THE OTHER BIG SECRET 2: RABBIT STEW / CH. 8: SIGNALS
ATLANTIC LISTENING CENTRE, WEDNESDAY, SEPT 21ST 1977
“Sir, we've picked up that strange signal again. Massive cavitation.” the captain in charge of the centre stated.
“Going south again?” the admiral asked.
“No sir, north this time.”
“Can you get better fix on its path this time?”
“Yes sir. It's moving quickly, but we're on it, all right. It just overloaded our sensors south of Chile. I'd say it's following roughly the same course it took last time, just in reverse.”
“Details?”
“Crazy numbers sir. They don't make any sense.”
“Tell me.”
“Speed: a hundred and thirty knots, depth, about fifteen hundred metres, and yes sir, I mean metres, not feet. There's nothing that goes at that speed including a torpedo, and we're getting a noise signature that fits something way bigger than that. It's got to be nuke-powered, if it's not natural.”
“Scientists said it wasn't natural based on the recordings we sent. What did the Ruskies say, last time?” the Admiral growled.
“Wanted to know what we were playing at.”
“You told them it wasn't ours, I presume.”
“Yes sir.”
“Estimated power?”
“If it was the size of a 637-class, it'd need something like three hundred thousand shaft horse power. I'd guess it's smaller. But you can't make a
637-class that'll go that deep, or fit twenty five times the reactor power on
the thing.”
“You can't fit one reactor on anything much smaller, either.” pointed out the admiral.
“So, we're back to the guess of an ensign, sir. Someone's fed a whale a really hot pepper, it's Martians, or it's a natural event.”
“You say it's following the same course backwards?”
“Yes sir, if it does, then it'll go between the Azores and Africa, then up towards Britain.”
“Hmm, I wonder what our friends in the British Admiralty will think about strange detections heading into their home patch.”
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[Karella!] Rose called.
[Hi, Rose, what's up?]
[I think you're being too noisy. Out of curiosity I had a look at who'd noticed your path last time. Lots of navy people, scientists, all sorts.]
[Uh oh.]
[It gets worse, they've already noticed you. Most of them think you're a natural pheonomena, but others are thinking you're some new Russian weapon being tested.]
[So, should we be a natural phenomena? Follow the mid-atlantic ridge?]
[I guess so, if that's a good place for earthquakes or something.]
[Very.]
[You can't just go slowly?]
[No problem, except that Rick's got the shop to worry about.]
[Maybe you'd better fly next time, or plan to shut for longer.]
[Thanks for the warning. They're not planning to drop a net on us or anything are they?]
[I don't think so. Well, not yet, anyway, but there is someone in the Royal Navy that's aware you're going that way.]
[You, Rose, are the most useful sister-in-law I've ever had. Thank you.]
[Just don't go racing into a cliff or anything. I promised my Emerald necklace to your firstborn daughter, and I mean to keep that promise.]
[Do you know something I don't know?]
[Of course I do, Karella, it's part of my gift to know all sorts of things. But I don't know you're pregnant if that's what your asking.]
[What a shame.]
[I don't know you're not, either, of course.]
[Could you find out?]
[No idea. Are you that impatient to spoil your honeymoon with morning sickness?]
[No... but I'd really like my children to know my grandma.]
[I can understand that. She's a great woman.]
----------------------------------------
MERFOLK COVE, NOON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT 21ST 1977
“James, visitors coming.” Rose called.
“Your job, or mine?”
“Both. We've got about fifteen hopefuls coming.”
“Oooh. OK. I'll get the props.”
“Props?”
“We don't want to make it too hard for them to act. I've cut some sticks for them to hold as spears, and got some pots they can pretend to collect oysters in. I think we'll arrange them in threes, two can act as divers, the other one can act as a merman.”
“Oh. OK. Have you any idea where to do this?”
“Yes. Outside, by the edge of the woods. That's the closest we can get to a real situation.”
“OK. And you're going to have them hold their breaths?” Rose asked.
“Absolutely. Can you bring some of that rope?”
“What for?”
“Measuring things. I want to see how far they can run while holding their breath.”
----------------------------------------
“Right. You're new to this, we're new to this, but I hope we all know roughly what we're looking for.” Rose said. “So who wants to tell me?”
“Strong swimmers, good divers.” said one.
“Who can act all surprised.” said another.
“Who don't need a steady job.” Rose added. “We're talking about two or three sightings a week, which means maybe an hour's work for a sighting.”
“When you say a 'sighting', what do you mean?” Pania asked.
“Good question.” James replied, “What we mean is that, all naturally, you come into view of the diver, get noticed, and swim away. If you don't get noticed, then that's either because you weren't close enough, or they weren't looking. You don't come back and have another go, because someone might be watching you from the cliffs. Preferably your approach and departure are all under water. When we say it's an hour's work, that's because you'll need to coordinate, probably with Rose, about where the divers are, and where you'll be swimming from and to. How you approach, how you retreat. We can't have you being seen by a group as you get into or out of the water, either. So, it's going to be quite difficult to arrange, and you're going to need to be pretty good at holding your breath for the encounter.”
“We'll also want you to act according to this little description, if you happen to see someone doing something they shouldn't.” Rose said, handing out the flyers they'd had printed out.
“Mer-women are the warriors?” Pania asked, surprised.
“Keep reading and you'll see why they put in a lot of practice.” James replied. “You might find it shocking.”
Pania looked around. “Not everyone reads as well as I do.” she told Rose.
“No problem. Hey, heads up everyone! I know I've got a weird accent, do you want me to read it or should one of you?”
“You've got a lovely accent. But yeah, can Pania do it?” one of the girls asked.
There was some whispering, then a boy asked “In our language?”
“That is not a problem to me.” Rose said. “'Cause it's not in my language either.”
“But you're English!” someone protested.
“Only by passport. I'm Gypsy.” Rose said. “English people think we're liars, cheats, drunks and thieves.”
