Fear At First Bite By: Alex Haney
Prologue
Thursday October 23, 2003
******* "Shark!! Shaaaaark!," the scream rang through the dark of night, splitting the air and shattering the long held silence. It was 2:00am.The moon shone brightly on the dark water revealing one of it's many secrets. There it was, the most feared shark of Asian waters, the Tiger Shark. It was swimming slowly, toying with this thing that intruded on it's hunting ground. The shark would have preferred not to have been intruded on during it's nightly feeding, had the intruder not been substantially larger than the baby marlins that it was stalking. It began to stray from it's S-bend path, and moved to a heretical pattern, seemingly without order. And yet. No, he wouldn't let himself be unwitted by the shark's almost hypnotic pattern. "Get the camera. Now! This is it," the man laughed maniacally then regained his sanity (somewhat). *What's taking him so long? Crazy Indian. He.* His thoughts were interrupted by his foreign assistant. "Here sir." The Asian did not have much of an accent, but his origin was still easily identified (for a person of many tongues). "Give here" the man said as he snatched the SONY waterproof camera. The camera might have worked better had it not been bought from a Sears catalogue. "This is it Pedro. This footage is going to put us on easy street." The man said it with a slight tinge of uncertainty. And for good reason. *whiiiirrrrr..click* "Hey, hey the camera stopped. I thought you checked this thing!" The camera had indeed stopped, but to make matters worse the boat light and the light on the camera, shut off. "NO! Stupid camera. D@mn faulty wiring." Not being a patient man, he began to resort to the age old practice of talking to and banging the camera in his palm. He would have kept hitting the thing, but he had a sudden urge to look up. He wished he hadn't. Swimming no more than ten yards in front of him was the shark. The menacing look of death that belongs only to a predator on the hunt, was spread across it's face. The shark's teeth were stained red with the fresh blood of a young marlin. The man could have sworn that the shark was grinning. "Pedro, PEDRO!!" the voice was shaky, almost unrecognizable from The Man's usually calm, cynical voice. There was no answer from the ship. "Oh god, ha, haha." He was laughing, not something he did often, but he wasn't laughing about something funny. He was laughing because this situation was impossible. No this wasn't happening, not to him, he had taken every precaution, every last one. But it was happening, the shark was there, circling around the boat and disepering into the shadows behind the boat, and his troubles were almost over. "Sir, grab the rope sir!" The Man was broken from his recent trance. Pedro! It was Pedro! He grabbed the pope and held it with every last ounce of strength in his arms. *Thud* The Man hit the bottom of the boat with an unpleasant crash. At that same time the shark shot out of the water. The two men looked up in astonishment from there new position of sitting on the bottom of the boat. The shark was at least nine feet out of the water. It began to fall. What was only five seconds seemed like an eternity to the two men cowering in the bottom of the boat. *SPLASHHHHHH* Water sprayed the boat and men with gallons of water. The boat was turned to the point of almost tipping over, and spilling the men straight back into the shark's domain, from which nothing could escape. Then, all was calm. The terror was over and the Man had survived another close encounter with a deadly shark. Shaken, the Man looked up and said, "Good job Pedro, remind me to up your pay when we get back to port. Pedro? Where are ya?" He looked around but Pedro was nowhere to be found. The Man scrambled to his feet, almost falling when his knees buckled, and looked at the ocean that surrounded him on all sides. The water was calm. The extreme stillness seemed hostile. And then, there, in the water, a glisten of light shining off the water. But when the Man looked closer it was not water that the moon shone so brightly upon; no it was a large pool of dark red blood flowing throughout the area of the boat, and the pool grew larger still. A lone fin was seen swimming away from the sight of it's new kill, and the Man thought he heard the faint words 'Help' and saw bubbles coming from where the fin was. Pedro was dead, he couldn't belive it. His only friend dead. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," the Man screamed as loud as his lungs would allow. When he stopped he looked down, and collapsed. "God, oh God." And everything went black.
