Love Bites

Jack: Eleven

One of the reasons he stood on that shark was, outside supervising the new crew, to picture himself the size of the predator leaving those marks on it. At first, he refused to get too excited but when Jae appeared and started to take the measurement of the scars and so many pictures, he knew the man saw what he saw.

And they were thinking the same thing.

Of course, Jae closed up as soon as he realized they were stared at but for once, Jack didn't care. What they were after mattered more.

"Jolene, you have the blood samples, right? Can you extrapolate when that shark got beaten based on that?", he asked as calmly as possible even if he felt like a volcano about to blow out of excitement.

Jolene thought about it then nodded. "I can try. It won't be a 100% accurate estimation but I can try. Are we looking for what I think we are?", she asked. And just by her tone, Jack could tell she already knew the answer to that question.

Jeff from the camera crew appeared in front of Jack as he was heading to the lab.

"Wait, wait, wait. What's going on?", he stuttered.

Jack smiled and looked over at him. "What do you think? Something big attacked this shark. And we're gonna find out what. Your documentary's name is something like "Hunt for the Megalodon', right? Did you think it was just something to get more people to watch it?".

Jeff looked up at him then at the platform... then back at Jack before holding his hands up.

"We got told we'd be after the Megalodon's descendants. Its.....family tree of sort. No one told me we'd be chasing a...real....living one!", he protested, making Jack laugh.

The tall man patted his shoulder and snickered.

"We don't always get what we want, man. But it looks like you should have packed more underwear. Because that's exactly what we're going to do.".

He walked into the lab and saw that Jae already displayed the pictures he just took on the various big monitors on the screen. On one of them, the exploratory video of Billy's probe was on replay and he came closer to it to watch it. Jae was pacing between the screens and the table where maps and other documents were spread.

Jack knew that look on his face. He was excited.

"Sharks aren't known for cannibalism. I don't care what shit is being said out there, they're not. They eat siblings before birth, that's right. But once they reach the teenage stage and beyond, they only attack other sharks to defend their territory. And when it came to that...". He explained before pointing at the pictures. "...it can get ugly. That female fought for her life but she survived. The one who attacked her wasn't that hungry or... she wasn't a threat anymore.", he mused.

"We got a track on her, we can study her pattern. See which spots she's avoiding. Because she probably learned that lesson. Those bite marks are just....".He stopped and looked down at Jae's leg.

"Warning bites. I asked Jolene to try to determine when those wounds happened but my gut says we're not far from where it happened. What did you find?", he asked as he stood next to Jae.

He listened to the man's explanations and watched the video again.

Sitting with one butt cheek on the corner of the table, he took some time to process this all.

"All the lines we threw that way came clean. I doubt it's a coincidence. It could be where it used to hide. A beast that size? Can't go unnoticed and it needs lots of food. So it's probably hunting in deeper water.".

He rubbed his chin then looked at Jae. "We're going in, aren't we? If that place is anything like Belize, then we have to. I read everything about these islands. There's no mention of that. Who knows what we will find in there?", he chuckled before standing up.

"Just the two of us. If you can stand on a shark with me, you can swim with that leg, right? Besides, I'm pretty sure you'd rather have /me/ carry you than to have to send someone else with me in there. Not that I'd take anyone else in these caves until we're sure it's safe. I don't care how bitchy the camera crew gets. Billy can cease the opportunity to use his submersible underwater drones to send us some equipment once we're in there if we can reach a dry spot. Including a camera.", he decided before looking at the maps again.

"I'd suggest we go tomorrow at dawn, when the sea level is the lowest. But it's your call, Jae. You know I'm in no matter what. All I need is a yes and not only will it save you from my epic whining but it will also have me get everyone on deck to prepare that dive. Not saying you can't but I yell much louder and I'm scarier.", he joked.

Once that said, he kept his eyes on Jae and waited for his answer.