The Pacific Giants

by Jean Flitcroft

  So much for the friendly locals, Vanessa thought. No point in asking her about the Tankard twins either.

  Looking out into the harbor, Vanessa could see a large fishing trawler tied up to the pier.

  “What type of boat is that?” Vanessa asked. “I haven’t seen it here before.”

  The girl looked up, an expression of naked boredom on her face.

  “It’s a crab boat,” she said shortly. And then to Vanessa’s surprise she continued. “They’re refueling. I’ve seen them a few times this last month.”

  Vanessa could see some of the crew members moving about on the deck. With a sudden sense of shock, she recognized one of them. It was the man she had seen on the beach with Mr. Fox, the one she’d thought was a bit suspicious. He was heavyset, with jet-black hair and a thick beard.

  “Is it a local boat?” Vanessa called out to the girl behind the counter.

  The girl looked up from what she was doing, almost as if she was surprised to find Vanessa still in the shop.

  “Not from around here,” she said, shutting her mouth in a firm line.

  Stop bothering me was written all over the girl’s pasty face. Vanessa picked up her backpack. She would take a closer look at the trawler, she decided. See what its name was.

  Vanessa didn’t bother to say good-bye. That girl’s face could turn your ice cream sour, she thought.

  As Vanessa approached the pier, she started to worry about being seen. But then she remembered that Mr. Fox and the crab man hadn’t seen her on the beach that day, so it made no difference.

  She worked out a couple of introductory sentences, in case she needed them. Something about the Deadliest Catch series on TV, which was all about real life on the crab boats in Canada and Alaska.

  There was nobody out on deck by the time she stood at the gangplank, so she rested her hand tentatively on the rail. Could she sneak on board for a quick look? Vanessa waited, listening for voices and hearing none. Then, before she could lose her nerve, she walked up the ramp and onto the boat.

  CHAPTER 33

  Caddy is extremely agile in the water. Speeds of up to 40 knots have been reported.

  Vanessa moved quickly toward the stern. Now that she was on board, she could hear the men working at the bow. She was a little disappointed to find there wasn’t much to see, and she was just about to turn around when she noticed some big metal containers. She tried the handle of a small trapdoor in the top of one of them, assuming it wouldn’t yield. Yanking it as hard as she could, she was surprised when the lid opened with ease on its well-oiled hinges.

  Yuck! Vanessa recoiled at the sight of thousands of huge crabs in water, piled on top of each other. All spikes and legs. She dropped the lid quickly.

  The other containers looked the same, but farther along the deck she spotted a much smaller one. Probably more crabs, but maybe she should check it out anyway.

  When she opened the lid, a blast of cold air from the refrigerator hit her. This time instead of writhing crabs she was faced with huge slices of bloody meat. Some enormous fish? Tuna? No, it looked thicker than that.

  Could it be whale meat? Could it be Ziggy? Vanessa gave a yelp at the thought and dropped the lid. It made a clanking noise and she cursed silently. What if someone came to investigate?

  She hid behind a pillar and waited, but nobody came. If it was whale meat in the refrigerator, then these fishermen were the illegal hunters, and Lee needed to know straight away. But would Vanessa be able to find Lee and show her before the boat left the harbor? It was just refueling, the girl in Jo-Jo’s had said. No. She would have to get the evidence herself before she left the boat.

  At least Vanessa had her camera and could take some photographs. She really didn’t want to look again, but she had no choice. She’d do it quickly, for the sake of Ziggy and the others, she decided.

  Taking her camera out of her backpack, Vanessa lifted the lid gingerly. She held it open with one hand and tried to hold the camera with the other. She pushed down on the button, but her hands were shaking so much that the camera slipped from her grip and into the refrigerator.

  “No!” she cried, as it slithered down beneath the meat.

  She snatched it back up, but the strap caught on something. She yanked it again and this time it drew up something metal-looking. It was a bullet-shaped tracking tag just like the one that had been attached to Ziggy’s dorsal fin.