“Hey, sister, join the club.” someone said from the back.
“Join it? I've been in it all my life.” Rose declared.
----------------------------------------
Rose called five of the group out, after the first round of the auditions. Pania was among them.
“Sorry.” Rose said. “You're all OK at acting, but you're not the best.”
“Oh.” Pania said, feeling crushed.
“I'm going to tell you what I'll tell everyone. Today we're giving you a score as to how good you are at acting, and how well you could run while holding your noses. We need the others to continue, so we can be fair and give the best actors among them the highest scores. Like I said, you're all OK, and I'm sure you could get better with practice. Over the next few days, we're going to test people for swimming skills, including their ability to swim a long way underwater. I'd like each of you to make an appointment to come. We'll test you and you'll get a score for that too. Next week, we'll let you know when, we're going to have the final round of auditions. We'll be testing something else then, I'm not quite sure what, we've not quite decided. We'll then combine the scores and see who comes out on top overall. Do you understand?”
“So, even if we're rotten actors, we might still get the job?” Pania asked.
“None of you are rotten actors.” Rose said.
----------------------------------------
ATLANTIC LISTENING CENTRE, THURSDAY, MORNING SEPT 22ND 1977
“It might be natural, sir. We've got better triangulation on it, it's following the centre line of the mid-atlantic ridge.”
“Still at fifteen hundred metres?”
“Not all the time, no sir. Also, it seems to stop and start as well.”
“Not just evasive maneuvers?”
“Well, if we thought it was a real sub, then yes, sir, it might be. But we're pretty sure it can't be a real sub.
----------------------------------------
ATLANTIC LISTENING CENTRE, THURSDAY LUNCHTIME, SEPT 22ND 1977
“Sir, another update on the source.”
“Tell me.”
“Identical noise sources at other points on the ridge. Some are going north, some south. Unless someone's got four of them, not just one prototype,
the scientists are saying it must be natural.”
“I'll let the British Admiralty know they can stand down.”
----------------------------------------
HALF WAY UP THE MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE, DUSK
Karella surfaced her boat and opened the hatch. Another golden whale shape was bobbing in the water beside hers.
“Thank you, my friend, and thank the others. Rose has told me what you've done.”
“It is to our benefit too. Perhaps now they will ignore everyone as long as we follow the ridge. Also, you have tested out the system much more thoroughly than was ever done in Atlantis.”
“As long as they don't decide to investigate the strange phenomena.”
“If they get too close, I expect their remote probe will have a little malfunction.”
“Probably.” Karella agreed, with a grin.
“Now, there remains the little issue of our time, and just how thankful you are.”
“You said it was to your benefit too.” Karella protested.
“Yes. So, if we'd done it at a mutually agreed time, that would be fine. But it
wasn't mutually agreed, was it? We've probably just saved you your boat and your skin, and you know, it wasn't exactly convenient.” the other trader pointed out.
Karella thought about it and asked “What's the price of iron doing these days?”
“Dropping. Not as much as we're promised it will though. They really sell it so cheaply?”
“See this ring on my finger? The gold in that would buy you about this much iron.” She indicated with her hands. “But I'm not starting a trade in bulk landman iron at the moment. It'd destroy our economy too much, make people poor overnight. I really don't want that many enemies.”
“So, what have you got to offer us, if not iron?”
“Oh, I didn't say I didn't have any iron. I've just not got any landman iron. I do have a couple of Atlantis-certified iron spheres. Would that, split fairly between you all, be acceptable recompense for saving us?”
His eyes lit up with greed. “Two spheres?”
“Certified, stamped, oiled, wrapped.”
“On behalf of the others, I say that will do very nicely.”
“Wonderful! I'll get them.”
“You've got them here?”
“Where would you put all your treasure if you hadn't been planning to return?”
“You weren't?”
“No. My sister in law can be persuasive, though, and I just keep seeing
all these business opportunities.”
“Really?”
“Pearls, for instance.”
“We all played with them. What about them?”
“A spherical natural pearl is worth more than its weight in gold, and a ring like this is about all the gold that most land-folk will ever own. There's an awful lot of them, and it seems like they've dropped most of their gold for us to pick up over the centuries.”
Rick came up on deck to join in the discussion. After the introductions were made, and with Karella translating, he added “You've seen pearl necklaces and things?”
“Yes. Children's play things, surely. I gave one to my daughter.”
“Most likely worn by royalty, or at least only the ultra-rich. Well, people have worked out how to make oysters produce them now, so they're not as
rare, but a hundred years ago, say, then yeah. They probably belonged to a princess or at least a duchess.”
“So...” Karella said “How do you feel about your daughter's plaything now?”
“I might be asking for it back.”
“It can wait, don't upset her needlessly. So, if you were going to offer me
a pearl necklace, what would you want in return? And don't say gold, that's
too rare on land.”
“How about nuts?” Rick suggested, “If iron is so valuable here.”
“Nuts?” Karella was confused.
“You know, the things that go on bolts? Nice and shiny, made of steel, you could dip them in varnish lots of times so they don't rust, and even put them on a necklace if you wanted to.”
“Now that's an interesting trade,” and she translated.
“Rick suggested something made of iron. Not bulk iron, but formed, into a hexagon, with a hole through the middle. You must have seen rusty ones on their boats. We could dip them into a varnish so they retain their shine.”
“You're offering me iron for pearls?” he couldn't believe his luck.
“I know. I'll make a killing, won't I?” Karella admitted.
“I was thinking that I would.” he grinned.
“We need a rate of exchange. It can't just be based on size, since some pearls are far more valuable than others.”
“I'm sure we can negotiate. These hexagons come in different sizes, don't they?”
“Oh yes.” Karella agreed.
“So, shall we say that you'll give me one of these hexagons the same size as the pearl if it's ordinary, and then we'll go from there?”
“You are going to make us both so rich! I'll let you know when I'm next leaving port.”
“Rick, can you go get this man his iron spheres? He's just saved our necks.”
