Far From The Sea We Know

by Frank M Sheldon

CHAPTER 19

  Thorssen spoke into the walkie-talkie. “Emory, get a reading of the bottom, over.”

  “Yes, we could see the whale dropping down on the side scan, and you as well, then we lost her. There was interference of some kind. When it came back—”

  “—Breaking in. Need some high resolution scans of the bottom, see if there’s any hope of retrieval, over.”

  “Should be possible with the minisub.”

  “How soon? Over.”

  “We can get her wet in two hours, over.”

  “Good. We’ll need some nets and flotation bags, over.”

  “Okay. Captain? Do you know why—”

  “Later. Over and out.”

  Thorssen tossed the walkie-talkie onto a cushion and sighed deeply. He looked tired but strangely at ease. “Quick recovery,” Penny said nodding toward the injured calf, now placidly swimming with the others and without apparent distress.

  “Strange, yes,” Dirk said, “but what isn’t, these days?”

  Thorssen clearly did not want to talk. Matthew glanced over his shoulder to see the Chiffrey peering through high powered-binoculars. Was lip reading among the young lieutenant’s skills? He turned toward the Valentina and mouthed the words, “stop spying on us,” but it had no effect. Of course, he would not give himself away so easily if he were competent.

  Thorssen stirred himself and moved upright on one knee. He said, “Take us back.”

  Matthew eyed the whales, but they seemed uninterested as Dirk and Penny restarted the engines. Soon the Zodiacs were back at the scaffold, and the group climbed the ladder to the deck. Thorssen headed straight for the bridge without a word. Matthew followed Penny up to the fo’c’sle to watch the whales.

  “I’m not sure why they haven’t moved on,” he said after a while, “but it’s a sixteen thousand kilometer trip. They’ll starve if they don’t get to their Arctic feeding grounds in time.”

  She didn’t say anything, so he continued. “There’s little, if anything, they could eat here. I would have thought…”

  He walked a few paces away and then back to her. “Listen, I’m not criticizing—”

  “No, you are merely passing judgment.”

  “The lead whale is almost certainly dead, and you don’t seem to care.”

  As soon as he spoke, his words sounded stupid in his ears. Penny slowly looked him over, as if taking his measure for a coffin, and said, “Should I be dumping ashes on my head, then? If it’s rending garments you want to see, maybe I’ll start with that stupid beer hat on your head.”

  “Doesn’t the death and sacrifice of this whale affect you at all?”

  She trained her gaze on him like a gun. “She did what she did. I have no basis to judge, and there is nothing I can do about it. Get it?”

  He was about to answer, when she looked past his shoulder and whispered, “Quiet. Here comes Chiffrey.”

  He barely heard the footsteps coming up behind him. The lieutenant came to a stop and stood at Matthew’s side, just a little too close.

  “You really aced it out there this morning, boy. You too, Penny. Great work.”

  “Thanks,” Matthew said, without enthusiasm. “How is the TV news crew doing?”

  “The pilot’s going to be fine, just swallowed a load of sea water. The woman’s a tad dazed, but she’ll be okay.”

  “What about the cameraman?” Matthew said.

  “Daryl, yes. Once we got him on board, Mary just took over. She’s terrific, isn’t she? Doing a great job with him, but that kid’s still totally scrambled. Figured another chopper would be a bad idea, so we have a cruiser on the way to pick up our unexpected guests.”

  “Navy?”

  “I have some pull. Least I could do.”

  “But why not the Coast Guard?” Penny asked.

  “Well, if you mean the U.S. Coast Guard, we’re off the coast of Canada for one thing, and they are not nearby. There is a Navy cruiser nearby and it’s fast. They’ll get them back safe. You folks are lucky I’m here.”

  “How long?”

  “I haven’t set a time to leave as I—”

  “No,” Penny said, shaking her head. “I mean till the cruiser gets here.”

  “Three or four hours.”

  “Kind of a lucky coincidence they were so close,” she said. “Don’t you think off-loading the cameraman to a Navy ship will spook him even more?”

