Moonfin (16 page)

Xili looked surprised.

“Her name—how did you know?”

“It only just came into my head … I don't understand what's happening to me—”

Xili swished around in alarm.

“The Snircher comes. Go quickly! You may follow my trail back to shore.” She zipped off, but the dark boy stayed behind, waiting. Lizzy whisked up and broke the surface of the water, grabbing onto the board she swiped from the contest.

“It's about time! You had me scared to death! What happened?” said Kai hysterically. “I dove under the water, but all I could see was a bunch of murky bubbles!”

“Pinch the grinch and flinch.”

Argh
! Here it was again—that bothersome brain scramble. It only ever happened with Xili, never when she spoke to Iddo or other sea animals. Now she knew how poor Bill Walden felt.

“Huh? Are you—did you—where were you just now?”

“The shark barks like a moose. I mean—the shark is gone.” Her words came rushing back much quicker than the last time she was undersea.

“Ha, that's unlikely. You must've done something to scare it off.”

“Yeah, it was moldy—I mean weird. Let's get to the belch—uh, you know—and dry off.” She shook her head and waited for
all
the right words would fall back into place. “Your board is toast. Ditch it and we'll ride this one in,” she said.

Kai slid onto the borrowed surfboard and let her broken one drift out to sea. She pushed off, Lizzy holding onto the back, a wake of bubbles plowing before them. Lizzy saw Tevu at the front pulling the board along effortlessly. Kai noticed the bubbles too.

“Xili?”

“Yep, and also Tevu.”

She gave Lizzy a funny look.

“He's … a boy.”

“For real? What does he look like? Can I see?” She leaned forward.

“I dunno—darkish, I guess. He's right there beneath the surface.” But all Kai could see was a long shadow cutting through the water.

They made it safely back to shore and collapsed, exhausted, in the sand. The competition had been canceled, and the beach cleared of spectators, except for the search crew and medics, who were still looking for Kai.

“I guess I wasn't in the top three,” said Kai glumly.

“There will be other contests—I'm just glad you're safe.”

Kai craned her neck toward the judging booth and saw Jeff holding on to the other half of her broken surfboard.

“Oh Lizzy, my shortboard! That was my favorite one,” she moaned. It was a hand-me-down from her brother's collection, but still the best one she'd ever owned.

The medics rushed on the scene and checked Kai out before giving her the “okay” to go home. A young girl in a red polka-dot bathing suit claimed the surfboard Lizzy had borrowed; and a spindly, pimple-faced guy from a local surf team showed up to talk wave lingo.

“Hey, you connected some sweet dots out there,” he said, smiling timidly.

“Thanks,” said Kai, cheeks turning pink.

“My team wants to make you an offer—you train with us this summer, and Coach says you could surf with us in regionals next year.”

Kai started to smile, but played it off.

“I dunno, maybe. I kind of have my own deal going on.”

“That's chill. You like to ace it.” He looked disappointed. “Well, if you change your mind, I'll send you the schedule. We're the Surf Riders and train here in Mongabay, and we could use a crusher like you.”

“I'll think about it,” she said casually, trying not to look too desperate (even though she was).

He walked off. Kai jumped up and did a little happy dance in the sand. It wasn't a surf tour, but the next best thing: she could train and keep a look out for sponsors on the local circuit. Abruptly stopping mid-spin, and looking suddenly serious, she said, “Hey, you were pretty brave out there—what got into you? After your lecture this morning, I thought you'd be the last person to jump in the ocean and face even a slug.”

Lizzy shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know.” And she honestly didn't. Her summer seemed to be getting weirder by the day.

“From shark food to Surf Rider, I like how this day is turning out after all,” said Kai, beaming.

“Speaking of food, Sugar has a feast for us back at the house, and I'm pretty sure it isn't sardine related.”

“I could eat anything right now … even gimpit soufflé.”

Chapter 12
SCALES AND CRAZY LLAMAS

I
t was eerily silent.

Not a peep or scuttle could be heard inside the aquarium lab where Linda Grape was still analyzing the scale samples that Lizzy had discovered along the edge of Phil Pinkerton's yacht. She looked up from her worktable and peered questioningly around the room at all the tanks. “You guys are really quiet tonight,” she said out loud as if expecting a
blurp-blurp
by way of reply.

Leaning over a microscope, she adjusted the magnification on one of the scales. “This combination of minerals coupled with this strange radiation is very peculiar,” she exhaled. “I am absolutely stumped! Guess I'm in for a long night—”

“Hello, Mrs. Grape,” a voice boomed in her ear.

She let out a gasp and wheeled around in her chair to find Lee, Dr. Krell's chief assistant, towering over her, looking smug and pinched as usual. His jumbo Adam's apple flinched along a thin neck, craning only inches from her head.

“Lee, you startled me!”

His cold eyes immediately locked onto the pieces sitting on her desk. “What're you working on there?”

“Oh—um … nothing much,” she fumbled, “just something Lizzy came across. You know those kids—always pulling crazy junk out of the ocean—thinking they've found buried treasure.”

A wary tingle crawled up her spine. She wasn't sure if it was from blatant mistrust of Krell's little spy, or the fuzzy sideburns that flapped like t-bone steaks across his cheeks.

“They're quite extraordinary.” He reached down and picked up a scale, turning it over in his sallow hand. “Where did she find these particular samples? And have you shown them to Dr. Krell?” He zeroed in on her microscope slide, brows sharply creasing.

Uh-oh
. Now she will have to report them to Dr. Krell or Lee will squeal. She thought quickly—

“Lizzy didn't say where she found them, and no,” she shrugged coolly, “they're only some common type of exoskeleton material—not anything important to disclose at this point. I've only just begun to study them.”

