The Pacific Giants (7 page)

When she'd read the same page for the fourth time and still couldn't remember what it was about, she put down her book.

She leaned over the side of her bed and picked up her backpack. She unzipped an internal pocket and took out a small object with great care.

In her hand she held an ugly, puckered shrunken head that was about the size of a small orange. It had long black hair and its lips were stitched shut with twine. The shrunken head had belonged to her grandfather, Todd, an explorer who had lived with a head-shrinking tribe in Ecuador a long time ago. Vanessa had found the head in the attic when she was looking for her mother's cryptid files. Now she took it everywhere with her, told it secrets—and sometimes got advice back!

“You should have seen it, Toddy,” Vanessa whispered. “It was like nothing I've ever seen before. I only saw part of its back and it was huge. It was kind
of like a cross between a giant snake and a huge crocodile with a horse's face!”

She looked sharply at the head, its face held in a permanent grimace.

“You wouldn't grin like that if you had seen how ugly it was,” Vanessa said grimly.

Toddy said nothing.

It was about five o'clock when Mr. Fox returned with Lee. Vanessa met them at the door as they came in. She noticed that Mr. Fox was looking much more cheerful now.

“Good news,” he said heartily, presenting Vanessa with her runners. “I found the tender eventually, thank goodness, and Dr. McDonald didn't have to swim in fully clothed.”

Lee grinned.

“Where did you find it in the end?” Vanessa asked.

“Not far from Rocky Bay, actually. It must have come off quite quickly after we set off and then drifted a bit. We'll have to have a little refresher course on knots someday soon,” Mr. Fox added—rather unnecessarily, Vanessa thought.

Lee put her arm on Vanessa's shoulder and squeezed it.

“Had fun today, then?” she said.

“It was amazing, Lee. They were so huge up close, and so beautiful. There was a baby humpback too,” Vanessa said dreamily. “I'd love to be a scientist and study them.”

“Tomorrow, I'll ask Dr. Mitchell if you could visit the research lab before we fly out. Just to see the setup—the hydrophones that record the whales singing,” Lee said thoughtfully. “He's terribly nice. He runs a graduate fellowship program, which you could do when you're older, Vanessa, if you're interested.”

Vanessa's eyes widened in amazement. Lee wasn't like other adults, who were always putting obstacles in the way—you couldn't do this and that. She never treated her like a silly kid, although Vanessa knew that she had been just that when they first met. She cringed now to think of the fuss she'd made about their trip to Loch Ness.

“Would you? Oh, Lee, that would be fantastic,” she said gratefully.

Vanessa was dying to ask if it could be tomorrow, but she swallowed her words. Better not to badger Lee.

“Can I go too?” Wayne's whiny voice came from
over Vanessa's left shoulder, and it was all she could do to resist stamping her foot.

“I'll see what I can do, Wayne,” Lee said lightly, squeezing Vanessa's forearm again and giving her a conspiratorial grin.

It has been reported that, on 13 February 1953, Caddy was observed by ten people who watched from different viewpoints around Qualicum Bay. Surely this number of people can't all have been mistaken?

Later that evening, Vanessa decided to ring home. It would cost a fortune on her mobile, but she had to call Luke or Ronan and see if they could look at her mum's cryptid files, which were stored in the attic. Her work had been put up there after she died.

But which brother should she call? Luke would be better at finding the files, but he would ask too many questions.

The ringing went on for ages before a small, sleepy voice answered.

“Hullo?”

“Hi, Ronan, it's me. How are you?” Vanessa said.

“Who is this?” Ronan's voice became belligerent.

“It's me, Vanessa, you idiot. Your sister? I've only been gone a few days.”

“For God's sake, Vanessa, it's the middle of the night here,” Ronan said indignantly.

Whoops. She had totally forgotten about the time difference.

“Sorry, Ro. But I need you to do me a favor. Please, please,” Vanessa begged. “I'll never ask you for anything else again and I'll back you up against Dad in the event of a row.”

“Wow. Must be big.” Ronan sounded more awake now.

“I just need you to go up into the attic for me and find a file.” Vanessa tried to sound matter-of-fact.

