by M. N. Arzu
His newfound enemy was coming for Louie. Not on my watch, was all Drake thought as the large hunting knife aimed at the diver’s torso found an empty space instead as Drake collided with the merman from the left. Helpless, the marines watched as the mermen’s tails entwined, while Drake tried to wrestle the knife out of their attacker’s hand, moving further and further away from the only source of light.
The knife nipped his shoulder, catching only the suit, and then struck his arm, drawing blood. But Drake was stronger, and his adversary knew it. He was fighting to get out of Drake’s grip, and managed to do so after struggling for a few seconds. Seeking the cover of darkness, the merman retreated as fast as he could back into the deep.
Drake didn’t allow it, intercepting him easily, making him choose up instead of down. He moved faster than any human would ever hope to move, faster than many merfolk in fact, and he followed the trail of the merman without a second thought.
Up and down in a zigzag pattern, the delinquent merman tried to escape him, and when they were close enough to the surface to actually see, Drake caught with an iron grip the elusive red-and-yellow tail, yanked it down, and twisted it, probably tearing some muscles.
The other merman screamed in agony in his mind, but Drake didn’t let him go. For one instant, he saw the man’s face. It wasn’t Matt, not exactly, but rather an older version of his nephew. The same features, the same scales, but a lifetime of different experiences, as his opponent’s eyes locked with his in pure hatred.
So caught was he on the differences and similarities between the two mermen, that he barely turned to avoid the knife the merman threw at him. It narrowly missed his neck and shoulder, and Drake had no option but to release the tail as he moved to evade it. He did a backflip so he wouldn’t lose speed, without knowing that his rival was still armed. The merman threw with all his might a piece of shrapnel from the sub, and it found its mark on the suit’s lower back.
In any other suit, on any other day, the shrapnel wouldn’t have done any damage to his body beyond a scrape at the base of his back. But this was Drake’s suit, especially designed to keep track of his biometrics, with three times more internal circuitry than the original design. As Drake arched in a full circle, the metal connected, and it short-circuited the suit in a brief shower of sparks that sent an electrical shock through his spine and tail.
For one eternal second, every single muscle in his body contorted in a spasm. And then he knew nothing more.
19
Sirens
“You brought a goddamn mermaid onto my ship?” Captain Armstrong said with such venom that Major White had to fight not to inch back. “Do you know what mermaids do, Major? They sink ships. They open their mouths and shipwrecks follow. We’ll be lucky if all we’ve lost is an unmanned submarine.”
“The decision of who to inform about the merman’s true identity was not mine to make, Captain,” White said diplomatically, ignoring the notions that their current merfolk had anything to do with Greek mythology. “I was in no position to disclose it to you or anyone else on board.”
The Navy had all kinds of ideas about merfolk: From allies to clandestine operatives, from watchdogs to rescuers, the many roles a merman could play were vast and desirable. The dark side of that evaluation painted them as operatives for their enemies, or outright enemies of humanity itself. No military man ever liked to be in the unknown, and there was no greater mystery in the seas right now than merfolk.
“I’m aware of your orders, Major, but excuse me if I’m not thrilled at Washington playing politics while endangering my crew. In case you missed it, we were just attacked by one of them, and now I’m tasked with finding our missing ‘Mr. Joe’. ”
“There are people we can call—”
“Correction, Major. There are people I can call. This is a Navy operation, in case being on my ship was not obvious enough. A chopper is scheduled to come for you in about thirty minutes. Washington will have new orders for you once you land.”
White felt the color draining from his face. “If you find Drake, he’ll want a familiar face to talk to. He might not trust the rest of the military.”
“What gives you the impression that I care what Drake wants, Major? As far as I know, he’s as guilty of attacking my ship as the other merman.”
“With all due respect, Captain, maintaining a relationship with the merfolk is in everybody’s best interest—”
“Tell that to the one who sank the sub.”
“Captain—”
“Dismissed, Major. I have a merman to fish out of the water, and you have a helicopter to catch.”
* * *
White moved through the Honos halls as if the ship were sinking. The only reason he didn’t run was because he was still finding his way through each corridor and turn, trying to get ahold of Dr. Greensburg. Finally, he found the doctor at the sonar station, where the specialist was combing the area. Drake couldn’t be that far.
“I need to talk to you,” White said, taking the man by the shoulder. Greensburg didn’t resist. Outside the bridge, the sun felt too bright, even if his skin felt too cold. “What are the chances he’s still alive?”
“I’d say about twenty percent. It looks like he caught the other merman and then something drastic happened to fry all the electrical feedback. But if you want my honest opinion? We’re looking for a dead body.”
“Okay, forget about that. What are the chances we find him, dead or alive?”
“Oh, we will find him. The suit emits an emergency signal. We’re looking for it, it’s just a matter of time.”
