Fathom

by L. L. Standage

  The bag of dried mango sat on the table, so I took some to nibble on and felt my seasickness subside again. I yawned, fumbled in the dark for the medicine bottle and some water, then stumbled back to bed. As I shifted to lie down, there came the sound of a boat motor. It wasn’t the Imbali. I looked toward the door, now wide awake.

  I crept up the steps and opened the door to the deck. Seidon and Cordelia both sat awake, staring at a light in the distance.

  “What is it?” I asked as I closed the door behind me.

  “Another boat. They’re coming our way,” said Seidon.

  “Is it Linnaeus?”

  Cordelia shook her head. “I can’t tell for sure.”

  “I can let you know when they’re gone if you want to wait inside.” I brought the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and sat in the lounge chair Seidon had been sleeping on. They hurried into the cabin below and shut the door behind them. I shivered from the cold of the ocean all around me. The nameless boat came closer every minute.

  Soon I saw someone standing on the deck of the other boat. Her long, dark hair blew in the wind. Her pale hands gripped the chrome railing. I squinted as the boat came closer. Only when it was about thirty feet away could I recognize her.

  “Natasha!” I said, relief spilling over me. “I was so worried about you. How did you find us?” I stood and walked to the railing of the Imbali as the boat Natasha rode approached on our side.

  “I hired a boat,” she said. “Used a GPS.” Her teeth chattered.

  “Here, can you climb over?” I said. She lifted a long ladder with hooks on the end and handed it to me. I hooked it around the railing. She crawled across. I gave her a hand as her feet came onto the deck.

  “Your hands are freezing,” I said, reaching for one of the blankets on the lounge chair. “Here. Do you want to come down and get some sleep?”

  “Go have Uther warm up some tea for me,” she said. She looked sad. She must have had a terrible time showing up at the marina only to find we had gone without her.

  “Why don’t you come below and warm up?”

  “I’m fine. Just need some tea.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right back.”

  She nodded and I hurried into the cabin.

  “Who is it, Olivia?” Sam asked as I came down the steps. She and Seidon sat together on her bed.

  “It’s Natasha. She hired a boat to bring her out here. She wants some tea, she’s freezing. I’m going to go let the others know she’s here.”

  “Oh, don’t wake them up. They’re probably exhausted,” said Sam.

  “They’ll want to know Natasha is safe.” I crossed the room and knocked on the door of the cabin. It took a moment, but the door opened and Calder stood there, looking sleepy and disheveled.

  “Oh, hey…” I said, a little unprepared to see him. “Could you wake up Eamon and tell him Natasha made it?”

  “Natasha?” he said, a confused crease forming between his eyebrows. “She’s here?”

  “Yeah, just outside.”

  “How’d she get here?”

  “Hired a boat. I’m going to heat up some tea for her.” I turned.

  “Olivia, wait.” He grabbed my wrist to stop me. “Natasha wants tea?”

  “Yeah, she’s cold. She asked for some tea.”

  “Natasha doesn’t drink tea. She hates it.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe she’s in the mood for some now.”

  But Calder, looking more serious than ever, slid past me.

  “Stay here.” He walked between Seidon, Cordelia, and Samantha, then went up the steps to the main deck. I ignored his command and followed him.

  I wish I had listened.

  When the cold of the outside air met my face, I screamed and stumbled sideways as the boat pitched hard to the left. Natasha was still on the boat, but she was no longer alone. Four others surrounded her and more waited on the boat connected to ours. All of them had guns. One of them held Natasha close, a gun pointed at her head. I recognized his lanky hair and missing pinky. Another stood with his weapon aimed at Calder’s chest…and foremost among them stood none other than Doran Q. Linnaeus.

  “Well done, my dear,” he said to Natasha. She held her hands balled into trembling fists and as I watched, a tear ran down the side of her cheek. I pulled myself upright and moved as if to join Calder, but Linnaeus raised his own weapon and pointed the barrel at me.

  “I wouldn’t move if I were you,” he warned. He came closer, hatred radiating in his eyes. “Olivia, is it? Olivia what?”

  I kept quiet.

