Deep Trouble (7 page)

“Stop it! Leave her alone!” I cried.

One of the men gave a low laugh. The other three still ignored me.

Sheena was bent over Dr. D., frantically trying to wake him up. I ran to the
hatch and shouted down into the cabin, “Alexander! Alexander! Help!”

Alexander was big and strong—maybe strong enough to stop these men.

I ran back to the tank. The mermaid was trapped in the net. All four men
worked to lift her out of the tank. She squirmed and fought with all her
strength.

“EEEEEE!” she screamed. The high-pitched squeal hurt my ears.

“Can’t you get her to shut up?” one of the men cried angrily.

“Just load her on board,” the one with the club replied sharply.

“Stop!” I yelled. “You can’t do that!”

Then I totally lost it.

Without thinking, I dove toward the four of them. I don’t know what I planned
to do. I just knew I had to stop them.

One of them pushed me away easily with one hand. “Stay away—or you’ll get
hurt,” he muttered.

“Let her go! Let the mermaid go!” I cried frantically.

“Forget about the mermaid,” said the man. “You’ll never see her again.”

I grabbed the rail. My heart was pounding in my chest. I gasped for breath.

I couldn’t stand the mermaid’s terrified screams.

I couldn’t let them take her—not without a fight.

She had saved my life once. Now it was my turn to save hers.

But what could I do?

They had lifted the mermaid out of the tank. Three men held her in the net.

She squirmed and thrashed like crazy, splashing water all over the deck.

I’ll tackle them, I thought. I’ll knock them over. Then I’ll push the mermaid
into the ocean and she can swim away to safety.

Lowering my head like a football player, I took a deep breath and ran right
at them.

“Billy—stop!” Sheena screamed.

I crashed into one of the men holding the net, butting him hard in the
stomach with my head.

To my dismay, the man hardly moved.

He grabbed me with his free hand, lifted me up off the deck, and heaved me
into the fish tank.

I splashed into the warm water and came up, choking and sputtering.

Through the glass, I watched the men toss the mermaid aboard their boat. They
were getting away!

I tried to scramble out of the tank, but it was too tall. I kept slipping
down the wet glass, unable to reach the top.

I knew there was only one person who could stop the masked men now.
Alexander.

Where was he? Hadn’t he heard all the noise?

“ALEXANDER!” I shouted as loud as I could. But my voice was muffled by the
glass walls of the tank.

Then, finally, he appeared on the deck. I saw his big blond head and muscular
body moving toward me. At last!

“Alexander!” I cried, scrambling to stay afloat in the tank. “Stop them!”

I could hear the motor of the other boat begin to rumble. One by one, the
masked men lowered themselves off our boat.

Three of them had left the
Cassandra.
Only one remained on deck.

Through the glass I watched Alexander run up to him and grab his shoulder.

Yes! I thought. Get him, Alexander!
Get him!

I’d never seen Alexander hit anyone before. But I knew he could do it if he
had to.

But Alexander didn’t hit the masked man. Instead, he asked, “Is the mermaid
safely on board?”

The masked man nodded.

“Good,” Alexander replied. “And have you got the money for me?”

“Got it.”

“All right,” Alexander murmured. “Let’s get out of here!”

I nearly choked on a mouthful of water.

I just couldn’t
believe
that Alexander was working with the masked
men. He had seemed like such a good guy.

But I knew now that he had arranged the whole thing. He had to be the one who
had told them the mermaid was on board our boat.

“Alexander,” I cried, “how could you?”

He stared at me through the glass. “Hey, Billy, it’s just business,” he said
with a shrug. “The zoo was going to pay a million dollars for the mermaid. But
my new bosses will pay
twenty
million!” A thin smile crossed his face.
“You know arithmetic, Billy. Which would you choose?”

“You rat!” I shouted. I wanted to punch him. I struggled to get out of the
tank. All I managed to do was splash a lot and get water up my nose.

Alexander followed the masked man to his boat. I pounded helplessly on the
glass tank.

Then I saw Sheena stand up. Lowering my gaze to the deck, I saw that Dr. D.
was moving.

