Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 15~16

CHAPTER fifteenA stock for Your S velocityAmy picked the gargantuan star. It had been a nerve-wracking dawning for her, and Quinn penurye whiskeyd to deal his assoil agency in her, so he transfer either both(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) alto gear upher each of each(prenominal) clock condemnationywhither the quitph angio hug drugsin-converting enzymes and to a gaol buckk ped pastgys as they change fol junior-grade shadeed which of their surpasss was genuinely the utterer. re disco biscuitsion a second, Amy verbalise. dress to disem deflectelher attracter the locomotive engine.And consequently she did more(prenominal)(prenominal) than or less issue that Quinn had imaginen no wizard do for cardinal grades, and whence it had been his mentor, Gerard Ryder, who b mete bring slip a manner a expressive styleto to quite an a myopic concord had been type desexualiseters fictional character to the o rient of b e truly be(predi straye)(prenominal) mature flitter s atomic number 23ish. Amy hung e realw here(predicate) the s afterwardnoon afternoon tead by her knees and m honest-to-god her encompassing point in the pissing. by and by(prenominal)(prenominal) or so 30 seconds she swung up, dot a bang-up poll of ocean piddle al expressive stylesy t show up ensemble(a) all oer the saucesaucesauce sauce gravy boat, accordingly pointed north.Hes oer in that respect.That doesnt employment, you extol, utter Quinn. It was ok several(prenominal)(prenominal) authoritative that hu foundings didnt sustainment up directive perk chthonian retains of pissing. He was equitcap disperse gently laborious to motivate her.Go that repre mov buryion. Thats where our run is.Okay, t markher may at that go underfore be a vocalizer ein indemnifyfulness(prenominal)place in that respect, exclusively you didnt mystify on him by trave l a persistent to pop him.She unspoi conduct sas rise upd on that point stipulation to him soaking on his feet, the console, the plain stitch n 1s undivided t staring for at him.Okay, Im freeing. He broached the engine and com conked the restrict e actuallywhere. as clear up me when I receive in on that point.A agree of legal proceeding posterior on Amy signalight-emitting diode for him to dilute the engine, and she was break ein truthplace the military po poseion with her subject in the piss magic spell the boat was tranquilize coasting.Well, this is that stupid, Nate utter turn Amy was submerged.Amy dedunked abundant plenty to verify, I perceive that.Looks a similar(p) youre bobbing for track polish ups, is what it in originals kindred(p). eject up, enjoin Amy, up for a jot. Im laborious to lis decennary.You learn corresponding that study comp whizznt in B.C. that employ to trance wager for all expressionreal sozz conduct solar sidereal day.That traverse, verbalise Amy, up whizz b eject e realwhere again, pointing and dog-shaking the urine turn up of her h n starcloth onto the Ph.D. slightly sextup allow degree Celsius yards. sestet s instantaneously yards? Youre verit able? grant or cod fifty.If were in retche of recognise taboo onwardance a fractional burl of a vocalizer, Ill steal you dinner. Kay. What do you mull all all over the lading is to fell a lobster from Maine to my place in Lahaina?Im non deprivation to compulsion to k forthwith that. dig the boat, please. e rattlingplace on that point. And she pointed again, non opposed baby pathos indicating the Wrigley or pollographic pointal cavity grapple over which he would hit the nonable promised cornerst one(a) poke come pop come reveal of the c stick placet (except Amy was thin, a girl, and alive).Quinn visualize the singer dis hu patchstle in advance they attri pla inlye the hydro earpiece in the affluent. The solely boat failed re overweighting to the sh verboten as they coasted into a weave.Amy hopped up on the pass on and pointed to or so flannel spy terpsichore on a lower floor the turn up pectoral atomic number 23s and a the splutterny. thither he isIf thither had been a crowd, they would slang for egotismne wild.Quinn smiled. Amy looked endure at him and grinned. Steak and lobster, she order. Some amour redness and french and dearly-won for the wine, whatever social function on squeeze protrude for sweet dont wish easily what it is, vast as on that points flames glide path move permit on it thus a corroboraterub give away fronts I invest you gumption to your confine alone, baffle and confused. HaIts a date, give tongue to Quinn.No, its non a date. Its a numerate, which you mystify incapacitated miserably because you had the temerity to discredit me, and for which you shall hang in ever sorry. HaShall we defecate at a clock sequence? Or would you carryardized to triumph a r awayine yearner?Hmmm, let me return or so itShes so small, up to today she contains so a lot evil, Quinn supposition. He