I admired the beauty of endless blue, enjoying the warm breeze caressing my face as our ship sailed east, leaving the islands of French Polynesia behind our backs. Carefree dolphins accompanied us, curiously eying our boat and swimming nearly by the ship’s side. Maybe if I stretched my arm to the limits, my fingers could graze one of the playful mammals. But, of course, I would never do such a stupid, irresponsible thing. After all, such behavior was reserved for tourists, not for a serious marine biologist such as myself.

            I sighed, wiping the sticky sweat off my neck. I’d love to tell you that it was my childhood dream to research the world’s oceans and this excursion was a peak of my deepest desires, but I would be a fat liar if I did that. The nightmarish trip, I was on, was nothing else but a result of the poisonous combination of wrong choices, my bad luck in love and my self-proclaimed best friend.

            The first two factors were the very reason I became a marine biologist in the first place. My mom was pushing me to major in chemistry, but the hormones and Johnny Richards, my high school sweetheart, made me become a rebel. Guided by love for Johnny, I said a firm no to chemistry and embraced the beauty of marine biology, although I had no interest in it at all.

Unfortunately, the blissful life of a college girl in love ended abruptly when Johnny gave in to charms of certain Caroline, a very generous young woman who slept with half of the campus. He took away not only my first love, but also my refrigerator and my cat, thus stripping me of the possibility of becoming an old, unhappy lady with a cat. About a month later Johnny dropped out to join the working class as it turned out that Caroline had a baby surprise for him.

Therefore I was left with the major I hated and without the man I loved – it would be nice it was the other way round, but the fate seemed to bully me. The reason I never dropped out was fear of seeing the smug look on my mother’s face that would scream “I told you so”. Not long after the chapter of Johnny Richards had been closed, factor number three waltzed into my life, namely the weird best friend.

We met at one of the parties. I’d love to tell you the details of our meeting, but they were extremely hazy. To be honest, I didn’t have much memories after couple of shots of tequila while crying in the corner and devouring delicious little sandwiches, the miraculous yet treacherous remedy for the broken heart.

When I came round, the first thing I saw was the round face of Dave Fernandez, the person who would bring even more trouble into my miserable life. I stared at him and he kept grinning like an idiot.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked, looking around at the place which looked like a battlefield with all those unconscious people laying flat on the floor and hung over the armchairs.

“I’m your best friend. Dave. We’re best friends,” he informed me.

I rubbed my aching head, my brain having some trouble comprehending what he meant. I found my cell and checked the date to be sure – good, only one day passed since yesterday; I was beginning to think I had amnesia and missed a good portion of my memories.

“I don’t know you,” I mumbled, my throat dry and my vision still blurry from all the tequilas. “What was your name again?”

“Dave,” he replied, slicking his greasy black hair back. “We spent all night talking.”

“Taking about what?” I managed to utter, using all my willpower not to see double.

Dave flashed another smile at me, showing all of his uneven teeth.

“You know,” he said, staring at me expectantly, but he encountered my blank look. “Stuff like World of Warcraft, Star Wars. We even argued which is better: Star Wars or Star Trek.”

“Oh,” I muttered, wondering if Dave was playing some joke on me. “So, which one I was siding with?”

“Star Trek,” Dave replied, his overly friendly grin morphing into disturbingly enthusiastic face expression. “You were amazing with your arguments, I never met a person who had such knowledge. You beat me fair and square.”

Funny, I had never even seen a single episode of Star Trek.

That was how mine and Dave’s unusual friendship started, although the truth was he kept stalking me and pestering till I gave up on my attempts on warding him off. I was surprised, but Dave turned out to be the best friend I had, despite his annoying disposition. My old female friends were appearing and vanishing, but Dave stayed glued to my side, always ready to force me to play shooting games with him every time my love life turned out to be a failure.

Dave was probably the only reason I managed to get my degree – not only he was a terrible nerd, but also the brightest of the bunch. Thanks to him I was able to wave to my mother with my marine biology diploma. I thought that the chapter called Dave would close after the graduation, but a week didn’t pass till my best friend barged into my life with a job offer. As the exceptionally good student, Dave could be picky and joined Marine Mammal Research Program in Hawaii under one condition – that they would provide an extra place.

A day later I set my foot on Hawaiian soil to research dolphins and whales, fortunately from behind the comfortable desk, what made me so happy that I agreed on RPG marathon with Dave as a way of thanking him. It may seem weird to you that I wouldn’t want to cuddle cute dolphins and swim with them like in the movies. True, sea mammals may look adorable, but they’re not as great in the reality as on the pictures. The confrontation with the brutal reality may be painful – the cute dolphins suddenly stink worse than your neighbor’s dog, not to mention they try to hump their caretakers at least a couple of times a week. If you still think that working with sea mammals is pure bliss, you should find out how the sperm for the artificial insemination is obtained. Yes, it was awesome to observe the shocked looks on newbie’s’ faces when they were informed that they have to do a dolphin a handjob – priceless.

My job at Hawaiian institute had other perks and the greatest of them all was Rob Godwin, the financial director of the Institute. Tall, handsome and incredibly charming, he was a perfect hunk of a man, impossible to resist. Not that I wanted to; one moment I found myself innocently flirting with him and the next I already had this ring with big diamond on my finger and a mortgage for the house I bought. I suppose you already suspect what happened next.

I was about to ask Rob whether there was a difference between creamy and ecru napkins, when I found him vigorously humping my boss, the evil witch Amy, in his office. Considering he had his pants off and the tool of crime was linking him directly to Amy, I didn’t even had the chance to fool myself about the meaning of what was before my very eyes.

Before I realized the consequences of my actions, I threw the diamond ring at Rob and job termination at Amy. Just when I left my then former workplace, I slapped my forehead and cursed my own stupidity – what same jobless person throws out a diamond while having a mortgage? The grim thoughts were only just beginning to crawl into my mind when I found my self-proclaimed best friend standing by my side with a self-satisfied face expression like Rambo.

“I told Amy I quit,” Dave announced, bearing a hero-like smirk. “And I that bitch to screw herself.”

I gazed at the ocean in the distance, my eyes filled with the impending threat of the ultimate failure.

“She already screws Rob,” I said, my voice distant and hollow like that of a ghost’s. “And the bank will screw over me.”

 

With the bank constantly demanding money, I couldn’t afford to be picky about job this time. Dave bravely stood by my side when I struggled to find a decent position and when the fated encounter with my present employer came. I felt awkward going to the job interview together with my best friend, but our boss had decided to not waste his time and squeeze us on the same hour. After I and Dave got off the plane on the Rarotonga airport we saw him.

Professor Abner Conley looked nothing like an accomplished scientist who published several respected books on sea mammal behavior. With the long, wild beard and the grim look in his dark eyes he resembled a pirate, especially that he wore wrinkled and tainted clothing suitable rather for sea journeys than office work. His long, white hair was gathered in a loose ponytail and the pipe in his teeth was like a cherry on the cake. At the time I thought that Abner Conely was a modern captain Ahab.

“Where’s Moby Dick?” Dave didn’t manage to hold his tongue behind his teeth.

Conely furrowed his thick eyebrows, glaring at my friend threateningly.

“You’ll see my Moby Dick soon enough, you bloody barmpot,” he said with a British accent. “Now you and the lady, get on the boat. The two of you are last.”

 

That was how the incredibly informal job interview ended. I barely set foot on the largest of the Cook Islands when Abner Conely dragged me and Dave onto a somewhat old fishing boat which served as a research ship now. Half-eaten by rust it didn’t look too reliable, but neither me nor Dave had enough courage to tell that to our boss who was already introducing us to the rest of the research team as the boat’s engine roared.

“Ladies and gents, this are Dave and…” professor Conely looked at me, urging me with gesture to remind him my name.

“Elisabeth Morgan,” I introduced myself.

“Ellie,” Abner Conely decided, shamelessly giving me a short nickname. “Welcome aboard, Ellie.”

 

Thus, equipped with a new nickname I began the most chaotic and bizarre chapter in the book of my life. I really wished I could say that the journey healed my broken heart, preferably by offering me a brand new love interest on a silver plate, but that was not quite it. My heart was open and ready, but the odd crew of the boat “Manky Squid” was sadly lacking in the department of hunky men.

Our equipment specialist, the blond, tall Finn was surely a fashionable man, boasting with his brand new designer glasses with the black, thick frames, but she wasn’t quite my type. Or, I should say I wasn’t his – every time he was near Dave, my friend kept squeezing his buttocks and cautiously flee onto the opposite ship’s side.

The ship’s captain was closest to the cliché image of a rough, bearded sea-wolf, being tall and muscled. However, she was also a woman. Sarah, the captain, was a great navigator and a really nice girl, but no amount of good personality and good will could make up for her masculine silhouette. Her red curls and childish freckles were contrasting grotesquely with the size of her biceps.

The sixth member of the expedition made her appearance after some time, emerging from under the deck with a glass of wine in her hand. I couldn’t miss the perfectly manicured nails and the impeccable hairdo. Maybe Abner Conely was the leader of the team, but she, Doreen Ashworth, was the one who pulled the strings and kept the money flow. The classy elderly lady scanned each of the team members up and down before hiding beneath the deck once more, like a vampire.

As for Abner Conely, I soon discovered why he had been considered an eccentric scientist. He was an author of numerous publications, led uncountable amount of expeditions and participated in the conferences, but for every on ingenious theory he had nine utterly ridiculous. By some called a scientific authority, he was also a well-known crypto zoologist and much like captain Ahab, he had his Moby Dick he was chasing.

“Professor Conely, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly are we going to research?” I asked my boss as soon as I got over my instinctive fear of him and his intimidating, pirate-like beard. “We’ll be branding Humpback whales with the locators, right?”

Abner Conely scowled and removed the carved pipe from between his yellowing teeth. He smirked to himself as though he was seeing some mysterious goal within his reach.

“Yeah, the Humpbacks, we’ll have to take care of those bloody whales,” he muttered, frowning as the words escaped his lips. He turned his head to look at me and sent me a boyish grin. “But, to tell you the truth, Ellie, I didn’t come here to look for whales.”  

I arched my eyebrow, waiting for my boss to reveal the very reason why I had been almost hauled onto this rusty boat before discussing my pay.

