TAHITI

The rumbling of the trawler's diesel engine ended in a fit of asthmatic coughs. From the moment Kevin Green boarded the vessel, the irritating racket overpowered the wheelhouse, and it still resonated in his ears. He frowned at his assistant and tapped the screen of a laptop computer. The display revealed the rich topography of the ocean floor beneath them.

"We'll start here today," Kevin said, a hint of Brooklyn in his accent. "If the reports are true, we should know soon enough. Let's suit up while Mr. Samurai drops anchor."

Rachel Wilde shifted her eyes to the Japanese sailor named Takeshi Ishikawa, the captain of the boat. "Do you think you'll have better luck communicating with him today?"

"That's a good question." He watched the captain talking with a young Tahitian man on the rear deck. "His deckhand may have to help again." 

A local fisherman had directed them to Captain Ishikawa two days ago. He stood a good three inches over six feet and was built like a defensive lineman. He spoke bits and pieces of English, which made for plenty of animated attempts at communication over the last two days.

"Remember the look the ole cap gave us when we first met him?" he said without taking his eyes off the mountain of muscle.

"One of joyful confusion?"

"I was thinking more of―" Kevin met Rachel's playful gaze. "On second thought, your description fits perfectly."

"The two are an odd pair, that's for sure."

He noted the difference in stature between the sailors. Captain Ishikawa towered over the Tahitian. Kevin imagined the Japanese man tossing the skinny deckhand overboard with little effort. Regardless, the men were an effective team. All they needed were a boat, a driver, and someone to provide occasional help. The two men fit that description well.   

Kevin tapped his dive watch. "I think it's time to get started." 

He left Rachel's side and approached the large man with a casual gait. In a slow drawl, he said, "Could you please drop the anchor?"

The captain answered with a wide toothed grin. 

Kevin shook his head and glanced back at Rachel. To his surprise, she stood behind him. She handed him a baseball cap with an anchor stitched on the bill.

"Should've thought of this yesterday," she said.

"Nice thinking."

He pointed at the emblem and then repeated the command even slower, this time motioning with his hand over the edge of the boat. The sailor appeared to comprehend the message the second time and told the deckhand to take care of the matter in what sounded like Japanese. After the order, Captain Ishikawa slipped into the wheelhouse as if he had something important to do.

Kevin didn't understand a word the big man said, but the results pleased him. The Tahitian hurried for the bow section of the thirty-six foot craft, unwound the huge anchor, and lowered it into the water.

Rachel slipped into a neoprene wet suit and zipped it up to her neck.

Kevin forced his eyes away to avoid the contours of her body beneath the suit as he helped her with an air tank and made sure her breathing regulator was in proper operating condition. Rachel was an attractive woman, but this was business. The last thing he needed was to get involved with a co-worker. Besides, she already caused two of his friends to break up, and he wasn't sure it was wise at this point to allow himself the luxury of a fling. He tightened a final strap with a quick snap and a nod.

"Let's hit it," he said.

"Do we expect to see anything different down there?"

Kevin dropped to a bench and put on a pair of skintight boots that fit under his fins. "Well. There's a possibility we'll find nothing. Local fishermen are saying they haven't been catching anything on this side of the island. That's not good for the local economy, let alone for vacationers expecting the house special at a beachside restaurant."

He pondered the expression on Rachel's face. She glanced away, and her lips parted as if struggling with something on her mind. This wasn't her first dive, but it was her first big assignment. She had yet to complete her first year of employment at Sea Lab. He expected their first two days to put her at ease, but clearly, it didn't. Until this point, their special operations director had limited her to the Florida coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Now, she was a certified member of a research team traveling abroad.

Kevin dropped his chin and caught her gaze. A breeze lifted a tuft of dark hair from his forehead. He felt confident he could reel her in if he wanted to—and there were times he wanted to—but there was another reason not to pursue her. She was almost ten years younger than him, and Rachel reminded him of his sister when she could still walk and function properly, before multiple sclerosis crippled her. The comparison stung somewhere deep inside him and made him look away.  

"You'll be fine. Just keep your eyes open for anything that isn't normal."

"I will," Rachel replied in a deflated tone and turned from him.

Then it occurred to him. Had he misjudged her intentions? Maybe it wasn't a look of insecurity, but of flirtation. He guessed she wasn't happy with his business-like response. Perhaps she was hoping for something more personal.

