Free Deathrace by Keith Douglass

to lose you to a Great White.”
    “I’d like to take that swim now, Lieutenant Murdock. Who wants to go with me?”
    “Now?” Murdock asked.
    “Unless it interferes with your schedule, Lieutenant.”
    Murdock lifted his brows, and pointed at his platoonchief. “Jaybird, take Kat on the one-mile course on the bay side. Then see that she gets to her quarters.”
    “Now, sir?” Jaybird said, surprised.
    “Now, sailor. A SEAL is always ready for the unexpected.”
    Jaybird snapped a salute at his commanding officer. Murdock was so surprised to see it, that he only half returned it.
    “Get out of here, Jaybird.”
    When they left, DeWitt concentrated on the schedule a moment. “Murdock, I think Kat is going to fit in nicely. She’s tough as old leather, has lots of heart, and is a worker. No wonder the brass wanted her along. She’ll do a lot better than most of the men the AEC could have sent us.”
    “Agreed. But she’s still a civilian. We can’t get her SEAL trained in four weeks, so there will be a lot of chances to fuck up. Our job is to make damn sure we get her into the target with all of her bodily parts working.”
    DeWitt checked his watch and moved toward the door. “Thanks for sending Jaybird on that swim. I didn’t want to be late getting home tonight. Time I tell Milly about Kat. Last night I just told her the person was a civilian. Sure you don’t want to come over for dinner?”
    Murdock waved. “Count me out. I hate bloodshed among the civilian population. Let’s hope Milly is tremendously understanding. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be with Kat twelve to fourteen hours a day. Be sure Milly understands that.”
    “Oh, yeah, easy. Maybe I’ll just sleep on base tonight.”
    “Sure you will.”
    “Right, I better get home and face the firing squad.”
    “Won’t be that bad. We’ll have Doc Ellsworth ready with his medical kit for you first thing in the morning.”
    At the end of the Navy Amphibious Base pier extending into San Diego Bay, Jaybird looked at Kat.
    “Lieutenant, you have anything in your pockets you don’t want to get wet?”
    “Just have my I.D., which is sealed. I’m ready when you are.”
    “Let’s do it.”
    They dove into the bay and both gasped at the coolness of the October water. Jaybird did his famous side stroke until he saw Kat surface from her shallow dive and strike out with a strong crawl. He kicked into one himself, and caught up and stayed with her. She went out much faster than the usual SEAL crawl, but he didn’t say anything.
    “We’ll go east to that first point of land,” he called. She nodded, and angled to the right.
    Five minutes later, Jaybird saw that he was falling behind. Kat’s strong crawl stroke had picked up in tempo, and she pulled away from him.
    When she came to the turnaround down from the point, she stopped and treaded water waiting for him to catch up.
    “This the turnaround?” she asked.
    Jaybird said it was, and she kicked out for the pier.
    By the time Kat went up the ladder to the pier they had left, she was three minutes ahead of Jaybird. He came up the ladder puffing. He squeezed water out of his cammies, and nodded.
    “Lady, you won’t have any trouble keeping up if we have to take a swim getting in or out of country over there.”
    “Good, Jaybird. Next time maybe we can try the ocean side.”
    Ed DeWitt made it home ten minutes before Milly came from her job as a computer network analyst at Deltron Electronics. She was an expert in her field, and was making a salary twice what Ed made even counting his housing, food, and uniform allowance.
    He checked the menu written out on a pad on the refrigerator door. They tried to specialize in healthy yet quick-to-fix meals. Tonight it was Spanish rice, a green salad, French cut green beans, and rolls. Whoever got homefirst always started dinner cooking. Sometimes it was murder for Milly to get across the Coronado Bay Bridge from San Diego. Tonight, DeWitt thought, must be