“Mermaids,” Conely, whispered, averting his gaze from me and setting it on the calm waters of the Pacific Ocean. A distant smile played on his lips as he repeated: “Mermaids.”

2: Chapter 2

                My knuckles turned white as I gripped the railing tightly, gracing the innocent dolphins with a murderous look of my brown eyes.

                “Mermaids,” I hissed out, realizing that I had dug myself in quite a big hole this time. No matter how optimistic I tried to be, the tentacles of utter despair were pulling me into the sea of depression and ultimate frustration. I had lost my fiancé, my wonderful, safe job and now I was on a boat with a bunch of crazy pseudo-scientists, about to search for mythical fishpeople.

                “Beer anyone?” a raspy, melodic voice called. I turned around to see it source and I met the last member of our team – Seamus O’Brian.  As if his name wasn’t Irish enough, a mass of tangled hair in the shade of carrots framed his face full of freckles and contrasted with the green overalls. The beer in his hand was a finishing touch to the stereotypical Irishman. Unlike me, Seamus seemed to fit in perfectly into the crew of “Manky Squid.”

                I didn’t enjoy wallowing in self pity for long as Seamus swept me into the cabin, along with the rest of the companions, leaving the steering to Sarah, who turned out to be his sister. I held my breath, trying not to inhale the aroma of cheap cigarettes and alcohol coming from Seamus.

                Professor Conely stood up, nudging his neighbors with his elbows and lifted the can with beer.

                “To the success!” he exclaimed loudly, a disturbing gleam in his eyes.

                I barely refrained myself from slamming my forehead against the table from the frustration – I was a girl made for sitting in office in front of a computer, not suited for adventures. Besides, my vision of an adventure comprised of some irresistible hunky men, not smelly whales and crypto zoologists. My gaze slid over my six companions: two British people, two as Irish as they could possibly be, a hipster from Sweden and a fan of World of Warcraft. Somehow I felt too normal for this excursion whereas Dave joined the dark side already.

                “If we assume mermaids exist, how did they evolve?” Dave was wondering aloud and everyone was eager to share his theories with him.

                “Maybe they’re some subspecies of a dolphin,” Fin suggested, slicking his blonde hair and readjusting his fashionable glasses.

                “Or perhaps they could be a new species of a hominid which evolved to adapt to water environment. After all, most of the Earth consists of the oceans,” Abner Conely opened yet another beer.

                “The interspecies breeding,” Sarah said, looking over her shoulder with a focused expression on her face. “I wonder how could it work out.”

                Seamus snorted, swaying from the amount of consumed alcohol.

                “Huh, some sailors fucked a fish and the end of the story,” he summed up, burping loudly.

                I sighed, thinking that Seamus was definitely drunk enough to molest poor fishes now. I chugged down the rest of the bear, frowning as it was barely cool instead of ice-cold. My eyes rested on the only person who didn’t share their theory with everyone – Doreen Ashworth. The elegant old lady sat with her back straight, smiling quizzically as she sipped wine. Where did she get it remained mystery for me, but I wasn’t that inquisitive, especially that the heated discussion presented me with an opportunity to slip out of the stinky cabin to catch a lungful of fresh air.

                I closed the door to the cabin carefully, not to alarm the others by slamming it shut. The sun was hanging low over the horizon, casting its red rays on the ocean, making it look like a sea of blood. I approached the railing and let out a disappointed sigh seeing that the dolphins swam away, not accompanying our boat anymore.

                The rhythmical buzzing of the old engine and the calming sound of waves beating against “Manky Squid” made me slip into the depressed mood once again. While submerging myself into the depth of regrets, I didn’t hear light footsteps.

                “Not enjoying the company, Elisabeth?”

                I yelped, startled, when I heard Doreen’s smooth voice right next to my ear. I instinctively backed away, but then I regained my composure. Doreen observed my reaction with a mild interest, weighing a glass in her hand.

                “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you, Mrs. Ashworth,” I mumbled, feeling uneasy like a student in front of a strict teacher.

                “Miss Ashworth,” Doreen corrected me, gracing me with a cold, stern look of her grey eyes before, making me feel like an animal in zoo. “You don’t seem to be dedicated to the research entirely.”

                Usually I would come up with a snappy retort, but Doreen intimidated me with her accusations.

                “I…” I began to mumble. “It’s just when I agreed to take this job I thought I was going to research rare species of sea mammals.”

                A peculiar, slightly mocking smile played on Doreen’s lips.

                “What species could be rarer than a mermaid?” she asked, her tone indicating that it was rather a rhetorical question.

                “When I heard rare, I thought humpbacks.” I rested my elbows on the metal railing, still hot from the heat of the day. Doreen’s ladylike laughter buried my hopes that the English woman was the only other normal person on board.

                “Researching humpbacks is not a challenge and therefore won’t bring any recognition, not to mention funding,” Doreen commented. “Discovering a species yet unknown to modern science, is a whole other story. As a member of the research team you could accomplish more than you’ve ever dreamt of, Elisabeth.”

                My eyelid twitched as Doreen morphed in my mind from a cold witch to an incarnation of Satan, who tried to tempt me with vague promises.

                “Do you really believe that the mermaids are real?” I asked.

                Not a muscle moved on Doreen’s face.

                “I don’t believe,” she replied. “I know they are real.”

                My lips unknowingly twisted into an indulgent smirk which vanished as soon as I encountered Doreen’s highly threatening glare.

                “Regardless of what you think, I am not the type to chase after dreams and fairy tales,” the English lady said, taking a step towards me. “I prefer scientific facts to the silly legends.”

                I stared at Doreen, confused about how her words were contradicting her behavior.

                “So why are you funding this silly trip?” I coughed out.

                Doreen tucked a stray lock of her gray hair behind her ear, her face features suddenly softened as though she was recalling some long forgotten memory.

                “I saw one of those creatures with my own eyes, that’s why I know they are somewhere out there,” she said quietly, the dry harshness in her voice disappearing. “It happened fifty years ago, I was fourteen at the time. My father worked on Cook Islands and we were always a wealthy family, so we owned a yacht. One night my older brother Richard decided to sail away from the shore to party with his friends on the said yacht, but I found out and threatened to tell our parents about his little trip. To silence me, he brought me along.”

                Doreen closed her eyes and was silent for a longer while.

                “My brother drank too much and fell into ocean. I remember someone tossing him a rope, my brother laughing as he caught it. Then I saw that creature, the mermaid. She emerged from the water few feet from my brother and stared up right into my eyes before swimming  toward Richard.”

                I was intrigued by Doreen’s unlikely story, but skeptical as her tale sounded just too cliché, like a numerous legends about sailors saved by maidens with fish tails.

                “And she saved him from drowning, right?” I sighed, glancing at Miss Ashworth who smiled bitterly.

                “Saved?” she repeated. “No, that night I became the only child.”

                Doreen’s words captured my undivided attention.

                “They never found his body, he just… disappeared as though he had been pulled under water. Of course all the youngsters from the yacht told the adults about the mermaid, but no one was willing to believe a bunch of drunken teenagers. As the months passed, my brother’s friends even convinced themselves that what they saw that night wasn’t real.” Doreen paused to take sip of wine. “But I never forgot.”

                She stared at the ocean illuminated by the last of daylight with a quizzical look in her grey eyes. I averted my gaze from her, silent as I contemplated her words – her tale still sounded like a pile of fantastic lies to me, but Doreen’s absolute seriousness swayed my unwavering conviction a bit.

                “Maybe it was a swimmer?” I asked, trying to find a plausible explanation for the mermaid sighting from five decades ago.

                Doreen straightened her back, her face turning into a stern mask once again when she glared at me like a teacher at an unruly child.

                “The yacht was far from the shore and there weren’t any other boats in the vicinity, no human being could swim such a distance,” miss Ashworth replied, her voice dry as sand on a desert. “I understand your skepticism, Elisabeth, but as a marine biologist you should know that every now and then we discover the species wither considered extinct or legendary, like giant squid. If this research brings ground breaking results, you, as a member of professor Conely’s team, will receive quite a recognition among the scientists. But only if you stop behaving like some bloody princess.”

                “I…” I began, startled by the harsh reprimand, but Doreen didn’t even let me voice my opinion.

                “I expect you to at least pretend you are interested in your work.” Doreen’s ice-cold  eyes made me speechless. Taking her time, miss Ashworth took another sip of her wine and left me alone, not letting me have any doubts about who calls the shots on this ship.

 

 

 

3: Chapter 3

                The unpleasant chat with Miss Ashworth maybe didn’t turn me into a zealous mermaid hunter, but my attitude towards Conely’s odd goal changed from total rejection into trying to take the quest seriously. I would like to say that I even enjoyed the cruise, but I don’t like lies – the lack of bathtub and my own soft bed couldn’t be compensated by any amount of optimism. The company turned out to be fine though, surprising me with how well all of us worked together when we were doing some regular research.

                “Finn, what do you have on radar?” Abner Conely asked, lightning his trademark pipe as the Swedish hipster took off his headphones, staring at the screen.

                “A group of dolphins dead ahead and two humpbacks at two o’clock,” Finn said, readjusting his designer glasses.

                Conely nodded.

                “Let’s get some samples, folks!” he exclaimed and called to Sarah: “After those humpbacks, lass!”

                Sarah nodded and directed “Manky Squid” toward the two dark shapes emerging from the water only to dive.

                “Ellie, Seamus.” Conely made an impatient gesture, ushering me and the Irishman to grab our weapons. Seamus, dressed in a wetsuit and fully equipped for diving, was standing with the special crossbow ready to fire. I looked much less impressive, armed only with a camera. I rested my elbows on the railing to stabilize the picture and took a couple of shots of two humpbacks, a female and a calf, as they swam in front of our ship. I smiled when I finally managed to capture the sharp images of the whales’ tail fins that were unique to each of the mammals just like human fingerprints.

                Doreen watched warily like a hawk as Conely and Seamus lowered the inflatable boat on the water and approached the humpbacks.

                “I have their singing on tape,” Dave stated, standing up to make place for me in front of the water resistant laptop. Not wasting any time, I quickly uploaded  the images on the computer and ran the analysis, comparing the tail fins of our whales with those in the database. While the laptop was processing, I grabbed the camera and went to make more photos.