  “Oh my God!” The words caught in Vanessa’s throat. It was one of the research whales. These people really were the hunters—and they were using the research institute’s own GPS tracking devices to locate and kill the whales. But how had they gotten the tracker? From Mr. Fox? Was that the transaction she had seen on the beach that day? She must have been right about him after all.

  The thought of it brought tears to Vanessa’s eyes, but there was no time to cry now. She had to take the photos. She would need them to back up her accusations against Mr. Fox. Maybe she should take the tag with her too. That way she would have physical proof as well as the photographs.

  Vanessa put her hand into the bloody mess and grabbed hold of the tag, pulling it hard. It was still firmly attached to a large piece of whale. Since she couldn’t take the whole thing with her, she’d have to find some way of cutting it off.

  She looked around quickly, noticing a couple of machetes hanging upside down on hooks close by. Without a second thought, Vanessa grabbed one up. It was heavy and the blood on her hands made it hard to hold, but she sawed at it until it gave way and the tag came off. She stared at her blood-covered hands. It was so disgusting! She was definitely turning vegetarian after all this.

  Vanessa put the tag and camera into her backpack and zipped it up. Then she crept along the deck back toward the gangplank. Why had they kept the tag this time? she wondered. Surely that was dangerous for them if they were caught?

  No, Vanessa realized suddenly; they were being clever. By leaving the tag on the boat, which moved long distances in the waters where the whales lived, they could fool the scientists in the research center into thinking the whales were alive and swimming around.

  Maybe Mr. Fox had told them about Ziggy’s tag washing up on the beach. Keeping the tag on board until they were clear of the area would be less suspicious.

  The sound of the men’s voices grew louder, and Vanessa saw five of them moving in her direction. Crouching behind a pillar, she watched them. It was clear to her that Mr. Fox’s friend was the captain. He was barking orders in a language entirely foreign to her.

  How was she going to get back onto the pier? Vanessa wondered. She stood for a second and glanced over the side. To her utter astonishment, instead of the harbor, she saw a rocky headland, an empty beach, and a large mountain moving in the distance. Her heart, which was hammering away in her chest, suddenly missed a beat, and Vanessa felt herself getting lightheaded.

  They were at sea!

  CHAPTER 34

  In June 1991 it was reported in the Victoria Times Colonist that Terry Osland saw a 30-foot-long animal on a beach in Saanich Inlet. She told the reporter that it slithered quickly into the sea, leaving scrape marks and a foul odor behind it.

  Vanessa stared at the moving landscape, desperate to believe that her eyes were tricking her. But the harbor and shops were gone. There were no houses to be seen anywhere. No people or roads. Vanessa wasn’t even sure it was still Duquette Island.

  How had she missed the motion of the boat? She must have been concentrating too hard on taking photographs and cutting off the tag.

  She sank back to the ground, and blind white panic rolled over her in waves like seasickness. What was she going to do?

  At first she could hear the whispering but she couldn’t understand it. The blood was pumping too loudly in her eardrums and her mind was in freefall. The word began to solidify, circling slowly at first, then getting faster, becoming more insistent.

  Jump, Toddy commanded. Jump, jump, jump, jump!

  Vanessa tried to slow her breath
ing. She concentrated on the air coming in and out of her nose. That had been one of her mum’s tricks when she was stressed about something.

  Help me, Mum, Vanessa pleaded silently. Whatever she did, she would have to act quickly. Otherwise she and the boat would be in Alaska before she knew it.

  She searched her pockets frantically for her mobile phone and when she couldn’t find it, she dived into her backpack. It wasn’t there either.

  For a second, Vanessa wondered if she should just walk up to the men and admit that she was a stowaway. But what language did they speak, and what would they do to her?

  Jump! Jump! Toddy was louder than she’d ever heard him.

  Beside her, Vanessa spotted a lifesaving ring. It was the standard-issue sort she was used to seeing in her local swimming pool at home. The cheerful red and white looked out of place on the trawler.

  It would be madness to jump, wouldn’t it? But which was the better chance of survival: jumping into the water or trusting these butchers to help her?

