Michael Bray - Feed

‘Even so, there wouldn’t have been enough food to support something so big. You said so yourself. All the bigger prey died. ‘

‘That’s not true either. There was an abundance of whales and other large sea creatures which they could feed on in deeper waters. If you accept the possibility that the colder waters slowed their metabolism so that they didn’t have to feed so often, then you have a scenario where these things can exist. True, they primarily hunted in warmer waters, but let’s just say the ice age forced them to adapt to colder oceans and live deeper where the whales and sufficient prey lived. It’s more than possible.’

‘Let’s say you’re right. You don’t have any proof.’

Nash leaned on the bar, the lights casting his face into an ugly shadow-filled wasteland. ‘This is my evidence. It did this to me. I saw it up close, so yes, I have my evidence.’

Tyler was confused. The conversation seemed to have gone off track and he had no idea where it was going. ‘I don’t understand what this has to do with gold,’ he said.

Nash did his best attempt at a grin and leaned back out of the harsh light. ‘There is a story about a boat, a drug-smuggling vessel that was transporting a shipment of gold to a courier ready to be taken to a foundry and melted down by a local cartel. By all accounts, there was around thirty million dollars’ worth of it on board. The story goes that the boat never arrived at the pickup and disappeared without a trace. Some say the people driving the boat were ambushed and the cargo stolen. Others say the guys doing the drop off kept the haul, sold it on the black market and lived as rich men. Some say the cartel took it, killed the crew and claimed it never arrived.’

‘Let me guess,’ Tyler said. ‘Another version of the story is that the boat was sunk by your shark in the Devil’s Triangle and took the gold down there with it.’

‘Exactly.’

‘But nobody can get to it because of this…’

‘Megalodon,’ Nash said, finishing the sentence and taking a sip of his drink.

‘Yeah, this Megalodon,’ Tyler repeated.

‘You don’t believe me.’

‘No offence, but it seems a little far-fetched.’

Nash turned to Liam. ‘Show him.’

‘We don’t know this guy, are you sure?’

‘Yes, I’m sure. We need another pair of hands to do this. Show him.’

Liam flashed another mistrustful look at Tyler then took an object wrapped in cloth from the bag at his feet. ‘You’ll have to come over to see it. I can’t put this on the bar.’

Tyler was too intrigued not to go look. He slid off his bar stool and stood between the two men staring at the wrapped package in Liam’s lap.

‘Last week, Liam and I were out doing some spotting on the edge of the Triangle.’

‘Spotting?’ Tyler repeated.

‘For the Megalodon.’

‘Oh.’

‘Anyway, we see something floating in the water so we go and retrieve it. Turns out to be a flotation balloon just drifting along the surface along with a few pieces of debris from a boat.’

‘We don’t know that, Dad,’ Liam cut in.

‘Either way, we came across this and pulled it out of the water. There was one object in the netting under the balloon.’ Nash nodded to Liam who unwrapped the cloth.

Tyler drew a breath. The gold bar shimmered under the low-level lighting of the bar, appearing like liquid gold. Part of the bar was damaged and worn and exactly how Tyler would expect it to look if it had been submerged underwater for years. Tyler looked at the two men then at the gold.

‘Where did this come from?’ Tyler asked, finally remembering to breathe.

‘Where do you think?’ Nash said. ‘Local reports say a boat went missing last week. Two brothers, locals. They went out and didn’t come back. The floating wreckage we saw was consistent with the same type of boat they had. My guess is they were looking for the gold and found it.’

‘Then what?’ Tyler asked.

‘Then something found them.’

Tyler couldn’t take his eyes off the gold. He didn’t believe in the shark story. Something so large was impossible. The gold, however, he did believe in, and it was just a few feet away. He blinked as Liam wrapped it up and slipped it back into his bag.

‘So, you interested in helping us?’ Nash asked.

Tyler returned to his seat and drained half his beer. ‘What do you want me to do?’

Nash leaned closer, licking what remained of his lips as he spoke quietly. ‘My body is, for want of a better word, fucked, and I can’t physically dive down there anymore. Even if I could, frankly, I’m afraid that I’ll come face to face with that thing again. You and Liam will dive down to the ship graveyard in Devil’s Triangle, and I’ll provide support from the surface. For your efforts, you’ll get ten percent of the haul, however much that might be.’

‘Ten percent? You tell me there’s a monster shark down there and then expect me to risk my life for ten percent. Sorry, not happening.’

Nash frowned and glanced at Liam. ‘Looks like I said too much too soon. Alright, how does twenty percent sound? We will provide the boat as well as the equipment we need. I’m talking top of the range sonar, and diving gear with face masks that allow us to talk to each other. We will be in constant communication.’

Tyler wasn’t a greedy man, yet he knew this was an opportunity for him to permanently put off returning to his mundane life that he had walked away from so long ago if the story was true. If it wasn’t, it was another new experience for him to say he had tried. It was about security, and if it meant he had to accept Nash’s ghost stories, then he would.

‘Man, you’re breaking me here. Twenty-five percent and I won’t go any higher.’

Nash had mistaken Tyler processing his thoughts as indecision, and the higher offer made the rest easy. ‘Alright, you’re on.’

‘Good to have you on board,’ Nash said, trying again to grin.

‘Just one thing,’ Tyler said, looking at the two of them. ‘No offence, but you don’t look like you can afford all this fancy equipment you talked about.’

‘We can’t, or at least we couldn’t,’ Nash said, glancing to the bag containing the gold bar. ‘I know a guy who will exchange that gold piece there for cash no questions asked. Don’t worry, we can afford this little project.’

With far too much information already taken on board and unsure how he even got pulled into the entire thing in the first place, Tyler nodded. ‘Alright, then I guess I’m in. What happens next?’

‘It’s going to take a few days to get everything we need. In the meantime, I don’t think I need to tell you how important it is to keep this quiet. Nobody around here thinks the Devil’s Triangle is real. We need to keep it that way. We need to go in and out quick and quiet before anything finds us.’

Tyler didn’t have to ask what he meant. The fear in his good eye said enough. ‘No danger of that. I don’t know anyone to tell. Comes with the lifestyle.’

‘Good. That’s exactly what I thought and why I picked you. Liam will give you the address. Be there on Friday morning.’

He waited until Liam had scribbled the details and passed them across to him.

‘Alright, then I guess I’ll see you Friday morning,’ Tyler said, standing and shoving the address into his pocket.

‘In the meantime, do yourself a favour. Learn about the Megalodon. Make sure you read up on it. You need to know what you’re going up against. I’ve got enough blood on my hands and don’t need anymore.’

Tyler was going to crack a joke, something to lighten the mood, then saw that Nash was serious. ‘Alright, I’ll do that. See you Friday morning.’