Reefsong

by Carol Severance

  “When the storm abates, we'll arrange for you to meet the others,” the warden said. “Pua has agreed to that with the condition that their physical safety is first assured.”

  “Of course, but what—”

  There was a loud roar outside the cave, then a splintering crash. Pua grabbed Fatu again, and he held her tight. There was the whumph! of something soft and wet hitting the ground, then only the hum again and the background roar of the wind.

  “That's a flitter!” the warden said. “Who'd be idiot enough to try landing here in this wind?” She started for the entrance, but stopped as a white-shrouded figure crawled inside. Pua screamed.

  “Pua, no. It's all right,” Fatu said. His voice still sounded rough, scary, as if the ghosts had gotten inside him and were..."It's just Ehu, Pua. It's just Ehu. Open your eyes.”

  Pua opened her eyes. It was, indeed, Ehu, although she looked as terrifying as any ghost Pua might have expected. She was covered with a froth of white anti-incendiary foam.

  “Sorry about the paper tree, Fatu,” Ehu said. She shook foam from her hands. “The vegetation's going to be crushed all to hell, too. But we needed more space and a cushion to set down on. The wind is deadly out there.”

  Toma had reached her by then. “What are you doing here?” he asked. He glanced back at Crawley, who was receiving a whispered report from one of his guards.

  “What are you doing in here?” Ehu demanded. “They're still hauling live algae out there. Zena flashed us from the barge that you were up here, but we could see that the house and farm buildings haven't even been closed, much less battened down for the storm. What are you waiting for?”

  “This is just the tail end of the weather,” Toma said. “Satellite report shows the main storm mass will be beyond our range before morning.”

  A second figure followed Ehu into the cave, a short woman with very dark skin. The warden stood slowly.

  “I don't know what satellite you're getting your report from, Toma,” Ehu said, “but trust me, it ain't orbiting over this ocean. We've got a great-grandmama of a howler headed right at us. Two hours tops before that algae starts sloppin’ into open water.”

  Pua swung her look toward Crawley. He was smiling.

  “You made them send us the wrong pictures!” she said. “You're trying to kill my reef!” She scrambled up from Fatu's lap. Fatu tried to rise, too, but sank back before reaching his feet. The warden grabbed Pua and held her arm tight.

  “Chan,” Toma called. “Get the comm on-line and have Fatu set it for the flitter. He knows the code. Ehu, I'll need your help.”

  “What are you going to do?” the warden asked.

  “Let me go!” Pua shouted.

  “We'll try to set up a comm patch between here and the barge,” Toma said. “If we can't get them, I'll have to fly out there. We have to get word to Zena to get the swimmers out of the water and blow the pens.” He nodded toward three of the waterworld crew leaders who were already pushing their way through the others toward the cave entrance. “They'll swim the message out, just in case.”

  “I'll pilot,” the warden said, and to Pua's surprise, Toma nodded.

  “Watch the waterguards,” he called to the swimmers. “They may try to stop you.” He dropped to his knees beside Fatu and Chan as once again the U.N. reps murmured and muttered their confusion.

  The warden turned to the small black woman who had come into the cave behind Ehu. She had moved away from the entrance and was calmly wiping foam from her legs. She was wearing a skintight scarlet bodysuit, and if she had been taller, she would have looked just like a coiler. She stood up straight at the warden's approach, and rested her hands on her narrow hips.

  “Why is it, Dinsman,” she said, “that every time I pay you a visit, I end up pulling your ass out of a fire?”

  “Shooter's luck, I guess,” the warden replied with a grin. The woman glanced down at the warden's hands. Pua yanked on her arm again, but the warden still wouldn't let her go. “What are you doing here, anyway? How'd you get to Lesaat?”

  The woman glanced at Crawley, who was surrounded by his guards and several of the U.N. crew. Pua didn't see Dr. Waight. She hoped the old woman would go poke around in the mold maggots’ nest.

  “I came steerage on the same ship he did,” the black woman said. “Brought another inspection team, too, if that's of any interest to you. Unfortunately, they're still stuck at Landing. I managed to crack the locator code that was supposed to be you and got hold of Ehu instead. When she heard who I was, she offered to pick me up and fly me out here.”