----------------------------------------
[Karella, you can't, that's shocking, it's got to be exploitation!] Rose responded when she heard about the deal later that week.
[It makes sense, Rose, really. We want to lower the value of iron amongst the mer, but not make it crash. If I started selling iron weights or something, then that'd happen, I'm sure. It's simple: the Mer don't value pearls, you don't value iron. You also value gold more than we do, if you hadn't noticed. We're swapping something that can be put on a necklace but isn't valued much with something that can be put on a necklace and isn't valued much. I'm going to put some kind of stamp onto the things, and encase them in some sort or varnish or resin, and that'll take some experimenting, it's not like I'm just going to the corner shop and passing the things on for a thousand times their cost. The stamp will have some kind of year code, too, so that there's maybe some retained value to old original ones, assuming they don't just get smelted down, which I expect they will. Actually, we ought to coordinate our efforts on the date codes, keep life simpler for everyone.]
[What?] Rose asked.
[I'm not signing any exclusive deal with him, and I'm not saying no one else can do it either, but let's work out some kind of coding system. You guys might as well be in on it as well.]
[But it's exploitative!]
[What? Swapping children's marbles for high quality steel? See what James thinks of the idea. We're not going to decimate the oyster population, I assure you. We're not like you in that way. Money doesn't mean that much to us.]
[I still think I'm going to tell our relatives to hang on to their pearls. Pearls are going to keep their value, nuts and washers, they're going to be useless pretty soon.]
[Have it your own way, they're roughly worth diamonds at the moment.]
[I won't object to the idea of using nuts and washers to pay people for their time though, if they think it's worth their while.]
[Rose!] Karella was shocked at the thought.
[What?]
[You're going to get them to buy pearls with the nuts and washers, aren't you?]
[Who? Me? No. I'm just going to tell people that in ten or twenty years nuts
will be worth nothing, but pearls will probably still be valuable.]
[Just talk to James, OK? Remember, my boat cost me the equivalent of eight polished cannon balls.]
[Why so little?]
[Scarcity. You're not making them any more, notice.]
[You mean your iron balls really were cannon balls?]
[Yes. With a lot of polishing.]
[You don't have machines to help? Oh. No mass production?]
[The closest thing to mass production is our boats. Even that's a labour intensive job.]
[Some time, I really need to understand your economy. I expected I'd be in it far more than I am now. I'm only living on the edges, aren't I?]
[Of course. But you're in the right place.]
----------------------------------------
POLICE DEPARTMENT, TUESDAY SEPT 27TH
“Thank you for coming Mr Turnbull, Doctor Turnbull. I expect you know what this is about.” the police captain started the interview.
“Urm, not really.” Rose replied.
“Your fliers.”
“Yes?”
“According to a certain reading of this, you've got a whole village of barbaric
illegal immigrants living at the bottom of your cliffs. Doctor.”
“Oh, that! Well, do you believe that mermen and mermaids exist, captain?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I don't really understand the problem.” Rose said. “I'm sorry officer, we wanted to make the whole experience for people more convincing. Did we go too far? We don't want to waste anyone's time, especially not police time.”
James chipped in, “Surely captain, a hundred mermen and merwomen living
there, since 1917, having left the Mediterranean coast of Turkey in 1914,
and stopped off for a year or two in the mer-capital of Atlantis? Wouldn't someone have seen something? Isn't it all a little far fetched?”
“I think we left out some of that in the final version, James. Remember, it didn't fit.” Rose said.
“Oh, sorry.”
“I was told that the caves down there are tapu by the local headwoman.” Rose added, “So, I've never gone poking my nose into them. We don't want to offend anyone. We just sort of put the rest together, trying to make a convincing reason that fitted with our theme why visitors shouldn't.”
“And if I sent a squad of men to investigate, what would they find?” the captain asked.
“Well, I've looked in a couple, before Rose was told that.” James said. “Maybe they'd find an old deck chair or table? I guess someone camped there once. Or of course they might find a war-canoe full of our neighbours, angry at their cultural rights being trampled on. I really don't know.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Rose spoke up again, “Officer, we've no desire at all to waste police time, or start any conflict.”
“So, it's just all make-believe, then?”
“Mermaids with zip-up tails, captain?” Rose asked, with an arched eye-brow and a tone of incredulity. “We're holding a second round of auditions for people who want to be part-time actors this afternoon, if you'd like to interview some of them. We're planning on ending up with a couple of the best ones
dropping into the cove maybe every few days or so, to give some extra realism to the whole experience. I hope you'll find they're all here perfectly legally.”
He sent them away, recording on his notes that there was nothing to investigate.
About five years later, the captain, retired by then and sitting on his fishing boat, glimpsed a grey-haired merwoman chasing a shark away with a spear. Then he realised realised that Rose had never actually answered that question. He smiled to himself, thinking that they clearly weren't doing any harm, and he'd retired now anyway. He'd look a total fool if he said he'd seen a merwoman. They didn't exist.
----------------------------------------
2PM, TUESDAY SEPT 27TH, MERFOLK COVE.
“Hi.” Rose said to one of the boys, and beckoned him out of the lounge. “We've noticed something, looking at your scores. Is there something about any of the tests that you should tell me?”
“Urm, no.” he lied.
“You did really well running while holding your breath, and not very well at all underwater.” Rose prompted.
“Oh.”
“Still not going to tell me anything?”
“You know.”
“It's rather easy to cheat at holding your breath. You've just had the chance to tell me you did. Twice.”
“Urm, yeah.” he agreed.
“So. I'm afraid that gives you zero out of ten for the first run. And zero out of ten for honesty too. We need honest people. You might as well go home.”
She called the next boy out of the lounge. “This is a different sort of test.” she said. “Hold out your hand please, palm up.”
“Why?” he asked, not responding.
“I'm going to look at it.”
“Are you?”
