Beneath the Waves

by Ali Vali

  “I’m not sure about that, and thanks for trying to take my mind off all this.” She bit into the peanut butter chocolate-chip cookie and smiled. They’d been her favorites ever since Hadley had made them for her when she was pregnant.

  Sibyl laughed and shook her head. “Deny it all you want, but Kai will find whatever she’s looking for because her mind works like yours. Your sister Clarice is more laid-back in her approach to life, but you both never get tired of learning and teaching. I’ve always thought it was the best way to not get bored. Besides,” Sibyl handed her another cookie, “between Hadley, her mother Brook, and Mari’s overprotectiveness, nothing will happen to our tadpole. I had to hold your mother down to keep her from suiting up and heading out with the team Hadley deployed.”

  “I’d laugh, but I had to do the same thing.” She’d had trouble sleeping since Hadley twitched all night long, and she knew it was from her desire to go keep watch over Kai. She and Hadley would agree about that until their last breath.

  “Then until all these military types find something, let’s get back to Kai’s search for this phantom boat.”

  “Let’s hope that’s all she finds.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The water was like green glass the next morning, and Kai turned her face to the first light to breathe in the smell of salt water. She extended her senses out and smiled as she connected to Ram and Ivan, enjoying their leisurely swimming pattern. They were full and content in each other’s company and only about an hour away. All of that reflected her mood at the moment because of her night with Vivien.

  The rain and wind had kept them inside so she’d suggested a funny movie, thinking it would cool Vivien’s attraction, but the opposite had happened. Vivien had an infectious laugh that gave you no choice but to join in and enjoy the moment with her, and she had. They’d talked after that until late, and it made her wonder something she hadn’t been able to answer even after they’d gone to bed.

  Vivien had an inordinate list of things in common with her that spanned both likes and dislikes. Could the gift she’d left have actually bled more than simply the lines that would open up the link between them and she’d seeded a bit of herself in Vivien? Vivien seemed to be a mix of everything she desired in a mate, but with the differences her mother Galen said were important to keep a relationship fresh. She’d come close to opening their link in such a way Vivien would understand exactly what was happening.

  “How many of those T-shirts do you own?” Vivien asked as she handed over a mug of coffee. She smiled when she saw Vivien was wearing the one she’d had on last night.

  “You found my stash, huh?”

  “It was hanging in the bathroom so I hope you don’t mind.” Vivien sat and put her hand on the cushion next to her. “Join me?”

  “I don’t mind at all,” she said, wondering what Vivien was sad about. “Didn’t sleep well?”

  “You’re an incredibly perceptive person, and when I see my father again I’ll have to thank him for hiring you.” Vivien pulled her shirt over her legs when she bent her knees and lifted her feet up. “I’ll do that after I complain to him about ruining my fun. Unfortunately I have to go back.”

  “Right this second?” She didn’t want to let Vivien go until she had to report for work.

  “Today sometime, but not right this second. If you want, you can drop me on shore and I’ll fly back.”

  “If I’ve got the day I’ll take you home.”

  “Good, since you still owe me some lessons, but I think I’ve learned one well.” Vivien leaned against her and hummed for some reason.

  “Should I guess?”

  “Skinny-dipping,” Vivien said as she moved to put her coffee down. “Think you can indulge me one more time before I have to go?” Vivien stood up and stripped the T-shirt off and dropped it on her lap. It was like a declaration of some kind that quickly turned to not quite fear but uncertainty.

  Vivien had a swimmer’s body despite her height, in that she was fit but not skinny, but none of that mattered when she faced her in a nakedness that went well beyond the lack of clothing. The display was more about a sense of acceptance and belonging. Vivien Palmer had belonged to no one in her life, and she was perhaps making steps to change that fact.

  “Don’t take this wrong, okay,” Kai said and held her hand when Vivien reached for her shirt again. “You’re an incredibly beautiful woman.” She took her shirt off as well and blocked Vivien’s attention from her shell as she dropped her shorts.

  “Why would anyone take that wrong?” Vivien’s eyes were the only thing restless about her.

  “When you work for someone and they might think I’m saying it to gain favor.”

  Vivien laughed and moved an inch closer. “You’re the only person who’s ever worked for us that’s even seen me naked more than once.”

  “So Steve’s in the once club?” She almost didn’t want to know the answer, because if it were true it’d piss her off.

  “No one’s in that club, and I don’t think you said it to get me to like you since you also threw me overboard. Do you in some part of your head think this is a little nuts?”

  “No,” she said and dove over the side.

  The sun was a large orange ball half hidden by a bank of clouds, so Kai swam up behind Vivien and held her so they were both facing it. “Crazy isn’t how I’d describe this moment.”

  “Then explain it to me,” Vivien said as she pressed closer and relaxed, as if trusting her to keep them afloat.

  “Maybe we’re two old souls that recognize an old friend in the other, or we’re new souls who recognize the joy of new friendships.”

  “Naked friends?” Vivien said and laughed.

  “Either new or old—those are the best kind.” Vivien had sparked her desire but she kept her hands still, though she wanted her as much or more than Oba. The surprise of that made her a little glad Vivien had to go. Seduction wasn’t how she wanted to help Vivien or Franklin. “That’s true, because you can’t hide anything.”

