Far From The Sea We Know (30 page)

“But why are you here? I thought—“

“Tired of missing all the fun,” he said,
giving her another hug.

Chiffrey approached with a big smile on his
face. “Great to see you, Doctor Bell, and a relief,” he said,
shaking her father’s hand. Then, turning to Penny, he said, “I see
you’re enjoying my surprise. Just for you.”

“Not likely,” Penny answered.

“You won’t catch any flies that way, but
sure, this is another reason why your father is here,” Chiffrey
said, tapping the briefcase under his arm. “Got what we hoped for,
a clear field at the
Honey Pot
site. Since they haven’t
found anything, the Navy was amenable to letting us take a look.
They’ll even stand off for a while to see if we get any bites. More
later. Got calls to make.” After a quick glance at everyone around,
he gave Penny the slightest wink and left.

Her father watched him depart. “What an odd
fellow.” The look of bemusement remained as he turned to greet
Matthew, who had come quietly along behind Penny. She suddenly
realized why so quietly.

“Well,” her father said to him, “you look
like you’ve weathered a few storms, but still standing before the
mast.”

Matthew was about to open his mouth and
probably blurt out something stupid. He hadn’t shaved and looked
wasted.

“Doctor Bell, I’m having sort of a recovery
day…”

Her father took up the slack. “I’ve heard
much of your recent adventures, so no apologies required. Welcome
to the family, Matthew.”

News travels fast. Was her father serious,
Penny wondered? He loved to gently prod those around him, so she
wasn’t sure.

Her father gave a silent laugh, and the
light in his eyes danced when he said, “I see what is in front of
me, Matthew, and I ignore gossip.” He paused for a moment, looked
at them both and said to Matthew, “Listen, my friend, compared to
some of the shipwrecks Pen used to tow home, you’re good news for
the old man. Andrew has filled me in somewhat, and about Jack
Ripler, as well. He’s gone off the edge, poor devil, but nothing
more we could do, was there? Somewhat saw it coming, have to say.”
He looked at Penny and added, “Well done, well done all around. Now
we better get going, if we want to catch the show.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Matthew said.
“It’s…well…”

Her father held out his hand and Matthew
took it. “We’ll talk later, Matthew. Perhaps over the cognac I
managed to find room for in my duffle.”

The few others nearby seemed to be making a
point of not noticing Doctor Bell’s arrival, but all ears and eyes
were nevertheless wide open.

“What exactly does Chiffrey mean by ‘clear
field’?” she asked.

“I haven’t had a chance to really talk with
him myself, and got just a brief account, but as he said, we can go
there and they will leave us be. They’re keeping others away, you
know. Or maybe you don’t? I would love to spend some time with you
and Matthew to get more fully briefed. I have a little news as
well. I believe you all were about to have a meeting, however, and
I don’t want to delay that, so let’s go.”

“What meeting is this?” Penny asked.

Dirk happened to be walking by and
overheard. “To see who wants to go and who to stay. Sooner than we
thought. A Navy ship’s on the way. Chiffrey’s doing again, though
not unforeseen,” he said, smiling. “We’ll be rendezvousing with
them to take some people off, including Lorraine and myself. This
all happened while you were asleep.”

She gave him credit for resisting the urge
to say the last part differently while her father was at her
side.

Dirk went on. “None of you really need to be
at the meeting.” He looked at her. “Everyone knows you and Matthew
will stay.” He turned to her father. “Doctor Bell, this meeting
really will be just about making some logistical decisions
regarding people’s choice to stay or not. You can skip it.”

Penny said, “What do you mean? I thought
that was all decided.”

Dirk barely shrugged. “Well, it’s changed a
little, that’s all. Jack’s exit caused some to have second
thoughts.” With a wry smile, he said, “I guess the Captain foresaw
that one.”

Dirk was remarkably coherent, compared to
her last meeting with him, but still clearly buoyed up by his
newfound insights.

“He’s right,” her father said. “We’ll use
the time to catch up, and perhaps test the cognac.”