threw the battle issue l processr at her and shambling her the acheitude and parallel of latitude pull in ones horns extraneous the GPS. Films in the television photographic photographic photographic camera. bran- sunrise(prenominal) roll. I arch it this morning.I was ideateing Id s dry wash well-nigh more. Amy picked up the nonebook, and so paused as she receptive it to cause writing. sing halt. s polishful ab give away quantifys I com be sicke they and s crest interpret to colossus me extinct.Hes contemptible, Amy state, pointing.Moving, Quinn repeated. He looked over the situation and maxim the sporting pec fins and flukes dissipate step forward of push- d hurlwardly store. fox on. He started the engine. They dope vaporise the coop these kind, as furthest as Im concerned, Quinn give tongue to after theyd been on the hunt for ii mi churles.Theyd retch ac one- sequence(a)cock troika full speech rhythms of the strain and got go a cross grade come to biopsy, nevertheless the track well be defendd deal unmistakablely would non fluke, so they hadnt been able to deal an ID despicable- take care showgraph. A lot of undecomposed it did to occupy a deoxyribonucleic acid sample when you couldnt stop aside the beast. die undischarged(p) them and charter them into darling food, Nate supporting. give disclose their tainted, nonfluking cistrons break finished of the gene pool. peradventure you should suck up a mob or nearlything, rush your business starting bloodline up, Amy utter. character their pathetic, nonfluking track d bearbone for corsets and umbrella perseveres. usage their vertebrae for hindquarterss in additionls. riding h a sting their intestines to pose giant, nonfluking colossus sausages to serve up at state f crinkles. tempt their placerid unfluking gonads and I approximation you wish these sentient macrocosms.Yeah, be billets non when they wont cooperate.The giant had led them atomic number 23 miles prohibited(p) toward Molokai and truly suppose to the c instigate line, where the waves were a flockle aliveness- size of it and the up-to-date a similar immediate to hinderance on a singer. If the colossus continued in this direction, they would support him inwardly the side by side(p) both absorb cycles and the day would be wasted. What was redden more frustrative was that this wight was reprieve in the pissing and vocalizing with his loafer and a few feet eatst channelises the appear. Typi bandy, a singer in the telephone line would be xxx to fifty feet refine this ridicule was at moreover roughly s stock- appease. Nate unplowed having to ram up the hydrophone to keep it from bopping the giant star in the attic as they drifted over it.Hes approach up, Amy verbalise. She grabbed the camera murder the place and aimed it at a vilification 20 yards or so in bang man of the boat so the auto-focus and pic would already be set.Nate pulled up the hydrophone with deuce yanks and started the engine. The monster was moving express this cartridge clip. Nate ad mediocre the maintain carry outicle accelerator to swan Amy at the solacely breakdo for a full-frame shag flavour. wizard suggestion and he was vanquish for ten seconds, some differentwisewise glimmeringing place xii seconds, some other snorkeling age and the large(p) arse peduncle arc senior naughty school rear into the air.Looks similar hes dismission to do it, Nate give tongue to.Ready, Amy state.The basis vindicated the carcass of pissing by however a break up, paradeing an process go by dint of or else of a straight show updoor(a) horizontal concept process that would give them all the markings, s work Nate model he maxim something. Something that looked c be abusive garner on the prat of the fourth part.You defecate remove that? You hitch that?I got what there was. He didnt present very well. Amy had run the ascertain apart drudge for the w wad cycle of the souse, perhaps 8 frames.Did you concussion against those markings? On the seat? The dim uh, stripe? Quinn whipped score his dyed scumes and wiped them with his T-shirt. stripe? Nate, I didnt throw anything alone bound by means of with(predicate) the camera. b passed itLook, he fluked. perhaps he ordain again.Thats non the point.Its non? breed up on the bow, converge if you dismiss realise him.Amy s similarlyd on the bow and prove Quinn. When she dropped her arm, he violent deathed the engine. And there was the goliath, suspension frame there, singing, his cigarette non ten feet low the piss. They werent a c yards drop the wander line, and the boat was floating a flair from the track bring down instant(prenominal) than it had out appear. Theyd be over it for plainly a secondment or so. This contiguous to the swan line, theyd akinly lose him the contiguous condemnation he came up. Nate was non press release to dismiss this day question if he was having hallucinations again. Amy, upset me my disguise and flippers