CHAPTER 43
The date had gone well. Really well, for Eric.
Ashley actually seemed interested in him, in his work. She wasn’t looking at her cell phone now, or making some lame excuse to get up and leave, like many of the women he’d gone out with in California.
They’d just had a few drinks and finished an early dinner, on an outdoor patio at Oceanus, overlooking a saltwater lagoon embedded in man-made rock terraces. The towers of the hotel rose off to his left, silhouetted by the early twilight. Eric had wanted to take her someplace else on the main island, but she’d insisted that the food here was the best.
He’d just told her how he’d grown up on the West Coast, how his parents weren’t around much when he’d been a kid and so he’d taken to reading lots of books, building models, taking apart handheld radios and old television sets and putting them back together.
“So you’re the baby?” she said.
“I am. And you?”
“I’m the oldest. I have three siblings too.”
He smiled. “Tell me again where you grew up.”
“In the Bahamas. But not here.” She leaned back in her chair and looked past him, out past the resort and toward the ocean. “A place called Two Finger Cay.”
She touched the gold cross around her neck. “When I was young, I spent a lot of time at a small church on the island. It’s a little one-room building, made from old shipwreck wood. I always prayed that my daddy would make more money, or that I could get off the island and do it myself.”
The waiter moved up beside the table and asked them how everything was.
“This conch salad is amazing. I could eat it every day,” Eric said. The savory crunch of the cold salad, the fresh citrus and spice, perfectly complemented his bottle of Kalik.
The waiter grinned at Ashley. “You betta watch out for dis one, girl.”
“Hush, Lionel.”
The waiter walked off with a tub of dirty dishes, laughing to himself.
“What was that all about?” Eric said.
She blushed. “In the Bahamas, conch is thought to be an aphrodisiac. He thinks you’re trying to get us in the mood.”
Eric scooped a large spoonful of the salad and offered it to her. She smiled and took a small bite. She studied his face. “You never came back to see me again, until now. And you’re leaving soon. I don’t understand.”
That morning, Eric and the others had gathered data on what was supposed to be one of their final blue holes. It had been awkward, with nobody getting along. But they were wrapping up this week, after almost a month, and had visited almost every accessible marine blue hole or submarine cave in the vicinity. They’d decided to visit The Staircase a final time, tomorrow.
They still had nothing, even though it was almost time to pack it up.
He said, “I was going to come back sooner. It’s just that . . . it’s about the elevator.” He took a deep breath. “I have a hard time with elevators.”
She raised her hand. “No need to explain.”
“It’s more than that. I’m claustrophobic. But I don’t usually tell anyone.” He took a sip of beer. “One time, when I was seven, my older brothers made me crawl into the bottom of a sleeping bag. Curl up in a ball. They promised they would give me a piece of candy. Before I knew it, they rolled up the bag and sat on top of me. I couldn’t breathe. After a few minutes, I passed out.”
Ashley leaned toward him. “That’s terrible. What happened next?”
“I woke up with my dad shaking me. Ever since then, I’ve struggled with tight spaces. That’s why I operate ROVs, instead of diving.”
She placed her hand over his. “You should be proud of yourself, for doing something good with your life.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” he said.
“You’re scientists, right? So why are you looking for some sea monster, when there are other important problems here? Problems we already know about. Like lionfish? Or whale strandings?”
He said, “I know what we’re doing may seem odd, but cephalopods are Val’s specialty. Not fish, or marine mammals. She hired me to help her look for some new species of octopus or squid. And the crazy thing is I’m starting to think that it’s possible. That maybe, somehow, there is some undiscovered species living in the holes. Something . . . really big.”
“It just seems like there are more important things for you to investigate than local legends.”
“Look, I know how concerned you are about the whales here. Maybe we can talk to some colleagues when we get back. I’m friends with one professor who researches whales, and Val’s been in this business a lot longer than me.”
He thought of Karen, the marine mammal expert at PLARG. She’d gotten back to Eric about the object DORA filmed in the offshore hole. She said it was probably a jawbone, from a beaked whale. Of the sort Val and Ashley had seen dying on the beach. He decided not to mention it to Ashley.
“So when are you going back to California?” she asked.
“I had planned to leave this week.”
“Maybe you can stay a little longer?”
“Maybe. If we don’t have to go in an elevator.”
She smiled. “No elevators. I promise. But I do want to take you somewhere you might find a little uncomfortable.”
After college, Eric had travelled through Europe for a few months with a high school friend. They’d spent several days in London, and had to get around mostly using the city’s underground metro system—what Londoners called “the Tube.” Back then, he’d had pretty good control over his phobia. Looking down the deep underground stairwell now was like looking down the impossibly long escalators leading to the London Underground.
“Mind the gap,” he whispered.
“What?” Ashley said.
“Nothing. Let’s do this before I chicken out.”
He took a deep breath and followed her down what had to be sixty stairs, to the viewing tunnel for the largest aquarium at the resort. She put her hand in his halfway down, and he resolved not to panic as the walls seemed to draw in closer and their footsteps echoed back at them. They reached the bottom. Another couple passed them, laughing as they headed for the stairs. It was darker down here, lit only by recessed lights in the ceiling, which like the walls was fashioned from the uneven rock.
