An eel in its cave. That’s what I thought as I stepped toward the heavy desk. The wall behind Mr. Cortlandt’s desk was made entirely of glass, but instead of being a lovely island view, it exposed the cloudy strait waters. The busy water reflected on the blue walls of the office, making the whole room take on the effect of an underwater cave.
I felt like spooky sea monsters of the deep were lurking about me, ready to snap out and gobble me up at any moment. My feelings were justified when Mr. Cortlandt spun around in his chair to greet me. Brown spots were scattered across his balding head. His teeth seemed almost too big for his mouth, giving him that evil, leering look that is so common to eels. His eyes were small and beady too, as if the absence of direct light to this room had caused him to slowly go blind.
Naturally, I hated him on sight. I tried to imagine him with a wife. Somebody out there in the world might actually think he was quite cute and charming. Ugh. The thought made me shiver.
I thought of the person I considered cute and charming. Carter. No one could describe him as being like an eel. I held his smile in my mind and let it calm me as the slimy voice of Mr. Cortlandt filled the eerie room.
“Miss Sawfeather. I knew it was a matter of time before you found us. Although, I have to admit I didn’t expect you to arrive so soon.” He gestured for me to take a seat, but I continued to stand.
“Guess you underestimated me. Before I do the same to you, how about you tell me who you are exactly? Are you in charge of this aquarium? Are you a scientist? Are you Dr. Schneider’s boss?” I did a quick pause and added. “Or do you just work for Affron Oil?”
“Please sit, Miss Sawfeather,” Mr. Cortlandt said, gesturing to the seat again. This time, I took him up on his offer, but I sat very straight, ready to get up quickly if I needed to. “The answer is yes to all of those questions. I am the leading marine biologist at this facility. Dr. Schneider now works directly under me here, but his center downstate is also under an umbrella of several marine rehabilitation centers that all report to me. All of these centers are funded in part by a grant from Affron Oil, so I do work for them in a manner of speaking. I am hardly what you could consider an Affron employee, however.” He tried smiling at me, but it just made him look creepier.
“Mr. Cortlandt,” I said as business-like as possible but cutting right to the chase. “I am here because I know that you have the mermaids I discovered on Grayland Beach. Dr. Schneider and the mermaids have been missing from the Sea Mammal Rescue Center, and I know that they are here. I suspect that there are other mermaids here as well.”
His grin evaporated immediately. “Yes, I know all about your escapades with the press, trying to convince them of real mermaids. I have to say, Miss Sawfeather, that there are no mermaids. What you discovered were three rare mutant fish.”
“Nice try,” I said. “I know what I saw.” He shrugged like he didn’t care. “Since you know I’m right,” I continued anyway, “and you know that the press is outside, are you going to take me to the mermaids?”
“No.”
Not a pause. Not a thought. His answer was definitive. A man used to saying no.
But I wasn’t done yet.
“If you have watched the news at all lately, then you know that there is a lot of interest in these mermaids. Whether or not you have them here, people are going to be interested that I think you do. One report from that news team outside is going to bring thousands of people crashing through the doors of this place and scuba diving past your lovely window here.”
Mr. Cortlandt seemed to growl, his lips pulling back from those enormous teeth. “Again, I tell you, there is nothing here for your news team to report. There are no mermaids.”
“Then why is Dr. Schneider here?” I asked. “Why would he abandon an entire rehabilitation center full of sea animals rescued from Affron’s latest screw-up to come up here?”
“Dr. Schneider is here to do valuable research.”
“On the mermaids. Who do you think you’re fooling here?”
Mr. Cortlandt cleared his throat. “I think I’m talking to a dumb kid who is getting involved in matters way beyond her.”
I couldn’t stand this anymore. “Do you know who my parents are, Mr. Cortlandt?” I didn’t give him time to answer. “My father is one the most famous activists in North America. His fight for our Chinook people and the environment are legendary. My mother, Natalie Brenner Sawfeather, is the leading environmental lawyer in Washington State. She is currently working on getting your company taken down for destroying the entire western coast of America with your oil spills. They are powerful people, my parents.” As I ranted, I realized for the first time just how important my parents were to the world. “They have home phone numbers for nearly every member of Congress in the United States. They have numbers for many Canadian government officials as well. With one touch of the button on my cell phone here, I can send your address to my mom, and within an hour you’ll have press and government officials from both countries swarming in here to see what you’ve really done with these mermaids.” I pulled out my cell phone and turned it on. As it chimed to announce its power, I said, “Your company is so proud of their mission to ‘make the world better’. So, what do you think will happen to Affron when people find out that you’re hiding or perhaps even killing mermaids?”