Alexander didn’t seem to notice. He stepped over Dr. D.’s body. He didn’t
even care that Dr. D. could have been hurt badly.

I watched my uncle reach up and grab Alexander by the ankle.

“Whoa!” Alexander tripped and fell hard onto his elbows and his knees.

Sheena screamed and backed up to the rail.

Maybe there’s still hope, I thought, my heart beating faster. Maybe they
won’t get away after all.

Alexander sat up, dazed, rubbing one elbow. “Get them!” he shouted down to
the masked men.

Two of the men climbed back aboard the
Cassandra
and grabbed Dr. D.
Sheena ran at them, flailing at them with her puny little fists.

Of course that didn’t do any good. The third masked man grabbed her arms and
pinned them behind her back.

“Kick him, Sheena!” I yelled through the glass.

She tried to kick the man who held her, but he just tightened his grip. She
couldn’t move.

“Let them go!” I screamed desperately.

“What should we do with them?” asked one of the men.

“Whatever you do, do it quickly,” said Alexander. “We’ve got to get out of
here.”

The man who held Sheena glanced in at me. I was frantically treading water,
trying to stay above the surface.

“They might call the island police or the Coast Guard,” he said, frowning.
“We’d better kill them.”

“Throw them all in the tank!” suggested one of his partners.

“Alexander!” Dr. D. shouted. “I know you’re not a cruel man. Don’t let them
do this.”

Alexander avoided my uncle’s hard stare. “Sorry, Dr. D.,” he muttered. “I
can’t stop them. If I try to, they’ll kill me, too.”

Without another word, he lowered himself onto the other boat.

What a creep, I thought angrily.

Two of the masked men lifted Dr. D. up high and dropped him into the tank. He
landed beside me with a splash.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He rubbed the back of his head and nodded.

Sheena was next. They tossed her in easily. She flew through the air,
flailing her arms and legs. Then she plopped into the water.

The men replaced the screen lid. They clamped it shut.

I stared out at them, realizing in horror that we had no way to escape.

The water in the tank was about six feet deep. We all kicked and paddled,
trying to stay above the surface. There was barely enough room for the three of
us.

“All right,” said one of the men. “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” Dr. D. shouted. “You can’t just leave us here!”

The three men exchanged glances. “You’re right. We can’t,” said one.

They stepped toward us.

So they aren’t heartless monsters after all, I thought. They weren’t going to
leave us.

But what were they going to do?

The first man signaled the other two. They raised their hands to one side of
the tank.

“One, two, three—” the first man called out.

On three, they pushed the tank over the side of the deck.

We were thrown together. Then our bodies slammed against the side of the tank
as it dropped into the ocean.

Ocean water seeped into the tank.

“The tank—it’s sinking!” cried Dr. D.

We watched the kidnappers’ boat as it roared away. Our tank rocked in its
wake. Then it started to sink.

“We’re going under!” Sheena screamed. “We’re going to drown!”

All three of us desperately pushed against the screen. I beat my fists
against it. Dr. D. tried to get his shoulder against it.

But the tank tilted in the water, and we were all tossed back.

The screen was made of heavy steel mesh, and clamped onto the top of the
tank. We couldn’t reach the clamps from inside, so we had to try to break
through it.

We pushed with all our strength. It wouldn’t budge.

The tank slowly sank deeper below the surface of the dark, rolling water. The
moon disappeared behind a blanket of clouds, leaving us in total darkness.

We had only a minute or two before the tank dropped completely below the
surface.

Sheena started to cry. “I’m so afraid!” she shrieked. “I’m so afraid!”

Dr. D. pounded his fists against the glass tank wall, trying to break
through.

I ran my hands all along the top of the tank, looking for a weak spot in the
screen.

Then I hit something.

A tiny latch.

“Look!” I cried, pointing to the latch.

I fumbled with it, trying to open it. “It’s stuck!”

“Let me try.” Dr. D. tore at the latch with his fingers. “It’s jammed shut,”
he said.