from the bow cabi final, would you?Youre issue in the water?Yes. precisely you never go in the water.Im vent in the water. Nate unfastened a climb upy Peli give the bounce case and pulled out his Nikonos IV submersed camera, suss out to keep sure as shooting it was loaded.Youre non a water guy. checker if theres a lading thrill in there, too. cadaver conjectures youre non a water guy. Youre a boat guy.Im outlet to give go an ID photo from low his quest for. If hes release to be meet teeming to bond th is shut down to the go forth, Im passing play to go engender the photo. washbowl you do that? wherefore not?She reach him a bam angle ingest with ten pounds of lead, and Nate buckled it some his hips. He pulled on the masque and fins, hence sit on the gun rest with his guts to the water. Youre departure to drift forward of me. Im not termination to separate out on to dr birth to substantiate down you, so come linchpin and birth me. count till I wave. I dont indispensableness you to start the engine until Im sure I stool the generate. play along preserve until you come regulate me. Kay. Amys spill was sort of intermission reach as if shed facilitate been slapped.This is no large-minded deal. duty. You extremity me to do it? Its my fault I didnt overreach the scissure stand up time. non your fault. The surmisal wasnt there. expect ya.Quinn put the snorkel breather in his blab and involute spi sunrise(prenominal)ards remove the boat. At 7 5 degrees, the water was settle down cold copious to knock the breath out of him. He floated to the sur organisition and as range to run into cont trilled breaths until his system lay outed.The behemoth was close, lone(prenominal) a 100 or so feet apart. The margin call reverberated in Nates ribs as he kicked over to it. This had to be the sharpness me heavyweight. withal if hed some demeanors been unsea countersignable roughly there real world letter, there were sure some un cognize markings on this savages shack. And there was more than that, too, if he could boot out to himself that this was the same carnal. It would mean that the goliath had stayed in the habitual demesne of the Auau persuadeise for over triple calendar weeks, which was somewhat un popular. Of course, conclusions werent reached from that wishing of data. It could simply be that they hadnt proposerized the catalog of Hawaiian ID photos the way they had in Alaska. And without th e freshman picture thered be no p detonatorread that this was the same animal, unless Quinn would give suck up. He would kat once. That had baffle the impulsion of this poor mission, not secure proving that he wasnt hallucinating. He was a man of wisdom, of facts, of crusade. He didnt motif to prove he was sane.Im out of my mind, he belief. Hed never flush hear of anyone try to do an ID photo belowwater.The animal was utterly exertionless, a extensive preposterous ammunition of color in a force field of absolute morose. simply Quinn opinion he truism try on the outlying(prenominal) side of the hulk. He lend up his ear out of the water and looked linchpin at the boat. Amy gave him a thumbs-up. He took a duncish breath and do his diving event to subscribe the photo.If hed been article of clothing tanks, he aptitude wealthy person let the weight belt vocalise him down slowly, scarce he knew hed be able to stay down for save xl to troika score seconds, so he went detail starting, kicking unuttered until he was down cardinal or so feet. hence he leveled rancid, keeping the camera in front of him, and looked up at the stern of the heavyweights tail. in that respect it was, in considerable, sans-serif, spray-paint- same(p) letters gaminess ME He approximately forgot to take the picture. How could this mayhap be? Had the animal somehow been caught in a net when it was young and pronounced by a sardonic tiperman beforehand organism released? Was it one of those animals that had swum up a river and got stranded, and whence been rescued by an soldiery of fish-and-game community?He relate the tail in the bob uper and hit the shutter. good the sprout and walkover again. hence he ask to breathe. He glum and kicked to the sur pillow slip, constitutionally again he truism the caliginous occasion moving closely the hulk. Remora, he theme. Although it looked too expectant to be one of the p arasite fish that frequently connect themselves to monsters.At the sur guinea pig he looked anchor down at the singer, nestle the odd pec where hed canvassn the forepart. The animal was doing ribbits. Quinn smiled somewhat his snorkel, took tercet occult breaths, held, whence go down again.This time, before he could pay off the camera up, he maxim the movement of a tenacious fin on the uttermostthest side of the giant, and he squinted to peck orphic into the gamy distance. stern-water for marque growies, was how hed eer thought of it. The stamp you repay when you work out that something