“You can leave if you don't want me to.” Rose said. He offered his palm, and Rose continued, “In England a lot of my people read palms, and tell people their future that way. What does that make you think?”
“That's cool! How?” he said.
“Not cool at all. Fortune telling is a form of divination, which is a sin.”
“Oh.”
“So, you get three points for doing strange things when I tell you to, zero points for practical theology. One more score. How does that make you feel?”
“Depressed and angry. I didn't know what I was being tested on.”
“Ten points for honesty.” Rose said, “Wait over there, please.”
It was Pania's turn next. Rose called her into the room.
“This is a different sort of test.” she said. “Hold out your hand please, palm up.”
“You're surely not going to read my palm!” Pania said, complying, remembering what Rick had said.
“What would you say if I said yes.”
“You said you were a fake palm reader.”
“True. What do you think of palm reading to tell the future?”
“It can't be real. God wouldn't allow it.”
“Fairly good answer. You get ten points for doing odd things when I ask you to, and seven points for practical theology. God allows people to commit all sorts of sins. Remember that Paul cast out a Spirit of divination from a woman?”
“Oh! Yes.”
“Final test. Why do you want to be a doctor?”
“It's really complex, I'm not sure I know.... Part because I think I can, I want to prove I can, I want to prove people are wrong about village Maoris, I want... I want to get out of the village, too.” the last bit she whispered, hardly daring to say it, and ashamed at herself.
“Ten out of ten for honesty, Pania. Well done. Wait over there for the final results please.”
It didn't take long to total up the scores when everything was done.
James stood up to make the announcement.
“We've tested you on different things. As you know, the last three were doing strange things at Rose's request, practical theology and honesty. Why did we test those? Because doing strange things is what you're applying to do. Practical theology, because Rose and I are Christians, but not all of our customers will be, I'm sure. We want to know how alert you are to dangerous lies. Honesty... we really wanted to test you on how trustworthy you are, but that was too hard. We decided that honesty is closely related enough. So Rose asked you a personal question, and she's very good at spotting lies.
“I didn't lie!” one of the boys retorted.
“Come!” Rose demanded “Come into the house, unless you want this in public.”
He followed, reluctantly.
“You didn't actually lie, but you were not honest in your answer, were you?”
Rose said, “You said you loved your girlfriend. But I know what you thought. You like her sister more, don't you? You looked straight at her when I asked. I've got eyes, boy. I've seen you watching her last week. That's why I asked.”
“I didn't lie.”
“No you didn't lie. But you were not completely honest. That is why you got three points. And your protests reduce it further. You want me to reward you for saying misleading half-truths? I will not. I wanted the brutal honest truth.”
“It's not our way.” he said.
“I know. It's not my people's way either, often. I understand: say what will impress, say what they want to hear, avoid upsetting them, or failing that, make yourself big. But this was a score for being honest, not for following customs. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Good.”
“How does that make you feel?”
“Like you despise me, my culture.”
“I don't dispise you, so you're wrong in what you feel, but you told me the truth as you see it. Much better. Now, who do you love most?”
“My girlfriend's sister,” he replied, in resignation.
“Not yourself?” Rose prompted.
He looked at her for a while, and then nodded.
“You have just scored eight out of ten for honesty.” Rose said. “Unfortunately, with your scores in other areas, that's still not enough. You would do well to listen more in church. God's standards are higher than mine. Do not think you can hide the truth from Him.”
----------------------------------------
Maria welcomed Pania and the other five (who to Pania's surprise had included Pita) from the water as she reached the bottom of the steps.
“Come on in, the water's all wet today!”
“Isn't it always?”
“No. Sometimes it's gritty with sand, or toothy with sharks or slimy with jellyfish. Slimy is worst, at least you can make sharks go away. Come on, you need to follow me.”
“Where to?”
“First, to the thing Rose calls the octopus. Don't worry, it isn't a real
one. It's got just got arms and places you can suck some air. Arms with suckers, it must be an octopus, eh?... You're supposed to laugh.”
“Sorry. You call the octopus's legs arms?” Pita asked, confused.
“Urm, yes. Sorry. English isn't your first language, is it?” Maria asked.
“No.”
“Sorry. I will try not to make jokes.” Maria said. “We will swim on the surface, and then dive. When we dive, we will find a place which gives air. It will be one place you can wait for the tourists. There will be other such places, but they're not there at the moment. The tourists will be with a dive instructor and will have tanks, you will not. You must not dive deeply, it is dangerous for you.”
“But not for you?” Pania asked.
“Yes for me too. But more for you, because you do not know about decompression, you do not know how to stop your blood fizzing. You cannot hold your breath long enough to not die. That is the other thing these devices are for. If you have been stupid, you can come here, and take more air. If you wait here long enough, you will not die. If you go as deep as you can, holding your breath as long as you can, and then rush to the surface, you might. Rush to the place I will show you instead. And wait there. It is better to never rush up. Go up slowly if you have been deep, one foot per second. That is very important if you have been breathing from the pipe first. So, if you can hold your breath only one minute, and you have been swimming sixty feet down...”
“We come here?”
“You come... not here.” she swam quickly to above the octopus. “But to below me, here. You also come here if you have been stupid and breathed out any of the air you need to keep in your lungs.”
“We should come now?” one of the girls asked.
“No,” Maria said, “Not in your landfolk clothes. You do have swimming costumes underneath?”
It was inevitable. “I did not think we would start immediately,” one girl said, bright red.
“Me neither.” a boy echoed.
“That is actually good.” Maria said. “It is better if I only teach a few at once anyway. I can teach four, but would another like to leave?”
“I'll go.” Pita said. He'd decided that maybe swimming close to Pania wasn't wise.
“OK. Come back sometime.” Maria said imprecisely.
“When?” Pita asked.
“Not when it's getting dark but not too soon. Hmmm.” she checked the sun. “Maybe half way to sunset from now? That's fair I think.”
“You don't have a watch?” Pania noticed.
