THE GREAT WHITE RED ALERT

At the opposite end of the channel between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, Tyler turned the Nous Venons around to face Poison Flower.

He stopped the engines. The sub sat motionless in the water. Unless something happened quickly, the huge hovercraft would ram and sink the small submarine.

The team was crowded together in the conning tower, watching the ship race toward them.

“This is part of the plan, right little brother?” Alena asked. “Right?”

Tyler just grinned and handed Jakob the TV remote control. “You do the honors.” Tyler had rewired the remote control in the A.I. lab, just as he had rewired circuits aboard the Zubr.

Jakob’s smile lit up his whole face. He pointed the remote control at the hovercraft, now less than half a kilometer away.

He pushed a button.

Aboard the Zubr, Poison Flower screamed again. The lights on the communication console were telling her the impossible. The ship’s huge loading door was opening while they were traveling at top speed! She stabbed at the controls to close the door. Nothing! She reached for the engine controls. Nothing!

Like a huge mouth, the door gaped open into the on-rushing sea.

Instantly, millions of liters of water gushed into the vast loading area. The ship shuddered violently. It wasn’t meant to sustain this much water at once. The team heard the screaming of metal being wrenched apart, the loud crackling of electrical circuits sparking and shorting out. In less than five seconds the hovercraft went from full speed to a dead stop, and began sinking in the middle of the channel.

The team watched as tiny figures emerged from the command center and scrambled for the side, throwing themselves into the water just before the deck was submerged. They entered the water on the side nearest Geyser Rock and began frantically swimming toward shore — through water patrolled by the great white sharks.

A little while later, Tyler gave a sigh of relief as Poison Flower and her crewmen scrambled safely ashore onto Geyser Rock.

Alena was still angry and unsettled at her treatment aboard the hovercraft. “Maybe it would have been better if the great whites had spotted them first.”

Tyler smiled. “No. She’ll be arrested along with all her crew. The killing is over. The boat isn’t a threat anymore.”

Just then, they heard a disgusted scream echoing across the water.

“And Poison Flower will be enjoying the company — and the smell — of fifty-thousand Cape fur seals until the authorities can get to them,” Tyler added with a grin.

Jakob smiled.

Alena laughed out loud.

Brutus yipped and yapped, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Then Tyler turned the Nous Venous around and headed back to safe harbor.