Deep Water

by Whitcroft, Isla;

  ‘Hey,’ Mitsu called out. ‘You guys, meet Cate Carlisle. ‘She’s come to visit Michel and Noah and to help out at the sanctuary. Cate, this is Dan and Tuyen. They say they’re doing a PhD in turtle breeding patterns. We think it’s just an excuse for them to spend a year out of uni playing computer games.’

  ‘Huh, very funny, Mitsu.’ Dan, like Tuyen, looked Vietnamese, but his accent was pure Australian. ‘That’s because you’re a princess who thinks the internet was invented purely for online shopping.’

  Mitsu grinned good-naturedly. ‘It wasn’t?’ she said. ‘When the nearest mall is about four hundred kilometres away, well, what’s a girl to do?’

  Cate laughed. ‘What about delivery?’ she asked.

  ‘Pick it up at the Post Office at Parsons Rock. The local town. It’s only half an hour away by jeep,’ said Mitsu. ‘Well worth it.’

  ‘You girls,’ said Tuyen. He hardly lifted his eyes from the laptop, which seemed to be processing huge amounts of data at a very high speed.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Cate, looking down at the laptop with interest.

  ‘An algorithm showing the probability of likely turtle breeding routes in and out of the Australasia maritime corridor,’ said Tuyen without pausing.

  ‘This part of Australia is one of the best places to see turtles lay their eggs and to watch them hatching,’ explained Dan. ‘They’ve been coming here for hundreds of years, probably along the same routes and using the same tidal currents. That’s what we try to work out. If we can find their routes we can get them incorporated onto maritime charts, send out warnings to shipping. Some won’t listen, but some will.’

  The laptop suddenly beeped loudly, some figures flashed up and the two boys turned as one towards the screen, Cate and Mitsu forgotten in an instant. Cate grinned ruefully. Boys and their computers. Arthur would love these guys.

  The thought of her little brother bent over his laptop working through amazingly complicated programs or playing online games made her feel momentarily sad.

  She turned to Mitsu. ‘Thanks for the fab tour. I think I’ll find Michel and see what he has done with my rucksack.’

  Mitsu smiled. ‘Any time, Cate. Make yourself comfortable in the tepee – it’s the bright green one – and don’t forget to keep the mossie nets in place at all times. Otherwise we’ll be covered in bites by the morning. They’re vicious little so and sos. Oh, and never forget to check in your bed before you turn in. That’s the best advice I’ll ever give you!’

  Cate headed for the tepee, looking out for Michel as she went. She couldn’t see him, but her rucksack was now placed neatly on the camp bed and there were welcoming presents of the latest book by her favourite author and a small but beautiful bunch of freshly picked flowers. Seeing them, she smiled inwardly and, unable to resist, she wrote a quick text to Louisa to tell her just how wonderful Michel still was, before finding there was no signal. She thought about Skyping Arthur with the dongle he’d given her, until she realised that it was about one in the morning. She badly wanted to tell him about meeting up with the IMIA and she already had a job or two for him to do. Still, it would have to wait for a few hours.

  Realising she was ravenous, Cate followed her nose to the kitchen, the timber-framed building she had seen when she first arrived with Michel. She walked up the steps, looking at the stilts it was raised up on – protection, Cate guessed, against tidal flooding, or possibly even wild animals.

  Inside, two girls were singing along noisily, and not very tunefully, to pop music. Their identical faces, with big brown eyes, dark curly hair and freckled skin, turned towards her.

  ‘Hi,’ they said together, in an unmistakable Californian accent.

  ‘You must be Cate Carlisle,’ said one.

  Cate nodded.

  ‘I’m Amber and she’s Jade,’ said the other twin, who was holding a vegetable peeler. ‘We’re from LA. Don’t bother trying to tell us apart. You won’t be able to.’

  ‘You must be starving,’ said Jade. ‘There’s some veggie soup left over from lunch if you fancy.’

  Cate gratefully tucked into the tasty soup. As she did, a very tall girl, her dark hair tied back in a single plait, strode into the kitchen. Slightly older than the twins, she was carrying a bunch of twisted roots which she was holding carefully away from her body.

