Dylan had been patient. He'd been intrigued by the things Logan showed him. Things he was learning would come in handy back at the cove once Dylan got home.

It was in the morning before either of them left the two cabins they occupied that the inquiry came. It wasn't a surprise and Clay wasn't at a loss for an answer.

"Can I go on this morning's dive, Dad?" Dylan asked.

"No, Kiddo, not this time. I want Logan to shoot a gap we found in Bill's reef. He'll be moving around more than I want you to be moving around. Ask in a day or two. You might get a different reply one we settle in here."

Logan went along to photograph the breach and the two sides that appeared to have once been joined. While Bill and Clay worked on the front face of the main reef where Bill worked last year. After Logan finished filming in the breach, he set his camera up to film from directly behind the two biologists. He found an angle to the right side that gave him his best view of what they were doing without him being in the way. The gap and the space behind it was a distraction Logan wanted to get a closer look at but for now, he'd keep his distance while keeping his camera on the research team.

He'd take more footage of Bill and Clay at work, but he could do that any day. This was the day he got to look around. He couldn't help wonder what was behind the reef. Bill specifically told him to stay in front of the reef but he was curious about what might be back there.

They'd left the platform a little after nine and they were back in the galley drinking coffee just before eleven. Bill was satisfied with what he was seeing and the samples he had taken. It was why he was there and Clay played the loyal assistant listening more than talking. It had been a fascinating morning with Clay seeing more things that were new to him as far as seeing them in the water was concerned. He'd seen many during his studies and while reading up on other marine biologist's research around the world.

After Dylan drank a root beer and listened to his father and Bill talk over the routine they were establishing, he went to the film lab. Logan said he'd develop film in the afternoon, but after he unloaded the camera he'd taken that morning, he jotted notes on what he'd filmed, what he'd seen, and what he wanted to get a closer look at. He too busied himself with filming the front of the reef.

The coffee hit the spot and the smell of lunch was inviting. They hadn't eaten in over three hours and Greek's lunches were assured to tease the taste buds. Clay and Bill went to their cabins to shower and change into something they didn't wear under their SCUBA gear, while Greek put finishing touches on lunch.

After Clay had a cup of coffee in front of him, Bill had a request for him before Greek put lunch on the table.

"You've seen my notes and you've read my book. How about I take a look at your notes, Clay," Bill said. "See what you have to say."

"I say most of it to you in here before I go to my cabin to write it down. Let me go get it. I write what comes into mind. It's not limited to work but nothing you can't read."

As Clay considered his day, he jotted down whatever came to mind. Because his sister Lucy once transcribed his writings into her legible handwriting, Clay was smart enough not to write anything saucy.

His handwriting improved over the years but he still was careful not to write his most private thoughts down. That way he could let someone read one of his journals without fearing they'd be shocked by its contents, which weren't all business.

At some later date Clay would rewrite his journals for Harry to read. That's when he wrote professional notes describing his work and the original journals were filed away for his eyes only.

Once Clay put his current journal in front of Bill, he hardly slowed down at Ivan's name being mentioned, or some incident unrelated to biology jumped out at him. He could filter out more nonsensical notes students wrote, but he knew Ivan and Dylan. Mentions of them did register in a way student's notes couldn't.

Bill smiled after forty-five minutes of chewing and reading. Clay didn't start what was his first journal on the summer's research trip. It covered the days they'd been on the Horizon.

Bill moved the journal in front of Clay after closing it.

"Didn't intend to pry into your personal life, Clayton," Bill said.

"Nothing you don't already know. I'll separate my biology notes from the diary entries. Too clumsy having two journals. I give copies of everything I write about work to Harry, once I've reflected on it."

"You really are curious about what's out behind the reef?"

"I am. I think there are answers back there. That doesn't mean I'll find them or know what they mean if I do find something. If I don't look, it'll bother me once I go home," Clay said.

"Curiosity killed the cat," Logan said. "I want a closer look at what's back there myself."

"I'll make an effort to avoid that contingency," Clay said. "We can't look after we're gone."

"We can't let you go home without taking a good look, which we'll do after our work is completed," Bill said. "You mention a problem at the cove. Ivan's name came up more than once during your Honolulu entries, Clayton."

"He'll handle it. It's serious enough to have him sounding like he hasn't slept in some time. Ivan sleeps like a rock. That means it's something important enough to keep him up nights."

"A few more weeks and you'll be home," Bill said.

It's what Clay thought. There are those things you can do nothing about and he realized he was too far from the cove to do anything. There was work here he needed to pay attention to.

