Cate held a hand up flat to stop the man from coming any closer. “The last thing I want to do is be out on that black water in a tiny raft. But the cold hard fact is, this boat is sinking. You can try your luck in a raft with us, or you stay inside this room and get dragged to the bottom, or maybe you’ll float free when it goes under – that’ll mean you’ll be in the water instead of on it.” She smiled flatly. “You can make up your own mind, but we’re getting into one of the rafts. You have to decide what you and your crew are doing for yourselves.”

“Then we need another decoy, or, ah, something.” Olander backed up, his eyes round. For the first time the man seemed genuinly frightened.

“Yeah, now you get it.” Cate said.

A flare popped and rose into the sky. Drago stood out on deck; his arm raised and still holding the flare gun. The red ball of fire rose hundreds of feet in the air, before flaring even brighter, and then slowly dropped back down. It would be seen for many miles over the horizon.

Sonya grabbed her arm again. “Ready?”

Cate shook her head. “No.”

The Russian woman grinned. “Me neither; so let’s go.”

CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER 44

Vincent had a few strands left to cut, and allowed a speck of hope to enter his mind. He might just be able to finish the job before he needed to surface. He pinched his nose and blew, popping and repressurizing his eardrums once again as the stern sunk even deeper. He didn’t know how much lower it would be before the water rose above the stern gunwale, or the engine room became inaccessible. But the hull was silent now, meaning the pumps had ceased – it was a bad sign. He began to furiously saw again, and then rested for a few seconds to ease the burning fatigue in his arms and shoulders.

In that few seconds of nothingness, he felt it, the pressure wave, the push of water from something moving past him in the darkness. He’d been a navy frogman in an earlier life, and he knew what it felt like when one huge body moved past another.

He didn’t want to turn, but found it impossible to resist. Fear was making the hair prickle on his scalp under the wetsuit head covering. He turned his flashlight into the darkness behind him. There was nothing. He brought it around in a slow arc, finishing with it pointing through the propeller shaft to the other side of the boat – the huge creature came at him so fast he had no time to react. It struck the ship, its huge mouth open and jaws extended forward intent on swallowing him whole.