  ‘Hi,’ she said in a friendly fashion as she walked past. ‘Sorry I can’t shake hands but I might be poisonous. Well, not me,’ she laughed, ‘these plants. I’m Maria by the way. As you might have guessed I’m a botanist – my thing is looking for medical properties in native Australian plants.’

  Cate smiled to herself. After the squalor of the house in Parramatta she had been expecting the turtle sanctuary to be manned by a bunch of extreme eco hippies who only washed once a month. Instead, there were showers, a proper kitchen, and friendly, caring people. It was more like being on an international university campus.

  ‘Hey, guys.’ Mitsu’s head popped around the kitchen door. ‘Softball on the beach at four. Boys v girls. Losers on bathroom duties. No excuses. No ducking out. Be there.’

  ‘Go, go!’ Jacob was cheering as Michel made his third home run, receiving huge high fives from his teammates.

  ‘Come on, girls.’ Maria was their captain and she was clearly in her element. Long-legged and strong, she was a natural athlete and every time she made a hit she easily made a home run, despite Dan’s blatant attempts at sabotage. ‘Rubbish, Dan,’ Maria jeered in her Italian accent as he attempted to rugby tackle her yet again. ‘You’ll have to do better than that.’

  Their other secret weapon was Amber who could bowl like a demon. She had already managed to get Michael and Tuyen out twice, simply by pitching the ball so fast they complained they couldn’t see it.

  ‘Honestly, Amber,’ moaned Tuyen as he struck out for the second time. ‘The thing whizzes past me like a bullet.’

  ‘She played little league,’ Jade explained to the others proudly. ‘And every single year, she received the most valuable player award. Luckily, I hated softball or I might have been horribly jealous. Way to go, Ambs!’ she yelled suddenly as Tuyen was bowled out. That was it. The girls had won! ‘If there’s one thing boys hate more than losing,’ she said to them with a grin, ‘it’s losing to the girls!’

  Cate, who had managed a couple of home runs, looked around her happily. They were such a friendly bunch, she thought, welcoming her as one of the gang. Most were in their late teens or early twenties and had already done so much with their lives. That’s how I want to be, thought Cate suddenly. I want to get out there and make the most of what life has to offer. Do something worthwhile.

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s easy to beat us when Noah isn’t playing,’ said Michel.

  ‘Where is he?’ asked Cate. ‘I thought we were all meant to be out here, fighting for the honour of our sex.’

  ‘On patrol with Josie,’ said Mitsu. ‘We all take it in turns to go into the bay and out to sea to check for things that can harm the turtles – plastic bags, old nets, that sort of thing.

  ‘Last week a couple of turtles were washed up dead with really nasty injuries. Shark bites, Jacob said.’

  ‘Wow,’ said Cate. ‘Isn’t that serious?’

  ‘Not really,’ said Michel, dropping down in the sand beside Cate and Maria. ‘There are sharks up and down this entire coastline. If an unwary seal or turtle crosses their path they’ll go for it. It’s food to them. But it really upset Josie. She was never that keen on going into the water anyway and this has made things a whole lot worse.’

  Beside them, Cate saw, to her dismay, that there were tears in Maria’s huge brown eyes.

  ‘Are you OK?’ she asked quietly.

  Maria nodded. ‘It’s just that the last time we saw Rafe he had talked about going for a swim. I’m so worried that something awful happened to him.’

  ‘Maria.’ Michael spoke kindly. ‘His belongings were gone from his tent. You know what the police said. Sometimes people d
o just go, on a whim, for no reason at all.’

  Maria turned to Michel pleadingly. ‘I just can’t work it out, Michel. He had been really happy – we’d been really happy, and then that morning he had been for a walk and when he came back . . . well . . . he was different . . . distracted. I couldn’t get him to tell me what was wrong. Said he had a lot of thinking to do.’ She stopped again and chewed on her fingers.

  ‘Perhaps he’d come to a decision, and that’s why he was distracted. Maria, you have to stop going over this.’ Michel put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a friendly hug. ‘He’ll be back in touch – I know he will. When he’s ready.’

  Maria gave him a watery smile. ‘I hope you’re right, Michel. I really do. And when he does I’ll give him such a telling off! Anyway, Cate, how’re you enjoying Snapper Bay so far?’

  ‘It’s brilliant,’ she said. ‘It’s just a different planet from where I was a few days ago. I am so glad you asked me, Michel. And thanks for the flowers, by the way.’