“No. I suppose you will need a clock. Pita, can you tell Rose?”
“OK.”
“See you when the Sun's there. Meet me here, OK?”
“OK.” Pita agreed.
“So, come to the octopus, each find a pipe, breathe out through your nose, in from the pipe. I will help you. Then return to the surface. Then we will return to the octopus, take another breath and follow me.”
“Follow you?” Pania asked, confused.
“You are here to do unusual things, are you not? Follow me. I'm not wearing my scales, and you are strong swimmers. It should not be hard for you to keep up. But don't forget to take a deep breath at the octopus. And don't breathe out.”
Pania was one the last one into the water. Like she'd been shown at the last session, she took a stone to help her sink a little better. The water was not icy, but it was not warm either. As she swam to the right spot she wondered how Maria could stay in it so long without getting cold. She was just getting ready to dive when she saw the other two already surfacing from their introduction to the octopus. The stone helped her dive, and she realised she was going maybe two or three body lengths below the surface. But this wasn't deep? Maria was still waiting for her below, and as Pania looked for a pipe, she realised she wasn't breathing on one. The water was clear, but everything was blurry. She found the tube quite easily — they stood out well against the sea floor — and Maria showed her the regulator. Out through her nose, in through her mouth. She was surprised how easily the air came. She'd expected to have to suck hard.
They swam to the surface together.
“Do you think you can do that on your own now?” Maria asked.
Three people said yes. It wouldn't be too hard, Pania thought, but it would have been easier with both hands free.
“Good.” Maria ducked under the water, and Pania realised that Maria was also holding a rock. Interesting.
Once again, Maria didn't use the octopus. She led them a little further along the cliff face into an underwater cave. Unusual things, indeed. Pania forced herself to follow. She was surprised to see the cave wasn't as dark as it had seemed. There was plenty of space, it wasn't claustrophobic, but it was against every rational thought in her mind. She wanted to breathe and she was entering a cave. It angled up, Pania was pleased to see. Maria stopped in the water, and waved at her to go straight up. She was in a cave. There was light, coming from... somewhere, Pania couldn't see where. And she realised with growing panic that she'd entered a forbidden place. Three other heads appeared.
“Be welcome, young people. This cave is not sacred, tapu or anything else. It is just an empty cave.” It was James, Pania saw, standing on the waters edge. Not wearing scales, just his normal trousers. “No one has ever lived here, no one ever will. No one has ever even slept her as far as I know. It is simply a good place to learn to swim, away from prying eyes. You can get here from beside the house, so, we could have led you here without you getting wet, but I asked Maria to bring you in the way you came.” James paused, with a growing look of puzzlement on his face. “No one asks me why?”
“I think we're all a bit scared to.” Pania said.
“Come on, out of the water. It's not that warm, I'm sure. There are steps here.” As they complied, James continued. “I asked Maria to bring you here so you knew the entrance was there. So that you knew that you could escape from danger, should any approach. So that, if a visitor gets too curious, too persistent, or you find a shark in the cove, you could flee here. If you scream here, someone will come, they will come prepared to defend against sharks, with no legs or with two. Maybe it'll be Rose, maybe it'll be someone else. So, please, don't be tempted to cry out with delight here. It might be misinterpreted. Likewise, don't provoke one another, tickle or anything else. You know what the leaflet said about those who live in the cove.” He let that sink in for a while, then continued. “So, if you scream, you might call warriors, who might not recognise you, may not speak English, Maori, or any other language you know. What they know is a name. Sathzakara. This place is for you to know, not to discuss with others. If you must discuss it among yourselves, call it Sathzakara's pool. I want you to remember that name. If someone challenges you, if you come and someone else is practicing swimming here, and you are challenged, speak that name. Just 'Sathzakara.' You understand? It will be a password for you.”
They all nodded.
Maria spoke, “James and the other diving instructors will be wearing scales, swimming tails like you probably saw me wearing, but... special, different. Bright colours. They will not look the same as what you will wear.”
“Why?” Matiu, the lone boy, asked.
“For the tourists. We don't want the tourists thinking you're staff. We want the tourists to think you're merfolk.”
“Who's Sathzakara?” Pania asked.
“It's not very rare name, these days. You've met one of them, I understand. She's currently finding out how hard it is to make holes in shark-teeth.”
“Oh! OK.” Pania said.
“Any other questions?”
“We're going to try on these 'scales'?”
“Yes. Oh! I forgot to say. This afternoon, while you're practicing, we're going to put some lockers down here, and we'll curtain off a changing area for you to use. Later on, we'll move that stuff to another place, and you won't be using this cave except as a refuge once we open for business. There's rather too good a view of the water in front of the entrance from a certain spot at the top of the cliff.”
“Doesn't that apply to the octopus too?” Areta, the other girl, asked.
“No. We could put that where we wanted to.”
“Couldn't you just fence off the edge of the cliff?” Matiu asked.
“That's a lot of fence, and you know what people are like, they'll cross it anyway.” James said.
“I know what young children are like, too.” Matiu said, “I think you ought to, at least near the house and the camping area, for safety. Maybe with some self-closing gates, so people don't break down the fence.”
“I don't suppose you know of a fencing contractor?” James asked.
“My uncle.” Matiu admitted. “I'd be helping him if I wasn't here.”
“Then, Matiu, I will expect you to bring your uncle tomorrow or the next day, to tell us what he'd suggest and how much it'd be, OK?”
“Yes, Mr Turnbull.” Matiu said with a smile.
“Are you expecting families?” Pania asked.
“Yes.” James answered, “Eventually, anyway.”
“And the next question... When are you actually expecting to open?”
“The shark fence is in place, Rose had someone ask if we'd be open on Saturday. So I guess then. Happy practicing.”
----------------------------------------
11AM, THURSDAY SEPT 29TH, MERFOLK COVE.
“Hello, Merfolk Cove diving experience.” James said as he picked up the phone.
“I heard you wanted a diving instructor.” A woman's voice.