                I watched the little inflatable boat get really close to the majestic mammals, allowing Seamus to take a shot. The first one missed, but the next dart hit the huge body of the female and the one after that was aimed directly at the calf. Neither of the whales reacted, the darts must have felt like needles. After checking the attachment of the line linking his suit with the inflatable boat, Seamus boldly dived into the water to retrieve the darts along with the tissue samples.

                “Lizzy, you have results,” Dave called to me as he sat by the laptop and glanced at the screen. “It seems those specimens are new.”

                With one click he increased the database by adding two new whales to it and went to the railing to observe the efforts of Seamus and professor Conely. I was worried for the Irishman – after all an animal so huge and powerful as a whale could knock him down with just one tap of the muscular tail or a slap of the fin. However, Seamus was both bold and experienced as he swiftly took the darts out and crawled back on the boat. I smiled, relieved when the both men joined the rest of the team on the board of “Manky Squid.”

                “Well done, Abner, Seamus,” Doreen greeted them, snatching the samples of the humpbacks’ tissue from their hands and securing them in the refrigerator. I smiled, appreciating the satisfaction from the team work and a swift action. The whales waved with their tail fins one last time as though saying goodbye to us before they disappeared into the depths of the ocean.

 

                Not all nights were as enjoyable and filled with partying as the first one on the ship. We ran out of bear quickly, thanks to Seamus’ efforts of course, but the research demanded more work from us than watching whales and hunting for the samples. The dullest part of the job was usually made at night, when all the members of the team squatted as far away from each other as possible, busy with their tasks.

                Sarah was staring at the maps and the registered mammals’ migration paths, wondering which course to plot the next day while her brother watched over the equipment, making sure it was ready and safe to use. Making himself another cup of coffee, Finn rested his chin on his arm, looking with the bloodshot eyes at the readings of the sonar and scribbling down his observation about the dolphins’ and fish migrating patterns.

                The biggest cabin became the inaccessible kingdom of miss Ashworth who, as it turned out, had numerous PhDs, including not only marine biology, but also genetics. Locked under the deck, she was using the horrendously expensive equipment to analyze the samples of humpbacks’ skin and bubble that our team took today.

                “Bloody hell,” Conely cursed, stretching his arms and rubbing his tired eyes as he was rummaging through the enormous amount of complex data, trying to find the connections no one managed to discover before. The scientist groaned and wanted to take a sip of his coffee, but scowled upon discovering that the cup was empty already.

                The only people who weren’t slaving like crazy were me and Dave as we were rather simulating the work than doing any actual research. My friend was an expert in marine mammals’ behavior, so after putting the little data he had in order, he was reading other authors’ publications, from time to time sharing some curious details with the crew.

                “Did you know that dolphins are the only animals other than humans who have sex for fun?” he asked all of a sudden, making everyone direct their bloodshot gazes at him, as enthusiastic as zombies.

I smiled at Dave’s antiques, returning to reading about the anatomical details of Fin whales and the four spotted possible hybrids of fin whale and blue whale. Even though it was work-related, I was just killing time, not wanting to appear to be lazy one – I left that role to Dave. I massaged my stiff neck and sat back in my chair, letting my eyes rest from staring at the screen. The night was silent and I could hear the gentle sound of waves washing the “Manky Squid” as the engine was off and the team members made no noise except occasional Dave’s remarks.

I squinted my eyes, blinded by the huge lamps situated above the conning tower where I was sitting with my laptop on a small plastic desk. I stood up to move my stiff legs a bit and I had to clutch the railing as the swaying of the boat felt stronger up here. I looked down at the deck, feeling like I was on a crow’s nest. From this height I saw Seamus neatly folding the ropes and Dave sitting by his computer. I squinted my eyes and noticed that my friend wasn’t reading any serious publications, but rather playing mine sweeper. I rolled my eyes and smirked, seeing how he failed at the game. I was almost cheering for him, when the screen went black.

“Damn, I was close!” Dave exclaimed with despair in his voice, slapping his forehead. The bright lights behind me flickered and another curse joined Dave’s.

“What the hell?!” I heard professor’s Connely’s raspy voice, accompanied by Finn’s miserable whimper. I furrowed my brows and looked over my shoulder at my own laptop. I muffled a curse, seeing that the screen was black, just as Dave’s. I rushed to the computer and checked it – the battery was almost full, so why did it crash? I pushed the on switch and the laptop turned on for a couple of seconds, only to shut down after a while.

“What is going on?” I muttered, trying to turn the damn thing on, without much success. I slammed my fist against the plastic table and bent over the railing, calling to the rest: “Are your laptops dead too?”

Finn peeked out of the cabin, lifting his head to look at me.

“Yes, all of the equipment is down,” he explained. “Sarah can’t even get the engine running!”

The door rattled in their hinges as Doreen pushed them open forcefully, glaring at us as though she wanted to murder someone.

“Why there’s no power?” she demanded.

“I… I don’t know yet,” I heard Sarah’s apologizing voice. “Maybe there’s something wrong with the generator, the boat is old.”

“Then why there is light here?” Doreen asked sternly.

I looked at the bright lamps, my gaze wandering towards the solar panels.

“The lights up here are powered by the solar panels, independently from the generator!” I called, pointing my finger at the lamps.

Doreen huffed, massaging her temples.

“It must be a generator malfunction then,” she said quietly before turning to Sarah. “How fast can you fix it?”

The tall, muscular woman scratched her head.

“I have no idea if I can fix it at all, I don’t know what’s wrong with it yet,” Sarah replied. “But I can try. If it’s impossible to make the boat up and running, we could call the coastal guard. The radio is still working.”

Abner Conely sighed, lightning his pipe and inhaling the smoke as he leaned against the railing casually, not looking worried by the situation.

“You have twenty four hours to fix it. If you can’t do it till then, we’re calling for someone to haul us,” the professor decided, exhaling the cloud of thick smoke. “Now tell me, which one of you baggers overloaded the generator.”

I observed the people on the deck lower their gazes on their feet, everyone except Doreen.

“Don’t be a fool, Conely,” she said, about to return to her cabin. “We were just doing our work.”

Finn yawned, taking his glasses off to wipe them with a hem of his shirt.

“Right,” he mumbled. “Speaking of work, I saw a group of dolphins on the radar just before equipment crashed.”

I reached to the table for my tea and scowled, discovering that it was already cold. I sighed, sipping my cold tea as I shifted my attention from the people below to the ocean, which in the dead of the night seemed dark and mysterious. I turned around when I heard a splash, barely hearable over the racket made by my companions. I thought that those were the dolphins Finn was talking about and grabbed my binoculars which never left my side since I had boarded “Manky Squid”. I readjusted the sharpness, skimming over the waves in search for the dolphins.

I caught a movement in the dark waters surrounding our boat and waited for the dolphins to emerge for air again. I smiled when a barely recognizable shape of a tail appeared before my eyes, but when I took a good look at it my smile vanished.

“Lizzy, what the hell?!” Dave’s yell rang in my ears as the cup of tea slipped out my fingers and crashed against the deck, nearly hitting my friend. I didn’t respond right away, my voice caught in the throat when I was trying to spot the creatures again.

Abner Conely furrowed his thick brows and quickly climbed the ladder with a monkey-like skill. He took away my binoculars unceremoniously and aimed it at where I was staring, but there was nothing there anymore. He lowered the binoculars and looked into my eyes incredously.

“What did you see, Ellie?”

4: Chapter 4

                “Are you sure?” I heard the same question for what seemed to be a hundredth time. I rolled my eyes, tired by being the center of attention with the rest of the team flocking around me and looking at me with wide opened eyes. I nodded.

                “Yes, I’m freaking sure,” I repeated slowly as though I was talking to mentally challenged people, not to the group of scientists. “Whatever they were, they weren’t dolphins, at least none of the known subspecies.”

                Dave scratched his chin, looking at me suspiciously.

                “Are you sure?” he asked, tilting his head comically. I sighed, glaring at him.

                “Yes Dave, I’m sure. I know how dolphins’ tails look like, after all I’m a marine biologist,” I replied, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in my voice. I snatched a piece of paper and hurriedly made a sketch before showing it to everyone. “Here, the tails looked more or less like this. ”

                Abner Conely snatched the piece of paper before Dave managed to grab it and examined the sketch.

                “The shape of the fin resembles rather a fan that a regular dolphin’s tail,” the professor agreed. “But, dolphins often injure their fins during unfortunate encounters with motor boats.”

                I shook my head.

                “No, it was too symmetric. Besides, I saw three of them in total and they all looked exactly the same. If I saw only one specimen, I’d think it was an injury or perhaps some mutation,” I explained patiently.

                Dave peeked over Conely’s shoulder, looking at my drawing.

                “Isn’t it a manatee?” he asked, furrowing his bushy brows. Finn moved to spy on the piece of paper from under the professor’s other shoulder.

                “Manatees live in shallow waters, but dugongs may venture this far in the open sea,” Finn suggested. Both he and Dave loomed over the drawing, staring at it intently as though it would make the paper betray them the truth eventually. I cleared my throat.

                “Maybe it’s a subspecies of a manatee, adapted to deeper waters,” I suggested, shifting uncomfortably under the stares of crew of “Manky Squid”; I felt like a suspected witch in front of the inquisition. Despite being on search for mythical mermaids, professor Conely and the other scientists were treating my story with a big dose of distrust. However, I had one ally – the last person I would suspect of being kind to me.

                “I believe Elisabeth,” Doreen stated, crossing her arms on the chest as she sent Conely a challenging look. “Out of this team, she is the less likely to make up stories. If she says she saw an animal with a fan-shaped tail, it means that the herd of those is swimming nearby.”

                Doreen successfully silenced all voices of doubt, pushing us in the direction of creative thinking. Conely let out several puffs of smoke, a thoughtful look on his face.

                “So, there may be an undiscovered species right before our noses. This may be our chance to get our names into the textbooks,” he muttered, glancing at the dark ocean, but it remained still and silent; none of the previously sighted creatures appeared. His sharp dark eyes locked Sarah on. “Sarah, try to get the generator running. Start now.”

                The tall Irishwoman flinched and nodded. She ran to the cabin to get flashlight and the tools before disappearing in the engine room.

                “I’ll reroute some power from the solar panels to some of our equipment,” Finn said quickly and disappeared to do his techno magic.

                Conely looked at the rest of his team as though the plan was coming together in his mind.

