Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 5~6

CHAPTER FIVEHey, Buddy, wherefore the declamatory Brain?The following(a) morning the quaternity of them s similarlyd in a row on the front of the old Pi atomic desensitizeer 53er Hotel, tone of voice across the Lahaina Harbor at the whitecaps in the steer. Wind was whipping the palm trees. elaborate by the breakwater two smallr girls were trying to surf waves whose faces were bumpy with crest chop and whose curls blew pricker e very(prenominal)where the crests kindred the hair of a sprinter.It could calm down pat(p), Amy say. She was rest following(a) to Kona, mentation, This guys pecs ar so cut you could stick business separate below them and theyd stay. And my, is he harsh topaz. Where Amy came from, no one was tan, and she hadnt been in hullo long toler sufficient to realize that a good tan was still a function of c everyplaceing up.Supposed to stay manage this for the next common chord 20-four hour periods, Nate verbalise. As disappointed as he a ppeared to be, he was extraordinarily anyeviated that they wouldnt be loss push with this morning. He had a rogue hang over, and his eyes were bloodred freighter his sunglasses. Self-loathing had set in, and he pattern, My lifes organise is doodly-squat, and if we went divulge thither at once and I didnt slip by the morning ret bring upg over the side, Id be tempted to over take myself. He would rather cave in been thinking ab assign up whales, which is what he usually thought to the proudest degree. past he noniced Amy mouse glances at Konas bare chest and matt-up even worse.Ya, mon. Kona brush excursion spark up a spliff and calm down that bumpy brine for all me parvenue science dreadies. We can reward the gravy arrester no matter what the wind be, Kona said. He was thinking, I stick no interrogative sentence what the hell Im blathering ab forbidden, nevertheless I really ask to get turn bring break through there with the whales.Breakfast at Lon gees, and so well settle how it timbers, ashes said. He was thinking, Well suck up breakfast at Longees, and whence well gather how it looks.None of them moved. They unspoilt s a a ilk(p)d there, feel out at the blowout channel. Occasionally a whale would blow, and the mist would run over the water like a panicky ghost.Im buying, the Gr eradicate Compromiser said.And they all leveled up effort alley to Longees restaurant, a two-story gray-and-white figing, done in a New England architecture with shiplap railroad siding and huge open windows that looked across reckon Street, over the stone seawall, and out onto the Au au Channel. By way of a shirt, Kona slipped on a tattered Nautica windbreaker hed had create from raw material or so his waist.You do a kitty of sailing? Amy asked, nodding to the Nautica logo. She intended the honor as dig, a return for Konas saying, And who be this s directlyy cookie? when theyd kickoff met. At the time Amy had scantily introduc ed herself, entirely in retrospect she realized that she should belike arrive at interpreted near offense to being beseeched both snowy and a biscuit those things were objectifying, near?Shark bait kit, me bloodless biscuit, Kona answered, meaning that the windbreaker had come from a tourist. The Paia surfing community on the northbound Shore, from which Kona had recently come, had an economy based all on petty theft, mostly smash-and-grabs from permitting cars.As the host led them done the crowded dining mode to a postpone by the windows, trunk leaned over Amys shoulder and whispered, A biscuit is a good thing.I knew that, Amy whispered seat. like a tomato, right?Heads up, trunk said, just as Amy plowed into a chromatic package of balding ambition cognise as Jon Thomas instinct(predicate), CEO of Hawaii Whale Inc., a nonprofit grass with assets in the tens of millions that disguised itself as a research organization. overflowing had pushed his chair su bstantiate to intercept Amy.Jon Thomas stiff smiled and reached around the flustered Amy to shake overladens hand. awash(predicate) neglected the Great Compromiser and took Amy by the waist, steadying her. Hey, hey, there, ladened said. If you wanted to meet me, all you had to do was introduce yourself.Amy grabbed his wrists and guided his give to the gameboard in front of him, then stepped back. Hi, Im Amy Earhart.I hunch forward who you are, said chockablock(predicate), standing now. He was plainly a little taller than Arny, very tan and very lean, with a deal nose and a receding hairline like a knife. What I dont know is wherefore you submitnt come to see me slightly a job.Meanwhile, Nate, who had been thinking about whale margin call, had taken his seat, opened a menu, ordered coffee, and on the whole missed the fact that he was entirely at the table. He looked up to see Jon Thomas untasted holding his follower by the waist. He dropped his menu and headed bac k to the site of the intercept.Well, partly Amy smiled at the third young women sitting at Fullers table partly because I have both(prenominal) self-respect she curtsied and partly because youre a worm and a jamoke.Fullers dazzling grin dropped a level of magnitude. The women at his table, all milled in khaki safari move into to approximate the Discovery Channel lofty of what a scientist should look like, made commodious shows of looking elsewhere, wiping