IOSP Patrol
Friday October 24, 2003 All was calm on the surface of the Indian Ocean as a storm grew in the distance. "Yes, it's always calm before a storm." Patrick Lander was reading graphs taken of the storm that was brewing. The boat he worked with (The Mariner III) ,along with being a deep sea fisher's dream, worked with IOSP (Indian Ocean Sea Patrol) in tracking bad weather. 'The Mariner' had the latest equipment in storm reading. So far, none of their predictions had been wrong. " Well nothing seems to be bad enough to report yet," interrupted Ben Whelch. Ben and Patrick (Pat for short) had been long time best friends, and had worked on boats together since their first year of high school. Pat was the whizzy brain behind operations. Ben was the lighter minded of the two. He didn't worry about everything the way Pat did. Heck, without him, Pat would be so stressed out after one day that he would probably stress so much he would crack. But the same went vise versa. " You need to be a little more cautious." "And you need to lighten up." "If I goofed off half as much as." *Blllllllling, bllllllllllllling* "Pat, grab the phone." *Phwew, saved by the bell* thought Ben. "Hello. Ok, sure. What are the coordinates?. Uh huh, Ok we'll report anything unusual. ok, goodbye. *Click*
"Who was that?"
"IOSP wants us to check out a reported missing ship." "Just show me the way," Ben was the pilot of the boat, and scared the crap out of Pat every time he took a corner as fast as the boat would go and almost tip the boat. No sooner had Ben been told the coordinates that a loud "AAAAAGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" was heard as the boat nearly tipped over on a tight corner.
*****
" Yeah there gonna check it out now," Sam Fisher was trying his best to keep the wife of the scientist that was on the reported missing ship. It wasn't working. " Are you sure? I.I just can't take this, I mean what if he's hurt or, or." She didn't get the chance to finish. She was stopped by the warm used tears that burst forward uncontrollably. She almost got Fisher wet. "Ma'am please. look I've got candy!" *what am I doin'? The poor woman's at least 30 for Christ's sake. I just asked her if she wanted candy.* "I gotta get some coffee," Fisher said aloud, and left the room. "But when will they find himwaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh." A loud groan could easily be heard coming from the copy room. He didn't need coffee, he just needed to get out of there. *This woman is about as fake as my grade school teacher's tuppe*
*********
"Sloooow down, you idiot!" It was all too easy to tell that he was terrified, all the more reason to push the throttle just a little bit further.
"What? I can't hear you, the boat is goin' too fast. Hahahaha!"
*He's gonna get me killed* thought Pat. Pat was trying his best to pull the throttle down, but the combined strength of the already strong winds and the wind caused by the tremendous speed of the boat (about 50 mph.), kept him at bay. Pat was about to lose his grip on the mast holding an American flag, that he was clinging to with all his strength. Ben had always been the stronger one of the two. He turned to enjoy his friend's horrid expression. "Oh crap." Ben saw that Pat was about to go flying off the boat. He grabbed the throttle and tried to pull it back. It wouldn't. He fumbled with it for a minute before realizing that the button that read 'THROT. LOCK' was pressed down. His hand charged for the button and pressed it. He had still been jerking on the throttle, and when it unlocked he stumbled back and almost tore the throttle handle from the boat control board. The effect of the gear change was almost immediate. The boat slowed and came to an almost complete stop. When Ben had pulled the handle back, he had thrown it in reverse. Ben hung his head for a moment to regain his breath. "Whoo! Man that sure got the adrenaline rushin' huh pal?" Ben looked up upon getting no response. He was taken by surprise by what he saw. Pat was snow white. His eyes were bulging so big that Ben was sure that at any second they could pop out of there protective casing. Pat's knuckles were whiter than his face from gripping the pole so hard. Truthfully, he didn't know that he was strong enough to hold on. He thought for sure that in another minute he would be swimming with the sharks.
"Pat, you can let go now ya know."
The only thing Pat could do was lift his finger.
"Oh now come on. No need for things like that," Ben tried to throw a little humor, but it didn't turn out well.
