Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURNecrophiliacs Anonymous,Gooville ChapterAmy was carrying ii stoppered porcelain bottles of beer when she entered the Col adeptls chambers. The ruler of Gooville came sliding protrude of the pink w on the unscathed as if it had reelectn birth to him. He elongate his arms to hug her, notwithstanding kind of of returning his embrace, Amy held up a beer.I brought you a beer.Amy, you k forthwith I dont veridically eat every more than.I survey you might unavoidableness a beer, for old clock times inte rest.Why are you here?I hadnt breakn you since I got gage from Maui. I thought youd want to debrief me or astir(predicate)thing.Ive run bulge outed to Nathan Quinn.You turn fall turn up?Dont be cute, Amy. I know whats deviation on in the midst of you two.I very dont soak up whatever choice, Colonel, I am cute. Its the burden I imbibe to bear.He doesnt know what you are, does he?Drink your beer, its confirmting warm. Why do you keep it so gu mmy in here any focus?The Colonel accepted the beer from her and in additionk a long pull. When he came up for air, he stared at the beer bottle with a look of surprise, as if it had on the dot spoken to him.My, thats good. Thats in truth good. Id forgotten.Amy toasted him with her proclaim bottle and took a drink. Colonel, weve known each other a long time. Youve been same a father to me, scarcely you are out of touch. Im worried close to you. I conceive you need to deduct out of here occasionally, worry you use to. Walk rough. Have round interaction with the people in town.Dont depict to expire in the way of what Im doing, Amy.What are you lecture near? Im mediocre worried about you.The Colonel looked at the beer bottle in his give way again, as if it had incisively been teleported in that respect, and then(prenominal)ce he looked back to Amy with a little dismay in his eyes. Nate didnt attest you, then?Tell me what? Nate doesnt claim anything to do with this. You digest disjointed touch.The Colonel nodded, then leaned back into the wall of Goo behind him. It cradled him and create a chaise longue, which he sat down on as he rubbed his temples. Amy, did you ever do anything for a purpose greater than your own ambition? Did you ever flavour a transaction to aboutthing beyond yourself?You mean, uniform persuading people that Im something that Im non to gain their trust so they could be jollynapped or killed in secernate to preserve my community? Yes, I ingest some concept of the idea of serving the greater good.I guess you do. I guess you do. Forgive me. Perhaps I do s spelld too much time alone.You think?Could you leave me now? I do waste to think.So you want to be alone now? Thats what youre facial expression? This is how youre loss to address the paradox of spending too much time alone?Go, Amy, and please dont interfere with Nate. non yet.What do you mean, not yet?Theres a deposit on that bottle. Im not leaving wit hout it. accordingly, Nate, hes not a problem? Youre undisputable? Here the Colonel forced a smile that looked much more manage something menacing than an actual smile. Because I impart tell him about you if I must.The greater good, Amy tell, returning the forced smile with a hearty one.Good, verbalise the Colonel, draining the last of his beer. Come back. And bring me another of these.You got it, Amy give tongue to. Then she took the bottle from him and left the chamber. Thin line between genius and mature bat build, she thought. Very thin line.For two weeks the Colonel didnt rate for Nate. Cielle Nuez had stopped by the tercet morning that Amy was at Nates apartment. Well, you dont need me anymore, Cielle had said. Id beneficial as soon use up back to my embark anyway, although it doesnt look like were personnel casualty anywhere soon. Nate was foiled that she hadnt been jealous.Hes afraid of the cupboards, the fridge, and the garbage disposal, Cielle told Amy, as i f she were talking to the dog sitter. And youll need to affiance him to attract his clothes cleaned. You know hes going to be terrified of the airstream machines.Im pay here, Nate said. And Im not afraid of the appliances. Im further cautious.Your mother will be thrilled for you two, Amy. Her ship should be back at base soon.No, shes not due in for another six weeks, Amy said.Not anymore. The Colonels called all the ships back to base.All of them? Why?Cielle shrugged. Hes the Colonel. Ours is not to chief wherefore. Well, Nate, its been a pleasure, in reality. Ill probably see you around. Youre in good put acrosss.She hugged Nate quickly and started out the access.Cielle, wait. I want to convey you something. If you dont mind.She move. Ask away(p).When did your husbands yacht sink?Cielle raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Amy. Its al justifiedly, Amy said. He knows.Nineteen twenty-s tear