Chapter Twelve

Day Six, Afternoon

Watching Sam suffer was agonizing. He tried to hide the pain, but sometimes it was too much. Kate felt relief when the medication took effect and he slept. The realization struck that he went through these same challenges when caring for her after her accident. She'd genuinely hated him those first months. No matter what she did or said, he hadn't given up on her. Now it was her turn.

She made a mental list and put what she had to accomplish into motion. Drawing on lessons from her father, Kate knew a fight for survival on the open water was about the most treacherous danger you could face and there was no time to waste. First she located the emergency distress flag buried beneath some yachting equipment. She explained the process to Ryan as she clipped the flag to the cord of the flagpole.

"Your turn," she said when it was ready. Pull on this rope and it will go up.

Kate worried over Ryan's gloominess while they worked so Kate showed more excitement than she felt.

"Great job, girlie." The "girlie" comment usually received a rejoinder from Ryan but she didn't take the bait. Kate finally garnered a bit more enthusiasm when she showed Ryan how to use the flare gun.

"How many flares do we have?" Kate asked after she'd removed a twelve inch case from one of two sealed deck containers.

Ryan counted them and looked up at her mother. "Twelve."

"Okay, I'll go through safety and then let you fire the gun so you know exactly how to use it. We'll keep practicing but I don't want to waste flares needlessly so we'll just use the one for now."

Ryan paid close attention as Kate explained how to load the flare gun and the general principle for firing it.

"Hold it above your head, arm almost straight up, and squeeze the trigger," Kate instructed, adjusting Ryan's arm to a sixty-degree angle. "Now turn your head away so the heat doesn't bother your eyes. Go ahead and fire it so you know how it feels. Maybe we'll get lucky, and someone will see it."

Ryan followed the directions carefully, resulting in a loud pop as smoke and a bright flame shot upward. They repeated the steps with the gun empty multiple times so Ryan would remember what she'd learned.

"Could a flare kill the shark?" Ryan asked.

Kate wasn't sure if her daughter wanted the shark dead or wanted it simply to go away. She was raised to respect the ocean's wildlife and to never harm anything unless it was life or death.

"It would only make the shark mad," Kate said, trying to stay neutral. Truthfully, she thought it would be better if the flare could kill it.

Ryan went back to pointing and squeezing the trigger of the empty flare gun. Ryan was too inquisitive for her own good, and she loved learning, so this lesson helped keep her mind off her father.

Kate unfortunately could not let go of the series of events that brought them to this point. Each domino of horror knocked the next one down. The last coordinates her father had would make it harder to find them when every minute counted for Sam. Greg would eventually call the Coast Guard for help, but would it be in time? She would fire another flare when the sun went down if they weren't rescued by then.

Thud. It vibrated through her chair.

The shark's reasons were unclear, and Kate continued puzzling over why it would behave this way. The insistent knocks against the hull were psychological torture. Angrily, she wheeled to the port side and held onto the rail while looking across the surface of the water. The shark hit the yacht again which took her perspective from irritation to anger. The glassy blue water held no answers and the animal wasn't making an appearance.

"Are you looking for the shark?" Ryan asked.

"I am. I want to see how big it is," Kate replied.

"It's the biggest one out there," Ryan said, sounding wise beyond her years.

Kate chuckled because her daughter was most likely right. She would need to ask Sam about the size of the shark he found entangled in the net. They were miles from land, and big sharks preferred deeper water. She'd seen the shark that bit him, but her focus wasn't on the size of its body. She knew it was large but wanted a better idea of how big it actually was. The scene in her head that woke her up through the night only included its massive jaws.

Like her dreams, the missing teens wouldn't leave her mind. Could this be the same shark? She replayed the attack on Sam again, returning to what he discovered in the net. Great whites ruled the ocean with killer whales and humans as its only enemies. Kate's father spoke out sharply about fin hunters and overfishing the seas. Over one hundred million sharks were killed each year, which was a hard number to contemplate. Many died simply so someone could eat fin soup and others died in safety barriers so people could enjoy a day on the beach. Most didn't understand the importance sharks and other marine animals played in the circle of life.

Kate had been raised by her father to never eat fish. Nets and hooks were destructive to ocean wildlife and fisherman had been tossing what they no longer needed overboard for centuries. She'd passed these lessons onto Ryan. Her daughter had never eaten an ocean product in her life. Sam was another story. He didn't eat fish at home, but he admitted he had no problem ordering it on business trips. This was difficult for Kate. Just as Ryan had said the day before, the ocean was dying and everyone had to help or the planet would ultimately die with it. From plastics to net and hook waste, the seas were under-maintained and overfished.

Kate had taken a different path from her father, but it didn't stop her from seeing the catastrophe facing the oceans in the near future. She looked up to Greg, but she'd realized in her teens that activism wasn't for her even though his work made her proud. Kate had known since Ryan was three years old that she would most likely take the same path as her grandpops. It was something in her complete fascination with everything he taught her. Though she loved her childhood, Kate couldn't remember feeling that enraptured when she was young. She had no doubt her daughter would do everything in her power to spearhead ocean rehabilitation and conservation. Ryan loved everything about the water and hung on to each word her grandpops said.

When the decision was made to buy and refurbish the yacht, Kate knew the water was where she herself was most comfortable, even after years away. If anything could give her the courage to determine her future, time at sea would do it.

This shark's persistence disturbed her. The water seemed peaceful but that made events even more ominous. Adding to her mounting anxiety, the shark hit the boat several times in rapid succession. After another visual sweep of the ocean's surface, she turned to Ryan.

"We need to check on your father." Kate had to get her mind off the shark.

Sam hadn't moved, and his skin seemed warmer than it had been. It was a hot day, which didn't help and caused additional worry. She had a full bottle of sports drink waiting for him when he woke up. She also planned to get some soup down him.

She checked him thoroughly. The foot on his injured leg was deep purple. She wished she knew more about blood circulation, but she didn't, and she again regretted that she couldn't check the internet. She let him sleep while she and Ryan took inventory of their supplies. It passed the time and kept Ryan busy.

"Do you think we'll be out here for a long time?" Ryan asked.

"No, but I'm doing exactly what your grandpop taught me. Prepare for the worst is his motto, and it's a good one."

Ryan nodded in complete understanding, and Kate was thankful for her daughter's maturity.

"Is the shark mad at us?" Ryan asked after a thud from below.

Kate wasn't sure how to answer. She didn't want to frighten Ryan more than necessary.

"I don't know what the shark is thinking," Kate said honestly. "Your grandpop has told you about shark mouthing and bumping, right?"

Sharks used their mouths and snouts to identify objects they weren't sure of. The problem with mouthing was their teeth were large with serrated edges that could cause a lot of damage even if the shark was simply curious. Bumping also had consequences because great whites had thousands of pounds behind the bump. It was, however, what a curious shark did. Kate didn't feel the one beneath their boat was curious, but other than that, she wasn't sure what was happening.

"Yes, grandpop taught me that. Is the shark just bumping us?" Ryan asked with interest.

"That's what I think it's doing."

"Can it bite a hole in the bottom of the boat?" Ryan asked next.

"It's highly unlikely," Kate told her. This difficult conversation was necessary to keep her daughter calm, but it was also giving Kate things to think about. At the top of her list was why the shark kept bumping the boat.

It made no sense and she couldn't shake the ridiculous feeling that something sinister was in play.