Still Water (40 page)

Jake’s failure to destroy the Santorini had produced a bitter anger that was fed by his every thought. He recalled the sudden leap of flame in the darkness, and the deep satisfaction it had briefly given him before he’d realized that somebody was on the boat. He’d watched from a distance as Gordon had put out the flames, and later as he’d steered the Seawind from the harbour and he’d seen Ella on deck he had been tempted to pick up his gun and shoot her dead.

His head was hurting, he felt like an iron band had tightened around his skull, and sooty fragments cascaded behind his eyes. He was aware of discontented rumblings from the crew but he ignored them. Let Penman keep them in line since that was what he was paid to do, though sometimes Penman seemed unsure where his loyalties lay. Maybe, Jake thought, when this was over he might go down there and break a couple of heads. When they got back to harbour he’d fire the goddamned lot of them.

The Seawind was running at full speed now. The roar of her engines was so loud Jake had to shout to make himself heard. He yelled for Penman to give him the glasses. With one hand on the wheel he focused on the orcas again. The Seawind was gaining.

“This time you won’t get away,” he muttered.

He rubbed at his eyes. The seascape had taken on a dull grainy texture like an old film, and the pain in his head had spread down his neck. When he moved every nerve ending in his brain seemed to scream in protest.

“Jake? Are you okay?”

He dropped the glasses, ignoring Penman. He could see the orcas without them now. As he looked for the bull he thought about Ella. He should have done something about her a long time ago. He spotted the bull, out on the flank of the pod and he adjusted his course. This was something he could take care of once and for all. Black spots danced in front of his eyes and greasy sweat popped on his brow.

“Get down there and rig a harpoon,” Jake told Penman. He fixed his mate with a withering look. “I want that bastard. You understand me?”

Penman nodded. The island was getting closer by the minute, A flock of herring gulls wheeled and dived a little way ahead and Jake guessed the orcas were chasing a school offish headed for Stillwater Cove. The orcas would follow and be trapped, unable to escape without passing the Seawind, and Jake thought maybe they would kill more than just the bull. He’d get the whole damn lot of them.

So intent was he on his vision of slaughter that he didn’t even see the Santorini at first. He saw the anchored launch and registered the fact that another boat was approaching, but only when they were less than half a mile from the cove did he realize it was Ella.

Pain shot in long hot lances that seemed to sear a path from his head to his toes. He lurched and staggered, cradling his skull in both hands. For an instant everything went black, then the pressure eased and he could see again though it was like peering through a fog. He steadied himself as the pain ebbed.

This was more than chance, he thought, it was a portent, it was his time to put right everything that was so fucked up. He was going to make Ella pay for what she’d done, he was going to send her down to the bottom of the fucking ocean just the way she had done to Bryan, he was going to watch her face when he did it, and he was going to stick a harpoon in that bull and chop it up for bait. That sonofabitch had stolen its last fish.

Just then the orcas broke off and changed direction, turning north away from the island.

“What the hell… ?” Jake said aloud, but as he watched he saw the bull was holding its course, heading directly for the cove, while the rest of the pod made their escape. They were smart, he’d give them that. But it was the bull he wanted. The others could wait for another day.

At the bow Penman was standing braced and ready. Jake leaned to shout out the door. “Make sure you don’t miss him this time, you understand me?”

Penman stared, then nodded and turned back as they bore down on the lone bull.

As Kate and Ella watched the Seawind approach their earlier conversation was for the moment forgotten. “What’s he doing?” Kate said. “He’s after the orca.”

Ella recognized the shape of the fin, and knew this was the same animal that she had saved from Jake a few days ago. She remembered drifting in the mist as the animal had glided quietly past, the way it had seemed to look at them when it came to the surface. The sense she’d had of its intelligence.

She clenched tightly on the wheel. “He’s going to kill it.” Kate looked horrified. “Can’t we do anything?” Ella briefly considered cutting across Jake’s bow, but she knew it would be suicidal. This time Jake wouldn’t hesitate to run her down. The Santorini was close to the mouth of the cove. Even on a clear day such as this the water heaved and pounded against the rocks with a muted roar. Ella kept an eye on the reef, using enough power to hold their position. The orca had slowed its pace and the Seawind was gaining rapidly.

