But this meant that Zaurak had wanted to kill Izar for at least the last three years, since the time of the chip implant. Why, Izar still couldn’t fathom.
Anyhow, the chip had enabled Zaurak to track Izar’s every movement, as by satellite. No wonder the derrick had fallen on Dominion Drill I precisely where Izar had been standing. Also, after Alshain had hurled Izar overboard, he must have spoken to Zaurak, but even had the giant not done so, Zaurak would have known Izar remained alive simply through the platinum chip. And so Zaurak had dispatched Serpens to the Atlantic Ocean to kill him. Because of the chip, Serpens had located Izar and hurled nets over him with precision.
Izar considered today’s ship attack from Serpens and Zaurak’s perspective: Izar had died in the fishnet, and so Serpens must believe he’d succeeded in killing him. Serpens had then seen Coralline bringing him down into the water—thus, the downward movement of the platinum chip would have been accounted for by her. But if Izar budged at all from his current position, Zaurak and Serpens would know he remained alive—because of the movement of his platinum chip—and they would hunt him again. If he swam deep, they wouldn’t be able to find him for a time, but, eventually, whenever he found the elixir, transformed, and approached shore, they would catch him like a homing pigeon. They wouldn’t let him reach Menkar alive.
In order to live, Izar would have to remove the platinum chip. It would be best to do it immediately, so that Serpens and Zaurak continued to believe him dead.
A shadow fell over him. Coralline reached a hand up and patted Pavonis’s endless white belly.
“Get out of the way, Coralline,” he said in a low, ominous voice.
Coralline opened her mouth as though to argue, but her lips snapped shut—even Izar could tell there would be no arguing with Pavonis in his present state, quivering with anger.
Previously, outside Bristled Bed and Breakfast, Pavonis had tossed Izar up and down until Izar’s stomach had churned; now, Pavonis’s stomach came down upon him, flattening him against the pebbles. Izar tried to push up against the whale shark, but it was like trying to dislodge a tractor. He felt like a balloon on the verge of popping.
“What are you trying to do, Pavonis?” Coralline cried. From underneath Pavonis, Izar turned his head to find Coralline’s bronze tailfin at his eye level, flicking worriedly.
“I’m going to squash the lies out of him. I’m not going to stop until he’s dead or every last lie is out, whichever comes first. Now, human,” Pavonis said, pressing down until Izar’s ribs creaked, “do you realize you’ve endangered us, not once but twice?”
“Yes,” Izar squeaked, his voice high-pitched, for even his throat was constricted by Pavonis’s weight. “And I’m sorry for it.”
“Sorry? Is that all you have to say? Did you know that your friends were shooting at Coralline? Did you know that she could be dead right now, at this moment?”
Izar must have died in the fishnet before the gunshots, so he had not heard them. He looked at Coralline’s tailfin again, still at his eye level—translucent at the edges, it was as delicate as a handkerchief. He imagined her bleeding to death, her scales turning white. A shudder ran through him.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated weakly.
“Now, human,” said the shark, his belly pressing down farther, until Izar’s shoulder blades were scratched against the pebbles beneath, “I need you to tell me the truth. What did those men want with you? And who are you, really?”
“He’s already told us, Pavonis, remember?” Coralline said.
“I don’t remember.”
“He works at Ocean Protection, and Ocean Dominion is his enemy. That must be why they attacked him today.”
“Must it? Say it, human.”
Izar swallowed hard. Under no circumstances could he reveal to them that he belonged to Ocean Dominion. They would not forgive him; they would not accept him. He could not tell them the truth, yet he could not continue to lie either. Or could he? If Coralline removed the platinum chip from his wrist, a ship could not possibly attack them again. As such, although Izar had twice exposed them to danger by his presence, he would no longer be doing so if the chip was removed. He wanted to burn out his own tongue, but he repeated Coralline’s words in his high-pitched voice.
“How did they find you?” Pavonis demanded, doing a sort of jiggle above Izar, leading his scalp to scrape against the pebbles.
“I was just about to get to that,” Izar groaned. “On that note, I have a favor to ask.”
“Do you really think you’re in a position to ask favors?”
“Let him ask it, Pavonis!” Coralline said. “And let him rise.”
Pavonis jiggled some more, quite fervently, before reluctantly moving away with a swing of his tail. Izar lay there, rubbing his ribs. When he could speak again, and his voice was almost normal, he said, “There’s a platinum chip in my wrist that’s a tracker. That’s how they found me, and that’s how they’ll find me again—and kill me, unless you extract it, Coralline.”
Coralline plopped down next to Izar on the pebbles, her tail extended in front of her. She pressed the skin of his wrist with her thumb, first gently, then hard. Her eyes widened as she felt the small slab of metal. “I would help you if I could,” she said, “but the chip appears to be a part of your bone itself. Its extraction would require slitting your veins, which would, quite possibly, kill you.”
“I’d rather die at your hands than theirs.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“I believe in your skills.”
“You shouldn’t. I don’t have a medical badge.”
“Are you afraid you’ll get in trouble legally?”
“No. You don’t have any underwater records, so, even if you die, a murder charge cannot arise against me.”
“That makes me feel better!” He smiled, hoping to tug a smile to her lips as well, but the set of her mouth remained somber. “You’re clearly competent at what you do, Coralline,” he persisted. “You helped both my shoulder and my hand with your salves.”
“You don’t understand. Surgeries are performed in clinics, not open water. At present, I have only my apothecary arsenal with me, which contains only a limited number of implements. Also, surgeries are performed only by apothecaries who are at the level of manager or master. I’ve never operated on anyone before. I was a lowly apprentice, and even in that role, I managed to get fired.”
“Why were you fired?”
“My boss, Rhodomela Ranularia, said I wasn’t thinking for myself. She said I was relying too much on my medical textbooks. On this note, I don’t have any of my textbooks with me at present. For a procedure as delicate as this, I would have liked to consult Smooth Scalpels as well as Snip and Stitch.”
“Well, if your boss thinks you don’t need textbooks, I’m sure you don’t.”
“That wasn’t the only reason I was fired,” Coralline said, her cheeks reddening. “I have a flaw considered fatal in my profession.”
“You enjoy killing patients?”
“No.”
“Torturing them, when no one’s looking?”
“No. This isn’t a joke, Izar. I’m afraid of blood. It acts as a sort of tranquilizer for me. As soon as it enters my nostrils, I feel dizzy. It’s possible I’ll faint during your procedure.”
“If you don’t extract the chip, I will certainly die,” Izar said quietly. “If you do, I may live. My fate is in your hands.”