The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton's Lair

by S. S. Taylor

  I turned to Sukey. She just nodded, looking grim.

  “It’s true,” Zander said.

  “So who’s coming with us? Who’s our chaperone? They wouldn’t let us go alone, would they?” I felt panic wash over me.

  We’d come all this way. We were ready to go. And now they were going to cancel the expedition because Mr. Wooley couldn’t keep his lunch down.

  There was a long silence. Suddenly, I knew the terrible answer.

  Leo Nackley, wearing a white linen suit, a black scarf tied jauntily around his neck, was standing on the quay, ordering around a group of fishermen who had been hired to help get the last of our gear loaded. In the bright tropical sun, his black hair shone, his mustache gleaming like obsidian. When he heard my voice, he turned around and gave me a triumphant grin.

  “I was so sorry to hear about Mr. Wooley’s difficulties,” he said. “But I was more than happy to step up to the plate. After all, it is my duty as an Explorer of the Realm to help the new generation of Explorers seek out their own discoveries.” He rubbed his hands together and put an arm around Lazlo. “Aren’t we all going to have fun?”

  Twenty-seven

  ’Twas Friday morn when we set sail

  And we had not got far from land

  When the captain he spied a lovely mermaid

  With a comb and a glass in her hand

  Oh, the ocean waves may roll

  And the stormy winds may blow

  While we poor sailors go skipping aloft

  And the landlubbers lay down below, below, below

  And the landlubbers lay down below

  “Is he ever going to stop?” Zander whispered. “I think he has the worst voice in the world.”

  “Not as bad as Lazlo’s,” I whispered back. We were checking lines for Joyce on deck, listening to Jack and Lazlo singing sea chanteys in the cockpit. Even Leo Nackley looked a little annoyed.

  “Oh God,” Sukey groaned. “They’re starting on ‘Spanish Ladies.’ They’re gonna ruin it for me forever.”

  “Well, this is Jack we’re talking about, isn’t it? Anything with ladies in it and he’ll be singing for hours.” I checked to make sure no one was nearby before saying, “This is a disaster. There’s no way we’re going to be able to slip away with him on board.”

  “Maybe I can knock him out or something.” M.K. grinned.

  “No!” Zander, Sukey and I all hissed at the same time. “No knocking people out.”

  “What if we do it at night? When everyone’s sleeping?”

  “Kit, they’ll hear us lowering Amy into the water,” Zander said dubiously.

  “Maybe not,” M.K. said. “The way I have her attached to the davits is pretty neat. We just have to loosen the ropes and ease her in slowly. We might be able to do it. I tried it when we were in port and it’s possible with two of us. And even if they do hear something, we’d be gone before they were up on deck.”

  “Okay,” I told them, thinking out loud. “We may not be able to talk again, so we need a code word. How about Coleman? When we think we’re close enough, say something about Coleman and that will be a sign that we should meet out here at 2 a.m. They should all be soundly asleep by then.”

  “Except for Joyce, who will be on watch,” Zander reminded me.

  I’d forgotten Joyce had offered to take overnight watch duty. “Amy’s off the stern. The cockpit is on the bridge. If she’s looking toward the bow and we do it quickly, we should be okay.”

  “You guys, this is crazy.” Sukey dropped a coil of rope onto the deck with a loud thump. “If we get caught trying to escape, with him on board, do you know what will happen to us? I kind of like it at the Academy, even if you don’t, Kit.”

  “We don’t have any choice,” I told her firmly. “If we wait until we reach the place where King Triton’s Lair is supposed to be, there’s no way Lazlo will let us go down in Amy by ourselves. And then it’s all over.”

  “Where are you keeping the maps?” Zander asked me suddenly.

  “Where do you think?”

  “What if he searches you?”

  “What choice do I have? He might find them. He might not. That collar pocket is pretty safe. But this is why we have to get away as soon as we can.”

  “Okay,” Zander said. “We’ll look for an opportunity.”

  “I’ll check Amy out,” M.K. said, “and make sure she’s ready.”

  We all looked at Sukey. “Okay,” she said finally.