“It’s a little early, Dad.”

“It’s never too early on some days, but
fine, we’ll save it for later. Is now a good time for my long
awaited briefing?”

“Good a time as any,” she said.

“To the galley, then, where I might get a
bit of something in my stomach. I am absolutely famished and a
little coffee would be much appreciated.”

“I’ll make it this time. Matthew’s would
substitute well for battery acid.”

They spent the rest of the morning talking,
going over things, and sorting out the complex issues that had
arisen. Her father listened attentively when she presented her
summation and assessment of the situation as it had developed so
far, but he did so with that amused attitude she had known since
birth. He was always slightly humoring her. He would never change.
He simply treated women this way, and she no longer called him on
it.

One piece of news he brought was that people
on the outside were beginning to connect the dots from the
Valentina
to the
Honey Pot
to the Navy cruiser under
tow. However, it also appeared that Chiffrey’s people had leaked
some misleading cover stories. One involved a collision with an
unknown object, with a few mutterings about foreign submarines,
then denial of everything. This had seeded the supply of guessed-at
reasons for the Navy keeping ships away from the
Honey Pot
site. An “investigation” was said to be going on, and that had
enough truth in it to be plausible. The stories and counter-stories
would distract the press for a while, but it would be hard to get
the lid back on if it ever really got off.

“Because I want to look at them myself,”
Penny said. “That’s why.”

“We’ve had experts pore over these bottom
scans,” Chiffrey said, “and it takes training to really understand
what you see. Captain had a long go at them. Not a single feature
of interest down there. Boresville. Nothing.”

“Nothing can be something,” she said, having
learned that from spending years alone in the deep woods. “So,
they’re where?”

“Okay, if you insist, the printouts are
rolled up in the media lab. On top of the file cabinet.” He called
after her as she went out the hatchway, “Won’t find a thing!”

After four straight hours she was beginning
to accept he was right, when all at once she saw it. It was there
all the time, staring right at her. She checked the other charts,
and they fit together. Perfectly.

“Okay, now let him laugh,” she said out loud
to no one but herself.

She looked at her watch, grabbed the charts,
and dashed out.

One of the charts under her arm was flapping
as she ran, and it dropped to the deck as she came around a
bulkhead to almost run into Chiffrey.

“Whoa,” Chiffrey said, “You nearly made me
road kill.”

His arm darted out like an eel and snatched
the chart before it could blow away.

“I found something,” she said pointing to a
section of the scan that at first had seemed to be only the quiet
lines indicating a flat and featureless bottom.

“Excuse me, but I don’t see anything.”

“Here! Right in front of your cute little
nose! See this little hop in the lines?”

“That’s just noise, static. You see those
sometimes.”

“And here it is again on this scan. By
themselves, yeah, they seem to be just noise, but if you put a few
together they start to describe an arc.”

“As in Noah’s?”

“Circle! Part of a circle! You’re not that
stupid. See, here on this one? And here it is again.”

As she unwound the fluttering rolls, they
rattled in the wind like signal flags.

“Ah, okay, I see those two, and yes, there’s
a third, perhaps. But I’m not sure—”

“Look! Right here. These three are eighteen
kilometers away from this one. And again, it’s a section of a
circle—an arc. And this time, it’s curving in a way that connects
it to these two, following the same curve. See?

“Back toward the one on this next scan. Hmm,
yeah.”

Penny nodded, several times. “The pattern
holds true on every scan I checked, for a little over half of a
circle. Forty-two points all on the same curve! And it’s a
geometrically perfect arc. Can’t be a coincidence. They didn’t scan
the area that would have contained the rest of it.” She rattled the
papers a little under Chiffrey’s nose. “I thought you said they did
a thorough job?”

“They did. The sections you’re looking at
are on the edge of where we searched, twenty kilometers away from
the event, as far as anyone could tell. Had to stop somewhere.” He
started to laugh and shook his head. “You can’t see what you’re not
looking for. Brilliant work, Penny.”