The eel-man slammed his hands down on his desk. “Enough of your threats!” he shouted. “What does it matter if we have mermaids or not? In my opinion they are like fish! They breathe through water. They don’t think. They don’t communicate. None of our tests have shown otherwise.” He stood up. “And what makes you presume we are doing anything harmful to them at all? We are simply studying them to prove whether or not they can be considered as part human—which we have definitely proven by now that they are not. Have you heard enough?”
From behind me, I heard the familiar voice of Dr. Schneider at the door. “No she hasn’t,” he said. “Not by a long shot.”
Dr. Schneider walked toward the desk, and I stood up beside him. He nodded at me but didn’t smile. I wasn’t sure if he was glad I was there or not. “Where is Carter?” he asked.
“He should be here any time.”
Mr. Cortlandt spoke through gritted teeth. “Carl, remember, the tests we are doing on the mermaids are for the good of the environment and for mankind. It is important to know what we’re dealing with before we let the whole world know about them. We’ve discussed the importance of this mission.” He pointed at Dr. Schneider accusingly. “And you agreed with it.”
“Yes, Bill,” Dr. Schneider said, his tone equally confrontational. I was ready for them to launch over the desk at each other. If they weren’t both old, crotchety men, I bet they would have. “And some of what we talked about makes a lot of sense. At the same time, though, you’re leaving out the part where we discussed how my mission here is to prove without a doubt that these creatures are indeed fish. That they can be discarded just like trout or salmon. How they aren’t any more important or valuable to the world than tuna, maybe even less so, since no one will want to eat them. You aren’t talking about how I am to formulate these opinions no matter what the cost is to the mermaids.”
“Carl,” the man seethed. “You’re out of line.”
“No,” Dr. Schneider said, “I’m finally on track for the first time since this began.” He focused on me, and I’m sure I looked like a complete dork considering how dumbfounded I was at this heated exchange between the two men. “I need you to come with me.”
“Carl,” Mr. Cortlandt warned. “Don’t do it.”
Dr. Schneider ignored him and led me out of the office. He whispered to me, “I’d hit that button on your phone now.” I nodded and did as he said.
“I’ll call the police!” Mr. Cortlandt called after us.
“Do it!” Dr. Schneider shouted back over his shoulder as we headed up the hallway back to the main lobby. “I’d love to see what the news team outside does when the police show up.”
Mr. Cortlandt’s secretary popped out one of the doors in front of us, blocking our way. I heard Mr. Cortlandt scream for her. There was a moment where she was uncertain whether she should chase us or go back to the cave. He screamed her name again, and she left us.
“What’s he going to do?” I asked Dr. Schneider.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think we have a lot of time.”
We entered the lobby to find a huge commotion at the front door. The receptionist stood with her back to the door, using all her weight to keep it from being opened by the several sets of arms reaching through from the other side. I could see Marlee peering through the window with her hands cupped around her eyes. She saw me and waved at me excitedly. I saw her mouth move, and Regina’s face appeared beside her.
I left Dr. Schneider’s side and ran to the front door.
“June, we don’t have time!” he shouted at me.
I pushed the receptionist out of the way and my friends tumbled inside. Carter, Ted and Gary fell over each other. Stepping over them were Juarez Peña and Chuck Emory. Peña had his microphone at the ready, and the camera was firmly on Chuck’s shoulder already rolling. The girls strode in behind the reporters. Regina nudged Ted with her shoe to get out of the way, and he rolled to the side instead of standing.
“Dr. Schneider!” Carter gasped, leaping to his feet and bounding toward his boss. It was almost as if he hadn’t truly believed his mentor was really a traitor until this second.
