ELEVEN
Well, it didn’t take long to figure out where the commotion was coming from. Diana’s voice carried through the yacht like an air-raid siren. I went back to the bathroom that had been commandeered for holding the fish man in time to see three students pulling her back from the shower stall, straining to keep her away from the thing inside the net. Her face was furious, and her body was all coiled muscles and flailing limbs.
One of the guys holding on to her was telling her to calm down and so far she was ignoring him completely.
“You get that sick fucking thing away from me, you hear?” Diana’s voice was hoarse and shrill.
“What the hell is going on here?” I made sure my voice was as loud as hers and walked into the already crowded room. In the shower, the creature was still wrapped in its netting, but it looked like a few more of the cables that made up the net had been damaged somewhere along the way. The only good news was that it had managed to tangle itself up even more in the efforts to get free. It let out a panicked croak that was loud enough to rattle my ears and I spared it a disgusted look as I walked over to where Diana was still kicking and trying to get free from her captors.
Another kid I barely knew, I think his name was Roger, this one was decidedly more athletic, and had a deep tan, shook his head. “Sorry, Captain, but that thing licked Diana and she got a little upset.”
“Put her down.” It wasn’t a request, and they listened very quickly. I may not be as big as Charlie, but I can be downright bossy when I have to. I looked at Diana and she looked back, her face still furious. She did not, however, try to get past me to get to the fish man in the corner. “Why the hell did you get close enough to that thing to let it lick you?”
“I was five feet away from it!” She moved her hand up to wipe at the side of her face, where I could still see a faint trail of slime. “The sick fucker has a tongue as long as a fishing pole!” She shuddered with revulsion and I couldn’t say that I blamed her much for it. I could smell the thing’s odor in the air; it was permeating the room.
“Just go and get yourself washed off. God only knows where that thing has been.” She looked at me like I’d just sent her to her room for misbehaving and she wasn’t thrilled with it. I resisted the temptation to tell her to swim her ass back to town if she didn’t like it.
She tried to stare me down and failed. I was about done with the insanity on my boat, and I was definitely sick of getting attitude from my passengers.
Mostly, I was going to be very, very glad when we got the thing in the shower stall off my boat. Jacob could talk all he wanted about the thing in there being a part of scientific history, but for me it was just an oversized, smelly nightmare.
I went out of the bathroom after Diana vacated the area and up to the main cabin. It was time to head for shore. At least that was the plan. As I moved toward the captain’s deck and got ready to start the Isabella on the way for the cove, Jacob and Martin Ward were waiting for me.
Jacob looked at me like he wanted to be almost anywhere else. “Joe, I know you’d like to head for the docks, but is there any way we can convince you to wait until after the sun has set?”
I looked from him to Ward and then out at the water lapping along the edge of the reef. From a weather perspective, it wasn’t a problem. From a there’s-a-freaky-thing-on-my-yacht perspective, there were definite issues.
“I’m not really comfortable with the idea, Jacob.”
Ward spoke up, his lean face pulling a lemon sucker expression on me. “Why is that, Captain?”
I guess I was supposed to be intimidated by the frosty voice, but it didn’t work. Jacob shot him a withering look and then waited for me to answer.
“Because according to what Jacob told me, that thing you caught is only one of many. Is that right?”
“Well, yes, that’s a possibility, but not really likely.”
“Yeah?” I looked at him nice and hard, to make sure he was paying attention. I didn’t want to repeat myself with him. “So suppose there are more of them. How do you think they’d feel about having one of their own taken away?”
“Every indication that I’ve run across about these creatures says that they’re emotionally detached.”
“Really?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Read up on them a lot, have you Professor?”
“What are you getting at, Captain?”
“If you’re wrong, if there’s more than one of them hanging around, I don’t think it would be very wise to be sitting on the water if they decide to come up and see what happened to their buddy.”
“I have certain methods of stopping that from happening.” He was trying to sound confident, but I wasn’t falling for it.
“I have a great method myself. It’s called not having a fish monster hanging around on my yacht.”
Jacob came forward and put a hand on my shoulder. “Please, Joe. It’s a situation we can’t do too much about. You saw the way the local police acted when we were ready to leave yesterday morning. It can only get worse if they catch us with a find like this.”
“Why, Jacob? What’s so horrible about finding a new fish?”
“Because it’s not new, Joe. Not to them. Did you look at the police officers we have around here? Did you notice anything unusual about them?”
“You mean aside from the fact that they’re incompetent? No.” But I thought about them as I answered and wondered a little about whether or not what I said was true. The one I dealt with was a big bruiser, and he sort of gave me a weird feeling. More of a sense that he wasn’t someone I wanted to trust, than a feeling I should actually be scared of the man.
“Did you look at the features on his face? The rough patches of skin? The receding hairline? Joe, for all we know he could be a descendant of the original townsfolk.”
“And for all we know he could have dry skin and a family history of baldness.” I shook my head. “What happened to being an impartial scientific observer, Jacob?”
He looked at me like I’d just slapped him in the face and looked away, a little ashamed, I think.