“There are open positions, yes. We'll need to see employment references, character references, and qualifications. Can you come for an interview?”
“Can you pick me up? I'm in town.”
“Sorry, neither my wife or I drive.”
“None of the other staff?”
“We're just starting up. Everyone's either busy or can't drive, or both.”
There was a long silence at the other end of the line, then finally, “Can you at least arrange a ride for me somehow? I'm a bit short of cash right now, and my feet are killing me.”
“I guess I can do that, yes.”
“Thanks.”
“You've no objection to coming by canoe, have you?”
“No.”
“Great. Your canoe should be at the dock in about an hour, I guess. Who do they ask for?”
“Jane McGuire.” Jane said. “Are you really expecting me to wear a tail if I get the job?”
“Yes.”
“But I could camp on your grounds?”
“Yes. And eat the rabbits if you like.”
“But not the fish? I can't stand rabbit.”
“No fishing in the cove, no. There's a fishing village just round the headland though. They won't mind a customer, I'm sure.”
“And you're on good terms?”
“So far. And we're planning to keep it that way.”
“I like that. So what's in those caves?”
“They're off limits.” James said.
“What does that mean?”
“I mean that they're tapu. Please don't upset our neighbours.”
“I'm a Christian.”
“So are we, so are our neighbours. If you prefer another terminology, an oath has been sworn which no one's got an opt-out clause from; no one goes in, no one goes to look. If you want to look, don't bother coming. It'll be in the terms of your contract. Approaching those caves and it'll be considered as voluntary resignation, effective immediately.”
“Wow, you're serious!”
“We've dressed it up a bit for the tourists, but we're serious. The village headman and the whole village took an oath, around the end of the first world war. Look, for you know there could be Siberian tigers, flesh-eating spiders, unexploded gas shells, or merfolk warriors in them, OK? They're off limits, and we're not going to upset our neighbours.”
“What if some teenager gets curious?”
“What happens if someone you're supervising does something stupid and dangerous, like trying to unscrew their air-cylinder? You stop them, or if you can't you call for help.”
“And the flesh eating spiders are in my contract are they?”
“No, just that the foot of the cliffs and outside the shark-fence is a designated no-go area.”
“So if I go outside the shark fence, that counts as resignation too?”
“Or suicide. There've been quite a few fatal attacks in living memory.”
“So you're sending a canoe for me?”
“Yes. I'm assuming you're not planning to swim beside it.”
“Fine. Send a canoe.”
----------------------------------------
1.30PM, THURSDAY SEPT 29TH, MERFOLK COVE.
“Thank you, Pita.” Rose said, as he brought the canoe in to the edge of the jetty at the foot of the cliffs. “You did shut the gate, I hope.”
“Yes, Rose.”
“Well done.”
“Your canoeist here was a pretty quiet young man.” Jane said, as she got off, carrying carrying a heavy rucksack. Rose saw she was limping as she walked.
“What've you done to your feet?”
“Walked too much in the last week.”
“Blisters?”
“That was day one. They healed up. This is something different. Started yesterday.”
“And you kept walking?” Rose asked, concerned.
“Do you know how many dive schools there are on this coast, who don't want me?”
“Why not?”
“Look at me.” Jane said. She was maybe thirty five, had dreadlocks, and skin that probably meant she'd been out in the sun a lot or had parents of mixed race. Probably both.
“They don't like your dreadlocks?” Rose guessed.
“That neither. Mostly the colour of my skin.”
“Hey, we don't do racism here. But... are you Rastafarian?” Rose was cautious.
“No, I just like the style. You don't sound like you're from round here.”
“London.”
“That's no BBC English. I was going to guess Spanish. You look the spitting image of a flamenco dancer I once saw.”
“She probably would have been Gypsy too. Most flamenco dancers are. Like I said, we don't do racism here.”
“I'd heard, it sounded hopeful.”
“So, do you want me to have a look at those feet, do you want to eat something, or get straight down to the boring interview stuff?”
“What's on the menu?”
“Well, you told James you don't like rabbit, so he's probably doing grilled local catch of the day.”
“Your husband's cooking?”
“Have you got a problem with that? I know I don't.”
“Just...”
“His grandfather apparently used to say that there was no point putting meat on the table if didn't know what to do with it and weren't planning to eat it raw.”
“That's an unusual attitude.”
“If you stay you'll probably find we have a lot of those. So, hungry?”
“Yes.”
Rose went to the intercom they'd had installed and pressed the call button. “How long until lunch, James?”
“It's pretty flexible.”
“Jane's hungry.” Rose said.
“Five, ten minutes then?”
“Fine. Can it be down here?”
“No problem. Are the girls practicing?”
“Yes. Shall I give them a shout?”
“Please.”
Rose turned back to Jane. “Food in five or ten minutes, we'll eat down here, but I've just got to round up some others, OK?”
“Fine. I'll just rest my feet.”
“What is wrong with them? I don't have fully equipped surgery, but...”
“You're a nurse?”
“Part-way trained doctor. I was too weird to get a job. I did a course last year and I'm now the first registered nurse they've ever had with an M.D. They've given me all sorts of warnings about not overstepping my boundaries. Unless there's a major emergency of course. Are your feet a major emergency, by any chance?”
“I wish.”
“Well, by all means take your boots off, you don't need to go anywhere, lunch will come to you. But keep them out of the water if there's any broken skin. Actually, it's probably better to keep them out of the water full stop until I've worked out what's up with them.”
----------------------------------------
After lunch, Rose had a look at Jane's feet. They were a mess of cracks, some starting to bleed, but she couldn't see any signs of infection.
“You just kept on walking, didn't you?” Rose accused.
“Bad decision?”
“The good news is you don't seem to have any infection, the bad news is you've got hard dry skin with loads of cracks in it, some bleeding, and every step you take tears the skin worse.”
“I wanted to toughen up my skin.”