“I’ve received orders from Washington to leave this mission in the capable hands of the Navy. If Drake’s alive, he’ll need to cooperate with Armstrong, and that man has absolutely no sympathy for merfolk. Maybe Admiral Coleman will come himself, but I don’t know if that’d be better. Whatever you do, doctor, you have to play the nice guy with both parties before we lose all semblance of goodwill and cooperation.”
Greensburg looked thoughtful. The man was used to his labs and microscopes, not playing diplomatic games with two powerful entities. “He’s more likely than not going to need some medical assistance. And I think there’s someone else more capable to aid him. If it is friends our merman needs, he might fare better with Dr. Higgs.”
“Make sure you mention that, loud and clear. Armstrong will be pressed to deliver Drake alive. He might not have a high opinion of my work, but he will follow orders.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Catch a chopper, and if I’m lucky enough, stop the rest of the merfolk from disappearing into the unknown.”
* * *
Julian was wrapping up a call with the general manager of the South American branch when his phone rang. Once, two years ago, Matthew had gone through all their phones and changed their ringtones to The Little Mermaid’s various theme songs. The expressions of the board members when his phone had burst into the catchy phrases of Under the Sea had been priceless—including his own.
Smiling at the memory, he answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Mr. Brooks, this is Nathan Forest. I’m so sorry to call you in this way, but there’s an urgent matter I need to discuss with you.”
“Dr. Forest, I’m listening,” Julian said, his good mood evaporating as his heart accelerated. Nathan Forest wasn’t supposed to know Julian was one of the merfolk, but he had little doubt why the man was calling him.
“Not over the phone. Can you come to my apartment?”
“Does this have to do with the UN talks?” Julian asked, standing up, and doing a visual sweep of the things he had to take with him.
“No. It’s about Drake.”
* * *
Julian had never met with Nathan Forest before. Of all the people involved in Christopher’s captivity and rescue, Julian had only met Gwen and Andrew, and then only because they had been needed for Chris’s therapy. Everybody else, from the UN to Washington, had been Drake�
�s business.
To be fair, Nathan has always been Diana’s business, he thought as his driver stopped in front of an apartment building. He was too rattled to drive himself, and left the security of the car for the unknown dangers of apartment 207. Whatever Forest had to tell him, it wasn’t going to be good news.
But why would the United Nations know something about Drake and the Navy? Did Diana say something? Is this Forest’s idea of branching out and wanting to talk to me instead of Drake? It didn’t add up, no matter how much he stared at the pieces. Drake was working alongside Nathan and Diana to make the UN talks happen as soon as possible. It was his plan—one Julian didn’t fully support—and in the absence of his friend’s vision to carry this through, Julian knew the talks would take years to happen.
He went up the stairs and checked one more time with his children. He’d warned them to be ready for an emergency exit, and they all waited for confirmation. Chris was at their home, ready to leave with Andrew. And Matt had reached for Scott and Alex, the three of them waiting for further instructions at school.
This is no life for them, he thought as he passed apartments 201 and 203. Sooner or later, something has to give, and it can’t be my family.
Apartment 207 finally came into view, and Julian had barely rung the bell when the door flew open. Nathan Forest had clearly been waiting for him.
“Mr. Brooks, please come in,” Nathan said, and closing the door behind them, he extended a hand. “I wish we had met under better circumstances.”
“Dr. Forest. I’m afraid you’ve been keeping me in the dark for far too long.”
“It was never my intention, but he insisted,” Nathan said with a rather darker tone.
The apartment was small but well equipped—and apparently empty. Unless Nathan was hiding someone in his room or the bathroom, no one else was here.
In front of them in the living room, a laptop was open on the coffee table.
“You better sit down,” Nathan said, indicating the larger cream sofa the laptop was facing. For one moment, Julian thought Drake was going to be on the screen. All that met him on the computer was a live video of a gray wall.
On his phone, Nathan was typing, looking too concerned to ease Julian’s nerves.
“What is this about?” Julian asked, getting to the end of his rope.
“Major White wants to talk to you, but he wouldn’t tell me about what. Just that he needed a secure link and neutral ground, but that’s all I know. I’m letting him know you’ve arrived.”
“He wants the UN to mediate on whatever he’s bringing to the table,” Julian said, his stomachs tightening for the worst kind of news.
“I know Diana left this week because of whatever Drake’s doing with the Navy,” Nathan said, “but that’s all she would say. Are you working with the military now?”
“Brooks Inc. has contracts with the US government and many research projects with many other governments, Dr. Forest. But this was personal. White wanted payment for helping us with Wallace, and we agreed to give him a specially designed diving suit. It retains heat and provides support for deep dives far better than anything you have. But its best feature is that it’s sonar proof.”
“So you’re designing for the Navy then?”
“Hardly. It was designed to help a team of researchers photograph the Arctic Ocean six years ago. We produce about twelve a year, just not publicly. The sonar-proof technology is a by-product we knew the Navy would love. We hoped that the promise of future perks like this one would be enough to ensure Drake’s safety.”
