âIf Iâd rejected Garin, I know for certain I would be dead now.â
âGarin became your sword then,â Annja said.
âThatâs one way of looking at it, I guess. He came along at just the right moment, much like the sword did with you. I guess thatâs one of the great mysteries of life, how things seem to happen at just the right moment.â
âNo coincidences,â Annja said. âThatâs too easy an explanation. And Iâve seen enough to not believe in coincidence anymore.â
âIt does seem to be the crutch for the unimaginative.â Sheila smiled. âGarin told me you were something else.â
Annja smirked. âThatâs only because heâs been trying to seduce me for years.â
âThere arenât many who can resist him,â Sheila said.
âI never claimed it was easy,â Annja replied with a laugh.
âYouâre honest,â Sheila said. âI appreciate that.â
âSo the question now seems to be how do we deal with the shark terrorizing this boat and who would dive?â
âYouâre going to have to deal with it, Annja. Youâre going to have to kill the shark so we can get to the treasure.â
â¦THE ENGLISH COMMANDER TOOK JOANâS SWORD AND RAISED IT HIGH.
The broadsword, plain and unadorned, gleamed in the firelight. He put the tip against the ground and his foot at the center of the blade. The broadsword shattered, fragments falling into the mud. The crowd surged forward, peasant and soldier, and snatched the shards from the trampled mud. The commander tossed the hilt deep into the crowd. Smoke almost obscured Joan, but she continued praying till the end, until finally the flames climbed her body and she sagged against the restraints.
Joan of Arc died that fateful day in France, but her legend and sword are rebornâ¦.
The waters off Montauk, New York, surged, frothing white as waves crashed into one another, spraying mist through the air. Annja Creed stood on the stern of a boat she thought seemed far too small for the job at hand. She watched as a sleek dark shadow glided just beneath the waves, its torpedo body reflecting the four hundred million years of evolution that had landed it atop the food chain of the ocean.
Cole Williams scooped another ladle of chum into the water. Annja swallowed and tried to ignore the sickly stench of pureed herring and tuna chunks mixed with an assortment of other matter designed to lure great white sharks to the boat.
âYou sure you need to put so much of that into the water?â Annja asked.
Cole glanced at her and grinned, his cropped brown hair lightened by the sun beaming down. âYouâre not nervous, are you? Not the bold adventurer Annja Creed,â he said.
Annja pointed at the water. âThereâs already one down there.â
Cole nodded. âIâd like to see if we can get a few in the area. This study is all about how great whites interact with one another. Conventional science likes to paint them as solitary creatures but new research is proving they have a hierarchy when they encounter one another.â
âSo, itâs not enough to have one proven killer in the water. You want as many as possible.â
âYep.â Cole threw another scoop overboard. âYou want to help me do this?â
Annja held up her hands. âIâm good here, thanks.â The journey out from Montauk had been anything but calm. Despite the sunshine, the ocean seemed angry today and the little boat that Cole had converted from a deep-sea fishing charter to his own personal research vessel bobbed relentlessly in the violent swells. Annjaâs stomach wasnât in a forgiving mood.
Cole pointed at the triangular fin slicing through the water. To Annja, it almost reminded her of a sword.
Her sword.
âLook at that one.â
Coleâs voice did little to soothe Annjaâs nerves. In keeping with Coleâs twisted sense of humor, heâd insisted they watch the movie Jaws the previous night while they shared a bottle of wine. Recalling the giant great white devouring a bunch of people on film didnât do much for Annjaâs nerves just then.
She glanced at the steel shark cage strapped down on the deck. âDoes that thing actually work?â
Cole smiled. âThereâs nothing to worry about. Iâve done this loads of times and never had a problem.â
âI find the choice of location unsettling given what we watched last night,â she said.
Coleâs laughter at least made her smile. Then he shook his head. âThey actually filmed that on Marthaâs Vineyard, but I get your point.â He pointed at another shark that had silently cruised into the area. âThing about this place is the Long Island Sound opens up into really deep water. The great whites out here are big. And that means we get a look at some healthy fish.â