Galapagos Below Read online

  “Well, maybe this will help,” Kevin said. “What if I told you we’re going to fulfill one of your dreams?”

  She’d had an idea of where they might be going as soon as she’d seen that their plane was going to Ecuador, but she hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up. Now, though, she allowed herself to smile. “Galápagos?”

  “Yep.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “That’s why I knew you wouldn’t mind when Merchant suggested it.”

  She sat back in her seat and thought of the image she’d always had in her mind of the Galápagos Islands. To anyone with even a passing interest in biology, the Galápagos had the closest thing they could picture to a mystical place. The islands of Darwin. The place he had visited during his voyage on the Beagle. The land that had started him thinking about the idea of evolution. She’d read On the Origin of Species when she was thirteen with the same voracity that other people her age had been reading Harry Potter. She even remembered one time geeking out when some of her classmates started talking about The Voyage of the Beagle, only to be embarrassed and disappointed when she realized they were actually discussing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

  “Have you ever been there?” Maria asked.

  “Once, when I was working on my post-doc,” Kevin said.

  “Was it amazing?”

  Kevin chuckled, then appeared to grow uncomfortable.

  “What?” Maria asked.

  “Well, yes. It was. But a lot has happened since then. I have colleagues that work there sometimes. They say that it’s changed. Be careful about thinking it’s some unspoiled paradise.”

  Despite the warning, Maria couldn’t hold back her excitement. She made an audible squee, which made Kevin smile and take her hand.

  “There’s one thing you need to know, though,” he said.

  “What’s that?”

  “We’re going to be heading to the islands on the Cameron. Merchant was insistent. She says it’s just as much a character on the show as we are.”

  Maria nodded, her expression turning solemn. The last time she had been on the Cameron, it had been more or less dead in the water while she lost consciousness and bled out on its deck. She hadn’t seen it since the Cortez Incident, and she wasn’t sure how she would react when it came time to board it again.

  “Alright. We’ll deal with that when the time comes.” Maria sneered. “I’m sure my reaction will make excellent television.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably what Merchant is hoping.”

  “So what exactly is going on that TEC wanted us to drop everything and get the first flight to Ecuador? It wasn’t anything that could wait?”

  Kevin sighed. “Okay. So this is the part where I wish you had let me tell you this earlier.”

  “I’m letting you tell me now.”

  “I know that we both wanted to Sea Avenger take a more educational angle regarding marine biology, but TEC has been looking for something, anything, that they think would add to ratings.”

  “Right, not like I didn’t already know that. They want us fighting more giant sharks. I’ve told them over and over that what happened in the Sea of Cortez was an anomaly.”

  “An anomaly they want to make look common. They want something that can compete against Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.”

  Maria bared her teeth. Kevin knew very well what Maria thought about Discovery’s yearly ratings stunt. Once upon a time, it hadn’t been so bad. But now it made people have the completely wrong idea about sharks. The final straw for her had been when Discovery had aired a fake documentary that appeared to show that megalodons, enormous prehistoric ancestors of modern sharks, were still alive and killing people. She’d had arguments with people who’d refused to believe the documentary was fake, even after she had shown them statements from the Discovery brass practically admitting to it. That wasn’t how Maria wanted to spread her fascination with marine life.

  “No. Hell no. I will not participate in anything being faked. I don’t care if I have to pay all my medical bills myself.”

  “Don’t worry, hon. That was in the contract, remember? Not even so much as CGI cut scenes. But they want us, and by us I actually mean you, in places that they can make look dangerous. They want you looking like a hero.”

  Maria took a deep breath. She understood that what had happened in the Sea of Cortez was a one-time thing, that any drama or action that came through in the final show was likely going to be all thanks to editing tricks. But even the thought of being in that kind of situation again made her shiver. True, she had held up under the actual pressure while the events were happening, but that was when she’d still had four limbs. That kind of thing would make anyone squeamish.

  “Okay then. So what’s the situation?”

  “A tourist was killed. They want us to investigate.”

  “Wait, we’re taking advantage of someone’s death? That doesn’t seem right.”

  “Trust me, it doesn’t sit well with me, either, but the victim’s husband has apparently already given his consent for us to be involved. He’s shell-shocked and just wants some answers, and the locals don’t have the tools or manpower to investigate it further.”

  “So what exactly happened?”

  “Well, um, as far as anyone can tell, something ate her.”

  Maria blanched.

  “Of course, nobody’s sure yet. It was a small group of tourists on one of the islands small enough that it barely even merits a name. There were two eye-witnesses, if you can really call it that. The husband didn’t see much at all and still isn’t talking completely coherently about what happened. And the guide was facing the wrong way. Apparently, whatever happened, it was fast. By the time the guide got a chance to look, all there was left to find was blood and, uh, a few pieces.”

  “A few pieces?”

  “Yeah, um,” Kevin looked away from her. Maria realized he was suddenly trying to see anything but her prosthetic leg. “Her arm. All that was left was her arm.”

