mouth suddenly loomed open in front of her. Annja blinked, saw rows of jagged teeth and fell back against the bars of the cage.
The great white in front of her bit the bars separating them and then slid off into the deep.
Cole patted her on the shoulder and gave her the hand signal to make sure she was okay. Annja nodded and gave him the thumbs-up. She blew out a long line of bubbles and again tried to calm herself.
On the floor of the cage, her balance felt sure enough. But the ocean floor was at least thirty feet below them.
She heard a splash and turned to see that Tom had tossed another bait hook over the side of the boat. Annja saw it tracking through the water toward the top of the cage.
Like a missile being shot out of a submarine far below the surface, Annja saw a flashing streak arc right past the cage as a huge shark shot up from below them, lancing into the tuna chunk. Incredibly, Annja thought she could hear the rending tears of the mighty jaws clamping and sawing through the fresh meat.
She forgot her terror and was instead awed by the mastery of evolution sailing through the waters before her. The sharks slid through the depths with complete ease. Their bodies had long evolved into almost perfectly aerodynamic shapes that met minimal resistance as they swam.
As they bit into the bait hooks, Annja could see the protective membranes slide up over their eyes, shielding them from any danger that might lurk as they attacked. She noticed the incredible flexion as the viselike mandibles sank into the flesh, exerting almost two tons of pressure per square inch.
But even as the sharks fed seemingly without regard, Annja could discern something else about them. She knew they were incredibly intelligent. She could see there was a rhyme to their reason. Annja realized that they seemed to almost feel with their teeth, making sure that what they attacked was suitable food for them.
She marveled at how they operated. And she knew why great white shark attacks were usually so deadly. It wasn’t necessarily that the sharks sought out human beings to eat, but that they had no real way of probing something without committing to it fully. Their bites would naturally cause grievous wounds in anything, humans included. Blood loss and tissue damage would often cause death, even when the shark realized that the human victim wasn’t the seal it was supposed to be and broke off the attack.
There was a great deal of misunderstanding about the creatures, Annja thought. She spent the next half hour entranced as Tom brought the big fish in close to the cage. She looked into their eyes; she tried to fathom their souls.
When Cole finally tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to get back on to the boat, Annja was almost upset. Maybe Cole wasn’t crazy, after all. Maybe he just loved studying these fish so much that they took over his life.
Annja made her way back to the boat and spit out her mouthpiece. Tom beamed at her. “How’d you make out?”
“They’re incredible!”
He nodded. “Cole’s done some great research. Might even win himself some awards.”
“I was terrified before, but now…”
Tom nodded. “I know. You get to the point where you see them as something more.”
“I used to think Cole was crazy,” Annja said.
Tom frowned. “Oh, he’s definitely crazy,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t he tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Tom pointed off the boat’s port side. “See?”
Annja looked and felt dizzy.
Cole was out of the cage, in the open water with the sharks.
2
“He’ll be killed!” Annja shrieked.
But Tom held up his hand and shook his head. “I know it certainly looks like that, but wait and see.”
Annja could hardly breathe. She watched as Cole, who must have left his oxygen tank in the cage, swam with just a mask and snorkel within feet of the cruising predators. And while the ocean still held streaks of red and bits of tuna, curiously the great whites seemed to be almost nonchalant about Cole’s presence.
After ten minutes of free swimming, Cole climbed over the side of the boat, his flippers touching the deck while a huge smile blossomed across his face. “That was an adrenaline rush.”
Annja watched him lean back, the smile growing wider by the second. “You really didn’t have to do that,” she said.
He shrugged. “Free diving with them is an important part of the research for me. Along with their hierarchy, I also need to know how they behave when there’s a human in the water with more than one of them.”
“Yes, but you had no speargun, no backup. If they had turned on you at any moment—”
As if underscoring that fact, one of the big fish suddenly slammed into the side of the boat, splashing the water with its tail. Cole caught a shower of spray and wiped his face. “I think that was Martha,” he said.
“You named them?”
“You get to know the distinctive shapes of their dorsal fins,” Cole said. “And for me, it helps to establish that bond so I don’t view them as mindless killing machines. Surely you noticed that, too?”
Annja grinned. “It was exhilarating, but I wouldn’t ever recommend doing what you just did to anyone.”
“Neither would I. But I have to control my own life. My destiny is always in my hands, not in the hands of someone else. That’s what I love about my life so much. I make my own decisions. I know you understand that.”
I used to, Annja thought. She watched one of the sharks break away from the boat suddenly and disappear into the depths.
Cole noticed, too. “They’re bored now that there’s nothing in the water.”
“No more food?”
Cole sighed. “Sometimes I think it’s not just about the food with them. I think they realize that we’re curious and want to know more about them. They’re active in the research as much as I am.”
“I don’t know,” Annja said. “I think that sounds sort of insane, but then again, I didn’t just swim naked with them like you did.”
Cole laughed. “Annja, if you swim naked with anything, you’ll get eaten right away.”
“Flattery will get you killed, Cole.”
He winked at her. “Well, maybe.”
They set about winching the cage back on board the boat and secured it to the deck. Cole patted it. “I told you that nothing would happen while you were inside. Didn’t you have a blast?”
“I hate to admit it, but I did. They were fascinating to watch. I could see how
