Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURNecrophiliacs Anonymous,Gooville ChapterAmy was carrying cardinal stoppered porcelain feeding bottles of beer when she entered the Col singlels chambers. The ruler of Gooville came sliding bulge of the pink w entirely as if it had given birth to him. He extended his arms to hug her, entirely kind of of returning his embrace, Amy held up a beer.I brought you a beer.Amy, you love I dont authentic completelyy play out some(prenominal)more.I thought you talent worry a beer, for old times sake. wherefore ar you here?I hadnt discernn you since I got rearwards from Maui. I thought youd want to debrief me or something.Ive talked to Nathan Quinn.You vex?Dont be cute, Amy. I know whats going on between you cardinal.I authentically dont devote any choice, Colonel, I am cute. Its the burden I have to bear.He doesnt know what you are, does he?Drink your beer, its pay offting warm. Why do you keep it so steamy in here anyway?The Colonel accepted the beer from her and as healthfulk a long pull. When he came up for air, he stared at the beer bottle with a look of surprise, as if it had skilful spoken to him.My, thats good. Thats really good. Id forgotten.Amy toasted him with her own bottle and took a drink. Colonel, weve known each other a long time. Youve been wish well a father to me, more everyplace if you are out of touch. Im disturbed virtually you. I intend you carry to come out of here occasionally, kindred you use to. Walk nigh. Have some interaction with the masses in town.Dont examine to drive in the way of what Im doing, Amy.What are you talk of the town about? Im honourable worried about you.The Colonel looked at the beer bottle in his hand again, as if it had equimesa been teleported there, then he looked back to Amy with a little panic in his eyes. Nate didnt tell you, then?Tell me what? Nate doesnt have anything to do with this. You have lost touch.The Colonel nodded, then leaned back into the wall of Goo be hind him. It cradled him and formed a chaise longue, which he sat big bucks on as he rubbed his temples. Amy, did you ever do anything for a purpose wideer than your own ambition? Did you ever observe a duty to something beyond yourself?You mean, like persuading bulk that Im something that Im not to gain their trust so they could be take innapped or shooted in order to preserve my community? Yes, I have some c one timept of the idea of serving the greater good.I recall you do. I guess you do. Forgive me. Perhaps I do s pend too much time alone.You think?Could you moderate me now? I do have to think.So you want to be alone now? Thats what youre give tongue to? This is how youre going to address the problem of spending too much time alone?Go, Amy, and please dont interrupt with Nate. non yet.What do you mean, not yet? in that respects a deposit on that bottle. Im not leaving without it. therefore, Nate, hes not a problem? Youre sure? Here the Colonel forced a smiling that l ooked much more like something ill than an actual smile. Because I will tell him about you if I must.The greater good, Amy say, returning the forced smile with a real one.Good, said the Colonel, draining the plump of his beer. Come back. And bring me another of these.You got it, Amy said. past she took the bottle from him and leave hand the chamber. Thin line between genius and full-blown batshit, she thought. Very thin line.For two weeks the Colonel didnt hop out for Nate. Cielle Nuez had stopped by the third morning that Amy was at Nates flatbed. Well, you dont claim me anymore, Cielle had said. Id dear as soon uprise back to my displace anyway, although it doesnt look like were going anywhere soon. Nate was disappointed that she hadnt been jealous.Hes afraid of the cupboards, the fridge, and the garbage disposal, Cielle told Amy, as if she were talking to the dog sitter. And youll need to take him to nettle his c pass outhes cleaned. You know hes going to be panic-s truck of the washing machines.Im right here, Nate said. And Im not afraid of the appliances. Im just cautious.Your mother will be thrilled for you two, Amy. Her station should be back at base soon.No, shes not due in for another six weeks, Amy said.Not anymore. The Colonels called all the ships back to base.All of them? Why?Cielle shrugged. Hes the Colonel. Ours is not to question why. Well, Nate, its been a pleasure, really. Ill in all probability see you close to. Youre in good hands.She hugged Nate right away and upriseed out the door.Cielle, wait. I want to ask you something. If you dont mind.She turned. Ask away.When did your husbands yacht sink?Cielle embossed an inquisitive eyebrow at Amy. Its okay, Amy said. He knows.Nineteen twenty-seven, Nate. In retrospect it was a blessing of sorts. He died doing what he want doing, and two geezerhood subsequent