Vik’s eyes were wide. He appeared torn between laughter and horror. “I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

“Oh my God,” Lyla exclaimed. “I thought you were joking, you psycho!”

“What? What’s the big deal?” Maybe dehydration was frying his brain, but Tom was truly bewildered now.

“You’re not supposed to kill our group leader, you moron!” Lyla exclaimed.

“We’re supposed to kill all the sharks, and we need shark chum for that.” Tom scooped up a handful of the bloody water and tossed it overboard. “This is great shark chum.” He could see fins cutting through the water toward them. “See? They’re already going for it.”

“The big deal,” she growled, “is that the shark chum is made of Snowden! If you were so eager for shark chum, you should’ve been the chum yourself, or I could’ve thrown you in! You can’t kill our instructor.”

“Why should I jump in?” Tom said disbelievingly. “Snowden got us into this. He wasn’t helping us, and he drank our water!” That infuriated Tom the most. “He didn’t even need it, and he drank it anyway. He was far and away the most expendable, useless person here, leader or no.”

Lyla groaned. “Karl is right: you are such an idiot. Do you even realize the whole point of these sims is to impress people in the military?”

“I think winning will impress the military more than losing,” Tom retorted.

Vik was shaking with a tired, giddy, delirious sort of laughter. “Tom, I love you.”

Lyla punched Vik’s arm. Hard.

Vik kept laughing. “This is so great. I’d cry with the joy of it if I could.”

Lyla punched him again. This time, it really must’ve hurt, because Vik scuttled away from her to the other side of the raft. “Hey! No being violent to me unless you want me hitting back.”

“Oh, please do. I was going easy on you, but I’d love a chance to let loose. These are registered lethal weapons, you know.” She held her fists up menacingly.

“Uh, you know, I’m over it,” Vik said uneasily. “I’m glad we had this chance to talk out our differences and reconcile.”

She dropped her hands, disappointed.

Tom turned away from them. He didn’t care what Lyla had to say—he thought he’d done the right thing. He hoisted Snowden’s body over the side of the raft to lure the sharks closer. As the first shark fin cut through the water by his raft, Tom whooped in glee and plunged his spear into its rough body, tearing the spear out before the shark could dart away and unbalance him. The next shark got the same treatment, then the next.