  “Oh, and keep an eye on Kemal,” I told them as we finished with the lines. “The Explorer thinks he might be spying for BNDL.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Sukey asked, an edge to her voice. “Kemal of all people? Do you know what they put him through, Kit?”

  “Maybe they offered him a deal. Anyway, he is Indorustan. I don’t trust him.”

  Sukey scowled at me. “Well there are people who would say I shouldn’t be trusted because I’m a Neo.”

  I met her eyes. “I’m not one of them.”

  We stared at each other before she said, “Fine, we’ll keep an eye on him. I’m going to see how it’s going in the cockpit.”

  There was good wind all day and we made good time, heading east toward Ruby Island, where we’d decided to drop anchor for the night. It was brilliantly sunny, and in spite of myself, I started to relax, enjoying the wind on my face as the Fair Beatrice skimmed across the waves. It was completely different from being aboard the huge bulk of the Deloian Princess. The sea wasn’t the brilliant turquoise it had been in the shallow waters close to St. Beatrice, but a deeper, darker sapphire. Dolphins leapt beside the boat and gulls and terns dove and raced across the sky. Pucci and Njamba tormented them, swooping crazily. We could hear Pucci cackling evilly high above us.

  Joyce adjusted the mainsail and she laughed as the wind ran into it, bowing it out with a wonderful rippling sound. “We’re running now! Isn’t it a beautiful day?” She had tied a blue-and-white bandanna over her head and another around her neck and she looked happier than I’d ever seen her.

  “You look just like a sailor!” Zander tipped his head back, watching her with a huge smile on his face.

  “That’s because I am a sailor, you landlubber!” she called back, laughing.

  The sun had come up bright and strong, and the Fair Beatrice felt nimble and light as we skipped across the ocean.

  Ruby Island came into view in the late afternoon and everyone came out on deck to watch as we approached. The seal-fishing boats were moored out in the little harbor and a line of shacks ran along the shoreline. Ruby Island had been claimed by BNDL not long after St. Beatrice was first explored. It had become economically important to the U.S. because of the large populations of monk seals that used it as their breeding grounds. The seal oil was used for lamps and some people loved the meat. We could see smoke rising from the chimneys of the rendering plants and the air was filled with a terrible odor.

  “It’s the seal fat,” Jack said. “My mother used it in a lamp once. I remember that smell.”

  “Ugh, it’s awful,” M.K. said, wrinkling her nose. “Kind of like Zander’s hiking boots.”

  We all laughed, but Zander didn’t. “What’s awful is what they do to the seals,” he said quietly. “They wait until they’re asleep, sunning themselves on the rocks, and then they kill them with spears or clubs. The seals are getting smart, so now they have to go out in boats and chase them. If they’re not careful, they’re going to kill every last one.”

  Leo Nackley was standing behind him and he snorted. “Don’t be alarmist, Mr. West,” he said. “Those things are like insects. They’re everywhere. The U.S. and its allied nations need the oil and the meat. We have every right to take it.”

  “And when we kill them all, what will we do then?” Zander’s voice was tight and angry.

  “We’ll find more,” Leo Nackley said.

  Zander started to say something, then thought better of it and went to stand alone at the stern. Sukey watched him go but le
ft him alone.

  Joyce gently touched me on the shoulder, breaking the tension. “Kit, can you come and look at some of these charts? I’m setting our course for tomorrow, but I have a question for you.”

  I followed her to the cockpit where she had her charts laid on the chart table. She had one, issued by BNDL, showing roughly the same part of the ocean as Dad’s map.

  “What’s up?” I ran a finger over the dotted lines she’d drawn on the chart.

  “You told me that we want to set a course for north-northeast from Ruby Island because we don’t have the coordinates. That’s what I’ve done, but when I look at those old maps you gave me, there’s a huge range of locations given for the strange weather phenomena. Do you have anything more specific?”

  I tried to keep my voice nonchalant. “No, not really. But I’m pretty confident that if we sail north-northeast we’ll reach the part of the ocean where all this stuff happens.”