  The sight of yet another empty beach passing by was enough to push Vanessa to make a snap decision. She grabbed the ring and tried to undo the rope. Vanessa was usually good with knots but this was stuck tight by salt and time. She’d need a knife.

  Of course, the machete! It was on the deck, not far away.

  She ran to get it and, without caring if anyone saw her, she hacked at the rope until it broke. Grabbing up the ring, she threw her bag on her back, climbed the railing, and jumped overboard in a matter of seconds. Her thumping heart was the only noise she heard.

  It was like landing on concrete when she hit the surface of the water. It jarred her whole body, expelling every ounce of air from her lungs, so that when she came back up to the surface she couldn’t breathe for many seconds. She clung to the ring for dear life. She half-expected to hear shouts from the deck above but she heard nothing. There were no cries of surprise, no fingers pointing at her. The boat continued on. The wake rocked Vanessa violently for a few seconds, and then it was all over. Within another minute, the boat had rounded a headland and was out of sight. A lone seagull sitting on the surface of the cold gray water was her only companion now.

  CHAPTER 35

  There are over three hundred claimed sightings of Cadborosaurus willsi.

  At first Vanessa just drifted, hoping she would be pushed by the current onto the beach. But she was getting cold very quickly and she soon realized that she would have to try and swim with the ring if she was going to make it. She was too tired to cry, too numb to feel anything but the dead weight of her body.

  Nobody knew where she was. They wouldn’t miss her until dinnertime anyway. By then it would be too late—unless she could make it to the beach.

  Suddenly she felt something brush up against her, sending a jolt of electricity through her body. There was something beneath her in the water. The thought terrified her, and she kicked out with every bit of strength she had left. She had to get to that beach.

  Until that moment she hadn’t even thought about what might be in the water with her. A humpback would be OK, as they only ate plankton, but a killer whale might mistake her for a seal. And what about Caddy? What did it eat?

  The creature rose out of the water just in front of her, as though commanded by her thoughts. Vanessa froze, too terrified to swim. She clutched the red-and-white lifesaving ring and prayed feverishly that the beast wouldn’t notice her.

  But the large ugly head pivoted on its long neck. Its eyes bulged; its jaw dropped open; and then the snakelike coils appeared—huge, heavy, and powerful.

  Oh, God! Please help me, Mum, Vanessa pleaded silently. Make it disappear.

  She watched it sink slowly down into the water again. But that didn’t help. It was bad enough seeing a sea serpent above the water, but how much worse to imagine it swimming beneath her at that very moment!

  She felt a current of water rush past her legs and saw it well up around her in a smooth, circular pattern. Vanessa gave a strangled cry, let go of the ring, and swam for her life. The cold had crept into her bones and her teeth rattled in her head like boiled sweets in a jar. With each stroke she got a little weaker.

  The beach wasn’t all that far. Surely she could make it! Although her clothes and backpack made swimming almost impossible, Vanessa kept kicking. Her lungs were fit to burst when she felt a searing pain in her knee and realized that she was swimming over rocks in the shallows.

  She put her feet down, stumbled forward the next few yards, and then collapsed onto her knees. But the sound of a huge splash behind her propelled her forward on all fours like a crab, and she scuttled frantically up the stony beach. She had to get away, find somewhere safe, before she passed out.

  Vanessa didn’t get very far. Her weight became too much for her arms and she collapsed onto her stomach, exhausted. Her eyelids, the last things to move, came down like shutters.

  “Mum!” Vanessa cried out again, but the word never reached her lips. She was slipping away. She had gone too far this time.

  CHAPTER 36

  Ask many Victoria residents today about Caddy and you will get a blank look. But the reality of the sightings cannot be denied. Over the years too many knowledgeable and observant people have seen a creature unlike any other. Caddy will likely remain in our consciousness, and sightings will occur. But he remains a challenge.

  —Stephan Ruttan, Local History Librarian, Greater Victoria Public Library, May 2009

  Vanessa came to and passed out repeatedly over the next few hours. Her head, pressed against the rocks, throbbed, and her body shook violently. Every bit of her was in pain. As dusk fell, her mind unhitched from the physical reality of the place, wove in and out of dark recesses, memories replaced by hallucinations, peopled by monsters. Mr. Fox’s lean face transformed into Caddy’s huge horselike one, his body stretched to become that of a snake that wrapped itself so tightly around Vanessa that she struggled for every breath. The voices she heard, men’s voices, came and went, loud and accusing.