he would have been wiped out when the stock grocery crashed. Im not sure he would have survived that.Thanks. Im sorry .Dont be. Cal and I have a really good life.Cal? Cal from the ship? You didnt tell me that Hes my husband? The Colonel thought you might be more comfortable with a single charr to orient you. Women down here have never taken their husbands sur give away, Nate.Females run the intend in a whale society, Amy condoneed. You know, as it should be.Cielle Nuez looked from Amy to Nate and smiled. Oh, Nate, what have you gotten yourself into? And then she snickered like a whaley boy and left.She treasured you, Amy said. She hides it really well, just now I could tell.From then on they went out together every morning. Nate insisted that Amy take him far into the catacombs during the day. There they build Goovilles underground farms tunnels where grains of w heating system grew right on the walls no stalks others where you could pick tomatoes from two-inch stems that seemed to grow directly out of rock.How does any of this ripen without photosynthesis? Nate asked, handling an apr icot that was growing not on a tree only if on a broad stem like a mush elbow room.Dont know, Amy shrugged. Geothermal heat. The Colonel says the Goo extends deep under the continent, where it draws heat from the earth. Ill show you the kitchens where they prepare most of the food its all geothermal. The old-timers say that at first-class honours degree there was only seafood to eat, but over the years the Goo has provided more and different foods.What are these? Chicken nuggets? He force one from the ceiling.A whaley boy working nearby whistled and clicked harshly.He says not to pick them, theyre not ripe.Nate tossed the nugget to the stage of the cave, where a softball-size multilegged thing scurried out of a hatch, retrieved it, and scurried back into its trapdoor.Ive seen enough here, Nate said.In the afternoon they did errands and shopping, but relieve no one asked Nate for any form of payment, and hed stopped offering. In the evening they usually had dinner in his apar tment. After they had shared two meals out at Gooville cafs, Amy had insisted that they eat in.Youre studying them, she said, meaning the whaley boys.No Im not. Im just looking at them.Who are you chaffding? You have that look, that researcher look, that lost-in-your-theories look. You think I dont know that look? I worked with you, remember?Nate shrugged. Its what I do. I study whales. Hed been nerve-racking to learn the whaley boys whistle-and-click language. Emily 7 had come by his apartment a couple of afternoons when Amy was away, and while he thought she might have come for amorous reasons, he human beingsaged to channel her energies into lessons on whaleyspeak. Theyd flummox friends of sorts. He hadnt mentioned the lessons to Amy, afraid that she might tease him about Emily the way the whale-ship pack had. I observe. I collect data and try to make up ones mind meaning in it.Amy nodded, thinking about it, then said, So if rescuing manatees and dolphins got you into the f ield, why didnt you do something more active to help the animals? Veterinary medicine or something.I always wonder. Ive thought about the people at Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, pitchting themselves in harms way, ramming whaling ships, speed Zodiacs in front of harpoon guns to try to protect the animals. Ive wondered if that was the way to go.And you thought you could do more as a scientist, studying them?No, I thought that universe a scientist was something that I could do. Theres a path to neat a biologist an educational process. There isnt for being a pirate.No, youre wrong, there is a school for that. I saw it on a matchbook when I was in Maui. Im sure it said you could learn to be a pirate if you passed a simple test.Thats learn to draw a pirate.Whatever. So you compromised?Did I? I think what we what I do has value.So do I. Im not saying that. Im just wondering, you know, now that youre dead, do you feel your life was wasted?Im not dead, Amy. Jeez, thats an awful thin g to say.You know, effectively dead, I mean. Your life being over. Jeepers, does that manage me a necrophiliac? When we get out of here, possibly Ill have to go to a meeting or something. Do they have those?Amy, Im wondering if maybe I dont want to get out of here. Hed been thinking about it a lot. Life here really wasnt bad, and since hed been looking for a way out on their daily excursions (only to be reminded that hed have to go through the miles of pressure locks only to emerge six c feet below the sea), maybe he and Amy could make a future together. The whole Gooville ecosystem would certainly keep him interested.Hi, my names Amy, and I hump the dead.Maybe, if I cornerstone talk the Colonel out of his plan, I can