Meg: Hell's Aquarium

**Meg: Hell's Aquarium** is the fourth book in the Meg series by Steve Alten. It continues the adventures of Jonas Taylor and his family, bringing more of a focus on his son, David.

## Plot Summary

In the deep waters of the Marianna Trench, Scarface (the surviving male megalodon from the previous book) is ambushed and killed by a giant deepwater predator.

Back at the Tanaka institute, the Taylor family, having recaptured Angel, is now in possession of six megalodons, as Angel has given birth to five pups from two different litters. The first two, Belle and Lizzy, are much larger and more aggressive, and have started swimming as a pair to protect themselves from their aggressive mother, who remains separated from them. The other pups, Ashely, Mary Kate and Angelica, are rendered afraid of the larger Belle and Lizzy in turn, causing problems. Things become further exacerbated by Angel going berserk and devouring a young man who volunteers to feed Angel as part of the show at the Tanaka institute, where the sharks are held and Angelica is killed by Belle during a veterinary emergency as she's being removed from the pups' pen. As a result, the Taylor family faces lawsuits and financial difficulties.

An opportunity to change their luck occurs when Walid Abu Naba, the Crown prince of Dubai arrives with his brother, Fiesal Bin Rashidi, to negotiate a business deal with the Taylors, offering to buy Mary Kate and Ashley in exchange for a partnership with them to create an Aquarium called Dubai Land centered around the prehistoric species of the Marianna trench. To that end, David Taylor after speaking with his father, Jonas, agrees to work with Rashidi and the Crown Prince to work in their new aquarium for the summer and train new pilots for their submersibles to explore the deep sea. Traveling to Dubai, David meets Monty, the nephew to his father's friend, Paul Macreides, and Kaylie Szeifert, a beautiful young submarine pilot with whom he begins to fall for.

During this time, Jonas and his daughter, Danielle, discover that Belle and Lizzy were born after Angel mated with Scarface during her time in the open sea while Angelica, Mary Kate and Ashely were born from Angel via parthenogenesis as she no longer requires a mate to reproduce. Jonas is shown to be dealing with attacks caused by an animal rights group looking to set the remaining megalodons at the Tanaka Institute free and is forced to find a means to control Angel, eventually allowing a remote to be surgically attached to her skull, allowing them to manipulate her senses. Simultaneously, back at Dubai, the megalodon siblings Mary Kate and Ashley arrive at Dubai Land but are shown to be dying. Ashley (renamed Zahra by the Crown Prince) manages to recover, but Mary Kate dies. David also begins a relationship with Kaylie.

After Kaylie leaves on a mission to find deep-water species for the aquarium, David investigates Dubai Land and is informed by the Crown Prince that they previously worked with his father's old enemy, Dr. Michael Maren. Maren discovered a hidden subterranean sea where prehistoric species from multiple eras survived previous mass extinctions. Called the Panthalassa Sea, the Crown Prince sent Rashidi and Kaylie along with a team to explore and capture specimens for display in the aquarium, showing him the Dunkleosteus they first captured as an example. David agrees to go when the Crown Prince tells him that Kaylie's life will be endangered otherwise unless he joins the expedition.

After arriving to the expedition vessel, David goes with Kaylie to lure specimens out of the Panthalassa Sea. They are subsequently pursued by all manner of fish and marine reptiles that haunt the Panthalassa Sea, such as Helicoprion, mosasaurs and Shonisaurus with gills, and encountering a 122-foot liopleurodon (the same creature that killed Scarface). Entering the sea, they locate Maren's hidden labs as per Rashidi's orders to find his maps of the Panthalassa sea, but are prevented from leaving by the local wildlife. As a result, they end up trapped in the sea floor in Maren's second lab with no means of escape and depleting air.

Jonas learns of the events transpiring in the depths and goes to rescue David, taking Angel as his "guard". The animal rights group frees Belle and Lizzy during his absence, causing chaos and several deaths at the sharks' jaws. Jonas manages to rescue David and Kaylie and brings them towards the surface as Angel battles the Liopleurodon. However, as they ascend, Angel is killed when she becomes entangled in the net meant to catch the Liopleurodon and is torn apart by the pliosaur. The Liopleurodon also devours Kaylie as well, leaving David devastated.

Months later, David is seeing a therapist after having tried to commit suicide after losing Kaylie. He refocuses his efforts after this by deciding to hunt down the Liopleurodon and capture or kill it as it has escaped the Panthalassa Sea. At the same time, the escaped Belle and Lizzy are now roaming British Columbia's Salish Sea, continuing Angel's legacy of terror.