Most of the Screech Owls were relaxing in a small park near their hotel. It was another warm, beautiful day. They had shopped for souvenirs along Harrington and Argyle – Nish bought his traditional tournament T-shirt, this one with a kangaroo with a pouch full of ice and cold beer – and they’d all bought ice-cream cones to eat while they sat about on the iron benches.
“Well,” Sam said with a snicker, “would you look at that?”
Wiz and Sarah were walking towards them, hand in hand. Sam whistled loudly. Sarah let Wiz’s hand drop. She obviously hadn’t expected to run into her teammates.
“Where’d you get the ice cream?” Sarah asked as they came closer. Her face was pink.
“It’d melt before you two got within a mile of it,” Liz giggled. Everyone else laughed. Wiz and Sarah looked embarrassed.
“We walked over to the aquarium,” Sarah said.
“Find out anything?” Andy asked, licking the drops away from the bottom of his cone.
Everyone gathered around to get the news.
“The Great White has been let go,” Sarah said. “They just wanted to be sure it was all right. It’s fine, so they took it out to sea and released it.”
“Won’t the police need it for evidence?” Fahd asked.
“Not really,” said Sarah. “They know it swallowed just the head without the rest of the body.”
“Apart from that, the police aren’t saying anything,” said Wiz. “But one of the marine scientists at the aquarium told us they think it was an execution.”
“An execution!” shouted Sam.
“That’s right,” Wiz said, lifting his right hand and chopping the air. “Someone probably sliced it off with a machete. He was probably on his knees with his hands behind his back when it happened.”
“I’M GONNA HURL!” groaned Sam.
“That’s my job,” corrected Nish.
“But why?” Wilson repeated. “Did they have any thoughts on why?”
Sarah and Wiz shook their heads. “They don’t know,” said Wiz. “They figure it must have happened at sea. I mean that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? The shark didn’t crawl up on a beach somewhere and gobble down the head. It probably happened in a boat. But only the person who did it knows where, and why.”
“Creepy,” said Jenny.
“We also talked to someone there about traditional Chinese medicines,” Sarah said. “She knew everything about seahorses and why they’re considered such powerful medicine. She says hardly anyone knows much about the seadragons, though, only that they’re considered to have even stronger powers.”
“She found out we were in the Mini-Olympics,” laughed Wiz, “and you wouldn’t believe the things some of the athletes did at the Olympic Games.”
“Like what?” Wilson pressed.
“Like drinking the stomach contents of honey bees,” Sarah said, laughing.
“Disgusting!” shouted Liz.
“If you think that’s bad, how about injecting your veins with spider blood?” Wiz said. “That’s what the Chinese swimmers said gave them so much energy.”
“That’s crazy!” said Fahd. “It makes no sense.”
“Hey,” Wiz interrupted. “They won gold medals, didn’t they? They’re the best in the world, aren’t they?”
Nish was listening intently. His eyes were wide open and he was nodding up and down. Normally, he would have been the first to make a joke about spider blood or bee vomit, but instead he looked like he was sitting in a church pew nodding in agreement to a sermon.
What, Travis asked himself, could Nish possibly be thinking?