Alison smiled. “I hope so.”
Clay thought for a moment. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. “Is there anyone who would not…want you to succeed?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean do you have competitors, other teams maybe, working toward the same goal?”
“Of course. There are several other teams. A few in the States and a couple in Europe. Why?”
Clay looked back to the man unconscious on the other side of the glass. “That guy seemed awfully interested in what you three were doing upstairs.”
Alison looked confused. “I thought that was the whole point of being on the ship in the first place, to cover this. I just assumed he was trying to sneak a shot of the screen, you know something to ‘up’ his story.”
Clay turned back to Alison. “Then why would he run?”
Alison gave him a perplexed look. The thought had not occurred to her. “I don’t know, maybe he thought he was going to get in trouble for leaving the lounge or something. The conditions were getting awfully dangerous.”
“Hmm,” Clay said to himself. “How much trouble would someone be in for that?”
“Are you kidding? This is the Navy.” She gave him a sarcastic look. “You know the military! You guys are pretty obsessive about things.”
“That’s true.” He nodded, still thinking to himself. He reached into his pocket and took out the small rectangular object he retrieved from the man’s clothing. “Do you have any idea what this is?”
She looked at it. “A camera?”
“That’s what I thought too.” He turned it over and showed her the various sides of it. “But there’s no lens or screen, or even lines for that matter.”
Alison reached out and took it. She examined it closer and bobbed it up and down in her hand. “It’s not heavy though. If it was solid metal it would be heavy right?”
“It depends on the metal, but yes, generally it would be much heavier.”
“Then what is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Clay said, as Alison dropped it back into his hand. “But if it’s not a camera, why would he be holding it up to the window?” He looked at Alison. “I was assuming he was trying to steal your information.”
She shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible, but researchers usually tend to be more collaborative than competitive. I mean don’t get me wrong, there are definitely people who try to keep their research quiet, but that’s usually in things like physics or electronics, something with commercial potential. When we keep things quiet, it’s just because we want to get a big jump on everyone else, not for material gain. Let’s put it this way, not a lot of people get rich over marine biology. Sure we can write a book and get tenure at some expensive college, but it’s not the kind of lifestyle that would cause you to keep things secret in hopes of becoming rich.”
“Besides,” she continued, “the other groups working with dolphins have taken much different approaches. More manual and not as much technology involved. In fact two groups are not trying to communicate as much as measure kinetic and energy influences.”
“So not much reason to be after your data,” Clay finished.
“Not really.”
Clay nodded, accepting her explanation. “You know there is something else I need to tell you.”
“Okay.”
Clay took a deep breath. “I don’t think I did you any favors upstairs when I asked if you had a security clearance.”
“I thought you were joking,” she smiled. “Why would we have a security clearance?”
“Well I suppose I was but after talking to Captain Emerson and my superiors, it was agreed that whatever we experienced back there has to be treated as a security matter.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well,” he continued. “It means that everyone on board, including your team, will need to be debriefed when we get back to port.”
“Okay.” Alison seemed unconcerned. “How long does that take?”
“It’s hard to say, maybe a couple hours each.” Clay said. “Remember, this is the military, we tend to be obsessive about things.”
Alison was surprised. “A couple of hours each?!”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Well that’s not going to work. What are we going to do with Dirk and Sally? We just got them back into the tanks. We can’t keep them in there overnight while you guys are asking us questions under a bright light.”
“Bright light?”
“Well I don’t know how you do it!” she exclaimed.
“Relax, they’ve agreed to let you get the dolphins home before they put the giant light on you. They will have to escort you back though.”
“What do you mean agreed?”
“It took a little convincing,” he admitted.
“From who, you?”
“The important thing is that you will have time to get Dirk and Sally settled first.”
“Thank you.” Alison said with genuine sincerity. He was not turning out anything like she assumed.
“Don’t thank me yet. The debriefing can be extensive.”
Alison nodded and looked around the small room. She watched Doctor Kanna clip some x-rays up to a screen and turn the light on. He stepped back with his hand on his chin studying them.
“I guess we’d better start getting things packed up,” she said. “Are you heading back upstairs?”
Clay shook his head. “Not yet. I have some questions for the doctor.” He pulled the silver object back out of his pocket. “And I think I might borrow his x-ray machine.”
“Okay,” Alison said. She paused and then quickly held out her hand. “It was nice working with you.”
Clay smiled and shook it again. “The pleasure was mine.”
With that, Alison turned and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Doctor Kanna was still looking at the x-rays when Clay entered. About the size of a large clinic, the room was filled with stainless steel instruments and furniture. A small bookshelf on the far wall was filled with a number of medical journals and textbooks. Kanna looked at him momentarily and then back to the display.
“Dr. Kanna.” He said quietly.
“Hello John.”
“Any changes?” Clay asked.
“Yes, but not for the better. His condition is deteriorating quickly. I hope the helicopter gets here soon. I’m worried there may not be enough time,” he motioned around the room, “and I don’t have the equipment to do much here.”
Clay nodded. There were only a few wires on the patient monitoring his heart rate and blood pressure. Both of which looked unusually low, even with what little he knew about medicine.
“It’s strange though,” Kanna went on, “the worst of it is the blow he took to the head, and I think the brain is swelling. But the rest of him appears relatively undamaged, yet his respiration, blood pressure, and most everything else is depressed. Even his heart beat looks to be irregular. Very odd and a little alarming.”
Clay took a closer look at the man. “Could it all be a result of the brain trauma?”
Kanna shrugged. “It’s possible. He also looks like he’s had some plastic surgery, which may indicate other health problems. We’ve got to get him to a trauma center where they can find out more.” He looked at the x-rays closer. “This is also weird.”
“What’s that?” Clay stepped around the table and closer to the display which had over a dozen pictures on it.
Kanna pointed to one on the left. “He’s missing a large area of bone around the right side of his rib cage.” He pointed to another. “And here he has a strange shape to his femurs. He may have a birth defect or some kind of deficiency. I wonder if it’s given him a weaker bone structure which might explain why his injury is as severe as it-”