The Reef (40 page)

‘We must return to the mainland immediately, Santiago,’ Soul said.

‘We’re not going anywhere.’ The
Pilar
shuddered as Santiago turned off the motors and the vessel cruised through light waters again. Sunlight filtered through he sharp waters, filled the portholes. Prisms of blue stretched away.

‘Right,’ Santiago said, ‘we’ve to stay here for an hour until the pressure is changed and the air is safe. Do I make myself clear? If you don’t, you will die. It’s as simple as that. So we’ve an hour, one hour, in which to discuss exactly what we did and did not see.’

‘Okay,’ Manolin said. ‘Whatever that was, it hasn’t harmed anyone. No one has been affected since their stay on the island. We’ve been down there and back, and we’re perfectly safe.’

‘This has to be reported,’ Soul said.

‘You can’t report anything,’ Forb said. ‘I don’t want any navy coming to the island. There’s too much to lose. You can’t destroy something in nature that you don’t understand.’

‘What’s to understand?’ Calyban said. ‘There’s something enormous down there, and those sirens are sinking Eschan ships. It affects our government.’

‘How can you possibly know any of this for certain?’ Manolin said.

‘Either way it has to be investigated,’ Calyban said.

‘We can do that,’ Manolin said.

‘No, I mean by the
government,’
Calyban said.

Santiago stood up. He had a pistol in his hand. ‘Fuck the government. When has a government done anything to help nature or science?’

Calyban and Soul both looked at the pistol, then at Santiago. Manolin watched his old mentor move with purpose, precisions, in away that told him he wasn’t unfamiliar with these situations.

‘Might I remind you that it’s our responsibility to report our findings to our government,’ Soul said. ‘Should anything happen to us then the navy will be here.’

‘And how’re they going to know if anything happens? Eh?’ Santiago said.

‘Santiago, put the pistol down,’ Manolin said.

‘You can shut up too.’

‘Santiago?’ Manolin said, frowning. ‘What the hell are you saying? Don’t be stupid, and think about what you’re doing. No one is going to be shot. Put that thing away.’

‘We’ll discuss this on the island,’ Forb said. ‘We’ll take a break, have some food and relax. When we’re all calm, then we can discuss the matter clearly and logically.’

‘Those boys,’ Santiago said, indicating the agents with his pistol, ‘don’t do logic.’ ‘Santiago, you’re not helping. Come on, let’s sit down and be civilised. Okay?’ Manolin said.

‘Right,’ Santiago said.

‘Good,’ Manolin said.

‘Fine,’ Santiago said.

Twenty-Two

The afternoon sun had burned away people’s energy leaving them lethargic, tired. It was dusk, and a cool breeze came from the north. Life emerged once again. In the forest the birds were boisterous. You could smell the fragrance from the trees further up the island. DeBrelt’s crew, Calyban, Soul, the villagers and several ichthyocentaurs had gathered around a large fire built alongside the lagoon. For a while, everyone talked amongst themselves. Some of the villagers were sitting cross-legged at the front of a circle.

One of the ichthyocentaur women was carrying a baby, and Manolin and Forb were paying the young creature attention. Manolin beckoned the others forward. Becq came, and Santiago, but Yana and Jefry did not move. They were sitting next to the fire, staring at the infant from a distance. Jefry tried to move Yana, but she was reluctant. He held her arm. Her eyes were round and red. She mouthed some words Manolin couldn’t hear. All Jefry could do was squeeze her hand whenever she gripped it. Yana was still cold, silent, but she would talk only with Jefry. Manolin supposed that their relationship was deeper than either had realised.

Forb was signing to the mother, who, with her hands full, couldn’t reply properly. Manolin offered to hold the baby. She handed her child to him carefully. Manolin was surprised at how heavy it was. The creature’s grey skin was tough. Manolin smiled when he saw the stub of what would become the tail. He made faces at the baby, and it imitated him after a few different facial contortions. The mother grinned and Forb laughed. After the conversation, Manolin reluctantly handed the baby back. The little creature was smiling.

‘What a little gem,’ he said to Forb.