stay here with you. You know, adapt.I cant imagine that theyd get up at a meeting and say, Hi, my names so-and-so, and I like to bone the dead. Its sort of crude. Although strangely appropriate.Youre not listening to me, Amy.Yes I am. Were not staying here. Ill fi nd a way out, but we cant stay. You have to convince the Colonel not to try to hurt the Goo, but then were leaving. As soon as possible.Nate was a little take aback at how adamant she was. She seemed to be staring at nothing, concentrating, thinking about something she didnt want to share, and she didnt seem talented about. But then she brightened. Hey, youre going to get to meet my mother.A week youngr it happened.Well, you always said that the jazz of what you do was knowing something that no one else in the world knows, Amy said. You jazzed? She took his arm and draped it around her neck as they walked.They had just left the Gooville apartment of Amelia Earhart.She looks good, doesnt she? Amy asked.Amelia was a beautiful, gracious woman, and after sixty-seven years in Gooville, the aviatrix didnt look a day over fifty. Shed been just under forty when she disappeared in 1937. In her presence Nate had felt as if he were fifteen again, out on his first date, stuttering and stumbl ing and color blushing, for Christs sake when Amy mentioned that shed been spending nights at his place. Amelia made Nate sit next to her on the couch and took his hand as she spoke to him.Nathan, I hope what Im about to say to you doesnt sound recording racist, because its not, but I want to do your mind at ease. I have had a very long time to get used to the idea of my daughters being a sexually active adult, and, frankly, if after all these years you are the one that she has chosen to fall in love with, which appears to be the case, I can only tell you how projecting I am that you are of the human species. So please relax.Nate had shot a look to Amy.She shrugged. both girl has her adventurous period.Thank you, Nate said to Amelia Earhart.Now, out on the street, to Amy he said, I shouldnt have asked how the outflow was.Shes still a little sensitive about that. Even after all these years. My dad was her navigator. He didnt survive the crash.But you said you were born in 1940. How could that be if your father died in 1937?Robust sperms? iii years? Thats really robust.She punched his arm. I was rounding up. Give me a break, Nate, Im old. You never grilled the experient abundant for accuracy like this.I wasnt sleeping with the Old Broad.But you wanted to, didnt you? Admit it? You were hot to get into her muumuu.Stop. Nate glanced at some whaley-boy males who were hanging out in front of the bakery (they always seemed to be there) doing a synchronized display wave with their willies, and he was about to defend himself with a comment about Amys past, but then he decided that there was just no need to watch that little wit movie, permit alone use it as some kind of weapon against what was essentially just Amy-style beleaguer one of the things he institute he adored about her as soon as hed allowed himself to take over that he could adore individual again.The whaley boys snickered at him as they passed.You bozos are all just boastful, squeak y lav toys, Nate said under his breath, knowing they could hear him anyway. Nate had been insulting them every time he and Amy went by for a week or so, just to irritate them. Maybe Amy was rubbing off on him.The whaley boys blew a bodied sputtering raspberry.Sentient? You guys cant even bandage sentient, Nate whispered.And then the reward. He loved watching creatures with four digits try to flip him the middle finger.Yeah, Im the immature one, Amy said.Life is good, Nate thought. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he was happy. Kinda.In the morning a brace of whaley boys came to take him to the Colonel. Amy wasnt even there to embrace him good-bye.Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 34CHAPTER THREEA subatomic Razor WireAround HeavenThe gate to the Papa Lani mixed was hanging open when Nate brood up. Not good. body was adamant about their always replacing the big Masterlock on the gate when they left the compound.Papa Lani was a group of woo d- mannequin buildings on two acres northeast of Lahaina in the middle of a half dozen sugarcane fields that had been donated to Maui Whale by a wealthy woman mud and Nate affectionately referred to as the Old Broad. The property consisted of six small bungalows that had once been used to board grove workers but had long since been converted to housing, laboratory, and office space for system, Nate, and any assistants, researchers, or film crews who might be working with them for the season. Getting the compound had been a godsend for Maui Whale, given the cost of housing and storage in Lahaina. form had