The dives continued and the work went on as time was passing faster than Clay was accustomed to. With everything being so new to him, he could get lost in taking water temperatures and samples. Each new species he saw was more captivating than the last.

As Clay and Bill sat talking over coffee late one afternoon, Greek announced, "Dinner in five minutes. It won't wait. Collect your people or Greek might eat it himself," Greek said as he stirred a pot and pulled the frying pan off the flame.

"I'll go, Bill," Clay said, as he went toward the galley's entryway before turning toward the film lab.

"Hey guys," Clay said. "Greeks ready to put the food on the table. Wouldn't do to miss dinner," Clay said.

"No, it wouldn't," Logan said. "We'll watch this later."

"Wait a minute. This is good," Dylan said, remembering what he filmed on the first day in the pod.

"That yellow fish was right above my head. He kept coming back to look in at me. I guess they're as curious about us as we are about them. Do you think fish are curious?" Dylan asked.

"I don't see why not. Man isn't the only creature with intelligence and who knows if sea creatures reason every bit as well as we do. We merely have the ability to take our intelligence on the road and interfere with other species on earth," Logan said.

Clay was amused by the back of his own head Dylan shot as he filmed through the front of the clear bubble top in random shots Dylan took and they were remarkably clear.

"That's an interesting concept, Logan. We'll need to talk about what has you thinking that way," Clay said.

"Is that a great white?" Logan asked.

"Yes, it came right over us," Dylan said. "Didn't it, Dad?"

"Sure did," Clay said, becoming engrossed in the film footage.

"Damn, that's incredible, Dylan. The film of the rescue of Tangle isn't the only film you've taken that surprises me. You understand that camera pretty well," Logan said.

"This isn't the same camera that took the pictures of the rescue. I was using your camera that day," Dylan said.

"Surprisingly clear," Logan said. "We haven't looked at the film I took. Makes sense the pictures would be clearer inside the pod."

Bill Payne came in the door and stood behind the three others who were watching today's film production.

"That's from the first trip in the pod," Bill said. "I haven't seen this."

"Yeah, you missed the great white," Clay said.

"Oh, rewind it. That shark was so close to us. I want to see what it looks like on film," Bill said. "By the way, Greeks going to feed dinner to Tangle if we don't get our asses at the table."

"A porpoise doesn't eat people food," Logan said.

"He doesn't know what he's missing," Clay said.

Logan backed the film up for a couple of minutes.

"This is right before the shark comes into view a foot above the pod. It's amazing," Logan said. "Such clear shots."

"There it is," Dylan said. "I didn't know what I was photographing until Dad told me. That's one big sucker. I wouldn't want to meet it on the bottom while I'm in SCUBA gear."

"Back up to see the yellow fish kissing the bubble above me," Dylan said. "You couldn't see it Mr. Payne but it kept coming back just above where I sat in the Scorpion. There, there it is. That's so funny. See him kissing the bubble. Do you believe that?"

Clay and Bill laughed as the film rolled.

Greek appeared in the door carrying his biggest butcher knife.

"Greek will give your dinner to that fish you rescued if you don't come to the galley and eat," Greek said sounding angry. "What the hell is that?" Greek said, as the great white came into view.

"It's a great white, Greek," Dylan said. "Big sucker isn't it?"

"You dive in water with a fish that size?"

"Some people think sharks might be mammals, just like us," Clay said.

"Maybe like you, nothing like Greek," the Greek said. "Come get your dinner or maybe I'll invite that fish into the galley to eat it."

Everyone laughed.

Logan leaned to cut off the projector and the Greek led the way back to the galley. Dinner was already on the table and it was piping hot and the delay didn't spoil the exquisite flavors, but Clay's mind was back on the space between the reef and the trench while he ate. Clay had a feeling that there was something important behind the reef and it wasn't only a trench. He could feel it in his bones.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Clay still kept a close eye on Dylan without intruding on anything he did with Logan. Logan had gone diving with them enough times to start planning the shots for the next day.

Bill planned each day ahead of time. He had a better sense of what they were finding this summer and how it compared with what he found and documented last summer.

Each day Clay was more fascinated than he was the day before.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The sun was gaining a foothold on the morning sky to the east. Sea birds flew into the radiance of another fine day and clouds floated lazily along. The water gently rocked the ship as divers attended to the business at hand. At a few minutes after nine, the day's first dive was ready to take place.

There was no conversation as they handed equipment down to Dolf who kept each man's gear together. Bill would go first and Logan would stick with him. On this morning Dylan would go down the ladder to the platform next and he'd follow his father into the water.

