Yes. Very far. Follow us.
Wait. Lee frowned at the captain. “I’m guessing you are not interested in going back.”
“I think I’d rather chew broken glass,” Emerson scoffed.
“I think we should-” Clay suddenly stopped and stared over Chris Ramirez’s shoulder. A person was watching them from outside the window. Alison and the others turned around as Clay took a step between them to get a better look when the person suddenly raised something up and pointed in their direction. “Get down!” Clay shouted and stepped in front of Alison.
Alison grabbed Clay and peered around his shoulder. She instantly recognized the person in the window; it was the journalist she saw earlier with the dumb hat. The man was focused, not on them but on Lee Kenwood’s monitor screen. When he realized the others were looking at him, he quickly put the object down and darted away.
“Hey!” Clay yelled and ran after him. He burst through the door and chased the stranger along the long catwalk, his feet banging the thick metal grate with every step.
The stranger ran quickly to the stairs and half slid, half jumped to the level below. He bolted past the lounge and headed for the stern of the ship.
“Stop him!” Clay yelled and cursed the fact that there was no one else outside. Most of the crew was inside helping the ship’s doctor tend to the rest of the passengers. Clay reached the end of the second level catwalk and turned the corner to find the observation deck empty. He crossed over to the port side and looked forward. Emerson was running down the other side toward him. Clay looked around again just in time to see the man sprint past behind him. He reached the railing of the deck above the stern’s platform and the dolphin’s makeshift tank. He looked around and then back at Clay. With Clay now just a few feet away, the stranger swung over the rail looking for something to land on but at the last moment the man’s sleeve caught a protruding bolt. The sudden change in motion caused his legs to pitch inward and his head and shoulders to turn out. He tried to correct his orientation as he fell but could not correct in time. He hit hard, head first, making a sickening crunch.
Clay, followed by Emerson and now another crew member from the bridge, scrambled down the last flight of metal stairs and ran to the motionless figure. Clay put his fingers against the man’s neck and felt for a pulse. “He’s still alive.”
Two more crewmen arrived. “Get the doc down here!” Emerson shouted. One of the officers ran back up the stairs. The remaining two knelt next to Clay and helped slowly turn the man on his back. They cut his clothes open looking for other obvious injuries.
Clay and Emerson stood up and stepped back as the ship’s doctor came running down the stairs and started checking his vitals. After a few minutes, the doctor looked up at the crewman. “Get him on a stretcher gently and get him to medical!”
Even against the rocking of the ship, Emerson’s crew managed to get the injured man up the stairs without losing him or the stretcher. Clay and Emerson watched as the men made it to the second deck and took him forward of the lounge to the medical area, located just below and back from the bridge.
Emerson shook his head. “This day is getting stranger by the minute.” He started for the stairs when Clay reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Before we head back,” he said reaching into his pocket, “take a look at this.” Clay pulled out a small silver object and showed it to the captain.
“What is this?” Emerson took it and turned it over in his hand. It was a small, flat rectangular piece of metal about an inch thick.
“I don’t know,” Clay replied. “But that is what he was holding up when we saw him through the window.”
“Where did you get it?” Emerson asked.
“It was in his pocket.”
“Hmm…looks like a silver brick. Or maybe a digital camera, except there is nothing on it. No lens, no button, no anything.” He handed it back to Clay.
Clay ran his fingers up and down the smooth sides. “Why would he be holding this up?”
“No idea.”
Clay frowned. “The funny thing is that when I saw him he looked like he was pointing it.”
“Like a weapon?”
“I doubt it,” Clay said. “Besides he wasn’t pointing it at us. He was pointing it at that kid Lee Kenwood and his monitor.”
Clay was standing outside the door to the medical lab watching Doctor Kanna, the ship’s doctor, examine the man who lay unconscious on his table. They had run a check on his fingerprints which came up empty as did his identification and press credentials. They were not sure how he managed to get aboard with the others and assumed it was a mistake or some kind of forgery during check-in at the dock. After some questioning, they also found that none of the other journalists had any idea who he was.
As the doctor examined the motionless figure, he spoke into a small microphone to record the details of his examination. The injury was significant, and they had already sent for an airlift to the nearest hospital. Clay was watching Kanna take an x-ray when Alison walked up behind him.
“Any news?” she asked.
Clay shook his head. “Not yet. He seems to be a bit of a mystery.”
“I hear a helicopter is coming out to get him.”
He nodded. “The doctor thinks it’s pretty bad.”
After a long silence watching the doctor, she turned to Clay. “Listen…I wanted to thank you.”
Clay turned away from the window. “For what?”
“You shielded me from whatever he was doing.” She motioned to the figure on the table.
“Oh,” Clay gave her a casual shrug. “It was nothing, just instinct.” He began to turn away when he noticed she was staring at him. “What?”
Alison said nothing. Instead, she glared at him.
Clay finally got the message and smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Alison relaxed. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Were you really just in this to find your probe?”
He smiled again. “Yes.”
“No hidden agenda?” she said with a skeptical tone.
“Just the probe.”
Alison nodded at that. “I guess I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well in case you haven’t notice I’ve been kind of a bitch.”
Clay laughed. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Then you’re blind.”
“Is this the bitchy side?” he asked motioning to their little exchange.
“Oh shut up.” She said shaking her head.
“Don’t worry about it. For what it’s worth I don’t blame you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I read up on you a little, on what the Navy did with your project in Central America.”
“What?” she said. “You read my file?”
Clay smirked. “File, what file? I ‘Googled’ you.”
This time Alison laughed. “You found out about that from Google?”
“You’d be surprised. A lot of times we use it instead of the Navy’s system.”
Alison nodded her head while still grinning. “So…” she said holding out her hand. “No hard feelings?”
Clay took her hand and gave it a gentle shake. “No hard feelings.” He glanced back at the doctor continuing his examination. “So how are Dirk and Sally doing?”
“They’re fine. A little hungry but good.”
Clay turned back to her. “I have to tell you Alison, I’ve seen some amazing things but what you’ve done with those dolphins is nothing short of earth shattering.”
“Thanks,” she said with a shrug. “But it wasn’t all me.”
“I know. But it was a lot you.” He looked seriously at her. “I think you’re about to change the world Alison Shaw.”