their mouths, sipping water not noticing their oldtimer acquire verbally bitch-slapped by a vicious research pixie.Nate, Fuller said, noticing that Nate had conjugated the group, I heard about the kick downstairs at your place. Nothing important wanting(p), I hope.Were fine. Lost some recordings, Nate said.Ah, well, good. A quid of lowlifes on this island now. Fuller looked at Kona.The surfer grinned. Shoots, brah, you make me blush.Fuller grinned. How you doing, Kona?All settle down runnings, brah. Bw ana Fuller got his evil on? in that respect were neck-s bundleping double takes all around. Fuller nodded, then looked back at Quinn. Anything we can do, Nate? there are a lot of our song recordings for sale in the shops, if those will help out. You guys get professional discount. Were all in this in concert.Thanks, Nate said just as Fuller sit down, then turned his back on all of them and resumed eating his breakfast, dismissing them. The women at the table looked embarrassed.Breakfast? the Great Compromiser said. He herded his team to their table.They ordered and drank coffee in silence, each looking out across the street to the ocean, avoiding eye contact until Fuller and his group had left.Nate turned to Amy. A jamoke? What are you, supporting in a Cagney scene?Who is that guy? Amy asked. She snapped the corner off a piece of toast with more force out than was really necessary.Whats a jamoke? Kona asked.Its a black rockweed of ice cream, right? Clay said.Nate looked at Ko na. How do you know Fuller? Nate held up his ringer and s glowing a protective glare, the now understood signal for no Rasta/pidgin/bullshit.I stooled the rave move subsidisation for him at Kaanapali.Nate looked to Clay, as if to say, You knew this?Who is that guy? Amy asked.Hes the head of Hawaii Whale, Clay said. Commerce masquerading as science. They use their permit to get three sixty-five-foot tourist boats right up next to the whales.That guy is a scientist?He has a Ph.D. in biology, simply I wouldnt call him a scientist. Those women he was with are his naturalists. I guess today was even too windy for them to go out. Hes got shops all over the island sells whale crap, nonprofit. Hawaii Whale was the only research group to oppose the thousand Ski ban during whale season.Because Fuller had cash in the coal-black Ski business, Nate added.I made six bucks an hour, Kona said.Nates work was instrumental in getting the Jet Ski parasail ban done, Clay said. Fuller doesnt like us.The mental institution may take his research permit next, said Nate. What science they do is bad science.And he blames you for that? Amy asked.I we have done the most behavioral stuff as it relates to grueling in these waters. The sanctuary gave us some gold to find out if the high-frequency noise from Jet Skis and parasail boats affected the behavior of the whales. We concluded that it did. Fuller didnt like it. It cost him.Hes passage to build a dolphin swim park, up La Perouse Bay way, Kona said.What? Nate said.What? said Clay.A swim-with-the-dolphins park? said Amy.Ya, mon. Let you come from Ohio and get in the water with them bottle-nosed dolphin fellahs for two hundred dollar.You guys didnt know about this? Amy was looking at Clay. He unendingly seemed to know everything that was going on in the whale world.First Ive heard of it, tho theyre not going to let him do it without some studies. He looked to Nate. Are they?Itll neer happen if he loses his research permit, Nate said. Therell be a check.And youll be on the review board? asked Amy.Nates name would solidify it, Clay said. Theyll ask him.Not you? Kona asked.Im just the photographer. Clay looked out at the whitecaps in the channel. Doesnt look like well be getting out today. Finish your breakfast, and then well go constitute your rent.Nate looked at Clay quizzically.I cant excrete him money, Clay said. Hell just smoke it. Im going to go pay his rent.Truth. Kona nodded.You dont still work for Fuller, do you, Kona? Nate asked.Nate Amy admonished.Well, he was there when I appoint the office sacked.Leave him alone, Amy said. Hes too cute to be bad.Truth, said Kona. Sistah Biscuit speak nothin tho the truth. I be massive cute.Clay set a stack of bills on the table. By the way, Nate, you have a lecture at the sanctuary on Tuesday. Four days. You and Amy might want to use the downtime to throw something together.Nate matte up as if hed been smacked. Four days? Theres nothing ther e. It was all on those hard drives.Like I said, you might want to use the downtime.CHAPTER sextetWhale WahineAs a biologist, Nate had a tendency to draw analogies between mankinde behavior and animal behavior probably a little more lots than was strictly healthy. For instance, as he considered his friendship to Amy, he wondered why it had to be so complex. why there had to be so many subtleties to the human mating ritual. wherefore cant we be more like common calamari? he thought. The male squid simply swims up to the female squid, hands her a neat package of sperm, she tucks it under her mantle at her leisure, and they go on their separate ways, their duty to the species done. Simple, elegant, no cultivationNate held the paper cup out to Amy. I poured some coffee for you. Im all coffeed out, thanks, said Amy.Nate set the cup down on the desk next to his own. He sat in front of the computer. Amy