Fathom

by L. L. Standage

  “In here,” came his voice from the bathroom. Sam hurried down the hall, lunged for the bathroom door, and wrenched it open before I could stop her.

  “Sam!” I said, but she ignored me. “Give the guy some privacy!”

  “It’s fine,” his voice echoed. “Just having a soak.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Olivia says we have to go home today.” Sam spoke with her arms folded, looking into the bathroom without an ounce of shame.

  “Today?” Water sloshed in the tub and splashed everywhere. Sam didn’t look away.

  “Seidon, geez!” I cried, then snorted with laughter as he came out of the bathroom dripping wet, shirtless, but wearing blue jeans.

  “Yeah,” Samantha went on as though I hadn’t said anything. “You’re the prince, Your Highness. You go tell Eamon we’re not leaving until everyone else has to.”

  “I can hear you, you know,” Eamon’s voice called from the kitchen. “And technically, I don’t have to follow orders from him. He’s the prince of Zydrunas, not the prince of California.”

  Samantha hurried to the stairs. “Come on, Eamon. We like hanging out with you guys.”

  “Hey, if you want, you can wait until tonight, but the rest of us are leaving early tomorrow morning.”

  “Why can’t we wait?”

  Walter emerged from his room, holding a folded towel and a toothbrush. “We have to make sure you two get away safely,” he said. He turned to the bathroom. “Seidon, you better clean up all this mess. And there better be some hot water left.”

  “I didn’t use any,” he said, still dripping water all over the carpet.

  “Eamon, Seidon’s taking all the cold water,” Natasha cried in a tattling tone of voice from downstairs. I laughed yet again.

  I went back to my room to finish with my hair while Samantha argued her case with Eamon and Cordelia. Though I didn’t say it out loud, I didn’t want to go home either. I almost wished Linnaeus himself paced the front sidewalk, so everyone had to stay for a lot longer. Like, the rest of the summer.

  But Samantha came in a few minutes later, looking smug.

  “We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”

  The rest of the day passed like the last day of summer vacation. Samantha stayed out on the back porch with Seidon, snapping pictures and refusing to pack her bags “until she had to.” Though I wanted to stay as much as she did, I had my bags packed by lunch time. My form of protest was putting off the call to Aunt Shannon to tell her I had to go home early.

  I passed the afternoon helping Calder load the car in the garage with supplies and gear. It was a depressing sight.

  “Where do you want this?” I asked, holding a black duffel bag full of some of Uther’s computer equipment.

  “I’ve got room for it over here,” said Calder. He stretched out his hand. I held out the straps of the duffel bag for him to take it. My fingers brushed his in the exchange. I pretended it didn’t free another butterfly or two in my stomach.

  “I wish we didn’t have to leave so soon,” I said as I picked up another duffel bag. “I never finished my scholarship project.”

  “What scholarship project?” He held his hand out for the bag.

  “The National Oceanic Associate awards a scholarship every year to a student with a really great project based on a theory they have to come up with themselves.”

  “So, it’s like a giant science fair project?”

  “Pretty much, yeah. But I haven’t had a chance to work on it. I lost my phone, so there went a lot of my initial research, then with all this—you know, finding out mermaids actually exist—I’m not going to get it done.”

  “What was your theory?”

  “Oh, I don’t want to bore you with all that.”

  “No, I’m interested.”

  I had to pause from reaching for more luggage. That was the nicest thing he had ever said to me. After Samantha’s lukewarm support and my parents’ preoccupation with dissolving their marriage, I had an actual listening ear. Warmth bloomed in my chest.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, maybe I can help.”

  I banged into the wall trying to pick up the luggage.

  “Hey, did the wall jump out at you?” he asked. I gave a nervous laugh, massaged my head where it had hit the wall, and tried again to reach for the luggage.

  “I’ve just never had anyone show support for my career choice before.” I handed him the bag.

  “Really? Why not? It’s cool.”

  I couldn’t stop smiling. While we finished loading the van, I told him about some of the ideas I had for my project. We kept talking long after everything had been loaded.

