The Neptune Project (22 page)

WE TRAVEL STEADILY
, but for Thom's sake, not too quickly. We take a longer break than usual at lunch, and I insist on the dolphins giving him some tows in the afternoon. He looks pale and tired, but he never once complains.

Late in the day, I start noticing a difference in the taste of the water in my mouth. It's becoming bitter and oily.

:That's what the water around LA tasted like,:
Ree tells me.
:And I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.:


We spend the night in an old wreck, and none of us sleeps well. My head aches and my eyes burn when I wake up in the morning. I lead us farther from land, and yet the pollution in the water only gets worse. We also start encountering more boat traffic as we approach San Francisco. Big sailing vessels and solar-powered skiffs ferry cargo up and down the coast of the Western Collective, and diesel-powered Marine Guard vessels are more frequent here.

Every time we hear a boat we split up and travel in pairs. If a boat comes too close, we scramble to find hiding places.

Around midday, Kalli and Penn, who are traveling closest to shore, contact me in a panic.
:We think we're in one of those dead zones Dai was talking about! We can hardly breathe here!:


:Stay calm and head straight west if you can. I'm sending the dolphins to tow you out of there.:


The dolphins quickly find Kalli and Penn and tow them farther out to sea, where the water is better.

:That dead zone really was bad news,:
Kalli reports in a shaken voice.
:One moment we could breathe just fine, and the next, there was no oxygen left in the water. We were gasping like stranded fish.:


We head even farther away from the coast after that, hoping to avoid more dead zones. By midafternoon, we start encountering big rafts of floating garbage—mounds of trash bags, plastic fencing, gallon jugs, bits of furniture, and pieces of junk all twined together.

:we do not like the water here,:
Mariah tells me uneasily.
:it makes our skin itch.:


:We don't like it, either. We'll get past this area as fast as we can.:


Late in the afternoon, we manage to reach the northern end of the bay. As the dolphins search for a safe place for us to spend the night, Densil contacts me.
:you asked us to watch for small boats. there are many tied near here just off a point.:


:Okay. We'll check them out after we get settled.:


Once we find a good cave to spend the night, we eat a quick supper. I ask for a volunteer to come with me to see if the boats nearby are part of a scrounger community. Ree's hand shoots up before Robry's and Tobin's, and I nod to her. I'm glad she wants to come because she seems to know more about scroungers than the rest of us. Dai doesn't volunteer, but I'm not surprised when he and Ton end up coming along anyway.

As we start off into the black sea, I'm glad for Dai's company even though it's clear he disapproves of our mission. Soon we start seeing dark masses beneath us. I shudder when I realize we're swimming over drowned piers and buildings, the lowest portions of old San Francisco that were claimed by the sea a hundred years ago.

Densil leads us straight to the circle of boats. We surface thirty yards out and study it. The circle is made up of a colorful assortment of rafts, houseboats, and small wooden sailing craft. Many of them look like they've been cobbled together from old oil barrels and other sorts of trash. There are men, women, and children walking back and forth among the various vessels. Several are lit by solar floodlights, and the smell of food cooking makes my mouth water.

:They're scroungers all right,:
Ree says.
:They often make floating villages like this.:


:I'm surprised the government lets them live out here.:


:I'd guess they don't cause the government any problems.:
Ree shrugs.
:And local agents of the Collective probably collect some sort of tax by taking the best stuff they scrounge.:


:I think we should try to trade with them,:
I decide. Seeing women and children has reassured me a little.

:They're going to think it's pretty strange if I just swim up and ask to buy thirty spear darts. We need a boat of some kind,:
Ree says.

In the morning, we divide into patrols to find a boat or raft we can commandeer for Ree. By noon, all patrols report back to me that each raft and boat they've found is securely chained or locked.

:Why don't we just make a raft for Ree?:
Kalli suggests.
:It sounds like some of those scrounger rafts you saw are just piles of garbage roped together.:


:Kalli, you're brilliant!:
I say.

I call in all the patrols, and after we eat, the dolphins lead us to the nearest garbage raft. After I send the dolphins out to watch for boat traffic, we start cutting pieces of garbage loose that we can use to build our own raft.