  Maria thought about what she knew about Galápagos wildlife. None of the islands, even the largest ones that could actually support a few villages, had ecosystems that allowed for large apex predators. Blood and body parts, though… “Only possibility might be sharks, but none of the species in the Galápagos should be the kind that would attack a human.”

  “Sharks wouldn’t make sense anyway. The woman was on land, a good eight or ten feet above the water. Honestly, I don’t think some animal killed her at all. Something else must have happened, and we’ll have to be the ones to piece it together. That’s why I thought this might be a good one for you to metaphorically dip your feet back in the water with. Seems pretty likely that this woman slipped and fell in the water, maybe killed herself by hitting her head against the rocks, and maybe the arm got caught and ripped off as she fell. I don’t know, we’ll have to investigate the scene to be sure. We can look into this as best we can, give the husband some closure, and TEC finally has the footage they need for their first episode.”

  “Still, it feels wrong, taking advantage of someone’s death like that.”

  “I thought you might say that. Which is why I didn’t tell Merchant that we were definitely going to do it. If you want, this can just be a vacation. You see the islands of your dreams, the network gets some footage of you testing out that new experimental prosthetic that was made for you, or maybe we get something else suitably marine oriented. Either way, there’s still some sea in Sea Avenger.”

  Maria nodded. “I’ll think about it, okay? I suppose the least we can do is talk to the husband and the guide.”

  “Good. Hey, you don’t mind that I’ve been taking point with Merchant for you in all this, do you? I just thought it would be easier if you didn’t have to worry about the logistics. You have enough on your plate.”

  Maria smiled, took his hand, and brought it up to her mouth to kiss it. “That’s fine, baby. Thank you. Kind of seems like a step down for you, though, the world famous marine biologist reduced to
my manager and sidekick.”

  “You knew I wasn’t comfortable being front and center with the cameras anyway.”

  They spent the rest of the limo ride snuggling and not talking about anything.

  4

  Their arrival at the Cameron was surreal on so many levels. It would have been strange enough for Maria just seeing the boat again for the first time since the Cortez Incident. The Cameron was a converted luxury trimaran, hardly the large research vessel some marine biologists got to work on, but advanced in enough ways to make up for its small size. For a while, the Cameron had started to become Maria’s home, more so than with her family in San Francisco, more than the tiny apartment she was increasingly neglecting at college, even more than the house Kevin kept on the Baja Peninsula. This was where she had met Kevin, where her love of marine biology had bloomed into deep and everlasting passion.

  It was also the place where she had experienced the most traumatic moment of her life. So when she saw it, she was at least partially prepared for the complex mix of longing and deep fear that welled up from down in her soul.

  What she wasn’t so prepared for was the circus the dock had become in preparation for their arrival. There were five cameras already set up here. Charlene and Gary were among the camera crew, along with a number of faces that were new to her. Merchant was off to one side, looking anxious for the moment when Maria and Kevin left the limo. No one was filming yet, which Maria supposed wasn’t much of a surprise. Her first view of the Cameron again might have been worthy of a television “Special Moment,” but not a shot of her exiting a limo. It didn’t fit the image TEC was trying to create for her of a rough and rugged crusader of the oceans.

  So they all stood there as Maria and Kevin sat inside the limo, waiting with cameras at strategic angles.

  “You ready for this?” Kevin asked.

  “I’ve already been on camera, you know.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.”

  “So are you?”

  “What happens if I say I’m not?”

  “I support whatever you decide to do.”

  “Even if I decide to go right back to the airport and never set foot on Cameron again?”

  He paused, but when he answered it was with utmost certainty. “Yes.”

  Maria nodded. Somehow that one word from him was enough to give her the needed extra strength. “Well, I’m not going to do that. Come on. Let’s do our walk of fame.”

  Kevin smiled. “Remember, you’re an action hero now. Walk towards the Cameron as though there’s an explosion behind you and you’re too badass to look at it.”

  Maria’s smile was almost genuine. She would have thought it funny if she still wasn’t completely sure about her ability to walk on her prosthetic without stumbling. He hadn’t intended for his comment to come across as insensitive, but she couldn’t help but feel a little cold inside. It made her wonder if she ever did that to him, accidentally belittling something about him being transgender without realizing it. It was the kind of thing they would need to talk about later when they were alone.

  Kevin opened the door and got out first. He waited next to it just to be sure she didn’t need help, but she could get out of a car by herself just fine, thank you. Once she was standing, she did her best to give that hyper-competent air the network probably wanted her to show the world.

  The cameras were rolling, and she walked toward the dock where the Cameron was berthed.

  Strangely enough, the boat looked both alien and totally familiar at the same time. Alien in that it had obviously been given some improvements. It had a sleek new black and gray paint job with its name on the side, and there was new equipment on the deck that Maria wasn’t even sure she could identify. Familiar though, in that there was no denying that this was the same boat. The boat she had lived in, slept in, and, during one frisky moment at night during a full moon, made love on the deck to her boyfriend. It was also still the place where she had almost died.

