Her father watched him depart. “What an odd fellow.” The look of bemusement remained as he turned to greet Matthew, who had come quietly along behind Penny. She suddenly realized why so quietly.
“Well,” her father said to him, “you look like you’ve weathered a few storms, but still standing before the mast.”
Matthew was about to open his mouth and probably blurt out something stupid. He hadn’t shaved and looked wasted.
“Doctor Bell, I’m having sort of a recovery day…”
Her father took up the slack. “I’ve heard much of your recent adventures, so no apologies required. Welcome to the family, Matthew.”
News travels fast. Was her father serious, Penny wondered? He loved to gently prod those around him, so she wasn’t sure.
Her father gave a silent laugh, and the light in his eyes danced when he said, “I see what is in front of me, Matthew, and I ignore gossip.” He paused for a moment, looked at them both and said to Matthew, “Listen, my friend, compared to some of the shipwrecks Pen used to tow home, you’re good news for the old man. Andrew has filled me in somewhat, and about Jack Ripler, as well. He’s gone off the edge, poor devil, but nothing more we could do, was there? Somewhat saw it coming, have to say.” He looked at Penny and added, “Well done, well done all around. Now we better get going, if we want to catch the show.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Matthew said. “It’s…well…”
Her father held out his hand and Matthew took it. “We’ll talk later, Matthew. Perhaps over the cognac I managed to find room for in my duffle.”
The few others nearby seemed to be making a point of not noticing Doctor Bell’s arrival, but all ears and eyes were nevertheless wide open.
“What exactly does Chiffrey mean by ‘clear field’?” she asked.
“I haven’t had a chance to really talk with him myself, and got just a brief account, but as he said, we can go there and they will leave us be. They’re keeping others away, you know. Or maybe you don’t? I would love to spend some time with you and Matthew to get more fully briefed. I have a little news as well. I believe you all were about to have a meeting, however, and I don’t want to delay that, so let’s go.”
“What meeting is this?” Penny asked.
Dirk happened to be walking by and overheard. “To see who wants to go and who to stay. Sooner than we thought. A Navy ship’s on the way. Chiffrey’s doing again, though not unforeseen,” he said, smiling. “We’ll be rendezvousing with them to take some people off, including Lorraine and myself. This all happened while you were asleep.”
She gave him credit for resisting the urge to say the last part differently while her father was at her side.
Dirk went on. “None of you really need to be at the meeting.” He looked at her. “Everyone knows you and Matthew will stay.” He turned to her father. “Doctor Bell, this meeting really will be just about making some logistical decisions regarding people’s choice to stay or not. You can skip it.”
Penny said, “What do you mean? I thought that was all decided.”
Dirk barely shrugged. “Well, it’s changed a little, that’s all. Jack’s exit caused some to have second thoughts.” With a wry smile, he said, “I guess the Captain foresaw that one.”
Dirk was remarkably coherent, compared to her last meeting with him, but still clearly buoyed up by his newfound insights.
“He’s right,” her father said. “We’ll use the time to catch up, and perhaps test the cognac.”
“It’s a little early, Dad.”
“It’s never too early on some days, but fine, we’ll save it for later. Is now a good time for my long awaited briefing?”
“Good a time as any,” she said.
“To the galley, then, where I might get a bit of something in my stomach. I am absolutely famished and a little coffee would be much appreciated.”
“I’ll make it this time. Matthew’s would substitute well for battery acid.”
They spent the rest of the morning talking, going over things, and sorting out the complex issues that had arisen. Her father listened attentively when she presented her summation and assessment of the situation as it had developed so far, but he did so with that amused attitude she had known since birth. He was always slightly humoring her. He would never change. He simply treated women this way, and she no longer called him on it.
One piece of news he brought was that people on the outside were beginning to connect the dots from the Valentina to the Honey Pot to the Navy cruiser under tow. However, it also appeared that Chiffrey’s people had leaked some misleading cover stories. One involved a collision with an unknown object, with a few mutterings about foreign submarines, then denial of everything. This had seeded the supply of guessed-at reasons for the Navy keeping ships away from the Honey Pot site. An “investigation” was said to be going on, and that had enough truth in it to be plausible. The stories and counter-stories would distract the press for a while, but it would be hard to get the lid back on if it ever really got off.
CHAPTER 35
“Because I want to look at them myself,” Penny said. “That’s why.”
“We’ve had experts pore over these bottom scans,” Chiffrey said, “and it takes training to really understand what you see. Captain had a long go at them. Not a single feature of interest down there. Boresville. Nothing.”
“Nothing can be something,” she said, having learned that from spending years alone in the deep woods. “So, they’re where?”
“Okay, if you insist, the printouts are rolled up in the media lab. On top of the file cabinet.” He called after her as she went out the hatchway, “Won’t find a thing!”
After four straight hours she was beginning to accept he was right, when all at once she saw it. It was there all the time, staring right at her. She checked the other charts, and they fit together. Perfectly.