Penn—who turns out to be very clever with his hands—and Kalli quickly take charge of the project, but everyone pitches in. By late in the afternoon we've managed to build a long, narrow raft from plastic jugs, an old truck tire, and sea floats. Penn and Robry finish making two paddles just as the sun starts to set. I think we would have enjoyed the project if the water around the garbage didn't taste so horrible.

Kalli christens our homely raft the S.S.
Neptune
. The excited dolphins help us tow it back toward the scrounger colony and the sea cave where we slept last night.

We figure out that the raft can actually support the weight of three people. In the end, I choose Penn and myself to go along with Ree. I wish that Thom could come, too, since he's the better fighter. But he's still recovering from his cuts and is probably too heavy for the raft anyway.

:Is it really necessary for you to go?:
Tobin challenges me, his eyes worried.
:This group needs you.:


:I'm our strongest telepath,:
I reply, avoiding Dai's gaze. We both know he's actually the strongest telepath in our group.
:I want to go along so I can get a reading on what the scroungers are thinking, and give Ree some warning if there's going to be trouble.:


After dark, the dolphins help us tow the riderless raft as close to the colony as we dare. My pulse is racing as Penn, Ree, and I climb aboard and take turns paddling it toward the circle of boats. The rest of the group follows along beneath us in the water with their spearguns loaded, ready to help if there's trouble.

REE, PENN, AND I
paddle as quickly as we can, because we know we only have a half hour or so before we start getting light-headed. As we approach the colony, I concentrate on any stray thoughts I can pick up. Our arrival causes curiosity but no real excitement.

A wiry old man catches the rope Ree tosses him and helps us tie up next to his own sailboat. It's actually a trim-looking wooden vessel that reminds me of James's
Kestrel.

After looking us over carefully, the old man introduces himself as Crab. He's clean-shaven, his skin is wrinkled and tanned dark by the sun, and his long white hair is caught back in a ponytail. Smiling, he raises his left hand. I try not to wince when I realize it's frozen in a twisted claw. When Ree asks him where we can buy some spear darts, he says he's actually a trader and invites us to sit on his foredeck. Ree and I climb up onto his boat while Penn stays with our raft. Crab hustles into his tiny cabin and returns shortly with a basket of bread.

Finally I get to eat something that isn't fish or kelp! But I'm surprised that the bread feels so dry and strange in my mouth. The longer I chew, the more the bread nauseates me. I stare at the rest in my hand. I want to tear it to pieces and fling it into the sea. I glance over and see that Ree has only taken one bite of her bread, too.

“Just how many spear darts would yeh be wanting?” the old man asks us.

“Thirty that are three feet long and five-sixteenths of an inch in caliber,” Ree says bluntly. “If you can get ahold of that many. And they need to be made from a titanium composite or stuff that's even lighter.”

I sense Crab's surprise as he studies us out of his shrewd brown eyes. I wonder if we would have been smarter to contact more scroungers.

“My friends and I make good money from spear fishing up the coast from here,” Ree adds with a shrug. “But we lose our rigs sometimes when we go after the bigger fish.”

Crab has strong natural shields that keep me from hearing his specific thoughts, but I can sense his eagerness to make a good sale.

“I'd like to know yeh can pay. It'll take me some time to gather up that many darts for yeh.”

Ree pulls a small round discn of real gold from her pocket. Each of us has two of these sewn into our seapacks. Shielding it with her hand, she passes it to Crab. He takes it, bites it, and then gives it back quickly with a nod.

“Aye, I'll take six of those for thirty spear darts.”

“That's robbery, you old bandit. You can have just one gold discn and count yourself lucky to be making such a good trade.”

I stare at Ree.
:Are you crazy?:
I ask her telepathically.

:He expects us to bargain. We'd make him suspicious if we didn't,:
she replies quickly.

“It will take me all day tomorrow to come up with such a stash of spear darts, and it will cost me, too. I'll take five discn, and no less, yeh young gouger.”

Trading insults, the two bargain back and forth until my chest aches from the effort I'm making not to pant.