Someone crossed in front of the screen, and a moment later, Major White sat down, his thin-rimmed glasses unable to disguise the telltale signs of anxiety.
“Mr. Brooks—”
“Where’s Drake?” Julian asked in what he hoped was a controlled manner.
“We don’t know,” White said, and then he went into the details about the previous successful tests, Drake’s concerns about the modified suit, followed by the strange accounts of what had happened during the last test: how they had lost the submarine, and how the merman responsible had been thwarted by Drake. “The last thing the marines saw was him passing them by as they tried to find their way up. The GPS followed him for half a mile, before something happened. We don’t know if he took off the suit entirely, if there was a malfunction of the device, or if the signal was lost because the tracker was destroyed. We’ve been searching for the last four hours with no luck.”
Four hours? You’ve been gone four hours and I didn’t even sense it?
“Nobody knew about this test,” Julian said, pushing down any kind of emotional response for later. “Why would a merman attack your men, let alone Drake?”
“The Navy has the exact same questions. There were only two people aboard who knew Drake’s true identity, and that’s including myself. Drake chose to shift into his merfolk shape in order to aid our men, because he knew the threat was real. I’m sending you the test’s video, along with his biometrics, so you can see he was chasing something.”
“What’s his last known location?”
“That’s classified.”
“What did you just say?” Julian asked, incredulous.
“Mr. Brooks, the Navy is furious. They think you put on a show to do this, or worse, that you’re bringing warfare to our doorstep. One of yours singlehandedly destroyed a multimillion-dollar research submarine with practically his bare hands. They are not trusting you, any of you, right now. But we are looking for him. If he’s injured, he might be adrift. We’re doing everything in our power to make sure he’s okay. If he makes contact with you, I need to know.”
“I don’t care about what your people think. Drake wouldn’t have abandoned the mission, especially with a rogue merman in the midst.”
“I believe that, Mr. Brooks. Drake had every intention of seeing this through. I have no doubt that whatever happened down there had nothing to do with you or your Council. But something did happen, and until we can straighten things out, you need to respect and abide by our previous mutual agreements. As long as this investigation is ongoing, you shouldn’t leave New York.”
“You expect me to stay here and do nothing?” Julian asked, baffled.
White took a deep breath. “Julian, if you disappear, if you so much look as if you want to leave, they’ll start hunting you down, and everything Drake wanted, everything you want for your sons, will be gone.”
Ice settled somewhere between his heart and his soul. He could feel the cold, all right, the worst kind of cold.
“You wouldn’t.”
“That’s why I called Dr. Forest in his official capacity as a UN agent, so he can be a witness to our commitment. I’m here to remind you we both want to work together, and while I work with my own superiors to take this as an isolated incident, I need you to do the same on your side. The three of us know that Drake was holding together the UN talks as well as the exchange of technology and goodwill with the Pentagon. With him gone for the time being, Washington needs to know there’s a direct line to the merfolk community, and that leaves you at the front.”
There is no goodwill or talks if you murdered my friend, Julian thought darkly as he couldn’t answer White’s request. Drake was gone, and although there was a good chance he was still alive, who knew what was happening to him right now?
“Let me search for him. White, let me send someone to search for him. We have a better chance of finding him in open sea than you do.”
“Don’t think I’m not arguing for it every moment I can. The Navy won’t allow it. There are too many questions that no one can answer. I’m hoping that the video not only convinces you that we’re not lying but that it gives you some insight into who might have done this. You have to admit, Mr. Brooks, that you don’t seem to be short on enemies lately.”
* * *
Higgs’s morning was filled with new theories regarding merfolk metabolism, knee deep in a dozen different reports from his colleagues in t
he Pentagon, when a call distracted him.
“Hello?”
“We have trouble coming,” Nate said on the phone in a rather brooding tone.
“Trouble as in the UN, or trouble as in our merfolk friends?”
“Trouble as in the Navy just lost Drake.”
Higgs closed his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to go hunting merfolk. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“White called me two hours ago from some unknown location, and the next thing I know, I’m meeting with Julian Brooks.”
“The Julian Brooks? That would be intimidating even without the merfolk background.”
“I’ve never seen a man get a grip on his emotions as fast as he did. He didn’t even ask how I knew he’s merfolk. Remember how I told you Diana was going away for the week because of some secret project Drake was doing?”
“With Major White and the Navy, I remember.”
“Well, it seems that they lost Drake due to another merman sabotaging the test. White wanted me as a witness that this was not a deal breaker with the merfolk community.”
“Wait, slow down. Another merman? And where’s Drake. Is he dead?”
“They don’t know if he’s dead,” Nathan was saying when Higgs’s doorbell rang.
“Give me a second Nate, someone’s at the door.” Trying to make sense of how things could go down the drain so fast, he opened the door to find a couple of military men at his doorstep.
“Oh, I think I’m about to find out the answer to our Drake question. I’ll call you later,” was all Higgs said before hanging up.