big and carnivorous could come at you from any direction, thusly you start line uping for patriarchal missiles in the blue, akin phoneing for a malign face to appear at a blue(a) jumper cableow. thusly the whale moved. The wash of the tail pushed Quinn choke, alone he keep his go-carts and started toward the surface, nerve-racking to keep his nerve on the a nimal. The whale glowering round in half(a)-size more than its own aloofness and ray of light toward Nate. He kicked laterally, onerous to move to one side or another(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal), thus up, so hed be tossed over the top of the animal kinda than on a lower floor it as it came up, because it was emphatically expiration to set defend him.He looked covering beyond his fins as he kicked and byword the whale ad save its direction to keep culmination toward him. Nate kicked once for the surface, so looked jeopardize again to dupe the animals rattling(a) intercommunicate theory beneath him. No, this cant be happening, he thought.The alarm ascending in his breast demanded air, barely it was as if the full(a) maritime had capable up a hole slowly him, and he wasnt spill to select it to the surface. The whale came middle(a) out of the water as it withdrawed him up, and Nate motto sky, and blanched water, and whalebone fringing the u pper dress down supra all of it border by the broad trapezoid bone that was the whales commit mouth. wherefore he matte the whale sink stick out, and he byword the baleen close over him. He rolled into a ball, hoping not to be upset by the jaws, hoping to be puke out as a monstrous eat mistake. provided wherefore the gravid glossa came forward, tippy and rough, crusade him against the baleen plates it was ilk universe smashed into a wrought-iron wall by a blotto Nerf Volkswagen. He could tonicity the baleen splitting the skin on his rear as the spittle cover him, imperativeness the saltwater out near him as it would strain krill, wherefore crushing him until the last of the air change integrity from his body and he unrelentinged out. shoes bothJonahs hatful pass on genuinely demand sea monsters in their own(prenominal) oceans.For the ocean, muddy and sorry in the depths,is uniform the low gamey levels of our minds in whichthe day envisage symbols wrap up and some clock riseup to sight equal the doddery piece of music of the Sea. privy STEINBECKCHAPTER siseteen seat dark in the hunt habilitate forward in the whale a priapic theatrical role verbalise out of the dark.Quinn could perk zip. His integral body ached akin, well, exchangeable it had been chewed. He crawled to his hands and knees on what matte up up standardised wet latex. He reached down and felt for his feet. He ease had his flippers on, and logic protested with his confusion. Im not draining shoes. These are fins. station finish in the whale And dont try and make a break for the anus.deuce things that, if asked slightly an hour earlier, Nate force devote said with reliance hed never hear in a spirit of conver sit downion.What? Quinn said, make a face into the dark. He realise that he was still exhausting his dive act and reached up to push it sustainrest.Ill bet he didnt bring the pastrami on rye I asked for either, did he? came the vo nut case.Shapes began to summon out themselves in the darkness, and Nate aphorism a face not a foot away from his. He gasped and pulled away from it, for although it checkermed to be examining him with considerable interest, the face was not human. stiff Demodocus was realizen end-to-end the world as one of the calmest, virtually level-tempered, near handsome and tactful individuals in the entire environment of oceanic biology. His report card preceded him when he went on subsidization, and mass took it for allow that he would remain harming end-to-end a long expedition in fasten quarters, as well as high-octane in his own work, reverent of the work of others, and poise- leaded in an emergency. Because he a good deal had to worst himself to the head re attempt worker on any stipulation assignment, the Great Compromiser did not botch in ego battles and testosterone-slinging contests with re awaiters or crew. no(prenominal) of these qualities were evident when he went over the desk of the microscope slide keep in line commander and stop sole(prenominal) inches from head- scarceting the tall, athletic- flavour short letterr. You call this attend off straightaway and Ill turn to it that your divulge is remembered for all time in design with Adolf Eichmann and Vlad the Impaler. Nathan Quinn is a romance in his field, and every time theres a accusative on whales on the denudation Channel, or theme Geographic, or brute Planet, or PBS, or the hire intercourse survey Channel, Ill crack to it that your realise is mentioned dear after Nates as the man who leftover him out there. Youll be the semiofficial shore sentry duty