Far From The Sea We Know

by Frank Sheldon

  “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.”

  CHAPTER 20

  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.”

  “You seemed concerned that we not do or say anything that Chiffrey could pick up on, but then you let him watch the playback.”

  The Captain almost smiled. “Hiding a little of what happened out there this morning got Chiffrey. Then, giving him a quick look at the sonar, we hooked him. He’s had a taste now and wants more. My mind’s changed about cooperating. Without anything to tell them different, the people who pull Chiffrey’s strings will start to see us more as trouble than asset. They need to know they need us. Then there’s Ripler.”

  “Now, besides the Air Force investigation disrupting the work of the students Jack blames me for the injured whale.”

  “He’ll use everything against us, but especially if we come home with nothing. Ripler’s patrons on the Board will call this trip a scandal and use it to push Penny’s father into retirement.”

  The Captain must have noticed how Matthew looked at him, because he added, “And right after that, they’ll sell the Valentina. We can’t wait. We either play this hand ‘all in,’ or we lose it all.”

  “I think Jack’s losing it, and I don’t mean his hand.”

  “Always was that below the surface with Ripler. His rigging’s strung too tight, but don’t underestimate him. Or his friends.”

  “What about the minisub? Why look for the whale if you think it disappeared?”

  “No one will believe what I just told you. If we don’t look, later they’ll ask why not.”

  The Captain opened a drawer, pulled out a bottle of single malt whiskey and a glass and set them in front of Matthew.

  “Picked up a case of this when we were moored in a little cove in the north of Scotland a few years ago. I’m on duty, you’re not.”

  “Well…”

  “Just took you off. Have a shot, you earned it.”

  Matthew hesitated only a moment before nodding his assent, and Thorssen poured him a double. The first sip slid down like silken fire and turned into a second longer sip. The Captain did smile this time. Before Matthew could take another, there was a quick knock on the door.

  “Captain, it’s Dirk. The whales are on the move again!”

  “I’ll be on the bridge in two minutes,” Thorssen answered back.

  “What are you going to do?” Matthew asked.

  “I’ll know when we get there.” Thorssen eyed the still mostly full shot glass. “You’ll have to save that, more’s the pity.”

  Up on the bridge, Matthew stood well behind Thorssen who was scrutinizing the departing whales. Becka was beside him taking her turn at the helm.

  “They just pulled together suddenly,” she said. “All at the same time and synchronized again.”

  “Follow them.”

  “Then you’ll lose the lead whale, won’t you?” Chiffrey said, slipping through the hatchway. “The one that went down?”

  “Can’t be in two places at once.”

  “Maybe you can.”

  Everyone looked at Chiffrey, and he went on. “Remember our cruiser, the one on the way for the news team? She’s sailing in a small convoy with a salvage vessel and a support ship. We could send one of them after the whales, while you stay here to search for the lead whale. I can get the authority.”

  “I’m sure you can,” Matthew said.

  “Hang on, boy, I’m not trying to steal your show.” Chiffrey turned to Thorssen and Becka. “Wouldn’t it be valuable to find and retrieve the dead whale—assuming it is truly dead—and still be able to follow the rest to see where they go and what they do? You could even put some of your people on board one of our ships. They have knowledgeable people on board already…” His voice trailed off.

  The Captain stared at Chiffrey and finally said, “These ships you called were on the way here to track the whales anyway, right?”

  “We have an interest here. That’s a fact neither of us can change. So, why not make the best of it?”

  “Give us the rest of the story,” Matthew said, “and maybe we can.”

  “That’s not up to me. For the record, I did recommend we fill you in on all relevant details. I didn’t request the escort. I spoke against it. And I’m sticking my neck out by telling you this.”

  The Captain was silent for another moment and then laughed. “Lot of necks stretched out lately.”

  The comm buzzed and Thorssen grabbed it, but only said, “I’ll take it in the chart room.”

  The Captain barely glanced at Becka as he said, “Follow the whales.” He left without bothering to see if his order would be carried out.

  Becka ran her fingers through her thick curly hair a few times, before turning the wheel and bringing up some speed.

  “The Navy’s coming to help,” Chiffrey said. “You think they’re going to steam in here firing depth charges or something?”

  She waved off his justification with her hand and said, “The Captain was right. Your ships are going to track them.”

  Chiffrey seemed suddenly tired. “For the record, I did tell them that it would be obvious to you. We’re just trying to understand what’s going down here, same as you.”

  “But there has to be more to it,” Matthew said.

  “Speaking of ‘more to it,’ you haven’t gone out of your way to tell us about the whale ‘displacement,’ have you?”

  “Ripler filled you in?”

  “Don’t have any names for you, boy.”

  “Cut the ‘boy’ crap. I’m older than you!”

  “Calm down. It’s just a term of endearment where I come from. No disrespect intended…Mister Amati. Listen, I’m going to go check on the cameraman. See you all later.”

  He left Matthew and Becka alone on the bridge.

  “With us gone,” she said, “there is nothing to prevent the Navy from searching this area themselves and recovering the carcass.”

  “Do you believe we should stay?”

  “No. Did you notice the whales are back in lockstep?”

  “After the leader disappeared,” Matthew said. “I wondered if they’d go back to that.”

  “She didn’t disappear, she’s dead.”

  Before he could answer, Dirk came through the hatchway.

  “You
’re early,” Becka said.

  “I know, but I’d be happy to start now. Could use a little focus.”

  “Fine with me. It’s all yours.”

  She stepped away from the wheel and stretched, bending backward in a yoga arc.

  “How is Jack?” Matthew asked her.

  “Let’s go,” she said, not looking at him. “I need to move.”

  He followed her out onto a small deck just below the bridge, and she stretched against the railing. She started speaking, staring at the sea the whole time.

  “He’s not so good. This whole affair has been extremely hard on him, and the incident this morning…”

  She stretched her arms up as high as she could, then suddenly let them collapse as if unplugged. She still did not look at him, but continued speaking.

  “The injured calf and now the dead lead whale—all terribly traumatic for Jack. Whether you believe it or not, he cares deeply. He has his own ideas about how we need to be responsible and effective, and to tell you the truth, they makes sense to me. We can’t just appeal to people to love the planet or something because it’s all so marvelous and fun. We don’t need romantics at this point, damn it, there isn’t time for that anymore. We need to be effective across the whole range of action, including politically and economically. We have to prove to people that it’s in their own best financial interest to manage the oceans well, because that’s the only way we’ll get enough of them behind us. That will mean making some tough choices. It’s too late to save everything.”

  She turned around and for the first time looked directly at Matthew.

  “Mary is with him. Somebody else took over her shift at the tracking station. Jack trusts her completely. I’m sure he’ll be okay.”

  “Could I ask about what happened to him the other morning?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He had a feeling she already knew what he meant, but he said as calmly as he could, “You mentioned that something had happened to Jack the morning before I got here. Remember? He didn’t want to talk about it.”

  “Yes. Well, I don’t know, it wasn’t—”

  “Becka, please…”