Dylan showed no sign of the excitement running through him. Diving wasn't new to him but diving in the Pacific Ocean was. He'd seen it from the pod and he couldn't wait to dive on Bill's reef, what he'd been waiting to do since boarding the Horizon.

Dylan had his gear on before his father did and he watched Bill and Logan slip beneath the surface of the water. Dylan looked toward the bridge to see if Captain Hertzog was there. He was and he gave Dylan a big wave. Dylan waved back.

Clay moved into position to roll backward into the water. Dylan slipped into the water feet first, putting his flippers on before moving his face mask off his forehead to cover his eyes. He swam behind his father as they sank beneath the surface on their way to the reef.

It was surprising how devoid of life the reef looked when the divers first arrived. Logan immediately broke away from Bill to pick a spot that gave him a view he liked.

Dylan stayed at his father's elbow for five minutes. Then he moved toward where Logan positioned himself. The sea creatures had returned by then. Some of the more daring fish wanted to see what was behind the masks that reflected their own image back at them.

Logan allowed Dylan to look through the viewfinder of the camera once he fastened it to the tripod. The camera was focused on his father and Bill. They investigated one particular section of reef where Bill found something he'd recognized. He pointed it out to Clay.

Neither scientist noticed Dylan joining Logan. They were immediately using small instruments to collect tiny specimens that were remarkably similar to the specimens Bill collected last summer. There were plants and tiny sea creatures that went into bottles. The larger fish were all around them as they worked.

Dylan saw things he'd never seen before. He could recognize many of the sea creatures in the Gulf. He'd been seeing them for years. The Pacific provided larger life forms that didn't seem to be as symmetric as the fish in the Gulf. Larger was the operative word.

From the first dive Bill and Clay stayed busy inside the lab for hours each day, once they were back aboard the Horizon. The only days they didn't dive in the coming weeks were the days when the seas took on an angry look and those days were spent sequestered in the lab where they documented and took still photographs of the most interesting discoveries from the day before.

Bill and Clay stood, heads together, as Bill adjusted a microscope for Clay to see what Bill was seeing. Each man kept a journal handy. Clay's next to his right hand and Bill's next to his left. Each time they finished viewing a specimen, they'd each write some notes. Once that day's session was done, they'd sit over coffee in the galley and read from the other's journal.

This had become their routine.

What they wrote was surprisingly similar. Bill had taught Clay to be a marine biologist and for years they'd been in close contact, diving together often. Clay started out doing things the way Bill did them. Over the years Clay developed his own way of doing things but their journal entries still reflected a common connection.

Bill would be processing the things they collected on this trip for the next year. There was always more to catalog and more investigating to be done. There were enough samples taken to take up much of his time when he wasn't teaching, once he was back at the university until next summer.

This year he'd share everything with Clay. Clay would have all the time he needed to process the finds they made and the notes they recorded in their journals. Meetings would be necessary and it would take a dozen or more of them to talk over the details. The discussions in the galley set the stage for what came after this summer's research trip ended.

Bill would like Clay to come along every summer, but he had become the voice for both the Sanibel Island Conservancy and for the Gulf of Mexico. Getting him cleared to go along this year nearly took an act of congress.

It took permission from Senator Harry McCallister; permission that almost didn't come. Harry had Clay scheduled for speaking engagements a year in advance. Being the man behind Clay, he was also the environmental senator. It was a title the senator took seriously and Clay was his best weapon to fight pollution and the destruction of the earth's environment. A weapon Harry kept close.

Clay stayed close to Bill's elbow. He took note of the different species of plant life on the reef as well as the colorful and odd shaped creatures that swam in and out of the reef's crevices. Much of it was new to Clay. He may have seen pictures of some of it but up close and personal meant being constantly surprised as one new species after another appeared on a thriving reef.

The idea that a healthy looking reef like this one was in trouble was hard to believe. Bill was certain that there were slow changes taking place and they weren't beneficial changes. These changes were brought about by things man dumped into the sea.

It's a convenient dumping ground. You're done with it? You don't know what to do with it? Dump it in a body of water. Water that incidentally circulates the world over. Instant garbage disposal. How kewl is that?

Not kewl if it was the only water you had to drink.

What happens when fish swimming in water with toxic waste?

After the fish die and you're warned not to drink the water, what happens then?

Wait a damn minute. What's in the water we're drinking?

As Bill and Clay look at water samples in the microscope and analyze what's in the water besides the water. They're finding out.

Do you eat fish, crabs, clams, oysters, lobsters, salmon, cod or trout? What happens when people eat the fish that swim in the sea that's used for a garbage can? Someone should know the answer before you dig in, shouldn't they?

