The Neptune Promise

by Polly Holyoke

  We celebrate the day Thom, Rad and Rohan return to us.

  :The folks in Carly Sue’s sickbay were relieved to say goodbye to our sparkhead,: Ree says with a wicked grin.

  :Treating me was a bit of a challenge,: Rad confesses sheepishly.

  :During Rad’s shoulder surgery, Doc Iharu had to give him extra anesthesia to put him under muy deep,: Ree explains. :Under light sedation, he shocked anyone who tried to touch him, and he fried one of the monitors. Then, after his surgery, whenever he was woozy and someone touched him, they got a zap.:

  :It got to the point that no one but Rohan would work on me,: Rad says, :and he wore rubber gloves.:

  :It was an electrifying experience,: Rohan says with a smile. :Our med staff would prefer that you not get hurt again, but if you do, at least we know to use insulated gloves around you next time.:

  Thom comes in for his share of teasing, too, particularly from the Grunts who have missed his muscle power.

  :Some people will go and get themselves shot with a crossbow just to get out of the real work,: Ocho kids him.

  Even while we salvage wrecks, I keep an eye on Shadow, Ocho, Rad, Sunny and Dai. I still don’t want to believe that any of them could be communicating with Wasp and Kuron, but through Julita and Miguel we continue to hear stories from many of the salvage gangs of strange “man sharks” attacking divers. I have an awful feeling that Kuron is in the area, and that one of our friends from Atlantea has told him that we’re here.

  A month after we first contacted Cam and Ty Rath, all three plankton nurseries are up and functioning. I worry about James as he travels constantly between the three locations, ready to help if the Western Collective discovers them. We continue to salvage wrecks because now we need to find containers to hold the plankton when it is ready to be shipped out to sea. La Valiente reached out to the leaders she trusts in other salvage gangs. We’ve been allowed to work their wrecks, too, in exchange for letting them know when we find valuable cargo they can use.

  There are definitely times we all get homesick for Safety Harbor, and times we get tired of breathing polluted seawater that burns our eyes and lungs and gives us skin sores. But the fact that the c-plankton is growing gives us hope. It’s growing so rapidly, in fact, that Dad thinks the first shipment will be ready to send out to sea in another month, but that poses a new problem. Where are we going to get a freighter big enough to carry thousands of bins, boxes and barrels of seawater full of c-plankton?

  One night I ask Cam if he’s heard how we’re going to transport the c-plankton out to sea, and he sends me a wicked smile.

  “Clearly there’s only one solution. We’ll have to steal a freighter.”

  chapter thirty-two

  I stare at Cam in dismay as he lounges against the back rail of the Phantom. Robry and I talk with him while Ara and Den finish tying down tonight’s load of barrels and empty fish boxes.

  “You’re not serious about hijacking a freighter, are you?” I ask him.

  “Well, no one is going to give or lease one to men like Rath or Scarn,” Cam replies. “So, yeah, they’re making plans to steal one.”

  “Have you ever stolen a ship before?” Robry asks, looking as dismayed as I feel.

  “Actually, we have hijacked some smaller vessels. A freighter will be a bit more challenging, but the process is pretty much the same. We need to sneak on board, deal with the crew, strip the vessel of all ID markings and signals and sail off with it.”

  “Exactly how do you ‘deal with the crew?’” I ask, a sick feeling growing in my belly.

  Cam’s mouth tightens. “We don’t murder them, if that’s what you’re thinking. Usually they’re so worried for their own skins, they surrender right away. If they fight back, then it can get ugly, but no one’s been killed when I’ve taken over a ship. We mostly hit vessels that smuggle black market items that are sold to those hypocritical technocrats who run the Western Collective.”

  “It’s nice to know no one gets killed,” I say, trying to act like it’s no big deal to find out that Cam is a pirate as well as a smuggler now, but his expression hardens. Obviously he realizes he’s shocked both Robry and me.

  “You should be grateful we’ve had some experience hijacking ships,” Cam says coolly. “You’re about to get some experience, too, because we’re going to need you and your friends down there,” he jerks a thumb toward the water. “Rath was very impressed by the effectiveness of your fish tranquilizer, and I’ve been telling Scarn that your dolphins are better than radar for keeping track of Marine Guard vessels. With your help, we’re more likely to be successful in hijacking a big ship and less likely to hurt anyone doing it.”