  “Kit,” Joyce said seriously, her brown eyes meeting mine. “There’s something strange going on here. Don’t think you’re putting anything over on me. Right from the beginning, this has been the strangest expedition I’ve ever been on. Lazlo doesn’t know a thing about it. It’s like he lifted someone else’s proposal.” I tried not to blush and she raised her eyebrows at my silence. “I get that there may be information you can’t share with me, but you have to understand that we’re all risking our lives out here. If you can’t tell me why, at least tell me that it’s for something more important than gold or oil.” I didn’t know what to say, but something made me trust her.

  “Thanks, Joyce,” I said. “I can’t tell you why, but it is important. It does matter. I would tell you if I could.”

  “Okay,” she said. “north-northeast it is.”

  But was it important, whatever it was we were going to find? I didn’t know. Dad had asked me to do it and the Explorer with the Clockwork Hand had said that it might be a matter of life and death, but I still didn’t know why Dad had sent us on this crazy treasure hunt.

  As I came out of the cockpit, I caught Kemal standing there. He’d been listening to me and Joyce. When he saw me, he bent down and pretended he was tying his shoe.

  “Were you listening to us?” I said, keeping my voice down. “Were you spying on me?” I felt a strong urge to punch him.

  He stood up. “I wasn’t spying,” he said. “I heard what Joyce said, though. She’s right. We’re risking our lives out here. I just want to know what for.”

  “For the glory of the country, Kemal, or didn’t you know that?” I brushed past him, leaving him standing on deck.

  Zander and Jack and M.K. fished off the stern as the sun reddened and sank below the horizon. They caught a dozen orange fish that Zander identified as striped roughies, and they were delicious when they came out of the galley kitchen fried up with a lemon sauce. Jack, who was on supper duty, received a sincere round of applause.

  “You know what I always say,” he said as he basked in our appreciation. “The surest way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.” He grinned at Sukey, Joyce, and M.K., who just kept on eating their fish, ignoring him. “That’s why I learned to cook so well.”

  “Give me seconds and I might agree with you,” Sukey said as he jumped up to get her more fish.

  I looked out across the water, gray now in the dusky light.

  Tomorrow, if my calculations were correct, we’d have another day of sailing before reaching the approximate coordinates of King Triton’s Liar.

  If my calculations were correct. Joyce was right. The course I’d asked her to follow was vague. We could get lost. We could easily miss our target.

  I hadn’t been able to look at Dad’s map since we’d been on the boat and I was suddenly seized by the feeling that I had to see it right now, that it might reveal something important. But it wasn’t safe. There wasn’t anywhere I would be alone.

  “You okay, Kit?” Sukey asked.

  “Fine.” I took another bite of my fish. “Just thinking.”

  I took out the turtle whistle the Explorer had given me. I’d told the others that I’d bought it at the market. “It’s a good-luck charm,” I’d said, repeating the Explorer’s words. Now I thought about them. Dad hadn’t believed in good luck charms. You make your own luck. You don’t wait for it to come to you. You create luck by making connections. By putting things together. It only looks like luck on the other side.

  I finally realized what it was that had been bothering me about the whistle. Dad never would have given me something and called it a good-luck charm. The whistle must have some other purpose. But what? I blew a few notes, then held it in my hand, trying not to attract too much attention to it. When I tucked it away under my shirt it felt smooth and cool against my chest.

  I went to check on Amy before going to bed. In the darkness, she seemed almost alive, her eight utility arms ready for action, her chrome head shining in the moonlight. “Good girl,” I whispered, patting her drill arm. “We’re almost ready to see what you can do.”

  Twenty-eight

  We stayed out on deck in the sun most of the next day, watching the dolphins leap joyfully out of the water as they raced alongside us.

  Leo Nackley seemed relaxed and happy, looking out over the water and even smiling at the sight of the dolphins. I overheard him tell his son that it was all but certain they’d find oil, and that they should start thinking about where they would have the party honoring Lazlo for his find.

  Late in the afternoon, Joyce, Lazlo, and I spent some time going over the charts. At dinner Joyce announced that we’d be nearing our target by early the next morning.