                “Those animals might be still near, so we’ll try to catch them,” he informed. “Seamus, prepare two inflatable boats. Doreen, grab the camera. The rest of you, change into the wetsuits and don’t forget the life jackets.”

                Both I and Dave stared at Conely blankly; I could barely believe that the modern version of captain Ahab had just ordered me to do something that dangerous. Seeing the silly looks on our faces, the professor frowned.

                “What are you two waiting for? You’re going into these inflatable boats in five minutes, so hurry!” Conely almost yelled at us.

                Not thinking much, I ran to the cabin and snatched one of the wetsuits, tossing the other one  to Dave. My friend’s presence didn’t even bother me that much when I was stripping to underwear hurriedly and putting the wetsuit on. I struggled with it for a while as it was roughly the second time I had it on, the first one being the memorable yet failed attempt at surfing with my ex fiancé Rob.

                “Catch!” Dave threw a life jacket at me which I caught in midair. Fastening all the belt along the way, we run to the deck to see the two inflatable boats already floating on the water. It was almost pitch black as Finn cut off the power supplied to the huge laps atop the conning tower and rerouted it to more necessary equipment such as air pump, windlass and sonar.

                Once the sonar was operational again, Doreen rushed to it, frantically searching for the targets.

                “They’re still here!” Doreen breathed out. “Six, seven… no, eight specimens about thirty feet from the starboard.”

                Conely nodded, nonchalantly tossing his precious pipe onto the board. Both he and Seamus managed to get themselves in their wetsuits already, as well as prepare the inflatable boats. I stiffened when Conely grabbed my shoulder.

                “Dave, you’ll help Seamus. Ellie goes with me,” he decided and helped me get into the small boat. Well, shoved me into it would be more precise. I yelped and grabbed the side, praying for safe and more importantly – quick return. Although I was a marine biologist, I had no real experience in the field work, my specialty having been analyzing data with a cup of hot tea in my hand and flirting with my unbelievably handsome coworker.

                “Catch it Ellie!” Conely called to me and before I had the chance to see what was going on, he threw a net at me. It was heavy and very noticeably reeked of fish. The professor lightly jumped into the inflatable boat as though he was a sporting younger, not an old man. “Lass, watch not to tangle the net.”

                “Huh,” I mumbled, struggling to get myself from under the pile of smelly ropes tied together. When I finally managed to free myself, Conely started the engine and the boat submerged into the darkness, away from the poorly lit “Manky Squid.”

                My heartbeat was beating erratically, I felt my blood rush through my veins so fast that it got my ears pulsing. The adrenaline shot was something new to me – I was both scared and excited as I was taking part in an adventure for the very first time, just like a heroine of some movie.

                “Ellie, hurry up with that net!” I heard Conely yell, outshouting the roaring of the engine.

                Chasing the silly thoughts away, I focused on my task, unrolling the net at a steady yet fast pace. Fortunately for me, Seamus was quite a pedant when it came to preparing the equipment and the net wasn’t tangled. I had to be careful though – the net was attached to a huge fishing winch on the “Many Squid”, so one mistake could end with me falling in the ocean.

                I could barely see a thing in the absolute darkness, but Conely seemed to know where he was going; he was receiving the instructions from Doreen over the two-way radio. Thanks to that as well as sonar and GPS, we weren’t completely blind.

                Seeing that there was almost no net left in my hands, I let out a pleased sigh. Then, I craned the neck and saw the gleam of Seamus’ flashlight as the other inflatable boat approached our position.

                “Where is the clip?” I asked Conely, knowing that we’d have to join the both nets together. The professor grunted, pointing at the bottom of the boat while talking to Doreen.

                “Hurry, they’re escaping!” I heard Doreen’s voice in the radio.

                “Pass me your clips!” Seamus yelled. Squinting my eyes, I saw the Irishman standing in the boat while my friend Dave was steering it with a smile of a five year old who had been allowed to use a vacuum cleaner. I scooped all the metal clips and passed them to Seamus, careful not to fall into the ocean. The Irishman snatched them and begun joining the nets.

                I sat back in the boat and relaxed, thinking that my adventure went fairly well. I observed Conely stare at Seamus, waiting for him to finish his job. The professor was tapping his fingers on the side of the boat impatiently, tugging a stubborn stand of hair behind his ear. Once the Irishman was done, Conely signaled it with the flashlight, turning it off and on again three times. The winch creaked and started rotating.

                “Are we coming back?” I asked, wanting to get on board as soon as possible. Conely nodded and we set off toward “Manky Squid.”

                Only the sound of waves and the creaking of the winch disturbed the silence as everyone was focused and anxious to find out if we caught something in the next. I was staring at the ocean, but it was still, no movement, nothing.

                “Doreen, what’s going on?” Conely asked as he reached out to me and grabbed my hand, helping me to climb aboard.

                Miss Ashworth had a peculiar face expression – something between a dissatisfied scowl and a pleased smirk. How in heavens did she manage to make her face muscles do it, remained a mystery to me till this day, perhaps you needed to be British to do that.

                “Three escaped already,” Doreen said quietly, almost in a whisper, pointing her finger at the screen where five dots were grouped together. Her gaze slid over the team members till it stopped on Finn, she looked like a predator locking on a weakest member of the herd. “Why are you standing here like a fool, Finn? Go help Sarah with the generator.”

                Finn yelped and ran away as though something was chasing him. Seamus smirked, observing the scene and went to inspect the work of the winch, dragging Dave with him.

                “One more escaped,” Conely said in a monotone voice as one of the five dots moved further away from the rest till it disappeared beyond the edge of the screen. The professor huffed, playing with his long, gray hair nervously and ventured to search for his beloved pipe, leaving me with Doreen.

                “Watch the sonar,” Doreen ordered in her usually dry, unfriendly voice and rushed into her cabin.

                “Sure,” I muttered when she was already long gone. When I glanced at the screen I saw yet another dot vanishing. Wondering how the retracting of the net was going, I craned my neck, noticing that a good portion of the net was already on board, along with a couple of unlucky fishes that would probably end up as our next dinner. Then, the winch squeaked and slowed down.

                “Bloody hell!” I heard Conely curse when the metal frame bent slightly as though strained by something heavy. The winch kept moving, but with much more difficulty as previously.

                “Hey, are you sure we didn’t catch a blue whale?” I called to the men. They responded me with excited smiles, all three of them were grinning like it was Christmas already. I checked the monitor once more. “We’ve got three specimens in the net!”

                The tension rose, fueled by the fact our winch looked like it could fall apart every second now. I almost got a heart attack when the cabin door flew open and revealed Doreen, standing there like a member of Navy Seals. Armed with the crossbow for collecting samples and the gun with sedative, she looked like a last person I would like to mess with.

                “I see something there!” Dave exclaimed, excitement ringing in his voice.

                I jumped onto my feet and climbed onto my toes, trying to discern some shapes from the spot by the sonar. My gaze was wandering between the screen and the back of the ship as I anticipated the moment when everything would become clear: I’d find out if my name would become known among other scientists or if I’d be branded as a team’s clown.

                “Screw this!” I waved with my hand and ran toward the winch, abandoning the sonar. Like the rest, I stared at the net, emerging from the dark ocean, with my eyes sparkling with the curiosity.

                “There they are!” Dave pointed his finger at the water when I saw violent movements down there. It was hard to discern any details as there was almost no light and the net was obscuring the view, but the splashing was a positive sign – we caught something, and, whatever it was, it was big and very energetic.

                “Every stand back,” Seamus ordered. I listened to him, strategically picking the safest place possible, right behind heavily armed Doreen.

                Seamus jumped on the net like a monkey, making the old winch let out a miserable squeak, and ripped out a knife. He started cutting the net as soon as Conely and Dave swung it to the deck. My eyes widened, when I saw dark shapes wriggling inside vigorously. When Seamus cut enough roped, our trophy fell onto the deck with a loud thud, never ceasing trashing.

                I peeked from behind Doreen’s back and froze.

                “Bollocks,” Conelly whispered as his pipe fell out from behind his teeth.

5: Chapter 5

                I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking that my brain had to play a naughty trick on me, but when I opened them up, nothing changed. Most of the team was reacting the same way I did – they stared in disbelief with their jaws slack from all the shock. No one could blame us for standing there like brainless idiots as even the most open minds would begin smoking from the sight which was before our very eyes.

                On the deck of “Manky Squid” three fairy-tale creatures were thrashing helplessly, banging with their grey tails against the iron floor of the boat. At first I couldn’t tell what they were because of the mass of seaweed-like strands that turned out to be hair in the shade of deep green.  One of three specimen looked up directly at us from under the curtain of the wet, tangled hair and I saw a human face, a face of a scared girl.

                “Dave, lights!” Conely was the first to shake off the initial shock. He had to give Dave a forceful push till the younger man directed the big reflectors at our catch, helping us see what exactly got caught in the net.

                My ears hurt when the creatures let out a piercing, inhuman shriek which resembled the tones dolphins emit. Blinded by the bright light, they covered their faces with their pale hands. I noticed that the long fingers had webbing between them. All three of them crouched on the deck, trying to crawl away from us.

                The creatures were just like the legends had described them – half-human, half-fish. Mermaids. My mind was barely able to process what I was seeing, but I began take notice of small details: the pale skin, the upper body that looked exactly as ours. The tail was grey and smooth, not covered in scales and the fin looked like a fan, broader than a manatee’s. The shape and general looks of the tails suggested that the mermaids had more in common with sea mammals like dolphins than fish.

                “Ellie, get the camera!” I felt Conely shaking my shoulder.

                 I stared at him blankly and nodded. My legs were wobbly when I made my way to the cabin, glancing over my shoulder as though the mermaids could disappear if I wasn’t looking. I was rummaging through the mess in the cabin, searching for the damn camera. Then, I spotted the blasted thing next to the sonar’s screen. I reached to grab it with the intention to return running, when I heard a characteristic beep. Furrowing my brows, I stopped to glance at the screen and saw a dot appearing on its edge. It was moving rapidly toward the center, where our boat was. Right after that other dots began showing up, encircling “Manky Squid”. Snatching the camera from the table, I thought that I should tell the others.

                “Professor Conely!” I called when the cabin door slammed shut after me. I rushed toward my team and the captured mermaids. Dave took a few steps in my direction, reaching with his hand for the camera. I was about to pass it to him, when my friend disappeared.