  “But what are you doing here?” the warden asked again.

  “U.N. Special Service sent me out to check up on a few things,” the Earther said. “Seems there were a few irregularities concerning that fire in the forest preserve. You don't mind my looking into that, do you? I assume that's what all that caramel business was about.”

  “Sally,” the warden said. Sally! Pua thought. “If you can pin a few ‘irregularities’ on these bastards, I'll love you forever.”

  “Sally?” Pua didn't realize she had spoken aloud until the woman looked at her. Her studied glance slid down Pua's body, then back up again to her face. She lifted a dark brow.

  “And you are?” she asked.

  Pua scowled. She turned to the mountainlady. “You never told me she was short!” Then she jerked her arm again. “Let me go. Le Fe'e is calling. I need to get in the water.”

  A quick look flashed between the warden and Sally. “You can go with us in the flitter if you want,” the warden said. She let go of Pua's arm.

  Pua hesitated, but decided the rays would be faster. And a lot safer. “I'll meet you at the barge,” she said.

  “Need a knife?” The warden didn't smile, but Pua knew she was trying to make a joke, trying to remind her to remain calm. Pua pulled her father's finest shark knife from beneath her skirt. She flashed it at the warden, eyed the Sally woman over its tip, then hurried back to Fatu's side.

  “I'm going out, Fatu,” she said, pushing between Toma and Dave. “Le Fe'e needs me. But you'll be okay here. That Sally lady, the Earther that came with Ehu, is going to stay. She's—she's the mountainlady's friend or something. Anyway, she's a troubleshooter, and she's going to help.”

  Toma and Dave glanced at each other, but Fatu watched only Pua. “I hear Le Fe'e calling, too,” he said. He tried to push himself up. “I'll come with—”

  “You'd better stay here to finish the other thing,” Pua said, holding him back. It wasn't difficult—he was still limp from the warden's drugs. Then she smiled. “Besides, somebody has to be here to keep the ghosts away.”

  She could feel his chuckle as he hugged her one last time. She transferred all but one of her leis to his neck.

  “Be careful, Little Fe'e,” he said.

  “You just listen to me sing!” she said, and darted for the entrance.

  “Hey, don't let her—” Crawley's voice.

  The waterworlders stopped Crawley's guards from following her.

  “Let's go, Warden,” Toma said.

  “That child shouldn't be going out...”

  “The storm...”

  A babble of voices chased Pua from the cave. The melting foam carried in by Ehu and the Earther was cool under Pua's hands and knees. I'm here, Le Fe'e! she called as she crawled out into the wind. She looked up. Le Fe'e's long, dark arms were reaching up toward the crossing moons.

  Chapter 25

  Toma's hands were white where he gripped the deck edge and the side of his seat.

  “Am I scaring you, Inspector?” Angie called. The flitter bucked and twisted, dropped in a sudden lull, then slammed hard against an upsurge.

  “Hell, yes,” he yelled back. “Who taught you to fly, anyway? Watch that—” But Angie had already banked to avoid the wind-borne clicker frond. She steadied the flit and brought it back to the center of the inter-island cleft.

  “A guy named Johnnie Kneubuhlman,” she said. “Used to be a
Hollywood stuntman before he retired to a farm near my dad's. I was shooting canyons like this before I could walk. Hold on.” Another frond whipped past the starboard port.

  “Do you always deactivate the sound dampers?” he shouted.

  She laughed. “Can't fly a good wind without hearing it, Inspector. Besides, it keeps my adrenaline running. How're you doing back there, Ehu?” she called over her shoulder.

  “Wishin’ I'd gone with Pua,” Ehu groaned. “Watch out for this last section. There's a reef-sucking downdraft off the cliff-face. Your friend Sally nearly slid us right into the opposite bank on the way in.”

  Angie suspected that Sally had ridden the draft just for the fun of it. She, however, gave herself enough altitude, despite the gusting wind, to avoid the downdraft altogether. There was one last lift and stomach-wrenching fall. Then they were out of the canyon and over clear, churning water.