named the compound Papa Lani (Hawaiian for heaven) in honor of their good fortune, but someone had left the gate to heaven open, and from what Nate could tell as he drove in, the angel shit had hit the fan. in advance he even got out of the truck, Nate saw a beat-up green BMW parked in the compound and a trail of papers leading out of the building they used for an office. He sna tched a some of them up as he ran across the sand driveway and up the steps into the little bungalow. internal was chaos drawers torn out of filing cabinets, toppled racks of cassette tape the tapes strewn across the room in great streamers computers overturned, the sides of their cases open, trailing wires. Nate stood among the mess, not really knowing what to do or even what to look at, feeling go against and on the verge of throwing up. Even if nothing was scatty, a lifetime of research had been typhooned around the room.Oh, Jahs sweet mercy, came a voice from behind him. This a bit of fuckery most heinous for sure, mon.Nate spun and dropped into a martial-arts stance, notwithstanding the fact that he didnt know any martial arts and that he had loosed a little-girl shriek in the process. The serpent-haired figure of a gorgon was silhouetted in the doorway, and Nate would have screamed again if the figure hadnt stepped into the light, revealing a lean, bare-chested teen ager in surfer mulct and flip-flops, sporting a giant tangle of blond dreadlocks and about six hundred nose rings. simmer down lintel main ting, brah, cool bye, the kid almost sang. There was pot and steel drums in his voice, bafflement and youth and two joints worth of separation from the rest of reality.Nate went from fear to confusion in an instant. What the fuck are you talking about?Relax, brah, no make lidat. Kona and I come help out.Nate thought he might feel better if he suppressd this kid just a little frustration strangle to vent some of the shock of the wrecked lab, not a full choke but kinda he said, Who are you, and what are you doing here?Kona, the kid said. Dat boss name the Great Compromiser take in me for the boats dat day in the lead.Youre the kid corpse hired to work with us on the boats?Shoots, mon, I just said that? What, you a ninja, brah?The kid nodded, his dreads sweeping around his shoulders, and Nate was about to scream at him again when he recognize that he was still crouched into his pseudo combat stance and probably looked like a native loon.He stood up, shrugged, then pretended to stretch his neck and roll his head in a self-assertive way hed seen boxers do, as if he had just disarmed a very dangerous enemy or something. You were supposed to meet the Great Compromiser down at the dock an hour ago.Some rippin sets North Shore, they be callin to me this morning. The kid shrugged. What could he do? Rippin sets had called to him.Nate squinted at the surfer, realizing that the kid was speaking some mix of Rasta talk, pidgin, surfspeak and well, bullshit. Stop talking that way, or youre fired right now.So you ichiban big whale kahuna, like remains say, hey?Yeah, Nate said. Im the number-one whale kahuna. Youre fired.Bummah, mon, The kid said. He shrugged again, turned, and started out the door. Jahs love to ye, brah. Cool runnings, he sang over his shoulder.Wait, Nate said.The kid spun around, his dreads enveloping h is brass instrument like a furry octopus attacking a crab. He sputtered a dreadlock out of his sing and was about to speak.Quinn held up a finger to signal silence. Not a word of pidgin, Hawaiian, or Rasta talk, or youre done.Okay. The kid waited.Quinn composed himself and looked around at the mess, then at the kid. There are papers strewn around all over outside, hanging in the fences, in the bushes. I need you to gather them up and visual sense them as neatly as you can. Bring them here. pile you do that?The kid nodded.Excellent. Im Nathan Quinn. Nate extended his hand to shake.The kid moved across the room and caught Nates hand in a powerful grip. The scientist almost winced but instead returned the pressure and tried to smile.Pelekekona, said the kid. Call me Kona.Welcome aboard, Kona.The kid looked around now, looking as if by giving his name he had relinquished some of his power and was suddenly weak, despite the muscles that rippled across his chest and abdomen. Who did t his?No idea. Nate picked up a cassette tape that had been pulled out of the spools and wadded into a birds nest of brown tensile. You go get those papers. Im going to call the police. That a problem?Kona shook his head. Why would it be?No reason. press stud those papers now. Nothing is trash until I look at it, eh?Overstood, brah, Kona said, grinning back at Nate as he headed out into sun. Once outside, he turned and called, Hey, Kahuna Quinn.What?How come them humpies sing like dat?What