                I stumbled, holding my breath. My eyes only registered the movement of a dark shape. One moment Dave was standing a few steps from me by the railing and then he was gone.

                “Man overboard!” Seamus yelled, quickly grabbing a rope and running to help Dave when I couldn’t move my feet. I stared at the place where Dave was standing half a minute ago. I breathed out with relief when I saw fingers clutching the railing and so did Seamus, relaxing and slowing down.

                “You got us scared for a minute, Dave,” the Irishman said as he walked to the railing.

                My smile dropped when I saw that the fingers weren’t just as tanned as Dave’s, not to mention they lacked the plumpness of my nerdy friend. And Dave didn’t have a webbing between the fingers.

                “Seamus, watch out!” I screamed, but it was too late for the Irishman.

                The owner of the pale fingers  quickly pulled himself up and I saw a male creature swing his tail over the railing, right at Seamus who barely managed to dodge. But, it was only beginning – the male specimen wasn’t as timid and scared as the females. He advanced boldly at the Irishman, ferociously swinging his tail at the man as though it was a mace. The whole tail was a little under two meters long and it was basically a one bid muscle, so the danger was serious. The iron deck bent as the tail hit the spot where Seamus was laying before he managed to roll over.

                The three females let out a series of squeaky sounds; I suspected they were cheering on their kinsman. Seamus tried to get away from the male, but the creature was crawling surprisingly fast, gaining on the Irishman. When Seamus was running away, the male hit his legs in the vicinity of ankles and I could swear that I could hear bones shatter. The Irishman screamed from pain, but didn’t lose his cool as he ripped out a puukko and tried to stab the creature. The male easily avoided the blade and pinned Seamus to the deck.

                Then, he brought the tail fin closer to Irishman’s face. I thought that he was going to hit Seamus with, but instead a four inches spike slid out of the fin, aiming at the man’s artery. The speeded downwards in the exact the same moment when Doreen pulled the trigger. The spike missed and hit the deck right next to Seamus’ neck. Not bothered by a dart sticking out of his shoulder, the male pulled the spike out of the deck and aimed again, wanting to finish off his prey.

                “Not when I’m here, you motherfucker,” Doreen hissed out, reloading the gun and shot once again. Her hands weren’t shaking when she took another dart and prepared the weapon before she fired for the third time. The creature began pulling the darts out, but Doreen was faster at firing more and more at him, till he collapsed atop of Seamus.

                The three mermaids let out a wail which sounded as though it was filled with despair. When she heard their cried, miss Ashworth pointed a loaded gun at them, ready to take care of any other problems.

                “Thanks, miss Ashworth,” Seamus coughed out, pushing the sea creature’s body off him and sitting up. He winced when he looked at his legs. “Looks like I’ll be needing a med-kit.”

                I shook my head, snapping up.

                “Hey, will someone help me?” I heard Dave’s voice.

                I blinked, realizing that I forgot about him completely. Redeeming myself, I jumped over the tail of the male creature and bent over the railing.

                “Dave!” I called, looking down and discovering that my friend was safe and sound, floating in the water. I snatched Seamus’ rope and tossed to Dave, tying the other end to the railing. I had to almost haul him up as sport was never Dave’s forte, more like his mortal enemy.

                “What is happening, we heard the gunshots.” I looked over my shoulder and Sarah, dragging Finn after her. The pair had been in the engine room, busy with the repairs, so they missed all the action. Their jaws went slack when their eyes were wandering from the three mermaids cowering in fear and Doreen holding them on a gunpoint, pass me shoving the soaked and bruised Dave onto the deck to Seamus with blood pooling around his legs and the unconscious male “mermaid” by his side.

                The whole commotion drew my attention away from the my earlier goal. I froze, remembering the numerous dots encircling the position of “Manky Squid.”

                “Professor Conely, more of them are coming, I saw them on the sonar!” I exclaimed, hauling Dave up.

                Conely furrowed his brows, a flicker of fear appearing in his dark eyes as he ran to the sonar with a speed of a professional sprinter to check my words. He cursed loudly what meant the situation wasn’t looking better.

                “Sarah, Finn, get that blasted engine working!” he yelled and threw his pipe in their direction, hurrying them up. “Ellie, come with me!”

                I nodded and ran after him to the cabin under the deck. The door of the wardrobe nearly flew out of the hinges when Conely swung them open energetically. My eyes widened when I saw all sorts of weapons there – the crossbows for collecting samples, tranquilizer guns and guns that looked like the real things.

                “Hold this,” Conely said, loading guns on my outstretched arms. I could barely hold them, but I bit my tongue remembering that Seamus nearly got killed a while ago. Before the professor pushed me toward the exit, he snatched all of the ammo.

                When he were crawling out of the cabin burdened by guns, I heard three gunshots. I craned my neck and saw Doreen standing over the still mermaids, lowering her gun.

                “Doreen, what the hell?!” Conely yelled, dumping the weapons on the deck.

                Miss Ashworth looked at him calmly, without a hint of remorse as she reloaded her tranquilizer gun.

                “We have one threat less now, don’t we?” she asked and aimed at the ocean.

                “You’re a crazy woman, Doreen.” Conely shook his head. “But smart.”

                I sighed and reached a crucial decision – I made up my mind to break my habit of being a useless bum and perhaps contribute a little. I dashed for the sonar to check the position of the mermaids in the ocean. Once a familiar screen of the sonar found itself before my eyes, I cursed.

                “Fuck!” I exclaimed, seeing more than twenty dots circling in about a ten foot radius from “Manky Squid” like hungry sharks around a wounded whale. Then, the dots on the sonar rushed toward the center, all at once. Panicked, I looked at the crew. “They’re coming!”

                “From which direction?” Conely called to me loading the hunting rifle.

                “From all directions!” I answered him.

                The professor chewed on a curse and shot at the ocean. I covered my ears and looked at the sonar. The dots near where Conely shot dispersed, fleeing further from our ship while all other mermaids kept their distance, but after a while they reorganized and began advancing at us again.

                “They’re coming again, keep shooting,” I said, staring at the screen.

                Conely nodded and rushed to the broadside, firing the bullets along the way. Doreen tossed out her tranquilizer gun without a thought and dashed to the pile of weapons I and the professor had brought. Moving like a professional, she scooped a Glock and the matching magazine before tossing both to Seamus who loaded the gun almost in midair. Doreen loaded another Glock herself, unlocked it and handed to Dave.

                “Try not pointing this at us and yourself,” she ordered. The terrified Dave nodded and took the gun, holding it awkwardly and obviously surprised that it was heavy. Nevertheless he lifted his arms and aimed at the ocean, his trembling finger on the trigger. I could see his knees wobbling even though he put a brave face.

                Doreen grabbed another rifle and rushed to guard the ship’s bow.

                “Dave, watch the other side!” she called to my friend before she ran off as though she wasn’t a classy, elderly lady, but a member of Marines.

                I sighed with relief when no one was expecting me to do the shooting and continued doing my job by the sonar. The dots began approaching again.

                “Shoot!” I yelled and covered my ears. Even though the sound had to penetrate my hands, the noise of gunshots was deafening. But, it did the trick as the mermaids backed away again.

                Had I looked at Conely, I’d see him asking a question, but I still had my ears covered, so he got my attention with throwing some bullets’ shells at me and hitting my head. I gawked at him.

                “How’s the sonar’s reading?” he asked me.

                “Good, they’re escaping,” I answered and looked at the screen again only to see the mermaids returning to regroup. “And they’re coming back.”

                “Bagger,” Conely cursed. “We’ll run out of bullets soon.”

                I bit my lower lip, feeling the twisting sensation in my stomach. Shouldn’t I be more afraid? Perhaps the combined shock was blocking my panic.

                “Ellie, check how’s Sarah and Finn doing with the generator,” Conely ordered before he sent another bullets to the ocean.

                “Right!” I jumped onto my feet and ran to the engine room. There was pretty dark there, so given my natural grace I almost landed face-flat on the bottom of the room, saved only by my reflex to catch the handrail in time.

                “Be careful, Ellie!” Sarah muttered as she was welding some wires with a goggles on her face. Finn didn’t even took his time to glance at me, staring at the readings on the device he had in his hand. Maybe if I were actually paying attention to the teacher instead of my high school sweetheart back in the old days, I would know what it was, but… well, I regretted nothing.

                “Guys, we need that engine working,” I breathed out, lifting my hand to shield my eyes from the bright sparks.

                “It should be ready soon,” Sarah replied, calmly welding, her hands still like hands of a surgeon.

                “How soon is soon?” I asked.

                “When I finish,” Sarah said patiently.

                I bit my lower lip as I heard gunshots again.

                “Make it sooner,” I insisted. “If we run out of ammo before you’re done, we’ll be dead.”

                Sarah and Finn exchanged the gazes, their movements became more frantic as they realized that our very lives were at stake here. Not wanting to draw their attention away from their task, I climbed the steep stairs up and just as I set my foot on the deck, I heard Conely yelling:

                “I have no ammo, how about you guys?”

                “My gun’s been clicking instead of firing for some time now,” Dave’s voice joined.

                “I’ve got two bullets in the magazine and one in the chamber!” Seamus yelled.

                “My ammunition has ended too!” Doreen’s voice from the bow called.

                I gulped and checked the sonar again. I already expected to see the dolphin-sized mermaids on the screen, but it the real surprise was about to be revealed just now. I rubbed my eyes, not believing what I saw.

                “They’re coming!” I screamed, looking at the bus-sized shapes on the screen moving toward “Manky Squid like a battering ram. “And they have whales!”

6: Chapter 6

                “Sarah!” I screamed staring at the sonar – the whales and mermaids were dangerously close to our ship. Over the deafening sound of blood rushing through my veins at a crazy speed I could barely hear the sounds of the crew shooting the last bullets at the dark shapes in the water and the characteristic noise of whales letting the air out. Pale and panicked, I jumped onto my feet about to run to engine room to hurry Sarah and Finn up. I barely managed to take a step when I registered with a corner of an eye a movement and something appeared an inch from my nose, stuck in the superstructure of the ship.

                A spear. Dear god, it was a freaking spear.

                “Duck!” I heard Conely’s yell and plastered myself flat against the cool metal floor, earning painful bruises on my knees. Soon a hail of primitive spears rained onto the deck. I intuitively covered my head with my shaking hands, praying for this nightmare to stop. I whimpered when another spear landed dangerously near the spot where I was laying.