“You've gone too far. Your skin doesn't flex, so the cracks do. Almost doctor's orders: if it hurts, don't do it.”
“You mean don't move another step?”
“Well, no more than you need to. And you need to get the skin around the cracks flexible as soon as possible. That means soaking in nice clean water and scrubbing off the dry skin. I could have a go with a scalpel, but a good scrub would be better.”
“What with?”
“Ideally pumice stone. Failing that, clean finger nails, back of a knife, sand paper, pretty much anything which isn't going to cut or give you an infection. Soak, remove dead skin, rinse, soak, repeat. When you think you're down to live skin, stop. Otherwise, keep the wounds clean, which include out of the sea, and you should be fine in a day or three. Got any spirits? In the alcohol sense, I mean.”
“Never touch it, doesn't mix with diving.”
“I meant medical, surgical spirits, exterior use only. Or iodine solution?”
“Urm, yeah. A few drips in the bottom of the bottle. I've been putting it on at night.”
“Probably a good thing. I'll get you some. Consider yourself our guest until you can walk. Irrespective of the job.”
“You know what, Rose? I think I like you. Very biblical, bread, fish, washing feet...”
“We try.”
----------------------------------------
“So, what do you think?” James asked after they'd interviewed her.
“I think she might fit in. The hairstyle might scare some of the tourists, but hopefully they won't actually run off. Like she says, it stops it floating in her eyes. She can always tie it back.”
“I'm a bit concerned about her curiosity. But I guess we'll have that with everyone.”
“Yes. Did you hear from Pita about what she'd been asking?”
“No.”
“About the caves, why no one went there.”
“What did he tell her?”
“Apparently he told her 'No one must go there.' to every question.”
“Good for him.” Rose said. “Will we train her in the pool? I don't think it'd be a good idea.”
“I agree. That's going to be for the secret mer-folk only. She'll need to train with a tank on anyway. About our part-timers...”
“Yes?”
“They're really struggling to approach convincingly, and then get out of sight again all under water.”
“Do they need to? Wouldn't it be OK if they grabbed some air as they fled? I mean, that must happen in a real situation, surely?”
“We don't normally go that close to our limits.”
“They could turn their gasp reflex by hyperventilating, but that's too dangerous.”
“Much. They'd do far better to take the potion. At least that way they'd notice they're in trouble.” Rose had been worried about taking the potion, so they'd done some tests — on land — with Rose as the guinea pig. Hyperventilating beforehand made it possible to hold her breath until she did start to black out, without any urge to breathe. Underwater, that would have been fatal. Whatever the potion did, it didn't remove the urge to breathe, it delayed it and made it more controllable. James reported that he probably could have made himself black out, but it was very uncomfortable. Relieved, Rose took the potion and tested herself again. She agreed, it didn't turn off the reflex, so it was far safer than hyperventilating.
“So... do we offer it?” Rose asked.
“That's not our decision. We'll consult the others.”
“So, back to he matter in hand... Jane has people willing to give her character references, no work references in diving, for obvious reason that she's out-weirding folk, but at least she's got some references. What do you think?”
“I'd say, assuming the references she's got check out OK, we can cope with some weird, can't we, beloved?”
“Absolutely.” Rose agreed, “So, you're taking the men, I'm taking the women?”
“Urm, OK.”
“Good, that leaves me with just one call to make!” Rose grinned at him.
James groaned.
Rose called the number Jane had given, for one Wendy Summers. “Hello, I understand you know a Jane McGuire?”
“Oh dear, what's she gone and done now?”
“Urm, got through a job interview?” Rose offered. “Subject to references.”
“Oh! Urm can you please disregard what I just said.”
“Not really. Can I ask what capacity you know her as, Mrs Summers, she didn't say.”
“I was her probation officer. Urm, now I'm a friend.”
“That's... interesting. I suppose we didn't actually ask about any convictions, so I can't say she lied. She gave your name as a character reference, would you be able to provide one verbally, or would you prefer it to be on paper?”
“I've probably ruined everything, haven't I?”
“I don't know. Would you put her in a place of trust where several people's life could depend on her?”
“Absolutely. Jane takes her responsibilities seriously, always has, even before she became a Christian.”
“Then, perhaps you've not ruined everything.”
----------------------------------------
“Jane!” Rose called Jane's tent. “Are you in?”
“Over here!” Jane waved. She was looking out over the cove.
“I've just been talking to Wendy Summers. You left out some stuff in the interview, didn't you?”
“You didn't ask.”
“You didn't ask how many years I lived on the streets in London either.”
“You did?” Jane was shocked.
“I did. So... Consider yourself to have quite a sympathetic audience.”
“How long?”
“Five years, on and off. Home was bad, I couldn't stand it long. Money was tight. I'd go home for a day or two, max. then make myself scarce.”
“But... you got an M.D? When you were on the streets?”
“Yeah, they let me finish. But I never got a job with it though. You know what that gets you? An M.D. without hospital experience?”
“No.”
“It gets you 'Of course you can't practice as a doctor, but if we really really need you then we'll call... Just don't forget anything.'”
Jane pulled a face in sympathy. “You can't do your hospital work here?”
“Not until I've lived here long enough, etc. etc. So, enough about me. Feel you can talk now?”
“I can talk.”
As she did, Rose did some spot checks to see if she was hiding anything. She wasn't. Jane had had a tougher life than Rose, and resorted to picking pockets to provide for her little brother's needs. She'd been arrested and her brother taken into care, got out, rescued her brother from the children's home, and gone back to her life of crime, been arrested again. And again, until she'd become a Christian. As part of her parole she'd taken the diving instructor course. She'd been looking for employment since.
[James, have you got anywhere?]
[Not much to report. Glowing report from her dive school, but I get the feeling there's some sort of history we don't know about yet.]
[I'm just learning it from her. She had a tougher life than I did, met Jesus in prison. I say we give her her first job.]
[OK. God's brought her to us. Who are we to say no?]