“Let’s get this straight, gentlemen. I don’t know what, exactly, that thing is, but if there are more of them out there and they might want to come back to help it, I consider that a serious threat. My wife is on this boat and so is yours, Jacob. I don’t care if the thing in there is the secret to every evolutionary question ever posed. My first priority is for the safety of the people on this vessel.”
“The Deep One is bound and harmless, Captain . . . ”
“The ‘Deep One’ just licked your sidekick’s face from two yards away. Damned thing has a six-foot tongue and claws like knives. What else can it do that you haven’t told me? What else should I know before I decide to head straight back to the docks, Professor?”
“Did you ever think there might be more danger from the police in Golden Cove than there is from the Deep Ones in the sea?” Ward was staring hard now, his face reddening. He wasn’t used to being challenged and it didn’t sit well with him.
“Of course the easiest way for me to take care of the whole thing is to throw it back into the water.” I shrugged and stared at him some more while he made his own fish faces.
“You wouldn’t dare!” He pushed past Jacob, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, and leaned in close enough that I could see the pores on his nose.
“You want to test me? Keep getting in my face and we’ll see how long it takes.” I admit it. He was starting to piss me off again. I didn’t know why that was, but something about him creeped me out the same way as the cops in the town did. Frankly, I’d have already had the Isabella turned around and docked if it weren’t for Jacob.
Just to make my point as clear as possible, I leaned toward him this time. He backed off.
Jacob shook his head and looked at me, his face resigned to accept whatever I decided.
I nodded my head, unwilling to speak just then. Then I went to my room. I didn’t want to deal with either of them anymore, and much as it was against my better judgment, I left the damned yacht where it was.
I think Jacob said something by way of thanking me, but I brushed it aside.
My mood was definitely getting worse, and I didn’t like that very much. I have never liked being the heavy in any situation.
 
 
I found Belle talking with Mary Parsons. I didn’t bother them. They were having too much fun getting to know each other. Belle has always been good at meeting people. It’s one of her many gifts. From what I could tell, they were talking about the fish man. I can’t say as that surprised me very much.
Davey came up to me and stood nearby, moving from one foot to the other like a kid who had to pee and felt he needed to ask permission. That was Davey when it came to anything he thought was awkward. He hated having to share bad news.
“What’s up, Davey?”
He spoke in a very small voice. “Joe, do you think that thing might have done something to Tom?”
I’ve heard of people reacting like they’d been slapped when they heard a comment, and I always thought that was a little dramatic license. I learned right then that it was a real reaction. I’d completely forgotten about Tom in the last little while. Oh, I knew he was missing and all of that, but it was just background information. It never once dawned on me that he might have been hurt by the thing in the shower or another one just like it.
Davey looked at me like I was supposed to give him all the answers. I wished I could right then.
“I don’t know, Davey. But I think maybe we ought to look into it.”
Without another word, I headed back for the shower where our fishy friend was spending his time. Davey followed me; I could hear his footsteps after he hesitated for a few seconds.
Roger was still in the bathroom, looking at the fish man as it looked back at him with narrowed eyes. Both of them turned their heads sharply as I walked into the room.
I didn’t bother with Roger, ignoring my own advice to get to know the kids spending time on the Isabella a little better. Instead, I walked closer to the thing wrapped up in netting and stared hard into its unblinking eyes. Not really unblinking, by the way. It had translucent lids that were covering the actual eyeballs. I saw them flutter up and down a few times, but mostly they stayed over the delicate tissue, probably to keep the eyes wet enough.
“Can you talk?” I asked the question as casually as I could, and in response, the thing turned its head a little, like it was listening for something that made sense.
“It’s a fish man. How could it talk?” That was Roger. I went on ignoring him.
“Pay attention to me.” I moved closer and the thing opened its mouth, baring teeth that I had no doubt could take off half my face if given a chance. I held up one hand and continued. “Let’s pretend you can understand me for a minute. If your tongue comes out and touches me, I’ll cut it out of your mouth. You understand?”
The thing turned its head a little more and then closed its mouth very abruptly. Nothing like a threat of physical deformity to get most intelligent creatures to behave; with that simple gesture it convinced me that it understood everything I was saying.
“Good. We understand each other. Can you speak English?”
The thing looked at me and blinked its eyes, but otherwise did nothing.
“I have a crewman missing from my yacht. His name is Tom. He disappeared last night. If I don’t find him, and I decide that you had anything to do with his vanishing, I’m going to kill you.” I walked even closer as I spoke and once again it opened its mouth. I saw the tip of its pale tongue lick across its thick lips and I reached for the gutting knife I kept on my belt.
Roger started to say something, but Davey shushed him.
I moved closer still, knowing all too well that I was risking getting myself cut into ribbons if it got out of the netting. “I’ve been fishing these waters for a lot of years, you smelly bastard. I can clean a tuna inside of three minutes. Want to test me, you’ll let that tongue of yours move out a few more inches. I don’t much care for you and I don’t care if you’re alive or dead. But I want to know about my ship-mate. You understand me?”
Roger left the room, calling for Professor Ward. In front of me, the fish man closed its mouth again.
