Kaya Stormchild (5 page)

Just as she
was untying the canoe, she heard a shout.

“
Look, Tike,
it’s Josh.”

Josh came
running down the dock. “What are you doing here? I thought you
weren’t coming back over this weekend.”

“
Josh,” said
Kaya quickly, “I have so much to tell you. There was a creepy guy
in the Duchess’s store this morning, and he and his partner are up
to something really bad. He was wearing an
eagle’s talon
around his neck! We’ve
got to follow them and see which way they are headed. Hop in. I’ll
tell you everything, but hurry!”

Kaya handed
him the spare paddle she always kept in the bow of the canoe.
Josh’s eyes lit up with excitement as he settled in the front of
the canoe. “I was hoping something interesting would happen
today!”

They kept the
boat in view as it left Campbell Harbour. It headed southwards,
towards Heron Island. Heron was part of a chain of small
uninhabited islands which lay off the south east coast of
Henby.

“
The Duchess
said that coat was found on Heron, remember?” said Kaya, panting
with the effort of paddling. “I’ll bet that’s where they’re
headed.”

The Boy Scouts
of Canada operated a summer camp on Heron Island. On the western
end of the island a few cabins, all painted green with white trim,
lined a narrow bay. The entire southern end of Heron was densely
forested. In the summer, the sounds of boys’ voices rang out over
the water, but from September to June, the island lay empty and
silent.

“
I’ll bet
they’re staying there, in the camp. They probably broke into one of
the cabins,” said Kaya.

Sure enough,
they could see the white glint of the boat far in the distance. It
disappeared from view around the northwestern tip of the
island.

They leaned
hard on their paddles. Tike cheered them on from his perch in the
bottom of the canoe. After nearly forty minutes, the canoe had
rounded the tip of Heron Island and had come in sight of the little
bay with its cluster of camp buildings just beyond the beach. Kaya
and Josh slumped in their seats, panting hard, sweat beading their
foreheads.

“
Better be
really quiet,” said Josh, when he had caught his breath. “Let’s tie
up here, otherwise they’ll see us. We can sneak up on them through
the trees.”

They nosed the
canoe in amongst some large rocks at the head of the inlet and tied
it to a thick overhanging alder branch. Then, with Tike at their
heels, they began carefully to penetrate the forest, picking their
way through the undergrowth.

Once they were
deep into the trees, the broom and salal that grew thick along the
shore disappeared. They found they could walk fairly easily on the
spongy floor, which was littered with decomposing cedar and fir
needles, climbing over or under fallen trees as they went. At
times, Kaya had to stoop and lift Tike over a particularly high
log, but generally the little otter was able to travel more quickly
than his companions.

After a few
minutes, they stumbled upon one of the narrow hiking trails that
led out into the forest from the camp. With fingers pressed to
their lips, they nodded to one another, and stepped as silently as
possible out onto the trail.

It wasn’t long
before they heard two voices echoing through the trees up ahead.
Men’s voices. One was low and growling, rising every now and then
into an angry, whining bark. The other voice was high-pitched and
strangely monotonous. They were arguing so loudly the children were
able to creep close without being heard.

The two men
stood in the cleared space at the end of the bay. In a semi-circle
behind them the eight small green and white cabins that formed the
boy scout camp. The nearest had a litter of garbage strewn across
its little front porch, and its door stood ajar, hanging crookedly
on its hinges as if it had been forced open. At the centre of the
semi-circle was a fire pit, with logs placed on either side for
campfire sing-alongs.

The smaller of
the two men turned and squatted by the fire pit, blowing on a
smoldering pile of twigs. One of his pant legs was rolled up at the
bottom, revealing a dirty bandage tied around his ankle. He poked
at the fire for a minute, but at a word from his companion he leapt
to his feet again, ready to continue the dispute. Kaya recognized
the lean, scowling man from the Thrift Store.