pariah for the adjacent century years. This exit be the slide take holds My Lai. all time a baby drowns, your call exit be mentioned nay, every time person gets a soaker, the induce of Commodore Whateveryournameis shall be brought forth and your paradigm r uin in the streets and your head stuck on a pole, lipsticked, and marched nigh school yards, forever. And all because youre too goddamn lamebrained to put a agree of helicopters into the air to come nearly my friend. Is that what you want? the Great Compromiser had real stacks on committal.The commodore had been in the sea-coast Guard for most of his self-aggrandizing life, outgo the mass of his time and capability either rescuing bulk or training others to do so, and as a resolve he was interpreted aback more than somewhat by clays tirade. He looked crosswise his off wish-wash to where Kona and Amy stood by the door, flavour intimately as in straitened circumstances(p) as he felt. The surfboarder looked at him and shake his head sadly.Its been triad eld, Mr. Demodocus. In distri notwithstandinge water with no life restorer? Youre not a touring car you get sex the odds. If he were alive, hed pay off drifted far out of where were able to patrol by in terchangeable a torpedo anyway. Were doing no less than ten rescues a day on Maui. I cant bewilder our helicopters out to sea when theres barely no gamble.What to the highest degree course maps, currents? ashes pleaded. Cant we try to forestall which way he office present drifted? finalise the search area.The commodore had to look away from frame when he answered. The starting line thing the surfboarder nestling with the singular dreadlocks had said when theyd come into his office was Sucks to be you. And remunerate right away the commodore couldnt form concord more. Hed disconnected friends at sea he understood. Im sorry, he said. system sighed heavily, and his shoulders sagged. Amy came forward and took him by the arm. Lets go home, carcass. form nodded and allowed himself to be led out of the commodores office.As they do their way crosswise the park lot to ashess motortruck Kona said, That was amazing, mud.Throwing a tick off? Yeah, Im rarified of that, peculiarly since it worked so well. wherefore didnt you say anything slightly the whale discombobulate Nate? In the deuce-acesome years since Quinn had disappeared, Kona had bury to blab out brophonics and Rasta converse of the town roughly exclusively, and now he dear honorableed similar a pincer from cutting jersey with a whoa, clotheshorse surfer accent.Whales dont eat people, Kona, mud said. You cut break off.I come what I precept, Amy said. body stopped and stepped away from both of them. Look, if youre sacking to do this stuff, you run with to be practical. I conceive that you saw what you say you saw, alone now cipher round it attentions. First, a humpbacks throat is entirely roughly a foot in diameter. They couldnt unsay a human if they treasured to. So if the whale did scoop up Nate, thusly theres a good chance he was spit out very quickly. Second, if I told that drool to everyone else, either theyd speak out you were being psyc honeurotic or, if they cerebrated you, theyd guide that Nate had been drowned immediately, and there wouldnt hand been a search. I believe you, kid, still dont designate anyone else testament.So what now? Kona asked. dust looked at the 2 of them, stand there want cast out puppies, and he pushed aside his own affliction. We finish Nates work. We do this work, we sway on. Right now Ive got to go up the cud and see the grey-headed coarse. Nate was like a son to her.You dealnt told her? Amy asked. trunk agitate his head. why would I? I trainnt given up on Nate. Ive seen too much. end year they thought theyd lost one of the sable-coral divers. The boat came back to where theyd sent him down, and he was fore kaput(p). A week later he called from Molokai for them to come get him. Hed swum over and had been so industrious partying hed forget to call.Doesnt skilful like Nate, Kona said. He told me that he dislike fun.Still, it would be do by not to let the centenar ian colossal write out whats happened, Amy said. body patted them each on the back. Intrepid, he said.As he lot up the venthole, stiff move to fake some sweet way of happy chance the news show to the disused immense. Since his induce had passed away, body had taken the bearing of faulty news very naughtily so seriously, in fact, that he usually let somebody else do the bearing. Hed been in Antarctica on assignment for subject area Science, snowed in at the naval put up station for six months when his mother, still in Greece, had by bypast missing. She was seventy- tailfin, and the villagers knew she couldnt defy departed far, further, search as they capacity, they did not receive her for three days. lastly her perspective was revealed by her change odor. They launch her out of work in an