  *

  “Will you let me know if you find anything? I’m sorry I’ll miss it,” Vivien said as Kai guided them to the dock where Vivien’s vessel had been tied up.

  “If the rune stones or any speck of wreckage are there, they can wait a few more weeks until we can make it back. You don’t think I’ll forget about you because you have to leave?”

  Kai grabbed her bags and helped her up to the dock. Vivien found her chivalry humorous once again but didn’t mind now that she was sure it was who Kai seemed to be. “You’re not going back? The need-to-know would drive me crazy.”

  “I’ll try to control myself, and even if I wanted to, I can’t. The office sent an email and asked that I head out early.”

  “That’s why you’re putting your search off,” she said, the bliss of the last few days deflating as if Kai had pricked it with a pen.

  “Have some faith in me.” Kai jumped on board and put her bag inside, coming back out with her hands jammed in her pockets. “Did you forget that I’m no one’s cheerleader? If you did, go ahead and add I’m no kiss-ass either.”

  “Thank God we’re on land,” she said, trying to return to more solid footing, which seemed to be harder on land than on Kai’s boat. “Might’ve been a long swim.”

  “Go to work, Miss Palmer, and when the time comes I’ll take you exploring and swimming, but I promise it’ll be fun.” Kai seemed to release her tension enough to smile before holding her hand out to her. “Be careful going back. That river is something else when it comes to currents.”

  “I have time to go out and give you a tour, unless you’d rather skip it. Triton is yours to take care of now, but do you mind if I call you? Not about the rig, I mean.” Jeez, how many times had she heard that line in her life and wanted to be completely honest with a resounding no? Maybe people like Steve wanted that yes as desperately as she did, as she smiled because Kai did.

  “When you get back to the office tomorrow, have Fr
anklin give you my number, along with everything you asked him for.” Kai spoke as if she had a cheat sheet of everything in her brain. It always sounded so clichéd in books when a character was described as having transparent thoughts, but it was spooky how well Kai not only read her, but how well she knew her.

  “You sound a little narcissistic.”

  “That’s like being a little pregnant. Narcissism is all-encompassing.” Kai laughed when she stuck her tongue out because of Kai’s sarcastic comment. “We’ll talk about it the next time we get together, and there will be a next time.”

  “Planning to kidnap me?” The shell at her neck vibrated and so, she swore, did her blood.

  “I can fly the Jolly Roger if you’d like me to. Think about it, and hopefully it won’t be too long before we see each other again.” Kai waved and didn’t surprise her by glancing back. She didn’t interpret it as noninterest but the space to make up her mind. The way Kai held her in the water showed how interested she was.

  “I can promise it won’t be long since you’re making me crazy. That’s a first.”

  *

  “Well, what’ve you been up to?” Isla asked as she joined Kai and Talia at Triton’s railing to watch Vivien speed north too late in the day for Kai’s comfort. Vivien had insisted on giving her the tour, and she’d readily agreed for the same reason Vivien probably wanted to do it. She wasn’t ready to see Vivien disappear into the horizon just yet.

  “Besides helping Miss Palmer pack and hanging on her every word, that is,” Talia said and laughed.

  “Actually I might’ve found another clue to the Valhalla, and we’re being paid by these people to listen to every word. Don’t accuse me of being a kiss-ass on my first day. That’s not my style,” Kai said in a tone that sounded defensive even to her. “Sorry, I can usually take a joke,” she said after she winced.

  “Problems?” Talia asked.

  “The experts at home picked up some weird blips that seem to be emanating from here, but we can’t find what they are. They didn’t come out and say it, but I think my moms are about to freak, and I don’t want to be called home before we finish.” Vivien’s boat was out of sight, so that clued her in to the silence around her. “What are you two not telling me? Come on. I know when you’re hiding something.”

  “We’ve had a rover down there checking out operations and spotted some strange equipment attached to this monster,” Isla said.

  “Was it monitoring the rover while you were monitoring whatever it was?”

  “We backed off precisely for that reason and haven’t sent our equipment down unless the guys here with the company that owns the unmanned submersible have their sub in the water as well,” Talia said as she handed over a small monitor with the footage of what they’d found. “The rover we brought looks like the one they use, so it wouldn’t raise an alarm in case someone spotted ours. We wanted to wait on you before we did anything.”

  Her mother Galen had explained this part of ruling from the time she was able to grasp what the lesson was. Most people, not all, handed off the difficult decisions at times because of many different reasons, so she’d have to develop broad shoulders to carry the weight. When it was her time on the throne, she wouldn’t have anyone else to hand over the responsibility to—the decisions would be hers.

  She’d never considered either Talia or Isla lazy or cowards, considering she’d known them all her life, but they’d waited before they did anything because they were afraid. None of them wanted to be discovered by what some in their realm thought to be ignorant creatures, and it was always safer to leave that possibility to someone else.

  “I can see by your expression you think we’re assholes for dumping this on you, but that’s not why we waited,” Talia said.