  “It’s far from ideal, granted, but he needs special care and the faster he gets it the better.”

  “What do you mean?” Matthew asked.

  Chiffrey leaned back against the railing and slumped enough that his military bearing seemed to wash away like a sand castle against the tide. His usual cheerful countenance fell with it.

  “I’ll tell you the truth,” he said. “I’ve seen this before. Bad as his accident was, it shouldn’t have had such a catastrophic effect on that boy. It’s like Daryl’s looked into some abyss and then fallen in. When he looks up, it’s all a nightmare. He is absolutely terrified. I doubt if he even knows his name anymore. It’s going to be a while, a long while probably, before they let him walk away. At least that’s my opinion. Poor son of a bitch. ’Scuse me, miss.”

  Chiffrey shook his head and looked toward the tracking station on the fo’c’sle. Matthew followed his gaze. Only Mary was there.

  “I’m going to check out what’s up with your friends,” Chiffrey said. “The whales. Care to join me?

  Matthew just stared at him, not knowing what to say.

  “Look, Matthew, the sooner I can complete my report, the sooner I can get out of here. Much as I’d hate to leave, of course. What’s up with the lead whale, by the way?”

  “She’s never came back up.”

  “Well, that can’t be good.” Chiffrey scanned Matthew for a moment, then said, “Sorry to hear that. Guess I missed it when I was checking on Daryl. Maybe Penny could fill me in…”

  “I’m ready,” Matthew said. “Let’s have a look now and see what they’re up to.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  As if to emphasize his resolve, Matthew walked off toward the tracking station. Penny and Chiffrey followed and they all ended up standing awkwardly in a semicircle behind Mary at the instrument array.

  “Morning again, Mary,” Chiffrey said. He rested his hand gently on her shoulder. “How are you holding up?”

  “Much better.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you.”

  “I thought you’d still be with the cameraman.”

  “We radioed for advice and they recommended giving him a strong sedative. He was sleeping soundly when I left. Becka will look in on him from time to time.”

  Chiffrey nodded, then scrutinized the monitor, which indicated that Mary was centering on the calf. It had been less than two hours, but the young whale didn’t act injured at all.

  “You can handle all this by yourself, Mary?” Chiffrey asked. “I thought it took two.”

  “It usually does, but the whales are idling and the seas are light.”

  “Forgive me, but I’m still impressed. Tell me, though, can you track them from here when they’re underwater? With sonar, for instance?”

  “Yes, but usually we stay with the visual. While migrating, they stay mainly on the surface, as they do not feed. They get their food from the bottom. Sort of like grazing cattle.”

  “I see, but the sonar is recorded if they go under?”

  Mary hesitated a moment. “Of course.” She didn’t say anything else, which said too much.

  “They’ll be checking now,” Matthew said, “since we are going to try to locate and bring up the carcass.”

  “Bring it up?” Chiffrey said. “I thought whales were supposed to float when they’re dead.”

  “Only some of them,” Matthew said. He embraced the chance to steer the conversation in another direction. “Right whales got their name from the fact that they did float when killed by whalers—that’s how they got their name
, they were the ‘right whale’ to hunt. In those early days, they couldn’t retrieve a whale if it sank. Of course, they eventually figured that out, which meant—”

  “Fascinating,” Chiffrey said. “I didn’t know that. The recordings of what happened down there would be in C-lab, right? Love to check those out.”

  Chiffrey cast his gaze down a moment then looked up. “Again, I’m sorry about your whale. Maybe there’s still hope.”

  He sauntered away, and Matthew turned toward Penny, signaled her to come walk with him. When they were out of earshot, he said to her, “What do you think?”

  “He thinks we’re hiding something.”

  “Are we?”

  The question was left hanging in the air and, as if by mutual agreement, they headed down to C-lab. Emory was in front of the side-scan array with a video monitor wedged in next to it. Malcolm was busy at another console. Chiffrey was already watching a video playback of Thorssen’s encounter with the lead whale.