  Angie turned the flit into the direct, steady wind of the storm. She activated the sound dampers, and a sudden hush filled the cabin. Toma immediately spoke into the comm mike.

  “...signal's fluxing, but we read you,” Dave Chan replied. “There, that's better.”

  “...care who you are.” Crawley's voice sounded in the background. “No troubleshooting bitch is going to...”

  Angie winced as Crawley ended his complaint with a screech. “Sally does not like being called names,” she said.

  “She mentioned that to the Company guard we met outside the cave,” Ehu said. “The one we stepped over on the way out. Did she have time to tell you there's another whole U.N. team at Landing, one not selected by Company admin?”

  Angie nodded. “Can you relay the storm-warning loop from the cave, Toma?” He had been murmuring into the mike, fussing with the comm controls.

  “The loop is set,” he said. “Only the barge can't hear us. Ehu, you ready to swim?”

  “Aye. Hands're on the hatch. Just say when.”

  “We'll drop you on the inner-lagoon side of the barge,” he said. “Tell Zena I'll take care of the methane blows. Have her pull the crews stat and clear the area. Stand by for the shock waves. Number seventeen hasn't been worked at all yet, so there won't be anyone around. I'll blow that one first. Then nineteen and twenty.”

  “Aye. You sure you don't want help?”

  “I'm sure I do, but there isn't time. The warden can get me in and out faster than any swimmer can do it, and somebody has to alert the barge. Tell Zena to set the release triggers in the pen she's working. Use distance timers. Here's the code. We'll blow that one last, after we see the all-clear signal.”

  “I'll set the timers myself,” Ehu said.

  “Send someone back to Home and the processing plant, just in case the warning loop isn't getting through,” Angie said. “Tell them to close things up as best they can in the time we have left.”

  “No more than an hour,” Toma said. “After that, everyone needs to be in one of the caves or deep underwater. From the feel of this thing, I suspect the caves are going to be safest.”

  “Aye,” Ehu said again.

  “Barge coming up,” Angie said. “Looks like you're going to be landing in white water.” Even in the inner lagoon, the surface water was churning with phosphorescent chop. The barge itself, large and lumbering as it was, was lifting and falling awkwardly with the swell.

  “No problem. Hey, Warden?”

  Angie could not spare a look back.

  “Fatu told me what you're trying to do for Pua and the kids. I—we all appreciate it.”

  “Let's just hope it works,” Angie said, “and that they have a home left to live in if it does.” Then, “Drop point; go on my call.”

  Ehu popped the hatch. A rush of wind sucked into the cabin. Angie fought the flitter back under control. “Go!” she shouted.

  Ehu dove headfirst through the open hatch. As quickly as her feet cleared the sill, Toma swung it closed. He immediately pointed Angie in the direction of the number-seventeen pen. He pulled an equipment bag from beneath his feet and began assembling methane-release triggers in his lap.

  “What's the plan?” she asked. “I watched them set a couple of small blows when they were cleaning the pens, but it was done from the water.”

  “It's safer that way, and a lot less messy,” he said. “But neatness won't make any difference tonight. Fly directly over the pen from the upwind end. I need six drop points equidistant from the sides. I'm setting self-timers on the triggers. We'll have about sixty seconds from the last drop to clear the area before the first one blows.”

  “Gee, why such a wide margin?” she asked. He laughed.

  “Seventeen, coming up,” she said. “Why'd you bring me along on this trip, Inspector? I didn't think you trusted me this much.”

  He unbuckled his safety harness and moved back toward the hatch. “Fatu told me he'd seen you shoot the inter-island canyon a few times. There aren't many who'll try that, even going slow. I figured if anyone could get me out here fast enough to do any good, you could. Besides, where better to keep an eye on you?”

  She could hear laughter in his voice and wondered whether she should tell him that it had been Pua whom Fatu had seen racing through the inter-island cleft. Tonight was Angie's first time in the pilot's seat. She decided to leave well enough alone.

  “Trigger's ready,” he said.

  “There's a safety line in back of my seat,” she replied. “Use it.”

  “You scared I'll fall out, Warden?”

