The Neptune Promise Page 7

  :She’s still tired. Don’t stay too long.: Tobin tells him curtly before he leaves.

  Almost at once, I can tell Tobin’s right about Dai’s mental state. His face is impassive, but behind his shields, his emotions are churning like a stormy sea.

  :You look better,: Dai declares after studying me. :I checked on your earlier, and you were so pale you looked dead.:

  :Thank you for coming after me. I probably would be dead if it weren’t for you.:

  :Going deep where there’s so much current is dangerous. You had no business being down there.:

  Anger burns through me. :You arrogant, condescending rockhead. You’ve no right to say that to me.:

  :I have every right, now that I know why you’ve truly been doing so much deep-water work.:

  I draw in a breath. Could he possibly know the truth? I try to tighten my mental shields, but the med Tobin gave me is making my brain fuzzy and I’m so terribly tired.

  :Yeah,: Dai says, clearly reading my surface thoughts, :I do know why all of the older kids in Safety Harbor have been tested to see how well they tolerate pressure and cold. I read your father’s mind when I handed you, concussed and half-dead with hypothermia, off to him because I wanted to know why he would take such stupid, careless risks with his own daughter.:

  I stare at him in dismay. :Oh, Dai, you promised you wouldn’t read minds any more. You promised when you came to live with us.:

  :That was before I saw your dad send you off to play in the Twilight Zone, and you got mashed doing it. You guys have no idea how dangerous it is down there in the deep. You almost died yesterday!: Dai’s generating so much psychic noise that Tobin dashes into my cubicle and swims between us.

  :If you’re going to keep shouting at her, you’ll have to leave,: Tobin says.

  Dai starts forward, his faced twisted in a mask of fury, but Tobin doesn’t budge. Then Dai catches himself and whirls away, breathing hard. When he turns back to face us, his body appears less tense, but his eyes still smolder.

  :I won’t shout at her again,: he says coldly.

  :Do you want him to stay?: Tobin asks me, his face pale.

  I have a feeling that if Dai doesn’t finish what he needs to say to me, he might lash out at someone else and land himself in big trouble.

  :I-I want him to stay.:

  :All right, but I’ll be on the other side of these curtains if you need me.: The reproach and worry in Tobin’s eyes as he leaves send a pang of guilt through me.

  :All this,: Dai gestures to my bandages and my IV, :is because you’re training to plunder my mother’s ship.:

  :We don’t want to plunder it. We just need to find her notes so we can develop the right strain of c-plankton.:

  :The right strain? You mean after all we went through, we brought the wrong stuff back? Well, that’s too bad because I’m sick of hearing about c-plankton.:

  :Dai, we have to find it. The c-plankton your mother developed literally could save the planet and our seas and those corals you love so much.:

  :You keep my mother out of this.: Even through his shields I sense his pain and guilt at the mention of his mother.

  :I’m sorry, but that’s impossible.: Once again I wonder exactly how Idaine Kuron’s vessel sank on a calm day, but I’m afraid I’ll push Dai too far if I ask him now.

  Dai crosses his arms and glares at me. :So, you did know what your dad is up to, and you didn’t tell me.:

  :Because someone here in Safety Harbor is communicating with your father.:

  :And you thought it might be me.: Underneath the simmering anger, I can sense his hurt.

  :I can’t believe it’s any of you,: I blurt miserably. :I like you and Sunny and Shadow and Rad and Ocho so much, and you’ve all been working so hard to fit in here. I wanted to tell you about our new mission. I was afraid you’d find out and then you’d feel like we don’t trust you.:

  :Which is obviously the case,: he says bitterly.

  :I do trust you. I wanted to tell you the moment I found out about the mission.:

  :But you didn’t. Nere, my father will never let you anywhere near that ship. He’s obsessed with protecting my mother’s memory and her legacy. You’ve got to give this up.:

  :I can’t. We can’t. There’s too much at stake.:

  :You know that Wasp and Whitey are still alive. Sham may be, too.:

  :Yes, I know,: I say, swallowing hard.