:Ree, you better finish this up. I'm getting a little dizzy here. He's bound to notice there's something strange about us if we start gasping like fish.:


Reluctantly, Ree agrees to pay him three gold discn for thirty spear darts, and the two shake hands. Crab invites us to stay for supper, but Ree turns him down politely.

“Well then, come back this way tomorrow night.”

“We will, and thanks for the bread,” Ree tells him as we climb back aboard our raft and he casts us off.

As soon as we have our backs to him, I drop the rest of the bread I hid in my palm into the sea. I finally allow myself to start panting as I struggle to get more air.

“Hang in there, Nere,” Penn whispers behind me. “We'll be back in the water before you know it.”

As soon as we're beyond the reach of the solar floodlights, I slip into the sea and submerge, letting the seawater flow into my dry, hot lungs. Penn and Ree do the same. Once we've caught our breath, we start back to the cave.

After we make it safely there, we use a rope from Penn's seapack to anchor the S.S.
Neptune
to an old truck lying on the sea floor nearby.

~ ~ ~

The next morning Dai insists that I call a meeting.

:Any number of things could go wrong when Ree heads back to that scrounger town,:
he tells me curtly.
:You should have a plan in place in case Crab decides to tip off the Collective about you. There's a large Marine Guard base in San Francisco Bay. Ten boats could be after us in ten minutes.:


Even though I liked Crab, I can see the sense in what Dai is saying. I call everyone together, and we spend most of the morning talking about what we should do if we run into trouble.

In the end, we adopt a plan made up of ideas contributed mostly by Dai and Robry. Our current sea cave is an ideal hiding place because its mouth is so small and hard to see. If the Marine Guard comes after us, the main group will head straight back for the cave, but two teams of our fastest swimmers—Dai, Kalli, Robry, and me—will try to lay a false trail by heading south. We hope to give our slowest swimmers a better chance of reaching safety, and we may fool the Marine Guard into thinking we aren't traveling north. Midday, we will go out and find two smaller caves, where our decoy “foxes” will go to ground.

:Hopefully after we hide, their ships will range on ahead of us. Then we should be able to slip back to the main cave, and we'll head on north together,:
Robry concludes.

:One final thing
—
I don't think Nere should go in with Ree and Penn this time,:
Dai proposes.

:Agreed,:
Tobin says quickly.

I start to protest, but Robry, of all people, cuts me off.
:Nere, think about it. Ree and Penn function better out of water, and you can still use your telepathy to get a reading on Crab if you're in the water beside the raft. There's no reason to risk any more lives than we absolutely have to.:


I can tell from their expressions that everyone agrees with Robry, so I give in.

I feel the tension rising in our group as the sun sets. We force ourselves to eat a light dinner and then head for the scrounger colony with our spearguns loaded. As Penn and Ree paddle the raft in, the rest of us swim along in a tight formation right beneath it. I'm so anxious, I'm afraid I'm going to throw up the five bites of halibut I managed to choke down an hour ago.

Now I can see a dozen different ways our plan could go wrong. Maybe Dai was right all along about trading with scroungers.

:I can see the old guy. He's definitely on the lookout for us,:
Ree reports as she and Penn approach Crab's boat. I risk popping my head out of the water on the seaward side of the raft, where Crab can't see me. I focus my senses and try to read his surface mind.

:Can you get anything from him, Nere?:
Ree asks me.

:The old guy's got some naturally tight mental shields. All I can tell you is that he's very tense right now and excited. Maybe this is a really good deal for him.:


I close my eyes and let my mind range outward. I do sense that the scroungers near us are on edge.
:Everyone seems too nervous,:
I tell the others.
:Let's make this deal fast and get out of here.:


The moment Ree steps onto his boat, Crab asks her and Penn to sit and eat dinner with him.

“Thanks, but we need to get going. Do you have the darts?”

“Are yeh sure yeh don't want to be staying? I made a pot of fish chowder, and no one makes fish chowder better than old Crab.”

“I bet your chowder is great, but we need to go,” Ree says impatiently.

“Well, then, here are your spear darts. Thirty, just as yeh wanted,” Crab says slowly.

:He's stalling!:
Penn says.