Prologue
Thursday October 23, 2003
******* "Shark!! Shaaaaark!," the scream rang through the dark of night, splitting the air and shattering the long held silence. It was 2:00am.The moon shone brightly on the dark water revealing one of it's many secrets. There it was, the most feared shark of Asian waters, the Tiger Shark. It was swimming slowly, toying with this thing that intruded on it's hunting ground. The shark would have preferred not to have been intruded on during it's nightly feeding, had the intruder not been substantially larger than the baby marlins that it was stalking. It began to stray from it's S-bend path, and moved to a heretical pattern, seemingly without order. And yet. No, he wouldn't let himself be unwitted by the shark's almost hypnotic pattern. "Get the camera. Now! This is it," the man laughed maniacally then regained his sanity (somewhat). *What's taking him so long? Crazy Indian. He.* His thoughts were interrupted by his foreign assistant. "Here sir." The Asian did not have much of an accent, but his origin was still easily identified (for a person of many tongues). "Give here" the man said as he snatched the SONY waterproof camera. The camera might have worked better had it not been bought from a Sears catalogue. "This is it Pedro. This footage is going to put us on easy street." The man said it with a slight tinge of uncertainty. And for good reason. *whiiiirrrrr..click* "Hey, hey the camera stopped. I thought you checked this thing!" The camera had indeed stopped, but to make matters worse the boat light and the light on the camera, shut off. "NO! Stupid camera. D@mn faulty wiring." Not being a patient man, he began to resort to the age old practice of talking to and banging the camera in his palm. He would have kept hitting the thing, but he had a sudden urge to look up. He wished he hadn't. Swimming no more than ten yards in front of him was the shark. The menacing look of death that belongs only to a predator on the hunt, was spread across it's face. The shark's teeth were stained red with the fresh blood of a young marlin. The man could have sworn that the shark was grinning. "Pedro, PEDRO!!" the voice was shaky, almost unrecognizable from The Man's usually calm, cynical voice. There was no answer from the ship. "Oh god, ha, haha." He was laughing, not something he did often, but he wasn't laughing about something funny. He was laughing because this situation was impossible. No this wasn't happening, not to him, he had taken every precaution, every last one. But it was happening, the shark was there, circling around the boat and disepering into the shadows behind the boat, and his troubles were almost over. "Sir, grab the rope sir!" The Man was broken from his recent trance. Pedro! It was Pedro! He grabbed the pope and held it with every last ounce of strength in his arms. *Thud* The Man hit the bottom of the boat with an unpleasant crash. At that same time the shark shot out of the water. The two men looked up in astonishment from there new position of sitting on the bottom of the boat. The shark was at least nine feet out of the water. It began to fall. What was only five seconds seemed like an eternity to the two men cowering in the bottom of the boat. *SPLASHHHHHH* Water sprayed the boat and men with gallons of water. The boat was turned to the point of almost tipping over, and spilling the men straight back into the shark's domain, from which nothing could escape. Then, all was calm. The terror was over and the Man had survived another close encounter with a deadly shark. Shaken, the Man looked up and said, "Good job Pedro, remind me to up your pay when we get back to port. Pedro? Where are ya?" He looked around but Pedro was nowhere to be found. The Man scrambled to his feet, almost falling when his knees buckled, and looked at the ocean that surrounded him on all sides. The water was calm. The extreme stillness seemed hostile. And then, there, in the water, a glisten of light shining off the water. But when the Man looked closer it was not water that the moon shone so brightly upon; no it was a large pool of dark red blood flowing throughout the area of the boat, and the pool grew larger still. A lone fin was seen swimming away from the sight of it's new kill, and the Man thought he heard the faint words 'Help' and saw bubbles coming from where the fin was. Pedro was dead, he couldn't belive it. His only friend dead. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," the Man screamed as loud as his lungs would allow. When he stopped he looked down, and collapsed. "God, oh God." And everything went black.