  “I’ll talk to my team and my dad about helping you,” I say, trying to hide my trepidation. Stealing a freighter sounds like one dangerous proposition.

  “First we launched a rescue mission against guerilla fighters,” Robry says with a wry smile, “and then we became marine salvagers, and now it looks like we may become pirates. Guess it’s all in a day’s work for us.”

  Ara comes to the stern and clears her throat. “We should get going with this load if we want to unload it before daylight,” she says to Cam. Cool and capable, Ara doesn’t glare anymore when I come aboard, but she definitely speaks to Robry more often than she does to me.

  “By the way,” Cam says as I stride to the rear platform, “who’s the guy who hangs out at the surface watching us every time you talk to me? He always looks like he’d like to put a spear dart through my heart. Is he your boyfriend?”

  “That would be Dai,” I say with a sigh. “And no, he’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Sure acts like one,” Cam says under his breath before Robry and I dive back into the water.

  If Dai were my boyfriend, he’d trust himself to be alone with me, but we only speak now when there are others around us, and we never touch. In the meantime, I’m growing more and more concerned about him. During the day he works hard wrestling barrels and containers out of the wrecks we salvage, and then at night, he and Ton patrol constantly around the sea caves where we camp. His eyes red and shadowed from lack of sleep, Dai won’t talk to me about his fears, but I can guess he’s desperately worried about his father and what he’s planning to do next.

  My dad is very concerned about Kuron, too. “I don’t think it’s good news that there are so few transmissions for Robry to decode these days. Kuron’s playing a waiting game,” he tells me one night when I climb aboard the Carly Sue for a quick visit. “I feel better about Safety Harbor knowing Kuron’s down here, but I worry about you and your salvage teams.”