  “I won’t be able to finish though,” I said with a sigh, leaning against the side of the van, “since we have to leave tomorrow morning.”

  “You don’t have to live here to finish a project about the ocean. You’ve bested Doran Linnaeus and survived a couple car chases.” He nudged me. “Pretty sure you’re capable of putting together a marine biology report.”

  I looked down, blushing and biting my lower lip. Did he mean it, or was he just trying to make up for being a pain?

  The door to the garage opened and Natasha poked her head in.

  “We’ve got dinner, you two,” she said, then shut the door. I stayed where I was.

  “Come on,” said Calder. “I smell pizza.”

  Still smiling, I followed him through the garage door and into the kitchen, where Eamon pulled a steaming, bubbling pepperoni pizza out of the oven.

  “Hey Olivia, would you go find Samantha and Seidon and tell them dinner’s ready?” he asked.

  “Sure. Are they still outside?”

  “Well, they better not be anywhere else,” said Cordelia from where she stood on the other side of the kitchen counter. “Our enemies know who she is just about as well as they know you.”

  I walked out the back door. Sam and Seidon sat on the porch, looking absorbed in close conversation. They looked up at me and leaned away from each other, but I wasn’t fooled.

  “Hey,” I said. “Dinner is ready.”

  “Thanks,” said Seidon with a nod. He stayed sitting. With the look he had on his face, he might as well have held up a big sign flashing the words: Now go away, you nosy human. Samantha, on the other hand, stood. Seidon frowned a little, but also stood and went inside before us.

  I shook my head. We were both making it a lot harder on ourselves to leave.

  “Breathing through your mouth is so weird!” said Seidon. “I keep forgetting I can’t breathe and eat at the same time.”

  “Well, don’t make us show you firsthand what the Heimlich maneuver is,” said Eamon.

  “The what?”

  “Heimlich Maneuver.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Humans use it when they’re choking,” I said. Seidon grinned as though I’d told him the Heimlich was a magic trick.

  “Show me!”

  “Seidon…” said Cordelia in her usual you’re embarrassing me tone.

  “No, really, how do you do it?”

  “Come here, Natasha,” said Walter.

  “No, don’t do it on me.”

  “Calder then.”

  “No thanks,” he called from where he sat next to me on the floor. He’d chosen to sit by me, which made it really hard for me to keep from grinning like an idiot. Good thing the conversation was so lively, everyone else smiled too.

  “This stuff isn’t too bad,” said Seidon as he chewed. “What’s it called again?”

  “Pizza,” three of us answered.

  “Pizza. I like it. What do you think, Cordelia?”

  “It’ll do.” She ate her pizza with a knife and fork.

  “I wish I could take some home with me.” Seidon examined his fifth slice of pizza as if it were a puppy.

  “What kinds of things do you eat at home?” I asked. “Obviously not shrimp.”

  “Ugh, no,” said Seidon with a cringe. “We eat fish and
different kinds of seaweed. Now, you tell me…what sort of things do you eat in Arizona?”

  Sam and I laughed.

  “The same things we eat in California,” she replied.

  “I’ve heard Arizona has the best Mexican food outside of Mexico,” said Eamon.

  “Maybe, but they’ve got the worst German food,” said Uther.

  “Have you been to Arizona?” I asked him as I went to the kitchen to get myself another slice of pizza.

  “I did some security work for a company there a few years back. My employer brought me some schnitzel and spaetzle from a place called ‘Edelweiss Haus’ and it tasted like sh—”

  “Shrimp?” Seidon finished for him with a commiserating nod. This time, everyone laughed. Well, except for Cordelia, but I expected that.

  “Cards, anyone?” said Walter, pulling a deck out of his pocket.

  We spent the next few hours playing spirited card games, one Uther taught us and another from Calder. I’d never seen him more animated than when involved in the card games. He loved to trash talk and hated to lose. It was hilarious. And appealing enough to make me thoroughly depressed.

  Walter, on the other hand, was the opposite. He kept the peace, calming the occasional breakout of good-natured tempers every time Uther tried to cheat or Calder lost to a good hand by Natasha.

