“Now he’s on a mission to capture those innocent dolphins. In the name of naval security. Just to spite me.”
He looked me in the eyes. “Do you really think that?”
I turned away. “No.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
I raised my hand, gestured for the waitress, pointed at my empty glass. “Have another Bahama Mama. That was damn good.”
“Poppy, what are you going to do?”
I looked down at the ball of yarn. “Maybe you could teach me to knit.”
“Oh, great.”
I bit down hard on my lip. “Well, I can’t let them capture those dolphins.”
“Get yourself together, girl. I mean about Dalton.”
I shrugged.
“Oh my god, you’re hopeless.”
“Don’t say that.”
“You’re pathetic, you know that. It’s so obvious what’s happening here. You’re scared because you know you love him too, but you don’t want to get hurt. So you’re—I don’t even know what. This is cause for an intervention.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m scared because—”
“I’ve read about people who do this. Self sabotage. It’s not that uncommon. Wait, what’d you say?”
“What’d I say when?”
“Just now. You said you’re scared because and then you didn’t finish.”
“I’m not scared of anything. I’m rough and tough and I’m going to kick some ass.” The rum was making me feel warm, relaxed. I could think now. “First, I need to get the trackers off their feet, I mean fins.”
“Oh, here we go,” Chris said.
“No, I’m serious. I need my own plan.”
“Oh, I know. Next you’re going to ask me to—”
“And I need your help.”
Chapter Sixteen
“We have to get the trackers off. How do we do that? How do we get them to come close enough to do that? How do they come off?”
Kerrie and Natalie stared at me, trying to follow my barrage of questions. The three cups of coffee Chris had poured down my throat brought me some clarity, and I was on a mission.
“Where’s your partner?” Kerrie said, looking past me. “The good-looking guy who—”
“Yeah, he’s running down another side to this.”
She looked confused. “Another side?”
“Forget it. Chris here is going to assist for now.”
She sat back, her eyebrows knit with concern.
“I don’t mean to be curt. Just, time’s a wastin’ you know.”
“What did your supervisor say?”
“Can’t call out. The storm. But we don’t have time to wait. The trackers. How do we get them off?”
“Okay. Um.” Kerrie glanced at Natalie. “Why do you need to remove the trackers?”
This wasn’t going as I’d planned. “What’s the problem?” I asked. My head throbbed like a tiny wrecking ball was banging against my temple from the inside. Note to self: coffee then rum then coffee equals not good.
“The science we'd glean,” Natalie said, “from learning about how these dolphins, once captive, will adapt to being back in the wild would be—”
“Unprecedented,” Kerrie said.
“You mean if the dolphins stay here,” I said.
“Wherever they decide to go. That’s the point. We want the GPS information.”
Natalie looked hopeful. “Can't you get the government to help with that?”
“I wish I had those kind of resources. Even if I did, the time it would take—doesn’t matter. I’m concerned about the lives of these dolphins right now. I want those trackers off so they have a chance. So they can’t be found and recaptured.”
“You’re right, of course,” Kerrie said. “You’re right.”
Good. “Besides, they’ll probably decide to stay here.”
“Maybe,” Natalie said.
I locked onto Kerrie again. “So how do we remove the trackers?”
“Well, the trackers are bolted to the dorsal fin.”
“Bolted?”
“Yeah. Like an ear piercing. But a larger bolt.”
“Can I unscrew the bolt by hand?”
“I don’t know. Most are designed to fall off after a certain time. But these—I don’t know.”
“What’s the worst case scenario?”
Her eyes traveled around the table as she thought. “That you’d have to rip the fin. Which the dolphin would survive. They are highly resilient. But it hurts, for sure.”
“What about bolt cutters?”
“You wouldn’t be able to get the cutter between the fin and the nut. You’d be better to unscrew the bolts. If the dolphin will let you. You’ll need a wrench, or what do you call those—?”
“Pliers?” Natalie offered.
“Yeah, two. We have some.”
Chris asked, “Couldn’t you just break off the antennas?”
I turned to Kerrie.
“Maybe,” she said. “But—” She bit her lip.
“What is it?”
“Either way, what happens when they realize they’ve been tampered with? They’ll know something is up. They’ll know we’re messing with them.”
“They don’t get the satellite info instantly, right? The storm could be interfering with transmissions, right? So they wouldn’t make that assumption immediately.”
“Yeah, okay, but what about when they see the dolphins and notice that the trackers are gone?”
“The dolphins don’t have any reason to go back to their boat, right? You said they’re feeding themselves, that they’re doing fine in the wild.”
She shrugged. “We think so, but—”
“Okay. This is their chance. We have to help them get free. Let’s do this.”
Kerrie didn’t move. She and Natalie exchanged a look of concern.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re making a big assumption.”
“And what’s that?”
They glanced at each other again. Kerrie said, “That you could find them.”
“Okay. Maybe I can’t. But surely you know how to find them?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. We go days without seeing the resident dolphins. We just don’t know that much about them.”
“Well, you must have some idea. I mean, where have you seen them so far? Has it been around the same area?”