“Carter,” Dr. Schneider said, motioning for him to follow. “Come with me. Hurry.” Carter grabbed my hand, and we ran back to Dr. Schneider, who was already nearing the doorway at the far right of the lobby.
Regina shouted, “Where are you going?”
“Just stay here, Regina,” I said.
“No! I’m done missing out.”
I let go of Carter’s hand and nodded that he and Dr. Schneider needed to continue on. “I’ll catch up.” I walked back to Regina. “Look, I don’t have time to play this stupid game with you right now. Will you stop being such a power freak and realize that this has nothing to do with your stupid high school popularity. This is real life, and it’s serious.”
She sneered at me. “I know it’s serious, June. I want to help. Really. What can I do that will help?”
Go away, I thought.
But right then Mr. Cortlandt and his secretary exploded into the lobby. “What the Hell is going on here?”
The receptionist skittered toward him. “I’m sorry, sir. I couldn’t keep them out.”
The news camera swung toward him. Peña raised his microphone to catch every word of what was going to happen.
I put my hand on Regina’s shoulder. “Here’s your golden moment. Keep that man here and keep him busy.” She raised her hands to her hair. “Don’t worry, you look beautiful as always.” Regina smiled gratefully at me. “Go get him,” I told her.
With that, Regina barged toward the eel-man with a thousand questions about mermaids and what this building was supposed to be used for. Between her and Peña, and the other Student Council team members blocking the way, Cortlandt would be held up for a few minutes at least.
I crooked a finger toward Haley to get her sneak away and follow me while the attention was off her. She backed away from the crowd and hurried with me through the door where we quickly caught up with Dr. Schneider and Carter.
The building was set up like a honeycomb, each octagon pod designated to a different sea creature or region of species. From what I could see as we passed the open doors, the tanks were completely enclosed, but a handful of the laboratories featured windows that had an ocean view like in Mr. Cortlandt’s office. A single hallway connected all the pods and wound downward like a corkscrew, making each floor deeper under the water.
Near the bottom Dr. Schneider stopped, unlocked a door, and held it open for us to step inside. I noticed he kept his head hung low, not looking any of us in the eye as we passed him. He shut the door behind us. I barely registered it clicking into place because what I saw in front of me took away every sense as my body filled with rage and sorrow. The reality of what was before me was so much worse than I could have ever imagined.
A wall of glass stretching from floor to ceiling separated the mermaids from the laboratory. Even though the lights were kept extremely low in the tank, it wasn’t hard to see that there were too many of these human-fish in there. I couldn’t begin to count them all, but there had to be close to a hundred. They were so crowded together in the tank that they could barely move.
I walked over to the tank, crouched to the floor and pressed my hands and face against the cool glass, unable to speak. Maybe when I opened them again the sight would be gone.
No luck. The vision remained. The mermaids were crammed so tightly into the tank they looked more like oversized sardines than the beautiful creatures I had carried from beach. Some of them whimpered in their strange voices. Most of them trembled. All of them looked as though they might die at any moment.
Carter came over and helped me to my feet. Haley hung back by the computers, her mouth agape at the sight of the mermaids. “I can’t believe there are so many,” she whispered.
“What’s the matter with them?” Carter asked.
“They’re suffocating,” Schneider answered. “Fish need to move to be able to get oxygen into their gills. They can’t move in there.”
I remembered what the mermaid had looked like when we first brought it to the center. Her skin was a deep navy blue from suffocation. Most of the mermaids in the tank were that color now. I stood up and faced Schneider.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he begged. “I asked to have some of them moved into different tanks but was given nothing but negatives. This is the only lab in the facility that locks, and it has the biggest tank. Affron couldn’t afford to put the mermaids anywhere else. The risk of exposure was too high.
“So I dared to suggest, ‘Why don’t we stop collecting them?’ Bill—Mr. Cortlandt—just laughed at me and said, ‘Have you seen the madness out there? They’ll be discovered before too long.’ I reminded him, ‘They’ve been discovered. The Sawfeather family has seen to that.’” Schneider sighed. “He didn’t think you and your family were too much of a threat. ‘It’ll blow over,’ he told me, ‘if no one finds any more of them.’”
“Why didn’t you let them go?” I asked. “If you thought it was wrong, why didn’t you do something about it?”
