by Roland Smith
“Did you stab me again, Grace?”
Grace nodded.
“It’s okay.” Luther looked at Bertha. “If you slept as well as I do, you could get by on two to three hours of sleep a night. That’s a net profit of four to five extra hours to goof around every day. Where’s Marty?”
“Down at the Moon Pool.”
“What are we waiting for?” Luther asked, heading toward the door.
“Do you think his odd brain is the cause of his strange hair?” Bertha asked Grace as they followed.
“I heard that,” Luther said. “Of course, I won’t have much goofing-around time today because of those two little snappers.”
“You won’t be feeding the snappers today,” Bertha said.
“Why not?”
Bertha explained Wolfe’s theory.
“Fine with me,” Luther said. “That will give me a chance to goof around with the dragonspy.”
“That will be up to Wolfe. You’ll be spending the day with him in the Orb control booth watching him coordinate the dive, which will be about as exciting as watching a rock dropping down a deep well. If they come across a giant squid, it will get a lot more interesting.”
“I have something for you to do,” Grace said. “Congo and PD took off this morning. Maybe you could use the dragonspy to find them and bring them back to the Moon Pool.”
“I’ll find them,” Luther said as they walked through the air lock, but the promise flew out of his mind as quickly as it had arrived when he saw the Orb floating in the Moon Pool like a giant golden egg. “Whoa!”
Standing next to the bobbing Orb, in gold aquasuits and black helmets, visors up, were Ted, Marty, and Dr. Seth A. Lepod.
“I should have brought my sketch pad,” Luther said. “You look like superheroes! This is going to make an awesome panel in our next graphic novel.”
Grace touched the side of the Orb and felt the fabric give. “You are not going down in that,” she said.
“Yep,” Marty said. “It’s great. With the visors down and the cameras on, it’s like sitting in a transparent bubble floating in air.”
“Are you really Ted Bronson?” Luther asked.
“In the flesh,” Ted said. “Well … in the aquasuit anyway. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Luther. I hear you’re pretty good with the dragonspy.”
Luther flushed. “I’m okay. Thanks for letting me use it.” Luther nodded at the Orb. “Marty said something about that thing being a nuclear sub, but of course I didn’t believe him.”
“It is a sub,” Ted said. “And it is nuclear-powered, but it’s configured differently.”
“I can see that,” Luther said. “It looks like a giant beach ball.”
Ted smiled. “That’s not exactly what I meant, but you’re right, it doesn’t look like a conventional sub.”
“If we’re going to do this, we’d better get this show on the road,” Wolfe said. He pushed a button opening a hydraulic gate between the holding pool and the big pool. Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod rocketed through before the gate was all the way open. “Want me to leave the holding pool open or closed?” Wolfe asked.
“Leave the gate open,” Ted said. “We might need the holding pool as a backup in case we can’t get into the O-Tube quick enough.”
“What’s an O-Tube?” Luther asked.
“It’s kind of a long parking garage for the Orb,” Ted answered. “I got the idea from the lava tubes on Cryptos.” He looked at Marty. “Remember what I was saying about all inventions being based on things that already exist in nature?”
Marty nodded. On his first trip to Cryptos he had spent a few hours exploring the lava tubes inside the island’s extinct volcano.
Ted continued, “Obviously, I couldn’t work on the Orb out in the open in the Moon Pool and keep its existence secret. There’s a hatch under the water and a tube that leads to another pool on the other side of the control room. If we get a giant squid into the Moon Pool, we’ll use the tube to get away from it. If the squid blocks the opening, we’ll shoot into the holding pool. I can operate the gate remotely from the Orb.”
Marty looked at Dr. Lepod for some kind of reaction. There was none. He had the same expression on his face that he’d had since he arrived at the Moon Pool: silent ecstasy, as if he had just learned he had won the biggest lottery in the history of the world. When Ted asked him if he wanted to join them in the deep, he had answered: “I would be delighted.” And those were the only words he had uttered since Phil had brought him through the air lock, smelling like dead fish. Another good thing about the aquasuit was that as soon as Lepod put it on, the smell vanished. Apparently, the suit not only kept things out, it kept smells in.
