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the monster serpent. Dave refused. He saw no reason to tamper with mother nature like that. A snake that big deserved to be respected; it was only doing what genetics had programmed it to do, and that was attack, kill, and devour anything warm blooded that it could get. People should realize that and not venture out into the veldt unprepared. If a giant snake ate you, well, you deserved it.
    Rather than head inland to the veldt to appease his bosses (and kill an animal that was really doing mankind a favor by eating people too stupid to take precautions), he’d elected to put up with Todd and shoot another shark feature. Dave loved sharks more than any other creature. Great Whites and Tiger sharks were his favorites. He loved them the same way he loved all large carnivorous animals. They commanded respect due to their sheer power. He understood this, and insisted that his cinematographers, scientists, and assistants who went down in the shark cage were always well prepared. He made sure everybody followed all safety precautions. They never took any unnecessary risks while getting shark footage. They’d never had an accident in ten years of work.
    Which was why when he saw the explosion of bubbles from below, followed by a frothing mass of blood that billowed to the surface, it felt like his heart stopped. The foamy blood quickly spread outward in concentric circles and Dave gasped. “What the fuck?” He suddenly called out. “Peter!” He turned toward Bob Thurman and Peter Oldsdale, who worked the crane that lowered the shark cage in the water. “Pull him up!”
    Peter leaped to duty and activated the crane. The engine whined and the crane started lifting the cage up.
    Everybody leaned forward, trying to see into the water. The frantic activity of the fleeing fish continued. Something large moved through the water about twenty yards to the left. Dave gasped—it was a fifteen foot Great White; a beautiful animal. It bobbed up then streaked back downward, followed by scores of smaller fish. “What the hell?” Dave asked.
    Suddenly, the top of the shark cage came into view. Doug’s fingers were clenched around the top bars. As the crane lifted the cage out, Peter reached out to help Todd, Jack, and Dave bring the cage closer to the boat. Doug was inside the cage, his eyes wide with fright from behind the face mask. He pulled his oxygen tube out of his mouth. “Did you see that?” his voice was high with panic.
    “We saw a bunch of blood,” Dave said.
    At the same time, Peter and Jack said simultaneously, “Oh shit!” and “Oh my God!”
    Dave and Doug turned to what they were looking at and Dave gasped again. Amid the widening circle of blood was large chunks of flesh. A fin floated to the surface. It was definitely a shark fin, lying flat against the water. Bits of the shark’s back still adhered to the base of the fin. Dave looked at the scene in complete amazement and growing horror. The remains of the shark’s rear end floated to the surface—tail fin, rear dorsal. Bits of flesh from that part seemed to be bubbling…dissolving.
    “What the hell?” Dave said again.
    The cage was now completely out of the water and Doug was rattling the bars, indicating he wanted out. Peter began sliding the cage over to the deck. He fumbled for the door and Doug got out. He threw his face mask off and looked out at the water. He was breathing heavily. His eyes were wide, bulging from their sockets as if he’d just seen something monstrous.
    “What happened down there?” Dave asked.
    “You saw those lobster things, right?” Doug asked. His eyes were all pupil, large and black in his face.
    “Yeah, we did,” Dave said.
    “A bunch of them started swimming by me as I was shooting footage.” For the first time, Dave looked at the bottom of the cage to check on the equipment. Doug’s camera was intact, lying on the cage floor. “I didn’t think anything of it at first but then it hit me—they’re fucking huge