Dropped Dead (A Jettine Jorgensen Mystery, Book 2) by S.L. Menear

Author:S.L. Menear [Menear, S. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!

TWENTY-FOUR

My dive knife was no match for this monster almost three times our size, but I unsheathed it anyway. As the beast circled ever closer, I clutched the knife and concentrated on keeping my breathing slow and steady.

It was so close on its next pass, that the tiger shark almost brushed against me. I wondered if Sophia could feel my heart pounding as I tightened my grip on her.

She survived a top assassin and almost drowning. She’s come too far to lose her now.

The denizen of the deep dived below us and vanished. My eyes strained to locate it in the shadowy depths. Just when I thought it had gone, it zoomed up and chomped down on Sophia’s left bucket, shaking it from side to side. Her eyes popped open, and she gurgled and almost choked on her mouthpiece.

Struggling to avoid getting tangled with the lift bag amidst the thrashing, I bent over and grabbed Sophia’s left shin above the bucket, barely reaching it while stretching the limits of our regulator hoses. Determined to save her, I stabbed the beast’s massive head as it shook the bucket back and forth with such violence, I feared it would break her leg.

Its jaws were clamped firmly around her left bucket as I clung to her and stabbed the shark with the ferocity of a pelagic incarnation of Jack the Ripper. My survival instinct was secondary to my drive to save Sophia. No way would I let this monster drag her away. The only good thing was this huge predator had scared away other sharks.

Our vicious battle raged on. If it didn’t let go soon, we’d run out of air, and the lift bag would steadily lose air where I’d punctured it.

The solid concrete must’ve been an unappetizing surprise coupled with my blade jabbing its head and right eye, because the beast finally released its prey. Luckily, it had bitten a concrete bucket instead of soft flesh. I prayed it wouldn’t return.

A long-time diver, I knew sharks were necessary to maintain the critical balance in ocean ecology, and they rarely attacked humans. Blood in the water triggered them. Our fault this time, but I still had to defend us. I hoped the tiger shark would survive.

I checked our air gauge. With my earlier exertion, Sophia gulping air, the air used to fill the lift bag, and the shark battle, the tanks were almost empty. Adrenaline hummed through my veins, and my chest pounded so hard, I didn’t think my heart rate would ever return to normal.

We still had fifty feet to go, the height of a five-story building, but we couldn’t risk rising faster even if it were possible. The remaining air in the tanks would be easier to breathe as we ascended, but I wasn’t sure if we’d have enough. I’d have to inflate my BC vest manually at the surface so it would become a life preserver.

Conserving what little air I could, I eased us upward and checked for predators. Time seemed to stand still, and our air-pressure gauge read close to zero.

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