While the men
in the clearing snarled at each other, the three spies slowly
inched closer. Josh spotted a giant arbutus tree growing nearby and
noiselessly hoisted himself up its trunk and out on a long,
twisting branch. Kaya crouched low and crept to the back of the
nearest cabin. One small dusty window faced away from the water,
towards the trees. Kaya paused and peered inside.

A gasp of
horror almost escaped her lips. She pressed her hand to her mouth,
staring. The tiny room was filled with parts of animals. On the
long cracked table opposite the window were spread out the
feathers, talons, and sawed-off beaks of eagles. The bodies of
several entire birds lay arranged on the lower of the two bunk
beds. Kaya felt a wave of nausea clutch at her stomach. On the
floor nearer the window she glimpsed more horrors: large white Orca
teeth lay in a jumbled pile next to a basket filled with giant
white bones and a cardboard box containing two silvery fins. Two
well-polished rifles were propped against the far wall.

“
Dolphin
fins!” whispered Kaya.

Her eyes
brimmed with tears. How could anyone do such things to her beloved
friends? It was so horrible, so beyond anything she had every seen
or imagined that her knees grew weak and she sank to a crouch
outside the cabin.

For a moment
her sight darkened and she thought she might faint. But the sound
of distant shouting revived her. She took a deep breath and slowly
began to crawl towards the corner of the cabin. She peered
cautiously around the edge until she had a full view of the
clearing. To the right of her hiding place, she could see Josh high
in the arbutus tree, perched precariously on a slender branch. In
the centre of the clearing, just fifty meters away, the two men
circled each other angrily.

The larger of
the two was unusually pale, with puffy white cheeks and small,
watery eyes. His huge belly protruded from his dirty T-shirt, and
his hands were chapped and swollen. He was half a head taller than
his companion. He stood with his lip slightly curled, surveying the
smaller man with disdain.

“
Spencer
you’re a complete fool! You can’t keep track of your own head, let
alone anything important.” The fat man’s voice seemed not to belong
to his large, swollen body. It was high-pitched, yet flat and
toneless, as if drained of feeling.

“
Let’s try
to
think
, shall
we?” he said, sighing dramatically. “Think. Think. Are you sure you
put it in the pocket of that coat?”

“
Of course
I’m sure, Rex! I told you already!!”

“
Calm down.
We’re
thinking
,
remember? I know it’s a rare activity for you to engage in, but if
you try real hard you just might manage it. Now then, when did you
last have the coat on?”

The man named
Spencer groaned and nervously twisted the eagle talon hanging
around his neck.

“
I can’t
remember! It was a warm day, you know? We stopped at that island to
pick up the money we hid, remember? The little one? Yeah, and then
we went to Campbell Harbour. And then we came back here. I don’t
know! It was too damned warm. I shouldn’t have brought the stupid
coat in the first place. All I know is the coat was in that store,
and the pockets were empty!”

There was a
silence. Spencer scowled at his feet. Rex stood with arms folded
across his belly, glaring.

“
If you’ve
lost it, Spence, you’ll have to pay for it,” Rex burst out in a
high-pitched whine. “That professor told me it could be priceless.
I had him all lined up to come and see it. Rare, he said.
Rare
, Spencer. Do you
know what that means? It was maybe the last of its kind. I could
have been famous for discovering it! And now -!” Rex stamped his
foot in frustration.

“
It’s just a
stupid old shell,” spat the thin man petulantly. “Why don’t we
stick to what we know how to do, huh? Stick to what we know there’s
a market for. Those overseas guys, they never said nothin’ about
shells. They want the eagle stuff, and the whales and that. They
never said shells.”

He took a step
towards Rex and said, in a more serious, almost pleading tone,
“Listen, we just got a couple more days before we’re supposed to
get this shipment in.” He jerked his thumb towards the stocked
cabin. “Let’s bag us a few more birds, eh? Remember that nest over
on Glinnis Island? We can get us some babies. The babies are even
more valuable, remember? They love the babies…”

He paused,
frowning hopefully at his companion. Rex stared at him,
unmoving.

