Far From The Sea We Know (18 page)

“I’m ready,” Matthew said. “Let’s have a
look now and see what they’re up to.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

As if to emphasize his resolve, Matthew
walked off toward the tracking station. Penny and Chiffrey followed
and they all ended up standing awkwardly in a semicircle behind
Mary at the instrument array.

“Morning again, Mary,” Chiffrey said. He
rested his hand gently on her shoulder. “How are you holding
up?”

“Much better.” She looked up at him and
smiled. “Thank you.”

“I thought you’d still be with the
cameraman.”

“We radioed for advice and they recommended
giving him a strong sedative. He was sleeping soundly when I left.
Becka will look in on him from time to time.”

Chiffrey nodded, then scrutinized the
monitor, which indicated that Mary was centering on the calf. It
had been less than two hours, but the young whale didn’t act
injured at all.

“You can handle all this by yourself, Mary?”
Chiffrey asked. “I thought it took two.”

“It usually does, but the whales are idling
and the seas are light.”

“Forgive me, but I’m still impressed. Tell
me, though, can you track them from here when they’re underwater?
With sonar, for instance?”

“Yes, but usually we stay with the visual.
While migrating, they stay mainly on the surface, as they do not
feed. They get their food from the bottom. Sort of like grazing
cattle.”

“I see, but the sonar is recorded if they go
under?”

Mary hesitated a moment. “Of course.” She
didn’t say anything else, which said too much.

“They’ll be checking now,” Matthew said,
“since we are going to try to locate and bring up the carcass.”

“Bring it up?” Chiffrey said. “I thought
whales were supposed to float when they’re dead.”

“Only some of them,” Matthew said. He
embraced the chance to steer the conversation in another direction.
“Right whales got their name from the fact that they did float when
killed by whalers—that’s how they got their name, they were the
‘right whale’ to hunt. In those early days, they couldn’t retrieve
a whale if it sank. Of course, they eventually figured that out,
which meant—”

“Fascinating,” Chiffrey said. “I didn’t know
that. The recordings of what happened down there would be in C-lab,
right? Love to check those out.”

Chiffrey cast his gaze down a moment then
looked up. “Again, I’m sorry about your whale. Maybe there’s still
hope.”

He sauntered away, and Matthew turned toward
Penny, signaled her to come walk with him. When they were out of
earshot, he said to her, “What do you think?”

“He thinks we’re hiding something.”

“Are we?”

The question was left hanging in the air
and, as if by mutual agreement, they headed down to C-lab. Emory
was in front of the side-scan array with a video monitor wedged in
next to it. Malcolm was busy at another console. Chiffrey was
already watching a video playback of Thorssen’s encounter with the
lead whale.

“There, see?” Emory said. “So, where did she
go? I’ve seen an inversion layer distort sonar scans before, but
never like this. And this system is less than a year old, very
sophisticated, supposed to be immune to stuff like that.”

“Do you folks have any recordings of your
earlier scans of the bottom?” Chiffrey asked.

“Malcolm?” Emory asked.

“You’ll have it in a couple or ten minutes,
like I said before, okay?”

Chiffrey stood behind Emory and said
quietly, “Has the bottom scanner been running all the time?”

“Yeah, but not at full enhancement. We
usually opt for a wider sweep. That should be good enough to find
her, unless she—jeesh!”

Emory suddenly hunched over and brought his
hands up to his eyes. His shoulders shook as he fought to regain
control. He finally settled down, then pulled out a stained
handkerchief and quickly wiped his eyes.

“Sorry. I was, uh, not so well this morning.
Stomach bug or something.” Emory looked embarrassed. “Okay now, I’m
all right.”

Chiffrey watched him intently, with an
occasional glance toward Malcolm.

“Here it is,” Malcolm said.

The sonar recording flickering on the screen
cast a sickly green glow on their faces as they stared at it,
unspeaking. Near the end, Emory pointed at three blips on the
screen and finally broke the silence. “This large blip is the whale
that was underneath.”

“The so-called ‘lead whale’?” Chiffrey
asked.

“Correct,” Emory said. “And the next
smallest is the injured calf. Now the large whale is dropping.”