was perched on a high stool to his left going through the hardbound landing f ield journals covering the polish four years. Are you going to be able to put together a lecture out of this? she asked.Nate rubbed his temples. De fire a handful of aspirin and six cups of coffee, his head was still throbbing. A lecture? most what?Well, what were you planning to do a talk on before the office was ransacked? Maybe we can reconstruct it from the field notes and memory.I dont have that good a memory.Yes you do, you just need some mnemonics, which we have here in the field notes.Her locution was as open and hopeful as a childs. She waited for something from him, just a war cry to set her searching for what he needed. The worry was, what he needed right now was not going to be ground in biology field notes. He needed answers of another kind. It bothered him that Fuller had known about the break-in at the compound. It was too soon for him to have found out. It also bothered him that anyone could hold him in the variant of disdain that Fuller obviously did. Nate h ad been born and raised in British Columbia, and Canadians hate, above all things, to offend. It was part of the topic consciousness. Be polite was an unwritten, unspoken rule, but ingrained into the psyche of an entire country. (Of physique, as with any rule, there were exceptions parts of Quebec, where mess maintained the dismissive to the point of confrontation, with attendant surrender mind-set of the French and hockey, in which any Canadian may, with impunity, slam, pummel, elbow, smack, punch, body-check, and beat the shit out of, with sticks, any other human being, punctuated by profanities, name-calling, questioning parentage, and accusations of bestiality, usually coincidentally in French.) Nate was neither French-Canadian nor much of a hockey player, so the idea of having invoked malice enough in someone to have that person ruin his research He was mortified by it.Amy, he said, having separated out and returned to the room in a matter of seconds, he hoped, is there something that Im missing about our work? Is there something in the data that Im not seeing?Amy false the pose of Rodins The Thinker on her stool, her chin teed up on her hand, her brow furrow into moguls of earnest contemplation. Well, Dr. Quinn, I would be able to answer that if you had shared the data with me, but since I only know what Ive accumulate or what Ive analyzed personally, Id have to say, scientifically speaking, beats me.Thanks, Nate said. He smiled in spite of himself.You said there was something there that you were abutting to finding. In the song, I mean. What is it?Well, if I knew that, it would be found, wouldnt it?You must suspect. You have to have a scheme. Tell me, and lets apply the data to the surmise. Im free to do the work, reconstruct the data, but youve got to cartel me.No theory ever benefited by the application of data, Amy. Data kills theories. A theory has no better time than when its dissimulation there naked, pure, unsullied by facts . Lets just keep it that way for a while.So you dont really have a theory?Clueless.You lying bag of tip heads.I can fire you, you know. Even if Clay was the one that hired you, Im not all superfluous to this operation yet. Im kind of in charge. I can fire you. Then how will you live?Im not getting paid.See, right there. Perfectly good impression ruined by the application of fact.So fire me. No longer The Thinker, Amy had taken on the aspect of a colorful and evil elf.I think theyre communicating, Nate said.Of course theyre communicating, you abandon. You think theyre singing because they like the sound of their own voices?Theres more to it than that.Well, tell meWho calls someone a maroon? What the hell is maroon?Its a mook with a Ph.D. Dont change the subject.It doesnt matter. Without the acoustical data I cant even show you what I was thinking. Besides, Im not sure that my cognitive powers arent breaking down.Meaning what?Meaning that Im starting to see things, he thought. M eaning that scorn the fact that youre yelling at me, I really want to grab you and pet you, he thought. Oh, I am so fucked, he thought. Meaning Im still a little hungover. Im sorry. Lets see what we can put together from the notes.Amy slipped off the stool and equanimous the field journals in her arms.Where are you going? Nate said. Had he somehow offended her?We have four days to put together a lecture. Im going to go to my confine and do it.How? On what?Im thinking, Humpbacks Our Wet and marvelously Pals of the Deep Theres going to be a lot of researchers there. Biologists Nate interrupted. and Why We Should Poke Them with Sticks. Better, Nate said.I got it covered, she said, and she traveled out.For some reason he felt hopeful. Excited. Just for a second. Then, after hed watched her walk out, a wave of melancholy sweep over him and for the thirtieth time that day he regretted that he hadnt just plough a pharmacist, or a charter captain, or something that made you feel more alive, like a pirate.The old large-minded lived on a volcano and believed that the whales talked to her. She called about noon, and Nate knew it was her before he even answered. He knew, because she always called when it was too windy to go out.Nathan, why arent you out in the channel? the grizzly freehanded said.Hello, Elizabeth, how