Chapter 22 #2
“Huh,” Harper said. “Odd.”
“Yep,” Kyle nodded.
As the ferry disappeared from sight, Harper quickly texted Akiel:
Ferry just departed. Weather is holding, should be a short trip—water samples coming your way. We need a DNA scan. I’ll try to collect more for abundance charting, we can use one of the fishing boats.
The message sat for a moment before his reply popped up:
Got it—we’ll be there to get her. Send me a damage report on the engine when it’s ready.
Harper replied with a thumbs-up. She climbed back on Murphy’s cart with the others.
Shuri’s words still circled her thoughts.
Einar had said the same thing about the skipper’s accident, not the townspeople, not human malice, so what?
Were those creatures trying to destroy the camera?
Send a warning? Harper shivered. As they circled into town, Murphy pulled up in front of the lab.
“Okay, I’m taking Harper with me to assess the boat,” she said to Kyle.
They nodded and headed into the lab. There was little for them to do today. The water samples were on the ferry with Shuri headed back to Boston, and apart from bird-watching, no other pressing matters.
As they parked at the dock, Harper looked at Murphy.
“You weren’t here when the New Brunswick team was on the island,” she stated, thinking aloud.
Murphy shook her head. “Nope. They were before my time. Why?”
“Something Shuri said this morning, about the skipper, the one who was attacked on the dock,” Harper said carefully.
“I’ve certainly heard about it plenty. The townsfolk were afraid people’d assume it was them, afraid it would draw more of your lot out here, no offense.” Murphy grinned as they walked to the boat tied to the dock.
“None taken,” Harper replied. “If I were an islander, I wouldn’t want my lot here, either.”
“Docks are dangerous places, people break things,” Murphy said simply. “Let’s see what happened to the boat.”
Two hours later, Harper ran her fingers through her hair; her stomach was a lead pit.
“Well, fuck,” she said.
“Yep,” Murphy agreed, standing up. Her hands were covered in black oil, and engine parts littered the deck.
“Good Lord, I don’t want to send this,” Harper said. “What if we just told Boston all was fine and used some really powerful oars.”
“Tempting, I cannot see any way that would go wrong. Send the report.” Murphy gave Harper a sardonic grin.
Harper walked back the lab; the state of the boat felt like an anchor she was dragging behind her.
None of it made any sense. The sonar was destroyed, the laptop dented and banged up but fixable.
But the engine had taken a hit. How it had gotten them back to East Dock the day before was a wonder.
There were two parts outlined by Murphy that had to be replaced entirely and would have to be ordered from the mainland, a mass of tubing and wiring that needed patching, and would be better replaced entirely as well.
The fuel line was cut—not even cut, but like it had been gnawed through.
Harper took one last look at Kyle and hit send.
As she waited a giant black crow cawed from the distance and then appeared on the window ledge, where it stared into the lab with its night-dark eyes, examining the contents of the room.
It stopped when it got to Harper. Regarding her with a cocked head, it emitted a loud caw that made Harper jump, and then flew away.
“I should stop being surprised at the weird shit on this island, but I will never be used to it,” Kyle muttered. “Oh, hold on, we have a reply.”
Harper sat back down at the computer.
That is certainly bad news. Talked to engineering, parts can be ordered but it will be at least two weeks, maybe longer.
The wiring and cabling is easier, we can send it on Friday’s AM ferry.
Will check with lab as to what we can do until then.
Talk to Murphy about water sample collection, check the NOAA
Harper looked up at her diminished team. Kyle had a small vein pulsing in his temple.
“I need to take a walk.” He turned and abruptly exited the lab.
“You okay?” Harper asked.
He nodded without turning, pausing in the doorway. “I’m good. Just frustrated. Truth is, it scared me what happened out there yesterday. I don’t much like the water, truth be known.”
Harper chuckled. “So you signed up for a job on the ocean looking for octopus?”
Kyle turned his head and smiled at her. “I didn’t say I was smart.” He sighed. “The reality is I need this, not just the research hours, but the field time. I am pretty good at holing myself up in the lab and never seeing the daylight. My roommates call me a ‘mole man.’”
Harper glanced at her phone that had just buzzed with a text from Carli:
She bought a cow heart from the butcher
It’s in my fridge with my paring knife sticking out of the left ventricle
Micah says it’s a ‘class project’
Send Help.
Or a new paring knife
Harper choked on a laugh. “I bet your roommates like you more than mine likes her new recruit.” She looked to Kyle, whose face was pensive. “I have noticed that you like that lab.”
“A lot. Not so much an outside person, but I need the field hours if I’m ever going to be eligible for grants, funding, jobs, anything. I thought I could make myself invaluable in the lab here, but now it looks like I’ll be on a boat, on the water.”
“That is the best place for boats,” Harper said with amusement.
“Look, Kyle, you’ll be okay. What happened yesterday was a total fluke.
I’ve been doing this work since undergrad, I’ve been on field teams up in Greenland, Norway, even Alaska, and nothing even remotely like that ever happened before. ”
“Good,” Kyle replied. “You want to stop for dinner? I don’t want to cook or clean.”
“Me neither,” Harper replied as they entered the Bell Diner and greeted the all-knowing cat at the door.
They ate in a comfortable silence, but Harper could feel the growing discontent in Kyle.
He was nervous not just about the boat, but about the island itself.
Where Harper felt only familiarity and curiosity, others felt alone.
She looked across the counter to Bennie, who was immersed in a crossword puzzle.
She understood the aloofness of the people here, the idea of building a wall that kept everyone and everything out, the idea that the outside world wasn’t safe.
Kyle and Shuri had come from a different place, of course Bell Island would look cut off from the world.
Later, Harper lay on her bed, Polly curled at her side. The wind was starting to pick up again, by the weekend there would be another storm. She closed her eyes and waited for the other world to take over.