Moonfin (19 page)

Astonished looks passed between them as Lizzy, Jeff, and Kai stepped down, one by one, through the narrow opening and into a metal room, just big enough for the three of them to stoop in. Two chairs and a small bench took up the bulk of the cramped compartment. Winking lights covered the walls along the belly up to the eyes, which were bulbous and concave, popping out from the walls—a two-way window for the organic sub. A joystick, of sorts, jutted up between the two front seats.

“If it's anything like video games, it'll be a piece of cake,” said Jeff. He settled into the pilot's chair and began fiddling with the buttons.

Lizzy was awestruck. Running her fingers along the wall, she studied the internal workings, her mind alert to the wondrous technology around her.

“
Yes
,
yes
… I see … is this what I think it is? The ship uses the fish's natural sonar in the biological part and transfers the information to this section here, on the panel, for navigation,” she gushed excitedly.

Jeff and Kai glazed over.

“Uh-oh, she's gone into one of her ‘wonders-of-science' trances,” Kai whispered to Jeff.

“… the same with air. Water runs along its gills, the fish extracts the oxygen, like normal, and feeds it into these tubes, where it's used to pressurize the main compartment. This is remarkable!”

“Yeah, truly
mind numbing
,” Jeff mouthed silently.

Lizzy had lost Kai at the word ‘sonar'—she didn't care how it worked, only how it
moved
.

“I wonder how it handles in the open sea?” she said, rocking it about.

Jeff pulled the joystick toward him, saying “Only one way to find out!” And guessing the green button was the ignition, brought the triggerfish lunging and bobbing to life.

“Anyone know the way to Otter Island?”

“Navigation system right here on the console. I'll punch in the name and see if the coordinates come up,” said Lizzy curtly, sitting down in the passenger seat next to Jeff. Kai settled on a bench directly behind her.

“Bingo. Direct routes even.”

Jeff perked up. “Now we're talking.”

“Oh,
now
you like what I have to say, do you? Not so
boring
now, am I—?” she huffed.

“
What
?” Jeff shrugged innocently.

A map of the island flashed onto the screen, along with many ports of entry designated in red blips. Lizzy selected one and executed the “start” command, and off they went!—plunging and swooping through the caverns and out the hidden cave exit. As they streamed effortlessly into the open sea, the panorama of the ocean deep unfolded before their eyes …

“Look! Some seals,” Kai squealed. “And oh, a school of dolphins!”

“Let's hope we don't run into any predators,” grumbled Jeff. He swung the fish-sub around and thrust into a nearby trench to avoid a feeding sea lion.

“If we do, we'll give it a good fight,” said Lizzy. She was willing to bet this triggerfish, being part machine, could outrun about anything that swam in the ocean, and she was quietly impressed by it.

 

Two solitary figures stood on the docks watching the Bip exit through the tunnel.

“They are on their way, Mo'tak,” a woman dripped perniciously.

Lee smiled at hearing his given name.

“Yes,” he said icily, beefy sideburns curling back to reveal a matching set of button-shaped gills.

“How do you think she was able to stop me from getting her little friend at the surf contest?”

“I don't know that yet, Shara,” he lied. He had more than an inkling of who Lizzy was and what she was capable of. “I was wondering how they got down here.”

There were more important things to worry about.

“Through the vending machine, of course. I saw them go in from the tank.”

Lee grinned eerily.

“Spending some time with your kin?” he jeered.

“You
know
how I like a midday swim, but my
kin,
as you call them
,
are so dim-witted. I can't have one pleasant conversation without them running off and biting something.”

She ran her hand along one of the Bips and it thrashed violently to avoid her touch.

“By the way, did you find what you were looking for?”

He raised a single brow at her. “Yes. Mrs. Grape will unlock her desk drawer on Monday morning and no longer find the scales there.” He shuddered at the thought of her going public with those. Blowing Prawn would have swarmed with nosy reporters and scientists in a New York minute, making their work so much more difficult.

Shara scanned the Bip pool. “They must've used the food chute. Tsk, tsk—I need to lock that next time. Our guest in the Quarantine Room might like to have some
friends
to play with.”

A startled look crossed his face.

“Did they see it?” he hissed vehemently, eyes stretching to mere slits.

“I believe so, Mo'tak,” Shara pouted. “The clone grows exponentially, you know.”

He glared angrily toward the cave exit. “I think it's time to deal with those snooping brats.”

Shara turned hungry eyes onto him.

“Gladly,” she said in ferocious delight.

Lee's eyes rapidly ignited into a yellow glow; streaks of black flashed across his skin. The greasy mop on his head shriveled into his skull as limbs shrank away. A coiled and slimy beast launched into the water mid-transformation, followed by Shara, who burst forth her dorsal fin and jaws of sharp teeth at the same moment. They both swam with torpedo speed toward Otter Island, dark plans dancing around in their twisted minds.

Meanwhile, back at Bubba's …

Captain Quinn was hunched over a steaming bowl of clam chowder, minding his own business, when Crazy Bill slid into the seat across from him. With frenzied eyes and foaming lips, he repeated one word over and over:

“Jello.”

