Jason flew out of the house, a digital video camera in his hands, his open jacket flapping behind him. There was no more time for negotiation. Whos with me? he said, heading toward the landing.
It went without saying that Sean was. He lived for this.
He started after Jason, following him away from the house. Daniela had to jog to keep up with his long strides. The man at the lighthouse tower also hurried down the path, eager to accompany them.
Sure you want to see this? Sean asked over his shoulder. Its a bloody mess.
As soon as he spoke those words, she was assaulted by images from another disturbing scene. Shrieking metal and shattered glass. The warm, wet rush of blood and the agonizing pain spreading through her belly.
Yes, she said anyway, fighting to clear her mind of memories. This was a test, like jumping from boat to boat, and failure was not an option. Heart racing, she scrambled along behind him, her feet seeking purchase on the rocky soil.
He should have checked the roster before signing on.
It had never occurred to Sean that his ex-wife would be on the list of researchers. Southeast Farallon was the last place on earth she should be.
He was glad shed decided to return to the world of the living, but this wasnt it. In fact, native Californians had called the Farallones The Islands of the Dead. The conditions were too extreme for someone whod gone through what she had.
It was like tossing a soldier with PTSD into a battle demonstration. Only, this was no demonstration.
Maybe after witnessing a twenty-foot shark decapitate an elephant seal, shed go back to the mainland on the next charter. He hoped so. It wasnt as if he didnt wish her the best. It was just that the best thing for her was to be somewhere else. Somewhere peaceful.
She didnt need to rub her face in carnage to prove to him, or anyone, that she could handle the sight of blood again.
When they all loaded into the whaler, Jason passed the handheld camera to Sean and got behind the wheel. Brent, whod managed to grab his own video equipment, settled in across from Daniela, and Sean took the space beside her.
Elizabeth operated the crane, lowering them down to the surface of the water.
You must be Daniela, Brent said, offering her his hand. Im Brent Masterson.
Pleased to meet you.
Although her smile was bland, he scanned her face with undisguised interest, recording every line and angle. Sean knew he was thinking that Daniela would look great on camera. Her big brown eyes and captivating features made her spectacularly photogenic.
As soon as the boat touched the surface, Jason unhooked the chain and revved up the engine, speeding toward Skull Rock.
Sean passed the handheld camera to Daniela. Film.
Her cheeks paled. What?
I tag, Sean said. Jason drives. You and Brent can film.
Youre going to tag it?
He nodded. I need my hands free.
Tagging was a quick, easy process, and Sean could have filmed himself, but getting Daniela behind the lens would be good for her. It was a task to focus on, a small insulation, one step removed from the horror.
B-be careful, she mumbled, lifting the video camera to her face.
Even in a state of shock and uncertainty, she was breathtaking. Being with her again was a jolt to his system, as powerful and disturbing as the first time hed set eyes on her. He remembered that day with perfect clarity.
Shed been hurrying toward the parking lot at San Diego State, a stack of textbooks under one arm, a sleek leather tote bag in the other. With her stylish clothes and arresting good looks, she was a world apart from the granola girls he usually gravitated toward.
One glimpse of her, and his heart had stalled in his chest.
He was a post-grad student, teaching his first class, and if he hadnt already been late hed have followed her. As it was, hed turned to watch her go, ogling her in a way that was gauche and obvious and embarrassingly impolite.
Maybe it was fate, because she showed up in his classroom a few minutes later. Apparently, shed forgotten the syllabus and had gone back to her car to retrieve it.
He was sure hed babbled nonsense for most of the hour, but she hadnt seemed to mind. In fact, shed approached him after, claiming to have enjoyed his lecture. Every time the class met after that, she sat closer to the front of the room.
During the final exam shed been in the first row, wearing a low-cut top so distracting hed stuttered whenever his eyes tripped over her.
That was ten years ago.
He didnt know how theyd arrived at this painful juncture, and it hurt too much to retrace the steps. Trying to live without her the past year had been agony for him, but it hadnt been as bad as living with her, watching her slip away.
Was she truly on the mend?
He hadnt lied when hed told her she looked good. She was lovelier than ever, to be honest. The new hairstyle worked for her, framing her heart-shaped face and feathering out against her cheeks, drawing his attention to her mouth.
