Darkfin

“Ugh, cold water is the worst.” Maybe you’ve had this thought before. You’re trying to slip into a pool, or maybe you are trying to work up the courage to go down the water slide. And then you feel it. The unmistakable chill of icy knives of pain, they shoot right up your feet. Blake Darkfin had been diving for a long time, and he still wasn’t used to it. You will put up with a lot for twenty million dollars though. That’s how much he was diving for.

“Bloody jerks better have gotten my bank account number right.” Blake cursed inwardly. He was in the middle of Antarctic waters, dangling his feet off of his small boat into the frigid water below. He put on his mask, zipped his wetsuit on, and dropped into the depths. As he started swimming towards the target, his head started pounding. Maybe it was the strap of the thermal bag on his back hurting his neck.

“Twenty million, no more, no less.” The man in the three piece suit stated without emotion. Two days ago, Blake had been enjoying a cold beer at his favorite pub, The Sunken Fossil. And then these two blighters showed up. 

“Beg your pardon?” Blake questioned with feigned interest.

“Twenty million American dollars, made immediately available upon completion of your job. That’s your normal fee, isn’t it?” This time the man in the tuxedo spoke, he smelled like a new car.

“Um, sorry mates. I’m a simple fisherman. And as much as I’d love to, I don’t…”

“Can it. You’re Blake Darkfin, best Aqua-thief in the hemisphere. And we have something for you to steal.”

His head still pounding, Blake swam up to the ship. It was a massive cruise vessel. Normally it held thousands of party-goers. Tonight it was merely one small group of Russian communist soldiers. Blake adjusted the dial on the back of his hands, activating the magnetic feature on his wetsuit. Without a sound, he scampered up the wall of the ship. There was only one guard standing watch on this corner. One swipe of Blake’s fishing knife, and there was no guard. 

“Should’ve packed some advil. Why do I always forget? Never forget the advil on a job.” Blake’s head was still pounding as he crept along the door to the main hub of the ship. Camouflaged completely thanks to his special suit, nobody saw anything but a shadow slip through the door.

“Comrade Yetsin, come in, Comrade?” The radio of the fallen guard crackled to life.

Inside the main hub, Blake examined the map that the two men had given him. He needed to go down the stairs and then…he wasn’t sure. There were two doors on the ship’s plans. And they didn’t specify which one the package was in.

“Bloody amateurs.”

Blake crept down the stairs and turned to the first door. He turned off the camouflage option, too much power draining from his suit. With a drawn fishing knife, he eased it open.

“What exactly would I be stealing?” Blake whispered to the two men at the back of the pub. They had gone to a more secluded area to avoid attention.

“The exact item is our business. All you need to know is that it is a frozen sample stolen from our laboratories two weeks ago. The Communists want to weaponize it to aid in their global takeover. You saw the stunt they pulled in New Miami last week? They want our sample to do something similar.” The new-car smell man set a black, rectangular bag and a business card on the table. “This thermal bag will keep it frozen for up to twelve hours. When you have it, radio the code on this card. We will be there in thirty minutes.”

“And what do you want this sample for, eh? I’m not really in the business of weaponizing anything. Bad for business if potential clients are vaporized.”

The man in the three-piece suit smiled, “I guess that’s for us to know and you to find out.”

Back on the ship, the door opened to reveal a cabin with three different communist soldiers.

“What are you doing here? Get him!” The biggest of them yelled as he lunged forward. Blake pulled out his harpoon gun and fired. The big one fell to the floor, but a man dressed like Vladimir Putin tackled Blake from the side. The thief grunted as he slammed into the floor. A struggle ensued as a second man came and joined in the fray. 

“Get off me, commie!” Blake gritted his teeth as he smashed his foot into the other communist. The one who tackled him got an elbow to the jaw. Blake popped up and fired two more harpoons. He was the only one left alive in the room. His hand went to his jaw instinctively, he was bleeding. “This wasn’t part of the job,” he complained, “They never said anything about a fight.” Now he had a headache, a bleeding jaw, and a bruised rib. The thief winced. “I guess it’s door number two.”

Blake hurriedly maneuvered to the other door and eased it open. “Most important room in the whole bloody ship, and not a single guard.” At the end of the long room was a block of ice on a metal pedestal. Blake slowly crept up and peered at the ice. The cold air in the room was easing his headache slightly. “Let’s see what we have here.” Blake whispered to himself as he wiped the ice block to see what was inside. “Oh, my, word!”

In the block of ice was an embryo of a frozen shark. Or at least that’s what it looked like, a shark mixed with a dinosaur. It was grey and curled up and terrifying. Fully grown, it would be a nightmare. It had a serial code etched into its foot.

“I’m stealing a blimey dinosaur? I swear this job is the worst.” Blake lifted the block of ice and shoved it in his bag. “Those two mooks in the suits owe me a lot of answers.”