She didn't like the way he pretended to be in charge, making her feel like a student intern instead of chief aquarist.

“I have never seen such scale specimens before,” he lied, his nasally voice taking on a tense edge. “What have you learned about them thus far?”

“Well, they smell pretty bad.” She brushed a loose curl from her forehead and chuckled nervously.
Being a good little watchdog, I see.

Lee examined her face closely while hovering for several uncomfortable moments over her worktable. She squirmed under his icy gaze, which seemed to please him. Then he let out a slow hissing sound between his teeth, saying, “Keep me posted if you
do
find anything,” and slunk through the open door, disappearing down the empty corridor.

After he left, the entire room seemed to come alive: tanks bubbled loudly, crabs moved out from under rocks, sea horses scooted nervously from behind leafy plants, and her turtle popped a tiny head out from under its shell.

“Hello, Charlie!” she said, stroking his little green head. “Were you hiding in there in there this whole time? I don't blame you—wish I could poke my head into a safe shell when he comes around too.”

But Charlie quickly darted back into the safety of his shell as three more voices trickled down the dark hallway …

“Man! So you're saying a great white shark shot out of a wave behind you and munched your board?” said Jeff excitedly, loafers barely touching the floor.

Kai's eyes gleamed as she relived the rush of another thrilling escape.

“Yeah—all I could see was a mouth full of teeth—missed my foot by about two inches!”

“And Lizzy scared it away? How d'ya do that?” He looked over at her, wide-eyed and waiting.

Lizzy didn't answer. Baffled by it herself, she still hadn't come up with an explanation that made any sense. Other than discovering that she could breathe underwater, this was the first time that she felt different from her friends. When she decided to go after the shark, something happened to her—she had changed into
something else.
It was scary, and she didn't know how to explain it, so she said the first thing that popped into her head—

“It must've realized Kai wasn't tasty.”

Kai's face screwed up.

“What? I'd be a Crispy Creampuff to that thing … I think.” Not that she wanted to find out.

“And give it food poisoning,” said Jeff, lunging out of the way before Kai could punch him in the arm.

They entered Mrs. Grape's office. Lizzy ran over to give her mom a big hug; she worked so many long hours at the aquarium that any time they had together was always a treat.

“Hi, sorry we're late.” Lizzy pulled up a stool and sat down. “Sugar kept us a little longer after dinner. She was blazing mad over her llama eating the garden vegetables again—we had to catch and pen him up for her.”

“Oh, that pesky Rusty is so funny, thinks he's a person. What'd he get into this time?”

“The spinach … and then he puked,” said Jeff.

“Sugar said it served him right for stealing her salad,” said Kai. “Rusty went berserk afterward and ran around the yard, yelping and kicking at the fence.”

“I bet. That animal is always getting into trouble.” Mrs. Grape gave a chuckle. “Remember the time he broke out of the yard and found that box of wigs at the neighbor's garage sale?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lizzy giggled, “Mrs. Prymple found Rusty tossing them across her driveway and rolling all over 'em.”

“That was the funniest thing! When they locked him back up in the yard, he made strange whimpering noises, pining for days on end like he'd lost his best friend. Mrs. Prymple finally had to bring over one of the burly, black wigs for Rusty to play with and he was happy again.”

Jeff frowned. He never understood Sugar's simple farm life or why she would ever put up with a pest like that. His life was so different up at the mansion. Kai, on the other hand, smiled wishfully. She liked how normal their lives were.

Mrs. Grape picked up one of the scale samples from her desk and held it under the lamp.

“Lizzy, where did you say these came from?”

“We found them on Mr. Pinkerton's yacht. Why?”

“Lee stopped by and seemed unusually interested in them, and I can see why he would be. Besides being as strong as steel, they're emitting a very low energy field.”

Lizzy lifted her hand to the scale sitting around her neck. “Is it dangerous?”

“No, no, nothing harmful, just odd. Animals can have astonishing abilities—like some deep-sea animals have bioluminescent blood that emanates light—you know, special gifts that they alone possess. But I have never seen anything like this from an exoskeleton.” She placed the scale on a plate and picked up a metal rod. “See what happens when I run this electromagnetic detector over it?”

The meter pin on her desk spiked.

“Huh?” said Kai. This was Lizzy-speak, all this science stuff. “What does it
mean
?”

“Well—there are EM waves all around us,” Mrs. Grape explained, “like radio waves, light waves, and the microwaves we use to heat up food by increasing molecular movement. Only certain waves are visible to our eyes, and the rest are not. This scale, for whatever reason, has a weak pulse flowing from it. And to be honest, I'm not sure how or why.”

“Like a signal,” said Jeff, “as in a communication device sending messages to an alien ship in outer space?”

“No, Jeff, the signal isn't powerful enough to reach space,” said Mrs. Grape, looking amused.

Kai rolled her eyes. “Dude, you should seriously get your head out of those comic books.”

Mrs. Grape continued, “The composition is specially designed for water. See how the scales lock together?” She joined two of the scales and they melded into one piece. “It's water-tight armor; not even an air molecule can slip through. The material is truly phenomenal … and quite possibly from an animal that's been extinct for millions of years.”

Jeff's face lit up like a light bulb.

“Hey, just think what a substance like this could mean to the Navy—stealth submarines sending out signals, scrambling sensors, even mimicking wildlife…. If we could study it—”

“Slow down there! No one, and I mean
no one
, can know about these yet. For now, I'm telling only you three, since you were the ones who discovered this treasure in the first place. But until we know exactly what we're dealing with, this can't get out,” Mrs. Grape warned. “If they end up in the wrong hands …” Her voice trailed off, leaving them to wonder the consequences of discovering and extinct dinosaur living in the ocean. The words “mass panic” came to mind.