Dr. Sam opened another can of beer. “Cavenger got the keys and code for the salmon grid. Wants me to check it out in the morning, make sure some novice from State Fish and Game doesn’t suddenly feel like running a test and opening the grid. It’d give the plesiosaurs clear sailing straight back to Lake Champlain.”
“What’s with that grid?” Loch wanted to know. “Why’d they build it in the first place?”
“Half the salmon spawning grounds in the country have been wrecked by damming and mill operations,” Dr. Sam said, sitting back in the nook. “Now they’re having a lot of success getting salmon to swim back up rivers. The grid acts as a kind of big fish ladder and man-made spawning ground.”
Dr. Sam got up at dawn and set out in the Volvo. Loch and Zaidee were still asleep when the phone rang at nine. Loch jumped up and grabbed it.
“Hello?” Loch said, trapping the phone in the crook of his neck as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Did I wake you?” Sarah asked.
“I guess so,” Loch admitted.
Zaidee staggered by, heading for the bathroom. “Oh, God, it’s her, isn’t it?” she muttered. “I’m warning you, don’t trust anybody who wears four-inch-high clogs.”
Loch motioned his sister to zipper her mouth. “Were you able to get any wheels?” Loch asked.
“One of the company jeeps,” Sarah said. “I’ll be right over.”
“Bring your snorkel mask and fins.”
“What for?”
“You’ll find out,” Loch said. He hung up, grabbed a glass of orange juice from the refrigerator, and went to the open bathroom door. Zaidee was foaming at the mouth with toothpaste and glaring at him.
“I think we’ve got to trust her,” Loch said. “We’re really going to need the jeep.”
“If that spoiled brat does anything to hurt Wee Beastie”-Zaidee gagged, spitting her toothpaste out into the sink-“she’s one dead dork.”
9
Sarah drove the jeep off the main base, pulled onto the south lake road, and shoved the stick shift into high gear. She was traveling at a good clip when she spotted Loch and Zaidee walking toward her on the shoulder of the road. She waited until she was close, then braked the jeep hard, screeching it to a stop next to them.
“What’s up?” Sarah asked, peering over the top of her favorite sunglasses.
“First stop is North Alburg,” Loch said, grabbing the roll bar and swinging himself onto the seat next to her. “The Grand Union.”
Zaidee spotted the double Gs on the thick silver rims of Sarah’s glasses. “Nice shades,” Zaidee remarked, as she got into the back.
“Thanks.” Sarah threw the jeep back into gear and picked up speed along the south road until the fork to North Alburg. There she turned left and headed straight over Snake Mountain.
“Can I drive?” Zaidee asked, the fringe of her bob rippling in the breeze.
Sarah rolled her eyes at Loch. “Is she kidding?”
“I know how to drive,” Zaidee said, insulted. “My dad lets me drive the Volvo all the time.”
“In circles around the trailer,” Loch kidded.
“It’s still driving,” Zaidee said. She spotted a canvas pocket behind the front seat and lifted its flap. “Hey, you’ve got a CB radio.”
“All the company jeeps have them,” Sarah said.
“Great.” Zaidee perked up. “I could use a little entertainment.” She took the CB out, pulled up its telescopic antenna, and flipped the power switch. There was a lot of static as she turned the tuner knob. Finally, the voices of a couple of truckers came in loud and clear. “Hello,” Zaidee said into the mike, pressing the broadcast button. “Hello. This is The Big Z, The Big Z … ”
Nobody answered.
In twenty minutes they were over the mountain and in the small town of North Alburg. Sarah slowed the jeep as they traveled down the main street past a black-and-white-shuttered church with a high steeple, a post office that doubled as a newsstand, and a Mobil gas station. At the very end of the street were the huge glass windows of the Grand Union supermarket. Sarah turned the jeep left into the front lot and parked.
“What are you getting?” Sarah asked.
“You’ll see,” Loch said, getting out.
“You’re both acting very strange, is all I can say,” Sarah told Loch. “Very strange.”
Sarah followed Loch and Zaidee inside. Loch grabbed an empty grocery cart and pushed it toward the back of the store. He stopped at the fish department. A man in a white smock was busy stocking an iced counter.
“You’re the manager?” Loch asked.
“That’s me.” The man smiled.
“I called this morning from Lake Alban, about buying fish,” Loch said. “Remember?”
Sarah thought she was hearing things. “You’re getting fish?”
“Yes, fish.” Zaidee emphasized “fish.”
“Like I told you,” the manager said to Loch, “our new delivery comes in tonight, so you can have a good break on what’s left.”
If there was one thing Loch knew, it was all the different kinds of freshwater and saltwater fish. “Give me three of the sea bass,” he told the manager as he moved along the counter with its neat display of fish laid out on the ice bed. The manager tore off a big piece of waxed paper, laid it on the scale, and started piling the fish on it.
“I guess we can use a half dozen fluke and mackerel, right?” Loch asked Zaidee.
“Sure,” Zaidee agreed.
“What do you want so much fish for?” Sarah asked, looking really confused.
“Didn’t you ever wake up in the morning and get a yen for something?” Zaidee asked, savoring the grimace on Sarah’s face.
“Give us a couple of bluefish and a half dozen salmon,” Loch told the manager. “And you might as well throw in a few squid.”
Zaidee spotted a monkfish at the end of the counter. “We definitely need this!” she said, picking up the fish and rushing it to the scale.
“That is so ugly,” Sarah said.
Zaidee relished the expression on Sarah’s face. “Oh, and we need that big one,” Zaidee cried, seeing a really large striped bass. She whisked it up with her two hands and sailed it right by Sarah’s face.
“Nasty!” Sarah yelled. “Get it away!”
Zaidee placed the fish on the scale as Loch thrust his hand into his pocket to check exactly how much money they’d been able to scrape together from their allowances. “How much so far?” Loch asked the manager.
“What do you say to forty bucks for everything?” the manager asked.
“Great,” Loch agreed.
“I don’t want those disgusting things stinking up the jeep,” Sarah complained.
“No problem,” the manager told her. He double-wrapped the fish, stuck them in a large black plastic bag with a scoop of ice, and stapled a price ticket to the top of the bag.
“Thanks,” Loch said, as he lifted it into the shopping cart and started up the aisle to the checkout counter. Zaidee spotted a box of Fruity Pebbles and added it to the cart.
Sarah waited until they were outside in the parking lot before she let it all out. “What’s with the fish?”
“We need to show you,” Loch said, swinging the bag into the back of the jeep. “Let me drive, okay?”
Sarah tossed him the keys.
“I can handle a stick shift.” Zaidee spoke up.
“Forget it,” Sarah said.
Zaidee climbed in next to the fish. She sulked, then opened the box of Fruity Pebbles as they pulled out of the lot and headed out of town. On the way back over Snake Mountain, Zaidee wanted to go on record. “My brother needs to show you something,” she clarified for Sarah. “I don’t.”
“Show me what?” Sarah pressed.
“We found something we don’t want your father to know about,” Loch said. “You’ve got to promise not to tell him. Not for a while anyway.”
“Just tell me,” Sarah demanded. “I can’t listen this slowly!”
“Promise you won’t tell your father!” Zaidee insisted.
“I promise. What is it?”
“You’ll see,” Loch said.