A line from Cousteau ran through his mind, and he tried desperately to swim faster.
“Sharks can instinctively sense when a fish or animal is in trouble.”
She shook free from him, nodded at his concerned gaze, and began swimming steadily on her own.
For a while the monster seemed not to notice them. It swam slightly ahead, moving effortlessly. A single gigantic stretch of cartilage, tooth, sinew, and muscle. Poplar stared at it and knew that what Ha’apu had said was true. This was more than a fish, more than a shark. You could feel it in yourself and in the water.
Lazily, it banked like a great bird and came at them.
He turned frantically, gestured to Elaine. The shark was between them and the boat. Trying to outswim it would be like trying to outrun lightning. He’d spotted a long crack in the battlements of the reef. Usually such breaks harbored morays, powerful clams, and poisoners like the stonefish. Right now they seemed like the best of friends, harmless as puppies.
There was no subtlety, no attempt to deceive, in their retreat. They swam like hell.
Maybe He was disinterested in such small prey. Whatever the reason, His pursuit remained leisurely. They attained the safety of the rift. Wedged back in the deep, wide crevice, they still had room to swim freely.
-‘ He came straight at them. Poplar had to fight down the urge to scrape frantically at the coral behind him. For the moment, he was afraid the monster would try to bite them out, coral and all. It looked big enough to take half the atoll in one gulp.