Better than nothing, she knew. The corners of her mouth twitched up, as she watched him leap from rock to rock. After all, that was why he was here. She blushed. The only reason? A sly voice asked. She shook it away. Now was not the time for self-analysis.

They walked, hopped and skipped in silence for another half hour, Cate brought up the rear, sometimes they strung out for fifty feet, and sometimes they all ended up on the same large flat rock together. But as she moved, she noticed Abby, like her, let her eyes wander to the dark sea.

“Do you think it’s following us?” Abby asked.

Jack looked out over the water. “Possibly. Sharks are certainly territorial, and something that size will have a territory that ranges for many miles – hundreds.” He shrugged. “The upside is, from what we’ve seen so far, there is no shortage of food, so…” he shrugged.

“So probably no, huh?” Abby brightened.

“No, is my guess.” He didn’t turn.

In another few minutes he held up a hand as they came to where their rocky path suddenly ended. It resumed again about fifty feet from where they stood. He looked up at the cliff wall – there was a huge gouge out of the stone, creating a sort of little bay. He then turned the light back out to the water, shining it over the still surface.

“Can’t see the bottom. Maybe a rock slide or and entire section of the cliff wall slid into the sea.” He turned, grimacing. “We’re going to have to swim it, sorry.”

Cate knew it would come sooner or later. But now it had, she still felt her stomach roil. She set her jaw. “We gotta do what we gotta do. Abby, you okay?”

“No.” She flashed them a fake smile.

Jack hiked his shoulders. “I wish there was another wa…”

Cate walked past him, and waded straight in. The bottom immediately vanished and she found herself in deep water. She started to breaststroke, hearing Jack and Abby hurriedly following her in.

As she swam she refused to look out at the open sea. If there was something rising there, a fin, tail, or even just a ripple, she knew she would have frozen then.

“Nearly there, Cate. Can you feel bottom?” Jack asked.

“No… yes.” Her fingertips struck something hard, rock, and then she was scrabbling from the water. It was at that moment fear crushed down on her. She scrambled from the water, leaping the last few feet. Jack pushed Abby up and out, and came up behind her, and then together they threw themselves down on the new rock shelf, panting as though they had just swim the English Channel, rather than a few dozen feet of black water.

Cate rolled towards him. “Well, that was intense.” She grinned through her heavy breathing.

“Walk in the park.” He sat up.