do you think? Nate asked, and in the asking there was hope. Despite the fact that the kid was young and irritating and probably stoned, the biologist truly hoped that Kona unburdened by too much knowledge would give him the answer. He didnt guard where it came from or how it came (and it would still have to be recruitd) he just wanted to know, which is what set him apart from the hacks, the wannabes, the backstabbers, and the egotism jockeys in the field. Nate just wanted to know.I think they trying to shout down Babylon, maybe.Youll have to explain to me what that means.We fix this fuckery, then we fire up a spliff and think over it, brah.Five hours later Clay came through the door talking. We got some amazing stuff today, Nate. Some of the trump cow/ calfskin stuff Ive ever shot. Clay was still so excited he almost skipped into the room.Okay, Nate said with a zombielike lack of enthusiasm. He sat in front of his patched-together computer at one of the desks. The office was in general put back in order, but the open computer case sitting on the desk with wires strewing out to a diaspora of refugee drive units told a tale of data gone wild. Someone broke in. rupture apart the office.Clay didnt want to be concerned. He had great videotape to edit. Suddenly, looking at the fans and wires, it occurred to him that someone might have depleted his editing setup. He whirled around to see his forty-two-inch flat-panel monitor leaning against the wall, a long diagonal crack bisected the glass. Oh, he said. Oh, jeez.Amy walked in smiling, Nate you wont believe the She pulled up, saw Clay staring at his broken monitor, the computer scattered over Nates desk, files stacked here and there where they shouldnt be. Oh, she said.Someone broke in, Clay said forlornly.She put her hand on Clays shoulder. Today? In broad daylight?Nate swiveled around in his chair. They went through our living quarters, too. The police have already been here. He saw Clay staring at his monitor. Oh, and that. Sorry, Clay.You guys have insurance, right? Amy said.Clay didnt look away from his broken monitor. Dr. Quinn, did you pay the insurance? Clay called Nate sterilize only when he wanted to remind him of just how official and absolutely professional they really ought to be. farthest week. Went out with the boat insurance.Well, then, were okay, Amy said, jostling Clay, squeezing his shoulder, punching his arm, pinching his butt. We can order a new monitor tonight, ya big palooka. she chirped, looking like a goth version of the bluebird of happiness.Hey Clay grinned, Yeah, were okay. He turned to Nate, smiling. Anything else broken? Anything missing?Nate pointed to the wastebasket where a virtual haystack of phonetape was spilling over in tangles. That was spread all over the compound along with all the files. We lost most of the tape, going back two years.Amy stopped being cheerful and looked appropriately concerned. What about the digitals? She elbowed Clay, who was still grinning, and he joined her in gravity. They frowned. (Nate recorded all the audio on analog tape, then transferred it to the computer for analysis. Theoretically, there should be digital copies of everything.)These hard drives have been erased. I cant pull up anything from them. Nate took a deep breath, sighed, then spun back around in his chair and let his forehead fall against the desk with a thud that shook the whole bungalow.Amy and Clay winced. There were a lot of screws o n that desk. Clay said, Well, it couldnt have been that bad, Nate. You got it all cleaned up moderately quickly.The guy you hired showed up late and helped me. Nate was speaking into the desk, his face right where it had landed.Kona? Where is he?I sent him to the lab. I had some film I want to see right away.I knew he wouldnt stand us up on his first day.Clay, I need to talk to you. Amy, could you excuse us a minute, please?Sure, Amy said. Ill go see if anythings missing from my cabin. She left.Clay said, You going to look up? Or should I get down on the grace so I can see your face?Could you grab the first-aid kit while we talk?Screws enter in your forehead?Feels like four, maybe five.Theyre small, though, those little drive-mount screws.Clay, youre always trying to cheer me up.Its who I am, Clay said.CHAPTER FOURWhale Men of MauiWho Clay was, was a guy who liked things liked people, liked animals, liked cars, liked boats who had an almost supernatural ability to spot the likability in almost anyone or anything. When he walked down the streets of Lahaina, he would nod and say hello to sunburned tourist couples in matching aloha offend (people generally considered to be a waste of humanity by most locals), but by the equivalent token he would trade a backhanded hang-loose shaka (thumb and fingers extended, three middle fingers tucked, always