“I couldn’t,” he said desperately. “They threatened my job.”
“You can get another job,” Haley said.
“Not without references and not after my name has been slandered as the crackpot who believes in mermaids.”
“They threatened to shut down the center, too, didn’t they?” Carter asked.
Schneider nodded. “I was ordered to study the mermaids like lab animals, and if they died, so be it. This was not what I expected when I got the call to come up here and work. I sincerely thought they wanted me to, oh, make the world better. That is their slogan, isn’t it?”
Haley’s voice came from behind Dr. Schneider. She was standing at his computer pressing buttons. “What is this graph showing?” I got up and moved with Carter over to the computer. Dr. Schneider wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and joined us. I noticed how his hands shook as he took the mouse from her and guided the cursor across the screen. He sat down and refused to raise his eyes to us as he found the work he wanted to show us. The man was truly wrecked.
“Don’t think this was easy for me, kids,” he said quietly. “When I first got here all I wanted to do was find our mermaid to make sure she was okay, but a lot of them wear the necklaces, and I couldn’t pick her out.”
He was right. The overpowering frailty of them had taken all my attention, but now that I looked closer, a lot of them wore the shell jewelry that Juarez Peña had told me about. I’d have to study the mermaids for a long time to find my girl, and I didn’t have that kind of time. All I could hope was that she was in the tank, and that she knew I was here to help and not hurt her like Dr. Schneider had.
Dr. Schneider was still talking. “By the end of the first day all I’d managed to will myself to do was read the files about what they like to eat, discover that there were indeed male mermaids, and establish that they were dying. I kept putting off the autopsy of the dead mermaids, leaving them packed in ice. I didn’t have the heart to pull any living ones out of the tank to study their reflexes or behaviors either.
“According to the papers I’d gathered from the other scientists who had been working on this project, the first mermaid had been discovered less than two years ago off Port Alberni just above Vancouver. Since then they’d popped up randomly, usually beached from oil spills or pollution. Most of the time they were in pairs or threes. Maybe they didn’t like traveling alone. Or maybe the others got trapped while trying to rescue the first oil spill victim.”
Carter interrupted, “Which is evidence that they are social creatures. Do you know any fish that would help each rescue each other?”
“Only people do that,” I said.
With a sheepish grin, Haley said, “The fish do that in Finding Nemo.”
I hit her and she mouthed “Sorry.”
Dr. Schneider nodded and went on, “I wondered how long these creatures had existed. If they’ve been out there all these years, why were they starting to show up now? And why weren’t they going away now that things were dangerous for them?” He pointed to a map that showed where the majority of the mermaids had been found. “It’s almost like they’re coming here on purpose to look for their missing relatives.”
I walked over to the tank, searching the eyes of the mermaids for the one that might recognize me. “I’m kind of surprised you didn’t jump into the biology and experiments, Dr. Schneider. Weren’t you curious?”
“Sure I was curious,” he said. “But I didn’t want to do what they were asking of me. This work for Affron won’t get my name written up in history. Who remembers the debunkers? When would there ever be a class taught in a college or university where the professor would ask, “Tell me the name of the man who proved that mermaids were nothing but over-sized halibut?”
“True,” Carter said.
“Juniper Sawfeather’s name is all over the news for discovering mermaids. You have fame now for that little thing, and if Affron hadn’t taken the mermaids away, I could have expanded that discovery all the way to the cover of Scientific American. My name would have been in the annals of history. But that’s all been taken away!”
He stabbed a button on the computer and a horrible squeaking and groaning came from speakers around the room. It sounded like whales. I covered my ears because it was so loud.
Dr. Schneider stood up, yelling over the noise. “This morning I was told that I had to start the experiments or think about flipping hamburgers for the rest of my life. I started with sound sensitivity and recognition. Whale and dolphin soundings. Mating calls and nursing coos at first. I got a reaction from them, but it wasn’t significant. Then I switched it up and tried cries of distress. The mermaids reacted immediately and with much more demonstration. Watch them.”
