“I didn’t think so. You’d waste your life. All you would achieve would be to give that big bastard below us a heads up, and make it impossible for us to try it again… after you’ve been torn to shreds or eaten whole. How would Cate feel about that?” Vincent walked to the edge of the boat, and looked over the side. Jack joined him, and together they saw at the far periphery of their lights, the huge fin cutting the water.

Vincent snorted. “Yeah, sure, the propeller shaft needs to be defouled.” He looked at his friend. “But not by you.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Jack said. “Besides it was my idea.”

“Fight you for it?” Vincent grinned.

Regina quick walked in between them. “Make Drago do it.”

Olander and his crew started to talk loudly on deck, and Regina turned towards them. “Better yet; make that fat asshole do it. Or at least use him as a diversion – send him out on one of the rafts.”

Jack and Vincent laughed grimly, but Regina’s face remained clouded – he guessed she meant it. Cate and Sonya joined them, and Olander seeing them all grouped, also barged in.

He folded thick arms. “I have some very scared people here. We need to get them off, and into special care, fast.”

“Funny, we were just talking about options to get you off this boat, fast.” Vincent eyeballed the Earthpeace captain. “Listen up, captain to captain; if we survive, then maybe you survive. So do us a favor, and stay out of our way.”

“Fuck you for putting us all in danger,” Olander stormed off.

Jack watched him go for a moment. “We need to talk, make a decision, right now… all of us.” He pulled in a cheek. “Yeah, even him.”

*   *   *

In the bridge room, Cate, Jack, Vincent, Regina, Valery Mironov and Sonya formed a ring in front. Behind them to one side, were Drago and Alexi, and loitering at the rear was Olander and his youthful crewmembers.

Drago’s other men were below deck trying to work miracles with the pumps. All of them tried hard to ignore the obvious tilting deck and the occasional thump of the behemoth battering them from below.

Inside the room, the quiet murmurs were broken by a sharp metallic clanging sound.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jupiter picked up an old-style alarm clock he had knocked to the ground. It was large, and one of the type that had two copper bells on top and a small hammer in-between. “My bad.” He waved it around, his other hand also held up in surrender.

They turned back to the map table, where Jack had spread a schematic of the Slava out in front of them. He stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at the bow.

The alarm clock went off, ringing loudly, and making the entire room of already tense people jump.

“Shut that fucking thing off,” Jack yelled.