He wished he didnt remember all the things shed done to him with it.
Pulling his gaze away from her, he searched the horizon, looking for a seal carcass or a boil on the surface of the water. The tearing motion great whites used while feeding, tails whipping back and forth, created a unique disturbance.
Skull Rock, the islands most striking natural feature, loomed in the near distance. While most of the rock formations were jagged, jutting toward the sky like a row of wicked teeth, the Skull had a rounded shape and two distinctive, cavernous indentations. One went all the way through to the other side, giving the impression of a gaping eye socket.
It was a fitting place for a kill.
Jason saw the body before he did. Starboard side, twenty meters, he said, cutting the boats speed to a crawl.
Daniela turned her head, doing a visual sweep of the area.
Sean placed his hand on her shoulder. There, he said, pointing her in the right direction. She was trembling, and that would affect the video, but it hardly mattered. Hed taken some shaky footage himself.
A certain amount of fear was normal. Hell, if you werent scared of a lightning-quick predator with razor-sharp teeth and the striking power of a Mack truck, something was fundamentally wrong with you.
Of course, the shark was nowhere to be seen at the moment. Only the headless body of a California sea lion was visible, floating in a slick red bath. The water wouldnt keep the color long, for the Pacific Ocean was a vast expanse, but while the animal bled out it was surrounded by a shock of crimson, pure and dark and undiluted.
Wh-where is it? Daniela whispered, camera focused on the corpse.
Close by, he said, dropping his hand from her shoulder. He wanted to keep touching her, to make sure she stayed put. Which was foolish, as no one in their right mind would leap from a boat in this situation. Zoom in.
She fumbled with the camera for a moment, familiarizing herself with the controls before she resumed filming. Her face was pale and drawn, her eyes stark.
Brent attached his underwater camera to a pole with a crooked arm and lowered it into the water. He didnt talk much while he was filming, claiming that the man behind the lens shouldnt be seen or heard.
Next to him, Jason Ruiz was silent at the helm. Although he was more loquacious than Brent, he knew shark behavior as well as Sean, and kept his comments to a minimum while they were out here. He was a good scientist, if a little overeager, and they got on well.
When Jason glanced up at Sean now, his eyes narrowed for a split second before he looked away.
The younger mans disapproval wasnt obvious, and Sean was almost convinced hed imagined it. Over the past few days, Jason had treated him with deference and respect and damned near adoration. It was kind of annoying, actually.
Less than an hour with Daniela, and hed switched sides.
Jason hadnt known about their marriage, but perhaps hed heard a few random details about the divorce. Theyd separated after she almost died in a car accident, which didnt cast Sean in a very positive light. His ex-wife also had a singular effect on people, especially men, and Jason had a weakness for the ladies.
Hed never met a beautiful woman he didnt want to sleep with.
Sean could practically hear him thinking, You dumped her? Are you insane? Shes hot.
Shed dumped him, not the other way around, but almost everyone assumed the failed relationship was his fault. They were right, in a way. Hed been unable to protect her, incapable of comforting her and at an utter loss for the right words to say to her.
Why isnt iteating? she whispered, her voice wavering.
A pause between the first strike and a feeding isnt unusual. We think theyre making sure the prey is in no condition to fight back.
This sea lion wouldnt put up a fussnot without a head. White sharks often attacked by ambush, rocketing toward the target from underneath and incapacitating it in one fatal blow. The current victim had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, swimming too far from the shallows and too close to the surface.
Although blood no longer gushed from the wound, the animals exposed vertebra was a grisly sight, and the air was thick with the smell of death. Seabirds waited on nearby perches, feathers fluttering, ready to snap up a meaty scrap.
Sean watched Danielas throat work as she swallowed back her nausea. She was holding up well, considering. As a marine biologist, shed interacted with dangerous animals before. Theyd worked in the field together on a regular basis, so he knew her level of expertise.
Hed seen her reach out to stroke the slippery back of a stingray, grin with delight when visited by a school of blue sharks, stand up to a braying Northern seal and get bitten on her pretty little backside as she beat a hasty retreat.
Daniela had a way with animals, a confidence gained from experience and a natural ease that couldnt be taught. She wasnt a shark expert, however, and the great whites at the Farallones were like no other predator on earth.