I had been staring at Dr. Schneider and the speakers, so I pivoted to take in the vision of the mermaids. Their heads were all up on stiff necks, and their strange, black eyes were open as wide as possible. They squirmed around as if they wanted to back away from this horrible sound. Some of them began to make their own calls, as if they were answering the voices they heard.
“Interesting, right?” Dr. Schneider yelled. “They’re behaving like fish now, aren’t they? Does this mean they don’t think? No. But it does mean that they may not necessarily think like a human.”
He switched off the noise. Tension fled from their bodies immediately and the relief in their demeanor was clear. Though now sadness filled the tank. Their heads drooped, and they brought their hands to their faces as though ashamed or devastated that they couldn’t do anything to help the creatures they had been hearing.
I thought of my dad’s Chinook tale of the killer whale and the mermaid’s attachment to it. I recalled the legend Juarez Peña told me about the drowned sailors becoming killer whales. The island I was on was called Orcas. Now I know those weren’t just silly legends or made up folklore. They were true accounts. The mermaids and the killer whales were linked in love and history. And they were linked to my people, the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest.
“Do you have a recording that is specifically of killer whales?” I asked. Honestly, I didn’t want to hurt them, but I had to know if I was right.
“Yes, I do.” Dr. Schneider hit a button and a horrible keening came out of the speakers.
All at once the mermaids began thrashing about. Slamming into each other. They frantically searched for a way to get out of the tank but couldn’t find one. Some of the mermaids smashed their tales against the glass so hard I worried the five-inch thick glass might crack and jumped away.
“What’s happening?” Haley screamed. “Why are they doing that?”
“Turn it off!” I shouted to Dr. Schneider.
“Fascinating,” the scientist said, moving away from the computer and walking toward the tank. “Even more dynamic than last time.”
“Hayley, turn it off!” I shouted, but she was panicking. I saw Carter push her to the side and frantically search for the way to end the recording. More slamming against the glass caught my attention. I shifted to look at the chaos and squeezing through the silver bodies was a face I recognized—my mermaid. I knew her big eyes, and I could tell she knew me. She pressed her hands up against the glass, and stared at me.
Noise crowded around me. The whale calls, the mermaids slamming against the glass, the sloshing of the water, Carter and Haley yelling at each other, and Dr. Schneider having some weird epiphany. I tried to tune it all out and focus on my mermaid. I locked eyes with her and stepped forward to put my hands over hers. All the noise became dulled, like I had stuffed cotton in my ears. What came through clearly was a voice that I couldn’t understand at first. I focused harder. Nothing but the mermaid.
“Help them.”
It wasn’t quite words like that, but somehow I understood what she was telling me. I tried to respond to her with my mind, but I didn’t know if I could send my thoughts to her the same way. “These whale cries aren’t real. It’s just a recording.”
“Help them!”
“Ah ha!” I heard somewhere behind me—Carter’s voice. The whale sounds stopped and the silence buzzed in my ears. I tried to stay concentrated on my mermaid.
“See? It stopped.”
She nodded at me, but her eyes were still so sad.
“Help us.”
“I’m trying.”
“Is that her?” Haley asked, walking toward me.
“Yes.”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Oh my God.” That was from Carter. I tore my eyes away from the mermaid to find out what was upsetting him. “Did you know this would happen?” he yelled at Dr. Schneider.
“I... yes,” the scientist stammered. “I tried it once before.”
“Then why did you push that button?”
That’s when I realized that there was something wrong even though the panic had stopped. Inside the tank several mermaids had been pressed so hard against the glass they were smothered to death. Five more were floating at the top of the tank lifeless.
“This is my fault,” I said weakly.
“No, it’s not,” Haley said, putting her hand on my shoulder. She pointed at Schneider. “It’s his.”
I ran over and pushed Dr. Schneider in the chest. “So you knew that they would freak out like that? Why didn’t you say, ‘No, June, we can’t play those sounds, it’ll kill them’?”
“It wasn’t so extreme last time. I didn’t think.”
I screamed at him. “You never think! You are the stupidest scientist I’ve ever met!”
“June, look!” Carter yelled over me. He yanked my hand and pulled me away from Dr. Schneider. He wrapped his arms around me tightly as we faced the aquarium. It wasn’t until I felt the pressure of his arms around me that I realized I had been shivering. I leaned my head back against his chest and took in the sight in front of me.