                I pulled myself together and began crawling toward the cabin, into safety. I kept my head down, ignoring the screams of my fellow crew members – in this moment I cared only about myself, my own life. When I was just at the doorstep, “Manky Squid” rocked violently as though something huge rammed into it. The ship swayed to one side and I screamed as I slid further from the safety of cabin, right onto the railing.

                I clutched the metal bars desperately, afraid I would fall into the ocean. I didn’t even realize I closed my eyes in a reflex of protecting them. My head was spinning, when I opened my eyes the surroundings seemed to be almost surreal, as though it wasn’t really happening. My grip on the railing strengthened when another whale rammed into our ship, making it rock even more, but I entwined the railing with both my arms and legs.

                I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting for this to be over, but closing my eyes didn’t bring me neither any comfort nor any sense of safety. The noise of waves mixed with the hollow sound of the whales hitting the metal hull of “Manky Squid” and the horrifying shrieking which resembled dolphins chatting. The nightmarish cacophony was so loud that I barely heard another sound joining it – the roar of the strained engine. At first it was rattling, but then it began humming steadily. The ship moved, at first slowly, but then it began gaining speed. The whales and mermaids were still swarming around it, but Sarah managed to find a gap in the encirclement and the ship broke free, chased by the sea creatures.

                “Is everyone all right?!” I heard Conely’s yell. Slowly, I opened my eyes still gripping the railing. I heard the team members answer the professor’s call one by one. I let out a relieved sight when Dave uttered that he was fine.

                “Ellie!” Conely called the version of my name I despised. “Ellie!”

                I opened my mouth, wanting to respond, but I found myself unable to utter a word as mu throat went dry. I swallowed a huge lump, before yelling:

                “Safe and sound!” My voice was coarse and shaky, but I was coming to my senses gradually. I peeked into darkness, scared I would see the mermaids armed in spears, but I couldn’t see a thing in the pitch black ocean. The sound of engine was jamming all the other noises, so I couldn’t tell if the sea creatures were still there. Cautiously, I released the railing. My limbs felt stiff and were a bit bruised, but other than that I didn’t even have a scratch on me. Still on all fours, I made my way toward the sonar. My knees were buckling when I pulled myself up, using the desk for support.

                “Hmm,” I muttered, staring at the dots on the sonar. The good news was that the whales were left behind like they weren’t too interested in chasing “Manky Squid”. But, the mermaids were still around the ship, relentlessly chasing us. They didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping the pace even though Sarah was squeezing all from the old engine. I cleared my throat, wanting to warn the others. “Be careful, guys, the mermaids are still after us!”

                Conely managed to stand up and looked around, but couldn’t see the enemy.

                “We’re hiding in the cabin,” he decided. “Ellie, come here!”

                I nodded and left my safe haven, moving in a half-crouched position in case any hostile and vengeful mermaid would like to throw a spear at me. Conely managed to gather the rest of the crew, some were in worst state than others – Seamus’ broken legs were bent at a weird angle, blood soaking through his torn wetsuit. Doreen had a cut on her eyebrow, but that didn’t make her look like a victim. With a gun still in her hands and a brave expression on her face, she looked rather like Rambo than an injured elderly lady. She scanned each of us, her gaze lingering longer on Dave and me – the two of us somehow managed to get through the ordeal without any scratch.

                “Dave, Elizabeth, help Seamus get to the cabin,” she ordered in a tone which allowed no objection. “Abner, let’s move the specimens.”

                “I’m ready,” Seamus announced, clenching his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut as he prepared for pain. Dave stared at him and winded, seeing the shattered legs. I thought that we should probably put the broken limbs in makeshift casts first, but there was no time for dawdling – the mermaids could attack any minute. I rolled my sleeves.

                “Dave, grab Seamus under the shoulders and drag him to the cabin. I’ll take care of the legs,” I said firmly, making a hurrying gesture. Dave nodded, obviously still in shock and clutched the Irishman as instructed. I lifted Seamus’ legs a bit, trying to keep them in a stable position.

                “Go, let’s do it quickly!” I called to Dave, aware of Seamus’ pained whimpers. The Irishman yelled when we carried him into the cabin and dumped onto the floor. We wanted to lower him delicately, but the boat rocked violently and Seamus slipped out of Dave’s grip landing on his broken legs.

                “Fuck! My bones are sticking out!” Seamus hissed out, pointing at the wounds. He had a scowl on his face, partially from unbearable pain, but mostly from anger.

                “Sorry, we didn’t mean to drop you like that,” I mumbled, but my bland apology didn’t manage to pacify the feisty man. I bit my lower lip and glanced at Dave. The absent look on his face indicated he was probably not the most useful person at the moment.

                “I’ll get the first-aid kit,” I breathed out and rushed under the deck to get something to patch Seamus up. I dashed into the room where we kept most necessary items – the kit, guns and the empty cans of beer. I shuffled through the stuff and grabbed the things from the kit I found the most useful – as expected from the team who planned on spending weeks on the sea, we had enough dressings and drugs to supply a small army or to deal with an outbreak of an epidemic. Hastily I gathered everything I needed in my arms and rushed to Seamus.

                I nearly scattered the dressings all over the cabin when I saw who, or what Doreen and Conely just dragged inside. The pair of the elderly people just carried two of the unconscious mermaids, left them near the injured Irishman and hurried to get the remaining ones. I shook my head, berating myself for staring – I’d have a plenty of time to do that, but Seamus needed my help now.

                “Dave, cut his wetsuit,” I ordered, handing him a pair of scissors. Dave nodded and began cutting the fabric. I scowled, seeing how clumsily my geek friend was doing.

                “Give me that!” I became impatient and snatched the scissors from him. Dave stared at me with his jaw slack as I swiftly cut through the wetsuit and exposed the swollen and bleeding parts of Seamus’ legs. The Irishman bucked when the fabric grazed over the flesh. “Dave, hold him well.”

                Despite Dave’s desperate efforts to keep the Irishman motionless, I could barely do my job because Seamus kept shifting. When I disinfected the wound, he yelled from pain and yanked his limbs so forcefully that he sent Dave flying across the cabin and nearly knocked by teeth out with his knees.

                “Seamus, please stay still,” I said, curing myself for not thinking of bringing some strong painkillers. The Irishman laid back and clenched his teeth, but he began struggling with Dave again when I tried to dress the wound.

                “Seamus, just hold on for a mi…” I stopped in midsentence when suddenly, Seamus stopped yelling and shifting and he collapsed. I blinked, startled that he lost his consciousness without a warning. Then my gaze wandered to the small dart stuck in his shoulder.

                “He should wake in a few hours.” I looked over my shoulder, hearing Doreen’s voice and I saw miss Ashworth lowering her sedative gun with a smug smile on her face. She stepped aside, letting Conely through when he dragged another mermaid inside. She looked at the three females placed neatly like sardines in a can, before addressing the professor. “I’ll help you with the male, Aber. He’s quite big and heavy.”

                I and Dave stared at the two elderly people walk away so casually.

                “She shot Seamus,” Dave whispered, disbelief resounding in his voice.

                “Sedated,” I corrected him. “Damn, old people have the most guts here.”

                I sighed and turned back to Seamus and the difficult issue of his legs. The white bone was sticking out of one of the limbs, the swelling was huge and generally it didn’t look pretty. With a corner of an eye I saw Dave’s face develop a greenish shade.

                “Dave, focus. You’re my charming assistant now,” I reminded him. “Let’s put the gloves on and disinfect this.”

                Once Seamus was out, thanks to Doreen, it was far easier to patch him up. I worked fast, my hands were firm. Dave had his dark eyes wide opened when I kept giving him orders.

                “Now, hold here, I’ll bandage him,” I said once I reset Seamus bones the best I could. Dave obliged.

                “Lizzy, you’re a freaking White Mage,” Dave muttered, looking at me with a genuine admiration. I flashed a not-too-modest smile at him.

                “My mother wanted me to become a doctor, she even made me practice with my uncle on weekends,” I explained, a mischievous smile appearing on my lips and turning into a grimace of ultimate self-satisfaction. “You should have seen her face when I told her I won’t go to med school.”

                Dave arched his eyebrow when I cackled, remembering that fit my mother had had the day I dared to disobey her. Somehow it made my mood better, helping me almost forget about the mermaids who tried to kill us and were  chasing us now. With a bright smile, I finished dressing Seamus’ wounds and covered him with a thick, woolen blanket.

                “All done,” I announced proudly straightening my back. With my morale and self-esteem raised, I gathered my courage to do more useful things. “I’ll check the sonar.”

                I left Dave by Seamus’ side and bumped into Conely and miss Ashworth on my way out. I slipped past them when they dragged the mermaid male into the cabin. Doreen and Conely had droplets of sweat on their foreheads from strain as the male was much larger than the females.

                When I glanced at the sonar, I let out a relieved sigh as the mermaids were in some distance from “Manky Squid”. They were still following our ship, but they were keeping their distance as though hesitant to venture further from their territory.

                “Are they gone?” I yelped, startled when I heard a female voice and I spun around to see Sarah. Holding a hand over my fluttering heart, I took a deep breath.

                “You startled me,” I explained, flashing the huge, muscular woman an apologetic smile. Seamus’ sister replied with a smile which probably could be charming if not for her square jaw.

                “Sorry, I just wanted to check how’s the situation. The sonar in the steering room isn’t working yet,” Sarah said, shrugging her shoulders and peeking over my head to take a look at the sonar’s screen.

                “I think we’re safe for now,” I offered my opinion.

                Sarah nodded, scratching her chin and furrowing her ginger eyebrows, worried look on her face.

                “If the engine fails again, we’re goners,” she stated, her eyes never leaving the dots on the screen.

7: Chapter 7

                The night of the capture of the mermaids was probably one of the most stressing in my entire life, right after the one when I discovered that my thesis mysteriously disappeared from my laptop and perhaps that time when my high school sweetheart Johnny confessed to me that he forgot to use the condom. Anyway, all of us were half alive from the fatigue, but it was damn hard to get some rest while checking the sonar for the pursuers and praying for the “Manky Squid’s” ancient engine to withstand hours of pushing it to its limits.

                “We should slow down,” Sarah stated, outshouting the howling engine which began sounding like a dying piece of junk. “If we don’t, the engine will overheat and stop. This time for good.”