“The smallest one, Captain?” Chiffrey asked,
pointing at an even smaller blip.

Emory nodded. They watched the larger and
smaller blips descend. The equipment continuously updated the depth
readings, and the numbers appeared next to the images on the
screen. Suddenly the blips expanded to fill the whole screen, then
they vanished.

“Well, well,” Chiffrey said with a
chuckle.

There was nothing to see for almost a
minute, then the smallest blip appeared again, moving up to the
surface toward the now visible calf.

“Why don’t we see the lead whale?” Chiffrey
asked.

“I’m not sure,” Emory said. “She was deeper
at that point. An inversion layer issue is the only thing I can
come up with.”

“You said before you had never seen anything
like this.”

“New stuff all the time out here,” he
muttered.

Penny, who had been silent through this
exchange, nudged Matthew in the ribs. “Company.”

The newswoman entered the room, dressed in
borrowed clothes. She took in everything with one quick sweep, and
walked briskly over to the group. Thorssen stepped forward and held
out his hand.

“Captain Thorssen.”

“Pleased to meet you, Captain. I’ve read so
much about you. I’m Lorraine Hart of KZOP-TV News.”

“Recognize you now you’re dry. Glad to see
you looking better, Miss Hart.”

“Please, call me Lorraine.”

“Lorraine, then. We’re arranging to get you
all back to shore.”

“Thank you, Captain. I’d actually like to
stay longer if—”

“Not possible. Be only a few hours before
your transport arrives. Till then, you’ll need to stay in the
quarters we’re preparing for you.”

“No need for that. I’m fine, and I won’t be
in the way. This is a big story for me and—”

“And your thoughtlessness this morning
nearly made it a damned sight bigger.”

“I didn’t know…we assumed—”

“By not heeding my warnings to back off, you
caused a severe injury to one whale and likely killed another. And
almost got your pilot and cameraman killed. Going to mention all
that on the evening news?”

Thorssen was talking calmly, but his voice
carried the weight of a pile driver. The tension level in the room
shot up higher, but Lorraine Hart stood her ground.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “but we figured that
you were just trying to scare us away, because you didn’t want the
publicity.”

“Didn’t you see how the whales were
reacting?”

“I…they looked as if they were just
playing—”

“They were terrified and angry. You don’t
know what you’re doing, and you’re going back to wherever it is you
belong.”

“You have no right to—”

“Out here I do. Advise you to comply
voluntarily.”

She took in a breath to answer but nothing
came. For a few seconds more she faced Thorssen, then spun around
and stomped off. Suddenly she halted, as if brought up short on a
leash. The way she was holding her body seemed to just fall out of
her. When she turned around, even her face seemed different. Her
eyes flickered with the fire of some distant passion and her face
seemed somehow both younger and older than before. They all stared
back at her, but she simply left the room, her bare feet padding on
the deck plates with the silence of a cat.

Penny watched her go, then said, “What was
that all about?”

“Keep an eye on her,” Thorssen
responded.

“Public relations are not exactly my strong
point. Oh, all right.”

The Captain smiled, and his shoulders went
up and down in a quick silent laugh.

As Penny left to follow the woman, she gave
Matthew a brief touch, making him aware of how much tension he was
holding.

“Catch you later,” she said.

“I hope so,” he whispered.

Chiffrey scratched his ear and slowly shook
his head back and forth. “Don’t blame you for reading her the riot
act. You notice that odd bit of behavior at the end, Captain?”

“You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?”

“Well—”

“Why don’t you just say what you really
want?” Thorssen said.

Chiffrey remained silent, then shook his
head and said, “Unfortunately, I’m not cleared to say anymore at
this point. You know how it is.”

“You want our help, you’ll need to provide
all the information you’ve been withholding. And I mean all of it.
Talk to your people.”

Chiffrey scrunched his brow. “I’m due to
check in tonight, and I’ll bring up your request. Meanwhile—”

“Until you get us cleared, you’re on your
own.” The Captain turned toward Malcolm and Emory. They had been
staring at their screens like guilty schoolboys, acting as if they
hadn’t heard a thing. But when they heard him say, “Shut it all
down for the day,” both looked as if they had been asked to take
their mother off life support.