“I don’t much care what language you speak. You can nod your head if you have to. Did you do anything to Tom?”
And damn me if the thing didn’t shake its head from side to side in a very human gesture that said no.
Then it looked at me and stared hard and I learned a thing or two that I wasn’t expecting to learn. First and foremost, I discovered that some forms of communication have nothing to do with speech.
They say the brain doesn’t have any nerves, that it can’t actually feel anything. But I’m here to say that they just might be wrong. Maybe I imagined what I felt and maybe it really happened, but the wide dark pupils of the fish man’s eyes seemed to flare even wider and I felt something like a cold pressure inside my head, deep beneath the skull. An instant later I saw an image form, one that superimposed itself over what my eyes were seeing. I heard and felt and smelled things that I shouldn’t have, and all the time it was happening, I still saw the thing in front of me as it looked into my eyes.
I saw the Isabella from a new perspective, from a distance away, as if I were in the water. It was dark outside and the waters were cool and soothing. I felt my webbed hands and feet kicking at the sea around me, keeping me afloat, and I felt the fluids breathed out of my gills and opened my mouth to fill my almost dormant lungs with fresh air.
I almost staggered back, almost lost the contact I was experiencing, but made myself stay where I was. I could see the fish man, could tell that he hadn’t moved at all, even as I watched Tom moving along the side of the Isabella, staring out at the waters and in the direction of the Devil’s Reef.
Faintly, off in the far distance, I heard a girl crying for help, heard her splashing in the water. I turned my head and saw her, a frail, desperate form that splashed in the sea and struggled to swim toward the shore beyond where I treaded the surface of the water.
And I saw Tom, poor, stupid Tom, grab one of the life preservers and dive off the side with the reckless skill that seems to be granted to the young.
How can I explain this properly? I knew it was Tom I was seeing. I knew him as well as I ever had, but at the same time, the memories, or images that I received looked at him differently, as if he were an alien creature. I saw him as ugly, deformed and pale and weak, even as he dove into the water. I watched this imaginary Tom as he cut across the waves, seeking to reach the girl in the water, the same girl I’d seen my first night in the cove as she swam toward the Isabella.
The images disappeared in an instant, and I shook them off, even as the fish man in front of me pushed itself against the tile of the shower stall and let out a bleating protest.
Professor Ward was standing next to me, putting something in his pocket. I didn’t have time to think about that, but instead could only focus on what I’d almost learned. Somehow the thing in front of me had reached into my mind and spoken to me without ever saying a thing. Telepathy? Sure, I’d heard of it, but like ghosts and fish men, I’d assumed it was all a crock of delusions.
Ward pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and I saw a long list of gibberish words, phrases of some kind that had been spelled out in block letters, but that made no sense. Ward opened his mouth and then started making noises that strained his vocal cords. It sounded like he was trying to belch out the Russian alphabet or something.
When he was done making odd faces and odder sounds, the fish man looked at him and bobbed its head enthusiastically. It let out a series of barks and grunts that sounded a good bit like what Ward had just tried to recite.
Ward held up a tape recorder, one of the little ones you sometimes see people using to make notes to themselves, and recorded everything that came out of the fish man’s throat.
They had a few interchanges, with Ward speaking and then recording what was said. When it was over with, the professor turned off his recorder and nodded his head.
“What did you just do?” I wanted to shake him, wanted to rattle his smug expression clean off his face for ruining the communication I’d been having with the fish man.
“I saved your life, I suspect.”
“What do you mean?”
Ward looked at me, and instead of being smug, he looked troubled. “I don’t know what was happening between you and the Deep One, but you looked like you were about to pass out.”
“I think he was talking to me. With his head. You know, telepathy.”
Ward looked at me and nodded, not seeming to doubt a word I was saying. “I’ve heard of them doing that. Be careful if it tries again, Captain. I can’t say for sure it was trying to hurt you, but there are always risks when dealing with new life-forms.”
“What are you talking about?”
Instead of trying to explain it to me, he pointed away from the fish man toward the sink along the far wall. I looked where he was pointing and then looked again, almost certain that I had to be dreaming.
My reflection in the mirror looked back at me with wide eyes. Eyes that were suffering from several burst blood vessels, apparently. The whites of my eyes were crimson, and I could see streaks of red running down my face from my tear ducts. My skin was pale and wet, and now that I could see the wound, I could feel that I had chewed halfway through my lower lip.
“If young Roger and then Davey hadn’t come to get me, Captain, you might well be dead by now.” Ward sounded smug enough, but didn’t look it. He looked shaken.
“What the hell did it do?”
“I know it sounds strange coming from me, of all people, Captain, but believe me. There are some things we aren’t meant to know. I recorded what it said and I asked it a few questions in what I’m hoping is its language. Try not to look it in the eyes again. Deep Ones are supposedly very cunning.”
I left the room before I could do something very stupid, like ram my knife through the creature’s brain pan. My hands were shaking and my head was beginning to ache.
Much as I hated to admit it, the professor was probably right. He’d probably just saved my life. Unfortunately, he’d also left me wondering exactly what the hell had happened to poor Tom.