Keeping eyes at the waterline so as not to be spotted, Kyle touched minds as he went. A simple mental handshake and a hello. Nothing invasive. And they all seemed receptive. Just a connection with a being they didn't realize wasn't one of their own. Little more than the pleasant feeling one gets when one passes a stranger and makes eye contact.
The fleeting connections felt warm, grounding. A tiny spark of belonging. Yet guilt crept in with each mental encounter—why had he fled the ones who truly cared for him?
He decided to go back, but first he had to explore the imposing structure he'd spotted near the center of this amazing place. The largest structure he'd seen, though he couldn't know the purpose.
It was the main ministerial center. Just a few gates and locks stood between him and the powers that controlled this place, though he wouldn’t know that either, until he entered the place. He had little difficulty making his way in, finding side channels and easy locks. Not so many of the mechanical swimmers were entering this building, either. Most of them were legged, all of them in a great hurry.
So he swam through and around until he reached the core of the place. And when he reached out to connect with those he found there, he stopped short in horror, nearly taking in water through his unused lungs.
In the process, coughing and sputtering, he treaded and tried to recede mentally from the disturbing thought streams that were invading his mind.
He fled, darting away as fast as he could. Pushing hard. Pushing out the mental pictures that had been fed him by unwitting officials who had no idea they'd connected minds. Images of expansion. Invasion. Plans and plots involving not only the city but the entire realm, including Kyle's own home. These beings had designs on it. They would push his people out, or worse, all for the desire for ‘breathing room’, a new phrase he had to process on a number of levels before it made some sense to him. It still sounded horrible, but he was beginning to understand.
Terrified, he swam top speed away from those men. Away from those invaders and their enormous, unnatural structure they all plotted from within. In a panic, he feared they would realize he'd touched their minds, and make chase. He thought he could feel them behind him, closing in, wanting to do him harm, though he couldn’t say whether this was here and now, or if it were future fears based on the bloodthirsty plans he’d inadvertently become privy to.
He made a rash decision—he would wreak havoc as he went, in an attempt to distract any pursuers. They can't find me if they can’t follow, he reasoned.
With more strength than he realized he was capable of, he lashed out. His fists connected with the glass tubes, sending sharp vibrations through his arms as tiny fractures crackled outward. Streams of cold water were sucked through, stinging his skin and pulling him deeper into the chaos he was creating.
Forcing water to gusher every which way, Kyle worked to disrupt the legged ones, slowing their pursuit and making swimming after him nearly impossible. He barely escaped himself as the channels dipped dangerously low for swimming, forcing him to push harder.
He followed the chaotic flow, diving lower and faster, smashing ducts and glass as he went. His gills worked overtime, pulling in nutrients and oxygen, while his limbs powered him forward—smash, dart, smash. He left destruction in his wake, confident the mess would keep them busy long enough for him to make his escape.
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But as he glanced back, his confidence shattered. The walls of the waterways were somehow repairing themselves.
What’s this magic? he thought, heart sinking.
Kyle had no understanding of nano-technology, or how The Shallows functioned beneath its surface-level simplicity. He didn’t know that the city’s designers had prioritized survival above all else. Catastrophic failures couldn’t wait for repair crews—not when the sea itself could destroy their fragile ecosystem. The self-repair systems were ancient, built into the very arteries of the city to handle breaches like this in seconds.
Which meant that Kyle’s chaos wasn’t chaos at all—it was an inconvenience at best. The realization hit like a palm to the gills. He wasn’t causing the havoc he thought. He needed a better plan...fast.
* * *
Aquasentinels Alison and Lam were back on the case. Following the disappointing performance of their colleagues, they’d been returned to the school to follow up with the teachers and get to the bottom of their missing merboy Kyle. Headmaster Oliver wasn’t too keen on his would-be interrogators suddenly working side-by-side with him and his staff, but city guard headquarters hadn’t given him much choice in the matter.
“I don’t suppose you guards have some method for searching the city?”
“We do,” Lam replied, keeping his voice deferential, “but as we’ve only ever tracked children who were on the run, it’s a far more difficult matter to track a boy through the pools and lakes of the city. He could be anywhere. And assuming he can stay under as long as he wishes, we can’t even necessarily keep an eye on the surface.”
“Well, in that case,” Mr. Albi said, “perhaps there’s some way we can draw him out.”
“How do you figure?” asked the headmaster.
“I’m not sure. But he seemed particularly drawn to Ms. Terri. Perhaps we can send her out calling? Or a voice recording, perhaps? He seemed to react very positively to the spoken word. For that matter, we need to get all the full-gill guards to jam those waterways and call his name. We do know his name, don’t we?”
“Kyle,” Ms. Terri said softly. She’d been quite reserved ever since the merboy made his escape. Perhaps she felt somewhat responsible, as she hadn’t made note of his agitation. Clearly a boy so young shouldn’t be flitting about in the channels and pools of the city, without an adult in tow. He must be frightened, she thought.
“Well, let’s get out there then,” the aquasentinel Alison said, “Ms. Terri, if you would…”
Terri followed the aquasentinels out of the room, and out to the street where a temporary command center had been set up. They’d been there looking for the stray girls in any case, now they simply had to switch up their operation to search for one alien merboy.
* * *
Reports of leaks and ruptures wouldn’t normally reach all guards on duty. But with an all-points bulletin for ‘anything strange,’ it was called in.
A full-gill saboteur was an odd occurrence at any rate, since most full-gills were professional folk, or otherwise contributory members of the community. It was more likely the work of a street-rat who’d gotten himself some diving equipment, though even that would be an odd approach. Easier by far to steal on the ground than through water, except that this thief was quick as lightening when they tried to catch him.
Putting two and two together, the city aquasentinels headed out towards the refreshment pool with Ms. Terri and the other teachers in tow. Also along for the ride, the sentinel Marla, who’d been on the case ever since the girls went missing, and intended to see the whole thing through come hell or high water.
There was no sign of the merboy when they got there, but there were only a certain number of channels in and out of the refreshment pool. They decided to record Ms. Terri’s voice, asking him to come in, and then send her off personally on the most likely avenue of escape.
The other teachers and Marla would split up and accompany an aquasentinel crew. Somewhere out there, Kyle was still on the move—and in terrible danger.