Vincent reached out to shake his and then Cate’s hands. “Well guys, I’m on the clock.” With one hand holding his swim fins, he climbed quickly down the rope netting.

Jack walked back a few paces, his head bent over the tracker. “It’s still heading away.”

“Hey, what the hell are you doing here?” Cate felt a shock go through her body. She quick marched towards Milo, who was edging along the deck.

“She made me.” Milo threw his hands up as Cate grabbed his collar, and led him out of the shadows.

Jack’s brows knitted. “Then who…”

Milo shrugged out of Cate’s grip. “She said if I fucked up, she’d kill me. So I said, you do it… and she said fine.” He saw the look on Jack’s face, and he opened his arms wide. “She’s a fucking navy pilot or something, man.”

Jack smacked his forehead. “Regina, you fool.” He began to run to the bridge room.

“No,” Cate yelled.

Jack pulled up. “We’ve got to get her back.”

Cate slumped. “We can’t. She’d drag the whale back towards us. Not that she’d listen anyway.”

Jack threw his head back. “Shit!”

Cate walked to the railing, and looked down into the oil-black water. “Let’s just hope that by the time Vince finishes, she can ditch the whale, and head back.”

Jack looked back down at the tracker. “Then the best we can do is stay in touch; let her know what were seeing. C’mon.”

CHAPTER 42

CHAPTER 42

“You can do it, baby.” Regina urged the small Hughes 500 helicopter to give her every ounce of lift it could squeeze from its compact Allison turboshaft. She had let out all the cable available, but was still only thirty feet above the dark water surface. It was pushing the craft to its limits, as the whale, coupled with the drag from the water, was a monstrously heavy combination.

Regina was glad she had forced the huge Drago from the cockpit before taking off. With his added weight, she was sure they’d be belly-dragging the whole way. She looked out of the cockpit, and shivered. The water was so dark, and except for a strip of moonlight on its surface it was an impenetrable and foreboding place. She had no idea where the monster was. That’s what she thought of it as now – a monster – what else could it be, but something from some fuck’s twisted nightmare.

The radio blinked in front of her, and she snatched up the handset, thankful for the chance of speaking to another person. “Regina here, over.”

“Regina, you mad crazy bitch,” Cate said.

“Nice to hear your voice too, Cate.” She grinned around the mic. “And hey, if Jack went over the side, what would you do?”