“You what?”

“Just listen,” Vanessa said quickly. “I don't have
enough time or credit to explain fully. I'm looking for a file. It may be in one of Mum's boxes near the trapdoor in the attic. It will be a colored folder and will be about a monster in Canada. …”

Her voice trailed away. It sounded odd, even to her.

She felt her heart sink. Would Ronan find it, even if it was there?

“A monster?” Ronan asked in a tired voice. “What are you on about, Vanessa?”

“I'm just following up on some of Mum's research. Pleeeease, Ronan. Do you remember, I brought a folder to Loch Ness that time we went? It will be just like that, but it will be about a creature in Canada. I don't know its name, though.”

“OK. A folder about an unknown Canadian monster,” he repeated finally. “I'll try to find it. But you're not expecting me to go and get it now, Vanessa?”

“It will only take a couple of minutes, Ro, and you could call me back,” she pleaded. “Otherwise I won't get a wink of sleep tonight, wondering.”

Vanessa heard him give a grim laugh.

“Good,” he said. “Then you'll know how it feels to be sleep-deprived, like me.”

“But couldn't you just—”

“Listen to me, Vanessa,” Ronan said sternly. “I'll look for it in the morning, so don't you dare call me back before then.” He slammed down the phone.

There are reports of the monster being seen on land. In 1936 E. J. Stephenson, with his wife and son, saw a huge unidentifiable creature wriggling over the reef into a lagoon on Saturna Island.

After breakfast the next morning, Vanessa walked with Lee down the beach at the next bay to meet Mr. Fox. Lee hadn't said anything about taking Vanessa with her to Brighton Island that morning, but Vanessa remained hopeful.

“What's the plan today?” Lee asked her as they
waited for Mr. Fox to bring the tender in.

That was disappointing. Clearly, Lee had no intention of taking Vanessa with her.

“Brought my sketchpad and might draw for a bit on the beach,” Vanessa said lightly, although she felt gloomy already.

Hide until lunch to avoid Wayne
, she said in her head.

After Vanessa waved Lee and Mr. Fox off, she walked farther along the beach and found a pile of huge boulders.

It would be a good place to hide from Wayne and kill a bit of time.

Nestled in the center of the boulders, Vanessa found that she was protected from view on all sides. She just hoped that there weren't any large crabs hiding in there with her.

She took out her charcoal pencil and sketchbook, turned to a fresh page and stared at it. What should she draw? Normally she'd just let her pencil lead her, make quick rough sketches of whatever came into her head. Now she hesitated, and the empty whiteness of the page overwhelmed her. Did the equivalent of writer's block exist for artists?

Maybe the whale music that Lee had loaded onto her iPod would help. She plugged the headphones into her ears and listened, waiting for inspiration. The image of the whale and its huge body breaching came to her. She could hear the thunderous noise, see the almighty splash. She started to draw it. Then she drew herself swimming nearby. Vanessa smiled. She looked tiny by comparison. No wonder whales were called the “giants of the ocean.”

She threw her head back, looking skyward, and thought about the strange creature she had seen yesterday. It had looked huge and powerful. Scary too, not at all friendly like Nessie. More like the Chupacabra. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine as she thought back to Mexico and that terrible night she had seen the devilish eyes watching her.

Now her thoughts jumped to Ronan. She wondered if he had gone up to the attic last night, or if he'd gone back to sleep. Would he even find a file? She tried calling him again, but there was no answer.

Vanessa turned over the page. OK. She'd try to draw it, whatever it was. She concentrated hard, trying to recall the head with the funny little bulges and huge eyes. Then she drew the snakelike coils and the
misshapen head. The creature started to emerge, but then the nib on her pencil broke. No sharpener either. She tried again with the stub of the pencil but it looked so bad. Like a toddler's drawing of some fantasy animal. Frustrated, Vanessa tore the page out, scrunched it into a ball and pushed it in between two rocks.

Vanessa switched off her iPod and put it back into her bag. For a split second, she thought she heard her name, a distant cry that hung in the air. Then a seagull mewed overhead and she watched it soar higher and higher.