                Dave and Finn looked at each other, panic on their faces and droplets of sweat appearing on their foreheads. The Swede gulped, taking a nervous at the silent sonar.

                “But… but, those they will catch up to us,” he mumbled and looked at Doreen with hope, as though turning to her for help.

                The English woman bit her lower lip and clutched her rifle tighter, as though demonstrating her readiness to  strike down every one of the creatures that would dare to thwart her plan. She lifted her chin proudly and turned to Sarah.

                “I believe, Finn is right. However, I doubt the mermaids would show in less desolate area,” she decided. “Sarah, dear, squeeze all of that engine. We’re heading to Rarotonga, more precise to my house.”

                Sarah frowned and crossed her muscular arms on her chest, not pleased with how the situation was playing out.

                “Fine,” she muttered, turning her gaze away from Doreen’s stern and confident stare.

                Dave, Finn and I stood there, looking just as smart like a herd of sheep. We had no clue whether we should worry even more or feel relief, so we did what most people in such situation do – stare like idiots on the people, who created at least an illusion that they know what to do. My gaze slid over warrior-like Doreen and pouting Sarah to professor Conely, who stood further from the rest, like a lone wolf. With a face which betrayed neither stress nor excitement, he smoked his pipe, as though the threat of mermaid attack didn’t bother him. He exhaled a puff of thick gray smoke an glanced at our catch – the four unconscious creatures.

                “We should cover them with wet towels,” he said quietly. Although his voice was only a bit louder than a whisper, everyone heard him over the roar of the engine and the sound of waves.

                I blinked and followed his gaze, also looking at the mermaids. Perhaps it was because of the sudden attack, but I couldn’t fully comprehend how groundbreaking moment it was. There they were – mermaids, legendary creatures, neatly squeezed into the small cabin of the “Manky Squid” like sardines. It was like seeing them for the first time – amazement, disbelief, bliss.  I felt a sting of guilt when I saw how much human-like they seemed. The upper part of the mermaids’ bodies disturbingly resembled contemporary homo sapiens a lot, but there were several significant differences like the webbing between clawed fingers or the weird color of their hair. All four specimens had long tresses in a shade of dark green. I couldn’t help but compare the hair to seaweed. The rest of the features was so normal that it was creepy. The skin had an unhealthy pale color which reminded me of the IT guy from my previous workplace, the ears looked glued to the skull and noses were flat, but Asians had noses like that. If not the tails, I would have never guessed that the beings before my eyes weren’t humans.

                “Ellie, help with those towels!” Dave’s voice brought me back to reality. I shook my head and took a wet cloth from my friend. I was the closest to the cabin’s door, so I should be the one to cover the creatures. Carefully, I laid the towel on one of the females, carefully covering the tail fin.

                “Finn, are you rolling, lad?” Conely asked, extinguishing his trademark pipe. Breathing hard, Finn lifted the camera, he had just brought and pressed the right button and aimed the camera at the creatures.

                “Aye, aye, captain!” the Swede exclaimed, struggling to keep his hand still as it trembled from the excitement all of us felt. Conely cleared his throat, behaving as though he was about to give a performance of his life.

                “The specimens seem to be a cross of a humanoid and a marine mammal,” Conely started and made a pause like waiting for any of us to disagree. My eyes wandered to the creature’s majestic tails. Unlike the mermaids pictured in the legends, our specimens weren’t half-fish. The surface of the tails wasn’t covered in scale, but in a smooth, gray skin. The side where the bellies were was lighter. When I was placing another wet towel on the female, I glided my hand against her tail and smiled, noticing how familiar it felt.

                “They resemble dolphins quite a lot,” I interjected, noticing the graceful silhouette.

                “That must be a damn lot of muscles down there,” Dave added. “How long their tails are?”

                Conely retrieved a measuring tape from his pocket instantly and walked over to one of the motionless females. He straightened her constricted tail.

                “Ellie, hold the end of this tape,” he muttered, gesturing me to come closer. I threw the wet towel at Dave and took a hold of the tape, waiting for Conely to take the measurements.

                “Almost five feet,” the professor estimated and pointed with his finger at the male. I approached him hesitantly, remembering how easily he shattered Seamus’ legs and that he harbored a nasty surprise in his tail. Nevertheless he seemed to be fast asleep and Doreen had her finger on a trigger in case he would wake up.

                “Seven feet and two inches,” Conely announced after he whistled. “Apparently the males are bigger than females.”

                I glanced at the unconscious creature. Not only his tail was longer, but also his chest broader and the muscles were more defined. Actually, he could be quite a fine catch if not that tail of his. To have such a great body as he had, men had to work out seriously and his face looked serene, its features defined, but nicely regular. The male looked devilishly handsome when he was lying still, unconscious after Doreen had knocked him out with a such a dose of the sedative which would suffice for a small whale.

                “It’s a pity he’s of a different species,” Sarah sighed, the dreamy look on her face betraying that she was thinking the same as me. Doreen glared at the Irishwoman.

                “Sarah, you do realize you’re talking about a sea mammal? You could be as well attracted to a gorilla,” miss Ashworth reprimanded her, but Sarah didn’t looked discouraged.

                “My ex-husband looked like a gorilla,” she said. “Seriously, he had thick hair even on his back and butt. At least this one is handsome.”

                “And hairless,” I added noticing that the mermaids didn’t seem to have as much hair as we do. Lucky bastards, I thought thinking of the troublesome depilation.

                Sarah’s comment triggered a discussion which progressed in a fairly wrong directions. Instead of assessing standard measurements, evolutionary theories and other serious scientific stuff, we found ourselves chatting about the least important details.

                “They don’t have eyebrows!” Finn exclaimed, leaning over one of the females. “And eyelashes… no, wait, they do have eyelashes.”

                “It seems wrong to call him a mermaid. I mean, he looks nothing like a maid, right?” I said to Sarah folding my arms as both of us were contemplating the handsomeness of the male specimen. She tilted her head, furrowing her brows as she considered it.

                “Definitely not a maid. A man, a man’s man,” she replied. “A merman he is.”

                “Isn’t he too buffed?” I asked critically looking at the silhouette of the sedated merman. Sarah woman laughed.

                “Of course not, he doesn’t look wimpy,” she replied and lowered her voice, pointing at Dave and Finn. “Like those two.”

                “Yeah, they would use some workout,” I agreed instantly.

                In the meantime Dave and Finn didn’t look as happy with their conclusions as I and Sarah were. Instead, they looked miserably disappointed. Dave sighed with melancholy.

                “I always thought the mermaids would have… you know,” he said, making a suggestive gesture with his hands as though he was squeezing something, something like melons. Together with Finn he sighed once again and stared at the flat-chests of the females. The tiny bulges on their chests consisted entirely of muscles, so the boys weren’t graced with a sight of seductive D-cup half-women. The females were slim, but their grace and beauty was that of an Olympic champion in swimming – maybe lean, but definitely not weak.

                Suddenly Dave gasped, jumping onto his feet and pointing at the mermaids dramatically.

                “I know what’s wrong with them!” he exclaimed. I arched my eyebrow, not entirely sure if I wanted to hear the rest, but Dave said it nonetheless. “They don’t have nipples!”

                Everyone stared at him and I rolled my eyes at my friend’s antiques. Sarah began berating Dave for his foolish behavior while Finn laughed. However, the merry atmosphere was treacherous. I was about to put an end to Dave’s pointless discussion about boobs and nipples, when I caught a movement with a corner of my eye when the tail fin of the male twitched.

                “Back!” I shrieked when the massive tail sprung to life, swinging at Dave. I caught a glimpse of the sharp spike sprouting out of the fin and felt my throat go dry. Dave wouldn’t be able to dodge or escape the attack if not for Conely who rushed and threw himself at my friend, sweeping him off the feet and out of the creature’s attack range. Doreen fired a dart with a strong sedative, but the merman moved quickly out of the way avoiding being hit. His moves were still clumsy and unsure as the previous sedative didn’t wear out yet, but he was regaining consciousness far too fast we would like.

                “Ellie, get out of there!” Conely yelled when the creature set his dark eyes on me. With Dave in the far corner of the cabin, I was the one who was closest. I tried to back away, but there was barely enough space in the cabin.

                It was a matter of split second. I barely registered what was happening when the merman latched forward using the strong tail as a spring like a poisonous snake jumping onto its victim. Doreen’s dart almost brushed past my cheek and hit the merman near one of his collarbones but it was a bit too late. I saw a big hand heading straight for my throat, but thanks to my reflex I dodged. The next thing I felt was a sharp pain in my shoulder when horribly strong fingers clutched it in a steel grip and pulled me down. Air escaped my lungs when the merman collapsed on the top of me after he knocked me off my feet. I tried to draw a breath, but the pressure of his full weight was just too much and was crushing my ribcage.

                I heard Doreen reload her gun and pull a trigger again, but even two darts didn’t suffice to subdue the violent sea creature. Desperately struggling to draw a proper breath and break free from the merman’s hold, I was blindly flailing my limbs. One of my legs and my right arm were free, but I didn’t manage to defend myself effectively. In spite of pounding his shoulder and head, he wouldn’t even budge or even look at me as though my strikes weren’t painful at all.

                The merman’s eyes were set on the greatest threat in the cabin – Doreen. The elderly English lady quickly reloaded the sedative gun and pointed it at the creature. She didn’t break the eye contact when she put her finger on the trigger. Her hands didn’t even tremble a slightest bit, she was the only one who wasn’t in panic.

                Doreen put more pressure on the trigger, about to release another dart when I felt a sharp tug. The merman swiftly snatched my hair and yanked me up. I yelped from pain and clutched his hands, trying to pry his fingers open, but he was monstrously strong. He was moving me easily like a rag doll when he pushed me forward and hid behind my back, using me like a shield.

                “Bollocks,” miss Ashworth cursed, seeing that she didn’t have a clean shot. Slowly, she released the trigger, but she kept her finger on it, the merman and me at the gunpoint.

                I struggled, but the merman yanked my blonde hair forcefully, making me scowl from the pain – I had an impression that should he pull my hair any stronger, I would end up scalped. My heart was racing, the rush of adrenaline made my thoughts fuzzy, I wasn’t able to think clearly. I could feel only animalistic fear of death and pain. I took a deep, slow breath to prevent myself from hyperventilating and looked at Doreen. I shivered when I felt the merman’s cold, damp skin brush against my legs when his tail snaked closer to me. With a corner of an eye I saw the lethally dangerous spike emerge from the tail fin and aim at my colleagues.