  Around ten o’clock, Eamon yawned and looked at his watch again.

  “All right, it’s late. We’ve got an early start in the morning.”

  “Not yet, I’ve got a great hand,” I said. Calder tried to peek at my cards. I elbowed him. He elbowed me back. I looked for Samantha to meet her approving eye, but she wasn’t here. “Where’s Sam?”

  “Seidon is gone too,” said Cordelia, though she sounded like she was trying to digest a brick. She gritted her teeth. “That boy is in serious trouble.”

  “They’re probably just out on the back patio,” I said.

  “Saying goodbye,” said Natasha, wiggling her eyebrows. I burst out laughing. Cordelia scowled, stomped to the back door, and threw it open.

  “I kept telling her she’s only making it harder on herself to leave,” I said, shoving Calder again as he made another attempt to look at my cards.

  “They’re not here!” Cordelia shouted from the patio. I looked up. She stood at the back door, holding Samantha’s camera. I jumped to my feet. Sam wouldn’t leave her camera sitting outside.

  “I’m sure they’re nearby somewhere,” said Eamon. Cordelia thrust the camera into my hands and flew back outside.

  “How long have they been gone?” asked Uther.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

  “They must have sneaked out,” said Walter. “They haven’t been playing cards with us for at least the last hour.”

  Soon Cordelia came back inside. “That boy is in very serious trouble! They aren’t anywhere around the house or on the beach.”

  “Should we go look for them?”

  “Calder, Walter, go see if you can find them along the street. Uther and I will search the beach. The rest of you, stay here.” Eamon looked at Cordelia; she clenched her teeth and jutted her jaw in anger at being given orders.

  Calder ran into the garage and emerged with flashlights. The rest of them hurried out the door. Natasha and I waited on the couch while Cordelia paced, muttering to herself.

  “This is ridiculous. I should be out there with them. He is my responsibility. If something has happened…”

  Five minutes, ten minutes, a half hour passed without a change. Why did Samantha and Seidon have to sneak out? The worry gurgling in the pit of my stomach boiled into anger.

  At a quarter to eleven, the front door opened. Calder and Walter came in, looking weary and switching off their flashlights. Natasha and I stood.

  “No sign of them,” said Calder. He went into the kitchen and got some bottles of water out of the ice chest.

  “If Seidon doesn’t get a drink of water soon, he could faint,” said Cordelia, watching as Calder drank his water. “He’ll die if we don’t find him by morning.”

  “He’ll be all right, Captain,” said Walter. “He can take care of himself.”

  I sat back down and clutched my hair, sick with anxiety and trepidation. Where were they? Calder sat next to me.

  “She’ll be fine,” he said. “They’ll probably walk in any minute now, looking guilty.”

  I kneaded my temples and nodded, trying hard to believe him. The minutes passed by, each one more sluggish than the last.

  The door opened again. I looked up. Eamon and Uther came in, supporting someone between them. I stood, about to run, but stopped, aghast at what I saw. Seidon, barely conscious, leaned on Eamon and Uther. Droplets of dark blue blood leaked from his lip and from a cut over his eye.

  “By Nereus! What happened?!” Cordelia cried, rushing to Eamon and taking Seidon’s weight on his side.

  “We found him like this,” said Uther. Walter gave Cordelia a water bottle. She placed it at Seidon’s lips.

  “Bring him upstairs. We need to get him in the water, he’s dry as a bone,” said Eamon, running ahead of them.

  “But where’s Samantha?” I asked, looking between Uther and Eamon as if they had forgotten to bring her too.

  “They…took…her.” Seidon murmured around his choking gulps of water. “Took…Samantha…”

  Cordelia and Uther laid Seidon into the bathtub, submerging him under the water. His blue blood drifted like delicate tentacles around his wounds, and his gills rippled.

  Eamon took a bottle from his medical bag and poured three drops of a green liquid into the water. I waited, wringing my hands and biting my lip. After a long minute, Seidon’s eyes opened under the water and he sat up.

  “They took her!” he said as water sprayed from his lips and streamed everywhere. He looked at us with wide eyes, bloodshot with blue instead of human red.