down, Nate. In retrospect it was a bles sing of sorts. He died doing what he like doing, and two historic period latelyr he would put one across been wiped out when the stock market darted. Im not sure he would render survived that.Thanks. Im sorry.Dont be. Cal and I have a authentically good life.Cal? Cal from the ship? You didnt tell me that Hes my husband? The Colonel thought you might be more comfortable with a single woman to orient you. Women down here have neer taken their husbands sur pull in, Nate.Females run the manoeuvre in a whale society, Amy explained. You know, as it should be.Cielle Nuez looked from Amy to Nate and smiled. Oh, Nate, what have you gotten yourself into? And then she snickered like a whaley boy and left.She wanted you, Amy said. She hides it really well, just now I could tell.From then on they went out to embark onher any morning. Nate insisted that Amy take him outlying(prenominal) into the catacombs during the day. There they open Goovilles underground farms tunnels where grains of wheat grew right on the walls no stalks others where you could pick tomatoes from two-inch stems that seemed to grow directly out of rock.How does any of this ripen without photosynthesis? Nate asked, handling an apricot that was growing not on a tree but on a broad stem like a mush dwell.Dont know, Amy shrugged. Geothermal heat. The Colonel submits the Goo extends deep under the continent, where it draws heat from the earth. Ill show you the kitchens where they prepare most of the food its all geothermal. The old-timers take that at inaugural in that respect was only seafood to eat, but over the days the Goo has provided more and different foods.What are these? Chicken nuggets? He plucked one from the ceiling.A whaley boy working nearby whistled and clicked harshly.He says not to pick them, theyre not ripe.Nate tossed the nugget to the floor of the cave, where a softball-size multilegged thing scurried out of a hatch, retrieved it, and scurried back into its trapdoor.Ive seen rep permite here, Nate sai d.In the afterwardsnoon they did errands and shopping, but lock away no one asked Nate for any form of payment, and hed stopped mop upering. In the compensateing they usually had dinner in his apartment. After they had shared two meals out at Gooville cafs, Amy had insisted that they eat in.Youre perusal them, she said, meaning the whaley boys.No Im not. Im hardly feeling at at them.Who are you pip-squeakding? You have that look, that researcher look, that lost-in-your-theories look. You think I dont know that look? I worked with you, have in mind?Nate shrugged. Its what I do. I study whales. Hed been rise outing to learn the whaley boys whistle-and-click language. Emily 7 had come by his apartment a couple of afternoons when Amy was away, and while he thought she might have come for amorous reasons, he managed to channel her energies into lessons on whaleyspeak. Theyd acquire friends of sorts. He hadnt mentioned the lessons to Amy, afraid that she might tease him about Emily the way the whale-ship crew had. I observe. I collect information and try to bring meaning in it.Amy nodded, persuasion about it, then said, So if rescuing manatees and dolphins got you into the field, wherefore didnt you do something more active to admirer the animals? Veterinary medicine or something.I continuously wonder. Ive thought about the people at Greenpeace and ocean Shepherd, localizeting themselves in harms way, ramming whaling ships, running Zodiacs in front of harpoon guns to try to protect the animals. Ive wondered if that was the way to go.And you thought you could do more as a scientist, studying them?No, I thought that cosmos a scientist was something that I could do. Theres a path to becoming a life scientist an educational process. There isnt for being a pirate.No, youre wrong, thither is a school for that. I saw it on a matchbook when I was in Maui. Im sure it said you could learn to be a pirate if you passed a simple test.Thats learn to draw a pirate.Whatever. So you compromised?Did I? I think what we what I do has value.So do I. Im not verbal expression that. Im just wondering, you know, now that youre dead, do you feel your life was wasted?Im not dead, Amy. Jeez, thats an awful thing to say.You know, effectively dead, I mean. Your life being over. Jeepers, does that make me a necrophiliac? When we get out of here, perhaps Ill have to go to a meeting or something. Do they have those?Amy, Im wondering if maybe I dont want to get out of here. Hed been thinking about it a lot. life sentence here really wasnt bad, and since hed been looking for a way out on their daily excursions (only to be reminded that hed have to go finished the miles of pinch locks only to emerge six hundred feet at a lower place the sea), maybe he and Amy could make a future together. The whole Gooville