Wolfe pushed another button. The bottom of the pool dropped away and fresh seawater bubbled in. Within seconds, Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod disappeared into the black beneath the ship.
Grace pushed the fabric of the Orb again.
“This will implode,” she said.
Ted laughed. “I hope not,” he said. “Orbs one through six did implode, but I’m pretty sure number seven won’t cave.”
Pretty sure? Marty thought. Ted hadn’t said “pretty sure” during his first tour. And he hadn’t said anything about this being the seventh Orb, which explained the 007 on the side, which he now realized was no ironic joke and had nothing to do with James Bond. It meant that the first six Orbs had crumpled like a soda can being stepped on by an elephant. He shuddered inside his golden aquasuit.
“Where are the doors?” Luther asked. “Can you get inside, or do you hang on for your life to the outside?”
“Do you want to do the honors?” Ted asked Marty.
Marty took the key out of his pocket, pushed the green button, and tore an opening in the side of the Orb.
“Now look what you’ve done!” Luther said. “You’ve wrecked Ted’s Orb.”
“How clumsy of me,” Marty said.
Luther stuck his head inside. “Wow! It’s like a space capsule.” He pulled his head out so Grace could see.
Inside were three small seats — two in front and one in back — and an array of switches, buttons, and controls. As she pulled her head out, a call came over Wolfe’s radio.
“The chimp’s out,” Cap said.
“How did that happen?”
“How would I know?”
“She probably figured out the combination to the lock,” Marty said. “She did the same thing on the way to the Congo.”
“She’s on the warpath,” Cap said. “She was just in the galley. Breakfast is going to be late.”
Wolfe looked at Luther.
“Forget it,” Luther said. “The clump she got the last time is just starting to grow back … and it’s a different color.”
“That might be good,” Marty said.
“No,” Luther said with finality.
“Okay,” Wolfe said. “Phil, make sure the Moon Pool doors are secure. We don’t want Bo running amok before we launch the Orb.” He got on the radio. “Get ahold of Yvonne. Tell her to corral Bo.”
“I already tried,” the man said. “She’s not answering her two-way.”
“Keep trying. Check the mess. If she isn’t there, she might be in her cabin sleeping. Get someone to go down there and wake her up.”
“Congo and PD are on the loose, too,” Grace said.
Wolfe looked back at Luther. “Since you won’t sacrifice your hair, you can try to find the fugitives with the dragonspy and direct their capture.”
Luther saluted and said, “Aye, aye, Captain.”
Wolfe rolled his eyes. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”
“You go first,” Ted said to the still-stunned Lepod. “Get into the backseat and I’ll get you strapped in and hooked up.”
Lepod finally spoke. “I can’t thank you enough for this historic opportunity.” He climbed in.
Ted kissed Ana, then closed his visor.
“Be careful, you idiot,” Ana said.
Ted climb
ed through the slit and strapped himself into the left seat.
Marty gave Grace a hug, shook everyone else’s hands, then climbed into the seat next to Ted.
“Uh,” Luther said, “can you hear me in those getups?”
“Loud and clear,” Marty answered through a speaker in the control room.
“Good,” Luther said. “Because there is, like, this big rip in the Orb and you are going to drown.”
“Whew … that was close, Luther,” Marty said. “Thanks for warning us. We might have died.” Marty switched the key to red and sealed the rip.
“Nose-picker,” Luther said.
“I can’t even scratch my nose with this helmet on,” Marty said. “See you around, nose-picker. We’re going down to play some beach ball with Architeuthis.”
The Orb started its descent into the pool. As she watched, Grace had the sinking feeling that this was the last time she was going to see Marty, but that wasn’t all she was thinking about … her mother’s Moleskine was on her mind. She looked at Wolfe. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“Relatively sure,” Wolfe answered. “Come into the control room and you can see what they’re seeing.”
