Far From The Sea We Know (36 page)

“Well, you just did mention him, didn’t
you?” He smiled at her.

“Listen, Dad, in spite of his supposed
spirit of openness, he’s still hiding something. He always is.”

“Getting to you, is he? That’s part of his
job, I suppose.”

“Why does it always have to be like
this?”

“Because no moment or thing is really like
any other, but we can’t bear that, so we generalize life into
categories for the sake of function. The price for that is we no
longer share the same world, and blood is spilled over which end of
the egg to break.” He sighed deeply. “You’ll have to pardon me,
dear. Captain Nemo speaking again. I suppose ‘render unto Caesar’
is the real principle here.”

“We are already giving Chiffrey what he
needs for his little world.”

“Ours is not so large either, I’m afraid.
For instance, we are documenting this entire escapade.
Everything”

“Well, of course.”

“But the point is, not just for sake of
science, but to give us cover for later. Legal, political,
financial cover. All the evils that are deemed to be necessary. You
somehow can never get even a little close to it without getting
some on you. It’s just the way it is.”

“Dad, I’ve been out in the big wide world
for years.”

“I know, yes, how I do know.” He laughed.
“Which reminds me. Matthew! Good catch. Shouldn’t say that, as now
you’ll feel compelled to throw him back.”

“That fish won’t fly.”

“Yes, I’ll leave it, but speaking of
feelings, have you any idea what caused all this strange behavior
here?”

“Didn’t really affect me, but for many of
the others, it’s as if some of the filtering that normally goes on
to make the world a coherent place has somehow been altered.”

“The shock of the whole thing, you
think?”

“It really has been almost like a mystical
experience for some people. Especially for the first day or two,
many were like children.”

“Childlike or childish?”

“Both, and at times, hard to take. I have to
admit, people did seem more alive. Even Ripler, in his own warped
way. I could almost feel sorry for him. He suffered terribly, but I
have a stone for a heart.”

Her father laughed again. “So you say, and
so we both know, a lie.”

“As to exactly the cause of what happened to
so many people,” she continued, pointedly ignoring his comment, “I
have a guess. Mysty.”

“Sounds like a cheap perfume.”

“Mary Sims got to choose the name of the
lead whale because she was the first to record it.”

“Given that she may have sabotaged the ROVs,
perhaps we could justify changing the name.” Her father sighed. “We
don’t know that yet, however, so benefit of the doubt for Mary. She
always had a tendency toward sentimentality, which was probably
what made her vulnerable to the likes of Ripler.”

He glanced past her shoulder and said, “Oh,
good timing. Here is your fellow. Matthew, well met indeed!”

She could feel the warmth of Matthew’s body
even though he didn’t touch her. And he wouldn’t because her father
was there.

“Good evening Doctor Bell,” Matthew
said.

“Martin, will do.”

“I can’t say that, somehow…”

“No, you can’t, but I expect you will
someday.” He smiled for a brief moment, and then continued. “Any
idea what has caused the behavioral changes in people? Including
yourself?”

Matthew squirmed a bit. Good, thought
Penny.

“Well, if you mean how, then no, I really
don’t know. I do believe it’s real.”

“Even though it seems to be wearing off?”
her father said. “Like a drug?”

“A moment of discovery can be a moment of
joy. The joy may not last, but that does not invalidate the
discovery.”

“Well put. For some things, no matter our
efforts, we can only take the ferry once.”

“Dad, will you stop being so bloody
cryptic!”

“Pen, work a little. Sometimes you have to
just shut your eyes and roll with it, feel it in your bones.”

Gray to gray, a silence vast and perfect
extends in all directions. I am the silence…

Everything stops.

Infinite gray…

“Pen?” Her father’s voice. “Penelope, dear?
Come back, child!”

Matthew put a hand on her forehead, and her
vision slowly faded back to now. Under her shoulders, the deck felt
hard and solid, and she could have stayed there indefinitely. “I’m
okay,” she finally said.

“Are you sure?” Matthew asked.

“Help me up.”

She lifted her arms, one to each of them,
and they brought her slowly to her feet. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” She
steadied herself with the railing.

