Ocean Blue (Sea Lab Book 1)

CHAPTER 1

PRESENT DAY - THE BAHAMAS

Dr. Paul Weathers sensed his life was about to end the moment he crept from the compound and bypassed security. After bicycling through the crowded streets of Nassau, he reached the island's eastern shore, where he slithered past a lifeguard, stole a kayak, and entered the water. At first he lacked rhythm, but halfway to his destination, he learned to balance the hull with the steady lean of his upper body and well-timed strokes of the paddle.

The tiny craft skittered against a wave and almost tipped over. Relentless, he countered the wobble with the opposite shoulder, pushed off with the paddle, and pitched back in the other direction. The kayak rose over the swell and dropped into a sinking valley, continuing its course without breaking pace.

He had to make it. The lives of a man and woman depended on it.

As for himself—he understood the likelihood of his fate—death at the hands of the men he worked for, or by the monstrosities he created. He didn't care which fortune befell him, only that he did the right thing. He refused to stand idle while assassins murdered the man and woman, only for an experiment to please his employer, a borderline psychopath.

The woman changed his mind and made him risk it all.

The highest level of the organization ordered the investigation. They forced him to bump into her, ask questions, and find out if she had discovered anything. She revealed little, probably because she found nothing of significance, and her field assistant didn't contribute to the dialogue, either. In some ways, the young man made him think of himself thirty years ago when science was a passion, not a prison.

But the woman...

Weathers felt compelled to save her. She reminded him of his daughter, who was younger and in college, working on a degree in marine biology. His conversation with the woman revealed a bright mind and a zest for life. Something deep inside urged him to intervene, to clear his conscience of the evil deeds in his past.

The kayak sailed over the turquoise water, faster with each stroke of the paddle.

Weathers skimmed the wave tops, searching, expecting a creature to appear at any moment, but nothing caught his eye until a pair of boats came into view, anchored a half mile offshore, one of them the woman's. He glanced at his watch. He had maybe thirty minutes to spare, but he couldn't be sure. When he left the compound, he remembered the men fueling up a boat and loading their weapons, but a chance remained to reach her in time.

The thump sounded hollow, like someone hitting the side of a car. The impact lifted the kayak out of the water a few inches and set it down again.

Surprise swelled in his throat.

He checked behind him and saw the scaly creature gliding beneath the waves.

The second bump vaulted him through the air, arms and legs flailing, and into the water with a splash. Weathers squirmed, hypersensitive, his body twisting, bubbles rising with him as he swam for the surface. Needles pricked the exposed skin of his arms and calves. Water muffled the sound of his struggling limbs like he was trapped in an alien world.

Scales flashed by, barely visible through the salty blur.

Each stroke slowed to an agonizing microcosm of movement, as if quicksand swallowed him. As he floundered, the creature crossed underneath him and vanished into the unknown. He searched for the paddle; gone, lost among the waves. But the kayak drifted within his grasp, a breath away.

Ignoring the churning in his stomach, Weathers lurched for the capsized boat and found an enormous hole in the hull. It would never hold his weight, a complete loss, but his only protection.

He lunged on top of the craft. It shifted beneath him and almost flipped over.

Out of the blue, the creature crashed into the kayak.

Weathers' face slammed into the water, his body submerging in an instant. When he surfaced, he spotted the kayak sinking beneath the waves. With no other choice, he burst into an all out swim.

Blood thumped in his ears, a fire burning through his chest and making his heart pound with an intensity he'd never experienced before. He looked back, nothing but his dive boots sloshing up and down.

The creature, as long as a female great white shark, streaked by and dipped underwater, its silvery scales sinking beneath the realm of visibility.

Knocked off course, he pushed harder, his biceps and thighs burning, threatening to ball into a fit of cramps. His lungs ached for air, each breath stopping shy of the satisfaction he longed for.

Some distance separated the large fishing vessel from the speedboat. He knew the woman and her male partner had rented the latter. He chanced a look behind him. Maybe the creature had lost interest in him and moved on to deeper water?

The shimmering scales materialized again, headed straight for him.

Visions of his daughter raced through his mind like electrical pulses of energy. Distant memories: a little girl playing in the backyard with a doll, the genuine smile she wore on her sixteenth birthday when she got her driver's license. He knew with an absolute certainty he'd never see her again.

Weathers kicked forward until the scalpel-sharp teeth ripped through his leg.

A scarlet plume of blood clouded the water. The pain signals reached his brain, lasting seconds, replaced by shock.

He gasped for air, tried to scream to warn them. Too late. Water rushed down his throat as the raw power of the creature yanked him under in a violent whirl of foam. The froth gurgled in his ears until the liquid plugged his canals, deafened to an eerie silence.

The memories faded to darkness. Down, down to the abyss.