Resigned, she said, “Well, after the storm passes, maybe—”
“No, we don’t have time. We can’t wait. Where would they go during the storm?”
Kerrie’s eyes grew wide and she shook her head. “I have no idea. We don’t even know where ours go at night. During a storm, I just don’t know.”
“Take your best guess.”
Natalie chimed in. “We think they head out to deep water. But if so, you’ll never find them. It would be like a needle in a haystack. But…”
“But what?”
“But if these dolphins have been trained, they might have been trained for this kind of scenario, too. I don’t know. Maybe they’d go where their trainers’ boat would go. In that case, maybe they’d head for the lee of the island?”
“All right. That’s where we’ll start. We need a boat.”
Kerrie stared at me. “Wish I had one. We always go with the dive shop on their boat. But we can’t—”
“That’s the boat we’ll take then. Chris can drive.”
“Just the two of you? Out in this storm? Are you crazy?”
“I’ll go,” said Natalie.
Kerrie gave Natalie a sharp, motherly look. “Like I said, there’s a storm. A big one.”
“All the better,” I said. “No one will be out there to see us.”
Eight foot swells in a small dive boat… Yeah. No problem. Poor Chris. I shouldn’t have brought him.
Wind whipped spray off the tops of the waves that instantly mixed with the rain and slapped us in our faces.
Six inches of wat
er sloshed around in the bottom of the boat.
Natalie pointed. “I think I see them!”
“Great,” Chris said, the word laced with sarcasm. He’d been looking a little green and lobbying to head back for the dock.
“Head that way,” I told him.
“Aye, aye, Captain!”
“How do we get them to come up to the boat?” I asked Natalie.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I have no idea what their whistle calls are. They’ve been coming on their own.”
I grabbed a handful of the frozen shrimp we’d bought at the grocery store and, as soon as we got close, I tossed it into the water.
One of the dolphins zipped toward it.
“Yeah, you want some more?” I tossed another handful into the water. “I think they like the shrimp.”
The boat rolled up on a wave, then surfed down the other side. I lost sight of the dolphin.
“Stay with them,” I told Chris.
“Are you kidding? It’s all I’ve got to keep us from rolling over.” He had a life vest on and an orange PFD strapped around his waist.
The dolphin popped back up alongside the boat. “Toss some more shrimp,” I told Natalie. “I’ll get the pliers.”
The boat surged up a wave, then down the other side.
“Keep it steady!” I hollered to Chris.
He gave me a sarcastic thumbs up.
“If I toss them one at a time, I think he might stay alongside the boat. What do you think?” Natalie said.
“Do it.”
I flipped my leg over the side of the boat, straddling the gunwale, with the pliers in my hands. Rain pelted me in the face.
“You’re nuts, you know that!” Chris shouted.
“Just keep it steady.”
The dolphin popped up, grabbed a shrimp and was gone again.
“I’m not sure that will work,” I said.
“Maybe it would be easier if you get them to bow ride,” Natalie said.
“What do you mean?”
“They love to ride the wave pushed from the bow as the boat plows through the water. It’s fun.”
“Of course it is,” Chris muttered.
“I don’t know if they’ll do it in the big waves.”
“Well, it’s worth a try. What do we do?”
“Keep it steady. Try staying in the trough so it’s smooth.”
Chris turned the boat.
“Five to eight miles an hour is fast enough. And if we head back toward shore, maybe they’ll follow us into calmer water.”
“Good idea,” Chris said.
Two dolphins emerged alongside the boat. “There’s two,” I shouted.
“Give ‘em a minute. They might do it.”
They disappeared below the surface, then popped up together, side by side, right at the bow of the boat. “Yes!”
I lay down on my belly, clamping onto the gunwale with my thighs, reaching with the pliers. The dolphins pumped their peduncles, their flukes moving up and down, to keep up with the boat. They dipped under and up again so fast, there was no way I would be able to get a hold of the tracker. Even if I did, it would rip off, tearing the fin as they dove again.
“They’re moving around too much,” I said.
Natalie leaned over me. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“I need to get into the water with them.”
“In these waves?” She and Chris both shook their heads.
“Below the surface, it’s calm. If I can get them to follow me to the bottom, maybe they’ll slow and I can get close.”
“That’s a big maybe,” Natalie said, hanging onto the handrail with both hands, her hair whipping around her face.
All the SCUBA gear I needed was on board. Tanks, BCs, weights, fins, and masks. I picked up a BC.
“Oh, no. Not a good idea.” Chris shook his head at me. “First of all, you’re not supposed to dive alone. Second, how are we going to get you off this boat? Let alone back into it. Third—”
“I’ll swim to shore.”
“Are you nuts?”
“Dalton did it last night.”
“Dalton’s a trained SEAL.”
With my feet wide apart to keep me steady, I bent over and buckled the BC to a tank. “I’m doing this.”
Natalie helped me with fins and a mask. “For the record,” she said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea either.”
“Noted,” I said. “Just head back to the dock.”
Natalie looked at Chris. He shook his head. He knew there was nothing he could say to stop me.