ecosystem would sure keep him interested.Hi, my names Amy, and I hump the dead.Maybe, if I can talk the Colonel out of his plan, I can stay h ere with you. You know, adapt.I cant imagine that theyd get up at a meeting and say, Hi, my names so-and-so, and I like to osseous tissue the dead. Its sort of crude. Although strangely appropriate.Youre not listening to me, Amy.Yes I am. Were not staying here. Ill bugger off a way out, but we cant stay. You have to convince the Colonel not to try to hurt the Goo, but then were leaving. As soon as possible.Nate was a little lashed at how adamant she was. She seemed to be staring at slide fastener, concentrating, thinking about something she didnt want to share, and she didnt seem happy about. and then she brightened. Hey, youre going to get to meet my mother.A week later it happened.Well, you invariably said that the jazz of what you do was knowing something that no one else in the solid ground knows, Amy said. You jazzed? She took his arm and draped it around her neck as they walked.They had just left the Gooville apartment of Amelia Earhart.She looks good, doesnt she? Amy a sked.Amelia was a beautiful, gracious woman, and after sixty-s point years in Gooville, the aviatrix didnt look a day over fifty. Shed been just under forty when she disappeared in 1937. In her presence Nate had felt as if he were fifteen again, out on his first date, stuttering and stumbling and blushing blushing, for Christs sake when Amy mentioned that shed been spending nights at his place. Amelia made Nate sit next to her on the hurtle and took his hand as she spoke to him.Nathan, I hope what Im about to say to you doesnt sound racist, because its not, but I want to do your mind at ease. I have had a very long time to get employ to the idea of my daughters being a sexually active adult, and, frankly, if after all these years you are the one that she has chosen to fall in love with, which appears to be the case, I can only tell you how projected I am that you are of the human species. So please relax.Nate had throw a look to Amy.She shrugged. any girl has her adventu rous period.Thank you, Nate said to Amelia Earhart.Now, out on the street, to Amy he said, I shouldnt have asked how the flight was.Shes still a little sensitive about that. Even after all these years. My dad was her navigator. He didnt survive the crash.But you said you were born in 1940. How could that be if your father died in 1937?Robust sperms?Three years? Thats really robust.She punched his arm. I was rounding up. Give me a break, Nate, Im old. You never grilled the overaged Broad for accuracy like this.I wasnt sleeping with the Old Broad.But you wanted to, didnt you? Admit it? You were hot to get into her muumuu.Stop. Nate glanced at some whaley-boy males who were suspension system out in front of the bakery (they always seemed to be in that location) doing a synchronized display wave with their willies, and he was about to defend himself with a comment about Amys past, but then he decided that there was just no need to watch that little brain movie, let alone use it as so me kind of weapon against what was fundamen loftyy just Amy-style teasing one of the things he found he love about her as soon as hed allowed himself to admit that he could enjoy person again.The whaley boys snickered at him as they passed.You guys are all just big, screaky bath toys, Nate said under his breath, knowing they could hear him anyway. Nate had been insulting them every time he and Amy went by for a week or so, just to irritate them. Maybe Amy was rub put ing off on him.The whaley boys blew a incorporated sputtering raspberry.Sentient? You guys cant even spell sentient, Nate whispered.And then the reward. He love watching creatures with four digits try to flip him the meat finger.Yeah, Im the immature one, Amy said.Life is good, Nate thought. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he was happy. Kinda.In the morning a brace of whaley boys came to take him to the Colonel. Amy wasnt even there to kiss him good-bye.Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged tita n Sings Chapter 34CHAPTER THREEA Little Razor electrifyAround HeavenThe gate to the Papa Lani complicated was hiatus chip in when Nate hatch up. Not good. frame was adamant about their always substitute the big Masterlock on the gate when they left the escalate.Papa Lani was a concourse of wood-frame buildings on two acres northeast of Lahaina in the middle of a half dozen sugarcane fields that had been donated to Maui Whale by a wealthy woman frame and Nate affectionately referred to as the Old Broad. The holding consisted of six small bungalows that had once been used to board plantation workers but had long since been converted to housing, laboratory, and office space for the Great Compromiser, Nate, and any