“Still working on it, but we think he’s getting there. Guess he wants another few minutes – can you stretch it for another five?”

She looked down at her fuel gauge. She still had a few gallons left, and knew once she let the whale go, the loss of weight meant she’d make it back to the Slava with gas to spare. She swallowed dryly – the problem was, it wasn’t the fuel that she felt leaking away, it was her nerve.

“Um, yeah sure… I guess I can do that.”

Regina kept the throttle pushed forward, hard, but there was nothing extra to give. Her mouth half twitched into a smile. She’d just do the equivalent of counting sheep, she told herself. After all, five minutes is only three hundred seconds, so: two hundred and ninety – breathe, two-eighty-five – breathe, two-eighty…

Regina’s eyes stung as drops of perspiration ran from her forehead into her eyes. She reached up a forearm to rub it across her face, when the tiny yellow helicopter suddenly jerked to a stop in the air. Regina was strapped in, but was still thrown painfully forward. The whiplash effect, catapulted her at the bubble-window and then back into her seat like she was on elastic. She would have been paste on the cockpit glass if not for her seatbelt.

In a matter of seconds she had gone from being in the air, to being smashed into the water. She was groggy, but if she thought it was over, she was immediately reminded her nightmare had only just begun. Regina felt the chopper begin to be dragged backwards, and then under.

The sudden rush of water jolted her back to full consciousness. The monster had come up and taken the fucking whale, she knew, as she went deeper.

Everything went dark, but she was an experienced pilot, and a Coast Guard expert. She’d trained for water ditching, and worked to stay calm, work through the motions – unbuckle the belt, grab any survival kit, and find the exit. And then, importantly, get to the damned surface.

She was under now, and the pressure at her ears told her she was heading into deep water. She couldn’t help it; panic started to set in. No matter how much she had trained, no one had ever prepared her for being in the water with a Megalodon that was longer than a school bus.

She fumbled with the clasp at her chest, as the pressure on her eardrums started to cause her pain. She came free of her belt, and propelled herself from the cockpit. The worrying thing was, the helicopter had now stopped being dragged down into the depths.

Regina crawled back to the surface. She knew the helicopter not being dragged anymore meant one of two things – either the shark had ripped the whale free. Or, the other scenario she tried to push from her mind – the monster was coming back up.

*   *   *