Chapter 14
DREAMING PITS

“W
ahoo! This flippin' fish has sweet moves!” yelped Kai.

The Bip whipped and bobbed its way around trenches and coral reefs, sunken ships and whale pods, rapidly approaching the rocky shores of Otter Island. And while Kai was having the time of her life, Jeff frantically pushed every lever and button he could find to get this wild ride to
stop
.

“Urgh—I can't manual override! We'll just have to deal with whatever we run into when this thing finally docks,” he said, stomach flapping anxiously.

They rose to the surface and cruised parallel to the island along a sheer rock cliff for several eternal minutes, giving them ample time to survey the perimeter for anything out of the ordinary. Lizzy was busy watching satellite images flash across the computer screen in front of her.

“From what I can see, the biggest island is about ten miles across with several smaller lava-formed islands surrounding it.”

A nagging thought took hold of Kai and now seemed like a good time to ask Lizzy about it—they were stuck in this fish-sub, after all.

She tapped on Lizzy's shoulder.

“What did you mean back at the vending machine when you said the name ‘Moonfin'? Is that an important word we should know about?”

“That's her name—the sea monster trapped here that Xili and Iddo told me about,” Lizzy answered offhandedly.

Kai froze in place. Jeff's mouth dropped open.

“WHAT! I think you left out the part about a
trapped
sea monster when you dragged us out here!” Kai plastered her face against the Plexiglas fish-eye, looking madly about.

“Don't tell me we're going to run into
that
out here in this dinky sub! No, no, no,
nooo
!” Jeff whimpered. “You could have mentioned she was being kept out
here
.” The blood drained from his face, and his knees went weak at the thought of being swallowed by the bigger version of the rotating-teeth-monster from the Quarantine Room.

“Hhaaa, didn't I mention that part?” said Lizzy contritely. Keeping straight all that Xili said about the Waterlands
and
the Drylands was difficult. “Don't worry, if we do run into her, we'll … I don't know! We can spew oil or something. You can relax—I don't want to face her anymore than you do.” And she meant it.

Jeff and Kai stared at her accusingly.

“Besides, I'm not sure if it's Otter Island or one of the other six islands she's trapped under,” she said unconvincingly.

Jeff turned fuming, angry eyes on her and seethed, “I thought we were doing simple recon—a little jaunt to check on Krell—back to the mainland in a few hours.
Easy-peasy
, you said!”

“Yeah, what else haven't you told us?” snapped Kai.

Good question.

“Uhhh, I think that's everything.”
And a big one that was
. She was dumbstruck. How could she have forgotten?

“I wasn't thinking about Moonfin at all—
honest
. I only wanted to do what I said before: look for my brother and his crew and check on Krell … sorry,” she said quietly, meaning it. Her words seemed to convince them, a little, and they softened up a bit.

“No harm done …
I guess
,” said Jeff more calmly. “We'll just stick to our plan and get back to the mainland tonight before anybody notices us missing.”

A suffocating silence followed as they thought about being at the mercy of this triggerfish-sub that crept along the black cliffside through seaweed and slosh. Alert and on edge, they kept their eyes and ears open for any sudden movement.

Kai began to breathe easier when the Bip finally turned toward an inlet, leaving the open ocean behind. “Who owns this place, anyway?” She poked her head into the glass eye as far as she could, quickly adding, “And don't tell me it's the Pinkertons.”

“Nope. As far as I know, we don't own any islands. I'll have to talk to my grandfather about that—it'd be pretty cool to own a whole island. Think of the tourism potential.”

Lizzy cast her gaze along the rocks, wondering if any remnant of her brother's boat might be found along its edges. While passing sunken ships on the way she noted the names on the hulls, none of which read “Sundancer.”

She swiveled around in her chair and faced Kai. “My dad told me about the island a long time ago. He said it was set aside as a sea otter preserve when their species was threatened, and always thought it would fail because of the otters' instinct to explore—that they would eventually leave the island for the mainland.”

“Did they?”

“Yep, mostly, there's still a few left. The otters like to sunbathe around the inner islands closer to shore.”

“I think I read an article about it in the Blowing Prawn Tribune once,” said Jeff. “The island used to be called ‘Solana.' Otter Island isn't the true name; they only started calling it that after the otters came to live there.”

“Yeah, the smaller islands had names like Solana's Spoon and Solana's Goat because of their funny shapes,” said Lizzy.

“My grandfather still calls the one on the southern tip Solana's Bell—says that's the name from his childhood and he's sticking with it. After the island had been ditched by the otters, a wealthy philanthropist bequeathed it to the marine lab for research under Dr. Krell, as long as it remained an animal sanctuary. It's been a mystery ever since.”

The Bip turned into a small cove carved out by a forty foot waterfall and headed straight for the cascading water.

“I don't see anywhere to dock. There isn't even a beach!” said Jeff, panicking.

The Bip sped up.

“Hold on, looks like we're going in!” shouted Lizzy.

They puttered under a heavy curtain of falling water and broke through the other side into a subterranean waterway, winding through narrow rock, the Bip barely fitting into its egress. Sunless and dank, except for a few lanterns scattered several yards apart, they crawled blindly along through twists and turns, traveling deep within the heart of the island.