“Maybe Phil and I should take off and help look for Roy,” Bertha said.
“What are you talking about?” Grace asked.
Wolfe told her about Roy’s disappearance. This news, along with reading her mother’s Moleskine, was too much for Grace. She started crying; Wolfe held her until she finished.
“We have to stop this,” Grace said, wiping her eyes.
“Believe me, Grace, I would love to put an end to this,” Wolfe said. “But Noah is determined to put an end to me, Marty, Ted — all of us except you. We have to protect ourselves.” He looked at Phil and Bertha. “Phil, you can help Al look for Roy. Bertha, you’ve been up all night. I want you to bunk down in Lab Nine so you’ll be close to Grace and Ana.”
“What about Laurel?” Bertha asked.
“Tell her to stay in the lab. Until we find Butch, or whoever’s on board, we need to stick together in well-defended groups.” Wolfe looked at his watch. “I need to start monitoring the dive. There won’t be much more to see until they get to the right depth, and that’s going to take a while. I’ll put a video feed into the lab so you can track their progress.”
Bertha nodded and the four of them started toward the air lock. Luther launched the dragonspy and it followed them out.
Wolfe watched them walk down the companionway on Luther’s Gizmo. “I’m sorry I got you in the middle of this mess, Luther.”
“I don’t mind,” Luther said. “I’d rather be here than at some lousy summer camp.”
“You don’t even go home for the summers?”
“Sometimes for a couple of weeks, but then my parents fly off and find someplace to dump me until school starts.”
“What do your parents do for a living?”
“I’m not sure,” Luther said. “All I know is that they work 24/7 and have a lot of money. My dad knew all about eWolfe, and he was happy I was going to spend the summer with you.”
“He wouldn’t be happy if he knew what was really going on,” Wolfe said.
Luther shrugged. “I wouldn’t be so sure. He’s kind of a tough guy. If he were here, he’d be right in the thick of things.”
“Bring the Gizmo into the control room,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe toggled through the cameras as the Orb descended into the deep.
“Marty was right,” Luther said, glancing between the Gizmo and the monitor. “It looks like they’re floating in a transparent bubble. What happened to the wall of the Orb?”
“You’re seeing what they’re seeing on their visor screens.” Wolfe switched to another camera. It was a front view of Marty, Ted, and Lepod in their black helmets and aquasuits, surrounded by the gold Orb. “The Orb’s skin is stippled with more than three thousand cameras and lights. When they get to a depth beneath the sunlight, they’ll be able to see over a hundred yards, like it’s daylight in every direction.”
“Won’t the lights scare the squid?” Luther asked.
“Not if they’re like other squid species. Squid are attracted to light.”
“Bertha, Grace, and Ana just arrived at Lab Nine,” Luther said, looking down at his Gizmo.
“Good.”
“Wolfe?” Cap’s voice crackled through on the two-way.
“Go ahead.”
“Yvonne isn’t in her cabin or in the mess.”
“Keep looking for her,” Wolfe said, hoping that Butch hadn’t gotten ahold of her, too. “What’s the latest on Bo?”
“She just ran through the engine room. One of the guys tried to block her and she knocked him down and bit him.”
“That’s not like Bo. She can get wild, but she’s never bitten anyone. What’s gotten into her?”
“She’s gone crazy,” Cap said. “She’s banged up a couple of people. She’s going to seriously hurt someone.”
“When you find Yvonne, have her get the tranquilizer gun,” Wolfe said. “If she can’t calm Bo down, tell her to immobilize her.”
“Will do,” Cap said.
Wolfe looked at Luther. “If you see Yvonne or Bo with the dragonspy, let me know immediately.”
“Don’t worry,” Luther said. “I’ll find them.”
* * *
After disinfecting themselves in the clean room, Grace, Ana, and Bertha found a very tired-looking Laurel watching two sleeping dinosaurs. The pen had been divided in half with a swinging gate. The gate was open and the hatchlings were lying next to each other with their necks entwined. The fan was running full blast.