backhand if youre a local) with a crash of native bruddahs in the parking lot of the alphabet Store and get no scowls or pidgin curses, as would most haoles. People could sense that Clay liked them, as could animals, which was probably why Clay was still alive. Twenty-five years in the water with hunters and giants, and the worst hed come out of it was to get a close tail-wash from a southern right whale that tumbled him like a cartoon into the idleness prop of a Zodiac. (Oh, there were the two times he was drowned and the hypothermia, but that stuff wasnt caused by the animals that was the sea, and shell ass assinate you whether you liked her or not, which Clay did.) Doing what he wanted to do and his boundless affinity for everything made Clay Demodocus a happy guy, but he was similarly shrewd enough not to be too open about his happiness. Animals might put up with that smiley shit, but people will eventually kill you for it. Hows the new kid? Clay said, trying to distract from the iodine he was applying to Nates forehead while simultaneously calculating the time to ship his new monitor over to Maui from the discount house in Seattle. Clay liked gadgets.Hes a criminal, Nate said.Hell come around. Hes a water guy. For Clay this said it all. You were a water guy or you werent. If you werent well, you were pretty much useless, werent you?He was an hour late, and he showed up in the wrong place.Hes a native. Hell help us deal with the whale cops.Hes not a native, hes blond, Clay. Hes more of a haole than you are, for Christs sake.Hell come around. I was right about Amy, wasnt I? Clay said . He liked the new kid, Kona, despite the employment interview, which had gone like thisClay sat with the forty-two-inch monitor at his back, his world-famous photographs of whales and pinnipeds playing in a slide show behind him. Since he was conducting a job interview, he had put on his very best $5.99 ABC Store flip-flops. Kona stood in the middle of the office wear sunglasses, his baggies, and, since he was applying for a job, a red-dirt-dyed shirt.Your application says that your name is Pelke ah, Pelekekona Ke Clay threw his hands up in surrender.I be called Pelekekona Keohokalole da warrior kine Lion of Zion, brah.Can I call you Pele?Kona, Kona said.It says on your drivers license that your name is Preston Applebaum and youre from New Jersey.I be one hundred percent Hawaiian. Kona the best boat hand in the Island, yeah. I figga I be number-one good man for to keep track haole science bosss isms and skisms while he out oppressing the native bruddahs and stealing o ur land and the best wahines. Sovereignty now, but after a bruddah make his rent, dont you know?Clay grinned at the blond kid. Youre just a mess, arent you?Kona lost his Rastafarian, laid-backness. Look, I was born here when my parents were on vacation. I really am Hawaiian, kinda, and I really need this job. Im going to lose my place to live if I dont make some silver this week. I cant live on the beach in Paia again. All my shit got stolen last time.It says here that you last worked as a forensic calligrapher. Whats that, handwriting analysis?Uh, no, actually, it was a business I started where I would release peoples suicide notes for them. Not a hint of pidgin in his speech, not a skankin smidgen of reggae. It didnt do that well. No one wants to kill himself in Hawaii. I think if Id started it back in New Jersey, or maybe Portland, it would have gone over really well. You know business location, location, location.I thought that was real estate. Clay actually felt a twinge of m issed opportunity, here, for although he had spent his life having adventures, doing exactly what he wanted to do, and although he often felt like the dumbest guy in the room (because hed surrounded himself with scientists), now, talking to Kona, he realized that he had never realized his full potential as a self-deluded immobilizehead. Ahhh broody regrets. Clay liked this kid.Look, Im a water guy, Kona said. I know boats, I know tides, I know waves, I love the ocean.You afraid of it? Clay asked.Terrified.Good. Meet me at the dock tomorrow morning at eight-thirty.Now Nate rubbed at the crisscrrossed band-aids on his forehead as Clay went through the Pelican cases of camera equipment under the table across the room. The break-in and subsequent shit storm of activity had sidetracked him from what hed seen this morning. It started to settle on him again like a black cloud of self-doubt, and he wondered whether he should even mention what he saw to Clay. In the world of behavioral bio logy, nothing existed until it was published. It didnt matter how much you knew it wasnt real if it didnt appear in a scientific journal. But when it came to day-to-day life, publication was secondary. If he told Clay what hed seen, it