Taken By The Shark

Chapter 8

They rode most of the way to the little island in silence, just enjoying the sunshine and the fact that they were there together. Chelsea spotted Erik off to one side of the ship talking with Jill, even though she had no idea what the two of them would have to talk about. It was hard to picture Jill as an evil sea witch here on the sunny deck of the boat, wearing her cute bikini and laughing at something the younger man had said.

Chelsea next turned to see that Ross and Melissa were lying on adjacent lawn chairs as well. Each leaned on an elbow as the faced one another, quietly talking. There was still a bit of shyness there on Melissa’s part, but Ross seemed to be drawing her out a bit more over time. Chelsea had high hopes that eventually they would get on with it and turn into something more.

As they drew nearer to the island they’d trained on, Mark got up and started giving instructions on what they’d be doing next, rallying three other drivers for the submersibles not yet assigned and stressing the importance of maintaining radio silence as much as possible as they followed him down.

“Use your communicators on the private channel as we discussed only,” he said. “We really don’t want to lead anybody right to our destination. As an added precaution, we’ll be diving after sunset to prevent any visual spotting of the activity. You’ll be running at full dark until we reach three hundred feet, so you’ll need to switch on your contour devices instead of trying to rely on your eyes. If any of you don’t think you can handle that, I need you to tell me so right now, okay?”

None of them said a word.

“Good, I’ll take that to mean you’re all up to the task,” he said. “My cargo hauler is a bit bigger and I’ll have on a few running lights, so you should be easily able to spot me for the couple minutes it takes for that descent. Now, we’ll be at the camp in just a few minutes, so you can all rest up for a few hours before we go into town for dinner. We won’t be splitting up this time, however. I don’t want any of you to miss the boat.”

“I wouldn’t miss this boat for all the tea in China,” Erik said with a grin.

“Neither would I!” Chelsea agreed.

“Great, but we’re still staying in one group,” Mark replied. “It’s been the protocol for years, and it’s not about to change now. Everyone, stow the rest of your gear in the cargo hauler now. We don’t want to risk leaving anything on the island that you might want to have later on.”

*****

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. The girls chose to go to the women’s quarters together to spend their time, but they didn’t get a whole lot of rest since they were too busy gossiping about men in general and Mark in particular. Of course the others wanted to know if he was any good in bed, to which Chelsea gave a highly affirmative reply.

“He really knows how to make a girl’s toes curl, that’s for sure,” she said with a grin.

“Yeah, he looks like he could,” Angel smirked.

“Hands off, that one’s mine,” said Chelsea.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve decided to take that little challenge you guys gave me seriously. I’d like to see if Erik Stotz might be tamed after all.”

“What?” Chelsea gasped. “Why would you want to do that?”

“Well, after Mark told him to straighten out his attitude he sort of started acting nicer,” she explained. “I think he has been smiling a whole lot more too. It makes him seem more attractive, don’t you think?”

“Perish the thought,” Chelsea shuddered. “But you go right ahead. It’ll keep him from bothering me.”

“I’m serious, though,” Angel giggled.   “And he’s been really nice to me lately, too.”

Chelsea smiled at her and gave a little wink.   “Well, I really do hope it works for you if that’s what you want, Angel.   After all, we’re all going to be living in a relatively confined space, so if you’re going to try with him we’re all going to want you to succeed.   Otherwise, we’ll have to listen to you two arguing the whole time were down there.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Angel replied.

Melissa and Nancy were both listening to this conversation with smirks on their faces, however at this point they both burst into fits of giggles.   Seeing this, the other two joined them.   When Chelsea grabbed up a pillow and lobbed it at Angel’s head, a full on pillow fight ensued.

Jill had to come in just to see what all the noise was about.   When she discovered the cause, she grabbed a pillow of her own and joined in.   This pleased Chelsea greatly, she had no idea what type of a tutor the woman would be once they got started.   All of the negative hype she had heard concerning her didn’t seem to match what she was seeing now, and she really hoped this side of the woman would be the one she saw the most.

“Well, ladies,” Jill finally said after they’d had their fun for a while.   “It looks like it’s about time to go.   Chelsea, will you help me gather up a few things from my cabin?”

“Sure, Jill,” she said.   “No problem.”

The two women walked out of one cabin and into another without really speaking.   Chelsea was certain this was not a casual request, so she was waiting to find out what the other gifted woman would say to her.   She didn’t have long to wait.

“So, Chelsea, by the look of your energy I’d say Mark’s been showing you a few things since I saw you last,” she said.   “Have you learned to shift?”

“Not yet.”