by Imogen Tovey
There he was. Indigo swam up to the boat and kept up alongside as they kept going. ‘Hi, see the little beach just beyond the jagged rock there?’ Maddy looked and yes there was a jagged rock and near it were a couple of dolphins beside a small cove. ‘You can get the boat in there. There are no rocks under the water, it is safe. The cave is just past the next set of rocks.’
‘OK, we’ll get out and then come in for a swim to sort out what we can do next.’
‘Is that Indigo?’
‘Yes, Mum,’ said CJ.
‘I really don’t know how he manages to know exactly where we are all the time. It’s almost as if you tell him where you are going.’
CJ and Maddy looked at each other and smiled. ‘This looks good, Mum, shall we stop here?’
‘Yes, this looks great.’
Maddy turned the boat and slowed it down, heading forwards towards the beach. CJ jumped out as they got into the shallows and took hold of the rope as Maddy cut the engine. CJ tied the boat up to a rock and, for good measure, Maddy dropped the anchor into the water. CJ came back to the boat and helped carry the food out to the beach.
Ishbel started sorting the things out and put down a towel, as the children took off their clothes and ran out into the water to join Indigo and work out the next part of their plan.
In Trouble
This part of the coast was all rocks and high cliffs, with a spattering of small coves with rocky or sandy beaches which were inaccessible from the land. There were no houses or buildings around. It was very remote, rugged and hostile in a way, but it was also very spectacular and beautiful. The water was a deep-blue colour with the ripples sparkling in the sun.
Maddy and CJ climbed the rocks towards where the cave entrance was. The climb was not difficult, but it was really hot work and they had to keep an eye on their footing. They had decided that if they called in James to help now, by the time they were able to show him the cave and they got in there, the men might have escaped with Lucy. Stone had said that the boat Lucy was tied up in was itself tied up to the rocks by a rope. That had led to Maddy’s suggestion that they could untie the rope and let the boat and Lucy float out of the cave with a bit of help. With her safely out of the cave, they could call James. When he came with reinforcements, they would immediately see her and be able to get her to safety.
The question then had been: How could they untie the boat? Indigo could swim into the cave to the boat and once it was untied he could push it out of the cave, but how could he untie it? They had all thought hard about this until CJ suggested that Indigo could carry in a knife and get Lucy to cut the rope. Well, that was it. They had a plan and it sounded a good plan too. Maddy and CJ would watch from their vantage point on the cliffs and wait for the boat to flout out of the cave; then they would phone for James.
Maddy found a nice big rock overlooking the sea. She was high enough up and she settled down behind it with her mobile phone on the ground beside her. It was now about twenty minutes from when they had left Indigo, who was heading off into the cave with the knife they had given him from the boat. Maddy hoped that all would go well. CJ settled down beside her, but he got very restless when he had to stay still, so after about five minutes of him fidgeting beside her she suggested he go back to Ishbel and bring up some food and water. CJ thought it a good idea and so headed off.
Meanwhile, Indigo had swum into the cave as quietly and carefully as he could. It was quite dark in the cave, but that didn’t matter to Indigo as he used his sonar to see with. There were voices coming from further back, but they didn’t seem to be a threat. He saw the two boats and the jet ski still moored and headed carefully towards the rowing boat. Then he dropped his body vertically in the water, tail down, and raised his body up out of the water enough to raise his head above the side of the boat.
Lucy opened her eyes and saw him. She smiled as he nodded his head before lowering himself down in the water again. Lucy sat up as Indigo moved his fluke back and forwards, raising his body up again above the boat, and Lucy noticed the knife his mouth. Using her tied-up hands, she managed to take it from his mouth.
Lucy looked at the knife and wondered how she could cut the rope tying her hands. Then she realised that she should cut the rope tying the boat to the rock first. That would free the boat and also free her from the boat. She looked around. Two of the men had their backs to her, cooking something on a very small fire they had allowed themselves. They were talking quietly among themselves and were not bothered about her. She couldn’t see the third man, though. She searched into the shadows of the cave but still couldn’t see anyone, so she started cutting the rope with the knife, while keeping an eye on the two men and panning around the rest of the cave every now and again.
She was through the rope. She carefully looked over the edge of the boat, where she thought Indigo still was. He was there and, on seeing her head appear over the side, he put his nose (or rostrum, as he liked to call it) to the boat and gave it a push. The boat moved without a lot of effort and very carefully Indigo pushed the boat away from the side of the cave and along the passageway towards the entrance. As the cave twisted around, Lucy helped to guide the boat and keep it from knocking against the sides with her hands.
Maddy heard a noise from behind her. Oh good, CJ’s back, she thought. She had been getting very thirsty and needed some water. She turned towards the noise just as a man grabbed her from behind. He wrapped one huge arm around her left arm and chest and the other around her waist. Maddy screamed and kicked out with her leg at his shins behind her. The man moved his right hand over her mouth to stop the scream. It cut off the scream immediately, but she bit his hand, making him release his grip slightly, and she got another scream out before he clamped his hand over her mouth once more. He squeezed his grip around her chest, which stopped her breathing momentarily, and with that she stopped kicking. He was too strong for her.
‘What are doing spying, little girl?’ said the man in Greek.
‘Birdwatching. What are you doing attacking me?’ replied Maddy as he released his grip on her mouth.
‘You will do nicely as a decoy when we move the other girl. You are coming with me.’ And he clamped his hand around her mouth once more, shifted her up on his left hip and carried her away.
CJ, who was returning with the water, noticed the rowing boat come into view on the sea just as he heard Maddy’s first scream. He stopped in shock for a second, then started running hard up the hill. He reached a point where he could see Maddy being held by a very large man; he stopped still and listened to their conversation. He had two choices: run at them and try to fight the man, or stay back. Maddy’s phone, he noticed, was on the ground where she had left it, so once they went he could use it and call for help. From what the man had said, he was one of the kidnappers, so he would be taking Maddy to the cave.
It wasn’t that CJ wasn’t brave. For once, he was thinking before he acted, and it made sense to wait and call for help. He hated to watch as Maddy was carried off, but he knew it was what Maddy would have done and it was probably the best chance they had of saving her.
As they vanished out of sight, he raced to the mobile phone and scrolled through the names to James. He rang it.
The Rescue
‘Ok, CJ, thanks. We will be with you in about ten minutes. Try to keep an eye on them. If anything changes, phone back. I will leave the line clear.’ James quickly spoke into his radio, snapping orders to prepare the two helicopters and a handful of soldiers as he raced off to the Presidential suite in the hotel, throwing the door open without knocking. The President turned in shock towards the door. No one came in without knocking.
The President was looking really haggard and tired. In fact he looked very old, thought James, as he spurted out, ‘We have had a sighting of Lucy, sir, and she is in a boat just along the coast. We are going to get her now.’ He was already turning on his heels to head off to the roof and the waiting helicopters.
‘Wait for me, I’m
coming,’ said the President. James turned to say that it was probably better if he didn’t, but seeing the determined look of hope in the President’s eyes just said, ‘Come on, sir’ as he raced off.
Maddy had been carried and dragged down a path into a cave by the big man, who, on entering the depths of the cave, was met by two other men. They quickly helped him tie a gag around her mouth to stop her from shouting out and tied her hands together in front of her.
The men spoke hurriedly in a mixture of languages, but Maddy understood that her presence had spooked them and they were going to move to a second hiding place. They were going to take her separately from Lucy, in case they needed to use a decoy. They would lead rescuers away from Lucy, to chase Maddy, by keeping her in view on the jet ski and hiding Lucy on the speedboat. She looked around the cave desperately, wondering and hoping that Indigo had managed to push Lucy out of the cave by now.
As they dragged her forward again, there was a cry of disbelief from one of the men. ‘The boat!’ They all raced over to where a speedboat and a jet ski were tied up to the rocks. There was no rowing boat in sight. Indigo had done it!
As the men all started shouting among themselves again, Maddy tried to talk to Indigo. ‘Indigo, Indigo, the men have captured me. I am in the cave, are you OK?’ She heard nothing at first and tried again; then she heard something very faint, but it was Indigo.
‘Maddy, Lucy and I are heading out to sea. I will come back for you.’
Maddy told him not to; the men were loading her onto the jet ski now, with the big man who had caught her getting on behind and the other two climbing into the boat. It looked like they were headed out.
‘Let’s find the girl now,’ said the big one and they headed out of the cave as quickly as they could. Maddy tried to tell Indigo that they were coming out and to hide Lucy somehow, but as she tried the man grabbed her chin in one huge hand and pulled her face around to his. He said, ‘You behave and do what you are told or I will feed you to the fish.’
They were out of the cave. In front of them, about 300 yards away, was the rowing boat. They pointed to it and sped off towards it. Indigo saw them coming and called for help into the water, asking for the dolphins and for Lunar to come and help. But within seconds the men were there at the rowing boat. One of the men in the boat reached out and grabbed hold of Lucy and threw her into the back of the boat.
That’s when they heard it: a throbbing sound in the sky. They all looked up to their right and saw two helicopters coming straight towards them. ‘Split; if you get away, meet at number two hideaway,’ shouted the big man beside Lucy as he pulled the throttle of the jet ski towards him and headed off as fast as he could. The speedboat did the same, going in the opposite direction.
Up on the cliffs, CJ was on the phone to James, telling him where Lucy was now, and that Maddy was on the jet ski. Both helicopters headed over towards the boat. ‘What about Maddy?’ shouted CJ.
‘Next, I promise,’ said James. ‘Keep an eye on them.’ And the phone went dead.
Indigo followed the boat, too, as Maddy had told him to. She said he had to make sure Lucy was safe. He sent Stone, Pebble and Star off after the jet ski so that they wouldn’t lose Maddy and he headed off after the speedboat.
The helicopters came in low above the boat, and the men in the boat shot up at them, forcing them to move back. It was a stalemate. Indigo asked all the dolphins around to make themselves visible in the water in front; the men wouldn’t want to hit into them as it would cause the boat to crash. The plan was that if they had to move to avoid the dolphins then they would have to slow down. It worked. The dolphins were very brave to go in front of the boat. They all made themselves as visible as possible, keeping as much of themselves out of the water as they could and the boat had to slow down and keep turning to avoid them.
Indigo took his chance on one turn of the boat and he jumped; it was a massive jump and he sailed over the boat, knocking one of the men right out of the boat and into the sea. This caused the boat to slow to an abrupt stop, as the man Indigo had knocked out was the man who had been driving.
Lucy, who had been standing up at the back of the boat when it suddenly stopped, was knocked from the boat into the water and plunged right down under and out of sight.
The President, in the helicopter above, looked on in horror. He noticed that Lucy had her hands tied as she fell into the water. The helicopter dropped down and James and two soldiers jumped into the water.
Indigo, under the waves, saw Lucy going down, unable to swim and keep herself above the surface with her hands tied. He swam up to her and got his dorsal fin between her arms, then he returned to the surface with Lucy on his back, her tied arms holding her to his fin. As they surfaced Indigo headed straight for Lunar, who was close by. She had been a great obstacle for the speedboat, but now she made a perfect landing station for Lucy. Indigo got Lucy onto Lunar’s back, made sure she was OK and swam off at speed.
From the helicopter, the President was heard to simply say, ‘Wow!’
Maddy
Maddy was scared. The big man was going so fast that they were crashing into the waves and banging back down onto the surface of the sea. He had skirted the coast and now it looked like he might be heading back in to the shore. She could see three dolphins swimming alongside and that made her feel a lot better. She knew, though, that if the man took her ashore she was going to be in trouble.
She had to think of something to get away from this man; she had been still for a while now, not struggling so that he would be off his guard when she tried something. She then heard Indigo: ‘Lucy is safe; I’m coming for you, Maddy.’ That raised her hopes. She was going to be OK; Indigo was going to come and save her.
‘Indigo, tell Stone and the others to jump up and startle the man, I need to get off the ski before he gets to the shore. Indigo said he would and then called out to the dolphins. Within minutes first Stone, then Star, then Riddle were jumping up close to the jet ski as high as they could. They startled the man. He was flinching and losing control slightly, then he overcompensated, turning too quickly, and they came tumbling off into the sea with the jet ski tumbling over on top of them.