“Why are they doing this?” Kate said.

Ella didn’t know how to answer. She could only watch helplessly as Calder Penman shifted his position and drew back his arm. The orca was an easy target. Penman threw, and the harpoon with its two foot long barbed tip flashed towards the bull with unerring accuracy. It carried behind it an uncoiling line like a dark underscoring of its course. The bull rose to breathe, his fin and a portion of his great broad back clear of the water, his saddle markings of white vividly clear. Ella held her breath but in her heart she knew that Penman had done his job well, and when the harpoon hit home, piercing the orca just behind his dorsal fin, she winced at the impact. She imagined the spear penetrating deep, slicing through blubber and flesh and perhaps beyond to the internal organs where it would anchor deep and fast. The animal went under, and a great stain of blood quickly spread on the surface of the water.

“You bastard,” she whispered, barely aware of the tears that ran down her face.

As the line grew taut the Seawind abruptly began to slow and come about so that she was parallel to the entrance to the cove. The gap between boat and orca widened as the wounded animal swam past the reef.

“What are they doing now?” Kate asked.

“They don’t want him to get into the cove. They’ll take up the line and bring him in closer so that they can kill him.” Ella’s voice sounded flat and desolate.

As if in confirmation Jake came out of the wheel-house, a rifle cradled in his arms. He stared over at the Santorini and though he was too far away for Ella to make out his features she could feel his enmity pouring out across the distance like poison.

As the Seawind all but came to a dead stop Ella saw her chance. She spun the wheel to line up a course across the mouth of the cove and pushed forward on the throttle. Kate staggered and reached out to keep her balance.

“Can you steer us?” Ella said.

Kate looked at her wide-eyed. “I don’t know. I never tried before.”

“All you have to do is keep the bow pointed towards that big rock there.” Ella indicated a point across the other side of the cove’s entrance.

Kate took the wheel in both hands.

“Steady her. A little left. That’s it.”

Kate nodded, her expression pinched with concentrated effort. “What are you going to do?”

Ella paused, realizing suddenly that she didn’t have any right to put Kate in danger. She reached for the throttle and the Santorini slowed. “I thought maybe I could cut the line.” She shook her head. It was dangerous and stupid.

Kate looked ahead, and understood what Ella had planned. There was perhaps sixty yards between the orca and the Seawind. The animal had come to the surface again and was swimming feebly against the drag of the line which stretched from the boat. It was still making progress, but very little. It seemed as if Jake meant to exhaust it before he attempted to bring it alongside. He was watching it struggle, his gun cradled in his arms. He could have shot it anytime, ended its misery, but he seemed content to be a spectator to its suffering.

“Can we do it?” Kate said with sudden resolve.

Ella gauged the distance. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She thought they might make it. The Seawind would have to come about from a standing start to close the gap and stop her, but the orca was probably dying anyway. And Jake was dangerous. There was no telling what he might do.

“What are we waiting for?” Kate demanded. “We can’t just stand by and let this happen.” Abruptly she shoved the throttle forward again and the Santorini began picking up speed. The motor throbbed and rattled and the deck shook beneath their feet with the vibration. Ella thought she ought to stop this before it went too far, that it was crazy to make futile gestures.

“Shouldn’t you do something?” Kate yelled.

Suddenly Ella made up her mind. What the hell, at least this was something she could try to do that felt right. She started to move forward along the deck, but then she hesitated. Their earlier unfinished conversation came back to her. The sense she’d had of something being not quite right, a discordant jarring as if they’d been talking at cross purposes.

“What is it?” Kate shouted.

Ella shook her head. “Nothing.” There was no time.

As she ran forward the Santorini closed the distance to the harpoon line separating the Seawind from the orca until it was only fifty yards away. Ella guessed the mid-point of the line was around eight feet above the Santorini?” deck.