  By the time an old-fashioned wooden fishing boat arrived at the island, Vanessa looked like a small bundle of wet rags washed up on the beach. Her pulse was thready and her breathing so shallow that her chest moved imperceptibly.

  She came to briefly when she felt hands pulling at her. Through her lashes she saw the face of a man looming over her. Had Mr. Fox come to get her? Terror flared in her eyes, but even in her weakened state she registered that it wasn’t Mr. Fox and felt a rush of relief. It was a face she recognized, but she didn’t know whose.

  Vanessa tried to move her lips, but when she felt herself being lifted gently and heard Lee’s soothing voice whispering in her ear, she finally let go. She was safe now. She felt herself falling deep beneath the surface into a peaceful place.

  Lee wrapped her jacket around Vanessa and talked softly to her as Tom Tankard carried Vanessa to the boat. Although Vanessa had stirred at first, she appeared totally unconscious now and couldn’t be roused.

  Lee was on autopilot. They had to get Vanessa back to the guesthouse and get her warmed up as quickly as possible. Lee continued to talk to Vanessa and stroked her head, did all the practical things she was supposed to do, but all the time her heart was breaking.

  Lee hadn’t been able to find Mr. Fox when the call had come through from Dr. Mitchell. This time the signal hadn’t been lost, but had just stopped moving, he told her. It was highly suspicious that it was stationary on a beach. With a sinking heart, Lee knew that she would go and find just the tag again, but she couldn’t rest until she was sure. In the end the only person she could find with a boat had been a very reluctant Tom Tankard.

  Vanessa now lay along the bottom of the boat, and Lee cradled her head. Dear God, it was like a rerun of Loch Ness. Only worse. This time Vanessa’s dad wasn’t even with them. Lee kissed Vanessa’s forehead, willing her to stir. Lee steadied herself with the thought that at least Vanessa was alive and didn’t seem hurt and that was all that mattered for the moment. />
  As they pulled up to the beach and Mrs. Bouche and Wayne came hurrying down to the water’s edge, Lee bit back her irritation at the sound of Wayne’s loud voice.

  “What happened to her? Is she dead?”

  His voice seemed to be enough to penetrate Vanessa’s consciousness. She stirred and moaned.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Wayne persisted.

  “Stop it, Wayne!” Lee said shortly.

  When Lee looked down at Vanessa, she felt a wave of relief flood to her very fingertips. Vanessa was smiling! It was a small and feeble one, but it was a smile all the same.

  CHAPTER 37

  On 21 July 1943 Mr. and Mrs. Spenser and their friend Mrs. Fisher saw Caddy in the water at Grantham’s Landing. They said that it had a head like a python, had five or six coils, and was 30 to 40 feet long.

  Vanessa slept heavily through the night and into the afternoon of the next day. She woke very slowly, drifting in and out of sleep, aware of the people around her sometimes and gripped by the writhing coils of the serpent at others. Her relief, when she finally came around, at finding herself in bed wearing her familiar white nightdress was so intense that she broke down and sobbed.

  “Vanessa, Vanessa, it’s OK,” Lee said, coming through the bedroom door as if she had been shot from a cannon. She threw her arms around Vanessa and hugged her hard.

  “Everything is OK now, you’re safe. The doctor says you’re fine, really. You just need rest.” Lee held her at arm’s length and looked into her eyes. “As soon as you’re better, we’re getting off this island and going home. I promise.”

  “No, no,” Vanessa wailed through her sobs. “The whale. It was all cut up on the boat. In a fridge thing. It was horrible, Lee. The blood was all over me.” She grabbed hold of Lee’s hands, scratching her with a nail without even noticing.

  “It’s Mr. Fox, Lee. He’s one of the whale hunters,” she said ferociously. “You have to find him.”