Laurel explained that it was a lot easier feeding them separately. “You can keep better track of how much food you’re feeding and it’s harder for them to try to snap each other’s heads off. When they finish you can open the gate so they can be together. I fed them about an hour ago, so they should be asleep for another couple of hours.” Laurel noticed that Grace was holding a Moleskine. “You’ll have some time to write in your journal.”
“This isn’t my Moleskine,” Grace said.
“You opened the trunk?”
Grace nodded.
“That was a big step. Congratulations.”
“I haven’t gotten far,” Grace said. “I looked at some of the photographs, then I decided to read the Moleskines in the order they were written. This is the first one. She wasn’t much older than me when she wrote it. It’s about my grandfather and living at the Ark.” Grace hesitated. “My mother was happy. She loved her father and it sounded like she was living a perfect life. Noah Blackwood wasn’t anything like the man you and Wolfe say he is.”
“Your mother was young when she wrote all of that,” Laurel said. “I’m not surprised she liked living at the Ark. It’s a beautiful place. And being around animals all day must have been wonderful. How many Moleskines are there?”
“Thirty-two.”
“I suspect things will change dramatically in the later Moleskines,” Laurel said. “She probably hadn’t figured out who her father really was yet.”
“What are you two talking about?” Ana asked.
Grace told her about her mother’s trunk.
“That trunk’s a gold mine!” Ana said excitedly. “I know it’s very personal, but I would love to read those journals and look at the photos. Sorry if that sounds insensitive, but I can’t help myself. I’m a reporter.”
“I’d like to read through them first before I make up my mind about that,” Grace said.
“Of course.”
Bertha picked up her shotgun, brought it over to the bunk, and sat down. “Wake me up if you need me to shoot someone.” She lay down, closed her eyes, and was asleep within seconds.
“Did your mother mention having any friends?” Laurel asked.
Grace thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “No one her age. She talked about a couple of the keepers she liked.”
“School?” Laurel a
sked.
“She had a tutor whom she adored. An older woman she called Nana.”
“Probably a nanny,” Laurel said.
“Or a full-time guard,” Ana added.
“Nana didn’t sound like a guard,” Grace said. “She sounded like a close confidante. When my grandfather was at the Ark, my mother spent all of her time with him. When he was away, she missed him terribly.”
“Do you remember the conversation Wolfe and I had when I first arrived on Cryptos?” Laurel asked.
Grace nodded. She had been hiding up in the balcony of the library, eavesdropping on them. “He called my grandfather a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said, not mentioning that after reading the first fifty pages of her mother’s Moleskine, she was beginning to wonder which man was the wolf.
“Just remember,” Ana said. “Butch McCall is Noah Blackwood’s thug. He tried to throw your cousin over the side and probably succeeded in throwing Roy over. I’ve been investigating him for years. Noah Blackwood is a monster.”
Laurel gave Ana a cross look. “Grace needs to make up her own mind.” She turned to Grace. “It took courage to open that trunk — to explore your past. I’m proud of you. Pretty soon you won’t have any fears to overcome.”
“That’s not likely. Right now I’m worried sick about Marty going down into the canyon in that Orb. He’ll probably provide me with new fears for the rest of my life.”
“What’s an Orb?” Laurel asked.
Ana switched on the monitor.
* * *
The aquanauts had reached the point of complete darkness and Ted had switched on the Orb’s lights.
“A great white!” Dr. Lepod said.
“I see it,” Ted said.
The shark swam straight at them with its mouth open in a toothy grin. Marty flinched as it gave the Orb an exploratory nudge, then backed away.
“It’s going to hit us again,” Lepod said.
Ted responded by turning on an electrical field.
The great white did hit them again, and a lot harder, but as soon as it touched the pod it did a complete backward somersault and shot away from them like a bullet.
Ted chuckled. “I love great whites, but they aren’t the brightest bulbs beneath the sea. I set the field to its lowest setting. But that should be enough to discourage it from snapping at golden beach balls for the rest of its life.”