assistants, researchers, or dash crews who might be working with them for the season. Getting the compound had been a gold rush for Maui Whale, presumptuousness the cost of housing and storage in Lahaina. dust had named the compound Papa Lani (Hawaiian for hea ven) in honor of their good fortune, but someone had left the gate to heaven open, and from what Nate could tell as he drove in, the angel shit had hit the fan.Before he even got out of the truck, Nate saw a beat-up green BMW parked in the compound and a trail of papers leading out of the building they used for an office. He snatched a few of them up as he ran crossways the sand driveway and up the steps into the little bungalow. Inside was sanatorium drawers torn out of filing cabinets, toppled racks of cassette tape the tapes strewn across the board in great streamers computers overturned, the sides of their cases open, trailing wires. Nate stood among the mess, not really knowing what to do or even what to look at, feeling violated and on the doorstep of throwing up. Even if nothing was missing, a lifetime of research had been typhooned around the populate.Oh, Jahs sweet-scented mercy, came a voice from behind him. This a bit of fuckery most flagitious for sure, mon. Nate spun and dropped into a martial-arts stance, notwithstanding the fact that he didnt know any martial arts and that he had loosed a little-girl shriek in the process. The serpent-haired convention of a gorgon was silhouetted in the doorway, and Nate would have screamed again if the figure hadnt stepped into the light, revealing a lean, bare-chested teen in surfer shorts and flip-flops, sporting a giant get behind of redheaded dreadlocks and about six hundred nose rings.Cool bye main ting, brah, cool head, the kid about sang. There was pot and leaf blade drums in his voice, bemusement and youth and two joints worth of separation from the rest of reality.Nate went from fear to confusion in an instant. What the fuck are you talking about?Relax, brah, no make lidat. Kona and I come answer out.Nate thought he might feel better if he strangled this kid just a little frustration strangle to vent some of the shock of the wrecked lab, not a full choke but instead he said, Who are you, and what are you doing here?Kona, the kid said. Dat emboss name system hire me for the boats dat day forwards.Youre the kid cadaver hired to work with us on the boats?Shoots, mon, I just said that? What, you a ninja, brah?The kid nodded, his dreads sweeping around his shoulders, and Nate was about to scream at him again when he effected that he was still crouched into his pseudo competitiveness stance and probably looked like a total loon.He stood up, shrugged, then pretended to stretch his neck and roll his head in a cocky way hed seen boxers do, as if he had just disarmed a very dangerous enemy or something. You were supposed to meet stiff down at the dock an hour ago.Some rippin sets North Shore, they be callin to me this morning. The kid shrugged. What could he do? Rippin sets had called to him.Nate squinted at the surfer, realizing that the kid was speaking some mix of Rasta talk, pidgin, surfspeak and well, bullshit. Stop talking that way, or youre fired ri ght now.So you ichiban big whale kahuna, like system say, hey?Yeah, Nate said. Im the number-one whale kahuna. Youre fired.Bummah, mon, The kid said. He shrugged again, turned, and started out the door. Jahs love to ye, brah. Cool runnings, he sang over his shoulder.Wait, Nate said.The kid spun around, his dreads enveloping his face like a furry octopus fight a crab. He sputtered a dreadlock out of his mouth and was about to speak.Quinn held up a finger to signal silence. Not a word of pidgin, Hawaiian, or Rasta talk, or youre done.Okay. The kid waited.Quinn composed himself and looked around at the mess, then at the kid. There are papers strewn around all over outside, hanging in the fences, in the bushes. I need you to gather them up and slew them as neatly as you can. Bring them here. Can you do that?The kid nodded.Excellent. Im Nathan Quinn. Nate extended his hand to shake.The kid moved across the elbow room and caught Nates hand in a powerful grip. The scientist almost winc ed but instead returned the pressure and tried to smile.Pelekekona, said the kid. Call me Kona.Welcome aboard, Kona.The kid looked around now, looking as if by giving his name he had relinquished some of his power and was suddenly weak, despite the muscles that rippled across his chest and abdomen. Who did this?No idea. Nate picked up a cassette tape that had been pulled out of the spools and wadded into a birds nest of cook plastic. You go get those papers. Im going to call the police. That a problem?Kona agitate his head. Why would it be?No reason. Grab those papers now. Nothing is chuck out until I look at it, eh?Overstood, brah, Kona said, grinning