Down there, he could not see, but something could sure as hell could see him. Vincent Kelly slowly got to his feet, and backed up, feeling a sensation of impending danger he hadn’t felt in years.

Vincent kept backing away, keeping his eyes on the water. He’d known this area all his life, and had seen sharks, moray eels as thick as your waist, and even giant pacific octopus that had attacked and drowned divers. Nothing scared him, and pretty much nothing surprised him anymore. But today, there was a feeling in his gut, a trembling and horrible anticipation that made him suddenly want to be off the whale and up in the air – way up.

He punched to the controls and lifted off. It was only twenty feet to the helicopter, its wide bottom hovering over the water – it felt too close.

“Take her up, Regina, now.”

“Huh? Vince, you’re not in yet.” Regina sounded confused.

“Take her up, fast; I’ll climb in as you go. That’s an order.” He never pulled rank on her, but today, he wanted no hesitation from his pilot.

Vincent felt the drag on his body as the huge helicopter climbed and added additional G-force to his own ascent from the winch. At the door, he grabbed on, gritted his teeth and struggled to pull himself back in. Once finally done, he quickly spun to look back down at the water.

The whale was gone.

*   *   *

Vincent sat slowly at his desk, his long shift finally over for the day. They’d made six trips overall, and had seen no sign of the Bella Donna, or for that matter, any trace of the whale. He guessed it sunk, and had noted it in his report – a potential biological hazard just waiting to resurface.

He flicked on his computer, still troubled by the feeling he’d had when standing on the floating giant’s back. His gut told him danger was imminent – he’d only ever had that sort of feeling once before, and that was a few years back when he was on the deck of a ship minutes before it exploded under their feet. He was in hospital for a week, where they had to rebuild his leg, and pull a three-foot section of cedar railing from his gut. He swore he’d never ignore that type of warning again.

Vincent shook it away, and held up the fragment of tooth. It was big – three inches long, but broken, maybe at the dental matrix end, maybe in half, or just maybe they only got the tip. Impossible.