  Damn fool troubleshooter! she thought. Of course I am! “I'm scared of what Fatu would do to me if you did,” she said. “Use it.”

  He laughed, and slid the safety belt around his waist. “Ready when you are.”

  “Pop the hatch,” she said. “I want to get the feel of flying with it open before we start the drop.”

  The sudden roar of the wind filled the cabin again. It smelled of the deep, distant sea. The flitter bucked and jerked.

  “Starting run,” she called aloud. “Drop on my call.”

  She struggled with the flit, forcing it to remain steady over the effervescent algae pen. The extreme, and still rising, tide had lifted the net high off the reef. The entire structure was swaying noticeably with each of the deep, heavy swells that swept over the barrier reef and across the lagoon. The surface was a churning caldron of breaking waves.

  “Drop one!” she called. She fought across the wind to the second drop point, then downwind to the third. Across the pen again, another swift ride downwind, across again, and they were out. She hit full throttle.

  “Shit on the bloody reef, woman! What's your hurry?” The words were barely out of Toma's mouth when the upwind end of the pen blew. Angie continued full-speed, straight away from the pen, until she had heard all six methane triggers blow. Then she swung back into the wind.

  “You still with me, Inspector?” she called. The seventeen pen roared with flames.

  The hatch slammed shut.

  “Just barely,” Toma said. “You almost threw me right out the door with that last move.”

  “Better shorten your tether,” she said. “It'd be a bumpy ride till I could get you back in.” She was grinning. The wind, the waves, the tremendous cacophony of storm and sea, made her feel enormously alive. This was an instant to savor. The world might end before morning. This world, Pukui's world, would most certainly be heavily damaged by then. Perhaps even fatally so, since it was meeting the storm totally unprepared.

  But this moment, this instant, this personal touch of the storm, was glorious in both its power and its beauty.

  She laughed. “Number nineteen, coming up!”

  “You enjoying yourself, Warden?” Toma asked.

  “No point letting a good adrenaline rush go to waste,” she replied. From his voice, she judged he was enjoying himself as much as she.

  “Ready the drop,” he called, and popped the hatch again.

  “On my call,” she shouted.

  As they cleared the second pen, Angie was re
lieved to discover that Toma had lengthened the timing fuses slightly. This time they actually had sixty full seconds to clear the area before the charges blew.

  “I think I know who set the methane blows the night Pua and I arrived,” she said after he had closed the hatch again.

  “Who?”

  “Katie.”

  “What!”

  “You said the triggers had been set by an amateur,” Angie said, “and there aren't many of those here at Pukui. Remember? Katie wasn't at the house that night when you arrived. We both remarked on it.”

  “But why...

  “Earlier that evening Pua and I were talking on the lanai. Katie was inside listening. I saw her in the pantry. Pua told me very emphatically that her mother would order the number-twelve pen blown immediately if she were there.”

  “And Katie does whatever she thinks Lehua wants done,” he finished. “Damn! You're a lucky woman, Warden. You and Pua both.”

  “Let's hope it holds,” she said as she banked toward the third pen. They made their drops, then fought the wind back to the barge. An automatic all-clear signal flashed from the wave-washed deck. At first they almost didn't see it through the churning water.

  “One of the mooring lines has snapped,” Toma said. “We're going to lose it for sure. Damn that Crawley. He'd better hope your friend Sally kills him tonight, because if she doesn't, I'm going to do it in the morning. Pull back and stay upwind over the outer lagoon this time. I'll use the remote to blow the triggers Ehu set.”

  A sharp sting brought Angie's hand to her right shoulder. The flitter bucked. She brought it quickly back under control. She turned toward the barrier reef, then quickly back toward the barge, trying to determine the locator signal's direction.

  “What're you doing?” Toma called.

  “I've got to go down,” she said. “One of my implants just went off. Pua's in trouble.”

  He was beside her in an instant. “You have her bugged?”

  “Yes, Inspector, I have her bugged. Take the deck.”

  “Where is she?” he demanded.

  She pressed the locator again. “Not close enough to get a clear reading. There's too much turbulence up here. I need to get in the water.”