| |
“LOOKS LIKE A PAIR OF garden scissors and an old glove,” Samantha told Dan, and then tried to distract his attention by pointing at the uninterrupted inky darkness and saying, “Is that them?”
But Daniel was not to be deterred. “And what would secateurs and rubber gloves be doing in the bottom of this boat, do you think, Samantha Steadman?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because I think you might know something about it. I think you all” — he looked around accusingly at them — “might know something about it. I think you’ve been up to something!”
Nomusa looked down guiltily, but Jessie stared a cool challenge back at Dan. “Paranoid, much?”
“I’m beginning to think —”
“Look!” Samantha interrupted. “They’re coming!”
They spun around to look. A slew of sleek speedboats was approaching the trawler at top speed.
“Awesome!” Dan said.
The spotlight on the trawler went out abruptly, along with the string of lights above the deck. Carrying across the water through the pitch darkness, they heard the sound of its engines surging to full power.
“Looks like they’re going to try and make a run for it,” Jessie said.
“Crazy!” Dan said. “They’ll never outrun the speedboats.”
A moment later a series of strong searchlights slashed the darkness. The speedboats were in hot pursuit. Their beams of white light scanned the ocean and then fixed on the fleeing trawler.
Dan started up the dinghy’s engine. “Let’s get closer.”
“Not too close,” Jessie said urgently.
Samantha wondered if, like her, Jessie was also having flashbacks to the fisherman with the automatic rifle.
“It’s not like you to be chicken,” Dan said, surprised.
“We promised your father we’d keep back,” Nomusa reminded him.
“Yes,” Sam said. “We don’t want to get in the way of the operation.”
In a voice strong with disgust, Dan said, “Are the little girls fwightened of the big boats?”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than a volley of gunfire cracked out. Dan swore and ducked down smartly into the bottom of the dinghy. The girls followed suit.
“You were saying, big boy?” Jessie said fiercely.
“Yeah, is the iddy-biddy boy fwightened of the weal guns?” Samantha added, elbowing Dan none too gently.
“Sorry!” Dan said from the bottom of the boat. “I mean, who knew they’d be shooting at each other?”
“Oh my gosh, look!” Samantha pointed up at the sky where a bright red flare zoomed up and then seemed to hover, lighting up the scene below.
By the rosy glare, they could see that the MCM speedboats had circled the trawler. An official was shouting instructions through a megaphone, and they could faintly hear an answering yell from the trawler. Then the noise of the trawler’s engines stopped abruptly, and its lights were switched on. While two of the MCM speedboats continued to circle it, two others drew up close beside the large craft.
“I think they’re going to board her,” Samantha said. “They must have surrendered.”
Jessie punched the air in victory. “Woo-hoo!”
“Score one for the good guys,” Nomusa said, grinning from ear to ear.
Samantha took off her life jacket and turned it the right way around so that the reflective strips glinted brightly in the darkness. “Let’s go closer and get a better look — I reckon it’s safe enough now.”
Closer to the trawler, they could see that all the fishermen were kneeling on the deck, their hands braced behind their heads. Some armed and uniformed MCM officers stood guard, while others searched the trawler. One of the speedboats shone its searchlight up and down the length of the longline — no doubt they would soon be confiscating it for evidence.
Suddenly their own dinghy was lit up by the strong beam of the other speedboat’s light. Samantha, Jessie, Nomusa and Dan tried to shield their eyes from its blinding brilliance.
“And who do we have here?” they heard a deep voice ask, as the craft drew alongside the dinghy and the beam was directed a little to the side.
A tall, female officer stood at the helm of the craft, eyeing them with suspicion.
“State your business, please,” she demanded.
“Observation,” Dan said.
The officer frowned.
“Please, ma’am,” Samantha said, “we’re the ones who called in the tip about the trawler doing longline fishing in the reserve. We came out to see you catch them.”
“That was a dangerous thing to do. These men are criminals. They’ve been shooting at us tonight with automatic weapons.”
“We didn’t know it could be dangerous, officer,” Dan said.
“We just wanted to see justice done, and to watch the good guys win,” Jessie added.
“Very well,” the officer said. “If you really want to see, then follow us and stay close.”
“Thanks!” Nomusa said.
They followed the MCM boat all the way up to the trawler, where the officer put her boat into idle and instructed them to do the same.
One by one, the fishermen were now descending a long rope ladder which hung over the side of the trawler and boarding the largest of the MCM craft. As the last man was nearing the last rungs of the ladder, he glanced in their direction and started in visible surprise, then pointed at them and started jabbering loudly.