She led him a short distance through the underground tunnel to the beginning of the tank. When they arrived, Eric forgot for a moment about where he was.
The tank, even larger than the other one he’d seen, rose an incredible four stories above the floor of the tunnel to the surface above, with a fake shipwreck that looked like an old galleon resting in the center. Swimming in slow circles around the wreck were two huge manta rays, the larger having a wingspan of perhaps fifteen feet, as well as several two-hundred-pound groupers, mature nurse sharks, and countless smaller fish.
“You okay?” Ashley said.
“Yeah. It helps that I can see the surface through the aquarium.”
“You like it?”
“I’m impressed. Those mantas are enormous.”
“We’re releasing the bigger one this weekend,” she said.
“How?”
“With a helicopter. You should come watch.”
She led him slowly through a horseshoe-shaped tunnel encircling most of the exhibit, and he realized the fake shipwreck had been strategically located to keep the animals near the aquarium glass. And the tank lacked any real hiding places for the sea life. Otherwise, the sharks and other fish would likely spend most of their time hidden within it, out of sight of paying guests. On the tunnel walls opposite the tank they had also passed a few recessed doors. From behind one came the sounds of ongoing construction.
“What’s going on back there?” he said. “It seems late for anyone to be working.”
“They’re working to finish another tunnel. They have to work from below, so guests don’t have to see a construction zone above.”
“What’s it for?”
“Another access tunnel to this exhibit. When it’s nearly done, they’ll come from above to open it up.”
They had run into Oceanus’s owner before dinner, a charismatic tycoon who apparently spent a lot of time at his resort. Some Greek guy named Sergio Barbas. His well-trimmed beard and worldly charm made Eric think of a refined older actor he’d seen in popular Mexican beer commercials.
Barbas had seemed to be in a good mood, saying something about a clogged aquarium outflow pipe finally clearing itself. But his expression had changed when he’d pulled Ashley aside to talk about something serious. Eric had caught parts of the conversation.
They reached a fork in the tunnel, and Ashley asked if he wanted to see the adjacent tank. He told her he already had, and was ready to head above ground. They started up the tunnel that sloped up toward another stairwell leading to the surface. It was almost dark out now.
He said, “I overheard Barbas talking to you earlier. About that woman who’s been held here by the police, ever since her wife went missing.”
“You heard about that too?”
“I read an online article about it. It’s all over the news, you know. And the missing yacht that was headed here. Oceanus seems to have a pretty bad safety record.”
She stopped, at the top of the stairway, and let go of his hand. “That’s not true. It’s just been a bad week.”
“It can’t be good for business to have so many guests go missing.”
“One guest is missing. The yacht was far offshore. We’re not at all responsible for that.”
“The article said some other people also disappeared here last year.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Do you know how many people visit Oceanus? We’ve had a few accidents, but we have a good safety record. Mr. Barbas does everything he can.”
He reached for her hand. “Please don’t get upset. I’m not saying this has anything to do with you. It’s just too bad you have to work for him. And work here.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
A part of him knew he was digging himself a hole, but then his mouth just kept going.
“This place is beautiful, it really is, but it’s just so fake. Even the aquariums. They’re supposed to look like the natural features Barbas built the hotel around. But we both know they’ve not natural at all.”
“This resort is the best thing that ever happened to Andros,” she said.
“I understand that a mega-resort like this brings a lot of jobs to the country. To the island. But think about it? Where does all the real money flow? Back to investors in the US and China. To Barbas’s bank account.”
“Maybe. But that’s so easy for you to say. This is the best job I ever had. Whether or not it gets someone else rich isn’t important to me.”
“I just don’t understand. You seem to care so much about the ocean. Look at the environmental impact here. I’ve heard there’s already talk of blasting part of the barrier reef apart, to make way for a deepwater port. So the cruise ships can come in.”
“That’s just a rumor.”
“For now. But do you want to be part of destroying this reef? It’s one of the most pristine in the world.”
“You listen to me, Big Man Eric. There is fairy-tale land and there is real life. It’s easy for you to live in the former. You have everything you need back in sunny California. But guess what? I don’t. My family don’t. A lot of people down here don’t. And this resort pays our bills. Lets us buy better food, better homes. Lets us all pay for cell phones and televisions. Things you Americans all take for granted.”
“I hear you, but I’m just saying—”
She raised a finger, her eyes menacing. “I would like to keep the Bahamas exactly the way they are. The reefs, the oceans, the culture. That’s a want. But I need a job. Mr. Barbas gives me, and a thousand others, good jobs. That’s the difference between fairy-tale land and real life. Want, and need.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, Ashley. I wasn’t trying to upset you.”
“Well, you did. Good evening, Eric.” She climbed the last few stairs and started down the path. He hurried after her.
“Wait. You’re leaving?”
“Don’t even think of followin’ me.” She strode off in the deepening darkness.
Eric stood there mutely as she walked away.