By the time Hercules again breached, the girl found herself looking up into the faces of several men leaning over the side of the surface vessel that had followed her pod. Sensing no menace from them, she stared silently back, not knowing what to do next.
“I believe you and your friends can use some help,” the man in the middle called to her, a thick shock of white hair cascading down to his shoulders from beneath a baseball cap and a smile parting his lips.
Something about the man struck a chord deep within her, perhaps the lilt of his voice. Somehow it conveyed solace, reassurance. Without immediately realizing what she was doing, however, her gaze was drawn to the face of the man standing to the left of the older gent. She found it difficult to pull her eyes away from those penetrating green orbs.
“Are you a friend of Natalie?” the white-haired man asked.
The question stunned the girl and she stared back intently at the elderly man, sitting up straighter as Hercules floated docilely beneath her. Only a handful of people knew the names of her friends, including the man who had saved Natalie.
“Are you the man who rescued Natalie and tended her injuries?” the girl queried in a mellifluous voice. The man fit the description Natalie had given her and she studied him with newfound respect.
“Yes. My name is Franklin Grahm…Doctor Franklin Grahm,” the scientist said exuberantly, looking hopefully to the other creatures floating close by. “Is Natalie with you now?”
Pivoting her head, the girl took inventory of the other men perched on the deck above her, her eyes flitting from one face to the next, seeming to gain some insight as to the true essence of each persona aboard the vessel. Her gaze came back to linger on Grahm for several more seconds before settling on Jake once again. “Natalie is not among this group,” she said at last, her voice containing an unmistakable sadness.
It was then that she lifted the goggles from her eyes, letting them rest on her forehead. Jake noticed that the goggles were actually a low-volume facemask with a nosepiece that allowed the wearer to equalize the air pressure behind the two separate eye plates with the surrounding water pressure. He also noted that even after prolonged immersion in the sea, there was a healthy glow to the girl’s creamy complexion, which was smooth and unblemished. Amazingly, the goggles left no temporary imprint on the skin surrounding a large pair of doe-like eyes that glistened a sparkling brown and which stared back serenely as if regarding the world beyond from a strange and alien perspective. Gazing into them was like focusing on a revolving prism subjected to the light, mesmerizing the beholder with a variegated spectrum of endless mystery. On the whole, however, it was her eyes that gave definition to a face of protracted innocence and limitless compassion, uncorrupted by cynicism or the darker side of man’s nature.
Silence hung heavily in the air a moment longer before Grahm spoke again. “If you’ll allow us, my dear, we can bring your injured friends aboard and treat their wounds.”
The girl continued to stare steadfastly at Jake, appearing inattentive to the offer. “Thank you, but that will not be necessary. Help will be here shortly.” As if to emphasize this, she withdrew her eyes from Jake and glanced over her shoulder.
In unison, Jake, Grahm, and Zimbola looked in the direction of the girl’s gaze. A tiny white dot sat on the eastern horizon, still a considerable distance away.
“Is there anything we can do for you?” Grahm persisted, disappointment apparent in both his tone and manner.
The girl shook her head, her eyes now fixed on the approaching boat.
“What is your name?” Grahm continued to press.
The girl brought those doe-like eyes to bear on Grahm once again. “My name is of no importance.” Her voice was soft and melodious, almost childlike in timbre.
Grahm smiled warmly. “Sometimes names can be very important,” he said tactfully, touching Jake’s shoulder. “This gentleman, here, goes by the name of Jake Javolyn. He is the captain of this vessel.” He looked to his left. “This rather large fellow is Zimbola, Captain Javolyn’s first mate.” Looking aft, Grahm indicated the other members of the crew, introducing Hector, Phillipe, and his two assistants. Turning back to face the girl, Grahm’s manner became imbued with alacrity. “Now that I’ve introduced everyone, good social etiquette can only be satisfied if you introduce yourself, as well.”
The girl studied Grahm with renewed interest before replying. “I’m called Destiny.”
The name did not surprise Jake. As a matter of fact, it provided the missing piece of the puzzle he had been mulling over concerning Grahm’s conversations with Natalie. The future of her kind was in the hands of Destiny, Natalie had told Grahm. This had not gone over Jake’s head and he had not ruled out the possibility that the reference to destiny might involve a person. With mild amusement, Jake watched the expression on the doctor’s face unfold. The false assumption Grahm had previously harbored lifted like a curtain on a Broadway stage to reveal a hidden truth, and the doctor nodded at the girl with sudden understanding.
Grahm let his eyes drift over the other nearby sea mammals. “Tell me, my dear, did you teach all of these dolphins to speak English as fluently as Natalie?”
Destiny’s face turned passive. “I didn’t teach them anything.”
A cloud of confusion swept across the scientist’s countenance. “Then how did Natalie acquire this ability?”
“She…,” the girl started to say, but stopped abruptly. Her eyes seemed to glaze over in that instant, as if listening to an inner voice. Although she continued to stare directly at Grahm, the doctor had the impression she was not seeing him at all, that she was looking right through him.
“Natalie’s in trouble,” she said suddenly, her voice carrying an edge of urgency. “I must go to her.”
As Jake and the others watched, the large white dolphin the girl rode began to turn away, but Destiny glanced back at the three men grouped together next to the pilothouse. “A man will be here shortly. His name is Jacob,” she cried out, her tone almost pleading. “Please help him recover my injured friends.” Her eyes singled Jake out as she said this, as if speaking to him alone. Refitting the facemask over her eyes, she hunched forward and reached down on each side of Hercules broad body to grasp a rein looped over the base of each pectoral fin. She quickly sped away on a southwest heading, unattended by her previous retinue.
Jake ducked into the pilothouse and retrieved a pair of binoculars, bringing them to his eyes and aligning them with several objects far away. He didn’t need the spyglasses to distinguish the outlines of the three ships hanging on the horizon, estimating the nearest one to be only two miles distant. The binoculars, however, confirmed something else. Satisfied, he lowered the glasses, handing them over to Zimbola while continuing to keep his gaze locked on the closest vessel. “You recognize anything about that ship,” he said.
Zimbola lifted the binoculars to his eyes and scanned the vessel, the instrument looking ridiculously small in his huge paw. The big man nodded. “It is the Colombian tuna trawler we saw in the harbor yesterday. Her crew is just beginning to drop her net.”
Without wasting another second, Jake craned his head over the gunwale and shouted aft, calling to Hector and Phillipe. Both men stood gawking at Destiny’s receding form. “Prepare the Kawasaki,” Jake ordered.
“With everything?” Hector shot back, clearly perplexed. The crew knew that Jake only used the Kawasaki during a Code One which, based on experience, always occurred at night. Code One implied fully armed.
“Everything!” Jake growled. “I want it fully locked and loaded.”
Zimbola appeared taken aback, and he stared down at Jake questioningly.
“What are you doing?” Grahm asked.
Jake halted in mid stride. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something tells me I better help that girl before she buys herself a whole heap of trouble she’s not ready to take on.” As an afterthought, he turned back toward Zimbola. “After I launch, stay here on station.”
Eyebrows rose up on the big man. “You do not want me to follow?”
“You heard the girl,” Jake bellowed. “She wants us to assist a guy called Jacob.”