“Are you really all right?” her father
asked.

“I’m fine. Do you remember Normy?” she asked
Matthew. “We were waiting for the ride out to the
Valentina
.
Normy, the guy from the bar at Abercrombie?”

“What about him?”

“He spoke to you, used the words ‘rolling
the bones,’ I think, and you almost collapsed. You were sweating
and trembling like a newborn lamb.”

Matthew closed his eyes and put one hand on
his forehead as if he were checking for fever. “If you say so. I
remember walking into the bar to find you. We had…a discussion, a
tense one, yeah.” He looked at her father with a wan smile. “Then
we left and didn’t talk for a while.”

“You’ve forgotten,” she said. “Weird. How
long was I down, by the way?”

“Two or three minutes,” her father said.
“Are you eating enough, dear?”

“Dad…”

“Well, you fainted! Perhaps a little more
sleep?”

Matthew blushed, and Penny could not help
enjoying his discomfort. “There’ll be plenty of time to sleep, one
day,” she answered.

“We need everyone in top form, dearest,” her
father said. “Including you. Promise you’ll take care of
yourself.”

“I promise I’ll consider it.”

“Then that will have to do, as I must get on
to some other matters. But first: Matthew, do you want to be on the
minisub crew? On the
Bluedrop
?”

“Dad?” Penny said.

“Would you let me?” Matthew answered.

“I’d insist on it, if you want to be part of
the team. What do you say?”

“Whoa!” Penny said. “Wait a minute.”

“I’m definitely onboard,” Matthew said.
“Thank you.”

“Matthew, what is this?” she said. “You’ve
barely come out of our cabin lately.”

“Pen is right to be concerned,” her father
said. “This is not without risk.”

“I know. But you’re going.”

“No, he’s not.” She looked at her
father.

“I assumed you knew,” he said.

“What I assumed was that you’d be sending a
crew down. Not going yourself!”

“I’m still allowed to make my own decisions,
I hope. Especially aboard this ship.” He observed Matthew closely
and said, “I’ve had the life I wanted because I knew when to take
risks and when it was best to let one get away. And I only took
risks when the prize was worth it.”

“Prize?” Penny yelled. “Do you think this is
Raiders of the Lost Ark
or something? No one should be going
down, but surely there are other people onboard who are better
qualified.”

“Not so many anymore. Becka is good, yes,
though Dirk would usually have been my first pick. And, to be fair,
Jack and Mary were both good, but now we’ll go with Emory and
Malcolm. We’ve already decided the
Bluedrop
is going down,
so why bring it up again?”

“
You
decided, you mean.”

“That’s my prerogative. As to the
Bluedrop
crew, no one’s life is any less significant than
mine, so why shouldn’t I go? I have the most experience. I am still
fit. I want Matthew along for my own reasons. And if we don’t go
down, what would you have us do?”

“We should leave it alone until we know
more, and you know it.”

“But you found the circle,” Matthew said, “I
thought…”

“Dearest,” her father said to Penny, “if we
do nothing, those who sent Lieutenant Chiffrey won’t waste any time
stealing our wind. It’s not a real option, dear, it just isn’t. We
do, however, have a chance to mitigate what might turn into a
disaster without us. What’s more, fate has given us the opportunity
to discover something beyond all comprehension. A call unanswered
becomes a lifetime of regret.”

“Your stock rally-the-troops phrase. Heard
it.”

“We cannot pass this by.”

“Fine, then, go if you are so driven. The
hell with you both.” She turned and walked away quickly so they
wouldn’t see her tears.

Penny awoke at dawn. Matthew had slept
elsewhere. Just as well, she thought. By the sound of the engines,
she could tell they were idling. She got up and looked out the
porthole. Gulls and cormorants bobbed up and down amongst the
waves, even a few grebes, and more birds than yesterday. One flew
by with a small fish in its beak. A few of the others were diving
down and mostly coming up with breakfast. She dressed quickly and
went topside to get a better look.

Becka came up along side of her. She had
never spent much time alone with Becka, and this seemed as good a
time as any to get better acquainted. “They seem to be enjoying
their meal. Herring?”

“Looks like,” Becka said.

