by Dale Mayer
“With a life jacket,” he said, “all oceans are deadly.”
She nodded.
He poured two cups of coffee and came back, holding one out to her.
She took it gratefully. “I guess I’m lucky to be alive.”
“You are, indeed,” he said, “and something from the sound saved you. I don’t know what, and I don’t know how to find out, but I’m not sure if that water creature was communicating with you, or if it was something else.”
“You mean, someone else,” she said. “Is it possible it was Jamie?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Jamie sent me looking for you. Although Stefan was correct in that I knew something was wrong already. But I don’t know who it was in the sound helping you or communicating with you.”
She looked at his lab, and her mind started to go clickety-click. “What exactly are you researching?”
He hesitated.
She nodded. “Communicating with animals by any chance? How animals communicate with each other? I thought this had to do with tectonic plates.”
“It does,” he said. “Something different happens all along these plates. Different ways of communication between the animals themselves. They have a different warning system. I was hoping I could tap into it so we could get an early warning to people when these plates were going to move.”
“And, in order to do that, you have to communicate with them. Is that it?”
“Yes, and no. At least if I could read them, understand their alarm system,” he said, “then we would have a much better alarm system for ourselves.”
“But it’s not likely to be fast enough to save people, is it?”
“That depends on the level and depth of our communication with the mammals here,” he countered. He sat down on the hearth and looked at her. “Do you think you could communicate with it, … them, … again?”
She put down her coffee and slowly straightened. “Are you asking me to go back into that water, almost drown again, so I can talk with whatever my mind believed I heard?” She could feel the stone-coldness in her stomach at the thought.
“Of course not,” he said. “You would only be in the very safest of surroundings. No way I want you to go back to drown.”
“Good,” she said shortly. “Because I’m not going to. Ever again. And it’s hardly fair you would even ask that of me.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that something talked to you down there. Something helped save your life,” he said, refusing to let it be. “And that something was willing to communicate with you once. And, therefore, it’s likely to be willing to communicate with you again.”
“It,” she emphasized, “might be. That doesn’t mean I am.”
“Understood,” he said. He stood, grabbing his coffee. “I have to get some work done. Maybe this time you’ll stay out here on your own.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help?”
He shook his head. “No, I think you’ve done enough.” And on that note he went into the lab and closed the door.
She frowned, thinking about it. She hadn’t done anything. And maybe that was the problem. Or maybe it was because she’d refused to try to communicate with whatever it was out there. She could see saying thank-you, for saving her life, but she certainly didn’t want to leave herself open to that same death experience again. It had been beyond chilling. She understood at the time she needed to understand an awful lot, but she hadn’t had enough time since the entire event to relax about it. It was still terrifying in so many ways.
With the heat from the fireplace and the blanket wrapped around her, she snuggled deeper. Her coffee forgotten, she slowly sank into the recliner for a nap. One of the last thoughts as she went to sleep was, if she could communicate from here, she would. But to communicate from the center of the sound, well, no way could she handle that. Not now. Probably not ever. And she drifted off to sleep.
Immediately she was caught up in the storm. Caught up in the waves. She could feel the pressure inside her lungs, the burn that permeated through her body as she gasped for air. And then that weird space when, all of a sudden, the burn was gone. There was no need for air. She just floated, sinking forever lower into the great unknown below her.
Whatever that strange space, that strange time, she just sank and sank, knowing she was done and gone, watching as her body floated aimlessly in the tide around it.
And then something rose beneath her. She was still trying to understand how she saw her body, as if she were outside of it.
Stefan’s words rolled through her head as she realized he had been right. At least on one point. She had been out of her body. She’d separated from her body because she’d already died.
And then this thing came up under her. She struggled to see through the dark water whatever it was. It was just big and black. It came higher and higher, sliding under her, pushing her up higher each time it touched her. It rose another twenty, thirty, forty feet. But it still wasn’t quite enough.
She could feel her uncaring body just floating as this thing below forced itself upward. She wanted to rail at herself to fight, wanted to rail at herself to get up there and breathe. But instead, she just lay there dead in the undercurrent, as something around her tried to save her. But she was already past saving herself.
And then she heard that voice. “Help,” it whispered. “Help us.”
She shook her head. “I can’t help anymore.”
“Help us,” the voice insisted. “The noises, the odd waves … they hurt. Stop them.”
She didn’t know if it was talking to her or talking to this thing beneath her. But, as she watched, her body was lifted once more, this time surging higher and higher, almost from a swat, not of its tail but of its back. As she rose to the surface, she received another forceful hit on her back, strong enough that she coughed and gasped as she rose higher up and out of the water. Like a newborn babe to get them breathing air for the first time. But even then she was too weak to fight gravity, and she fell back underwater.