‘I think you’re accepted by this lot,’ Forb said. ‘She let you hold her baby. That’s pretty good going.’

Manolin signed,
Thank you. Good luck,
to the female. She nodded. It was nice to feel accepted, especially by something so exotic. In the streets of Escha, people would seldom accept you. They would walk on by, struggled to make eye contact. Occasionally someone would speak, blurting out some kind of offensive madness, or try to sell you something, pawing at your clothes. Groups tended to keep to themselves, never wanted to integrate.

Becq sat down by Jefry and Yana. Manolin sat on her other side. The opposite side of the circle, Myranda was sitting with Lewys. There was a sense of excitement as people chattered because they had been summoned. It was as if they had never been gathered for anything like this before.

Santiago and Forb moved to the centre of the crowd, by the fire. They looked out to the orange and pink horizon, and the darkness of the sea against it. Everyone stood or sat on the sand, in a circle around them. Silence descended, and the fire could be heard crackling. Manolin felt the tension, even though he knew what they would be talking about.

‘Right,’ Forb said. ‘We’re going to give some feedback on our trip down the reef.’ He signed to the several ichthyocentaurs as he spoke.

‘Absolutely,’ Santiago said. ‘Now, as you mayor may not know, we travelled some way down in my submersible and we think we’re at the bottom of our mystery.’

Forb continued translating for the ichthyocentaurs.

‘This afternoon, for several hours, we followed the reef down. We didn’t expect the reef to be so deep. Now, we’ve basic technology, but we got to the bottom. Somewhere down there,’ he indicated the ocean, ‘is a city. We saw a construct, possible made out of the coral, or indeed caves, but we couldn’t be certain.’

People in the crowd were muttering. Santiago palmed the air. ‘Now, let me continue. It was illuminated by some sort of bioluminescent life form. Quite common in deep waters, but I never expected to see them in such quantities.’

Everyone was silent. He tuned to Forb. ‘They any idea what I’m talking about?’

The doctor said, ‘Stay away from the technical details.’

Santiago nodded, placed his hands on his hips. ‘Basically, there is a community of sirens. And the reason they are killing these chaps, I believe,’ he indicated the ichthyocentaur group standing between the villagers, ‘is to breed. They are taking their sperm. This is quite likely as, when you think about it, they’re all female, by the looks of it and couldn’t reproduce on their own. Or at least, one would not assume it.’

The crowd muttered.

‘What doest thou mean?’ a villager said.

‘What I mean is that your ichthyocentaur men are being
raped,
for want of a more accurate word. They are being raped so that the sirens can reproduce. Our mystery, therefore, is solved.’ ‘Tell ‘em the rest,’ Calyban said.

Santiago looked at him. Forb was no longer signing, but turned to stand by Santiago. The two agents stood up, stepped over the semi-naked bodies on the sand, to the centre. ‘There’s more, isn’t there?’ ‘No. These simple people don’t need to know anything else,’ Santiago said.

‘Why don’t you tell ‘em? Eh?’ Calyban said.

‘Now would be a good time to take this elsewhere, gentlemen.’ Santiago nodded slowly, eyes wide. ‘Don’t you want them to know,’ Calyban said, ‘that there’s something under the island?’

‘No.’

Forb looked across to Santiago. ‘We could tell them, you know.’

‘No. Now gentlemen, if you want to take this further-’

‘What doest he mean?’ a villager said.

Santiago turned to the villagers, who were looking at him, their eyes wide and bright against their dark skins. ‘There was ... Well, we saw something else.’

‘What?’ someone said.

‘Well, to be fair,’ Manolin said, pushing himself up from the sand, ‘we don’t really know what it was.’ He wanted to see order maintained here, felt it a duty to prevent an argument, especially since it would be caused by the foreigners. More than anything he wanted to be polite, to fit in.

‘Indeed,’ Santiago said. ‘We saw a black, glossy surface that could’ve been anything.’

‘It was an eye,’ Soul said.

‘Not necessarily,’ Santiago said.

‘It was a damn eye. An enormous eye,’ Calyban said.