“
Well,
I’m
going huntin’,”
grumbled Spencer. “Tomorrow. You can come or not, but you’re an
idiot if you don’t.”

Rex turned
slowly and walked a few paces off, as if to give himself time to
control his temper. He stopped, pulled a large fish hook from his
pocket and picked his teeth with it.

After a minute
he swung around and spoke without looking at his
companion.

“
When that
shell showed up in our net I knew it was special. It came from down
so deep. I didn’t even care that the dolphins escaped from our
trap. This was better than dolphins.” Rex paused, staring gloomily
at the sea for a long moment.

“
But you, you
worm,” he turned and hissed at Spencer. “You don’t know quality
when you see it. You don’t know money when you see it. That object
could be worth more than all this crap combined.” The fat man waved
his hand toward the cabin where Kaya crouched, hiding. She ducked
instinctively, then cautiously peered back around the
wall.

Rex stepped up
to Spencer and took hold of the eagle talon at his throat,
clutching it in his swollen, white fist. Spencer’s eyes widened and
he grabbed Rex’s hand in his own as if to wrench the talon free.
The two froze, gazing at one another, Rex with his upper lip
curled, Spencer glowering defiantly.

“
If you don’t
find that shell, things will go very, very badly for you,” said Rex
in a deadly monotone.

Spencer’s face
grew bright red. His breath came in angry puffs.

“
Oh, yeah?
Are you threatening me or somethin’? Think I’m scared of you or
somethin’?”

Rex didn’t
answer. He let go of the talon and grabbed Spencer’s chin with one
huge, fat hand, squeezing the thin man’s cheeks together. Rex
slowly tightened his grip on Spencer’s face. The two men glared at
one another.

Just then,
several things happened at once.

Spencer began
to snort like a cornered bull. He shook his face free of Rex’s grip
and slugged the larger man squarely in the jaw, which sent Rex
reeling.

At the same
moment, the branch that Josh had edged out onto cracked. Tike let
out a piercing squeal of surprise from his hiding place next to
Kaya as Josh fell with a mighty crash into the bushes next to the
clearing.

“
What the -!”
Both men leapt around, looking first towards the cabin where the
squeal had come from and then towards Josh. Spencer lunged into the
brush and dragged the boy to his feet, holding both arms behind his
back. At the same time, Tike emerged from behind the cabin and
walked slowly and conspicuously through the clearing towards the
water.

“
Ah,” said
Rex with a toneless laugh. “Just an otter.”

He turned
toward Spencer, who had gripped Josh by the collar of his shirt and
was thrusting him towards the fire pit.

“
What’s going
on?” Rex loomed over Josh. He stood with his big arms folded across
his chest, his face vacant of expression.

“
Yeah, you
little spy!” shouted Spence. “What are you doing here!”

Spencer gave
Josh a hard shake so the boy could barely stay on his feet. Josh
gaped from one to the other, breathing hard. One of his cheeks was
scratched and bleeding from his fall into the salal
bushes.

“
I’m really
sorry,” he stammered, looking as innocent as he could. “We were
just playing hide and seek. I thought this would be a cool spot to
hide, but that branch broke. I didn’t know you guys were here. I’m
partly deaf. I didn’t hear you talking. I’ll - I’ll just go hide
somewhere else.”

The two men
exchanged glances.

“
What are you
doing on this island?” Spencer hissed.

“
I beg your
pardon?” Josh smiled at Spencer sweetly, tilting his head as if to
hear better.

Spencer
repeated his question loudly in Josh’s ear.

“
Me and my
friends we…we were out fishing. But we weren’t catching anything so
we decided to come ashore here. You see we came to camp here last
summer. We know our way around. Then we got this idea to play hide
and seek. But I’m really sorry I bothered you.”