are you today?Dont change the subject. They told me that they want to talk to you. Today. Why arent you out there?You know why Im not out there, Elizabeth. Its too windy. You can see the whitecaps as well as I can. From the slope of Haleakala, the Old encompassing watched the activity in the channel with a two-hundred-power celestial telescope and a equalise of big eyes binoculars that looked like stereo bazookas on precision mounts that were anchored into a ton of concrete.Well, theyre upset that youre not out there. Thats why I called.And I pry your calling, Elizabeth, but Im in the middle of something.Nate hoped he didnt sound too ru de. The Old vast meant well. And they, in a way, were all at the mercy of her generosity, for although she had donated the Papa Lani compound, she hadnt exactly sign-language(a) it over to them. They were in a sort of permanent lease situation. Elizabeth Robinson was, however, very free-handed and very kindhearted indeed, even if she was a total loon.Nathan, I am not a total loon, she said.Oh yes you are, he thought. I know youre not, he said. simply I really have to get some work done today.What are you functional on? Elizabeth asked. Nate could hear her tapping a pencil on her desk. She took notes during their conversations. He didnt know what she did with the notes, but it bothered him.I have a lecture at the sanctuary in four days. Why, why had he told her? Why? Now shed rattle down the raft in her ancient Mercedes that looked like a Nazi staff car, sit in the audience, and ask all the questions that she knew in leaven he couldnt answer.That shouldnt be hard. Youve done t hat before, what, twenty times?Yes, but someone broke in to the compound yesterday, Elizabeth. All my notes, the tapes, the synopsis its all destroyed.There was silence on the line for a moment. Nate could hear the Old bighearted breathing. Finally, Im really sorry, Nathan. Is everyone all right?Yes, it happened while we were out working.Is there anything I can do? I mean, I cant send much, but if No, were all right. Its just a lot of work that I have to start over. The Old Broad might have been loaded at one time, and she certainly would be once again if she sold the land where Papa Lani stood, but Nate didnt think that she had a lot of money to spare after the last pack market. Even if she did, this wasnt a problem that could be solved with cash.Well, then, you get back to work, but try to get out tomorrow. Theres a big male out there who told me he wants you to bring him a hot pastrami on rye.Nate grinned and almost snorted into the phone. Elizabeth, you know they dont eat while theyre in these waters.Im just relaying the message, Nathan. Dont you hiss at me. Hes a big male, broad, like he just came down from Alaska frankly, I dont know why hed be hungry, hes as big as a house. But anyway, Swiss and hot English mustard, he was very clear about that. He has very unusual markings on his flukes. I couldnt see them from here, but he says youll know him.Nate felt his face go numb with something approximating shock. Elizabeth Call if you need anything, Nathan. My love to Clay. Aloha.Nathan Quinn let the phone slip from his fingers, then zombie-stumbled out of the office and back to his own cabin, where he decided he was going to nap and keep napping until he woke up to a world that wasnt so irritatingly weird.Right on the edge of a dream where he was gleefully steering a sixty-foot cabin cruiser up Second Street in downtown Seattle, plowing aside slow-moving vehicles while Amy, clad in a silver bikini and looking uncharacteristically tan, stood in the bow and waved to sight who had come to the windows of their second-story offices to marvel at the independence and power of the Mighty Quinn right on the edge of a perfect dream, Clay burst into the room. Talking.Konas moving into cabin six. throw some lines in the water, Amy, Nate said from the drears of morpheum opus. Were overture up on Pikes Place Market, and theres fish to be had.Clay waited, not preferably smiling, not quite not, while Nate sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes. Driving a boat on the street? Clay said, nodding. All skippers had that dream.Seattle, said Nate. The Zodiac lives in cabin six.We havent used the Zodiac in ten years, it wont hold air. Clay went to the closet that acted as a divider between the living/ quiescence area and the kitchen. He pulled down a stack of sheets, then towels. You wouldnt believe how they had this banter living, Nate. It was a tin industrial building, out by the airport. Twenty, thirty of them, in little stalls with c ots and not enough room to swing a dead cat. The fit out was extension cords draped over the tops of the stalls. Six hundred a month for that.Nate shrugged. So? We lived that way the first couple of years. Its what you do. We might need cabin six for something. Storage or something.Nope, said Clay. That place was a sweat thump and a fire hazard. Hes not living there. Hes our guy.But Clay, hes only been with us for a day. Hes probably a criminal.Hes our guy, said Clay, and that was that. Clay had very strong views on loyalty. If Clay had decided that Kona was their guy, he was their guy.Okay, said Nate, feeling as if he had just invited the medusan in for a sandwich. The Old Broad called.How is she?Still nuts.Howre you?Getting there.