                It took a lot of self-control to keep still and not to tremble from fear. I held back my tears when I locked my gaze with Doreen’s.

                “Do it,” I whispered.

                Alarmed by the fact I spoke, the merman yanked me closer to him, probably ensuring I wouldn’t try any tricks. Doreen looked at me seriously and glanced sideways, shifting uneasily under my gaze.

                “The dose is too high, Ellie. You won’t make it,” professor Conely spoke to me suddenly and looked at miss Ashworth. “Doreen, don’t even think of what I think you do. Don’t fire.”

                Doreen behaved as though she didn’t hear Conely. She clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes aiming straight at my chest.

                I gasped, shocked and scared even more. I was so terrified that I even forgot that a mythical marine creature was currently holding me hostage. If Doreen wanted to shoot us both with the sedative darts… Those darts were meant for humpbacks, not for humans. Maybe the merman was one tough guy, but my heart would fail after such dose of the sedative.

                “Doreen!” I hissed out warningly, but the elderly lady only smirked.

                “We have plenty adrenaline,” she said and pulled the trigger.

               

8: Chapter 8

                I shifted when sounds began reaching my brain. The rhythmical hum of the ship’s engine was almost deafening, making the melody of waves seem distant. The voices were familiar, but I could neither tell what they were saying or who they belonged too. Apparently my brain was just restarting and wasn’t operating quite normally right now. The noises mixed with the swaying were inviting me to sleep, but I fought it, wanting to return to the world of living.

                The task of lifting my eyelids was almost comparable to winning a championship in weight lifting. I tried to speak, lift my limbs, anything, but I felt as though I was paralyzed – my hands heavy like blocks of lead, my throat incredibly dry and… stuffed? I took a deep breath and noticed that my throat felt as though someone stuck a huge object inside. With every breath the unpleasant sensation intensified, escalating from the slight discomfort to the horrible feeling of choking.

                I coughed, my throat constricting when a wave of nausea hit me. My eyes fluttered open and I lifted my hands slightly, wanting to grab my neck, but they never reached their destination – they just fell limply back on the bed I was laying on.

                “Don’t move, we’ll get it out in a moment. Lay still,” I heard a familiar, commanding female voice above me. My blurry vision focused and I saw the last person I would like right now – Doreen. Not bothering to be delicate, she grabbed the intubation pipe which was in my throat and yanked it out in one fluent move. I began coughing uncontrollably and felt grateful when someone rolled me from my back to my side, patting my back.

                “Easy, Liz, you’ll be fine,” I heard Dave’s voice. When I finished coughing out my lungs, he helped me into the sitting position and handed me a glass of water. His face was incredibly pale, the look of worry mixing with relief when he was looking at me. He let out a deep sigh, seeing me gulp down the entire contents of the glass. Tucking a stray strand of his slightly greasy, black hair behind his ear, he flashed a nervous smile at me. “We were scared you won’t wake up.”

                I didn’t answer as my throat was still sore. The glass nearly fell from my shaking hand, but Doreen swiftly caught it and put in on a nearby desk, scanning me up and down sternly. Her lips were merely a thin line when she put her hand on my forehead, checking for fever. Then, she pressed her two fingers to spot on my neck where the artery was and was rhythmically nodding her head as though she was counting while she stared at her waterproof watch.

                “It looks like your heartbeat is in norm, the worst is over,”  she stated and glared at the entire crew that was gathered in a tiny cabin below the deck. When she stood up, Finn and Sarah fled the room, terrified. Professor Conely leant against the doorframe casually and took out his lighter, about to light his trademark pipe, but Doreen’s sharp look made his hand freeze in midair.

                “Get better, Ellie,” he muttered and spun around, swiftly moving away from Doreen. The English woman’s gaze lingered on Dave for a brief moment, but her face expression softened and the angry frown disappeared when she looked at him. Dave clutched the edge of my bed tightly as though his life depended on it. Doreen smiled lightly and I shivered, finding kindness to be oddly disturbing when it was visible on her face. “Take care of Elizabeth, Dave.”

                When the door slammed shut, I exhaled with relief.

                “Thank god, she’s gone,” I muttered, taking another glass filled with water. When I satisfied my thirst, I looked around. The cabin was small and the air was stale, the stench of old socks lingered in the air. Four narrow beds were cramped at the two opposite walls and on one of them was laying Seamus, snoring quietly. By the decorations around the bed I deduced that I was currently occupying Dave’s bed – the wall covered in posters and figurines were a dead giveaway. No matter where I looked, the face of Gandalf stared back at me. Yes, this was definitely a place inhabited by Dave.

                “So, how do you feel?” Dave asked. Once the others were gone and he made sure I wasn’t going to die anytime soon, he relaxed and outstretched his legs, unceremoniously leaning them onto my bed.

                “I’m fine. Maybe a bit dizzy, but fine,” I answered, pushing Dave’s legs off the bed. I wrinkled my forehead, recreating the events of last… I looked around, but I found no clock, so I wasn’t able to tell if it was last night or last day. “Dave, how long I was out?”

                Dave lifted two fingers.

                “Two hours?” I asked, but he shook his head. My eyes widened.

                “Two days?!” I exclaimed, my sore throat hurting. This time Dave nodded.

                “Yeah,” he answered, eying me suspiciously. “So you don’t have any amnesia or some weird superpowers?”

                I sent him a cold look.

                “Does headache count?” I asked, rubbing my temples. Gradually, some pain was kicking in. Only a minute ago I was perfectly numb, but now not only my head ached, but my shoulder as well. I peeked under the covers to discover that I still had the wetsuit on, but the zipper was undone. Not bothered by Dave’s presence, I slid the fabric off my sore shoulder and winced when I saw a horrible bruise.

                “Damn, you can make out the shape of the fingers,” Dave noticed. I groaned and moved my arm – it hurt, but not too much. I was about to zip the wetsuit when I saw something else. Between my breasts there was a strange dot. I nearly cracked my neck as I was craning to have a better look.

                “What the hell is that?!” I exclaimed to Dave, pointing at the spot between my bust.

                “Oh, that,” he muttered. “We had to give you an adrenaline shot. Your heart wasn’t beating, it was really scary, believe me, but Doreen was awesome. She just tossed the gun out, rushed to the kit and jabbed you straight in the heart.”

                I blinked, unsure whether I should be horrified or happy. I remembered that I was in a nasty hostage situation, then Doreen aimed the sedative gun at me and…

                “That bitch, she shot that damn dart at me!” I clenched my hands into fists, glaring at Dave as he was the only target possible. He smiled apologetically and shrugged his shoulders.

                “Yeah, that was risky,” he admitted reluctantly. “But I never saw something as awesome in my entire life! You should have seen the look on the merman’s face when Doreen shot you! He was totally bewildered, I bet he didn’t see that coming!”

                “I didn’t see that coming either,” I muttered, but Dave wasn’t discouraged and continued his passionate story.

                “Then, with a poker-face, she reloaded the gun and fired at the merman. She was calmly reloading and shooting till he was out. Doreen was so calm, so precise like some assassin,” Dave said with a look of awe on his face. “And then she saved your life.”

                I arched my eyebrow.

                “Sounds like you watched too much Terminator and Pulp Fiction,” I summed up and fell limply on the pillows, feeling tired from a short conversation. Dave’s voice was reaching me as though from beyond a wall.

                “And we’re heading to Doreen’s…,” I heard Dave saying before he stared at the ceiling, distracted. Then, he looked back at me, furrowing his thick brows. “Can you hear it?”

                “Hear what?” I asked, shrugging my shoulders – an action which I regretted almost instantly. “I can’t hear anything, Dave.”

                “Exactly,” Dave whispered as distress crept onto his previously cheerful face. “The engine. It’s not working anymore.”

                I straightened my back, ignoring the soreness. I knew my friend well enough to know that there was something more to this. Seeing my inquisitive stare, Dave cracked.

                “Liz, I should probably tell you…” he muttered, setting his gaze on his feet. “When you was out, we got some weird readings on the sonar a couple of times.”

                “Weird how?” I demanded. Dave sighed.

                “Professor Conely thinks, the mermaids are still following us, but they are staying just outside the sonar’s range,” he said.

                I crossed my arms on my chest, wondering how the hell it was possible for the mermaids to know how our sonar worked. Probably they feared approaching us, because they feared the bullets. However, once they swim closer, they are bound to discover, that we’re all out of ammo and on their mercy.

                “Damn,” I cursed. “Dave, how far are we from the archipelago?”

                My friend scratched his head, his lips moved as though he tried doing some calculations, but the shrug announced the failure.

                “I dunno,” he muttered. “I think Doreen said, that we’ll be at her place in nine, ten hours or so.”

 

 

 

                I didn’t have the comfort of resting long though for “Manky Squid” reached her destination later that day, barely making it to the shore as the engine was coughing up the fumes of gasoline. It was a miracle we didn’t end up stranded in the middle of an ocean.

                “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Dave nagged me when the two of us were standing at the railing, looking at the approaching land. The biggest island of French Polynesia was before our eyes. I smiled, realizing how much I missed the feeling of firm ground beneath my feet and simple safety – somehow I wasn’t too fond of being repeatedly attacked by hostile sea creatures that were believed to have been extinct.

                When Sarah turned left instead of heading straight for the haven, I got confused. I looked at Dave, who answered my unspoken question as though he was reading in my mind.

                “We’ll stay at Doreen’s house for a while. For research,” he explained.

                “What?” I shook my head. “Aren’t we going to a research facility?”

                Dave opened his mouth, about to answer me, but someone was faster than him.

                “Of course not, Ellie.” Professor Conely leisurely leaned on the railing and released a small cloud of smoke from between his yellowing teeth. “If we show the mermaids to other scientists, it will be big news, a really big thing.”

                I moved myself away from Conely as the wind was directing the smoke from his pipe straight at me.

                “Well, we want to be recognized, right. So we should announce our discovery to the scientific environment,” I said, but Conely shook his head.

                “We mustn’t do that,” he muttered, inhaling the smoke. “If we make it public, there will be a lot of pressure ”