Read Online Gold of the Gods by Bear Grylls - Free Book Online Page B

aquariums,
jumping through hoops as a trainer threw
fish into their mouths. But this was the first
time they had encountered them at sea.
    Their spirits soared as the dolphins
soared and spun in an intricate dance.
Christina gasped again as a mother with two
babies pirouetted through the air, turning
somersaults before plunging back into the
water.
    ' Bailemos, bailemos . Let's dance, let's
dance,' she shouted, doing a little jig across
the desk.
    'This beats synchronized swimming any
day.' Marco's eyes were alight. 'They're just
so graceful.'
    'Look, look. She's smiling at us,'
Christina said in delight as the mother
dolphin leaped through the air once again.
And then suddenly, like the sun disappearing
behind clouds, they were gone.
Christina crumpled to the deck, not knowing
whether to laugh or cry.
    'Why did they have to go so quickly?' she
cried as Marco put his arm around her and
they slumped in a deflated heap against the
mast.
    But Beck wasn't listening. He was staring
out to sea, his eyes making a slow sweep of
the water around them. Sensing that something
was seriously wrong, the twins sat bolt
upright, following Beck's gaze.
    And then Marco saw it. It felt like a knife
had been plunged into the pit of his
stomach. A sinister black triangle like
the sail of a miniature pirate ship was
slicing through the water around the boat.
    No one spoke. There was no need.
    The Bella Señora was being circled by a
shark.

CHAPTER NINE
    The twins watched, mesmerized. The black
fin was slicing through the surface of the
water like the blade of a knife through cling-film.
With idle flicks of its huge tail, it
cruised ominously just below the surface of
the water; the evil silkiness was so different
from the arching playfulness of the dolphins
just a few minutes before.
    But Beck's gaze had shifted. No wonder
the shark had shown up. A river of red goo
was dribbling over the side of the raft.
During the encounter with the dolphins,
the tin can with the fish guts had been
knocked over. Talk about a red rag to a bull,
thought Beck. More like a tin of tuna to a
starving cat.
    His mind raced. He knew only too well
what a shark could do to a raft like the Bella Señora . Memories of his father flashed
through his mind. They had been fishing on
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, taking time
out from a Green Force mission. Throwing
Beck a knowing look, his father had poured
blood from a bucket of fish guts into the
sea. Within minutes, three tiger sharks were
circling the boat.
    Beck had learned some sobering facts
about shark behaviour that day. Lesson
One: tiger sharks can smell a single drop of
blood in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Lesson Two: they can swim at speeds of up
to forty miles an hour. Beck had worked it
out. That was faster than he could manage
flat out downhill on a racing bike.
    Grabbing the can, he turned it upright
and wedged it against the mast before
shovelling in as much of the bloody slop as
he could before it slipped back out through
his fingers. 'Probably best if the rest of the
family don't join the party,' he said, wiping
the slime from his hand on his shirt. 'Those
fish guts make great bait, but a tiger shark
wasn't quite what I had in mind. But we've
got to keep still. The more we move around,
the more excited that shark's going to get. If
we're lucky, it might lose interest and leave
us alone.'
    But the shark was showing no signs of
losing interest. The telltale trail of blood
had clearly come from this fragile pile of
sticks above him and he had an empty
stomach that needed filling. Christina
clutched at Marco in terror. The fin was
charging straight towards the raft. The
creature's wedge-shaped snout had flipped
over on one side and for an instant she was
staring straight into its glassy eye.
    Beck winced in relief as, at the last
moment, the shark dived under the raft
before reappearing again on the far side.
Like a guard circling the perimeter of a
prison camp, it continued its patrol, every
now and then