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Summer slipped off her fins and passed them underwater to Dirk SheShe tried not to look at the croc as she pushed away and stroked backward

Dirk treaded water until Suained a healthy distance, then he eased to his left The croc eyed him for a minute, then its powerful tail whipped the surface, and the reptile cut through the water like a green torpedo

Dirk turned and stroked as fast as he could He swa his strokes and kicks to draw the croc toward hi, he just swam like he was on fire He needn’t have worried The croc took an immediate bead on him

It was a race Dirk had no chance to win Propelled by its massive tail, the Nile crocodile could swim in bursts of up to twenty miles per hour

Dirk wasn’t trying to outrace it, only lead it to an easier target The second gunman’s body had started to drift downstream, but still bobbed a short distance away

As Dirk raced for the bearded un on his swi, up to and past the bloody body, then he stopped and held his breath

The croc’s open jaws surged out of the water and clamped down on bone and flesh With a whip of its tail, it pulled the gun into the lake, the croc followed its preferredprey while locked in its powerful jaws—not knowing that in this instance the prey was already dead

Dirk kept still as the croc descended beneath hiht, he swiftly say, this ti smooth, quiet strokes

“He may return for seconds,” Summer said when he reached her side

Dirk resumed his stroke “Let’s not stick around to find out”

Summer jettisoned her tank, and

together they raced twenty yards up current Angling toward the west, they slowed and continued at a measured pace

“I hope he doesn’t have any friends” Summer looked ahead and over her shoulder When Dirk didn’t reply, she gave hie “What do you know that I don’t?”

“They say there are ten thousand Nile crocs in Lake Nasser”

“Ten thousand! You were crazy for letting us dive here”