The Neptune Project Read online

  I bite back a retort. I can’t believe we’re risking our lives to help this idiot. With Robry’s help, I finish bandaging the young smuggler and cover him with a blanket. A half hour later, we rendezvous with a sleek, fast, dark boat.

  “Try not to look at their faces,” Cam warns me and Robry quietly, as the boat pulls up beside us. “You’ll be safer if you can’t recognize them.”

  We toss the crew mooring lines. Two smugglers step down into the zode and lift the boy. He thanks me weakly before they help him aboard their vessel. Jac climbs up after the others.

  “That’s a good-looking zode you have there,” one of the men says in a deep, gravelly voice, and shivers skitter down my back. He can’t take the zode from us! My mother needs it to conduct her research, and the fish we caught from it kept us alive during the last famine.

  Despite Cam’s warning, I glance up. I can’t help staring at the smuggler’s craggy face because it’s pockmarked with tyrox scars. I gulp when I realize he must be one of the survivors of the tyrox outbreak that killed most of the population of LA forty years ago.

  “It is a good zode, Scarn, and you are not going to steal it from the Hansons after what they did for you tonight,” Cam tells him sternly.

  Scarn chuckles. “Cam Cruz, you’ve got guts; I have to give you credit for that. You can have a job with me whenever you want.”

  “I’ll stick to fishing. I might live longer.”

  Scarn nods to his crew and they toss the mooring lines back into the zode. Without another word, Cam powers up the motor and we head toward home.

  We’re quiet on the way back to Goleta. I carefully pack away our med kit while Robry washes down the zode thoroughly, making sure there are no telltale signs of blood. When we’re finally finished, I sit beside Robry on the bow, the sea wind cool on my face. The dolphins keep pace beside us, leaping and playing in our bow wake. Laki and Mali show off by performing flips. Robry leans off the side of the zode and holds out his hand. We laugh when little Tisi tries to jump over it.

  I wish we could keep the zode out all night. But every minute we stay on the water increases our chances of encountering a Marine Guard vessel.

  Just before we reach the harbor entrance, Mariah contacts me.

  :you are safe now?: she asks.

  :We should be fine.:

  :then we go to rest.:

  :Thank you for your help tonight,: I say.

  “Tell Mariah I’ll save her any squid we take in the next few days,” Cam promises. I relay his message to her. Mariah slaps a wave of water at Cam with her tail.

  “I guess she likes that idea.” I grin at Cam as he wipes the seawater from his eyes.

  It’s dark and quiet when we enter the harbor. I check my marine watch. It will be dawn in another two hours. Cam will have to hurry to be ready to head out fishing with his father before the sun rises.

  Suddenly, Cam starts swearing under his breath.

  I glance up and see that Hycault, the tall, lanky fishmaster, is waiting for us at the end of the dolphin dock. I bite my lip. Hycault is the most important government official in Goleta. We’ve broken his curfew and left the harbor without his permission.

  Both offenses are serious enough to land us in a world of hurt.

  MY NIGHT VISION is freakishly good, but right now I wish it wasn’t. I can clearly see the gleeful expression on the fishmaster’s face, and it makes my stomach churn.

  “I’ve finally caught you,” Hycault says to Cam. “I knew your friend Jac was a smuggler, but I wasn’t sure about you until tonight.”

  “I’m no smuggler,” Cam says bitterly as he brings the zode up beside the dock.

  “The Marine Guard sank Jac’s boat five miles north of here,” Hycault continues, as if Cam hadn’t spoken, “and I spotted you entering the harbor from the north. That can hardly be a coincidence.”

  “You have no proof I smuggled anything tonight.”

  “I don’t need any proof except what my eyes tell me right now,” Hycault says, growing more strident by the moment. “You took this boat out without my permission, and you broke the curfew—”

  “Actually, Fishmaster”—my mother’s cool voice interrupts him—“my daughter and her crew members don’t need your permission if she’s out on the water doing research for me or training our dolphins. I believe we’ve discussed this issue several times before.”