  “I said, Olivia what?” His hand flew before I could react and the back of it smacked across my cheek. My head jerk with the momentum. The pain delayed a second; I fell as a struggle between the others ensued. Then my cheek ignited, throbbing with pain. The bald Englishman and another big guy held Calder back. Both pointed their guns at his face.

  I didn’t answer, my gaze moving from Linnaeus to Calder. His jaw clenched in fear as his eyes fixed on me. Linnaeus stood over me. The ocean waves grew. Or maybe it was my own imagination rolling and lurching in terror.

  “You have made a terrible mistake, Olivia. You and all your little friends here. You see, I am an honest man. And you made me into a liar.”

  I cowered away from him, but it only made him laugh.

  “Apparently, I didn’t make myself clear enough when I invited your friend Samantha for a visit. I specifically told Dr. O’Dell I wanted a mermaid and he gave me a farce. A farce that has ruined me…probably for the rest of my life. Now, you know the only way to fix it. Don’t you?”

  I shook my head, feeling the spray of a wave as it crashed against the side of the Imbali.

  “You tell one of your mermaid friends to come up and see me right now. If they come back and fulfill the promise you gave to me, I’ll leave you alone and never bother any of you again. If not, people are going to get hurt. Starting with this one.” He pointed at Calder.

  “No!” I shrieked as he aimed the gun. I sprang at Linnaeus, bumping into him as the gun fired.

  Natasha screamed. Calder cried out. I gnashed my teeth together as Linnaeus swore and kicked me away. I looked up where I landed. Calder stared at Natasha, unhurt, but she shook in agony. Blood coated her thigh. Marinus murmured something in her ear, stroking her hair and rocking her like a baby.

  “What happened?” Samantha cried, looking out from the door to the cabin.

  “No, Samantha, go back! Go back!” I cried. She slammed the door.

  “No, come back, Samantha,” Linnaeus taunted. “Come back here and talk with us.” One of the other men crossed the deck as if to bring Sam out himself, but the door to the galley opened and out stepped Eamon, Walter, and Uther. My heart leapt as I saw the shine of Uther’s gun in his hand.

  “Ah, Dr. O’Dell.”

  “Mr. Linnaeus,” said Eamon with a cordial nod and an expression as fierce as a hardened battle general. Meanwhile, the boat rocked all the more. The worsening waves weren’t my imagination, nor were the thick mists and clouds gathering overhead.

  “Tell the German to remove his weapon and drop it overboard,” Linnaeus continued. Uther frowned and holstered his gun.

  Linnaeus shook his head. “Drop it.”

  I watched as Uther scanned each person, looking for a way, any hope of escape. Come on, Uther. You can get us out of this. But after a few more seconds, he put his gun on the deck. In the tilt of the boat, the gun slid across the deck and fell into the water. His scowl deepened.

  “Call for them, O’Dell,” Linnaeus continued. “Bring me the mermaid you promised me. Or the next shot will spill her blood all over your boat.” He cocked the barrel of his own weapon and pointed it at me. Calder struggled to free himself from Linnaeus’s men. One of them shoved his gun into Calder’s ribcage. He groaned and bent away.

  “For them to come is their decision alone,” said Eamon. “I cannot command them one way or another. You know that.”

  “Do it now, O’Dell.”


  “I told you—”

  “Do it now!”

  The door to the cabin opened again. Cordelia emerged. She stepped onto the deck. I looked up at the mermaid who now stood straight and poised before Linnaeus, the wind whipping her curls and tugging at her clothing. The first drops of rain fell.

  “And who are you?” Linnaeus said to Cordelia with a tone of heavy interest. He looked her up and down.

  “Tell your men to drop their weapons,” she said, her voice loud enough for everyone to hear over the sounds of the rising storm, “and you may have what you seek.”

  “No, Cordelia, don’t do it!” I shouted.

  “Quiet, Olivia,” she snapped, her gaze never straying from Linnaeus’s eyes. “Take me. I am the one you need.”

  Linnaeus walked away from me and stood in front of Cordelia.

  “Prove it.”

