PREDATOR ISLAND (Sea Lab Book 2)

CHAPTER 25

There were a lot of reasons why Jake was so keen when it came to his surroundings, especially things concerning the ocean and the people around him. After their encounter with Roland Zanderthal and the Ocean Blue Corporation, a few days into their boat ride to Sea Lab West in Hawaii, Cat laid an eight by eleven envelope on his cot. When he opened it, he discovered a dossier on Tony and himself, recovered from Zanderthal's office. Somehow, the madman had gotten his hands on Jake and Tony's history. Jake remembered reading over it, kind of impressed with their past himself. He served four years in the Navy, mostly as an intelligence specialist aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Regan. Maybe that's why he felt like a detective on the high seas. After the military, he studied at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Spent two summers as a volunteer on the anti-whaling ship, the Sea Marshall in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. He spied on Japanese whalers, conducting missions to interfere with their progress. He'd even snuck aboard one of their ships to sabotage their harpoon guns. He was young and dumb back then. Truthfully, he was still doing some of the same things, like sneaking onto an island without permission. Trespassing.

When he'd looked over the second document in the envelope, he recalled grinning at Tony's background. He was a former Army paratrooper. Jake met him at Scripps Institute and they volunteered aboard the same anti-whaling ship. Tony's dossier listed him as a thrill seeker with many hobbies and interests. He was an avid skydiver. A mountain climber. An occasional treasure hunting enthusiast—with Jake's assistance of course—especially now, Jake chuckled at that. They even sailed across the Pacific from San Diego to Hawaii together one summer during their college years.

All of these things made Jake pay more attention to Dr. Graham as they walked. The doctor was an anomaly on the island, someone to be investigated, on the down low of course. But he'd keep mental notes as they went along.

The further they hiked through the jungle, the more inquisitive Dr. Graham became. From the back of the procession, Jake listened with growing interest as the doctor refused to give any more information about the predator than what he'd already shared, all the while, making jabs at Dylan and Savannah, asking if they'd let him see the old map. He called it a relic. A piece of history that didn't belong to them. It belonged in a museum. But Dylan retorted by saying they'd bought the map, paid cash for it, using one of the doctor's lines, fair and square.

This irritated Graham.

After all the walking, Jake felt like they had to be nearing the center of the island. But he couldn't tell. One thing was for sure; they'd yet to stumble across the apex predator that decimated the island's inhabitants: park rangers and native animals alike. Jake kept going back and forth in his mind, wondering if the predator was real, or just a wraith like Graham described it. A ghost in the shadows with yellow eyes.

But something killed the rangers, scratched up the tree, and ate the deer.

So he determined the threat to be real, even if he hadn't laid eyes on it yet.

The question was...had it laid eyes on them yet? This sent a chill over him.

As time went on, Jake relented and unsheathed his machete. Sarah joined him toward the front of the line behind Dylan and Savannah. Maybe if they separated them from the doctor, he'd back off and leave them alone about the map. At least for the time being.

But Jake and Sarah's barrier didn't stop Graham.

"None of you are supposed to be on the island," he said. "You're trespassing. None of you are here for good reasons."

"Excuse me?" Sarah said.

"There is no excuse for you and your friends."

Sarah wagged her head and faced the front again as Jake slashed at a skinny limb that Dylan missed.

"I can smell your sardines," Jake said. "They stink."

Dr. Graham replied, "Take Mr. Cross and Ms. Lockhart. A photographer and a journalist. Since we met, I haven't seen him take the first picture, although I'm sure there's a camera in his backpack."

"My bag is none of your business."

"And this supposed writer has yet to scribble out the first note, or even make the first voice recording to add to her story later. I think...hmm...I believe working for Adventure Magazine is a clever cover, a ploy to give them a reason to come to Cocos Island."

"We are journalists," Savannah said. "We do work for the magazine." She turned to Sarah and Jake. "You can ask Catherine O'Donnell that. She talked to our editor-in-chief. She can vouch for us."

"Oh, I believe you work for the magazine. I have no doubts about that." Graham continued. "But your purpose for being at Cocos, that I question."

"We came here to cover the Sea Lab team for a feature article. We were shark diving. That's the truth."

"But now you're not scuba diving anymore. You're trespassing on this island, violating an official ban. You shouldn't be here."

"You're right," Jake replied. "We shouldn't be here, but then we found the gold coin and the empty chest on the ocean floor."

"The same chest found by the couple we bought the map from," Dylan said. "They found the relic inside a corked wine bottle."

"And what about this couple?" Graham asked. "Are they pirates?"

"Does it matter?"

"What if they come back?"

"That's what I said," Sarah answered.

"What if they don't?" Dylan replied. "It doesn't matter. Even if they did come looking for us, they'd never find us, and besides, Marlon would radio us if he saw anything suspicious on the water."

"He's captaining your yacht?" Graham asked.

"What would you know about our boat?"

"I'm observant. I saw you drop anchor, and I've watched your every step on this island."

"You've been spying on us?"

"My point is, I know a lot about this island, and you'd do well to let me help you find the gold."