’re coming in through the outer channel now.”

  Annja followed and she and Cole joined Tom in the wheelhouse. She could see the other boats lined up at the wharves. A few fishing charters meandered their way back into dock.

  Tom pointed. “Hey, isn’t that Sandy?”

  Cole peered through the window and nodded. “What’s she doing at the dock? She ought to have knocked off by now.”

  “Who’s Sandy?” Annja asked.

  “She works with us, handling calls in the office,” Cole said. “She never goes out on the boats, though. She’s terrified of the water. Her brother drowned when she was just six years old and she never goes near the water.”

  “That’s horrible,” Annja said. “And she’s waiting down at the docks? That seems a bit odd.”

  “Sure does,” Cole said. “Something must be up.”

  He and Annja went out on deck so they could secure the boat as they docked. Tom eased the engines down even further as they approached their mooring. He reversed, and then as the side of the boat touched the dock, Cole leaped on to the platform and Annja tossed him the lines. Cole tied the knots and Tom cut the engines.

  Annja stepped off the boat and looked up at Sandy. She had a short blond haircut that fell just by her ears. But what made Annja stare was the expression on her face. She looked intensely worried.

  Cole led the way up the gangplank and nodded at Sandy. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Everything okay?”

  Sandy shook her head. “No.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I just got a call from your brother. There’s trouble up at the dive site.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  Sandy laid a hand on Cole’s arm. “There’s been a death, Cole.”

  3

  Cole’s face went ashen. “Not my brother—?”

  Sandy shook her head. “No, but someone else on the dive went missing. This afternoon, they recovered a body. Well, part of it, anyway.”

  Annja frowned. “Part of it?”

  Sandy looked her over. “There wasn’t much left.”

  Cole shook his head. “Let’s get back to the office and talk some more. I don’t like discussing my business out in public.”

  Sandy led them back up the gangplank and toward the row of small wooden buildings scattered along the dock. At a pale blue row house, Annja saw the brass nameplate of Cole Williams Research and they entered. The narrow staircase up to the second floor seemed to be warped and it creaked underfoot as they climbed. But at the top Annja smelled coffee brewing and suddenly realized how much she wanted a cup.

  Sandy pointed to the small coffeemaker. “Figured you all might be in the mood after being on the water.”

  Cole got himself and Annja each a cup and then sat down at an old table that must have served as a conference table by the look of it. He smiled at Annja. “It’s not fancy here, but we make do.”

  Annja sipped the coffee and found it was a good roast. She smiled at Sandy. “This is delicious.”

  “Peruvian blend.” Sandy glanced at Cole. “You didn’t mention you had a visitor coming out.”

  Cole shrugged. “Annja’s a good friend. Known her for years.” He sipped his coffee. “And since I’m the boss, I don’t think it’s necessary that I keep you in the loop on everything that happens in my life.”

  Annja looked down into her coffee and wondered what sort of history Sandy and Cole had. Whatever might have once been, it certainly didn’t appear to be intact any longer.

  Sandy brushed off Cole’s comment. “It would have been nice for me to know so I could make sure she’s set up in town.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about what’s going on at the dive site?” Cole said. “Then I can figure out where to go from there.”

  “What dive site?” Annja asked.

  “It’s off the coast of Nova Scotia,” Cole said. “My brother is up there heading the expedition to discover where the HMS Fantome went down back in 1814.”

  “Fantome?” Annja frowned. “You mean the ship that was supposedly carrying treasure looted from the White House during the War of 1812?”

  “The same. My brother has been after it for years. Guess you could say that the love of the ocean runs deep in my family.”

  Annja sighed. “Great pun.”

  “Sorry.” Cole shrugged. “But whereas I want to study the ocean and its wildlife, my brother is a bit more fixated on the economic aspects of it. He’s been a treasure hunter for years.”

  “After all the time we’ve known each other,” Annja said, “I never knew that.”

  Cole sipped his coffee. “Yeah, well, it’s been a bone of contention between us for a while. Neither of us approves of the other’s work. My brother thinks I’m a fruitcake for swimming with sharks and not making a buck off of my research. I think he’s a money-grubber after fame and fortune.”

  “And never the two shall meet?”

  Cole smiled. “Only during the holidays at my mother’s house. She usually starts the visits by telling us that if we fight she’ll smack us around.”

  “Smart woman,” Annja said. “What’s your brother’s name?”

  “Hunter,” Cole said. “How tragically fitting, huh?”

  “The problem is the death of one of his guys,” Sandy said. “Hunter told me that they’ve spotted a big shark in the area.”

  Annja leaned back. “Sharks off Nova Scotia? Isn’t that a little far north for any of the dangerous species?”

  “Not at all,” Cole said. “Great whites can regulate their internal body temperature and keep it higher than the surrounding water. They’ve adapted so they can hunt the seals that prefer to stay in the cooler waters. It’s not uncommon to find great whites that far north.” He took a breath. “Now, whether one is attacking divers at the dive site, that would be another matter entirely.”

  “Would it?”

  He looked at Annja. “As you’ve seen, just because a great white is around doesn’t automatically mean that someone’s going to die. If that was the case, there’d be bodies everywhere.”

  Sandy laid her hands on the table. “It’s pretty apparent from the evidence on the body that something large, with huge teeth, killed the diver.”

  “Huge teeth?”

  “The bite radius was enormous. Hunter says the body was cut in two.”

  Cole frowned. “That woul
d mean a great white of huge proportions. Something like that would be pretty unusual.”

  “Larger than a twenty-footer?” Annja asked.

  “Sharks that large don’t usually bother coming in close to shore. They’re more deep-water fish. Hardly ever seen. That sort of thing. But if one is stalking the dive site, then that would be unusual behavior as well. It would mean it was a rogue shark. And unlike in the movies, that just doesn’t happen all that often,” Cole said.

  Tom had been silent at the other end of the table, but he looked up and smiled. “Well, we could always offer to go and check things out. If Hunter’s worried about his team and knows there’s a shark in the area, that might be why he decided to call you.”

  Cole grinned. “Well, he needs to keep me in the loop anyway: I’m financing the operation.”

  Annja frowned. “I thought you said Hunter was always riding you because you don’t make any money.”

  “He is,” Cole said. “And he’s right to some extent. I don’t make much money. But I have money left over form a trust fund set up by my father.”

  “Didn’t Hunter have one?”

  “Absolutely. But he blew through it years ago financing his own dives. It was only after he went bankrupt that I staked him and he ended up striking a good find down in the Caribbean. Now, we work together with me fronting the money on his expeditions and reaping a decent return on my investment.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Well, it enables me to keep the research going,” Cole said. “And that’s the most important thing to me.”

  Sandy cleared her throat. “Thing is, with a shark in the area, the dive crew isn’t exactly excited about getting back into the waters.”

  “Understandable,” Annja said. “I wouldn’t be crazy about it, either.”

  Cole looked pained. “It kills me to say it, but we’ve got to do something about it, then. Time is money on these things.”

  Sandy nodded. “That’s why he called. He wanted you to know that there was some chaos up there.”

  “And?”

  “He wants you to come up.”

  Cole took a long sip of his coffee and swallowed. “I don’t know. I’ve got a lot to do around here.”