  ‘Flowers? So sweet!’ said Mitsu. ‘How did you guys meet, anyway? You’re from London, aren’t you, Cate?’

  They looked at each other.

  ‘It’s a long story,’ said Michel, ‘but to cut it very, very short we got together when Cate was working on a boat down in Antibes last summer. That’s my hometown in France. She stood me up a few times I might add, but I kept trying and, well, here we are.’

  ‘Sweet,’ cooed Mitsu. ‘Really sweet.’

  Half an hour or so later, Cate was helping Amber and Jade prepare supper in the kitchen.

  ‘Could you just take these peelings out?’ asked Amber, passing Cate a bowl full of vegetable waste. There’s a wormery just outside the door. Stick it in there, would you?’

  ‘No problem, said Cate, taking it from her. ‘Back in a second.’

  Cate was just lifting up the black lid to dump the waste onto the writhing mass of plump red worms, when the screaming began. A female voice, a sound of almost primeval terror. ‘Sharks, sharks!’

  CHAPTER 8

  Almost before she knew it, Cate was sprinting down through the trees to the beach. Ahead of her she could see Mitsu, her body taut with fear, staring out to sea.

  A hundred metres or so away, in the calm waters just beyond the breakers, a small two-man kayak was being tossed and bounced around as if it were on a trampoline. Cate recognised Noah immediately, his long dark dreadlocks flying out behind him as he frantically worked his paddle. In the front seat a large blond-haired girl was hanging on frantically to both sides, her body rigid, as the kayak bucked and swayed beneath her.

  Circling around the kayak, like wolves around their prey, Cate counted two, then three, then five dark grey fins, pointed up out of the water like huge rotten teeth. As she watched, one of the shark fins suddenly disappeared into the water only to resurface a few seconds later, right beside the kayak. Cate winced as the power from the shark’s blow sent the small craft juddering and rocking violently once again.

  From where Cate was standing it seemed highly unlikely that they would be able to force the kayak through the ring of sharks and, worse still, keep it from turning over. Noah was strong and fit, but even he would have trouble keeping the kayak upright if he got another large blow from a shark. Cate looked around her, desperate for any help. Where was Michel? Jacob? The long curved beach was empty.

  Cate grabbed her by the arm. ‘Mitsu! Mitsu, listen to me. Is there another boat on the beach?’

  Mitsu stared at her blankly.

  ‘A boat, Mitsu, a dinghy.’

  This time the message got through and Mitsu pointed to the top of the beach, where the sand combined with the dry peat soil of the forest. Cate could see a small two-person dinghy tied to a tree, oars lying beside and, she saw with relief, a small outboard motor fixed to its stern. She grabbed a still-stunned Mitsu and began to run towards the boat. As she did so, the twins finally appeared from the camp, shocked expressions on their faces,

  ‘What’s happening?’ shouted Amber.

  ‘Shark attack,’ said Mitsu, her voice shaking with fear. ‘There are sharks out there in the bay, attacking Noah and Josie’s kayak.’

  ‘What should we do?’ said Jade helplessly. ‘What can we do?’

  ‘Help me with the dinghy.’ Cate was at the small boat now, her fingers fumbling with the ropes. ‘We need to get it into the water now. And someone go back and get a weapon, a spade, a stick, anything. Go!’

  Without answering, Amber sprinted back towards the camp while Jade grabbed one side of the dinghy and Cate the other. It was surprisingly heavy, the outboard engine weighing it down at the rear and even Cate, who thought nothing of pushing thirty-kilo weights in her local gym, was struggling to lift it. She shouted to Mitsu who was standing a few metres away, staring, seemingly frozen with shock. ‘Come on, help us, Mitsu! Take this side and I’ll take the engine.’

  The Japanese girl started, then nodded and moved forward.

  Somehow, desperately straining every muscle, the three girls managed to lift the boat off the hot sand. It was just by a few centimetres but it was enough, and suddenly they were headed at a brisk trot down towards the water.

  Mitsu dropped her side of the dinghy as the first of the waves lapped their feet.

  ‘I can’t go out there. I just can’t. I’m sorry.’