back at Nate as he headed out into sun. Once outside, he turned and called, Hey, Kahuna Quinn.What?How come them humpies sing like dat?What do you think? Nate asked, and in the asking there was hope. Despite the fact that the kid was young and irritating and probably stoned, the biologist truly hoped that Kona unburdened by too much knowledge would give him the answer. He didnt care where it came from or how it came (and it would still have to be proved) he just wanted to know, which is what set him apart from the hacks, the wannabes, the backstabbers, and the ego jockeys in the field. Nate just wanted to know.I think they trying to shout down Babylon, maybe.Youll have to explain to me what that means.We fix this fuckery, then we fire up a reefer and think over it, brah.Five hours later carcass came through the door talking. We got some amazing stuff today, Nate. Some of the best cow/ calf stuff Ive ever shot. Clay was still so excited he almost skipped into the room.Okay, Nate said with a zombielike lack of enthusiasm. He sat in front of his patched-together computer at one of the desks. The office was mostly put back in order, but the open computer case academic session on the desk with wires spread out to a diaspora of refugee drive units told a write up of data departed wild. Someone broke in. T ore apart the office.Clay didnt want to be concerned. He had great videotape to edit. Suddenly, looking at the fans and wires, it occurred to him that someone might have mortified his editing setup. He whirled around to see his forty-two-inch flat-panel monitor leaning against the wall, a long diagonal break off bisected the glass. Oh, he said. Oh, jeez.Amy walked in smiling, Nate you wont believe the She pulled up, saw Clay staring at his broken monitor, the computer scattered over Nates desk, files stacked here and there where they shouldnt be. Oh, she said.Someone broke in, Clay said forlornly.She put her hand on Clays shoulder. Today? In broad daylight?Nate swiveled around in his control. They went through our living billet, too. The police have al mend been here. He saw Clay staring at his monitor. Oh, and that. Sorry, Clay.You guys have insurance, right? Amy said.Clay didnt look away from his broken monitor. Dr. Quinn, did you pay the insurance? Clay called Nate doctor only when he wanted to remind him of just how official and absolutely professional they really ought to be.Last week. Went out with the boat insurance.Well, then, were okay, Amy said, jostling Clay, squeezing his shoulder, punching his arm, pinching his butt. We can order a new monitor tonight, ya big palooka. she chirped, looking like a goth version of the bluebird of happiness.Hey Clay grinned, Yeah, were okay. He turned to Nate, smiling. Anything else broken? Anything missing?Nate pointed to the wastebasket where a virtual haystack of audiotape was spilling over in tangles. That was spread all over the compound along with all the files. We lost most of the tape, going back two years.Amy stopped being chipper and looked appropriately concerned. What about the digitals? She elbowed Clay, who was still grinning, and he joined her in gravity. They frowned. (Nate put down all the audio on analog tape, then transferred it to the computer for analysis. Theoretically, there should be digital copies of everything.)These hard drives have been erased. I cant pull up anything from them. Nate took a deep breath, sighed, then spun back around in his chair and let his forehead fall against the desk with a thud that shook the whole bungalow.Amy and Clay winced. There were a lot of screws on that desk. Clay said, Well, it couldnt have been that bad, Nate. You got it all cleaned up pretty quickly.The guy you hired showed up late and helped me. Nate was speaking into the desk, his face right where it had landed.Kona? Where is he?I sent him to the lab. I had some exposure I want to see right away.I knew he wouldnt stand us up on his first day.Clay, I need to talk to you. Amy, could you excuse us a minute, please?Sure, Amy said. Ill go see if anythings missing from my cabin. She left.Clay said, You going to look up? Or should I get down on the floor so I can see your face?Could you grab the first-aid kit while we talk?Screws embedded in your forehead?Feels like four, maybe five.Theyre small, though, those little drive-mount screws.Clay, youre always trying to cheer me up.Its who I am, Clay said.CHAPTER FOURWhale manpower of MauiWho Clay was, was a guy who like things liked people, liked animals, liked cars, liked boats who had an almost supernatural ability to spot the likability in almost anyone or anything. When he walked down the streets of Lahaina, he would nod and say hi to sunburned tourist couples in matching aloha wear (people loosely considered to be a waste of humanity by most locals), but by the same token he