  A month passes, though, without us seeing Kuron’s sub or his shredders. At the end of that month, we hear from Dad and Cam that the first shipment of c-plankton is ready to load and send out to sea. Which means it’s time for us to help Cam and his fellow smugglers steal a ship.

  ~~~

  Scarn picks a moonless evening for our mission. At midnight, our entire team and all our dolphins meet up with Cam, Ara, Den and several smugglers riding on zodiacs with powerful engines near the old port of LA. While Penn and Thom inflate pontoons that will convert our tows into surface vehicles, Cam goes over the plan with us a final time.

  “Do we have to go all the way up to the port?” Dai interrupts Cam skeptically. “It sits five miles inland now that the seas have risen so much, and we could get trapped in that narrow channel.”

  “No, we shouldn’t have to travel that far inland to grab a ship,” Cam replies, looking irritated by Dai’s comment. “Because the facilities are limited compared to legal ports like San Francisco or San Diego, freighters anchor offshore. Sometimes they wait days for their turn to be unloaded. We’re going to help ourselves to one of those.”

  My stomach winds up tighter than an anchor chain when I catch a glimpse of a lean man with scarred cheeks piloting the first zodiac.

  I swim closer to Cam’s zode. “I’m surprised to see your boss is here tonight,” I whisper after he f
inishes the briefing.

  “I’m not,” Cam whispers back. “There’s big money in this for him. He gets to keep the ship’s cargo.” It’s hard to read his expression because he and the other smugglers have darkened their faces and hands, and they all wear black.

  “I hope he picks the best ship for us and not the best ship for him in terms of cargo,” I mutter under my breath.

  When our tows are ready, we climb onto their pontoons and motor after the two zodes. A brisk wind kicks up white caps as we head out farther from the coast. Even in the dim light, we can see a dozen freighters anchored offshore, waiting their turn to be unloaded. Scarn heads straight for a smaller freighter away from the others.

  Our tows stop a hundred yards out from the freighter while we slip into the sea to oxygenate. As the two zodes continue on to the freighter, I whisper good luck with my heart and my mind to Cam.

  :Your friend has guts. I have to give him that,: Dai says as we watch Cam fire a carbon fiber grappling hook up and over the top railing of the ship. Then he scrambles up that rope followed by his fellow smugglers.

  :Especially since he knows that if he’s caught, the Western Collective will send him back to a prison camp or execute him,: I reply, a sob catching in my throat. I’m surprised when Dai reaches out and squeezes my hand gently.

  The next ten minutes seem to pass horribly slowly. I listen hard, afraid to hear the sounds of fighting or an alarm being raised, but the raid continues in total silence. Soon Cam’s squad lowers ten unconscious men, bound and gagged, in a cargo net and stacks them between the pontoons of a zode like firewood. Within minutes, the craft motors silently away to the south.

  :Th-they aren’t going to kill the crew, are they?: Kalli asks me as she looks after the zode.

  :No,: I reply. :Scarn said he’d hold them for a few weeks so they can’t report back to the ship’s owners, and then he’ll let them go.: I hope.

  A bass chugging rumbles through the water as Scarn and Cam start the ship’s engines. Then a deep clatter echoes in my ears as they winch up the anchor on its massive chain. The nav lights all over the ship wink out.

  The darkened freighter slowly pivots to the northeast and gathers speed. Rad’s tow is on its starboard side, we take the port side, and Thom drives the extra zode straight ahead of the vessel. The dolphins range in front of us, watching for danger as they race through the black sea. We have a thirty mile voyage out to Catalina Island where we need to have the freighter tucked away in a cove by dawn.

  We’ve only been underway for a half hour when Mariah contacts me.

  :many big ships traveling together head your way from the north,: she says, her mental voice worried.

  :Shells, it must be a Marine Guard convoy heading down to San Diego!: Which means they probably have sophisticated radar. I stare out into the dark, windy night, my heart pounding in triple time.

  chapter thirty-three

  Trembling, I relay the bad news to my team by telepathy and to Cam and Scarn by radio. I sense my friends’ rising fear. We’ve been hunted by the Marine Guard so many times before.

  “We’re switching on all the proper nav lights and turning north as if we’re just another freighter heading for San Francisco,” Cam radios back. “If their cruisers pick us up on radar and show too much interest, you know the plan. Over.”

  “Roger that,” I reply, my voice tight, and then I reach out to Mariah. :Please let us know if any of the vessels leave the convoy and head toward Cam’s ship.:

  Our two tows and Thom’s zode all stop while we wait to see what the Marine Guard will do. As we float on the dark swells, the wind whips cold sea spray into our faces. In front of me, Ree fiddles with her spear gun and shifts restlessly. I chew my lip. Overhead, gray clouds scud across a black sky spattered with silver stars.

  :one of the smaller ships heads away from the others toward Cam’s,: Mariah reports at last. Instantly I relay that information to my companions.

  :Sokya,: I tell her, :we need a lead to that cruiser. We can’t see it yet.:

  :I come.:

  :’Kay, looks like we get to be decoys, people,: Janni says. :Remember our plan, and stay safe.:

  :This feels way too much like the time we played fox and hounds when the smugglers chased us near San Francisco,: Ree says to me on a private send.