“Okay, now let him laugh,” she said out loud to no one but herself.
She looked at her watch, grabbed the charts, and dashed out.
One of the charts under her arm was flapping as she ran, and it dropped to the deck as she came around a bulkhead to almost run into Chiffrey.
“Whoa,” Chiffrey said, “You nearly made me road kill.”
His arm darted out like an eel and snatched the chart before it could blow away.
“I found something,” she said pointing to a section of the scan that at first had seemed to be only the quiet lines indicating a flat and featureless bottom.
“Excuse me, but I don’t see anything.”
“Here! Right in front of your cute little nose! See this little hop in the lines?”
“That’s just noise, static. You see those sometimes.”
“And here it is again on this scan. By themselves, yeah, they seem to be just noise, but if you put a few together they start to describe an arc.”
“As in Noah’s?”
“Circle! Part of a circle! You’re not that stupid. See, here on this one? And here it is again.”
As she unwound the fluttering rolls, they rattled in the wind like signal flags.
“Ah, okay, I see those two, and yes, there’s a third, perhaps. But I’m not sure—”
“Look! Right here. These three are eighteen kilometers away from this one. And again, it’s a section of a circle—an arc. And this time, it’s curving in a way that connects it to these two, following the same curve. See?
“Back toward the one on this next scan. Hmm, yeah.”
Penny nodded, several times. “The pattern holds true on every scan I checked, for a little over half of a circle. Forty-two points all on the same curve! And it’s a geometrically perfect arc. Can’t be a coincidence. They didn’t scan the area that would have contained the rest of it.” She rattled the papers a little under Chiffrey’s nose. “I thought you said they did a thorough job?”
“They did. The sections you’re looking at are on the edge of where we searched, twenty kilometers away from the event, as far as an
yone could tell. Had to stop somewhere.” He started to laugh and shook his head. “You can’t see what you’re not looking for. Brilliant work, Penny.”
After carefully scrutinizing all the sheets for a while, Chiffrey looked up and said, “I’d like to see it all put together, but I got a feeling you’re right. There is something here. You know, sugar, I can get you a damn interesting job after this.”
She shook her head. “Not the time for headhunting, Lieutenant.”
“Later, then. And you say they all line up this way?”
“I laid out as many as I could in the chart room. On every one that covers an area where there should be an arc, there is one, if you look. Examining one at a time, you don’t see it.”
“I’m going to contact the people who did the scanning runs and have them check the area where the circle sections are missing. We’ll recheck the ones they’ve already done as well, as a test.”
“The circle’s center is a good ten kilometers from the original Honey Pot sighting. They could have gotten the location wrong.”
“I doubt it. The Honey Pot had an up-to-date satellite navigation system, and it kept an automatic log of their location. Safety feature. We arrived at an exact fix by comparing their camcorder’s time signature with their navigation clock. It’s accurate to within a few meters. So this makes the circle about, ah—”
“Twenty-three kilometers in diameter,” Penny said, “maybe a little more. That’s assuming the pattern continues, but my bet is that it does. Any idea what could cause a pattern like this?”
“No,” Chiffrey said, “but hopefully someone will. I’d still like to see what they come up with when they scan the missing section. That would clinch it. But I’m wondering if it isn’t…hmm…”
“Some kind of interference field, right? Maybe similar to what messed up your radar? And we would all like to know what’s in the center. Not thinking of ditching your new partners now, are you?”
“Why would I? You’re our ace in the hole. The important thing is that we finally know where we’re going.”
“Not really.”
“I just meant a destination, not an answer, but truth to tell, got a feeling there’ll be good fishing ahead. Let’s talk to the Captain.”
CHAPTER 36
“Good thing we’re already on a southerly heading,” Andrew said, a slight smile playing over his face. Penny stood in the bridge entryway, somehow not wanting to go all the way in. Chiffrey stood rocking back and forth on his heels.
“Three days,” Andrew finally added, “at our top sustainable speed. But that’ll burn through most of our reserve diesel.”
“You’ll have a refueling tanker waiting for you. By the day after tomorrow. Guaranteed.”
“Of course. You already had this set up,” she said.
“Sure did,” Chiffrey said. “Just as an option, should the need arise, and I kind of figured it would. You’ll get a general resupply, as well. Food, parts, equipment, whatever is needed. Does that work, Captain?”
Andrew replied by cranking up their speed. “This is a far as I can push her. Will save us a day at least.”
“Wait a sec,” Penny said. “The mid-sea pickup of the crew who are departing…?”
“We’ve covered that already,” Chiffrey said. “That show’s on for tomorrow afternoon.” He smiled and said to the Captain, “Too bad you can’t just marry Dirk and Lorraine before they depart. Then it could be their honeymoon.”
“Only happens in movies,” Penny said, shaking her head. “A captain has no authority to perform marriages at sea or anywhere else.”
“I believe that’s what I just said, sugar.”
