In the crew room, Drew, Alice and Leon were having a meeting about how to proceed. Leon asked, "What's the plan with the Megalodon? Because I have to tell you that facing sixty-foot adults right away is a stupendously bad idea." Drew smiled at them and said, "We're not going to go after the adult Megalodon right away – that's how the old me would have done things. The radar detected some juvenile Megalodon in the shallows; they're only about great white size and they'll be a bit more manageable for us to start with. Some practice before we go after the big fish." Drew turned to Alice, "You're with me. Leon, stay on the boat and call us if anything big shows up". Before Alice left, Leon turned to her and said, "Are you alright? You've been acting rather twitchy lately." Alice shook her head and shrugged, "I'm fine.", before turning on her heel and heading to get her diving suit.
A few minutes, later, Drew and Alice were swimming through a verdant kelp forest. It was a strange contrast; an arid desert running all the way to the coast on the land, contrasted with the rich, fertile undersea meadow, teeming with life. It was eerily reminiscent of the Cambrian; an arid land devoid of life that belied a rich, fertile underwater world. The contrast couldn't be more stark. The bright green undersea meadow took Alice's mind off what Cynthia had told her and Will; it was a refreshing return to normality. Before all this James Bond, cloak-and-dagger crap had entered her life.
They didn't have to swim for long before they found their first animals. A small group of what looked like whales were foraging in the seafloor sediment. Each was about seven feet long and looked like a cross between a narwhal, a manatee and a walrus. They had torpedo-shaped bodies, V-shaped tails and paddle-like forelimbs, which thy were using to manoeuvre themselves through the water. Highly sensitive whiskers, like a walrus, were visible on their upper lips, as they rooted through the sediment. However, their most distinctive features were their large tusks – the females had two ten-inch tusks, whilst the males had a right tusk that was almost half as long as their bodies.
Alice turned to Drew, "Any idea what these are?" Drew said, "According to Leon, they're Odobenocetops; distant relations to the narwhal. Apparently, the males use those big tusks to fight each other in the breeding season." As Alice looked closer, she noticed that some of the males had scars and wounds on their heads – a couple of them even had broken tusks. Looking closer, she realised something else. "They feed like walruses", she said, "They're using their upper lips to find molluscs in this sediment before hoovering them up." Drew smirked, "And I wonder what eats them." Alice looked at him, confused, "What do you mean?" Drew smirked, "Finding a group of these guys was the plan all along; juvenile Megalodon hunt them. Why search for the Megalodon, when the Megalodon can come to us?"
Suddenly, the Odobenocetops went rigid and began scanning the reef, huddling together for protection. Drew and Alice looked to see a shape, some twenty feet long, skimming past the edge of the kelp. As it moved closer, they realised what it was. It was a Megalodon – only a juvenile based on its size and of a much heavier build than a great white shark of the equivalent size. Tornadoes of silt swirled away from the beating tails of the Odobenocetops as they swam into the kelp forests for safety. The shark passed over the two humans, so close that they could practically touch it. Drew and Alice looked at each other – if the juveniles were the size of a great white, imagine how big the adults must be.
The shark kept close to the kelp, the dappled light on its steel-grey back causing it to disappear into the background of the swaying fronds. It scanned the kelp forest, waiting for an Odobenocetops to surface and for it to attack. Regarding this newcomer, Alice turned to look at Drew, only to notice him swimming towards the adolescent shark. Alice hissed at him, "What are you bloody doing?" Drew turned to her and smiled, "Get the portal ready; I'll take him to you."
As Drew approached the Megalodon, it turned and snapped at him. However, Drew kept on swimming towards it. Eventually, the Megalodon began to move towards Drew, slowly and remorselessly. As the shark approached, Drew began to swim backwards, slowly, with the shark following him as he went. As the Megalodon got closer and closer, Drew looked at the shark and back at Alice; he had to seriously judge the right moment. If he didn't, he could be losing a limb… or worse. But, then, when one survives a mass extinction event, somehow, the matter of getting attacked by a shark ceases to be worrying anymore. Eventually, when the shark had gotten close enough, Drew suddenly turned and began swimming as fast as he could. The Megalodon, prey drive activated, lunged towards him; fortunately, its . When the giant shark had gotten close enough, Alice lifted the portal remote, pressed the button. Drew dived out of the way and the shark dived through the portal, into the present.
With their predator gone, the Odobenocetops cautiously emerged from the kelp, scanning the air, almost confused. Alice turned to Drew and asked, "How are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Drew turned to her and said, "Get the bait bag; we're doing the old manoeuvre on this one." Alice grabbed the bait bag and emptied molluscs onto the ocean floor. The whole pod approached the molluscs and began feeding. Whilst they were doing that, Drew approached them and set up the portal. Grabbing some of the molluscs, he threw them through the portal. The pod followed the food through, into the present.
After the last Odobenocetops had gone through, Drew turned to Alice and smiled, "Right, I think that was enough practice. It's time to fry some bigger fish, so to speak." He activated his in-suit communicator, "Leon, get ready to pick us up. Once we're back on the boat, set a course to deeper waters. We're going after the bigger Megalodon."