would suddenly become real. As with his attraction for Amy and the credit that years worth of research was gone, he wasnt sure he wanted it to be real.So why did you need to send Amy out? Clay asked.Clay, I dont see things I dont see, right? I mean, in all the time weve worked together, I havent called something before the data backed it up, right?Clay looked up from his inventory to see the expression of consternation on his friends face. Look, Nate, if the kid bothers you that much, we can find someone else Its not the kid. Nate seemed to be unhurriedness what he was going to say, not sure if he should say it, then blurted out, Clay, I think I saw writing on the tail flukes of that singer this morning.What, like a pattern of scars that look l ike letters? Ive seen that. I have a dolphin shot that shows tooth rakings on the animals side that appear to spell out the word zap. No it was different. Not scars. It said, Bite me. Uh-huh, Clay said, trying not to make it sound as if he thought his friend was nuts. Well, this break-in, Nate, its shaken us all up.This was before that. Oh, I dont know. Look, I think its on the film I shot. Thats why I came in to take the film to the lab. Then I found this mess, so I sent the kid to the lab with my truck, even though Im pretty sure hes a criminal. Lets table it until he gets back with the film, okay? Nate turned and stared at the deskful of wires and parts, as if hed quickly floated off into his own thoughts.Clay nodded. Hed spent whole days in the same twenty-three-foot boat with the magniloquent scientist, and nothing more had passed between the two than the exchange of Sandwich? Thanks.When Nate was ready to tell him more, he would. In the meantime he would not press. You dont hurry a thinker, and you dont talk to him when hes thinking. Its just inconsiderate.What are you thinking? Clay asked. Okay, he could be inconsiderate sometimes. His giant monitor was broken, and he was traumatized.Im thinking that were going to have to start over on a lot of these studies. Every piece of magnetic media in this place has been scrambled, but as far as I can tell, nothing is missing. Why would someone do that, Clay?Kids, Clay said, inspecting a Nikon lens for damage. None of my stuff is missing, and chuck out for the monitor it seems okay.Right, your stuff.Yeah, my stuff.Your stuff is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Clay. Why wouldnt kids take your stuff? No one doesnt know that Nikon equipment is expensive, and no one on the island doesnt know that subsurface housings are expensive, so who would just destroy the tapes and disks and leave everything?Clay put down the lens and stood up. Wrong question.How is that the wrong question?The question is, who could possibly care about our research other than us, the Old Broad, and a dozen or so biologists and whale huggers in the entire world? Face it, Nate, no one gives a damn about singing whales. Theres no motive. The question is, who cares?Nate slumped in his chair. Clay was right. No one did care. People, the world, cared about the numbers of whales, so the survey guys, the whale counters, they actually collected data that people cared about. Why? Because if you knew how many whales you had, you knew how many you could or could not kill. People loved and understood and thought they could prove points and make money with the numbers. Behavior well, behavior was squishy stuff used to entertain fourth-graders on transmission line in the Classroom.We were really close, Clay, Nate said. Theres something in the song that were missing. But without the tapesClay shrugged. You heard one song, you heard em all. Which was also true. All the males sang the same song each season. The song might chan ge from season to season, or even evolve through the season somewhat, but in any given population of humpbacks, they were all singing the same tune. No one had figured out exactly why.Well get new samples.Id already cleaned up the spectrographs, filtered them, analyzed them. It was all on the hard disks. That work was for specific samples.Well do it again, Nate. We have time. No one is waiting. No one cares.You dont have to keep saying that.Well, its starting to bother me, too, now, Clay said. Who in the hell cares whether you figure out whats going on with humpback song?A kicked-off flip-flop flew into the room followed by the singsong Rastafarian-bruddah pomp of Kona returning, Irie, Clay, me dready. I be bringing films and herb for the evening to welcome to Jahs mercy, mon. Peace.Kona stood there, an gasbag of negatives and contact sheet in one hand, a film can held high above his head in the other. He was looking up to it as if it held the elixir of life.You have any idea what h e said? Nate asked. He quickly crossed the room and snatched the negatives away