After carefully scrutinizing all the sheets
for a while, Chiffrey looked up and said, “I’d like to see it all
put together, but I got a feeling you’re right. There is something
here. You know, sugar, I can get you a damn interesting job after
this.”

She shook her head. “Not the time for
headhunting, Lieutenant.”

“Later, then. And you say they all line up
this way?”

“I laid out as many as I could in the chart
room. On every one that covers an area where there should be an
arc, there is one, if you look. Examining one at a time, you don’t
see it.”

“I’m going to contact the people who did the
scanning runs and have them check the area where the circle
sections are missing. We’ll recheck the ones they’ve already done
as well, as a test.”

“The circle’s center is a good ten
kilometers from the original
Honey Pot
sighting. They could
have gotten the location wrong.”

“I doubt it. The
Honey Pot
had an
up-to-date satellite navigation system, and it kept an automatic
log of their location. Safety feature. We arrived at an exact fix
by comparing their camcorder’s time signature with their navigation
clock. It’s accurate to within a few meters. So this makes the
circle about, ah—”

“Twenty-three kilometers in diameter,” Penny
said, “maybe a little more. That’s assuming the pattern continues,
but my bet is that it does. Any idea what could cause a pattern
like this?”

“No,” Chiffrey said, “but hopefully someone
will. I’d still like to see what they come up with when they scan
the missing section. That would clinch it. But I’m wondering if it
isn’t…hmm…”

“Some kind of interference field, right?
Maybe similar to what messed up your radar? And we would all like
to know what’s in the center. Not thinking of ditching your new
partners now, are you?”

“Why would I? You’re our ace in the hole.
The important thing is that we finally know where we’re going.”

“Not really.”

“I just meant a destination, not an answer,
but truth to tell, got a feeling there’ll be good fishing ahead.
Let’s talk to the Captain.”

“Good thing we’re already on a southerly
heading,” Andrew said, a slight smile playing over his face. Penny
stood in the bridge entryway, somehow not wanting to go all the way
in. Chiffrey stood rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Three days,” Andrew finally added, “at our
top sustainable speed. But that’ll burn through most of our reserve
diesel.”

“You’ll have a refueling tanker waiting for
you. By the day after tomorrow. Guaranteed.”

“Of course. You already had this set up,”
she said.

“Sure did,” Chiffrey said. “Just as an
option, should the need arise, and I kind of figured it would.
You’ll get a general resupply, as well. Food, parts, equipment,
whatever is needed. Does that work, Captain?”

Andrew replied by cranking up their speed.
“This is a far as I can push her. Will save us a day at least.”

“Wait a sec,” Penny said. “The mid-sea
pickup of the crew who are departing…?”

“We’ve covered that already,” Chiffrey said.
“That show’s on for tomorrow afternoon.” He smiled and said to the
Captain, “Too bad you can’t just marry Dirk and Lorraine before
they depart. Then it could be their honeymoon.”

“Only happens in movies,” Penny said,
shaking her head. “A captain has no authority to perform marriages
at sea or anywhere else.”

“I believe that’s what I just said,
sugar.”

The next morning, Penny returned to the
small media lab. Emory had just told her that Chiffrey wanted to
meet there, and she assumed that meant with Andrew and her father
as well, but when she arrived, she found Chiffrey on his own.

“I spoke with your father and the Captain
already,” he said. “We had a little meeting in the Captain’s cabin
late last night. Hope you don’t mind.”

She did mind but didn’t say anything.

He went on. “Apparently, they have some
tricky things to work out with the people at the Point, a
conference call. The board of directors is not completely happy
with your father’s part in the turn of events. We’re letting it go
through, of course.”

“Kind of you.”

“I have important news, so let’s not waste
time.” Chiffrey edged his way a little closer. “They began bottom
scanning the
Honey Pot
area again and the circle checks out.
Indications of the arc you found are still there, only in a
slightly different location.” He handed her a printout with a
composite of all the data from the old and new charts. It was much
smaller than the originals, but the resolution was finer and the
whole area could be seen in one view.