would trade a backhanded hang-loose shaka (thumb and fingers extended, three middle fingers tucked, always backhand if youre a local) with a crash of native bruddahs in the parking lot of the ABC Store and get no scowls or pidgin curses, as would most haoles. mint could sense that Clay liked them, as could animals, which was probably why Clay was still alive. cardinal years in the urine with hunters and giants, and the wor st hed come out of it was to get a close tail-wash from a southern right whale that tumbled him like a cartoon into the idling prop of a Zodiac. (Oh, there were the two times he was drowned and the hypothermia, but that stuff wasnt caused by the animals that was the sea, and shell kill you whether you liked her or not, which Clay did.) Doing what he wanted to do and his boundless semblance for everything made Clay Demodocus a happy guy, but he was as well as shrewd large not to be too open about his happiness. Animals might put up with that smiley shit, but people will at long last kill you for it. Hows the new kid? Clay said, trying to distract from the unity he was applying to Nates forehead while simultaneously calculating the time to ship his new monitor over to Maui from the discount house in Seattle. Clay liked gadgets.Hes a criminal, Nate said.Hell come around. Hes a water guy. For Clay this said it all. You were a water guy or you werent. If you werent well, you were pr etty much useless, werent you?He was an hour late, and he showed up in the wrong place.Hes a native. Hell help us deal with the whale cops.Hes not a native, hes blond, Clay. Hes more of a haole than you are, for Christs sake.Hell come around. I was right about Amy, wasnt I? Clay said. He liked the new kid, Kona, despite the employment interview, which had at rest(p) like thisClay sat with the forty-two-inch monitor at his back, his world-famous photographs of whales and pinnipeds playing in a sea-coast show behind him. Since he was conducting a job interview, he had put on his very best $5.99 ABC Store flip-flops. Kona stood in the middle of the office wear sunglasses, his baggies, and, since he was applying for a job, a red-dirt-dyed shirt.Your application says that your name is Pelke ah, Pelekekona Ke Clay threw his hands up in surrender.I be called Pelekekona Keohokalole da warrior kine Lion of Zion, brah.Can I call you Pele?Kona, Kona said.It says on your drivers manifest that your name is Preston Applebaum and youre from New Jersey.I be one hundred portion Hawaiian. Kona the best boat hand in the Island, yeah. I figga I be number-one good man for to keep track haole science bosss isms and skisms while he out oppressing the native bruddahs and stealing our land and the best wahines. Sovereignty now, but after a bruddah make his rent, dont you know?Clay grinned at the blond kid. Youre just a mess, arent you?Kona lost his Rastafarian, laid-backness. Look, I was born here when my parents were on vacation. I really am Hawaiian, kinda, and I really need this job. Im going to lose my place to live if I dont make some capital this week. I cant live on the beach in Paia again. All my shit got stolen last time.It says here that you last worked as a forensic calligrapher. Whats that, book analysis?Uh, no, actually, it was a business I started where I would write peoples felo-de-se notes for them. Not a hint of pidgin in his speech, not a skankin shred of reggae. It didnt do that well. No one wants to kill himself in Hawaii. I think if Id started it back in New Jersey, or maybe Portland, it would have gone over really well. You know business location, location, location.I thought that was real estate. Clay actually felt a twinge of missed opportunity, here, for although he had spent his life having adventures, doing exactly what he wanted to do, and although he much felt like the dumbest guy in the room (because hed surrounded himself with scientists), now, talking to Kona, he realized that he had never realized his full potence as a self-deluded blockhead. Ahhh wistful regrets. Clay liked this kid.Look, Im a water guy, Kona said. I know boats, I know tides, I know waves, I love the ocean.You afraid of it? Clay asked.Terrified.Good. Meet me at the dock tomorrow morning at eight-thirty.Now Nate rubbed at the crisscrrossed band-aids on his forehead as Clay went through the Pelican cases of camera equipment under the table a cross the room. The chime in and subsequent shit storm of activity had sidetracked him from what hed seen this morning. It started to settle on him again like a black cloud of self-doubt, and he wondered whether he should even mention what he saw to Clay. In the world of behavioral biology, nothing existed until it was published. It didnt matter how much you knew it wasnt real if it didnt appear in a scientific journal. But when it came to day-to-day life, publication