  She pulled her hair away from her neck and turned her head to the side. Linnaeus reached out and touched her gills as a look of deepest rapture crossed his face. He then grabbed her by the hair, pulled her into a wrestler’s grip, and held out her hand.

  “Let us make sure. See what color your blood is,” he said.

  The English guy left guarding Calder to his companion and stepped forward, unfolding a knife.

  “No, stop!” Seidon shouted, shoving his way through. A wave crashed onto the deck and soaked us in salt water. The English guy reacted as quick as the forks of lightening flickering overhead. He grabbed Seidon by the neck and threw him down.

  “Reflexes, Your Highness,” Marinus said with a tsk, Natasha still in his clutching embrace. “You, of all people.” He turned to Linnaeus. “You’ll want to take this one too. He’s one of the royal family. They can’t bother you with him as a hostage.”

  “Get back on board,” Linnaeus said to his men. “Oh, and if either of you creatures decides to make a break for it, I’ll kill every person on this boat one by one until you return.”

  I sobbed into my wet fists, clinging to the slippery handles on the boat. I tried to get up to plead with Linnaeus, to beg him to let us go. But the ocean tossed violently and I couldn’t move.

  As one of the men climbed across the ladder, he fell overboard. His scream cut off as he disappeared. His comrades shouted in alarm.

  “Leave him!” cried Linnaeus through the rain. “But take the rest of these people across!”

  Marinus, his arms tight around Natasha, eased his way toward the other boat while another pulled Seidon. Then the Englishman shoved Calder along, the gun in his ribcage.

  “No, wait, stop!” I said. “Leave him alone!”

  I stood and slipped. A gun fired. I screamed, but the bullet missed.

  “No, Olivia!” Calder shouted.

  They continued to pull my friends toward the ladder. What could we do? Linnaeus had won. The world would learn about the existence of mermaids. Seidon and Cordelia would be displayed like a freak show for everyone to see.

  I looked around as though a solution would wash onto the boat from the stormy waves. We had to get away. But how? Choking on my shivering sobs, I looked up at the tower where the boat controls were.

  I didn’t hesitate. I stood, I slipped, I hit my head, I got back up. Someone shouted after me. I clung to the chrome railing and hurried as fast as the storm would allow. The rain blinded me, but I felt my way to the ladder.

  “Stop!” the English guy growled behind me. I screamed as the boat heaved left and right and left again. Hand over hand, I climbed to the tower. Someone grabbed my heel. I kicked hard. He grabbed my leg.

  “Let go!”

  He laughed, pulling me down the ladder. I kicked and scratched, struggling to pull his strong hands off of me. Then, with a clang and a groan, he fell. Samantha stood behind, poised with a frying pan in her hands.

  “I can’t believe that worked!”

  “Thank you!” I cried, then scrambled back up the ladder and lunged for the controls. No gas pedal. How was I supposed to do this? I’d been on ski boats back at home, maybe I could…

  Below, Natasha screamed. Marinus was trying to pull her to the ladder joining the ships but the waves continued to toss. I looked at the yacht where Linnaeus’s men clung to the railing with one hand and their guns in the other. I looked back at the controls. Key in the ignition, a stick that looked like a throttle next to it. Either it would work or it wouldn’t. I turned the key and pushed the throttle as far as it would go.

  In the next second, the motor roared to life and lurched the Imbali into the storm. The ladder joining the boats bent and broke. The Englishman tumbled over the railing and out of sight. Samantha lost hold of the frying pan, both of her arms wrapped around the boat rail. Linnaeus and Marinus were the only enemies left on board. Marinus had finally let go of Natasha. She crawled away from him. We had strength in numbers now, but everyone was flattened to the deck of the boat and gripping whatever they could find. I looked for Calder.

  There, near the edge. He clung to a deck lounge. The bolts holding it in place were breaking. I cut off the throttle, scrambled and slipped down the ladder of the slowing boat, hurled myself around the cabin, crossed the deck, and grabbed for him around the waist. The boat tumbled down a mountainous swell. The lower half of my body crashed into a rail, but my hold on Calder remained firm. I strained to help pull him away from the black, foaming maw of the angry ocean. My arms felt like they would rip from my body, until at last his knees found the deck and he held on to me.