  :And my father is insane. I can’t protect you from them all a second time.:

  :We’ll just have to make sure they don’t find out.:

  :If someone from Atlantea is talking to my father, he probably already knows you’re planning to salvage the Storm Petrel. It’s hard to keep secrets in a colony full of telepaths.:

  :Which is exactly what James and I tried to tell Dad,: I say with a sigh.

  Dai looks away for a long moment, a muscle ticking in his jaw. :I thought I had a chance to build a new life here. I thought you and your father trusted me.:

  :I’d trust you with my life. We do trust you.:

  :Just not enough,: Dai says, meeting my gaze again, and even through his shields I can tell how badly we’ve wounded him.

  :I’m so sorry,: I say, my eyes prickling with tears.

  Dai stares at me as if he’s trying to memorize my face. :Nere, if you care about me at all, and if you care about your friends, don’t go anywhere near the Storm Petrel.:

  He swims forward and touches my cheek gently, an echo of the way I touched him, and then, with a twist and a kick, he swims from my cubicle. I look after him, wondering if I should call him back. My head is throbbing, and I’m in no shape to win an argument with one of the most stubborn, clam-headed guys I’ve ever known. My heavy eyelids close, and I slide back down into sleep.

  When I wake up the next morning, they tell me Dai is gone.

  chapter nine

  The moment I learn Dai has left Safety Harbor, I want to search for him, but Tobin and Doc Iharu insist that I stay in my hammock for another day. When I do get up for a few minutes, I’m so sore and stiff that I accept their advice. I’m not ready to go anywhere. So, instead, I lie in my hammock and concentrate on contacting Dai telepathically. I reach for his mind and call him again and again, asking him not to leave us. I touch only silence and get a whopping headache for my efforts. Dai’s already passed beyond my range, or he’s purposely closed his mind to mine.

  Tobin comes in and frowns at me. I’ve been calling to Dai privately, but Tobin probably can guess what I’ve been doing. He doesn’t scold me, though, when I ask for more headache meds. I cheer up a little in the afternoon when Shadow and Sunny, and then Ree, Kalli, Bria and Lena come to see me. Lena gives me a beautiful necklace made from delicate blue and white shells as a get-well gift.

  :Lots of girls are going to be jealous because I own a Lena McFadden original.: I smile at her. :Thank you.:

  When visiting hours are over and sickbay quiets down again, I have too much time to worry about Dai. I’m so afraid that he’s going to return to his father. Cruel and driven, Ran Kuron only cares about Dai as the first step in his wild plans to dominate a new civilization under the waves.

  At last I fall asleep and dream that I’m searching for Dai in the cold, black deep, but I can’t find him. The next day at lunch time, Thom, Ree, Kalli and Rohan come to visit. They say I missed the meeting where my dad announced that we brought back the wrong c-plankton from Atlantea. The news shocked and upset them, but all four promptly volunteered to be part of the secret Storm Petrel salvage mission. Their training will begin in the morning.

  Two days after my diving accident, Doc Iharu finally releases me from sickbay. I head straight topside to talk with my dad without his scuba gear between us. I find him working on his computer in his cabin.

  “Hey, look who’s up and about.” My dad smiles and gives me a big hug. He smells like cedar trees and salt water.

  “It’s nice to be up and about,” I say as I take my usual seat on his bed, “but I really n
eed to talk to you about Dai. Do you think he’s gone to find Ran Kuron?”

  His smile fades. “That’s hard to imagine. He hates his father so much, he was willing to help us destroy Atlantea to get you away from there safely, and Atlantea was Kuron’s chief base of operations.”

  “But he cares about his father, too. Remember, Dai went back inside the base to try to save him when the Sea Rangers were blowing it up.”

  Dad sighs. “I know he cares about his father, but Dai is only a pawn to Kuron in his insane chess game against me and the rest of his former colleagues in the Neptune Project. I’m afraid his wife’s death pushed the man over the edge. He sent us a rambling message a week ago threatening to destroy Safety Harbor if we don’t agree to join our program with his.”

  “Could he destroy Safety Harbor? I thought most of his shredders died when we escaped.” We jammed the frequency Kuron used to control his savage shark mutates. Without the restraints imposed by the computer chips in their brains, the starving shredders promptly tore each other apart.