As she watched, the sea creature drove her carefully toward the shore, but it wasn’t just one animal helping her. Others were there, guiding her body up to the sand, where she lay as the water crashed over her again and again. When on the sand, she could dimly hear voices and barking.
At that moment, she slammed back into her body and woke up. She lay here in Samson’s living room and stared, stunned at her surroundings as she realized exactly how she’d come to arrive here. She’d only survived because of that voice from the sound and those sea creatures. And then, because of Samson himself.
And now she knew she could reach out to the voice again. From this recliner even. She just didn’t know how to do it on her own.
*
It was hard to focus on his lab work. He’d tossed a bone to her. It was up to her whether she’d pick it up or not. That his idea could move the research forward was possible. It could also damage her psyche. Would he be willing to do that?
Samson already regretted tossing her the option. But now his brother wouldn’t leave him alone. And yet, it was a less-clear, less-cognizant speech than his brother usually gave him, which meant he’d been dosed with more medication again. Jamie’s voice was mostly a high-pitched scream or a cry for help. Not an immediate, Hey, I’m in danger. Come and get me, that you’d expect from somebody who was suddenly attacked. This was the same moaning, keening pain that his brother often felt because he was in a place that hurt him.
Finally Samson couldn’t stand it anymore and reached for the phone, calling the doctors at his brother’s center. “I want to bring him back here,” he said without preamble.
“Not happening,” Dr. Carter said. “You know he’s a danger to everyone around him.”
“Who’s here to hurt?” Samson said. “There’s just me.”
“That’s not the point. You’re isolated. What if something does happen to him or to you? He’s got no place to go, and nobody is there to help him.�
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“Possibly,” Samson said, his voice just as hard as the doctor’s. “But I think he needs to get a second opinion.”
“There’s four of us here,” Dr. Carter said, his tone weary. “I know you want to help your brother. I know you’d do anything to make this all go away, but there really is no viable treatment.”
“Dr. Maddy,” he said.
Dr. Carter gave a snort. “What about her?”
“I want her to look at him.”
“You can want all you like,” Dr. Carter said cryptically. “She’s incredibly busy, and this isn’t her typical case. I would highly doubt in this situation she could do anything.”
“But you don’t know that,” he said. “I want her to come and look at Jamie.”
“Well, of course, we have to take her assessment into account,” the doctor said with asperity. “But don’t hold your breath.” And he hung up.
“Bastard,” Samson muttered as he stared down at the dead phone in his hand. How was it okay for doctors to hang up on you?
Samson ignored the fact he phoned Jamie’s doctors on a regular basis, looking for answers that couldn’t be found.
Just then his phone rang with work concerns. Several hours were taken up solving problems back in Seattle. He knew he needed to spend more time in the corporate home office. He did as much as he could remotely, but it was hard to do it all from the island. He needed to put more money into a system he could operate from here. But the area was pretty remote. He was on a satellite feed, which worked, but, at the same time, the satellite was affected by weather complications.
When Heather, his admin, called, he said with a note of humor, “Are you sick of me being away?”
“No,” she said. “It works very well. But your communication is a little lacking. Maybe you could invest money into the system there and set up weekly morning meetings, even daily with me, so we can set up the day’s agenda. I can arrange meetings while you’re still there. Maybe come here one week a month if you need to, but I can see that would slow down to potentially just a few days every month.”
“I wouldn’t mind that in the least,” he said, his free hand rubbing his temple. “Maybe I need to.”
“You know you need to,” she said. “Then you could have your brother with you full-time. How is that not a win-win situation?”
He chuckled. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I know my brother would do much better here, but it’s not easy for him here either.”
“He just needs time to adapt,” she said in a motherly tone. “And you know how he hates it where he is.”
“I have to bring back some specialists to take a look at my system here,” he said.
“Still on for tomorrow?” Heather asked.
“Yes,” he said, “that’s the plan.”
“You’ll be here for about four days?”
“Possibly,” he said. “Why?”
“Because I can send a team over tomorrow. You can talk to them before they arrive, as in maybe this afternoon if I can get them on the phone. They can bring equipment, work while you’re here in Seattle.”
“I don’t think it’ll be that simple,” he said. “I’d rather be here when they are.”
“Okay, then we’ll arrange for them to go in a week,” she said. “Don’t throw up obstacles you don’t have to. What you need is a place to work where you feel good about it and where you aren’t worrying about your brother. You know we have the office. It’s just an office. You’re doing your work there, and, as long as we have a way to contact you through the internet and through your phone, you’re golden.”
He chuckled. “You just don’t want your boss back in the office.”
Heather chuckled. “I really don’t because, when you’re here, you’re miserable. And a miserable Samson is a bear. We don’t need that.”
He laughed outright. “Wow. At least you’re honest,” he said.
“Always,” she said. “Although I’m stacking up work for you. If you were to stay there more, I wouldn’t bother. I would just send it on a daily basis.”