Inside the tank, the mermaids were now rushing up and toward the back where part of the top of the tank was opening up. I got as close to the glass as I could to be able to see what was happening. Four men in wet suits and scuba gear were there, pulling the mermaids up and over the top of the tank out to the open water. Mermaids hoisted their torsos up with their arms and flipped over the top, with a push from the men to get them going.
“What’s happening?”
Dr. Schneider laughed. “They’re being released. Cortlandt must really be in a jam up there with the reporters you sent.”
“That’s good, right?” Haley checked.
“Of course it’s good,” I said. “For the mermaids. But now there won’t be any evidence that they were here or that they exist. When the reporters get down here, they’ll all be gone. Right, Dr. S.? Guess you really won’t be in Scientific American now, will you?”
My mermaid banged with her fist on the glass. I went back to her and put my hands over hers again. Her eyes were much brighter, and she had a wisp of a grin on those thin lips. I could almost see that dimple in her cheek. “You’ll be safe now,” I thought to her.
“Come with us,” she shared with me.
“I can’t.”
Her silver forehead wrinkled. “You—in the water—with me—before.”
“I can’t live like that.”
The brightness in her eyes fled again. Nearly all of the living mermaids were out of the tank now. She had to go.
“I will find you again,” she thought to me.
“I will be looking.”
She swam away from me and hauled herself over the opening. Then the two men dove into the tank to start removing the dead mermaid bodies. They lifted them up and over the glass and dropped them far enough away that the murky water obscured them from vision. All this happened in minutes.
As the last mermaid vanished with a diver, I heard a commotion in the hallway outside. A lot of voices. A key turned in the lock, and a second later Dr. Cortlandt entered followed by his secretary, Peña, Regina, and a whole lot of other reporters and cameras. Mr. Boyle, the thug who stole my mermaid from the Center in Aberdeen stepped in behind the crowd and made his way to Schneider’s desk.
I motioned to Carter to keep an eye on the man, and he nodded.
“Juniper Sawfeather,” Mr. Cortlandt said, approaching me with an outstretched arm and a smile. “Here you are. We have been looking all over this building for you.”
A dozen microphones poked toward me.
Juarez Peña asked the first question, “So, where are the mermaids, Juniper?”
“They’re gone,” I answered. “There were close to a hundred in that tank until two minutes ago. Mr. Cortlandt ordered them released before you could get down here to see them.”
Cortlandt laughed his fake, eely laugh. His secretary joined him, and I decided she was similar to a barracuda. “A hundred mermaids in a tank that size and then extracted in a just a few short minutes? Does that even seem plausible?”
The reporters muttered about how this didn’t make any sense at all. A profound disappointment crossed Peña’s face too.
“We all saw them!” Haley shouted out. “Some were dead, even.”
Marlee screeched, “You saw the mermaids?”
Regina pushed toward Haley. “A loser like you gets to see the mermaids while I’m stuck up in the lobby with all these stupid reporters and this ugly, weird man.”
Ted grabbed his girlfriend’s arm and yanked her back so that she lost her balance and fell back into a desk chair. “Leave her alone, Regina. You’re just embarrassing yourself.”
I stepped between Haley and Regina as the popularity queen struggled to regain her balance with no help at all from Ted, who had moved over to his snickering best friend. “I let Haley come see them because she’s my best friend. You are the loser today.”
Regina’s eyes turned to thin little beads. If they could shoot lasers, they would have. “I think this whole thing was a hoax, June. And I’m going to make sure everyone at school knows you’re a fake.”
“Fine!”
She grabbed Marlee’s hand and pulled her out of the laboratory. Gary followed while shouting, “I told you it was fake. I can’t believe you made me miss practice for this.” Ted lingered an extra moment, passing a final apologetic glance at Haley before walking out too.
Cortlandt stepped up to me, gesturing to the empty tank. “So, now you’ve lost your popularity and your credibility. Anything else you want to say, Miss Sawfeather?”
“Yeah.” I faced the reporters. “I wish you all had gotten here faster. You let Affron win again.”
At that, I pushed through them and headed for the door with Haley and Carter close behind.