“You take your responsibilities seriously.” Rose said. “I like that in a person. You can see how much fun swimming with a tail is once your foot's better, OK?”
“Don't you need to discuss this with your husband?”
“I already have, well, not what you've just told me. But you've got good references, you've just told me what you, ah, forgot to mention in your interview. Two weeks probationary period.”
“I thought it ought to be a month.”
“You like uncertainty that much?”
“No.”
“Nor do I.”
“Speaking of uncertainty.”
“Yes?”
“I've just seen a shape going around under water near those caves in the cliffs that no one's allowed near.”
“Did you?” Rose asked.
“Yes. Hard to say from up here, but I'd say I'm seventy five percent sure that the shape had arms and a fish-like tale.”
“Maybe it was just a trick of the water, but... did any part of the mystery creature break the surface?”
“No, except maybe a bit of the tail. And maybe an arm with a spear in it.”
“Well, you can put it on the map if you like.”
“The map?”
“Mer-folk sightings, in the reception.”
“They're real, aren't they? You're pulling some kind of double-con.”
“The local chief of police asked us recently what a squad of his officers would see if they went into those caves. James said he'd been in one, before I was told that there place was tapu or off-limits, however you want to phrase it. He told the officer that they might find an old table, maybe a deckchair, or they might just find a war canoe full of angry neighbours. The policeman decided there wasn't anything to investigate.”
“The policeman didn't ask how the canoe would get there so quickly?”
“Oh, I'm sure he knows it can take a long time to get down a narrow staircase when people are barring your way, demanding to see the search warrant, shouting that you're stomping on people's cultural heritage, and that sort of thing.”
“Long enough to hide, you mean?” Jane asked.
“Who'd be hiding? Everyone knows that mer-people are just in stories, Jane. It's all just a bit of fun for the tourists.”
----------------------------------------
3.30PM, SATURDAY OCT 1ST, MERFOLK COVE.
“I saw one, mummy! I did, I saw a mermaid! She had long fair hair and a green swimming costume and her tail was silver, not rainbow.” the girl was very excited as the first customers — a family of three — were coming out of the cove. “Daddy saw her too, didn't you, Daddy?”
“I saw something. It might have been a big fish. Did you like the coral too, dear?”
“Yes. That was pretty. It was so strange being under water and breathing!”
“That's the whole point, dear.”
“Can we come back? Please!”
Rose stepped up to them “Sorry, I didn't mean to evesdrop, Did I hear that you actually saw one of our hosts, the merfolk?”
“Yes!” the girl said excitedly.
“That's quite rare, you know.” Rose said, “So rare in fact that we've got a map to record when it happens. Would you like to put a pin on the map, with a date on it?”
“Yes please!”
“Do you know where he or she was?”
“She was here! Declared the girl, pointing near to where the octopus was. “She put something on the ground, and I saw her, and she saw me, and she swam away really quickly. Daddy only saw her tail.”
“Very good!” Rose said “Now, what colour pin should it be?”
“Green! Like her swimming costume.” the girl put the pin into the map, and Rose wrote a date on the wall beside it.
“I must say,” the mother said, “I rather expected that a real mermaid would wear a bikini made of sea shells, rather than a swimming costume.”
“That doesn't sound very comfortable to me.” Rose pointed out, pulling a face. “I expect they decided that since there would be children coming it would be better to wear a swimming costume than their more traditional flesh-tone tops which might be... misinterpreted. Anyway, as our first customers, I'd like to thank you ever so much for coming, and do we hope you'll be coming back. And.. just to encourage you to, we'd like to give you these, complements of the house.” she handed them three pieces of laminated card. Two adult discount memberships, and one child. The father scanned it, “So this lets us have another visit for thirty percent off, in the next three months?”
“Any number of visits.” Rose said, with a smile.
“You're going to go bankrupt.” the mother predicted.
“Oh, I don't think so. The more you come, even with the discount, the happier the accountant gets.”
“But you're already the cheapest dive centre around.”
“Yes, well, maybe they bought the site as a commercial venture, or something like that. This is my home.”
“But you've got staff to pay, start-up costs.....”
“That's why we'd like you to come back, yes. And bring friends of course. I'm a firm believer that a happy customer is the best advertisement we can get. Oh! I almost forgot!” Rose picked up a sheet of coloured stickers. “Would you like one of these stickers?” she offered the girl. “You see, we've put different words on them.”
“Oh yes. Can I have this one!” she pointed to one which said “I saw a mermaid at Merfolk Cove!”
Looking at the different options the husband asked “How would anyone spot the difference between a merwoman and mermaid?”
“Well, you might try to look for a wedding ring, or children in tow, I guess. But it's up to customers. Personally, I expect if someone saw someone who looked about fifty, they wouldn't be comfortable claiming she was a mermaid.”
“You're hiring people of all ages, then?” the girls mother asked.
“Only my husband and I are working today as far as I know. We've hired another dive-instructor but she's still got to learn how to swim with a tail.” Rose had a thought, and asked the girl. “How old would you say the mermaid you saw was?”
“About my age.” she replied.
“I'm very sure she's not on staff, then.” Rose said firmly, then squatted down to the girl's level and added “And I expect she'll get in trouble with her mummy and daddy for getting seen, too, so maybe you shouldn't tell very many people how old she was.”
“OK.” the girl said, nodding.
The woman looked at her husband who was also looking concerned. Rose heard them deciding that maybe Rose was employing children, so over the girl's head she mouthed to them 'a relative'. They looked relieved.
“As I said,” Rose told the girl “you really can't expect to see a mermaid every time you visit, but I do hope you'll come again and try.”
What Rose didn't think to check, was either of the parent's jobs. But the review they wrote for the local paper was very positive. Rose and James soon decided they needed to take on another dive instructor, and were very pleased to learn that one of the men from the next door village was qualified. He wasn't the least bit tempted to explore the caves.
Much to their surprise, the business not only broke even in the first year, but made them a substantial profit.