“Shut…it…all…down,” Thorssen repeated.
“Now.”

They got the message this time and started
to close down their systems, although slowly, as if they were
defusing a bomb.

“This applies to everyone and everything on
this ship as far as you’re concerned,” Thorssen said to Chiffrey.
“We need the full deck. Tell your superiors, and maybe we’ll get
somewhere.”

Chiffrey cast a hard glance toward Thorssen,
who gave him a harder one back. Bluff or not, this caught Chiffrey
off guard, but he recovered almost instantly and replied, “Yes,
sir, the point is taken.”

When Thorssen didn’t add any more, Chiffrey
turned with a touch of military formality and headed for the
hatchway.

“Lieutenant Chiffrey,” Thorssen called after
him. “Nothing personal. Appreciate your help with the cameraman.
Maybe drop in on him again if you could.”

“Will do, Captain,” he said with a smile,
and marched off.

Matthew listened to the footsteps echoing
down the passageway until they faded to silence.

“Turn it on again, guys,” Thorssen said to
Emory and Malcolm. “He comes back, pull the plug.”

“No, no!” Malcolm said softly, “You can’t
just pull out the plug on a system like this. You could
damage—”

“Just make it so he can’t see anything.
Check the bottom and in between. The bridge will follow your
course. Total sweep of the area. Allow for currents.”

“We’ll find her,” Emory said.

“Don’t count on it.”

Matthew’s ears tingled. “In my cabin in ten
minutes,” Thorssen said to him as he walked out of the lab.

Emory and Malcolm clicked their gear back
on. Matthew decided to kill the few minutes waiting with them.

“Do you really think it was inversion layer
interference?” he asked Emory.

“No.”

“Then…?”

Emory abruptly gave the keyboard a whack
with his huge fist and the crack of plastic breaking was
immediately followed by the sound of key caps bouncing like dice
off the floor.

“Damn it all! This thing should work! Oh,
shit…” His voice choked off and he momentarily froze. Finally his
hulking shoulders came down again and he let out his breath.

Next to him, Malcolm was trembling, but
said, “Got another keyboard right over here. No problem, just a
glitch, we’ll get it cooking. Don’t we always? Emory?”

The big man straightened up.

“Yeah, we do. Matthew, we need to
concentrate here.”

“I’m just going, guys. Take it easy,
okay?”

Matthew backed toward the hatch of C-lab,
but before he could exit, Emory looked up at him and tried to
manage a smile.

“And thanks again for breakfast.”

“Please, don’t mention it.”

Matthew gently knocked on the wooden door of
Thorssen’s cabin.

“It’s me.”

“Come in.”

The Captain was in his chair. He waved his
hand toward the impeccably made bunk.

“Shouldn’t Penny be here?” Matthew said.

Thorssen shook his head. “More important
someone I trust keeps an eye on the reporter. You saw how she
suddenly changed. And so did Chiffrey. Whatever we’re dealing with
is affecting people. Had a brush with it myself.”

“The morning we flew in to Abercrombie.”

“I mean this morning. I saw her
disappear.”

Without further preamble Thorssen went on.
“I was staying close to her, waiting for…well, don’t really know
what. She started to sink, you see that?”

“Yes, I had a mask on.”

“Followed her down about twenty meters, but
my air pressure alarm was flashing, knew I only had about five
minutes, so I turn to start up, then it happened.”

Matthew waited. The cabin seemed so silent.
The Captain had closed his eyes and looked like he was meditating,
or remembering. Finally he opened them and said, “Thought I’d never
forget that color. Now I can’t bring it back.”

“What color?”

“Never saw it before. She’s in the middle of
that quick shimmer of glory, then she slipped away.” He glanced at
the photo of his wife on the wall.

“Did you check the time?”

“Getting to that. Right after, something
like a concussion wave hit me, but more of a sudden pull, like when
a ship goes down and you’re in the water nearby. Notice anything up
top?”

“No. Maybe you had to be in the water. Is it
possible that you just lost sight of her?”

“Yes, but I doubt it. As for the time, I did
check and it matched the signature on the sonar playback we just
watched. Same as when the blips disappeared.”