With her unsteady nerves and devastating personal history, she wasnt the best candidate for this kind of research.
The sight of a white shark breaching, or propelling its massive body above the surface of the water during the initial attack was heart-stopping. There was also no way to predict this occurrence, so footage of it was rare. Unlike in the movies, most sharks didnt advertise their locations by flashing fins before a bite.
Feeding frenzies were also unusual. After the kill, whites ate with economical efficiency, and they werent the most dexterous of fish. If their movements caused the surface of the water to bubble like a pot of seafood gumbo, it was because they were powerhouses, not because they were doing underwater gymnastics.
Sean knew what to expect, but the wait always created tension. Anticipating Danielas reaction made the situation more uneasy.
The whaler was only fifteen feet long, and it seemed to shrink as time dragged on. A patch of coastal fog settled over the upper half of the island, bringing with it an eerie quiet, a silence charged with dread and unholy glee.
At Skull Rock, beady-eyed scavengers shuffled their clawed feet.
When the shark broke through the surface of the water, Daniela startled, almost dropping the video camera. She took a series of short, quick breaths, fright apparent on her fine features, the rapid beat of her pulse visible in her slender neck.
Sean didnt need a Ph.D to diagnose her anxiety, or any special intuition to realize she was reliving the trauma of the wreck. Her face was so pale, he feared she would faint. He considered dropping the tagging equipment to offer her his assistance. Brent, whose attention should have been focused on directing the underwater camera, seemed concerned by her distress. And it went without saying that Jason was enraptured.
Just as Sean was about to call off the shoot, Daniela pulled herself together. Spine straightening, she held the video camera in a steady, if white-knuckled, grip.
The evidence of her courage caused a strange welling of emotions within him. Pride, and sadness and regret. His eyes watered and his throat closed up. How ironic, he thought, if he turned out to be the one who couldnt hold it together.
After a moment, the pressure in his chest eased and he was able to drag his gaze away from her. The white had moved in and was nibbling a big chunk of flesh from the decapitated sea lions side. By the looks of it, the shark was an adult, and good-sized, too. At least eighteen or nineteen feet.
Its Shirley, Jason said, a grin lighting across his face.
It sure as hell is, Sean replied, returning his smile.
Shirley was a breeding female, and that was always a welcome sight at the Farallones. She had a crescent-shaped scar above her left eye, small but easy to recognize, and she was often spotted with her full-figured friend, Laverne.
The pair had been named by Sean a couple of years ago. Jason had seen them both last year, but hadnt been able to tag either. The number of great whites in the world was ever-dwindling, and the circle of shark researchers was small. Although Jason and Sean didnt know each other that well, they knew a lot of the same sharks.
They studied Shirley in reverent silence while she tore and chewed and swallowed. A flurry of greedy seagulls dogged her every movement, snatching up stringy bits of gore, wings flapping. While the effect wasnt aesthetically pleasing, the mood on the boat was no longer sinister, and any hint of animosity from Jason was gone.
Still smiling, he eased the whaler in closer.
Wh-what are we doing? Daniela asked, one hand reaching out to grab the edge of the hull, steadying herself.
Seans blood turned to ice. Keep your hands inside the boat.
Why? Its over there.
One of them is over there, he corrected, trying not to visualize Laverne breaching beside the boat, taking most of Danielas arm with her.
She snatched her hand back. And just like that, she lost her focus. Letting the camera sag, she searched the surface of the water with terrified eyes, pressing her palm to her lower abdomen in a way that was familiar and absolutely heartbreaking.
Sean wanted to kick himself. He didnt know what he should have said differently, or what to say now to calm her down.
Look at me, Jason said.
Gulping, she met his steady gaze.
Were going in closer to tag her. It only takes a minute. And Seans a pro. You know that, right?
Her eyes darted from him to Sean. Yeah, she said, moistening her lips.
Good. You just keep filming. Youre doing a great job.
Brent nodded helpfully. Youll be fine.
Like a trooper, she put the camera back up to her face and resumed filming. Her movements were stiff, even robotic, but she was working through the fear, maintaining her composure and refusing to let the past overwhelm her.