“What’s with him?” Dan asked. “He seems to be yelling at us.”
“Us?” Jessie said innocently, “No, he’s complaining about the MCM boat.”
“No, he’s not. Why would he be cursing one of their boats and none of the others. He’s looking our way, I tell you! He looks really angry, too.”
The fisherman was, by now, cursing in extreme fury. He even stomped his foot in angry emphasis but, as he was swinging precariously on the last rung of the rope ladder at the time, he lost his balance and plunged into the ocean. One of the officers detached a grappling hook from the side of the boat, fished the man out of the water and dumped him unceremoniously onto the deck of the boat. He sat in a puddle of water, shaking a fist and shouting what sounded like angry expletives in their direction.
“What will happen now, ma’am?” Samantha asked the officer in the boat alongside them.
“Now we arrest them and take them to the harbour at Richard’s Bay for processing at the police station there, and then we chuck them in jail. We’ll impound the vessel and take that in and search it from top to toe,” the officer said, sounding delighted. “Time for you guys to head home, I think. Do you need an escort?”
“We’ll be fine from here on out,” Dan said. “Thanks for letting us watch, and congratulations!”
“Yes, well done,” the girls chimed in.
They turned the dinghy around and headed back to shore, eager to share the news with Mr. Steadman.
“But let’s not mention the guns. We don’t want to give the old man a heart attack,” Dan said, and they all nodded fervently.
Samantha felt filled to the brim with joy and pride. “Tonight most certainly did make a difference, a big difference! Doesn’t it feel terrific?”
“Yeah, and even better — no blisters!” Jessie agreed.
Dan cocked his head and eyed them suspiciously, but the three girls merely grinned.
Samantha, Nomusa and Jessie slept in late the next morning, though not as late as Dan who surfaced only after eleven o’clock. Mr. Steadman — who, the night before, had listened to their carefully edited version of the adventure out at sea — now demanded that they retell the story.
“Excellent, excellent!” He slapped his thighs in satisfaction. “It sounds like great fun — I only wish I had gone out with you to see it up close.”
“Er, yes,” Sam said. “Time for lunch, Dad?”
After they’d eaten, Mr. Steadman stood up and said, “Well, I’m off to my bed for forty winks. It’s going to be a late night, kids. I suggest you all get a good nap, too.”
“Just as if we were five years old,” Samantha said, after he ambled off.
“There’s not much time for napping, anyway,” Jessie said. “We’ll need to start getting ready soon.”
“What?” Dan said in disbelief. “Just how many hours do you need for your mutation?”
“More than you would think,” Jessie said in a voice of long-suffering experience.
Nomusa nodded in agreement. “It’s true. And the older you get, the longer it takes.”
“You said it, sister! My mother can take a whole day to get ready,” Jessie said.
“Easy. And that’s not even counting the visit to the beautician for the plucking and the waxing and the facial, which has to be at least two days before, because you must never, ever get a facial on the day of the function.”
“Overshare. Mega-overshare,” Daniel said. Grabbing his surfboard, he strolled off down the beach.
Half an hour later, Jessie announced, “It’s time, ladies.”
The girls trundled inside and spent the next few hours washing and drying their hair, painting their nails and toenails, and carefully applying make-up. Jessie styled Samantha’s hair with her hot-brush, so that it lay in long smooth curls down her back and then, while Jessie did her own hair, Samantha fixed silver beads onto the ends of Nomusa’s braids. Finally, they all put on their evening dresses and high heels.
Samantha could hear Dan and Mr. Steadman chatting in the living room.
“Where are the girls?” Dan asked.
“Titivating,” Mr. Steadman said.
“Pardon?”
“Getting dickied up to the nines. Though if they take much longer, we’ll get there after the party’s over,” Mr. Steadman complained. “Speaking of which — shouldn’t you be getting dressed?”
“Good point,” Dan said.
Samantha heard him walking to the bathroom and five minutes later, she heard him walking back to the living room.
“Are they still not ready?” he asked in disbelief, then shouted, “Jessie, Nomusa, Sam! We’re going now, ready or not.”
The girls grabbed their handbags and stood in front of the mirror in Samantha’s room.
“We don’t look half bad,” Jessie said, turning around and twisting to see the view from behind.
It was true. Nomusa looked graceful and elegant in her long black gown, while Jessie’s hazel eyes reflected the deep green of her dress and her auburn curls shone with copper glints. The folds of Samantha’s shimmering blue dress draped softly, and the dress swished when she walked. She looked, she thought, at least sixteen.
“No, we don’t look half bad, Jessie. We look gorgeous!” Nomusa said.