She grabbed a gaff and a long-bladed knife and then she heard, or maybe thought she heard, a shout, and she looked towards the Seawind as Jake raised his rifle. She couldn’t hear anything except the sea crashing against the hull and a banging that had developed amid the thump of the engine, but his intention was clear and she flung herself down and yelled a warning to Kate. As she hit the deck a bullet gouged splinters of wood close to her feet. She twisted around and saw Kate duck below the window, the top of her head just visible, her hands still on the wheel to hold their course. A second shot hit the deck three feet away, then a third hit the wheel-house and went clean through the window inches above Kate’s head.

Ella crawled to the rail and cautiously peered ahead. The line stretched over her just a few yards ahead and she knew she would have to stand up to cut it. Another shot hit a lobster trap and sent it spinning over the side, the bullet ricocheting off the rail. She calculated the distance remaining and ducked down again while she counted slowly to fifteen. Jake had stopped firing and she guessed he’d figured out what she planned to do. He was going to wait for her to get up, and then pick her off in the second or two that she would be a clear target. Her heart thumped like a hammer. Her throat had the texture of sandpaper, and her hands shook. She was scared to death. Salt spray came over the bow and stung her eyes. She started to rise and then dropped to her belly and crawled rapidly forward. A shot went wild somewhere overhead, and several more smashed into the deck, then she was on her feet, swinging the gaff over her head towards the line.

She caught it and felt a momentary resistance then time seemed to stretch with infinite slowness as she sawed with her knife. She expected a bullet to smash into her body at any moment. Then suddenly the line parted and with the release of tension Ella lost her balance. She fell backwards as the sound of a shot rang in her ears.

Then, abruptly, there was nothing.

From the flying bridge of Ben’s launch Matt watched helplessly as Ella rose to sever the harpoon line. The debilitating inertia that had overcome him as soon as they’d hit the ocean swell was temporarily forgotten. He seized the radio mike, though he was certain that Jake couldn’t even hear him.

“Jake,” he yelled. “Pick up the radio.”

A shot rang out, and Ella fell even as the line parted. Matt watched the space where she’d fallen, praying silently that she would appear. On the Seawind]ake climbed the ladder to the wheel-house. Matt threw the radio down in frustration and pushed the starter button again. The motor turned over, but the engine failed to catch, as it had ever since he’d first realized what Ella intended to do.

“Dammit!” He smashed his fist against the console. He leaned back over the rail and shouted down to Baxter. “You see anything?”

“Yeah. I think I got it,” came the muffled reply. “Wait a second.”

Matt peered into the water. The surface was still, barely rippled, and sunlight penetrated into the depths, though there was no sign of Ben. He was on his third dive, completely oblivious to what was taking place on the surface. Matt checked his watch again, noting that Ben had about another ten minutes of air remaining.

“Come on,” he muttered under his breath, willing Ben to appear. He went to the other side of the boat, but there was no sign of him there either. On the Santorini Kate shut down the engine and the boat drifted idly. She ran out and crouched down where Ella had fallen. Matt still didn’t know what to make of her being there. Back on the Seawindjake had vanished inside the wheel-house, and a frightening thought occurred to Matt and he snatched up the radio mike again.

“Kate, come in. Kate on the Santorini, come in.” He clicked off, willing her to hear him but she didn’t respond.

The sound of the Seawinds engines increased in pitch, and as she started to come around Kate glanced quickly over her shoulder but then returned to whatever she was doing.

“Kate,” Matt tried again, switching channels. This is Matt Jones. Pick up if you can hear me.”

He wiped sweat from his brow as it trickled from his hairline. The sun was merciless, a solid wall of heat beating down that bounced back off the surface of the sea. An image of Ella insinuated itself into his mind and he saw her lying twisted on the deck, her shirt wet with blood.

The Seawind had come around and her bow was now lined up with the Santorini. The sea foamed white at the stern where her screws churned the water at full throttle.

Down below Baxter called out. “Try it now.”

Matt hit the starter with a silent prayer, and the motor turned over, sounding sluggish as the batteries drained. “Come on.” He tried raising Kate, certain now of Jake’s intention. He looked again to see if Ben had surfaced, but there was still no sign of him. Just beyond the mouth of the cove Matt glimpsed the placid green waters break as the orca’s dorsal fin rose into view, then dipped again. The harpoon still protruded from the animal’s back, and an oily slick of blood marked its passage.