There was much laughter and shouting on the train ride back to the hotel. Nish and Sam were cheered, and Fahd returned Nish’s treasured gold medal to its rightful owner. Travis told the story of the plastic bag and the funny smell and how he’d finally figured out that Nish had powdered up the dried seadragon and eaten it with soup to give him the “courage” he lacked. And who could now argue that it was just a silly myth? It had worked, hadn’t it?
“How much did you say a bowl of that soup cost?” Sarah asked Data.
“In Taiwan, four hundred and fifty dollars.”
“Well, then, that’s what Nish owes me, I guess,” she said.
“That’s nothing compared to what you all owe me!” protested Nish, only to be drowned out by happy boos.
When they finally got back to the hotel, Mr. Dillinger and Muck had them all gather in the lobby. There was news, and Muck wanted them all to hear it.
Mr. Roberts was there with a uniformed member of the Coast Guard.
“This is Captain Peterkin,” Mr. Roberts said. The Coast Guard captain nodded. “They’ve made a series of arrests today and would like to talk to you.”
Captain Peterkin cleared his throat. He had a finely clipped, sand-coloured beard, and a large moustache that wiggled oddly as he spoke. Some of the Owls fought off giggles as he began speaking, but when they realized what it was he was saying, they all grew quiet.
“The man whose head was discovered at the Sydney Aquarium,” the Coast Guard officer said, “has been identified as a Filipino fisherman who was illegally trapping seadragons off the south coast of Australia, mostly in an area just off Sydney Harbour.”
“How was he killed?” asked Fahd.
Captain Peterkin cleared his throat again. “Executed, we believe,” he said. “Several different poaching operations were competing for the same ripe area for seadragons. Thanks to photographic evidence produced by” – he consulted a small index card in his hand – “Miss Sarah Cuthbertson, we were able to make a positive ID on a Philippines fishing boat in our waters and conduct a stop and seizure operation. We found several kilograms of expired seadragons. We also seized a number of weapons, including a high-powered hunting rifle and several machetes.”
“I thought so,” said Fahd.
“We also have a confession from one of the apprehended fishermen. There had been a battle for these particular seadragon grounds, and, it seems, our unfortunate headless man was one of the losers.”
Travis couldn’t stop himself. He had to know. “I don’t understand something,” he said.
The Coast Guard captain raised one eyebrow in Travis’s direction.
“Why would that man attack Nish? He must have been trying to kill him, but all he had to do was swim away and we’d probably never have noticed.”
The Coast Guard captain looked around, puzzled.
“Which one of you is Nish?” he asked.
Nish stepped forward, blushing hard.
The captain looked a long time at him. Nish grew redder and redder. Finally the captain scratched his beard and nodded, satisfied.
“Put a diving mask on this young man,” Captain Peterkin said, “and put him underwater, and you’d all probably mistake him for a Filipino poacher.”
“Impossible,” Nish said, a smile returning to his beaming face.
“And why’s that, son?”
“Because I can’t stand seadragons – that’s why.”