  “Most of the shredders died, but we think he may have ten or fifteen left, and you know that just one of those monsters can do a lot of damage. I’m more worried about that small sub he drives around. If it’s armed with torpedoes, he could kill or hurt a lot of kids and take out our tidal generators.”

  I can’t help shuddering. When Robry hacked into Kuron’s personal log reports back at Atlantea, we learned that Kuron sees the young people he created as “subjects” in his grand experiment to breed the perfect humans to rule the world under the waves. There’s no doubt he’d kill some innocent Neptune kids in an effort to force the rest of us into his program.

  “Kuron’s so cruel and twisted,” I say, “I hope Dai’s gone anywhere but to him.”

  “Maybe Dai’s just slipped away to do some research. You know he’s gone off on his own before.” But my father’s words sound hollow.

  “He’s never taken all of his stuff with him before, and Thom and Penn say every bit of his gear is gone.” I take in a deep breath. I’m so furious with Dad right now, I have to say it. “If we’d trusted him with the truth, Dai might still be with us.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry,” my father says, looking tired all of a sudden. “It seems like I have to say that to you a lot these days.”

  “Dai’s the one you need to apologize to,” I say, getting to my feet, “and you may never have the chance to do that now.”

  ~~~

  Thanks to the scientists who created me, I heal much faster than most humans. By the end of the week, I’m back to training with the rest of the deep salvage team. I know all our equipment has been checked and rechecked, but I still feel anxious every time I clip my harness to the anchor chain and descend through strong currents to the wreck of the Skookumaru.

  Following Captain Gonzalez’s orders, we learn how to set penetration lines and follow them in and out of the old trawler. We practice finning slowly inside the wreck to keep from churning up such dense clouds of sediment that we can’t see anything. We also practice searching through the silt-covered cabins of the old trawler as if we were looking for a hydro-computer. Over time we find coins, glasses, and empty metal picture frames, the photographs inside them long ago eaten away by the sea.

  Captain Gonzalez never tells us if someone died when the Skookumaru’s skipper holed her on a winter night, and we don’t truly want to know. It’s eerie enough finding bits and pieces of the lives of the people who lived and worked on her.

  Gradually we all become more accustomed to dealing with powerful currents and working at greater depths. None of us like going deep, except perhaps Kalli who gets excited every time we encounter some of the weird species that inhabit the Twilight Zone. One time we see a school of lantern fish with pairs of glowing dots on their sides that look like eyes. Another time we spot a Stumpy Squid that treats us to a light show in rainbow colors before it squirts off into the blackness.

  When we aren’t diving, we spend hours memorizing the layout of the Storm Petrel and discussing the most likely places we might find Idaine’s computer. Thanks to my father’s talks with her first mate, we know Idaine used the big salon up forward as her lab. That and her cabin are the first places we want to search. I share Dai’s warning with my dad and the others, and Vival sends a team of Sea Rangers ahead to the Storm Petrel to keep an eye out for Kuron’s sub.

  We hold a vote to decide who should be the official leader of our salvage team, and I end up with the job. I must have looked bummed about the results because Kalli smiles and pats me on the shoulder.

  :I know you don’t like being responsible for our safety,: she tells me on a private send, :but that’s what you get for being such a good leader and a good listener. I’m glad you’ll be in charge when we’re down there in the dark and the deep.:

  Safety Harbor’s first official dance is scheduled for the night before we leave on our salvage mission. Ocho and Shadow will be playing their sea music again. Girls cluster around the big mirrors in the girls’ bathroom braiding shells into their hair and chattering excitedly. But it’s quiet in our section of the dorm cave where Kalli, Ree and I finish laying out the gear we’re planning to take.

  :Hey, guys,: Sunny says as she swims up with Shadow. For once, Sunny’s not smiling, and Shadow appears worried, too.

  :Look, we know something big must be up with your new mission,: Shadow declares. :You and your dad have been looking anxious for weeks now.:

  :And since Dai left so suddenly, we’re afraid it has something to do with Kuron,: Sunny adds.