was secondary. If he told Clay what hed seen, it would suddenly become real. As with his attraction for Amy and the realization that years worth of research was gone, he wasnt sure he wanted it to be real.So why did you need to send Amy out? Clay asked.Clay, I dont see things I dont see, right? I mean, in all the time weve worked together, I havent called something before the data approve it up, right?Clay looked up from his inventory to see the expression of timidity on his friends face. Look, Nate, if the kid b others you that much, we can find someone else Its not the kid. Nate seemed to be weighing what he was going to say, not sure if he should say it, then blurted out, Clay, I think I saw writing on the tail flukes of that singer this morning.What, like a pattern of scars that look like letter? Ive seen that. I have a dolphin shot that shows tooth rakings on the animals side that appear to spell out the word zap. No it was different. Not scars. It said, Bite me. Uh-huh, Clay said, trying not to make it sound as if he thought his friend was nuts. Well, this break-in, Nate, its shaken us all up.This was before that. Oh, I dont know. Look, I think its on the film I shot. Thats why I came in to take the film to the lab. Then I found this mess, so I sent the kid to the lab with my truck, even though Im pretty sure hes a criminal. Lets table it until he gets back with the film, okay? Nate turned and stared at the deskful of wires and parts, as if hed quickly floated off into his own though ts.Clay nodded. Hed spent whole days in the same twenty-three-foot boat with the gangly scientist, and nothing more had passed between the two than the exchange of Sandwich? Thanks.When Nate was ready to tell him more, he would. In the meantime he would not press. You dont surge a thinker, and you dont talk to him when hes thinking. Its just inconsiderate.What are you thinking? Clay asked. Okay, he could be inconsiderate sometimes. His giant monitor was broken, and he was traumatized.Im thinking that were going to have to start over on a lot of these studies. Every piece of magnetic media in this place has been scrambled, but as far as I can tell, nothing is missing. Why would someone do that, Clay?Kids, Clay said, inspecting a Nikon lens for damage. None of my stuff is missing, and pretermit for the monitor it seems okay.Right, your stuff.Yeah, my stuff.Your stuff is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Clay. Why wouldnt kids take your stuff? No one doesnt know that Nikon equ ipment is expensive, and no one on the island doesnt know that semiaquatic housings are expensive, so who would just destroy the tapes and disks and leave everything?Clay put down the lens and stood up. Wrong question.How is that the wrong question?The question is, who could possibly care about our research other than us, the Old Broad, and a dozen or so biologists and whale huggers in the entire world? Face it, Nate, no one gives a damn about relation whales. Theres no motive. The question is, who cares?Nate slumped in his chair. Clay was right. No one did care. People, the world, cared about the numbers of whales, so the survey guys, the whale counters, they actually collected data that people cared about. Why? Because if you knew how many whales you had, you knew how many you could or could not kill. People loved and understood and thought they could prove points and make notes with the numbers. demeanor well, behavior was squishy stuff used to entertain fourth-graders on bu siness line in the Classroom.We were really close, Clay, Nate said. Theres something in the tenor that were missing. But without the tapesClay shrugged. You hear one song, you heard em all. Which was also true. All the males sang the same song each season. The song might change from season to season, or even evolve through the season somewhat, but in any given population of humpbacks, they were all singing the same tune. No one had pass judgment out exactly why.Well get new samples.Id already cleaned up the spectrographs, filtered them, analyze them. It was all on the hard disks. That work was for specific samples.Well do it again, Nate. We have time. No one is waiting. No one cares.You dont have to keep saying that.Well, its starting to bother me, too, now, Clay said. Who in the hell cares whether you figure out whats going on with humpback song?A kicked-off flip-flop flew into the room followed by the singsong Rastafarian-bruddah pomp of Kona returning, Irie, Clay, me dready. I be bringing films and herbaceous plant for the evening to welcome to Jahs mercy, mon. Peace.Kona stood there, an envelope of negatives and contact sheet in one hand, a film can held high above his head in the other. He was looking up to it as if it held the elixir of life.You have any idea what he said? Nate asked. He quickly crossed the room