  :At least this time we know the terrain better.: We’ve spent two days poring over charts, and there are plenty of good hiding places in the rocky walls of the San Pedro Valley and the San Pedro Escarpment directly beneath us.

  Sokya and Laki arrive and announce their presence with joyful leaps. I’m terrified by what we’re about to do, but most of the dolphins think we’re playing a game.

  :There’re your guides, Thom,: I say.

  :Roger that,: he says and passes in front of us.

  He follows Sokya and Laki, and we drive in the zode’s wake, pushing the tows as fast as they will go up and over the black swells, hoping we’ll look like a trio of smuggler vessels to the Marine Guard. Soon, each time we top a wave, I can spot the green and red navigation lights of the cruiser a quarter mile to the northwest of us.

  When we’re close enough to see the ship’s markings, the cruiser’s powerful search light flicks on.

  :Their radar techs must have just spotted us,: Robry says, which is what we wanted, but still I tighten my grip on the pontoon in front of me.

  The bright beam of the searchlight sweeps back and forth across the water, and then it locks onto Thom and his zode.

  “Stop and present your registration,” an amplified male voice orders him.

  Thom ignores the command and races off to the southwest, away from the hijacked freighter, and we follow him. I flinch when the spotlight picks up our tow next. I peer back at the cruiser, wondering if they will take the bait, but all I can see is blinding white light.

  :Are they turning?: Thom asks. :I can’t look and drive this sucker through the waves at the same time.:

  :Yeah,: Rohan tells us from the second tow which the spotlight hasn’t found yet. :They’re taking the bait.:

  “Stop or we will shoot,” the voice comes again, sounding angry.

  :Here comes the part of our plan that I really don’t like,: Penn says tightly.

  The spotlight continues to track our tow, even though Janni zigzags, trying to lose it. Feeling terribly exposed, I want to dive into the water. But we’re trying to look like smugglers, and smugglers wouldn’t jump off a boat into these cold, rough seas. Brilliant light flares on the ship, and we hear a boom. A shell whistles high over our heads and disappears into the dark. A second later, there’s a flash and a muffled roar as the shell explodes in a wave somewhere ahead of us.

  :Thom, you okay up there?: I ask breathlessly.

  :Yeah, but I’m never going to enjoy target practice after this.:

  :Spread out!: Janni says. :Make it harder for them to hit us.:

  Rad’s tow veers away to the south and vanishes into the black night. Another brilliant flash lights the sky, followed by the thunder of the big gun. Instinctively I duck as the shell skims just over our heads with an eerie screech. It hits the water a hundred feet ahead of our tow. Light flares, the shell roars as it explodes, and spray drenches us.

  :They’re getting the range now,: Janni says grimly. :Pull the plugs on the pontoons and let’s dive. Bigfoot, don’t stay on that zode much longer.:

  :Don’t worry,: he says, sounding distracted. :I won’t.:

  :Densil, please stay near him,: I ask. :He may need your help when he bails out.:

  :I will stay near,: Densil promises.

  We pull the plugs on our pontoon, and the air rushes out. Janni angles its dive planes downward, and the tow begins to slip beneath the surface. The water is starting to slosh over our laps when the ship fires again, and the shell screams closer. I hold on tight and fight the urge to close my eyes. Suddenly, the ocean all around us turns gold, a deep roar fills my ears, and a massive wave almost flips the tow over.

&nbs
p; :Whoa, that one was too close,: Janni says. :Everyone, dive to fifty feet now, and Rad and I will meet you down there. That’s an order.:

  I let go of the deflating pontoon and kick downward into the dark sea. I’ve never before been so glad to leave the surface. Once I’m fifty feet down, I turn and watch anxiously for Janni and the tow. The dolphins gather around me, pressing close in their fear. Poor Tisi squeaks in terror.

  Another flash lights up the water to the south, and the compression from the explosion presses against my eardrums.

  :that hurt,: Sokya cries.

  :Mariah, Sokya, please, go. These explosions are harder on you than they are on us.:

  :you will hide soon?: Mariah asks.

  :We go to hide now.: I can make that promise because I can see Janni’s tow diving toward us. I’m relieved when the dolphins flash away into the black sea.

  :Let’s go find a sea cave or an overhang and wait this out,: Janni says. I grasp a pull loop as she drives by me, and one after the other, the rest of the riders on our tow appear out of the darkness and grab on.

  :Rad, are you guys okay?: Janni calls to him.

  :We’re diving down to the rocks now. Everyone but Thom is accounted for.:

  :See if you can reach him,: Janni orders me. :He’s already beyond my telepathic range.:

  :Thom, you okay up there?: I shout mentally.

  :Yeah,: he replies, sounding distracted. :The cruiser’s still following me. If I can shake that spotlight for a sec, I’ll finish tying off the steering wheel and ditch. Whoa, that one was close,: he says, and a sound like thunder grumbles in the distance.

  :’Kay, I lost their searchlight, the wheel’s tied off, and the throttle’s on full. I’m diving in…now! Densil, dude, am I glad to see you.:

  :Let’s hope that cruiser will follow the zode for a few miles longer,: Janni comments.

  :Let’s also hope we kept them from being too interested in Cam’s freighter,: I say.

  We park both tows under a big arch in the rocky wall of the escarpment. We hear occasional rumbles as more shells hit the water, but the explosions draw further and further away. Janni swims back and forth anxiously until Densil appears out of the darkness towing Thom.