“Odd to see so many out here, isn’t it?”

“Some of these species shouldn’t be here at
all.”

“Shouldn’t? That’s not a word I’ve heard
from you lately. Heard anything about Ripler?”

“He’s still at the Navy hospital. I called.
Mary told me he was getting up, going for walks with her. On the
grounds. She can talk to him, but people watch them. Doing better
every day. Her being there seems to be making a big difference, so
I guess she made the right decision, at least as far as Jack’s
welfare is concerned. I also feel she wanted a reason to get off
the ship. No, I’m not going to go into it.” She didn’t say anything
for a while. “I can’t believe she took the ROV parts. Well, don’t
want to believe. Anything new on that?”

“No,” Penny responded, “but I’ll let you
know if there is.”

“Look, I’m sorry I doubted you and Matthew
before. When you first arrived with that story, it seemed
justified.”

“I don’t remember you specifically doubting
me, more than anyone else, at least.”

“I did. I thought you were both dangerous,
to tell you the truth. You have to understand, the work I was going
to do on this trip was to be the basis of my thesis, and then you
two show up and all of a sudden we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

“The whole thing must have sounded mad.”

“And for Jack, in the end it was, I
suppose.”

“I didn’t like Jack.”

“Neither did I, completely.”

“Really? You seemed to spend plenty of time
together.”

“He helped me a lot at the Point. Never
asked for anything back. He was brilliant at times, inspiring, but
there was always this slight edge of mania floating around behind
his charm. I tried to look past it, figured it might even be a
necessary part of his makeup. I’ll always wonder if it might have
been different.”

“Matthew’s not to blame for Jack.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Becka said. “I already
said I was sorry. Listen, can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“What’s your take on Lieutenant
Chiffrey?”

“Manipulator.”

“I understand why you say that, but maybe we
shouldn’t be so hard on him. This thing must be blowing away his
superiors and that puts him in between them and us. I feel he’s
been fair and is not really such a bad guy.”

“He’s not just some Air Force lieutenant.
He’s working higher up for some other agency. You must know that. I
don’t trust people with hidden agendas.”

“That would seem to eliminate just about
everyone wouldn’t it? Funny, though, that you and he are the two
people on board most suspicious of the dome. You’ve got that in
common with him, and maybe a little more.”

“Like what?”

“You both claim not to have been touched in
any way during the incident with the whales.”

“We’re not anything alike.”

“Okay, you’re not. Fine.” She looked at her
diver’s watch and said, “I have to be somewhere.”

“You
are
somewhere.”

“What?”

“You’re
here
,” Penny answered, “but
if a date with your new boyfriend is your only idea of ‘somewhere,’
then say hello to Chiffrey for me.”

Becka shook her head in a spasm of anger,
her brown eyes blazing up to fire. “You shouldn’t abuse your
privilege. No, not ‘a date,’ but if I did have one, I wouldn’t have
my own private cabin to bring him to later, would I?”

Becka whirled around and stomped off before
Penny could answer.

Damn!

Not much she could say to that, anyway.

She had immediately offered the cabin—her
father’s cabin—back to him upon his arrival, but he had insisted on
bunking in a hastily cleared-out storeroom that was little bigger
than a closet. It was true, she didn’t deserve the cabin, but she
smiled to herself. It made her feel better, to know Becka still had
her kick and hadn’t, like some of the others, become totally
enthralled by their newfound bliss.

Bliss. The cabin, modest by any other
standards, was nonetheless an exquisite luxury on a ship like this,
and she was glad they hadn’t given it up. The hours she and Matthew
shared there were a joy, effortless, life as it seemed meant to be.
All the cares of the world left behind. And now the idiot felt
compelled to prove his valor locked away in a tin can.

The Navy had been true to its word and still
kept away. The
Valentina
could still see the dome on sonar,
and Chiffrey had been sending out encrypted copies of their scans
over his sat-phone. Although she didn’t like the secrecy, her
father was right: they were better off undistracted by more news
crews. She hadn’t seen any military aircraft, but that didn’t mean
there weren’t any. It was a sure bet they were poring over
satellite photos and other forms of data, as well as the new sonar
scans.