The shore was already in sight as the rhinoworm chose its moment to attack. It thumped against the scooter, slewing it sideways, and its beaked mouth clamped over Roach’s foot. Roach let out a yell, and promptly dropped Keech’s antiphoton weapon into the water. Keech reached over and caught hold of Roach’s jacket, while Boris lunged over the driver’s seat to link his arms around Roach’s chest.

‘Shoot the fucking thing!’ Keech yelled at Boris.

‘I can’t! He’ll go in!’

Keech swore, and tried reaching for the weapon in Boris’s belt.

‘I ain’t going! I ain’t going!’ Roach yelled.

‘Hang on!’ Boris yelled pointlessly.

Keech’s arm felt leaden as he tried to move it with its cybermotors, then his face became a mask of pain as something crunched in his wrist. He finally managed to pull the weapon free and aim it at the rhinoworm.

‘Damn! I can’t pull the trigger! Try to hold him aboard!’

Keech released his hold and swapped the weapon to his right hand. Boris, still holding on to Roach, was dragged over the seat when the worm tried to haul his companion into the sea. Keech’s first shot burnt a hole into the worm’s head. It paused in its tugging only to blink at them, then started pulling again. Keech fired again, then a third time, opening a smoking crater in the bone between the worm’s eyes. Abruptly the creature released its prey and rose up out of the water like a cobra about to strike. Keech took aim at the underside of its head: one shot that blew open something soft and yellow. The worm went rigid, coughed, then dropped into the sea like a puppet with its strings cut.

‘I told you I weren’t going!’ Roach shouted at the creature floating limply beside the scooter.

‘Oh shit,’ said Boris, staring in another direction.

Keech and Roach turned and gaped at the approaching mound of molly carp.

‘This isn’t going to stop it,’ said Keech, holding up his pulse-gun. ‘What we need is something like my APW.’ He glared accusingly at Roach, who tried his best not to look sneaky.

‘I can’t help it. Me arm ain’t working properly,’ the crewman protested.

‘This is it, then,’ muttered Boris.

The molly carp surged up to the scooter, but turned at the last moment and snapped up the rhinoworm. Because of its unusual mode of propulsion, it was able to stop dead once it had hold of its prey. It rested right beside the stationary scooter watching the occupants with one eye while it noisily munched on the rhinoworm’s head.

‘Nice molly,’ soothed Roach, while Keech tried to generate enough AG to lift them clear of the waves that were beginning to swamp his vehicle. The motor merely whined and grated.

‘Sprzzck burnt-out, safe Sniper,’ said SM13 from under the seat.