I see Ree quickly hand him the three discn. Then she looks down at the three heavy bundles of darts he just handed her.

:
Dios mio!
He's wrapped a flyer around the darts, and it has our pictures all over it!:


Just then, I pick up an image in Crab's mind of four rough-looking smugglers coming to his boat, and his feeling of sharp regret.

:Ree, get out of there!:
I yell at her.
:It's a trap!:


Moments later, two burly men burst out of Crab's cabin. Before they can grab Ree, she jumps into the water, holding the spear darts. A second later, Penn dives off the raft.

:Help!:
Ree cries as she sinks past us toward the bottom.
:These suckers are heavy.:


:Give one bundle to Thom and one to Tobin,:
I say,
:and let's get out of here!:


I hear the bass thrum of powerful boat engines in the distance as Tobin and Thom flash down to the bottom and take two bundles of spear darts from Ree. Bria helps Ree scramble into her fins, and Lena helps Penn with his.

:two boats come from around the point,:
Densil warns me.

They must have been waiting to ambush us.

We sprint as fast as we can away from the scrounger colony. As soon as we're beyond the lights I call the dolphins, and they tow us out to sea.

:Main group, head back to the cave NOW,:
I order. The four of us who are going to lead a false trail head south, swimming right at the surface so we're easy to spot.

I wait for a long thirty seconds while Sokya tows me through the water, and then I contact Mariah.
:Which way are those boats heading?:


:they follow you fast,:
she says, sounding very worried.

:They've taken the bait,:
I tell everyone.
:Main group, stay in that cave until we can get back to you. Foxes, let's dive now and get to our holes as quickly as we can.:


The dolphins take a final breath at the surface and then they pull us down under the waves. The sound of engines grows louder much faster than I expected. My heart lurches when I realize these smugglers have sent small, fast speedboats to track us.

In no time, the two boats catch up to us. Dai swears when both boats slow down, right over our heads. Someone's definitely tracking us on sonar.

I swear to myself, but I try not to broadcast my worry to the others. Our whole plan was based on getting a good head start on big, lumbering Marine Guard vessels, not small smuggler speedboats.

:Let's split up and see if we can lose them,:
I say, trying to sound more positive than I feel.

:two big boats come fast from the south,:
Mariah warns me, and I tell the others.

:We're in deep trouble now,:
Dai says,
:and we have no mines left.:


Our small group's spear-dart supply is dangerously low, too. We may be fighting hand-to-hand with more divers in a few minutes, but I only have two spear darts left in my quiver. Some commander I make. I just sent our new supply back to the main cave!

Suddenly, Sokya begins clicking and sawing. I bite my lip. The last thing we need right now is to run into a shark or a squid.

:friends come!:
she tells me excitedly.

Moments later, the water around us fills with a large school of wild bottlenose dolphins. Over fifty of them swim and swoop around us.

:It's the cavalry!:
Robry shouts in elation.

:Mariah, I love you!:
I yell as I realize what my clever friend has done. Somehow she has coaxed a wild school of dolphins to swim with us, which may give us just enough time to reach our hiding spots.

:Let those landlivers try to figure this one out on their sonar scopes,:
Dai says with relish.

We sprint for our caves while the big school of dolphins splits into swirls and eddies, darting every which way and confusing our sonar signature. Suddenly, the smaller boat that was tracking Robry and me races off to the west, chasing a group of four wild dolphins.

Two minutes later, Robry and I reach our small cave. We duck inside, gasping and panting. Sokya and Nika rush off to play with the wild dolphins.

:Kalli, Dai, are you safe?:
I call to our other pair of decoys.

:Yeah, we just made it to our cave,:
Kalli reports in.
:And the boat that was following us headed south a minute ago. Those wild dolphins really saved our butts.:


I reach out my senses farther and contact Mariah.
:How did you get them to swim with us?:


:are you safe?:
she asks me first, sounding remarkably like my mother.

:We're tucked away in a nice little cave where their sonar will never find us.:


:good. the wild ones were curious about why we were swimming with so many humans. I made them understand that the boats were hunting you, and they could help by swimming with you.: