by Peter Dixon
In the chase boat, Billy grabbed Gandara and hauled the captain upright. Their eyes were drawn to the two ships: the larger barely under way, the smaller bounding in for the kill like an aged, starving wolf.
Billy looked down at the beaten man. He thought of Rocha and the bullets that had taken his life. Now Billy wanted justice.
“Stand up!” he ordered. “I want you to see this.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Billy stared at Salvador, waiting impatiently for the impending collision. Pumping his fist up and down in a wild gesture of victory, he cheered Benny onward. The gray ship was so close now that he could see Sarah standing beside Benny, half hidden behind a mattress, bracing herself for the impact. Though her full attention was focused forward, he waved at her and felt a surge of anxiety.
Suddenly, the minesweeper began to slow and veer away from Lucky Dragon. Billy couldn’t believe what was happening, and he felt a sense of outraged disappointment. Why would Benny back off now? He thought he knew. Benny had decided not to chance taking a life. Would Billy have done the same if his hands were on Salvador’s wheel? He glanced at Gandara. The captain was staring at Salvador, suddenly aware that his ship might survive. He met Billy’s unbelieving look with a faint contemptuous smile. Then his hopes faded, and defeat clouded his face.
Billy looked back at the gray minesweeper. Her battering-ram bow wasn’t changing heading fast enough, and collision was only seconds away.
Gandara gave a muted moan of anguish. An instant later, Salvador drove her prow deep into the clipper’s stern. A scream of ripping steel howled across the water followed by the grinding screech of the minesweeper’s armored bow climbing up the side of the clipper. Then she sank back, revealing a torn, gaping laceration in Lucky Dragon’s side. Water cascaded into the ragged breach, ton after ton of fatal weight.
Billy stared wide-eyed at the devastation, only half-aware that Chatter was rising out of the sea alongside the boat, clicking at him. When he heard the dolphin, he leaned over the side and lovingly stroked her head. She sank back into the water and he glanced at Gandara, who was slumped in defeat, staring at Chatter. The captain shook his head in bewilderment.
Billy had to acknowledge Chatter and leave the captain with a final wound that would never heal. He reached out for the dolphin again and harshly told Gandara, “She’s the one who saved me when you sailed off, and if she hadn’t, you’d still be killing them.”
The captain turned from Billy’s accusing stare to watch his ship slowly sinking. As seawater flooded Lucky Dragon’s hull, the crew began frantically launching chase boats and life rafts. Billy noticed that Santos was among them, directing the abandonment of the ship. He knew that that meant there was no chance the pumps would keep her afloat. Then he saw the gray seine skiff idling toward them. The shocked boatman held up the video camera and then tossed it to Billy. “What do I do with Rocha?”
“We’ll figure it out later. Go help your crew now.”
The boatman motored off for the sinking vessel, leaving Billy with Gandara. Billy held back his feelings of sadness and anger. The whole crazy ordeal would soon be over. Then what? He glanced at the Sony. It was ruined, but he suspected that the tape would be usable. He stared at the minesweeper now drifting alongside the clipper. Her bow was crushed and shoved inward some three feet, but the ship seemed to be floating on an even keel. At Salvador’s stern the boat crews and camera people were launching the Zodiacs. He saw Sarah climb aboard one and step to the bow. The outboards roared and the high-speed inflatable raced toward him. He felt a glow of warmth and love, and a tremendous release of tension that left him light-headed and wanting to hold her.
The Zodiac raced up, turned broadside to him, and the engine stopped. Billy and Sarah looked at each other. Their smiles drew them together. Billy stepped aboard the inflatable and put his arms around Sarah. He hugged her gently and all the tension and sadness of Rocha’s death started his tears flowing. Sarah said softly, “It’s over, Billy.”
“Not yet. Not until we hand Gandara over to Benny and release the dolphins.”
“And then…?”
He gestured for the captain to board the Zodiac, then turned to Sarah.
“There’s Rocha. And after that, I just don’t know….”
* * *
The Zodiac scraped against Salvador’s boarding ladder, and Billy tied the boat fast. Above them, Benny stared down at Gandara. His face still showed tension, but there was no other expression to reveal his thoughts. The chase was over. Gandara glanced at Lucky Dragon. Her stern was underwater now and the crew were aboard life rafts, chase boats, and the net skiff. Benny gave a cold, emotionless order: “Get that man aboard. I want his crew to see who’s in command now.”
Billy followed Gandara up the steep, slippery ladder. The exhausted captain, shivering from shock and chill, forced himself upward rung by rung. No one reached out to help him onto the deck. Then Gandara was standing face to face with Benny Seeger. Both men were oblivious to the camera crew taping their meeting. Gandara forced himself to stand taller, attempting a show of dignity. “My crew needs assistance. As one captain to another…”
“I’ll see that they have food and water and get safely to land, but you no longer have a command.”
“I protest—”
“Your protest will be recorded in my report, but I tell you this, you murdered in cold blood a young man who was attempting to save one of my crew.”
With a glance at Billy, he added, “And there are a number of witnesses. It would be within my rights to put you on trial for murder on the high seas, and if you are convicted, I could legally order you hanged. But you’ll hang one way or another. And finally, you’ll never kill another dolphin.”
Benny turned to stare at the sinking tuna clipper. Gandara followed his gaze.
At that moment Lucky Dragon’s stern went fully under. Five minutes later the rest of the hull quickly sank, and the graceful clipper went to her watery grave off the Refugio Shoals.