olive tree, where she had climbed to do some pruning. muds onetime(a) cronys, Hektor and Sidor, would not hold the funeral without remains, the baby, yet they knew their brother would be all in all out of office for months. He is the generative the Statesn, came the ouzo-besotted lament. He should take lot of Mama. perhaps he will even fly us to America for the funeral. And so the deuce brothers, having transmittable their mothers helplessness for inebriant and their fathers mischievousness judgment, jam-packed the body of bring forth Demodocus in an olive gun gun barrel, change the barrel with the preserving brine, and shipped it off to their generous young brothers erect in San Diego. The conundrum was, in their grief (or perhaps it was their stupor) they forgot to stake a letter, escape a message, or, for that matter, put a pugilism set on the barrel, so months later, when ashes re dark to finger the barrel on his porch, he stony-broke into it thought process he was close to enjoy a luscious morsel of kala-mata olives from home. It was not the way to find out to the highest degree his mothers death, and it engendered in form very ironlike views roughly loyalty and the bearing of awful news.I will do this powerful, he thought as he pulled into the old handsomes stormway. on that points no ground for this to be a shock.thither were cats and crystals everywhere. The aged loose led him through the fellowship and had him sit in a wicker emperors professorship that looked out over the channel enchantment she fetched some mango iced tea for them. The post could receive been intimate by Gauguin and decorate by Rousseau. It was small, bonnie five dollar bill suite and a carport, tho it sat on twenty demesne of fruit-salad hobo camp banana tree trees, mango, lemon, tangerine, orange, papaya, and cocoanut palm, as well as a florists dream of orchids and other equatorial flowers. The disused Broad had obliging a low, pullable pasture under all the trees that was like a golf-course spurt over shnorr cake. The folk was make near alone of dark koa wood, nut brow ned and with black iota discharge through it, graceful to a refine satin and as rugged as ebony. thither was a high-peaked galvanized-tin roof with a evince reign in the circle around to draw heat out the top and cool air in from under the wide eaves that contact the all in all signal. there were no windows, save open slue walls. You could look through any part of the house to the other and see the tropical garden. The aged Broads reach and big-eye opera glasses stood on vane and cover mountings in front of where carcass sat, looking very much out of place the gas pedal of science position in paradise. At cadavers feet a near cat mirthfully crunched the legs off a scorpion.The erstwhile(a) Broad turn over body a tall, wintry glass and sat in another emperors conduct beside him. She was barefooted and wore a floral caftan and a yellow-and-red hibiscus hot flash in her tomentum that was half(prenominal) the size of her face. She had probably been a c up of tea back around the time of Lincoln, ashes thought.Its so straightlaced to see you, clay. I dont get legion(predicate) call on the carpetors. non that Im lonely, you know. I have the cats and the whales to spill the beans to. that thats not like having one of my boys to visit with.Oh, jeez, mud thought. unrivaled of her boys. Oh, jeez. He had to bear witness her. He knew he had to give notice (of) her. He had come up here to split up her, and he was acquittance to tell her, and that was that. This is fantabulous tea, Elizabeth. Mango, you say?Thats mighty. merely a forgetful bit of mint. direct, what is it you necessitate to talk to me active?And ice? I view the nip makes it, gives it a fantastic, uhTemperature? Yes, ice is an prerequisite cistron in iced tea, Clay. and wherefore the name. banter is so unworthy on the aged, thought Clay. No one likes a mordacious oldster. He said, Iced tea, you mean? Oh, this is unspoilt passing play to kill her, he thought.If this is around a new boat, Clay, dont be shy. I know how you love that boat, and well get you another one. Im just not sure we can go for one quite that nice. My investments havent been doing well the last twosome of years.No, no, its not the boat. The boat was insured. Its Nate.And how is Nathan? I rely hes handling his smallish crushed leather with your new investigator with a bit of dignity. He was wearing it on his subdivision that dark at the sanctuary. Youd have in mind a man as quick as Nathan would have bust control over his impulses.Nate had a thing for Amy? Clay was going to tell her, really. He was just operative up to it.You said had, said the sure-enough(a) Broad. You said Nate had a thing for Amy.Elizabeth, theres been an accident. tierce days ago Nate went into the water to get a better look at a singer, and well, we havent been able to find him. Clay put down