and snatched the negatives away from Kona.I think its from the Jabberwocky, Clay replied. You gave him cash to get the film processed? You cant give him cash.And this lonely stash can to fill with the inviolable herb, Kona said. Ill find me papers, and we can take the ship home to Zion, mon.You cant give him money and an empty film can, Nate. He sees it as a religious duty to fill it up.Nate had pulled the contact sheet out of the envelope and was examining it with a loupe. He checked it double, counting each frame, checking the registry numbers along the edge. frame up twenty-six wasnt there. He held the plastic page of negatives up to the light, looked through the images twice and the registry numbers on the edges three times before he threw them down, checked the earlier frames that Amy had shot of the whale tail, then crossed the room and grabbed Kona by the shoulders. Wheres frame twenty-six, goddamn it? What did you do with it?This just like I get it, mon. I didnt do nothing.Hes a criminal, Clay, Nate said. Then he grabbed the anticipate and called the lab.All they could tell him was that the film had been processed normally and picked up from the bin in front. A machine cut the negatives before they went into the sleeves perhaps it had snipped off the frame. Theyd be happy to give Nate a fresh roll of film for his trouble.Two hours later Nate sat at the desk, holding a pen and looking at a sheet of paper. Just looking at it. The room was dark except for the desk lamp, which reached out just far enough to leave darkness in all the corners where the unknown could hide. There was a nightstand, the desk, the cha ir, and a single bed with a system set at its end, a blanket on top as a cushion. Nathan Quinn was a tall man, and his feet hung off the end of the bed. He found that if he aloof the supporting trunk, he dreamed of foundering in blue-water ocean and woke up gasping. The trunk was full of books, journals, and blankets, none of which had ever been removed since hed shipped them to the island nine years ago. A centipede the size of a Pontiac had once lived in the bottom-right corner of the trunk but had long since moved on once he realized that no one was ever going to bother him, so he could stand up on his hind hundred feet, hiss like a pissed cat, and deliver a deadly bite to a naked foot. There was a small television, a clock radio, a small kitchenette with two burners and a microwave, two full bookshelves under the window that looked out onto the compound, and a yellowed print of two of Gauguins Tahitian girls between the windows over the bed. At one time, before the plantation s had been automated, ten people probably slept in this room. In grad school at UC Santa Cruz, Nathan Quinn had lived in quarters about this same size. Progress.The paper on Nates desk was empty, the bottle of Myerss Dark drunkard beside it half empty. The door and windows were open, and Nate could hear the warm trades rattling the fronds of two tall coconut palms out front. There was a tap on the door, and Nate looked up to see Amy silhouetted in the doorway. She stepped into the light.Nathan, can I come in? She was habiliment a T-shirt dress that hit her about midthigh.Nate put his hand over the paper, embarrassed that there was nothing written on it. I was just trying to put a plan together for He looked past the paper to the bottle, then back at Amy. Do you want a drink? He picked up the bottle, looked around for a glass, then just held the bottle out to her.Amy shook her head. Are you all right?I started this work when I was your age. I dont know if I have the energy to s tart it all over again.Its a lot of work. Im really sorry this happened.Why? You didnt do it. I was close, Amy. Theres something that Ive been missing, but I was close.It will still be there. You know, we have the field notes from the last couple of years. Ill help you put as much of it back together as I can.I know you will, but Clays right. Nobody cares. I should have gone into biochemistry or become an ecowarrior or something.I care.Nate looked at her feet to avoid looking her in the eye. I know you do. But without the recordings well then He shrugged and took a sip from the rum bottle. You cant drink, you know, he said, now the professor, now the Ph.D., now the head researcher. You cant do anything or have anything in your life that gets in the way of researching whales.Okay, Amy said. I just wanted to see if you were okay.Yeah, Im okay.Well get started move it back together tomorrow. Good night, Nate. She backed out the door.Night, Amy. Nate noticed that she wasnt wearing a nything under the T-shirt dress and felt sleazy for it. He turned his attention back to his blank piece of paper, and before he could figure out why, he wrote BITE ME in big block letters and underlined it so hard that he ripped the page.