  She smiled, thinking she needed a better poker face and a better hold on her emotions if she didn’t want to be read like a popular library book. She also had to stop making assumptions before it became a habit. “Sorry, and in my defense, I never thought asshole.”

  “I didn’t want to call the queen while you were out of our sight and drop that on her.”

  Talia had a good point, but this might also be a case of panic without all the facts. “Are you sure this isn’t part of the rig’s overall makeup? From what I read about this project, they’re monitoring every aspect to assure the regulators that another disaster isn’t on the horizon.”

  “The ones we saw were tucked alongside the rig’s security,” Isla said and zoomed in the picture to show her what she meant.

  “Interesting,” she said softly as she studied the piece of equipment.

  “It looks like one of ours but not as advanced.” Talia said what she’d been thinking.

  “Keep watch up here. I need to call my mother Hadley.”

  “Do you want to share?” Talia asked.

  “I will, but I have a few questions first.” She slammed her hands down on the rail and headed to the room Vivien had given her. It’d been her parting gift before she left for the corner office she’d talked about while she’d taken her through this rig like a proud mom showing off her child.

  She locked the door and sat for a moment with her hands between her legs and took some deep breaths. It’d be irresponsible to start off being accusatory, but she was having a hard time believing her moms hadn’t found a way to keep eyes and ears on her. If that was true, it proved they thought she wasn’t ready for what her future held. That hurt more than it angered her, but she was a little upset.

  “Hey,” Hadley said when Kai finally put the call through. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine, but we found something.” She pulled the footage Talia and Isla had taken and cued it up. “Where do you think that might’ve come from?” she asked, a little anger seeping into her tone.

  “From your demeanor, why ask the question if you already have the answer.” Hadley crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to study the pictures she’d sent. “If you need me to say it, I don’t know.”

  “It’s one of ours,” she said, and forced herself to stop talking. Both her mothers had warned about the words spoken that couldn’t be erased or taken back.

  “No, it looks like ours,” Hadley said as she typed a few things into her system, then took the foreign equipment and cut it away from the loop and enhanced it. “But it’s not. When did you find this?”

  “I didn’t, my team did, but they waited because they didn’t want to upset you and Mama since I was with Vivien.” She studied the slowly rotating sensor and could see the differences from what they used in different situations for monitoring and communications. “I realize it’s not one from our stock, but there’s nothing remotely like this out there that belongs to us? Maybe one of the elders thought I needed looking after and didn’t bother to let you or Mama in on their plan.”

  “Kai, I trust you to take care of yourself. From the time you could stand, we had people we trusted train you to be the best warrior you could become. You’re the heir to your mother’s throne, so no one, especially me, is going to coddle you. Not allowing you to stand on your own would prevent you from becoming an effective queen.” Hadley peered right at her and smiled. “And if someone else did this, you have my permission to kick their ass.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom. When they showed me that thing I lost my head for a second and blamed you before I asked. I should’ve waited to call you.”

  “I can take it, pup,” Hadley said, using the other nickname she’d given her when she’d turned four and followed her into the training fields like an eager seal ready to learn some new tricks. “We can always be honest with each other, and nothing will break our bond.”

  “Maybe I need to go to bed early tonight and get some sleep so I’ll stop snapping at people.”

  “Let’s concentrate on what’s important right now,” Hadley said and tapped on the sensor in the corner of the screen. “This might be what gave off the blip we picked up earlier, but we need to proceed cautiously. Whoever put it there has t
echnology that’s almost as advanced as ours. The anomaly we discovered was probably activated when the rover got too close.”

  “Where do you think it came from?” She watched as their system broke down the pieces and tried to identify what they were. “Think the military came up with something and we don’t know about it?”

  “Anything’s possible, but my gut tells me this is something completely different.”

  Kai leaned back and thought for a minute, not wanting to act rashly again. “How about we give the unmanned sub guys all the credit?”

  “Have the Triton crew bring these things up, you mean?”

  “If this is some new technology that could possibly track even us, we need to take a look but put suspicion on someone else when it comes to actually finding and retrieving it.”

  “That’s a good plan, and we’ll keep researching on our end.” Hadley pressed the tips of her fingers together and looked directly at her. “Don’t take this the wrong way since I totally believe in your abilities, but be careful, pup. This isn’t normal, and you’re there with very little backup. Get mad at me if you want, but I’ve already sent a team that’ll set up in the facility you put out there. They’ll keep their distance, but until we figure this out, we want someone close just in case.”

  “I will, and I’m really sorry for misjudging this so badly. Tell Mama I’ll get back in touch as soon as we get our hands on this thing.”

  “Will do, and I’ll contact the team leader to warn you if they’re swimming anywhere near you. I love you, so take care.”

  “Love you too,” she said as she tapped over her heart with her fingers. “Give Mama a kiss for me.”

  Kai briefed Isla and Talia before putting on her hard hat and heading for the mess hall. She was in a good position to ask for what she needed since she was new, and most of these men probably thought she was clueless. Of course, crews like this thought everyone was clueless until you proved yourself. Once they started working in the morning, she planned to get one of the devices topside to take a look at it.