Maddy didn’t quite know what was happening as she tumbled through the air then collided with the sea. The jet ski only just missed her, but hitting the surface was nearly as bad. All the air in her lungs was knocked out and she was knocked unconscious as her head collided with the waves.
Maddy was sinking down beneath the surface. She was unconscious. ‘That’s it. You are swimming like a dolphin, Maddy.’ It was her auntie, when Maddy had been taken swimming by her in England when she was two. ‘Why did you have to get me a brother, Mum?’ she was asking her mum when she was about three in Greece one day. ‘I thought you would like a brother to play with.’ ‘No, Mummy,’ she replied. Then she was riding her first ever bicycle in Paros. Memories were floating through her mind as she was floating in the sea. ‘You are safe; you are in my world now. I will keep you safe.’ It was Indigo, the first time she had met him when she was just two. ‘You are safe Maddy.’ No, it was Indigo now.
Maddy coughed out water and choked, then took a huge breath of air. Indigo was looking at her with great concern as she lay on the backs of two other dolphins, who were holding her up. She was OK. She coughed again and took more breaths before she could speak. Indigo kept saying, ‘You are safe. You are OK, Maddy.’
They then heard a helicopter overhead and James dropped into the water beside them; he put a harness around her and Maddy was winched up to the helicopter. Inside was Lucy; she gave Maddy a huge hug and they both hung onto each other, crying and laughing at the same time. The President couldn’t stop saying, ‘Well I never. I can’t believe what I’ve seen today.’
The helicopter swung around and both Maddy and Lucy waved to Indigo and the others as it wheeled away and headed back up the coast.
CJ, who had seen most of what had happened, was now on the phone to James, who was
telling him they were all OK. James handed the phone over to Maddy and they both spoke at once, neither being heard by the other. By this time, CJ had just reached where Ishbel was. Ishbel stood up on his approach and put her book down. ‘Where’s Maddy, CJ? What’s been going on?’
Maddy heard that and both CJ and Maddy laughed out loud. Maddy said, ‘You explain, CJ, and bring her back in the boat. We are going to the hotel. Come there too.’
CJ started to explain to a disbelieving mother as the helicopter flew overhead, with Maddy and Lucy waving from the open side door.
Goodbyes
It had been two very busy, hectic days. Maddy was still very sore and stiff after being thrown into the water from the jet ski, but she had no broken bones, just some nasty bruises.
There had been a press frenzy at first, with Lucy being found safe and well and the three kidnappers being arrested. Tales of how Lucy was rescued were flying around, but no one believed the real story. The officials had decided that no one would ever believe that the dolphins and a whale could have acted with such organisation and bravery as they had, or that they alone had saved Lucy and Maddy. In fact everyone who had witnessed it was starting to think that they couldn’t have seen what they saw. Although in their minds they knew the truth, after getting back to the hotel they found that they couldn’t speak about it. It had been amazing.
The press came up with a version of the rescue where a dolphin’s presence was mentioned, but everything had been done by the Americans. The President’s daughter was safe; the three kidnappers were under arrest. Questions were asked about how the daughter of the President could have been kidnapped, with security at its highest around the country. That led to further discussion on the news channels about the sonar being used and the amount of sea life hurt by its use. Was it effective? Was it worth the damage to the seas?
The President had gone for a swim on the day after the rescue, with Lucy, who was recovering quickly. They met up with Maddy, CJ and Indigo, and the President spent quite a while with Indigo, stroking his side and saying thank you for saving his daughter. Indigo wished that he could speak to this man, who had the power to turn off all the dangerous sonar. He wanted to tell him all about the beautiful seas, and the creatures in the seas, and to show to him the price of keeping the sonar going… But instead all he could do was to look into the President’s eyes with his own eyes and try to convey this with a look. The President was touched by the look in Indigo’s eyes. You cannot look into a dolphin’s eyes without being touched, but this was so intense a look that, for a moment, the President actually saw Indigo’s thoughts.