  “There, see?” Emory said. “So, where did she go? I’ve seen an inversion layer distort sonar scans before, but never like this. And this system is less than a year old, very sophisticated, supposed to be immune to stuff like that.”

  “Do you folks have any recordings of your earlier scans of the bottom?” Chiffrey asked.

  “Malcolm?” Emory asked.

  “You’ll have it in a couple or ten minutes, like I said before, okay?”

  Chiffrey stood behind Emory and said quietly, “Has the bottom scanner been running all the time?”

  “Yeah, but not at full enhancement. We usually opt for a wider sweep. That should be good enough to find her, unless she—jeesh!”

  Emory suddenly hunched over and brought his hands up to his eyes. His shoulders shook as he fought to regain control. He finally settled down, then pulled out a stained handkerchief and quickly wiped his eyes.

  “Sorry. I was, uh, not so well this morning. Stomach bug or something.” Emory looked embarrassed. “Okay now, I’m all right.”

  Chiffrey watched him intently, with an occasional glance toward Malcolm.

  “Here it is,” Malcolm said.

  The sonar recording flickering on the screen cast a sickly green glow on their faces as they stared at it, unspeaking. Near the end, Emory pointed at three blips on the screen and finally broke the silence. “This large blip is the whale that was underneath.”

  “The so-called ‘lead whale’?” Chiffrey asked.

  “Correct,” Emory said. “And the next smallest is the injured calf. Now the large whale is dropping.”

  “The smallest one, Captain?” Chiffrey asked, pointing at an even smaller blip.

  Emory nodded. They watched the larger and smaller blips descend. The equipment continuously updated the depth readings, and the numbers appeared next to the images on the screen. Suddenly the blips expanded to fill the whole screen, then they vanished.

  “Well, well,” Chiffrey said with a chuckle.

  There was nothing to see for almost a minute, then the smallest blip appeared again, moving up to the surface toward the now visible calf.

  “Why don’t we see the lead whale?” Chiffrey asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Emory said. “She was deeper at that point. An inversion layer issue is the only thing I can come up with.”

  “You said before you had never seen anything like this.”

  “New stuff all the time out here,” he muttered.

  Penny, who had been silent through this exchange, nudged Matthew in the ribs. “Company.”

  The newswoman entered the room, dressed in borrowed clothes. She took in everything with one quick sweep, and walked briskly over to the group. Thorssen stepped forward and held out his hand.

  “Captain Thorssen.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Captain. I’ve read so much about you. I’m Lorraine Hart of KZOP-TV News.”

  “Recognize you now you’re dry. Glad to see you looking better, Miss Hart.”

  “Please, call me Lorraine.”

  “Lorraine, then. We’re arranging to get you all back to shore.”

  “Thank you, Captain. I’d actually like to stay longer if—”

  “Not possible. Be only a few hours before your transport arrives. Till then, you’ll need to stay in the quarters we’re preparing for you.”

  “No need for that. I’m fine, and I won’t be in the way. This is a big story for me and—”

  “And your thoughtlessness this morning nearly made it a damned sight bigger.”

  “I didn’t know…we assumed—”

  “By not heeding my warnings to back off, you caused a severe injury to one whale and likely killed another. And almost got your pilot and cameraman killed. Going to mention all that on the evening news?”

  Thorssen was talking calmly, but his voice carried the weight of a pile driver. The tension level in the room shot up higher, but Lorraine Hart stood her ground.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, “but we figured that you were just trying to scare us away, because you didn’t want the publicity.”

  “Didn’t you see how the whales were reacting?”

  “I…they looked as if they were just playing—”

  “They were terrified and angry. You don’t know what you’re doing, and you’re going back to wherever it is you belong.”

  “You have no right to—”

  “Out here I do. Advise you to comply voluntarily.”

  She took in a breath to answer but nothing came. For a few seconds more she faced Thorssen, then spun around and stomped off. Suddenly she halted, as if brought up short on a leash. The way she was holding her body seemed to just fall out of her. When she turned around, even her face seemed different. Her eyes flickered with the fire of some distant passion and her face seemed somehow both younger and older than before. They all stared back at her, but she simply left the room, her bare feet padding on the deck plates with the silence of a cat.