CHAPTER 37
The next morning, Penny returned to the small media lab. Emory had just told her that Chiffrey wanted to meet there, and she assumed that meant with Andrew and her father as well, but when she arrived, she found Chiffrey on his own.
“I spoke with your father and the Captain already,” he said. “We had a little meeting in the Captain’s cabin late last night. Hope you don’t mind.”
She did mind but didn’t say anything.
He went on. “Apparently, they have some tricky things to work out with the people at the Point, a conference call. The board of directors is not completely happy with your father’s part in the turn of events. We’re letting it go through, of course.”
“Kind of you.”
“I have important news, so let’s not waste time.” Chiffrey edged his way a little closer. “They began bottom scanning the Honey Pot area again and the circle checks out. Indications of the arc you found are still there, only in a slightly different location.” He handed her a printout with a composite of all the data from the old and new charts. It was much smaller than the originals, but the resolution was finer and the whole area could be seen in one view.
“Clear as glass, now,” he said. “Confirms it absolutely for me.”
“You said, a ‘different location.’ What does that mean?”
“The circle expanded a mite.”
“And how much is ‘a mite,’ exactly?”
“Not much. Twenty meters is what I was told, so the diameter is still about the twenty-three kilometers you calculated before. A fluctuation, maybe. Good as any explanation for now, and fits in nicely with the idea of some kind of induced field.”
“There aren’t as many new arcs here as I had hoped.”
“No, but two-thirds of a circle is plenty enough to make this actionable. The pattern holds up, that’s the point. The ability to predict is a fundamental aspect of moving a premise to theory, and later to fact, right?”
“Sorry, I was stifling a yawn. Hard to hear.”
“Well, it’s true, and a damn sight better than sitting around playing guessing games.”
“When are they going to sweep the rest of the area?”
He looked like he was internally debating whether to refrain from a rejoinder. Finally, he let out a small sigh.
“They’re not. All their gear got fried.”
“What!”
“Yes, and the ship went dead in the water. Sound familiar? It drifted out of the circle finally and, what do you guess, most everything came back online. Speculation it was something like an EMP effect, a pulse that overloaded everything, but it doesn’t really fit that profile because an EMP would have caused permanent damage and this didn’t. Everyone’s okay, by the way. Don’t lose any sleep over that.”
“Sniping season was declared over, remember? Where was the ship when this happened?”
“Dead center—if you’ll excuse the pun.”
“Why were they in the middle? I assumed they would prioritize on following the arc. The center would obviously be the most risky area.”
“Well, that may be more clear now, but it wasn’t then.”
“It was to me.”
“I am not calling all the shots. It was decided to be worth the risk.”
“And the responsibility nicely passed on.”
“Something about ‘sniping season’ being over, a while back?” The smile that always hovered around Chiffrey’s face slipped away. “I can assure you that I am being held responsible for everything I do. Lots of eyes on me now. Some waiting for me to screw this up so they can move in and take over. You can cheer them on if you like, but you’ll miss me when I’m gone. And the first thing they’ll do then is send you home under escort.”
He seemed uncharacteristically unguarded. “So,” she said, “they’re putting the squeeze on you.”
“On all of us. Every minute that goes by, there is more attention being drawn to this show. More at stake now, and those in power have a sixth sense for both opportunities and threats. We are all on stage, and this one is only for players. Trust me.”
“We agreed to work with you,” Penny said. “We didn’t agree to trust you. What else?”
“The scanning ship had an ROV down in the center of the circle. That’s a Remotely Operated Vehicle.”
“I
know that!” Penny said loudly. “You’re on a research ship, damn it. We’ve got at least two on board. You should have waited until we got there. I thought that was decided.”
“Not specifically, and people up the line went over my head. I’m sorry. There wasn’t any way to stop them. But listen. They captured only a few minutes of imagery, but I can tell you they definitely saw something down there! ‘Bigger than an aircraft carrier,’ they said. ‘Looked natural, but unnatural.’ Direct quotes from the crew operating the ROV. And, oh yeah, the thing was magenta. Purple!”
Chiffrey looked at her and smiled, but there was a grimness she hadn’t seen before. “This is it,” he said. “Looks to me like we finally have the source.”
“They will wait for us before they do anything else, right?”
“Absolutely. Considering what happened, they’re now mostly convinced that the Valentina is their best shot. Related to that, your dad and the Captain are on the horn with your administrators back at Port Angeles to smooth the way for the Valentina taking the lead in investigating the circle. The board of directors has some misgivings about the plan to off-load some of the crew and resupply at sea.”
“Not surprising. This does seems rushed, if not a little panicked.”
“You’re getting your wish, aren’t you? And I do think the Valentina has an excellent chance of operating there without the problems the Navy has had. We were untouched when the whales disappeared, at least the ship still functioned. They were circling us for a reason. It might be the transceiver. Or maybe we’re just in their good graces somehow.”
He glanced at her in a strange way, almost smirking. It suddenly struck her why, and she didn’t like the why. Chiffrey had made the connection to the transceiver that Andrew predicted he would, but he had gone further.
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