IOSP Patrol
Friday October 24, 2003 All was calm on the surface of the Indian Ocean as a storm grew in the distance. "Yes, it's always calm before a storm." Patrick Lander was reading graphs taken of the storm that was brewing. The boat he worked with (The Mariner III) ,along with being a deep sea fisher's dream, worked with IOSP (Indian Ocean Sea Patrol) in tracking bad weather. 'The Mariner' had the latest equipment in storm reading. So far, none of their predictions had been wrong. " Well nothing seems to be bad enough to report yet," interrupted Ben Whelch. Ben and Patrick (Pat for short) had been long time best friends, and had worked on boats together since their first year of high school. Pat was the whizzy brain behind operations. Ben was the lighter minded of the two. He didn't worry about everything the way Pat did. Heck, without him, Pat would be so stressed out after one day that he would probably stress so much he would crack. But the same went vise versa. " You need to be a little more cautious." "And you need to lighten up." "If I goofed off half as much as." *Blllllllling, bllllllllllllling* "Pat, grab the phone." *Phwew, saved by the bell* thought Ben. "Hello. Ok, sure. What are the coordinates?. Uh huh, Ok we'll report anything unusual. ok, goodbye. *Click*
"Who was that?"
"IOSP wants us to check out a reported missing ship." "Just show me the way," Ben was the pilot of the boat, and scared the crap out of Pat every time he took a corner as fast as the boat would go and almost tip the boat. No sooner had Ben been told the coordinates that a loud "AAAAAGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" was heard as the boat nearly tipped over on a tight corner.
*****
" Yeah there gonna check it out now," Sam Fisher was trying his best to keep the wife of the scientist that was on the reported missing ship. It wasn't working. " Are you sure? I.I just can't take this, I mean what if he's hurt or, or." She didn't get the chance to finish. She was stopped by the warm used tears that burst forward uncontrollably. She almost got Fisher wet. "Ma'am please. look I've got candy!" *what am I doin'? The poor woman's at least 30 for Christ's sake. I just asked her if she wanted candy.* "I gotta get some coffee," Fisher said aloud, and left the room. "But when will they find himwaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh." A loud groan could easily be heard coming from the copy room. He didn't need coffee, he just needed to get out of there. *This woman is about as fake as my grade school teacher's tuppe*
*********
"Sloooow down, you idiot!" It was all too easy to tell that he was terrified, all the more reason to push the throttle just a little bit further.
"What? I can't hear you, the boat is goin' too fast. Hahahaha!"
*He's gonna get me killed* thought Pat. Pat was trying his best to pull the throttle down, but the combined strength of the already strong winds and the wind caused by the tremendous speed of the boat (about 50 mph.), kept him at bay. Pat was about to lose his grip on the mast holding an American flag, that he was clinging to with all his strength. Ben had always been the stronger one of the two. He turned to enjoy his friend's horrid expression. "Oh crap." Ben saw that Pat was about to go flying off the boat. He grabbed the throttle and tried to pull it back. It wouldn't. He fumbled with it for a minute before realizing that the button that read 'THROT. LOCK' was pressed down. His hand charged for the button and pressed it. He had still been jerking on the throttle, and when it unlocked he stumbled back and almost tore the throttle handle from the boat control board. The effect of the gear change was almost immediate. The boat slowed and came to an almost complete stop. When Ben had pulled the handle back, he had thrown it in reverse. Ben hung his head for a moment to regain his breath. "Whoo! Man that sure got the adrenaline rushin' huh pal?" Ben looked up upon getting no response. He was taken by surprise by what he saw. Pat was snow white. His eyes were bulging so big that Ben was sure that at any second they could pop out of there protective casing. Pat's knuckles were whiter than his face from gripping the pole so hard. Truthfully, he didn't know that he was strong enough to hold on. He thought for sure that in another minute he would be swimming with the sharks.
"Pat, you can let go now ya know."
The only thing Pat could do was lift his finger.
"Oh now come on. No need for things like that," Ben tried to throw a little humor, but it didn't turn out well.