Work, he thought, I'm here to work, not play. He watched Rachel sit on the edge of the boat with her back to the ocean.

Kevin caught Captain Ishikawa's attention and pointed over to the starboard side. The water was clear blue, like the sky on a spring afternoon. Beneath the vessel, a shadowy coral formation ran parallel to the coast, visible through the rippling current. 

Kevin held up an okay hand signal.

Captain Ishikawa's face glowed with understanding. Time to get started. The big man entered the wheelhouse and brought him an underwater camera. Kevin planned to use the high-tech device to get an accurate reading of the water around the reef, as well as record live footage of the dive.

Rachel fell backwards with a splash. She surfaced a few seconds later and took the camera. 

Kevin sat on the gunwale, looked up, and caught the captain with a strange smile on his face. The man's countenance differed from before, as if he were no longer clueless, but keenly aware of everything around him. Kevin wondered if his inner-detective was working overtime. The ability to judge his surroundings enabled him to investigate marine phenomena like a bloodhound on the scent of a raccoon. 

After thinking for a moment, he decided he was acting too much like Sherlock Holmes and brushed the incident aside. With a careful shake of his head, he returned Captain Ishikawa's grin, pulled his mask down and tumbled into the water.

"You ready?" he asked Rachel, testing the comm system.

"As I'll ever be."

"Then let's get to work."

Kevin ducked under and kicked to the bottom. He stopped at the prominent outcropping of coral reef beneath the boat, where he supervised Rachel as she activated the underwater camera. The sensitive device began taking readings on pH, water temperature, and salinity. Once he felt confident that she was ready to go, he knifed through the water with a series of dolphin kicks to lead the way.

The natural environment had the same effect on him as mountain air for an outdoor enthusiast. It made him feel at home. He pointed to a vast array of skeletal formations made of calcium carbonate. The living organisms comprised vibrant shades of terracotta, purple, and maroon, like the starfish he saw yesterday. The strange arrangements appeared similar to shrubbery on an alien planet. Red twig-like growths branched out, resembling spidery veins. Nearby, a lime-green sprout that looked like a cactus in the Arizona desert protruded from the ocean floor.

"The coral doesn't seem damaged," he said through his headset. "Same as yesterday."

Rachel swam up beside him and aimed the camera at a citrus orange assortment of elephant ear sponge. "The pH level is normal, just above eight. And the water temp is hovering at seventy-nine degrees Fahrenheit."

"Right where it should be. See anything wrong with this picture?"

"No fish."

"You got it, just as the locals reported. This area should teem with black and white pennant coralfish and millet butterflyfish, to name a few."

Kevin hovered in silence, letting his words trail off. Even after hearing the local fishermen's reports, the absence of marine life still perplexed him. The butterflyfish grew to five inches and would have been unmistakable with their brilliant white and yellow hues. The schools should have been darting here and there as they swam the reef. As quiet and desolate as an abandoned city, the coral community seemed as empty and silent.

Kevin aimed a finger to the west, where the reef paralleled the coastline. It extended as far to the east, encompassing the entire southern shore of the island. Without issuing a command, he took off through the aquatic paradise, his fins propelling him further down the endless formations. He looked back once to see Rachel trailing him with the camera out in front. 

After swimming for a solid minute, he stopped kicking and drifted as if in a trance. His eyes locked onto something floating ahead of them.

Rachel glided up next to him. "Oh God, what's that?"

The grotesque corpse of a half-eaten fish loomed a short distance away. All that remained was the head, dorsal fin and tail, linked by a thin string of cartilage and tissue.

"It looks like a blue shark," Kevin said. "Or what's left of it." 

"What could have done that, a great white?"

"Not by the looks of it. My guess is a shark that big would have left nothing." He pointed at the remains. "Whatever had it for dinner ate all the vital parts and left the scraps for the scavengers. There's not an ounce of meat left on that carcass."

"Stripped to the bone—cartilage, I mean."

The corpse shifted a fraction with a slow-moving undercurrent. Enough for him to glimpse what was behind it. Beyond a ridge of coral, a haze appeared, blurring the water ahead of them.

"Come on." He waved an arm. "We may be onto something."

Kevin took off toward the cloudy mass. As they got closer, individual parts became distinguishable until he realized the haze wasn't a cloud at all, but a debris field. He hovered in a daze, Rachel beside him, not breathing a word. 

The sight made a cold wave of adrenaline shoot through his body. The chill of death.