“You can do that now,” he said in surprise. “Why aren’t you?”
“Because you come over so often, and most of this isn’t urgent,” she said, “so I handle what I can and stack it up until you get here, and then, within one hour’s meeting, I’ve got the rest of it dealt with.”
“Okay, that sounds good,” he said. “Can you get me contact information for Dr. Maddy?”
“Wow.” She gasped then whispered, “Do you think she’d see Jamie?” Her voice then rose in excitement. “Because that could be the answer.”
“It might be,” he said quietly. “But I also know she’s very, very busy.”
“I know,” Heather said. “That doesn’t mean she won’t find time to visit him. We’re in the same city.”
“And she’s busy,” he reminded her. “It’s not like I’m driving across the city to talk to some up-and-coming marine biologist.”
“Maybe you should,” she said. “I heard one went missing. Is that the same one you’ve got on the island?”
“Yes,” he said, “but don’t tell anybody, will you?”
“I might have already mentioned it to a couple people here in the office,” she said slowly. “Why is that wrong?”
“Because part of the reason she washed up on my beach is because she was shot. Twice.”
Heather’s gasp filled the phone line.
He smiled. “Exactly. She is recovering, and I am bringing her back to the mainland. But I don’t want the wrong people to know she’s alive and well. And, of course, it might be too late for that. I did let the police know she was alive after the storm passed.”
“Oh, the poor dear.”
“I know,” he said. “Hence the need to get her back safe and sound.”
“Do you want a helicopter then?”
He hemmed and hawed about it. “I was planning on taking the boat over. I’ll let you know.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “But you don’t want her exposed to anybody who might take her out a second time, and then take you out too.”
“There you go, just worried about your job again,” he teased.
“I don’t have to work anymore. You’ve paid me too well,” she said smugly. “So, if you get yourself killed, that just makes my life easier.” And on that note she hung up on him.
He laughed out loud. “What is it with everybody hanging up on me today?”
“You could have asked me,” a man said behind him.
He turned to see Stefan’s glowing body in front of him. “Ask you what?”
“For Dr. Maddy to do a consult on Jamie.”
Samson hesitated. “You said you’d talk to her, and, when I hadn’t heard back, I didn’t want to push and take advantage.”
“Which would be stupid,” Stefan said. “For your sake she’s already looking into him now.”
“You mean, she’s contacted the center to make an appointment?” Samson was astonished. “That is a huge favor.”
“She can do what I do,” Stefan said abruptly. “Actually, she’s much better at it in many different ways.”
He stared at the ethereal form in question. “What do you mean? Does what much better?”
“Astral projections. And she doesn’t even need to do it this way. She can heal from a distance too.”
“Are you telling me that she can be in her office and visit Jamie at the center to check him over?”
“She’s already talking to me about him. She’s not happy with the effect the drugs are having on his system.”
“I get that,” Samson said, that dreaded guilt settling in deeper again. “But I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do to help him.”
“Get him out of there. That is what she’s saying.” Stefan’s voice was humorous again.
“They won’t let him go without somebody else’s heavy-hitting approval.”
“Like Dr. Maddy’s, of course,” Stefan said. He
nodded, energy flaring off in the direction of his head movement. “That means she would have to make a physical visit there and take him under her care.”
“Which is beyond asking a favor,” Samson said, “because I highly doubt she would do that.”
“She’s doing a full assessment on his system right now. She knows of him already because of his special abilities and has a vested interest in keeping him healthy. We’ve discussed him many times because of his unique position in this universe.”
Samson snorted. “And you’re telling me that she understands all that?”
“She’s as advanced as I am,” Stefan said. “And, in many ways, as I just said, more advanced than I am, particularly in the healing arts.”
“Anything she’s willing to do for Jamie,” Samson said heavily, “I’d appreciate.”
“You ready to move out to the island full-time?”
“Not full-time,” Samson said. “But potentially for three weeks out of four.”
“And then, either take your brother back and forth with you or have somebody here to look after him.”
Samson nodded, staring off in the distance, wondering at his options. “That’s possible. I just got off the phone with my office, and they’d like to see me stay here a little more often too.”
“You’ll have to upgrade your electronics to run your business from the island,” he said, “but I highly doubt that’s a financial constraint for you.”
“No,” Samson said, “it isn’t. I’ve just avoided it because it’s my space. Bringing in people means I have to deal with them.”
At that, Stefan chuckled. “Absolutely. But you do have to commute on a regular basis, and it would probably be better that you came to your office once a month and collect supplies. Don’t you have a helicopter pad on the island?”
“My father insisted,” Samson said, “but I have yet to use it.”
“It’s not that far,” Stefan said, “nor is it that expensive. That’s another consideration. If you’re only coming in for a couple days a month, that’s two trips—one here and one there. You can take a lot of supplies back with you at the same time. Pick up people, bring people out and take them home again.”