Seeger ordered Gandara below to be locked in a cabin, then turned to Billy. “There are a few things that need to be done. First cut the net and let the dolphins out. You know how to do that.”
He didn’t like Seeger giving him orders. “Yeah, Benny, I know how to do that.”
“And then bring that young man’s body back here.”
Billy was bone-weary and wanted to protest he’d done enough today, but he had to say good-bye to Rocha, see that he was buried with respect, and close that chapter of his life. Billy started for the boarding ladder and saw Sarah watching Benny with admiration. The captain put an arm around her shoulder and Billy heard him say, “If that tape Billy shot survived, we’ve got a fund-raising gold mine. And we’ll need footage of that dead kid’s body….”
Billy went down the ladder thinking, Right, Benny, business as usual.
Chatter joined Billy as he steered the Zodiac for the drifting net. “That net’s going to keep killing if it’s not secured. Benny can handle that. Okay, Chatter, let’s free your friends.”
The dolphin surged ahead, leaped over the corkline, and dove into the net. Surprised by Chatter’s unexpected behavior, Billy looked over the rim and saw her swimming amid the trapped dolphins. Then she shot to the surface and easily leaped out of the net. A moment later, several dolphins followed Chatter’s example and jumped over the corkline. Within minutes the whole pod had escaped and were racing off. He could only guess that they were following Chatter’s example. Or had she taught them? And if she could teach them, could she teach others? Then maybe Chatter could help them learn to stay the hell away from tuna clippers.
He looked for Chatter. She was nowhere in sight. He felt a deep anxiety. Did she go with them?
When Rocha’s body was aboard Salvador, Billy helped place him in the ship’s cold storage locker. In the chilly confined refrigerator, he remembered the day the Fijian boatman slid off the stretcher and landed on the Suva dock. He wanted Rocha treated better and insisted h
e be wrapped in a blanket. As a final gesture of respect, Billy laid a clean galley towel over his face and wished him well on his next voyage.
Billy returned to the deck and leaned on the railing staring at the little sloop he and Sarah had sailed such a long difficult way. She was weather-beaten, but still seaworthy, and there on the cabin roof was his surfboard. It had been a while since he’d caught a wave. Maybe he’d earned a few days of surfing. His musing was interrupted by Sarah’s voice: “Billy, we need you.”
He turned and saw her leading the camera and sound person toward him. “I know this will be hard for you, but we need your story in detail, for the media, and the court.”
Sarah did not push, and she gave Billy time to relax. When he was at ease, she directed him and shaped her questions so he would respond with a complete sentence. Billy soon forgot the camera and just talked, leaving nothing out. He noticed Sarah’s discomfort as he described falling in love with her. An hour later, fed up with her probing questions, he waved the camera away. She protested, “Billy, we’re not through.”
“I am. Too much has happened today. You’re scrambling my brain. Come on, Sarah. Get off this TV reporter stuff.”
She stiffened and pleaded, “Just a few minutes more.”
Benny, who had watched the interview, stepped between Billy and the camera. “It’s okay, Sarah. He’s beat. We’re all beat. We can pick up tomorrow.”
“I won’t be here tomorrow,” Billy said softly.
He glanced at the Westsail and then faced Sarah. “I’ll be aboard the sloop. Want to sail with me again?”
She thought a long moment and shook her head. “My life’s not about sailing with you. And I don’t need a perfect wave or a dolphin for a friend. Benny needs me, and I need to be a part of what he’s about. And you’ve got Chatter.”
Billy nodded, reached into a pocket, and turned to Benny. In his open hand Billy held the tiny digital videotape from the Sony camcorder. “It will play, Benny. Not a drop of water inside the case.”
Billy juggled the cassette from one hand to another as if he might throw it overboard. Benny caught his meaning. “Tell me what you want, Billy.”
Billy took a deep breath, “You owe me big-time.”
“I grant you that.”
“I want the Westsail, free and clear, with no strings attached.”
“She’s yours.”
Saying anything more would only prolong the pain. He handed Benny the tape, turned to Sarah, and placed his fingertips on her cheeks. She was crying. An overpowering longing to be with her swelled within him. The love was there, but that was not enough. He knew if he stayed he’d become a face-the-cameras media darling to be trotted out at fund-raisers. Hell with that. I’ve my own life to follow. And if I can do any good for this world I’ll do it my way.
He studied Sarah’s face and murmured, “Have a good life.”
Turning impulsively, Billy vaulted over Salvador’s railing. He dropped cleanly into the water and began swimming for the Westsail. He was free of them and on his own again. His mind raced ahead. He would follow Chatter, if she came back, and help her teach other dolphins to escape the nets. No. That wasn’t enough. He’d do something to help stop fishing tuna swimming with dolphins.
As he swam for the sloop his mind clouded. He asked himself, Was all this worth Rocha’s life? Or anyone’s life? I guess I’ll never figure that one out.
He muscled aboard the sloop and ran his hands along the rails of the sleek, graceful surfboard. Where was the last place he had ridden the Becker? Bombora Reef, Fiji. With a faint smile he remembered that last awesome ride. He still felt guilty about his surf taxi and thought, Maybe what happened since then was a wake-up call, a turning point.
Billy untied the towline, freeing himself from Salvador, and raised the mainsail. As the sloop slowly eased away from the battered minesweeper, Chatter surfaced beside the cockpit. Billy sensed that his world would find some sort of order now, and he reached to caress the dolphin’s head. She quivered under his touch and then leaped forward to take up her usual position off the bow.