  I’ve never been so glad to see Gillian. She is standing beside Hycault now, her expression amazingly composed.

  “Boys, you can tie up the zode and hurry home,” she continues on. “Cam needs to eat a good breakfast before he heads out with the fleet. Thanks for helping Nere tonight.”

  “You’re welcome, Dr. Hanson,” Cam says as he and Robry tie up the zode. Cam sends me a quick grateful look, and then he and Robry slip away. I, in the meantime, stand in the middle of the zode, wishing I could just disappear.

  “You’ve no right to send them out without consulting me first,” Hycault says furiously.

  “You can check with the Department of Fisheries. I have the right to send my boat out whenever I want to do research. The Western Collective needs more protein for its citizens, and the Department of Fisheries values the work I do,” my mother replies.

  “Just you wait,” Hycault says with such menace, I tremble. “In a few days you’ll be sorry for all the times you dared to challenge my authority here.” With that, he stalks up the dock.

  “I sincerely doubt it,” Gillian says to his retreating back. She steps down into the zode and reconnects the boat batteries to the solar array. From her tight expression, I know I’m in deep trouble. Wordlessly, she retrieves the lobster from the specimen bin, kills it with a deft knock against a dock piling, and strides quickly toward home.

  I follow her up the path toward our stone cottage. I stop at the little spring where Cam rigged a pipe so that we have a shower we can use to rinse off seawater after a swim. I stay under the cold trickle for as long as I dare.

  The instant I close our front door behind me, my mother asks, “What on earth were you thinking? You just risked your life and your freedom, all for some fool of a smuggler!”

  “I thought the point of our dolphin program is to save human lives,” I make myself say. I hate arguing with my mother. She’s so brilliant, she always wins.

  “I’d rather see our dolphins save worthwhile human lives. You may have saved Jac’s life tonight, but that idiotic boy will be risking it again tomorrow for nothing more than a few dollarns and some thrills.”

  “You’ve said yourself if it weren’t for smugglers who brought in meds from the Southern Republic, I’d have died long ago.”

  “Well, those were principled smugglers, not like Scarn and his gang, who just traffic in black-market luxuries. They’re little more than scum.” She pauses and seems to collect herself. “Do you have any idea how I felt when I saw that your bed was empty, and then that the zode was missing?”

  I look at her set face, and I feel my eyes burn with tears. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

  Her tight expression eases. She crosses the room and gathers me into her arms. “I know you didn’t mean to, sweetling,” she says in a gentler tone, and smooths a lock of hair away from my face. “And I know Cam probably asked you to help. I’ll have a talk with his mother. Alicia’s probably going to be angrier about this than I am.” She gives me a quick kiss on my forehead and steps away.

  “What happened tonight will never happen again,” she says, returning to her usual cool, brisk scientist mode. “Do I make myself clear?”

  I nod quickly. Then I can’t help yawning.

  “Well, it’s obvious you won’t get much out of school today,” she declares. “You might as well go back to bed. I’ll figure out your punishment later. I think the dolphin dock pilings need scraping again.”

  After I close my bedroom door behind me, I make a face. Even though I hate scraping the dock pilings, I’m getting off pretty lightly. Shortly after I
lie down on my bed, I fall fast asleep.

  When I wake up, I’m surprised to hear voices. I check my watch. It’s already two in the afternoon, and I’m starving. I open my door quietly and peer around it. Ben Reece, a dolphin trainer from down the coast, is sitting at our kitchen table talking with my mother. Their expressions are tense and serious.

  “Rumor has it they’re going to make a big announcement tomorrow,” Ben is telling her. “The smuggling incident last night may be the last straw. This could be the crackdown we’ve all been dreading.”

  My mother glances up and notices me. I see her make an effort to smile. “Good afternoon, sweetling. I left a fish bar and some of Alicia’s bread for you on the counter.”

  “Hi, Nere.” Ben gives me a nod. “I saw you working with the pod last week. Your dolphins look sharp. Maybe your mother will let me borrow you to work with my pod one of these days.”