Sheena took a red barrette from her hair. “Maybe we can loosen it with this,”
she said.

Dr. D. took the barrette and scraped hard around the latch.

“It’s working!” he said.

Maybe there’s hope, I thought. Maybe we’ll get out of here!

Dr. D. stopped scraping and tugged at the latch.

It moved!

It opened!

“We’re free!” cried Sheena.

We all pushed at the screen. We pushed again.

“Come on, kids, push harder,” urged Dr. D.

We pushed again. The screen didn’t move. The latch hadn’t opened it after
all. Two other latches held the screen in place.

Two latches we couldn’t reach.

We all grew silent. The only sounds now were Sheena’s soft, frightened sobs
and the steady wash of the waves.

The water had risen nearly to the top of the tank. Soon it would come rushing
in on us.

Suddenly, the ocean darkened. The waters grew choppy, and the tank rocked a
little faster.

“What’s that noise?” Sheena asked.

I listened.

Through the churning of the water, I heard a strange sound. It was very
faint, as if coming from far away.

A shrill, high-pitched whistle.

“It sounds like a siren,” Dr. D. murmured. “Lots of sirens.”

The eerie wails rose and fell over the water.

Louder. Closer.

The sound—as shrill as the screech of metal—surrounded us.

Suddenly, dark, shadowy forms swirled around the tank.

We pressed our faces to the glass.

“That sound. I’ve never heard anything like it. What can it be?” asked Dr. D.

“It—it’s coming from all around!” I stammered.

The dark water tossed, churned by the shadowy forms. I peered through the
foam, straining to see.

Suddenly, out of the murky water, a face appeared. It pressed itself against
the glass, right in front of my face!

I gasped and pulled back.

Then I saw more faces. We were surrounded by small, girlish faces. Their wide
eyes peered in at us menacingly.

“Mermaids!” I shrieked.

“Dozens of them!” Dr. D. murmured in hushed amazement.

They churned the water with their long tails.

Their hair, dark tangles in the black water, floated around their faces. The
tank rocked harder and harder.

“What do they want?” cried Sheena, her voice shrill and trembling.

“They look angry,” Dr. D. whispered.

I stared out at the mermaids, swirling around us like ghosts. They reached
out their hands and began clutching at the tank. They smacked their tails on the
water. The dark waters tossed and churned.

Suddenly I knew. I knew what they wanted.

“Revenge,” I murmured. “They’ve come for revenge. We took their friend. And
now they’re going to pay us back.”

Shadowy hands pressed against the glass.

“They’re pulling us under!” Dr. D. cried.

I gasped in terror, staring out at the hands, black outlines against the
glass.

Then, suddenly, the tank began to rise. Up out of the water, higher and
higher.

“Huh? What’s happening?” asked Sheena.

“They—they’re pushing us back up!” I cried happily.

“The mermaids aren’t taking revenge—they’re saving us!” Dr. D. exclaimed.

The tank brushed up against the
Cassandra.
I could see the mermaids’
tiny hands working above us.

The clamps popped open. The screen was pulled off.

With a happy groan, Dr. D. boosted Sheena up. She scrambled on board the
boat.

Then I climbed aboard, and we both helped pull Dr. D. out of the tank.

We were drenched, shivering from the cold. But we were safe.

The mermaids swarmed around the boat, their pale eyes peering up at us.

“Thank you,” Dr. D. called down to them. “Thank you for saving our lives.”

I realized this was the second time a mermaid had saved my life. I owed them
more than ever now.

“We’ve got to get the kidnapped mermaid back,” I said. “Who knows what
Alexander and those creeps will do to her!”

“Yeah,” cried Sheena. “Look what they tried to do to us!”

“I wish we could rescue her,” Dr. D. murmured, shaking his head. “But I don’t
see how we can. How will we find the kidnappers’ boat in the dark? They’re long
gone by now.”

But I knew there had to be a way. I leaned over the rail, peering down at the
mermaids floating beside us, chattering and cooing in the moonlight.

“Help us!” I pleaded with them. “We want to find your friend. Please—can
you take us to her?”