  Before she could dwell for too long on that cheery thought, a number of people came out onto the deck from the cabin, bringing a genuine smile to her face. One of the cameras turned to watch them as they all gave her enthusiastic applause. Every single one of them was a face she knew. And between them they held a charmingly homemade banner that read “Welcome Back Maria.”

  The man on the far end, the one who’s smile seemed the most forced, was Paulo Gutierrez, the Cameron’s pilot. Maria didn’t take the forced nature of his smile personally, since it wasn’t like he used those muscles any more than he absolutely needed to. Next to him stood Monica Bouleau and the Gutsdorf siblings, Simon and Cindy. All three of them had started out on the Cameron as volunteers borrowed from the environmental organization One Planet, but since they had all been present during the Cortez Incident, TEC had decided that they needed to be full-time “cast members.” This was a crew she would be happy to work with again.

  They might even help her fight back the petrifying fear that threatened to overtake her the closer she got to the Cameron.

  Action hero. Remember that, she thought, then did her stride to the boat. Walking with the prosthetic leg still felt awkward and alien, but all the practicing she’d been doing up until this point kept her from stumbling too much. The editors would likely cut out any such thing anyway, probably while showing the whole walk in slow motion to make her seem more badass.

  The crew came off the boat and met Maria at the edge of the dock. Monica was the first to give her a hug, followed by the Gutsdorfs, while Gutierrez did nothing more than nod at her. Once the reunion had run its course, Merchant ordered for most of the cameras to cut as she approached.

  “So you’re ready for this?” Merchant asked.

  No. I am absolutely not, she thought. “Yes.”

  “Before we head out, I had something for a possible future episode we need to run past you.”

  “Whatever happened to this being reality television?” Maria said. “Can’t we just once let reality happen instead of trying to manipulate it?”

  Merchant glared at her like she was an especially naïve child. Maria supposed she deserved that.

  “So what is it?” Maria asked.

  “Suzanne Laramie’s lawyers have contacted the network. She wants to talk to you, and she wants it on camera.”

  Kevin and the rest of the crew had already gotten onto the Cameron and were making sure it was ready to set out, but Cindy was still close enough that she heard what Merchant said and stopped to listen. Maria, however, didn’t understand.

  “Who the hell is Suzanne Laramie?” she asked.

  “Right, I forgot how isolated you’ve been,” Merchant said. “Suzanne Laramie is the young woman that you knew better as Diane Mercer.”

  Oh. Now that was definitely a name Maria remembered. Kind of hard to forget, really, since she was the woman responsible for sinking the Tetsuo Maru, an illegal shark-fishing ship in the Sea of Cortez that the Cameron had been trying to peacefully stop. All the chaos that ensued after was at least partially Mercer’s, or rather Laramie’s, fault.

  “Is that… is that something that would even be possible?” Maria asked. “By most definitions, she’s a terrorist. You’d think the government would have her locked in a hole somewhere.”

  “I was surprised when I got the invitation as well, but while she’s pled guilty to putting that bomb on the Tetsuo Maru, she claims she has some other information, something that you and Dr. Hoyt need to know.”

  “But what information is it?” Cindy asked.

  “She said she’ll only tell you, Miss Quintero, and only on camera where there’s a record of it.”

  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Kevin said.

  “And I’m not sure that I’m ready to see her yet,” Maria added.

  “Well, on behalf of TEC, I have to inform you that the network very much wants this to happen. Could you at least consider it?”

  Maria frowned. “I suppo
se.” But she was pretty sure this wasn’t something she would change her mind about. There were very few actual human beings that Maria could lay the blame on for the loss of her leg. Laramie was the most convenient scapegoat. While she logically knew that Laramie hadn’t had anything to do with the giant hammerhead at El Bajo Seamount or its army of horny shark minions, sometimes logic just wouldn’t get in the driver’s seat. Maria’s purely emotional need was to never see Laramie again and let her rot in a prison cell.

  “I’m sure you’re up to date on what you’re going to be doing in the Galápagos?” Merchant asked her.

  “Yeah, but I can’t guarantee you that we’re going to be able to give this man that lost his wife any answers. Or if we’re going to give the network that fascinating hour of television they want.”

  “Don’t worry. You and Kevin just do your thing. Leave it to me and my crew to make something watchable out of it.”

  Maria tensed. “No lying or making it look like there’s something there that’s not. We talked about this. It’s in the contract.”

  Merchant frowned. “Miss Quintero, I know we’ve never talked about your experience with Doug Vandergraf, but I’m fully aware of how unpleasant it was for you. I assure you, I’m not him. I’m not the stereotype of a shady television producer that will do anything at all for ratings. I wish you would let me prove it to you.”

  “Well, I guess this trip is going to be that chance, isn’t it?”

  Merchant nodded and boarded the Cameron. Everyone was on now, the boat’s crew, the television crew, everyone except for Kevin and Maria.

  Maria suddenly found herself unable to move.

  “Maria?” Kevin asked. “Are you alright?”