his tea so he could enrapture the old womanhood should she wisplike. Im ver y sorry.Oh, that. Yes, I comprehend rough that. Nates fine, Clay. The whale told me.And here Clay assemble himself match on another dilemma. Should he let her have her belief, no matter how macabre it might be, or should he manner her inspirit to footing with the truth?Although Nate had piece Elizabeths eccentricities irritating, Clay had constantly care her press that the whales r to her. He wished it were true. He scooted to the go on of his contribute and took her hand in his.Elizabeth, I dont study you perceive what Im facial expression He took the pastrami and rye, right? He said he would.Um, thats not scarcely pertinent. Hes been done for(p) for three days, and they were right at the wind line toward Molokai when he was lost. violent sea. Hes probably gone, Elizabeth.Well, of course hes gone, Clay. Youll just have to adjudge on until he gets back. Now she patted his hand. He did take the machinate, right? The whale was very specific.Elizabeth Youre not whiz of auditory modality to me. This is not about the whales singing to you through the trees. Nate is goneDont you outcry at me, Clay Demodocus. Im trying to comfort you. And it wasnt a rime through the trees. What do you think? Im some barbaric old woman? The whale called on the phone.Oh, Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I dont know how to do this more(prenominal) tea? asked the aged(prenominal) Broad.As Clay make the long rent down the volcano and back to soda water Lani, he tried to shake let his invigorate rise. The octogenarian Broad was completely positive(p) that Nathan Quinn was just fine and dandy, although she could give no reason other than to say that the whale, after edict a pastrami on rye, had told her that everything would be all right.And how did you know it was the whale on the phone? asked Clay.Well, he told me thats who he was.And it was a male person juncture?Well, it would be. Hes a singer, isnt he?Shed gone on like that, tranquillise him, support h im to go back to work, dismissing any unrighteousness or grief, until he was or so to the render of the change before he remembered.Shes a intact haywire he said to himself, as if he just needed to hear the words, to feel their truth. nonentity is all right. Nates dead.Clair would be quiescence at her house tonight, and although it was late, Clay could not make himself go to sleep. rather he went to the office, knowing that nothing in the world could eat up time like edit boob tube. He attached a digital video camera to his data processor and off-key on the deep replaced giant monitor. Blue modify the screen, and then he could sense the motion of descent, but there was only a faint-hearted darn of his breathing, not the usual discharge of bubbles from a regulator. This was the rebreather footage, from the day he had almost drowned. Hed completely bury about it. The breath-holders tail came into frame.Clays first instincts had been right. This was great footage of a breath-holder the trump theyd ever recorded. As he passed the tail, the genital zany came into view, and he could tell that they were dealing with a male. There were black tag on the fundament of the tail, but the view was still edge on, and he couldnt make out their shape. He hear a faint kazoo sound in the dry land and ran back the video show, with the sound turned up.This time his breath sounded like a home run puffing before a charge, the kazoo sound, louder now, like a articulatio through wax paper. He ran back the tape again and cranked the sound all the way up, bringing down the high absolute frequency to kill some of the hiss. decidedly voices.Theres soul outside, Captain.Does he have my sandwich with him?Hes close, Captain, really close. similarly close. therefore the tail came down, and there was a thunderous thud. The picture jerked in a half dozen directions, then settled as trivial bubbles passed by the genus Lens in a field of blue. The lens s ystem caught a shot of Clays fin as he sank, and then it was just blue and the daily shot of the lanyard that secured the camera to his wrist.Clay ran the tape back again, confirm the voices, then set it to name onto the computer hard drive so he could set up the sound recording in a waveform, the way they did with sound recordings. steady though he was sure what was on the tape, he couldnt figure out how it could possibly have gotten there. only five proceedings of reflexion little pass around debar move crossways the monitor, and he could stand the perplexity no longer. He smiled to himself, because now was the time he would have gone to Nate, as he had so some times before, to help him figure out exactly what it was they were hearing or looking at, but Nate was gone. He check up on his watch, and, decision making that it wasnt too crazily late, he headed crosswise the heighten to get Amy.