  Penny watched her go, then said, “What was that all about?”

  “Keep an eye on her,” Thorssen responded.

  “Public relations are not exactly my strong point. Oh, all right.”

  The Captain smiled, and his shoulders went up and down in a quick silent laugh.

  As Penny left to follow the woman, she gave Matthew a brief touch, making him aware of how much tension he was holding.

  “Catch you later,” she said.

  “I hope so,” he whispered.

  Chiffrey scratched his ear and slowly shook his head back and forth. “Don’t blame you for reading her the riot act. You notice that odd bit of behavior at the end, Captain?”

  “You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?”

  “Well—”

  “Why don’t you just say what you really want?” Thorssen said.

  Chiffrey remained silent, then shook his head and said, “Unfortunately, I’m not cleared to say anymore at this point. You know how it is.”

  “You want our help, you’ll need to provide all the information you’ve been withholding. And I mean all of it. Talk to your people.”

  Chiffrey scrunched his brow. “I’m due to check in tonight, and I’ll bring up your request. Meanwhile—”

  “Until you get us cleared, you’re on your own.” The Captain turned toward Malcolm and Emory. They had been staring at their screens like guilty schoolboys, acting as if they hadn’t heard a thing. But when they heard him say, “Shut it all down for the day,” both looked as if they had been asked to take their mother off life support.

  “Shut…it…all…down,” Thorssen repeated. “Now.”

  They got the message this time and started to close down their systems, although slowly, as if they were defusing a bomb.

  “This applies to everyone and everything on this ship as far as you’re concerned,” Thorssen said to Chiffrey. “We need the full deck. Tell your superiors, and maybe we’ll get somewhere.”

  Chiffrey cast a hard glance toward Thorssen, who gave him a harder one back. Bluff
or not, this caught Chiffrey off guard, but he recovered almost instantly and replied, “Yes, sir, the point is taken.”

  When Thorssen didn’t add any more, Chiffrey turned with a touch of military formality and headed for the hatchway.

  “Lieutenant Chiffrey,” Thorssen called after him. “Nothing personal. Appreciate your help with the cameraman. Maybe drop in on him again if you could.”

  “Will do, Captain,” he said with a smile, and marched off.

  Matthew listened to the footsteps echoing down the passageway until they faded to silence.

  “Turn it on again, guys,” Thorssen said to Emory and Malcolm. “He comes back, pull the plug.”

  “No, no!” Malcolm said softly, “You can’t just pull out the plug on a system like this. You could damage—”

  “Just make it so he can’t see anything. Check the bottom and in between. The bridge will follow your course. Total sweep of the area. Allow for currents.”

  “We’ll find her,” Emory said.

  “Don’t count on it.”

  Matthew’s ears tingled. “In my cabin in ten minutes,” Thorssen said to him as he walked out of the lab.

  Emory and Malcolm clicked their gear back on. Matthew decided to kill the few minutes waiting with them.

  “Do you really think it was inversion layer interference?” he asked Emory.

  “No.”

  “Then…?”

  Emory abruptly gave the keyboard a whack with his huge fist and the crack of plastic breaking was immediately followed by the sound of key caps bouncing like dice off the floor.

  “Damn it all! This thing should work! Oh, shit…” His voice choked off and he momentarily froze. Finally his hulking shoulders came down again and he let out his breath.

  Next to him, Malcolm was trembling, but said, “Got another keyboard right over here. No problem, just a glitch, we’ll get it cooking. Don’t we always? Emory?”

  The big man straightened up.

  “Yeah, we do. Matthew, we need to concentrate here.”

  “I’m just going, guys. Take it easy, okay?”

  Matthew backed toward the hatch of C-lab, but before he could exit, Emory looked up at him and tried to manage a smile.

  “And thanks again for breakfast.”

  “Please, don’t mention it.”