  “That’s great. I’ll make the first trip down in the submersible device,” Lazlo said. “My father and Jack will come along and Miss West will pilot it. Any questions?”

  Zander, Sukey, M.K., and I didn’t need to look at each other to know we were all thinking the same thing: We’d need to make our move tonight. “Sounds good to me,” I said. “Though I do wish we were back on St. Beatrice. I wonder what Coleman’s doing right now?”

  “I wonder too,” Zander said. “Maybe he’s already in bed.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” I tried to keep my voice casual. “It will probably be hours before he goes to bed. He’s such a night owl. He often stayed up until 2 a.m. when we were staying with him.”

  Lazlo and Kemal gave me strange looks.

  I lay in my berth that night, listening to the sound of the waves lapping at the starboard hull next to my head, fighting to stay awake. I could hear Zander’s even breathing below me and I wanted to say something, to make sure he didn’t fall asleep, but I couldn’t risk it with Jack and Kemal in the berths across the way. Finally, at ten minutes to two I slid out of my berth and hoisted myself up through the stern hatch. Joyce was on watch in the cockpit, so I couldn’t use the companionway to get up on deck. I hoped the others would remember to use the hatch, too.

  I crept carefully back toward the stern. When I turned around, I could see Joyce on watch in the cockpit. Her back was to me, and as long as we didn’t make too much noise lowering Amy into the water, I thought we could get away without her knowing. The Nackleys would probably blame her for letting us escape, and I felt a pang of regret. I hoped she wouldn’t get into too much trouble. I knew I was probably deluding myself, though.

  The water was a little choppy and the wind had come up. The sails flapped and the masthead fly rippled noisily at the top of the mast. It was a strange wind. I couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from and it seemed to keep reversing course. Because of the double hulls, the Fair Beatrice didn’t rock the way a regular sailboat would in high wind. Instead it jerked back and forth with the waves. I could feel the water tug at us, the wind pulling the catamaran this way and that. In the cockpit, Joyce moved around, checking charts, using her binoculars to examine the water.

  When I leaned over the stern, I could see Amy crouched belowdecks in the moonlight.

  We had to g
et her into the water.

  I checked to make sure the lines secured to the stern davits were ready. I checked my watch: 2:05. Come on, Zander. Come on, M.K. Come on, Sukey. I checked the lines again.

  “Planning a trip, Mr. West?”

  I spun around. Leo Nackley leaned against the railing on the other side of the stern. He’d been waiting, watching me from the moment I’d come up on deck.

  I froze, trying to think of a reason why I was awake.

  “Do you have somewhere else to be?” he asked me.

  “No, no. I was just checking on the submersible. I couldn’t sleep. I thought I heard a crash and just wanted to make sure.”

  The Fair Beatrice rocked abruptly, the waves and wind pulling her one way and then the other, and I reached out to grab the railing.

  “I don’t believe you,” he said. “I actually don’t believe anything you say. I think you’re a liar.” He stepped forward and the moonlight caught him full on the face. His eyes were narrowed and angry. I didn’t say anything. I was pretty sure this was it. I’d been caught. He would get Dad’s map, and I would be kicked out of the Academy—maybe worse. Any second now, the others were going to come up on to deck, and then they would be caught too. I felt terrible about Sukey. We had forced her into this, and now she’d pay the price for our mistake.

  Suddenly, the boat tipped up on to one hull, throwing me back against the stern and knocking Leo Nackley off his feet. I could hear the main mast creaking, and then the other hull hit the water with a loud slap. Amy slammed against the stern and I heard a sickening screech of metal on wood. Nackley hauled himself up. “You know,” he said. “I was talking to someone at the Newly Discovered Lands Museum recently. He was very suspicious about that gold Lazlo found in Arizona. He said it didn’t have enough—what was it? Sediment. For gold that had been sitting in a cave for hundreds of years, there wasn’t enough sediment. He said that he thought the gold had been moved.”

  “Really? That’s odd.” The boat had really started moving now, jerking to and fro on the waves. I grabbed the deck railing to steady myself as I was almost knocked off my feet again.