  “What happened?” said Eamon.

  “We were walking…” He wiped his dripping face. “Along the beach. These men showed up. I tried to fight them, but there were too many! They grabbed Samantha and dragged her away. I went after them, but they put us both into a car. She told me to jump out and run. I thought she’d jump out too, but…” He trailed off, his face lowering in misery.

  “Who were they?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them before. I’m sorry, Cordelia, I don’t know how they found us.”

  I stood frozen in terror and disbelief.

  “We have to leave,” said Eamon. “Now.” He hurried downstairs. The others flew to action while I stayed rooted. What was happening?

  “Why would they do this?” I said as tears clouded my vision. “She didn’t do anything to them!”

  Calder escorted me away from the bathroom and down the stairs, then seated me on the couch.

  “How?” I dropped my face into my hands. “How did they find us? Why did they take her?”

  “They won’t hurt her,” said Walter as he passed on his way to the garage. “She’s valuable.”

  Eamon’s cell phone rang from where it sat on the counter. Calder snatched it up and answered it. He scowled. “How did you get this number?”

  I looked up, wiping tears from my cheeks.

  “Just a moment,” said Calder. “Walter, go get Eamon and Uther.”

  “Who is it, Cal?” Natasha asked.

  “Who do you think?” he replied. I jumped up and flew toward Calder, reaching for the phone in his hand.

  “IF YOU EVEN TOUCH ONE HAIR OF SAMANTHA’S HEAD, I SWEAR I’LL—”

  Calder pulled the phone out of my reach. He tossed the phone to Natasha, then wrapped one arm around my shoulders and the other around my waist. I couldn’t control my sobbing as I fought to free myself.

  “She’s okay,” he said in my ear, over and over again. “She’s okay.”

  I stopped fighting, but I couldn’t stop crying. Eamon, Walter, and Uther hurried down the stairs.

  “Put it on speaker, Natasha,�
�� said Eamon. Natasha pushed a button on the cell phone and placed it in the middle of the table. “What do you want, Linnaeus?”

  “Now, how did you know it was me, Dr. O’Dell?” said Linnaeus’s voice, full of mock surprise and fiendish pleasure. I wanted to reach right through the phone and strangle him.

  “What do you want?” said Walter.

  “Well, it’s late and I need my rest, so I’ll just go for the heart of the matter. In a few days, I’ll be having a little party. But of course, you knew that already, didn’t you?”

  “Cut the theatrics and get to the point,” said Eamon.

  “Very well. I want a mermaid.”

  Was he serious? I looked at Eamon. He glanced up at Cordelia.

  “And what makes you think we can give you one?”

  “Oh, you’ll do as I ask, O’Dell. Or I’ll have to kill the girl.”

  No! He couldn’t! I fought against Calder’s hold again.

  “You don’t want that on your conscience, do you?” Linnaeus continued.

  “Why Samantha?” I cried. Calder shushed me. A desperate need to pull away tore at me, to run out the door and do something to find her.

  Linnaeus laughed. “Leverage, my dear. So, do you agree with my terms, O’Dell, or do I need to make myself clearer?”

  “There’s nothing at all we can do,” Cordelia said in a harsh, quiet voice. “Unless we risk everything on a rescue mission, and we have no idea what—”

  But Eamon shook his head at Cordelia. A dangerous glare flashed across her features at his defiance of her authority again, but she quieted.

  “I’m afraid I can’t give you what you want, Linnaeus,” said Eamon.

  “Then I suppose I’ll have to do what is necessary.” There was a quiet scuffle, a whimper, and a loud, painful scream.

  “Samantha!” I shrieked, fighting again to release myself.

  “Bring me a mermaid and you can have the girl!” Linnaeus said.

  I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit and let my best friend die. My ears rang and my entire body shook as I thought harder than I had ever done before…and got an idea. A crazy one. But Sam’s life was on the line. I choked on my tears, ignored the protests in my head and the raging pulse in my chest, gulped a lungful of air, and shouted, “You can have your mermaid, just tell us when and where!”