Ben swam very slowly up to the dark belly of the submarine. Despite all his care, the robot shark sensed his motion and turned and swam ponderously towards him, its eyes glowing electric blue. Ben’s heart slammed hard against his ribs, but he forced himself to float motionless in the water, hidden in the shadow of the submarine. The robot shark paused, confused. It was so close Ben could have reached out and put his hand between its gleaming rows of teeth, but of course he didn’t. He tried to pretend he was just some sea wrack, floating in the water.
Suddenly the Viperfish jumped backwards into the water, only metres away from where Ben was floating. The contraption he wore on his back shot out long bursts of flame, and the scuba diver shot forward at incredible speed. Ben was so startled he could not help jerking away. At once the shark surged towards him. Ben did a quick feint, left, right, left, then ducked under the submarine’s fin. He heard the clang as the shark’s head crashed into the submarine’s hull and grinned to himself, rather shakily. Once again he forced himself to stay still, though it was very hard not to thrash about in panic with the enormous robot shark swimming back and forth, back and forth, right underneath him.
Just when Ben thought he could not bear the suspense any longer, the dolphin came plunging through the waves, Tim clinging to her back. At once the shark turned and roared towards them at high speed. Delphina swerved and raced away, the shark right on her tail. Ben swam quickly to the surface and dragged himself out onto the deck of the submarine. He wriggled out of the mer-boy’s tail, then looked anxiously after Tim. He could see Delphina racing through the water, leaping and diving, with Tim crouched low on her back. The shark was right behind them, opening its steel jaws to seize the dolphin’s tail. The Viperfish, meanwhile, was shooting towards the shore at immense speed, propelled by what looked like rocket boosters strapped to his back. Ben anxiously waved at Thomas, crouched behind Lookout Rock.
Thomas waved back, then switched on his remote control. A tiny speedboat raced across the water, bouncing on top of the waves. Strapped onto it was Meg’s mermaid doll. With the sparkly green tail waving up and down, and the red hair streaming out behind, the doll did look remarkably like a fast and frenzied mermaid. Every time the boat hit a wave, it jerked the belt about the dolly’s waist so that she said, ‘Mummy, Mummy,’ over and over in a high, squeaky voice.
The shark turned at once and raced towards the remote-controlled mermaid, much to Tim’s relief. He brought Delphina around in a big swerve, and cut across the shark’s path just as it opened its jaws to swallow the little boat. Immediately the shark veered after Tim and the dolphin. Just as it seemed the shark would seize Delphina, the little mermaid-boat again scooted in front of its steel snout, bringing the robot shark around with a snap.
Thomas wrenched at the controls. The remote-controlled mermaid veered this way, then that way, put on an extra burst of speed, bounced off the crest of a wave and went flying into the mouth of the rock pools to beach safely on the sand. The shark, racing blindly after it, smashed headlong into the rocks. There was a loud bang, and the shark exploded into a ball of fire. A pair of shining steel jaws somersaulted one way, a triangular steel fin soared another way, and the rest just slid under the waves and disappeared.
Ben, meanwhile, had opened the hatch and climbed down into the submarine. It was dark and smelly down there, and giant tanks glowed greenly. Inside the tanks were hundreds of different types of animals – huge old turtles, writhing sea snakes, sea snails and seaslugs, splashing seals, thrashing dolphins and doe-eyed dugongs. In one tank sat a small, black-haired mermaid, crying sadly into her hands. Ben tapped on the glass and called softly, ‘Sami? I’ve come to rescue you.’
She looked up joyfully and pressed her face back against the glass. ‘Pull those levers over there. They open the tanks.’ Her words came oddly through the water.
‘OK.’ Ben hurried over and pushed the levers back, one by one. The bottom of all the tanks began flying open, and the sea creatures fell down into the ocean beneath. At once they shot away from the submarine, heading into deep water. The snakes undulated like stripy ribbons, the turtles stretched out their long leathery necks and beat their great flippers, and the seals and dolphins arrowed away in silver bursts of bubbles. Samandriel fell down with a splash, waved her hand at Ben in pure delight and swam swiftly away, hair floating out behind her like a mass of dark seaweed.
Ben pushed quite a few more buttons and levers. An alarm began to ring and a warning siren rang out. Ben grinned as water began gushing in from all sides. He dragged on his scaly skin and dived into one of the tanks. With a quick flick of his tail, he was gone.