The villagers were talking loudly. Santiago walked up to Calyban and Soul. ‘I think we should have this out, face to face.’ ‘Be careful,’ Forb said. ‘I don’t want trouble. Remember what they said about the navy, Santiago.’ ‘I wouldn’t worry about what they say too much, doc,’ Santiago said.

‘Oh, why not?’ Calyban said. ‘What’re
you
going to do about it, eh?’

Santiago stepped forwards, grabbed the collars of Calyban’s shirt, and Soul tried to hold Santiago’s wrists. Forb squeezed between all three. Seconds later Manolin was trying to pull the group apart, as all the men shouted obscenities at each other. Behind the fight, the villagers were shouting, too, and Becq, Jefry and Yana were all standing now, helpless ,before Manolin and Forb managed to pull the fight apart.

Santiago’s chest was heaving, his clothing pulled askew.

Calyban reached up to his nose, revealed felt blood. It had dripped on his shirt, too. He looked across at Santiago’s silhouette, the setting sun behind him, the villagers still talking, and you could see the cool breeze ruffling his hair. ‘That was a mistake, Mr DeBrelt. It was a very regrettable mistake. When the navy get here, you’ll be deported from this island and never allowed to work again. Mark my words. I’ll see you spend some time behind bars.’

Santiago said, ‘The hell I will.’

‘Hey-all of you,’ Forb said. ‘I don’t want any naval ships here, okay. I don’t want anyone here. Sort out your differences like decent men.’

‘That would imply, doe,’ Santiago said, ‘that these two men
are
decent men.’

‘You’re not helping, San,’ Manolin said.

‘Be quiet.’

‘For fuck sake,’ Manolin said. ‘Here we are trying to help you and look at you-’

‘I don’t need your help,’ Santiago said. Then, ‘I don’t need anybody’s help.’ He pushed his way past Manolin and back out towards the village.

Manolin looked at the Forb, who shrugged. Calyban and Soul walked away moments later. A group of villagers drifted away. Some remained and talked.

Myranda came to Forb, who was sitting alongside Manolin by the fire. They had eaten two hares on spits. It was dark, but the wind had calmed, the evening became pleasant. Manolin felt as though the nature of the island had soothed the angst he felt earlier.

‘Hello, you,’ Forb said. ‘You okay?’ She nodded. ‘I don’t like all the arguments. We hardly argued before.’

‘I’m sorry for that,’ Manolin said. ‘We’ve brought our ways with us, and our problems. For that, I apologise.’ He felt a guilt that they had brought all their problems to this paradise.

‘Not your fault,’ Forb said. ‘It’s what happens on islands. Small spaces, isolation. Things come to a head.’ ‘I don’t understand any of this. We’re such a rabble.’ He looked up at Myranda. ‘I
am
sorry for it all.’ ‘Don’t be,’ she said, and smiled. She stood up, kissed Forb on the top of his head.

Manolin’s gaze followed her as she walked down the beach. He turned to see that Forb was watching him.

The doctor said, ‘Love and care makes it all better, doesn’t it?’

Manolin sighed. ‘I wouldn’t know about that.’

‘Fair enough. So, what d’you think of our sirens?’

‘Amazing, wasn’t it,’ Manolin said. ‘To see another race in a whole world different to ours, and to see that they had formed a functioning society with parallels to our own ... well, I can’t quite sum up the importance of that to science. Here we are thinking humans and rumel are the only creatures capable of such organisation. It’s humbling.’

‘What d’you reckon about the half breeds?’ Forb said.

‘Interesting stuff,’ Manolin said. ‘Just couldn’t work out the necessity for killing the ichthyocentaurs. Also, why the need to breed them? The half breeds were labouring. I know it was almost total darkness, and we couldn’t quite see, but they were almost like slaves. It just wasn’t right.’

‘Hmm.’ Forb picked some meat out of his teeth. ‘And the eye?’

‘Might not’ve been one.’

‘But what do
you
think?’

‘I think it was an eye,’ Manolin said. ‘But I wouldn’t like to say what it was connected to.’

Forb said, ‘I’ve a theory about the sirens, y’know. Those half breeds were building something, or rather bolting something to the ocean floor. Think about all that metal.’