White Pointer by John Lee Schneider

Author:John Lee Schneider [Schneider, John Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12:

Lauren was beginning to have second thoughts.

It had not even been a week since she'd last been out on the ocean. At one time, that would have been a trial in itself – a punishment, even.

Today was different.

Behind, lay Surf Shore. Ahead, lay the rocky cove that had concealed the burgeoning seal colony.

Cody had been right. The place just felt dangerous.

So, part of the edginess was exactly that.

Then, of course, there was David Templeton.

Lauren thought again of those interior warning signals that supposedly evolved humans consistently ignored.

“Call me Dave,” he had said. In another person, that would have been familiarity. In David Templeton's case, it was a sale's pitch.

Still, so far, at least, he had been as good as his word. He had, in fact, actually managed to procure the very same boat Lauren had used on loan with her student crew – already with a cage hook-up and everything.

Today, the boat was piloted by the charter captain who owned it – a guy named Mundus who ran a commercial shark-cage-diving operation – usually out of the Sea of Cortes – but was willing to loan his boat out during the off-season.

It was a sturdy-enough craft. And up until just last week, she had felt quite confident as a passenger, even in water populated by big Great Whites.

Of course, hadn't the premise of that illusion of safety – be it in the cage, in the boat... all of it – hadn't that always been pretty much based on the general idea that the sharks wouldn’t go after them? Simply because they were bigger than the sharks were?

And while it was a bigger boat than the last time she'd dared these waters, it was not a lot bigger.

And end-to-end, it was still smaller than that whale.

Lauren glanced up where Captain Mundus guided them through the choppy water. She had never met him, but knew his reputation – certainly a competent-enough captain, who had a lot of experience with sharks. He was also clearly used to dealing with tourists, as opposed to professional researchers. It was also a privatized business that Lauren rather disapproved of – exploitative and invasive, without the considerations of her own academic-funded dives.

The rest of the crew consisted of Mundus' mate – an Australian-sounding guy named Mike – and David Templeton's camera man, Matt – a tall skinny guy with deliberately scruffy hair and dress, who carried his camcorder on his shoulder like a parrot. Lauren found herself looking at the camera self-consciously.

How different it was than spending time on the ocean with her grad-student crew. There was something... industrial about it. It was work versus recreation.

Lauren watched Captain Mundus' mechanical moves behind the wheel.

There was no magic in the ocean for Captain Frank Mundus – it was the equivalent of a factory job – hard, smelly, dangerous work. Both Mundus and his mate bore the weathered, corded arms of a lifetime of hard labor.

David Templeton on the other hand, was clearly enjoying himself.

As the trip was his charter, he seemed to perceive himself as 'leader'.

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