Phantom Prospect

She heard him coming down the stairs a moment later. “Annja?”

“Yeah.”

“You okay?”

“I’m wondering why this shark hasn’t responded to my presence or to this flashlight beam.”

“You thought it would?”

Annja frowned. “Hell, I don’t know what I thought. It was more of an experiment than anything else.”

“The scope isn’t showing much. It’s still there, but its movement is as slow as it was before. It’s like it either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that you’re there.”

Annja frowned. “I could go for a swim.”

“Don’t you dare!” Hunter’s voice grated across the darkness. Annja smiled at the reaction.

“Relax. I told you I wasn’t suicidal. And even if I was, I wouldn’t do it like that.”

“All right. Don’t make me haul you back aboard against your will.”

“Like you could.”

Hunter started to laugh, but then they both stopped.

Something splashed out beyond the range of the light.

Annja’s heart started beating faster. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah.”

She could tell Hunter was coming closer to her. “Annja, why don’t you get back on the boat now?”

“Hang on a second.”

She could hear more splashing. It sounded like something was almost on top of the water. She swept the flashlight beam as far as she could but the inexorable darkness simply swallowed it up beyond ten yards.

“I can’t see a damned thing.”

“Neither can I. But I think you should get back on the boat,” Hunter said.

“Get back to the wheelhouse and tell me what you see.”

“I’m not leaving you alone out here.”

“I’ll be fine. Just do it, okay?”

“Annja.”

“Hunter. Just do it. I need to know if this thing is coming at me or not.”

“Fine.”

She heard him stomp away and then turned back to look out at the ocean. More wind blew up and she felt her fear rising with it. The shark might be heading right for her and she wouldn’t know it unless her flashlight beam cut across its shape in the dark. “Annja!”