“Give me the bag of shrimp,” I said and spit in my mask.
With the air cranked on, everything strapped to my back, mask in place, Natalie handed me the shrimp and I plunged over the side.
Bubbles surrounded me as I submerged.
The storm had churned the sea, stirring up debris. The visibility was bad, maybe twenty feet.
As I sank, the frenzy of the waves subsided, and I settled on the sandy bottom. The only sound was my breathing—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Right away, one of the tagged dolphins appeared out of the abyss, curious.
I pushed shrimp from the bag and he dipped, grabbing it in his mouth, then was gone again, without the slightest movement of his tail.
Now, come closer. I held out a shrimp. The dolphin zoomed in from behind me and snatched it from my hand.
Crap. That’s not going to work.
I needed the dolphin to hold steady, the dorsal fin facing my way. Or rest on the bottom. Something. How in the world was I going to do that?
The dolphin circled above me, dashing in and out of the bubbles emitted from my regulator as I exhaled.
Stop playing. This is serious. I need you down here, at the bottom with me.
What had Kerrie said about crater feeding? Something about using their rostrums to poke around at the bottom, searching under the sand?
Could that work? I took out another shrimp, waved it around, and shoved it into the sand under my fin.
The dolphin swiveled past, chirping away. Then he paused, nose down, nudging my fin, his dorsal fin within reach.
I raised the pliers, and he bucked, knocking them from my hands, and zipped away.
I dropped to my knees and felt around in the sand. My hand locked on to one pair. Where was the other? It had to be right here. Or had he knocked it farther away then I’d thought?
My hand grasped onto something. Whew. Found ‘em!
I gripped the two pair of pliers in my hands and held them up like a cowboy brandishing two six-shooters. C’mon, now. I’m ready for you.
The dolphin came back, dipped downward, poking in the sand and exposing the fin. I grabbed ahold of the tracker with one hand and with the other, I clamped the pliers down on the nut, then the other pliers on the other end of the bolt. Two turns and it broke off. Got it!
The tracker fell to the ocean floor. Yes! I picked it up and stuffed it inside my zippered pocket. One down. Four to go.
The dolphin spun around me, chirping and rolling. I couldn’t be sure, but he seemed gleeful, as if he knew I’d helped him somehow.
Now tell your friends. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help.
Moments later, another appeared. I waved another shrimp in front of me, then tucked it into the sand below my fin. This dolphin came right to me, flipped his tail up, and moved next to me, as if to offer his fin. Was he—? Did he know? It was as though he was asking for me to take off the tracker.
I quickly broke it free.
The dolphin dipped and spun. I couldn’t believe it. They knew. They wanted them off!
Soon, two more appeared. These two were more tentative. They darted past, then on a second pass, slowed, looking me over. I tried my trick once more, waving shrimp around for them to see, then tucked them under my fins. They turned and disappeared into the murky sea, beyond my vision.
C’mon back now. It won’t hurt, I swear.
The first dolphin swooped in
and tried to pick off the shrimp. Not you! I held my foot firm, keeping the shrimp buried. The dolphin flipped his tail and spun in a vertical loop, clicking and chirping. Was he frustrated?
The two with trackers still attached appeared again, low across the sand, incoming, like a couple of torpedoes. I wasn’t sure if they were going to plow me over. Full-speed they came, then right before me, they dropped their rostrums to the sand and hovered, inches from me.
I grabbed one by the tracker and twisted the nut. Then the other. And their trackers were off.
I let out a yelp of glee that muffled through my regulator.
Now, I had one more. The fifth dolphin. The one causing trouble for the Russians. The one that likely led the escape. The one they’d kill if she didn’t cooperate.
I hadn’t seen any sign of her.
Generally, I didn’t like to anthropomorphize, but I assumed she was female. She had to be. Strong-willed, unwilling to follow orders, free-spirited, determined to escape. Yep, she and I had a connection. A bond. I had to help her. I had to get that tracker off. But she was nowhere around.
I dropped more shrimp, trying to lure her in if she was nearby, but the others darted in and scarfed them up.
C’mon, girl. The others get it. Where are you?
Then, on the edge of visibility, a shadow swam by. Was it her? The shape…was that a shark? Tiger shark? A shot of adrenaline zipped through my veins. I didn’t want to see a tiger shark. Not now. Not ever, really.
But no, this shadow didn’t move like a shark. It was definitely a dolphin.
My breathing returned to normal.
Silly, Poppy. There was no reason to fear a shark, out here, in its normal habitat. But sometimes, no amount of logic steels the nerves. Besides, I was surrounded by dolphins. There are endless stories of dolphins protecting humans from sharks, all over the world.
The four dolphins circled, their attention on me, as playful as ever.
The fifth dolphin stayed at a distance, circling, where I caught only momentary glimpses.
Then, in a synchronized move, the other four dolphins turned away and disappeared into the deep blue.
What happened? Where’d they go?
My tank was running low on air. 500psi. I had to head to the surface and to shore.
I’d have to come back out and try again to get the fifth one.
Operation Dolphin Spirit Page 15