  I have a hunch that Ben would much rather borrow my mother. But the one time I was brave enough to ask Gillian about Ben, she only laughed and said she was a one-man woman, and her man was gone. What I saw in her eyes then has kept me from asking her that question again.

  Pain twists inside me when I realize that my father has been dead for over two years now. He was washed overboard during a sudden wild storm, and even our dolphins couldn’t find his body. Some nights before supper, I catch myself listening for his footsteps and his whistling as he hurries up our path from the harbor.

  Although I want my mother to be happy, another part of me is relieved that she’s not interested in Ben. But men like him will keep trying. Despite her years spent in the sun and on the sea, she is still beautiful.

  Every day I wish I’d inherited more of her looks. I have her pale skin and blond hair, but they look weird on me. Some days I think my blue eyes are almost pretty, but barely anyone sees them because I have to wear huge, blocky, dark glasses to keep my weak eyes from tearing in bright sunlight. I’ll never be curvy like the town girls because I spend so much time swimming with the dolphins.

  No wonder I only have two friends. Robry and Cam don’t seem to mind my freaky coloring or the fact that I’m as skinny and strong as most fisher boys. But I mind.

  I linger in the main room and start in on my lunch, hoping to find out more about the big government announcement Ben had mentioned.

  “Let’s head down to your boat,” Gillian says to Ben. “After you finish your lunch, Nere, please start on your lessons for this afternoon.” She motions to my learning pad and a long list of articles she’s left for me on the table.

  As she leaves, I yank out a chair. Usually the lessons my mother teaches me about marine biology and oceanography are more interesting than those I have to learn at school about the rise of the Western Collective and the devastation created around the world by global warming. But over the past few months, her lessons have been getting longer and harder.

  When she comes inside a short time later, I gesture to her list. “I don’t see why I have to learn about giant squid and how to treat lionfish stings. I’m not going to run into a lionfish working as a coastal dolphin trainer.”

  “Your oceanography lessons are more important than ever.” I’m surprised by the strain I hear in my mother’s voice. “What I teach you now might save your life someday.”

  I open my mouth to argue, but something in her face stops me. She’s been looking haunted for months now—it’s even worse than when my father died or when my big brother, James, disappeared last year. She stays up late, working and pacing the cottage long into the night. I’ve tried to ask what’s bothering her, but Gillian has always had her secrets.

  I bend my head and go back to reading while she chops vegetables and stirs the lobster stew we’ll be eating later. When she’s finished cooking, she quizzes me on my navigation skills and assigns one final article on ocean vents. I keep reading the article while we have an early dinner. A couple of times Gillian looks like she wants to say something, but then she doesn’t. Even for my mother, she’s acting strange.

  When the silence gets too awkward, I decide to break it. “Has Ben heard anything about James?”

  Her expression goes from distracted to closed. “No,” she says.

  I stare hard at my plate. One morning we woke up to find that James had disappeared with the sailboat he’d made by himself. I know he’d been in fights at school, and he’d had some awful arguments with my mother, but I still can’t believe he just left us. The secret police came looking for him because James had cut out his locator chip, but we couldn’t tell them where he’d gone.

  He’s always loved the Channel Islands, though, and I think he’s hiding out there.

  I look up from my plate. “Why can’t we take the zode out to the islands and look for him?” I ask, even though I’ve already asked her this question a dozen times.

  “Sweetling, I know you miss him. I miss him, too,” she says with a catch in her voice. “I promise we’ll both go look for him soon, but now is not the right time,” she adds, with such finality I know there’s no point in arguing with her.

  I stand up and blink back my tears before she can see them. James can be grumpy and impatient sometimes, but still, he’s my big brother, and I wonder all the time if he’s okay. Now our cottage seems twice as empty and quiet, with both him and my father gone.

  After dinner, I go down to the dolphin dock for a long swim with the pod. When I’m ready for sleep, Gillian comes to sit beside me on my bed.