  :We’re not going to ask where you’re going tomorrow,: Shadow continues. :We just want you to be careful. Whitey and Wasp will probably be with Kuron, and they’re so full of hate and anger, that’s all they know now. They killed Mako, and they are capable of killing again.:

  :I wish they could have come to Safety Harbor,: Sunny says, her blue eyes sad, :but it was just too late for them.:

  :We also wanted to say that if you need help protecting Safety Harbor against anyone,: Shadow declares fiercely, :you can count on us.:

  I glance at Kalli and Ree. They both look as sober as I’m feeling right now. :Thanks for that offer and for your warning,: I say for all three of us. :I’m sorry I can’t tell you what we’ll be doing, but I can promise you that we’ll be careful.:

  :Good luck, then,: Shadow says, her dark eyes worried.

  :And come back safe,: Sunny adds.

  :Good luck tonight playing for everyone at the dance,: Kalli says to Shadow, and then she rolls her eyes when the younger girls in front of the mirror squeal with laughter.

  :You’ve made a lot of kids happy tonight,: Ree says with a grin, :including me. I love to dance. Now I get to find out if my sparkhead can keep up with my moves.: She performs a dance flourish that makes us all smile.

  Thanks to Ree, our mood is a little lighter as Sunny and Shadow hug us and leave.

  When we finish our packing, we get ready for the dance, too. Kalli insists on pulling my hair back in a high pony. I wish I felt more excited about tonight, but I’m worried about our mission, and I’m missing Dai so much it hurts. I dance several songs with Kalli and the rest of our group until most of the older kids pair up for the slow numbers. As I watch Ree and Rad and Thom and Lena revolve in the water, totally wrapped up in each other, a wave of sadness washes over me.

  Tobin appears at my side. :May I have this dance?: he asks, sounding wonderfully old-fashioned and polite.

  Of course Tobin knows when I need some cheering up. I smile and nod. He places his hands on my shoulders, I put my hands on his waist and we begin to turn slowly in time with the music.

  I study Tobin when he looks away to grin at Robry and Bria doing a silly water tango together. I love the dark copper color of Tobin’s hair. A lock of it floats down over his forehead. He has a strong jaw, a sensitive mouth, and beautiful forest green eyes. A half-dozen girls have crushes on him, and I wonder sometimes if Shadow might be one of them.
>
  Remembering what Tobin said about being stuck in my friend zone, I feel a pang. He pulls me closer, and I let him, until my head rests on his shoulder. I like Tobin so much, and I always feel so safe and comfortable with him, but I can’t help wondering where Dai is now, and if he’s all right.

  The dance ends and Tobin is slow to let go of me. He smiles, his gaze warm. I can tell he wants to kiss me, and I ease out of his arms before he can.

  :Thanks for the dance,: I say and I see the flash of hurt in his eyes. His smile cools and he turns away to dance with some of his medic friends during the next fast number.

  Feeling lonelier than ever, I slip away to the girls’ dorm cave and get ready for bed. The next morning Ree, Kalli and I report to the transport hub at 6 AM.

  chapter ten

  When we arrive at the hub, Rohan and Thom are already waiting there along with Tobin, Janni and Robry. Rohan will be our deep-water medic, but Tobin is coming along to help Doc Iharu in case any of us, including Rohan, need medical help as we surface. I send Tobin a tentative smile and he nods to me curtly. Robry is coming, too, because he’s great at cracking codes, and Kuron keeps changing the encryption on his communications.

  We gather around the Bus, and Janni takes her place at the controls. She’ll be our skipper for the seven-hour journey to the Storm Petrel. During the trip, Janni explains that an advance team of Sea Rangers has been camping out near the Storm Petrel, learning the currents and watching for Kuron and his shredders. The advance team also rigged several sonar buoys in the waters around the wreck.

  When we arrive at the cluster of islands where Echo Pass joins the Johnstone Strait, my arms and shoulders ache from the long tow. The pressure on them gets even worse because a wicked current flows through the pass. Janni has to gun the motor on the Bus to reach the Carly Sue. After we surface, we see McKienzie Island is a tree-covered nob in the middle of the pass that doesn’t look any different from a hundred other islands scattered throughout these waters. But this is where Dai’s mother died five years ago, I think, and it feels like icy fingers are trailing down my spine.