PREDATOR ISLAND (Sea Lab Book 2)

CHAPTER 11

COCOS ISLAND, COSTA RICA

The trip flew by from Jake's point of view. A week and a half felt like at most a day. He differed from everyone else on the boat; he enjoyed the voyage almost as much as the destination. When he wasn't with Sarah, he spent time in the parlor using the onboard WiFi to study the layout of Cocos Island, in particular the underwater landscape and the marine life that frequented the surrounding waters: yellow fin tuna, giant manta rays, and sailfish. Not to mention the wide variety of shark species, which of course included hammerheads. When he wasn't in the parlor, he found himself on the bridge getting to know Captain Marlon Steele. Turned out, the captain had been working for Tom Logan for more than a decade. Steele happened to be one of those individuals who was slow to make friends, but once he got to know someone he opened up. On several mornings and evenings, Jake drank coffee with the captain and had animated conversations about their experiences on the sea.

As for Dylan and Savannah, they kept their conversation on point for the remainder of the voyage, discussing only the dive itself, what they might encounter under the water around Cocos, and the article that Savannah planned to write for the magazine. The night they reached their destination, Captain Steele made an appearance to tell everyone they were an hour away from the island. His announcement was met with a round of cheers, high fives, and knuckle bumps.

The captain dropped anchor at one in the morning, positioning the yacht a quarter mile offshore in the midnight blue water under a canopy of twinkling stars. Everyone turned in to their staterooms to get some shut eye before the big day ahead of them.

As day broke over the eastern horizon, they gathered below the top deck in the galley for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit consisting of strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple. Jake chased his meal with black coffee and Tony added an apple. By the time they made it to the stern deck, sunlight glimmered over the Pacific, turning the water a clear shade of turquoise closer to shore and a deeper azure blue further out to sea.

The morning sun felt warm on Jake's bronze skin. In these tropical conditions, they wouldn't be wearing wetsuits for the dive, just swim trunks for Dylan and Jake and a one piece bathing suit for Sarah.

Dylan opened a panel under the gunwale and toggled a switch to the down position, activating the hydraulics on the rear platform. The end of the vessel folded out and down into a flat surface for the divers to stand on. Jake helped Sarah with her buoyancy vest and air tank, and then she returned the favor. Savannah helped Dylan into his vest, which held a single air tank as well. While Jake and Sarah would be diving with Dylan and his underwater camera, Tony and Rachel would remain above with Savannah—probably for the journalist to pick their brains for her story. They had a three day plan. Day one would cover Jake and Sarah. Day two would spend time with Tony and Rachel underwater. And day three would wrap up the dives with the entire Sea Lab team. Savannah would join them on the final day. Then she'd write her story while Dylan selected the best photos for the magazine article.

"You guys ready to do this?" Dylan asked, his sandy hair slicked back and a shade darker after dipping his hands into the water and splashing his face.

"I've been waiting for years to mingle with hammerheads," Jake replied.

Sarah had already removed her shorts which covered the bottom half of her swimsuit, folded the garment in half, and laid them in a holding bin on the rear platform. She offered Jake a tentative smile and patted him on the arm. "I'm set to go."

"Good." Dylan held his camera over his head and jumped in, fins and all.

Before his splash died down, Jake leapt in behind him, followed by Sarah a second later. The water felt cool and invigorating. 

Floating a few feet from each other, Dylan said as a matter of fact, "So, this is how it goes. You guys swim and do your thing, and I take pictures. Easy enough?"

Jake replied with an okay hand signal, doubled over and dove beneath the surf.

As he kicked into the depths, he glanced back to see Dylan and Sarah trailing him, bubbles trickling toward the surface. The water was clear and a spectacular shade of royal blue, and the bottom, a hundred feet down, tinted dark brown. The deeper they descended, colorful fish appeared, some small, others not so small. There were a few white-tip reef sharks and a juvenile tiger shark.

Half way down, a traffic jam of large gray shapes circled in a lazy pattern.

Hammerheads.

Jake felt his mouth curl into a warm grin. He made eye contact with Sarah and gave her an eager nod. They were using standard dive masks, supplied by Dylan and Savannah. In other words, Jake couldn't press a button and talk to her, but her eyes widened and she shook her head, yes. This was what they wanted. At least what Jake wanted.

Drifting a few feet away, Dylan snapped a shot of the Sea Lab duo in action as they drew near the formation of hammerhead sharks. Jake felt a giddiness overtake him, like he was a kid in school who'd spent most of his time looking at pictures of the magnificent sharks in text books, but now was seeing them for real for the first time. He kicked deeper, the water temperature cooling around his body as he dove. And then something caught his eye. Not a shark or another fish for that matter, but an object on the ocean floor. It reflected a flicker of sunlight from above. It wasn't just the fact that he saw something shiny. He'd discovered a number of shiny objects in the sea. Recently, he remembered finding an oval piece of chrome smaller than his hand while diving the Great Barrier Reef. It had broken free from a boat and sank to the seabed. But this reminded him of something altogether different.

This object reflected a brilliant glare of gold.