  “Ben really was impressed with the dolphins last week. You’ve done a wonderful job since you took over their training on your own.”

  “Thanks,” is all I can think to say. I wish we weren’t so awkward together. James made everything easier. He knew how to make her smile and laugh.

  “Well, sweetling, you get some rest. Tomorrow’s likely to be a hard day. I’m going to be up late tonight.” She kisses me on the forehead and blows out my lamp.

  I’m just starting to doze when I hear a sound I dread. She’s dragging our table across the floor, and I swear to myself. Then I hear her roll our rug back and pull the trapdoor open. I know Gillian is about to climb down the wooden ladder that leads to her secret, forbidden lab full of secret, forbidden lab equipment and computers that we speak of even more rarely than we speak of James or my father.

  I get out of bed and stalk to the top of the ladder.

  “Knock when you want to come back up,” is all I say. After she climbs down the ladder, I slam the trapdoor shut and roll the rug back into place. I drag the table over the rug, taking care to make sure it all looks normal. I even leave a dirty plate and mug on the table. The secret police can search a house at any time, looking for illegal technology like computers or radios. Gillian has all of those things and more in her lab.

  I hate it that she takes these risks. I hate it that she does the kind of research that gets people arrested and taken away.

  We’re already a family of two now. What will happen to me if the Western Collective sends her to a work camp, and there’s only me left?

  THE SECRET POLICE have found out I’m a telepath. They chase me down the dusty yellow road from Santero. I pump my arms and run as fast as I can. My chest is burning. If I have a lung attack here, I know they will catch me. Suddenly, someone grabs my shoulder and yanks me to a stop. I turn. Hycault is there, a triumphant grin splitting his narrow face.…

  “Nere, wake up, sweetling; you’re just having a bad dream.”

  I open my eyes. The light filling my little bedroom tells me it’s early morning. I’m sweating and gasping for air. I realize my mother is sitting on the edge of my bed. She must have been shaking my shoulder just now.

  “You’d better get up and dress in your best skirt. We’re all being called in to Santero to hear an important government edict,” she tells me as she strokes my damp hair.

  “Do you have any idea what it’s about?” I ask her between taking in deep breaths and trying to push the frightening dream from my mind.
/>   “I’m not sure, but the entire fishing fleet is still at its moorings. Whatever the edict is, it’s important enough to keep fifty men from the sea.”

  I get out of bed and stumble to my window. When I see she’s right, a nasty, queasy feeling begins to build in the pit of my stomach. Government edicts never contain good news.

  Gillian is quiet over breakfast, and she seems to have as little appetite as I do. There are dark circles under her eyes from working in her lab until four in the morning.

  I want to ask her what she was doing, but a part of me doesn’t want to know. That way if they ever do take her away, they can’t torture me into admitting something about her work that could get us both killed. Instead, I resort to staring at her balefully, but she’s so preoccupied, my stare isn’t having much impact.

  After breakfast, I change into my best skirt and brush out my hair. Right now I don’t look too ugly, I think while I stare at my mirror. My nose is straight enough, and some days I think my mouth is pretty. But then I slip on my horrible big, dark glasses, and Freak Girl abruptly returns.

  I sigh and turn away. “I’m going down to see the dolphins before we leave,” I call to Gillian, who is still dressing in her own small room.

  I head down to the harbor to be with the pod. When I reach the end of the dolphin dock, I’m not surprised to find that Robry’s in the water. While I watch him being towed by Nika and Pani, two of our youngest and most playful dolphins, I can’t help smiling.

  :your breathing is good?: Mariah asks me as she lolls by the dock.

  Sometimes I feel like I have two mothers.

  :Yes, it is fine today. You had a peaceful night?:

  :we are all safe.:

  Distracted by Mariah, I don’t notice Sokya stealing up behind me until it’s too late. Suddenly, I’m drenched with cold seawater. Sokya and her mischievous cousin, Laki, have splashed me.

  :Oh, no, Sokya, it matters what I look like today!:

  :now you look wet—wet is good.: