Jack held up his hand. “Let me finish. There were other life forms down there. It was no lake, but a damn subterranean sea. We lost good people. Only Cate, myself, and one other walked out of there.” He sighed, feeling the heaviness in his chest. “We encountered a massive predator; a Megalodon – a Carcharodon Megalodon.” He nodded towards the pictures in Vincent’s hands. “The Placoderms were just its food source. But that thing passing under your whale – it was like that.”

Vincent sat back, just watching Jack for a moment. “And it got out… how?”

Jack shrugged. “Don’t know. The site was sealed, and our reporting was also classified as not for public dissemination under the EPA’s environmental hazards act. Homeland Security has said we’re not supposed to even talk about it anymore. They’ve shut down any reporting of the site, and may do further analysis and exploratory later – when they can work out how to do it safely.”

He sucked in a deep breath. “That body of water underneath the western coast of both Alaska and Canada also stretched many miles out into the Bering Sea.” He looked to Cate, and raised his eyebrows. “Whether it was an earthquake or somehow, someone managed to breach the partitioning sea walls, and broke into it. If that occurred, there might have been some biological transference – the Megalodon could have gotten out. Anything else that came with it, like the Placoderm there, should have been killed instantly by the temperature or pressure differential.”

“Well, no maybe this time, mister. And why the hell is it here… and for that matter, staying here?” Regina’s jaw jutted.

“Makes sense,” Cate said. “This is its home… or was, around fifteen million years ago. Many creatures retain primordial base memories. Sharks are one of evolutions enduring success stories, and can live in all sorts of temperatures. But they prefer to hunt in warm water.” She laughed with little humor. “You might say it’s come home.”

Vincent gritted his teeth, looking from Cate to Jack. “And you’ve been sitting on this for how long?”

“Hey...” Jack held Vincent’s fierce gaze. “We didn’t even know about the shark until about five minutes ago. So don’t come onto my boat pointing fingers, okay?”

“You should have told someone, Jack. Now I got people missing all over, and I’m betting they aren’t going to be turning up any time soon.” Vincent got to his feet. “That’s on you.”

Jack also got to his feet, stepping in close to the Coast Guard officer. Jack was taller and well muscled. But Vincent looked like he was made from iron and teak. Both men stared hard at each other.

“Sit down,” Vincent said, holding his eyes.