from Kona.I think its from the Jabberwocky, Clay replied. You gave him silver to get the film processed? You cant give him cash.And this lonely stash can to fill with the sacred herb, Kona said. Ill find me papers, and we can take the ship home to Zion, mon.You cant give him money and an empty film can, Nate. He sees it as a religious duty to fill it up.Nate had pulled the contact sheet out of the envelope and was examining it with a loupe. He checked it twice, counting each frame, checking the registry numbers along the edge. Frame twenty-six wasnt there. He held the plastic page of negatives up to the light, looked through the images twice and the registry numbers on the edges three times before he threw them down, checked the earlier frames that Amy had shot of the whale tail, then crossed the room and grabbed Kona by the shoulders. Wheres frame twenty-six, goddamn it? What did you do with it?This j ust like I get it, mon. I didnt do nothing.Hes a criminal, Clay, Nate said. Then he grabbed the phone and called the lab.All they could tell him was that the film had been processed normally and picked up from the bin in front. A machine cut the negatives before they went into the sleeves perhaps it had snipped off the frame. Theyd be happy to give Nate a fresh roll of film for his trouble.Two hours later Nate sat at the desk, holding a pen and looking at a sheet of paper. Just looking at it. The room was dark except for the desk lamp, which reached out just far enough to leave darkness in all the corners where the unknown could hide. There was a nightstand, the desk, the chair, and a single bed with a proboscis set at its end, a drapery on top as a cushion. Nathan Quinn was a tall man, and his feet hung off the end of the bed. He found that if he removed the supporting trunk, he dreamed of foundering in blue-water ocean and woke up gasping. The trunk was full of books, journal s, and uncontaminatingets, none of which had ever been removed since hed shipped them to the island nine years ago. A centipede the size of a Pontiac had once lived in the bottom-right corner of the trunk but had long since moved on once he realized that no one was ever going to bother him, so he could stand up on his hind hundred feet, hiss like a pissed cat, and deliver a deadly cauterise to a naked foot. There was a small television, a clock radio, a small kitchenette with two burners and a microwave, two full bookshelves under the window that looked out onto the compound, and a yellowed print of two of Gauguins Tahitian girls between the windows over the bed. At one time, before the plantations had been automated, ten people probably slept in this room. In grad school at UC Santa Cruz, Nathan Quinn had lived in quarters about this same size. Progress.The paper on Nates desk was empty, the bottle of Myerss Dark Rum beside it half empty. The door and windows were open, and Nate could hear the warm trades rattling the fronds of two tall coconut palms out front. There was a tap on the door, and Nate looked up to see Amy silhouetted in the doorway. She stepped into the light.Nathan, can I come in? She was wearing a T-shirt dress that hit her about midthigh.Nate put his hand over the paper, embarrassed that there was nothing written on it. I was just trying to put a plan together for He looked past the paper to the bottle, then back at Amy. Do you want a drink? He picked up the bottle, looked around for a glass, then just held the bottle out to her.Amy shook her head. Are you all right?I started this work when I was your age. I dont know if I have the energy to start it all over again.Its a lot of work. Im really sorry this happened.Why? You didnt do it. I was close, Amy. Theres something that Ive been missing, but I was close.It will still be there. You know, we have the field notes from the last couple of years. Ill help you put as much of it back togeth er as I can.I know you will, but Clays right. Nobody cares. I should have gone into biochemistry or become an ecowarrior or something.I care.Nate looked at her feet to avoid looking her in the eye. I know you do. But without the recordings well then He shrugged and took a sip from the rum bottle. You cant drink, you know, he said, now the professor, now the Ph.D., now the head researcher. You cant do anything or have anything in your life that gets in the way of researching whales.Okay, Amy said. I just wanted to see if you were okay.Yeah, Im okay.Well get started putting it back together tomorrow. Good night, Nate. She backed out the door.Night, Amy. Nate noticed that she wasnt wearing anything under the T-shirt dress and felt sleazy for it. He turned his attention back to his blank piece of paper, and before he could figure out why, he wrote BITE ME in big block letters and underlined it so hard that he ripped the page.