  “Linnaeus, let him go!” Eamon shouted. I looked up. Linnaeus held Seidon with a gun to his head. Cordelia was gone. Walter and Uther huddled around Natasha at the door to the cabin, trying to control her bleeding. Marinus still moaned for her to come back to him. He made a lunge for her and Uther shoved him away. Marinus slid, screeching all the way into the rush of a foaming wave.

  “I’m a man of my word!” said Linnaeus, indifferent to the loss of Marinus. “If your mermaid doesn’t return in five minutes, I’m going to keep dishing out bullets, O’Dell!”

  “You have to let Seidon go!” Eamon choked as another wave of water rushed over the deck. “The waves won’t calm until you do!”

  “Call for them, O’Dell! Bring her back!”

  “I can’t, you fool!”

  Another voice joined in. “Let him go, you—” A peal of thunder roared overhead, muffling the rest. I looked around to see Samantha stagger from where I’d left her near the tower.

  Linnaeus laughed.

  “All right, you’ll do,” he said, eyes eyes on Samantha. “If your mermaid friend doesn’t flop back onto the deck of this boat, you’ll be the first to go and O’Dell can watch as one of his innocent friends dies.”

  Seidon struggled against Linnaeus.

  “Samantha, don’t!” Seidon shouted, his voice harsh with desperation. “Go back, go back!” He pushed backward, trying to knock Linnaeus into the water. Linnaeus recovered his footing, though barely.

  “Try that again, dear boy, and she dies. And you’ll be the first specimen we experiment on.”

  “Linnaeus!” Eamon shouted.

  I watched Sam continue toward them, hand over hand along the railing.

  “Sam, no!” I cried. Calder held me against his chest. Linnaeus pointed his gun and fired. Samantha buckled. I screamed, long and loud, my muscles seizing in horror as she doubled over.

  “Who’s next?” Linnaeus shouted, waving his gun like a mad man.

  “Enough! Leave them alone!” Eamon cried. But my eyes remained on Samantha.

  She looked up, her teeth gritted and her eyes wide with rage. She held one arm over her stomach. Blood leaked from under her arm. Lightning blazed, casting a colorless flash of light on her ferocious, determined features. A crash of thunder followed, louder than gunfire.

  Then, without warning, Samantha charged at Linnaeus. The gun in his hand fired twice more as he bellowed in shock and tumbled backward into the churning water. Seidon fell with them. Samantha, caught in the force of her attack,
disappeared over the railing as well.

  “SAMANTHA!” I tore myself free from Calder and rushed to the side of the boat where Sam had fallen. I leaned over the railing and swung one leg over, but Calder caught up with me and pulled me back. I screamed and fought while Uther and Walter grabbed a life preserver.

  The seas calmed. The rain stopped and the waves settled. The boat steadied. Uther and Eamon stood at the side, holding the rope that would be Sam’s lifeline. I searched the black water so hard, my head hurt.

  “Samantha!” I cried, over and over again. “Samantha!”

  A flood light appeared from the tower; its beam directed at the swaying waves. There was no sign of Samantha.

  Hours of searching. Hours of waiting. My hope to find Samantha treading water with all her strength changed to a hope we’d at least find her body. She’d had so much blood on her though. Walter wouldn’t let us get in the water because of sharks. The only thing that kept me from leaping into the ocean to do a search of my own was the sight of the dark dorsal fins.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I lay curled on a bench in the galley. My world was cold and numb. I couldn’t stop shaking. My stomach squirmed with nausea despite having already emptied anything left in it. I squeezed my eyes shut. Tears dripped down the side of my face. I didn’t want to open my eyes.

  “We found Linnaeus’s body in the water,” I heard Walter say to Eamon. I bit my lip to hold back a cry of misery. Finding that evil man’s remains instead of Samantha gave me a fresh stab of grief.

  “We can’t be implicated. We’ll have to trust one of the merpeople to deal with the body.”

  I rolled over, my wet hair smelling like fish and salt and death. Someone came and sat on the bench. I didn’t care who it was. I wanted to be left alone and not have to move ever again.