“Alert, alert. The ship has been compromised! For the glory of Russia, find the intruder and eliminate them.”

Blake looked up at the speaker blaring the message. They knew he was here. “Aw cripes.” He zipped the bag and turned back to leave the room. The entrance though was already blocked. A man in a white lab coat stood with a group of communist guards blocking the door.

“Not today Darkfin. Give us back that creature.”

Blake Darkfin didn’t fancy this fight. He was tired, outmatched, and he was almost out of harpoons. He did, however, have one explosive disc. In a split-second, he knew what to do.

“Sorry mates, I have twenty million reasons to hold onto the little guy. Not today, oh, and is anybody down for a swim?”

As the guards raced towards him, Blake pressed the center of the disc and threw it at the wall. He put his mask on just as the disc hit the wall.

Boom! The disc tore a hole in the side of the wall. Cold ocean water flooded in and swept the guards away. Blake activated his boot motors and shot through the hole. The pressure of the water was massive, but his hi-tech suit bore the brunt of the change. He rocketed out, leaving the drowned communists behind him. 

As soon as he surfaced, Blake started swimming towards his boat. He didn’t want to be in the frigid water any more than he needed too. And his lip was still bleeding. Any blood in the water meant polar sharks, which was not a problem Blake wanted. He was right about to board his boat as a rifle bullet whizzed past his ear! Blake dove below the surface and swam under his boat. More bullets splashed into the water and went to either side of the thief. Without his knowledge, a bullet tore a hole in his bag. 

Up on the fast-sinking cruise ship, the remaining Russian soldiers ceased their firing. 

“Probably got him, we gotta go, we will finish what’s left as we go by. Quick, to the lifeboat!” The leader yelled.

The Russians left the surface of the ship, and that’s when Blake made his move. He swung himself up onto his boat, revved the engine, and started heading for his evac zone. Then he heard a grunt from his backpack.

“What in the world?” Blake took off the wriggling backpack and set it behind him. The water, though cold, was warmer than the ice block. It had melted, and the embryo was now free. Without warning, the backpack shredded. The creature was awake!

“Bloody blazes! You’re bigger than last time I saw you.” Unfortunately, the creature wasn’t the only thing aware of Blake. The Russians who were left had boarded their boat.

“Don’t let him get away!” The Russians’ boat engine roared to life. Blake whipped his head around and gave his motor a massive rev. The creature fell back to the edge of the boat.

“Err-err!” It was growing bigger and bigger. It was now up to Blake’s waist.

“Sorry little bugger, but I didn’t sign up for this.” Blake turned and kicked the monstrosity off of his boat. With a splash, it disappeared into the frigid waters below. Blake was moving as fast as he could without the extra weight now. The Communists were gaining on him though. One of them was readying a rocket-launcher. 

“Sir, I have the rocket ready, but he’s moving too fast and too far.”

“Comrade, Russia has no use for a coward.”

With a heave, the leader of the soldiers threw his man into the water and grabbed the rocket launcher himself. 

“No thieves allowed!” The leader fired the rocket. Blake was legitimately worried now. The rocket was speeding towards his boat. At the last moment, he turned and jumped into the water and activated his suit’s dive system. His boat went up in flames, the gas inside igniting and creating a massive fireball. Blake surfaced ten feet away. The Communists had seen him jump though.

“No twenty million, no luck, not a great day after all.” Blake said as the Communists turned their boat towards him. 

“We’ve got him now.” The leader snarled. The boat was closing in fast, until something bumped the bottom. “Huh, what was that?” The boat was bumped again. A massive grey fin protruded from the water. 

“Oh my…” A soldier towards the boat’s edge started to say. Without warning, the creature leapt from the water. It was now a fully grown abomination between a shark and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It grabbed the soldier’s arm and flipped the boat in the process. The remaining two soldiers were flung into the water. Blake’s eyes were wide with fear as he saw the men swim to the boat, only to disappear with a scream beneath the waves. Blake was now the only one in the water.

“I’ve got to get out of here.” The thief thought to himself. Where his head had been pounding, now his heart was pounding. He started paddling the other way. The water was still and black, until the dark fin cut the water a few feet from Blake. He was paddling faster, but the fin was edging closer and closer. Then it was gone. Blake froze as the creature appeared right under him. He wasn’t enveloped in the teeth though, the creature offered him his back.

“What the…” The creature smacked Blake onto his back with his tail, and then it started swimming with him. “I’m riding a dinosaur. I think? Did it imprint on me?” Blake’s father had been a marine biologist, and he had long theorized that certain prehistoric aquatic species would imprint upon whatever they saw when they were born. It was similar to oceanic birds, but this thing wasn’t even born. It was made in a lab. As the dark fin faded beneath the surface, taking Blake to the nearest shoreline, two men watched from a helicopter. Their experiment was a success, now they knew it worked. All they had to do was re-capture it, and then they would have a new aquatic super weapon. Only one thief stood in their way.