Olander held his hands up over his head, batting at the Russian, but Drago just dragged him to his feet, and pushed him towards the lower deck door. “Come on; you and your crew get to sit this one out.”

They followed him down to the deck, and Olander’s crew got to their feet. Some stood pale and docile, while others began cursing and throwing threats, but none dared to actually intervene. Drago and a few of his crewmembers rounded them up, and led them to rooms below. Vincent watched them go for a moment more.

“Guy’s an asshole, but the law might be on his side. If we detain him, there’ll be repercussions.”

“Happy to help push him and his hipster crew over the side,” Regina said.

“We rescued him and his friends. We aren’t detaining him, but are concerned by his erratic behavior.” Mironov’s smile was without humor. “And I have a legal team that’ll tear him to shreds if he wants to go anywhere near a courtroom.” He turned away to walk to one of the windows. “So, here we are.” He spun back to Jack. “Do we try and take this thing down, or do we baton down the hatches and wait until we are rescued… by Olander’s crew.”

Drago reappeared in another minute, and nodded to Mironov. He opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, the massive collision threw them all to the bridge room floor.

Only Vincent remained on his feet, his experienced sea legs braced. “Jesus Christ. Was that what I think it was?”

Jack leapt to his feet and rushed to the railing. “Drago, get the spot lights on.” He gripped the gunwale railing and leaned over.

Down at the waterline, he saw that one of the thick plates was dented, and worse, a join in the panels was showing.

“Ah, shit. The damned thing torpedoed us.”

Cate came and leaned out, just as the spotlights came on. The second collision hammered the Slava from further down the side of the ship, and it turned the large craft in the water. Jack had to grab at Cate to stop her going over the side.

Jack lifted her back to her feet. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Can it smell the whale carcass?” Cate asked.

“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s it. The Megalodon is like the Great White in that it’s highly territorial – this patch is its own. It simply thinks its defending it against a bigger adversary.”

“This whaling ship is nearly as armor plated as a frigate. It’ll end up knocking itself out – might be our opportunity to put an exploding harpoon into it after all.” Vincent clapped and then rubbed his hands together.