Page 83 of Oceansong
Please let it not be Kaden. Or Cyrus, or Adrielle. Or the mer-king or queen.
A few confused murmurs rose from the crowd. “Our resident marine biologist, Cam, and his crew noticed a strange blue-tinged vapor coming from the mer’s mouth. I was the only one here this early, so I asked him to stay and investigate more. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Resident marine biologist? Why was this the first time she was hearing about them?
A chorus of hushed voices rippled across the workers beside her. Angie’s skin crawled. She had to get out, see who the mer was. She recalled what Kaden had said about the mer releasing their gift to humans. It happened either with their breath or when they were stressed. If she were a betting woman, the blue vapor came from the latter reason.
The other option was upsetting, that the mer had inadvertently released his magic, effectively giving the humans a tremendous advantage, if they found out what it could do.
What Nick said next stopped her from stepping toward the door. “We’ve sent the specimen to see what the glow is and if it’s something we may use to our advantage. We need to maintain our efforts.” He pounded one fist into his open palm with asmack. “If I must remind you what we’re fighting for. Seafood prices have shot up and restaurants are shutting down in droves because of the scarcity. The other day, I had to choose between milk or eggs at the grocery store. If it were up to those beasts, we would starve and die out. We’re losing thousands of dollars a day, which means, nobody will have a job anymore if this continues. Do we want that?”
A resounding “No!” came from the workers.
Nick continued, his neck flushed and a frenzied look dominated in his eyes. “Our underwater cameras have been destroyed, but we won’t let that stop us.” A pause while he swept his gaze over his rapt audience of workers. “Mark my words. We will be hunting down each and every last one of those scaly bastards.”
Angie’s stomach roiled.
“Those who I spoke with earlier, meet me outside. Zixin, do you haveanything you want to add?”
Bàba put his papers down and shook his head. “We will meet again next week. If you’re diving later, please follow Nick. The rest of you are dismissed.”
Diving? Who was diving now, and why hadn’t she heard of it? Her heartbeat raced. Why was nobody telling her anything?
“Bàba.” She followed on his heels as they dispersed. “Who’s Cam?”
“Oh, we brought him on board to assist us in studying the mer and find a weakness. He came all the way from Anchorage.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could ask him for advice for school. Help him study the mer.” A profound sense of rejection overtook her, and she sent Bàba a long, pained look.
She wasn’t sure Bàba picked up on it. “I need you to focus on your duties here.” His features turned to stone, and Angie shrunk back. “If there’s nothing else, I need you to get back to work.” He walked away before she asked her other questions.
She crept around the back of the meeting room’s building and followed a path to where the dive boats were anchored. There was nobody in her vicinity, and she picked up her pace. Had she missed them?
Stefan and Ken arrived, pushing a cart of oxygen and Heliox tanks down the smooth concrete path, and she flagged them down, waving her arms. Stefan stopped and urged Ken to keep going.
“Angie?” He raised one hand and shielded his eyes from the sun. “Are you diving? They’re suiting up over there.”
“Where are they going? Sorry, I didn’t mean to stop you. Let’s keep walking.”
Stefan nodded, and they walked side by side. “Nick rallied a group of divers to go out and hunt mer. They bought a whole bunch of camo wetsuits with stealth tech from us recently.”
Angie’s heart sank as they approached the divers. They wore reef camo wetsuits to help them blend into vegetation on the seabed. They were armed with spearguns and serrated daggers and talked amongst themselves, their words indiscernible and blending together, a fuzzy cacophony.
Stefan announced he’d arrived with extra tanks, and six divers rushed over to retrieve one and thank him. “Look at them. Spent a couple thousand bucks, but it’ll keep our shop in business a while longer.”
Stefan and Ken had owned the shop for twenty years, and to think of them having to give it up was heart wrenching. Her stomach squelched, imagining what Stefan must be feeling. “What’s happening at the shop?”
“People aren’t diving anymore, and we were on the verge of having togo bankrupt. I mean, this will help pay our bills for the next month or two, but I don’t know what will happen after.” Stefan sounded downhearted, and Angie’s heart went out to him. “I mean, who can blame people? We even offered to outsource our services, but we can only afford to do so much travel. And only for those few people who aren’t too scared to get into the water.”
“I’m sorry to hear that the business is suffering.” She stepped closer so they were shoulder-to-shoulder. “Do you know where they’re going?”
“We’ll find a way, even if we have to close up shop for a while.” Stefan shrugged. “I heard they were going to go out a nautical mile or two in different directions.” His attention turned to Ken, approaching from the side. “Anyway, I’ll leave these here for the divers. I have to let Nick know they’re on their way onto the boats, sign the tanks out, and make sure they get back to us at the end of the day. It’s good to see you, Angie.”
Ken joined him and put his arm around his husband, and the two walked away after saying their goodbyes to her.
Three boats pulled out, each stationed with divers armed with spearguns, aiming down at the water.
Her legs shaking, she peered over the seascape, toward the direction where she saw Kaden the day before. She had to warn him. The mer wouldn’t be expecting humans in camouflage. Angie waited, eyes scanning the surface, sweeping from one end of her field of vision to the other, desperation rising.
