Chan shrugged. “If it’s a billfish…”

“What the hell else could it be?”

Chan remained expressionless. “Keep winding.”

∆∆∆

Nearly a full hour later Karlo spotted the kite, and a few minutes after that, the dropper.

“Take the rod!” he said, shoving it at Chan. He leaned over the hull, gripped the line, and walked it in until he made out a huge shadow beneath the surface of the water. “Jesus Christ…” he breathed softly.

Missy said, “Is that a shark?”

“It’s a great white,” Karlo said, awestruck, as the white-bellied beast rose dramatically to the surface. It floated on its side, one beady black eye staring up at him. The bait, a half-eaten mackerel, protruded from its smiling, tooth-lined mouth. Karlo’s heart pounded. The bloody fish had the girth of a hippo and must have been at least four meters long from snout to tail. “Missy, get your phone! I need pictures—”

The shark thrashed and splashed. The abrupt movement caught Karlo off guard. He didn’t have time to think or react, didn’t let go of the line. The next moment he was flying through the air.

He crashed face-first into the ocean. The cold water shocked his body. He tasted salt in his mouth. Out of panic he kicked furiously. His head broke through the surface. He gasped and flailed his arms back and forth to stay afloat.

“Karlo!” Missy cried, staring down at him with terrified eyes. “Get out of that water right now! There’s a shark in there with you!”

Not just any shark, he thought. A great white that is probably very pissed off at me.

Karlo swam madly toward the boat’s stern. His hands gripped the uprights of the metal ladder; his feet found the underwater steps.

“Hurry!” Missy shrieked, bending over the ladder to help him. “It’s right there!”

Right there! Right where?

Karlo scampered up the ladder, smashing his knees and elbows in his haste, Missy yanking him by his forearms, his wet shirt clinging to his body, his cap lost. In the back of his mind he knew he was doomed. Any second now the shark would strike. Missy would yank him up onto the deck and scream in horror when she realized he was just a head, arms, and upper torso. Everything below his waist would be gone. He would die moments later with no more dignity than the mackerel they’d used for bait…

It didn’t happen.

Karlo lurched up onto the deck, clear of the water and the shark in it, coughing water from his lungs.

Whole.

Missy wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek to his, though this made it harder for him to catch his breath, so he shook her away. He rose unsteadily to his feet, his eyes going to the fishing rod holder attached to the port hull.

It was empty.

“Where’s the dadgum rod?” he barked, eyeing the deck with wild eyes. “It’s gone! It’s bloody gone!”

“Who cares about that!” Missy said. “You’re alive.”