The experts consistently moved with grace now. No frantic flapping, no violent splashes. Body movements were controlled, precise. Discontinuities in the airflow still occurred, but they were far less common, and even when they did happen; the resulting turbulence no longer sent them crashing into the ocean. The four dozen creatures had learned to regain continuity, to fly through turbulence just like an airplane or a bird. Wind wasn’t a problem either. By manipulating their flying muscles in literally thousands of subtle yet significant ways, they’d learned to use the wind to their advantage, to manage it, to massage it.
After months of practice, hovering, too, had become more than doable. Like the rest of the movements, it was almost natural now.
Almost. With the full moon shining down, the four dozen predators continued to practice. There were different types of hovering, and several focused on the most basic, hovering in the stationary position, beating their wings in rapid smooth movements and holding steady. Others hovered while simultaneously moving forward. Others still hovered straight up, rising like helicopters, then descended the same way. Half a dozen worked on arcing motions, rising up, moving forward, then descending again. A few dive-bombed, then came to gentle hovering stops just above the water. They all practiced something, over and over again.
All of them wanted to stop, however, to submerge and join their brethren in the water. None dared. Earlier, one had tried, and the one that had become their leader savagely killed it. They continued to practice.
As they did, those beneath the waves just watched them soaring like great, watery seagulls beneath the rippling moon. Then a mass of clouds drifted in front of the orb and threw the submerged creatures into darkness. Still none moved. They simply continued to watch. Even as everything faded to black.
CHAPTER 41
“IS MONIQUE still reading that e-mail?”
It was night on the Expedition’s stern. Craig, Darryl, and Phil were crouched at the back wall, eyeing the monitors. Lisa was jotting something in her notebook. So no one answered Jason as he looked up from the laptop. “Darryl? Is Monique still reading that e-mail?”
“Oh.” Darryl thought about it. “She must be.” When he’d gone down earlier, she hadn’t even looked at him, just read page after page of information. “Hey, turn that up a little, will ya, Sloppy Joe?”
“You like this, Big Dog?” Craig increased the volume on his enormous boom box, playing a soulful female singer.
“Love it.”
Jason put the laptop down. “I like it, too.”
Craig was surprised. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Jason had just finished typing his notes for the Species Council report and, despite his curiosity about what Monique had found, actually felt like relaxing a little. He looked up at the sky. It was gorgeous, no clouds and a trillion stars.
“Jason.”
“Yeah.”
It was Darryl, at the stairs with Craig and Phil. “Phil’s gonna show us a new video game. Wanna come?”
“Oh, thanks, but I’m not really into video games, guys.”
They disappeared, and Jason looked back up at the sky. It was just stunning. He exhaled and tapped his feet to the music, wondering who the singer was. Then he noticed Lisa, still jotting in her notebook, and saw her feet were also tapping. He realized the two of them were alone.
“Nice night, huh?” She was looking up now too.
“Beautiful.”
She turned back to her notebook. And right there, Jason summoned up the courage to do something he’d been thinking about for quite a while. “Lisa.”
“Yeah.”
“Would you like to dance?”
She paused when Darryl and the guys started coming back up, but Darryl overhead and turned them around.
“I’d love to dance.”
They went to the middle of the deck.
Lisa raised an eyebrow when he put an arm around her waist.
“You probably had no idea I was such a smooth lothario,” he joked.
She laughed, maybe too hard, and he immediately felt self-conscious. “Or maybe you just thought I was some controlling, insecure marine biologist.”
She smiled. “You guessed it.”
“So the music’s pretty good, huh?”
“Changing the subject?”
“Not at all. What do you want to talk about?”
“Why you’re so controlling, of course.” She was still smiling. “Seriously, why do you micromanage everything, Jason? Why can’t you trust anybody?”
“Maybe I’m just wired that way.”
“I don’t buy that. It’s more than that.”
He looked around, at the gorgeous sky, the moon. “Come on, I thought we could try to relax here.”
“I didn’t think you could ever relax.”
“This isn’t helping.”
“Why can’t you trust anyone?”
He turned to the glistening ocean. “I’ve honestly never thought about it.”
“Tell me.” She gently turned his chin. “Please.”
He looked at her. “Maybe it started with all the Manta World problems.”
“OK.”
He looked at the stars. “You’ve got to understand, Lisa, people I’d known for years, people I’d trusted… They all suddenly stopped calling. Meetings got canceled, my tables at conferences ended up empty….” He looked her in the eye. “They abandoned me and they never came back.” He shrugged. “After a while, you start to lose trust in people.”
“I see.” This was a real answer, and she almost hadn’t been expecting it. “I’m very sorry.”
“To be honest, for a long time, I felt you were letting me down too. You were so totally focused on your own research. Often at the expense of what the rest of us were trying to accomplish. I think I really resented that. It might be why we fought so much.”
She swallowed this bitter pill silently. “Do you still feel like that?”
He paused. “I haven’t felt that way for a while. About you, about anyone on the boat. It’s really been a great turnaround.”
“Then how come you still can’t trust us?”
“I can trust you.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Really, I—”
“Good things happen when you trust us, Jason. Look at what happened when you went to Princeton to talk to that Ban… Bar… Bardan…”
“Bandar Vishakeratne.”
“Look at what we did, what we found while you were away with him.”
“That’s because I trusted you. You just proved it.”
“You didn’t trust anybody, Jason You left because you had to. It’s not the same thing.”
He smiled. “It isn’t?”
“Jesus Christ, no, it isn—”
“You’re very pretty, Lisa. I don’t think I’ve ever told you that, but I’ve noticed. I’ve noticed every single day. Wrinkled clothes or not, you are beautiful.”
She hesitated. “Changing the subject again?”
They kept dancing, maybe a little closer.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“Thank you. I’ll think about what you said.”
As they continued he held her tighter… and it felt a little strange. On the one hand, physically holding Lisa Barton after all this time was odd, definitely odd, but on the other hand, it was also natural.
It was the same for Lisa, strange but natural, too.
The song ended, and they heard something…. It was the guys, starting up the stairs. Darryl poked his head up meekly, as if asking if it was OK to return. Jason waved him forward.