Who would dump toxic waste into the water people depend on? Why would someone dump material that poisons the environment into the water? Would you dare dump your waste on your neighbor's lawn?

As Bill and Clay toil over their specimens, water samples, and some of the species present on the reef they're studying, they're also asking pertinent questions on the environment.

They can't apply the answers they are getting in the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico or even the Atlantic Ocean, but they can compare samples to see if the same chemicals are present and if the same conditions persist. Science is about logical conclusions. When a viable theory is developed, the fact it's logical gives it credence.

These two marine biologists knew that the evidence they were gathering did prove a relationship between pollution and the condition of the sea creatures and life forms living in the water.

Until the people carry their plates into the buffet line and find there are no shrimp, clams, or any fresh seafood at all, they won't notice that the quantity and quality of the fish are impacted by what's being dumped into the water.

Both Bill and Clay knew that a small rise in water temperatures makes a difference in the reproduction of many sea creatures. If fishermen are allowed to catch all the fish they can, so they get a bigger pay check, one day they'll get no paycheck. The seafood will be depleted by overfishing and a fish population that's isn't reproducing in large enough numbers to feed the world.

It's a simple concept that few people want to acknowledge.

Fish aren't the only creatures that have an interest in reproducing. Lots of creatures need to reproduce to survive. The more they procreate the bigger the catches for fishing fleets. If sea creatures aren't reproducing at the rate they've reproduced before, what will the fishing fleets do?

"If the fish aren't reproducing as much as before, conditions have changed," Clay said. "If fish stop reproducing or it's greatly reduced, what does that mean for mankind?" Clay asked.

"The obvious answer is make some men very hungry when there are no fish to eat," Bill said.

"What starts with fish can migrate into men. What's to stop it?"

"Draw that connection and that might stop men from being allowed to pollute for the sake of making more money. Polluting, the illegal disposing of dangerous chemicals should never have been allowed in the first place. Long prison sentences for polluters might be a deterrent. You have men making millions of dollars, billions, and when they get caught polluting, they pay a small fine and go on their merry way. We pay them to foul the waterways of our planet. We pay them off to illegally dispose of their waste. It is very short sighted."

"You can say that again," Clay said.

"Very short sighted," Bill said. "We can't simply say, it's him. He is causing the mass extinction in the sea. You'd be sued for all you were worth if you said a thing like that. How do we prove gentlemen A is dumping toxic waste X which causes the warming of the water that inhibits these species from reproducing."

"Aren't we working to get the proof?"

"Yes, for years and years I've been collecting the evidence. Industrialists have come and gone and their industrialist sons are now dumping their pollution in waterways and being fined a few thousand dollars so they keep doing it. Who are they paying off?"

"Politicians," Clay said. "They make the laws that allow the people funding them to get away with murder."

"Harry's a politician. He's busting his butt passing laws to prevent industrialists from dumping their pollutants in ways that make people sick and destroy the planet. They need to go to jail for dumping toxic waste in a way that harms and even kills people, Clay."

"How much does a research trip like this cost, Bill?"

"The cost of the ship, the crew, the equipment to do the work, and the expense of preparing our findings in a way we can present it to the public while making our case, a few million dollars and that doesn't include parking the ship and keeping it maintained."

"I bet if we look up the fines that have been paid in our country over the years for polluting, they wouldn't pay for this trip. We're trying to prove pollution is bad. We know it's bad but we have to find irrefutable proof to get changes made and once new laws are passed that stop them from dumping toxins into the water, they'll hire lawyers to get around the new laws and they'll continue to pollute as long as it's the pathway to greater wealth."

"Which brings us back to jail time. Lots of jail time for killing hundreds, thousands, possibly millions of people. All we can do is the best we can, Clay. No one said we have an easy job."

"I guess not. When I started this, I believed if I worked hard enough, spoke loud enough, we could turn it around. The longer I do this and the harder I work, the less I see it doing any good. I won't stop doing what I do but it would be nice to see some progress. The beauty I see, the life I examine, and the joy it gives me is too important to me to stop any time soon."

"Thank heavens for that." Bill said, standing up to go get the coffee pot. "We need to find a way to bring people's attention to what we are finding. Harry'll find ways to make it better. It's why I do what I do. If people find out how dangerous it is to allow unlimited dumping into the water they depend on, they'll demand it be stop, won't they?"

"One would think," Clay said.

"One would think," Bill said.


Send Rick an email at quillswritersrealm@yahoo.com

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