  Cate looked at her partly in exasperation, partly in pity. ‘Mitsu, I can’t do this by myself. At least help me get afloat.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Jade said bravely. ‘I’ll come with you, Cate.’ Before Cate could answer the American girl was knee-deep in the water, holding the dinghy steady for Cate to clamber aboard.

  ‘Sharks! More sharks!’ cried Mitsu.

  Cate could see that more fins had indeed appeared, moving back and forth parallel with the shoreline.

  ‘Jeez,’ said Cate to Jade, as she pulled herself quickly up and into the dinghy. ‘What’s going on here? It’s like an invasion.’

  There was silence as they looked at each other, then out towards the kayak again, besieged now by ten or more fins.

  ‘This is madness,’ said Jade, her face white with fear. ‘If we go out there we’ll end up dead too. We have to leave them.’

  Just then there was a despairing shout from the kayak. ‘Please.’ Noah’s voice was almost unrecognisable. ‘I can’t hang on for much longer.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Jade, after a long pause, her face a picture of guilt and misery. ‘I’m just too scared. Those sharks aren’t acting like normal.’ She slowly waded to shore as the small engine spluttered and then revved into life.

  Cate’s heart sank. There was no way she could see off the sharks and rescue the kayak at the same time, but equally she couldn’t just leave Noah and Josie to such a terrible fate.

  For a few seconds she could see her father’s face, hear him warning her not to jump in too fast, to weigh up the dangers and the likelihood of rescue. ‘You can’t save the world on your own, Cate,’ he had said to her on more than one occasion. ‘No one can.’

  Suddenly a narrow spade and a sharpened fence post were thrown noisily into the bottom of the boat, which then dipped and swayed alarmingly as Michel pulled himself over the gunwale. He landed heavily in the seat in front of her.

  ‘OK, Cate,’ he said, sitting upright and nodding at her in encouragement. ‘Let’s go.’

  Relief swept through her body. ‘Michel,’ she said smiling at him. ‘What took you so long?’

  Cate released the engine break, turned up the power and the small dinghy bounced forward through the water. They clutched onto the sides as it swayed and rocked over the first of the breakers.

  Cate knew that most of the terrifying stories about sharks were an exaggeration, and that less than ten people were actually attacked by sharks every year worldwide. ‘Sharks get a very bad press,’ Tom, a deep-sea fisherman friend of her dad’s had said when he took Cate and Arthur fishing off Cape Town one unforgettable weekend two years before. ‘Jaws has a lot t
o answer for. It demonised a beautiful creature and gave us all this idea that they are some kind of psychopathic killers. The vast majority of attacks are a case of mistaken identity. Sharks have poor eyesight and underwater a diver in a black wet suit can look awfully like a seal. The shark takes a bite, realises his mistake and usually spits them back out again. The trouble is, that one shark bite can do an awful lot of damage.’

  As she manoevred the rudder, Cate shook her head. This attack, this army of sharks that she was witnessing right now, it just didn’t make sense. Tom said that sharks weren’t even pack animals, they were solitary hunters. She remembered his final words of advice: ‘If you do happen to come across sharks that seem aggressive and if you can’t get away from them easily, then make sure they know you’re human. Shout, scream, splash and with any luck you’ll scare them off. If the worst comes to the worst, hit them hard with anything you’ve got to hand. Even a slap around the face with a diving flipper can sometimes be enough to scare them away.’

  Cate bit her lip and looked at Michel, who was staring straight ahead, grim-faced. She really hoped they wouldn’t have to get that close, but between them and the kayak was a wall of shark fins. As the small boat moved closer, Cate could see with a shudder the first of the huge grey bodies, nosing purposefully through the sea like mini submarines on patrol. Behind it was another shark, its great wide mouth gaping open to reveal rows of large razor-sharp teeth.

  ‘Don’t give up,’ Michel yelled frantically to the kayak, scanning for a gap in the line of sharks for Cate to steer the boat through. ‘We’re with you.’

  ‘Hold on,’ Cate shouted as she spotted an opportunity, and turned the speed setting to full. The little engine roared and lurched the boat even faster through the waves and suddenly they were through the line of sharks. Cate swung the boat around to the kayak, but the sharks were swarming closer and they could not get alongside it. Michel picked up the spade and handed Cate the fence post. It was light but felt surprisingly solid with a sharp point at one end.