“Vaannessaaaa.” This time there was no doubting it. Vanessa poked her head above the level of the rocks and peered about. It could be Wayne trying to trick her.

“Vanessa, where are you?”

It was clearer this time, and Vanessa could tell that it was a woman's voice. Lee?

“Vanessa, you've got to hurry.”

Vanessa turned and saw Lee standing beside the tender on the beach, her hands cupped around her mouth.

How come she was back from Brighton Island already? And Mr. Fox's boat was there too. Strange.

Vanessa sprang down from her rocky hideout and ran toward Lee.

“What's wrong? Is everything OK?” she asked breathlessly.

“Quick. I'll explain as we go.” Lee shepherded Vanessa hurriedly onto the tender.

Illegal whaling is an international problem. Despite a ban on commercial whaling since 1986, some countries continue to ignore it or get around it by describing their activities as scientific research.

“One of the tagged whales has turned up,” Lee said, waving a small black walkie-talkie type of thing in one hand and using the other to steer the tender. “It's little Ziggy,” she added, “one of the young whales.”

Her face was flushed with excitement, her eyes shining. They were approaching the trawler, and Mr.
Fox leaned out to pull them in. Vanessa decided to wait until they were on board to ask questions. It was probably not a good time to offer to tie the tender either.

“We'll need Jasper and the team,” Lee said to Mr. Fox as they climbed up the steps. “Can you radio them and get them to bring everything? Ziggy is probably two tons by now.”

Within minutes, Mr. Fox had started the engines and was on the radio.

Lee turned and, to Vanessa's surprise, took both her hands in her own. Lee might touch Vanessa's arm or kiss her on the cheek, but in general she was not a hand-holder. This must be something very big to be having such an effect on Lee.

“Oh, Vanessa, I'm so relieved,” she said happily.

Vanessa smiled encouragingly. “Can you tell me now what's going on?”

“You know about the research lab on Brighton Island and the way they use satellite tracking tags on some of the whales so they can monitor migration patterns? Well, in the last month alone, they have lost the signal on four of their tagged whales. They have just disappeared—all humpbacks and all in the same small area.”

“Yes,” said Vanessa. “You mentioned that whales were going missing. So you think someone is capturing them? Why would anyone do that, Lee?”

“There is a ban on whaling, but some people don't respect it. They hunt them anyway. They kill the baleen whales—the ones without teeth, the filter feeders—humpbacks and grays, for example.”

“But why?” Vanessa asked again.

“Money. Big money. Whale meat is a delicacy in some countries, so hunters kill the whales and sell the meat.”

Vanessa made a face. She couldn't imagine wanting to eat whale meat.

“But now Ziggy, one we thought was missing, has turned up.” Lee waved the thing that looked like a walkie-talkie at her. “This is the whale tracker,” she said, showing Vanessa a screen with a blinking red dot. “We've got a signal back now and it's showing that she is really close to a beach, so we think she may have got stranded.”

“So the hunters haven't got her after all?” asked Vanessa.

“Apparently not.”

“Are we going to help her? Am I going to see
her?” Vanessa asked incredulously.

Lee smiled. “It's great, isn't it? I'm glad you're here.” The radio crackled into life beside them.

“Lee,” Mr. Fox called, “it's Jasper on the radio.”

“But why did you decide to bring me?” Vanessa asked, just as Lee moved away. Obviously she hadn't heard Vanessa's question, but Mr. Fox had.

“Well,” he answered, “Mrs. Bouche called to say she had to go unexpectedly to the mainland today and that she was leaving Wayne with Lettie Cuspard in the ice-cream shop. You couldn't be found, so Lee had to come back to get you,” Mr. Fox explained. “She couldn't leave you on your own.”

Although he said it in a matter-of-fact sort of way, Vanessa felt as if he had just stuck her with a giant needle. Stinging tears sprang to the corners of her eyes, and she turned to look out to sea. Lee hadn't chosen to bring her along. She was only babysitting her!

Dr. C. MacLean Fraser, who was the head of the Zoology Department in the University of British Columbia from 1920 to 1940, said that “until someone gets a lasso around one of these things we will never be able to get much further. It is possible that there are such things.”