“Like I have sand in my feet?”
“Yes.”
“Where’d Billy go?”
“To make up his bed on the Clamdip.”
“You know, you two are trying to get me into trouble.”
“How is that?” Judy asked impishly.
“Because he busted his chops to get us to meet and I’m beginning to think you had a part in planning all that. He did everything he could to keep us together and did it so cleverly that nobody could catch the act going on.”
“You... don’t approve?” she said.
“I wasn’t planning on letting Billy go back to the boat.”
This time she slipped her arm through his and edged him into a walk along the sandy path. “Aren’t we a little big for a chaperone?”
“No. Hell, I don’t mean...”
“Yes you do,” she said, laughing, “and I’m glad you feel that way.” His questioning look made her add, “I always wondered what it would be like to be seduced.”
“You?” Her words surprised him.
“The thing is, I wouldn’t want to be seduced by a seducer.”
Mako stopped, let out a grunt and shook his head. “Now what kind of an idea is that? What other kinds are there?”
“Ones like you,” she said simply.
“Damn, I’m not going to seduce you!”
“Why not?”
Only for a moment was he angry. It showed in his face very briefly, then his teeth flashed in a tight smile when he saw how neatly he had fallen into the net. In that single instant he reviewed every minute of his life; the door was wide open and he could step through it and be in a place where he really wanted to be.
He said, “Because someplace en route, kid, I went and fell in love with you.”
“Is that bad?”
“You answer that,” he told her.
“I think it’s grand, my Mako man, because I feel the same way.”
“But you’re still not going to get seduced, kiddo.”
“I know,” she said. “My time will come.”
“Tonight you can sleep in my bed. I’ll take the couch.”
“You have clean sheets?”
“All soldiers have clean sheets on base.”
At first light the people of Peolle had gathered around the Mallis’ boat, standing back with a strange awe of fearsome expectations, knowing the eater had touched this hull and left its mark on it. Beneath the keel Lule and Poca were crawling closer to the rent bottom, finally feeling the slash in the thick planking. Nobody spoke. Nobody ventured an opinion. All they could do was look and wait.
Mako told Judy to stay at the edge of the crowd and got under the boat with the two brothers. He didn’t remain at arm’s length from the gash in the wood; he went right to it, throwing the beam of his flashlight directly on the spot the eater had hit.
He felt a cold chill touch him when he saw the tooth marks. One had gone right through two inches of solid oak, nipping out a gouge a foot and a half long. The other three hadn’t penetrated the way the other had, but they tore into the planking a good inch in one raking blow.
But what really chilled him was the shape of the bite, a huge curve of a mighty bite from a creature that was simply nibbling at its victim, rather than satisfying an unnatural hunger.
Mako hadn’t noticed that Billy Bright had joined him, his eyes following his hands tracing out the arc of the teeth marks. His face was filled with wonder and curiosity and Mako knew what he was thinking. Before, the teeth marks had been odd or indistinct. The unbelievers could have reason to believe the damage was caused by flotsam that had metal edges that could rip and scar, like what drifted up on Scara Island.
But now here was the proof, not only the destructive rending of the teeth but the deadly, huge semicircle of its gaping mouth. This incontrovertible proof was not something that would be spoken of yet. None of the islanders would go under the hull for any further inspections. They would accept the tight expressions on the faces of Lule and Poca and watch closely the actions of Billy Bright and Mako Hooker.
As he and Billy were sliding out, Mako saw Judy taking angle shots of the crowd, then coming back to the two of them. Very quickly she handed the Minicam to Mako and he went back under the hull, panned the bottom to show the nature of the damage, then went in for close-ups that showed the oval configuration of the tooth marks. When he finished he snapped the film cartridge out and tucked it inside his shirt.
Poca and Lule were waiting patiently for Mako’s judgment call. He said, “That’s an expensive hole in your bottom, friends.”
“Yes, we can see that,” Poca said. “But we have not much money.”
“You want it fixed up for free?”
Lule shook his head. “That is impossible, sar. It would have to be replanked...”
“I didn’t ask how it would be done. I just said would you like it done for free?”
“But how...”
“Okay, do this,” Mako stated. “One of you always stay here. Don’t let anybody go under your boat. Don’t let anybody take pictures. If you see anybody with a camera sneaking around, you get help and get them the hell out of here. Think you can manage that?”
“And we get our boat fixed for free?”
Mako nodded. “Free.”
The brothers grinned at each other, then turned their grins on Mako. “We do that, sar.”
“And don’t call me ‘sar,’” he said.
“Yes, sar,” they said together.
On the way to the Clamdip Judy asked, “Why keep a guard on their boat?”
Mako took the film pack out of his shirt. “I don’t want this duplicated. Together, all these little film clips are going to be parlayed into the biggest scene you’ve ever come across. When this movie is made it will bury everything on the market.”
Judy’s brows came together in a grim expression. “That is,” she said to him, “if the eater is destroyed.”
Billy Bright licked his lips and caught Mako’s eyes. “Is it... the Carcharodon megalodon?”
Billy waited for his answer.
Mako said, “No, Billy, it’s not that monstrous great white shark. It’s a lot bigger than that.”
“How much bigger?”
“Like a barracuda to a bait fish.
“Then nobody can kill it.”
“Somebody will have to, Billy.”
When they boarded the Clamdip and Mako put his film in the concealed safe box, Billy called to him. “Sar,” he said, “that movie boat, she is coming in to dock.”
Judy went topside to see Lotusland tying up at the far end of the government pier. “Now what are they doing here?”
“Anthony Pell wants to make a movie for you, honey. He’s following the action.”
“Why are you smiling like that?” She was watching him strangely.
“Because one day he’s going to catch up with it.” His tone was low and had a dangerous edge.
Billy Bright was watching him from a corner of the cabin and for one brief second he saw Mako the way people who died had seen him, a dealer in death itself, the winning hand in every battle, bloodied often but always alive, someone to be avoided, someone terrible. Yet he knew that was exactly what Hooker had given up a long time ago.
But this was another time.
Judy said, “I’m going to meet them when they dock.”
“Why?”
“I want to speak to Tony.”
“He’ll lie.”
“I’ll know.”
Mako shook his head. “No you won’t. He’s an expert at it. Nobody will know that inflatable was in the water. He’ll have every base covered.”
“He’ll have to get that film developed. That’s something he can’t do himself.”
“No, but he’ll stick by the process and get it right out of the machine. Who is there to countermand his orders?”