Fatal Tide - Iris Johansen [64]
“You said the concept of Flipper was way off base, that they were alien. Yet I look at them and all I see is a couple of cute, funny mammals. How are they alien?”
“You name it. Their auditory potential is staggering. Their frequency range is ten times greater than yours. They can actually form pictures in three dimensions with their echolocation and process them faster than any computer.”
“Now, that's pretty alien.”
“They have no sense of smell. They swallow everything whole, so taste isn't important.”
“Touch?”
“Touch is very important to them. They spend maybe thirty percent of their time in physical contact with other dolphins. They don't have hands, so they use every part of their body to caress, to investigate, to carry things around.” She smiled. “You've already seen them play.”
“I've noticed they rub and stroke each other. But that makes them seem more human than alien.”
She nodded. “But there's one other difference. We don't think they sleep. If they do, it's with half their brain. And a Russian scientist measured their REM and they don't dream.” She gazed out at Pete and Susie. “That seems the strangest thing to me. They don't dream.” She shrugged. “Of course, that could be a blessing.”
“Or it could be the reason they haven't come back onshore where they started and taken over. You can't accomplish much without a dream.”
“Maybe they have another way to dream. The way their minds work is a mystery to us.” She paused. “But it's a wonderful mystery. Do you know there's a place on the Black Sea where children with mental traumas and disorders are encouraged to play in the sea with the dolphins? Some positive medical progress has been reported and, at the least, the children are soothed and happy when they leave. But the most interesting thing is that at the end of the day, the dolphins are grumpy and disoriented. It's as if they take away the children's disturbance and give them their own serenity.”
“That idea is pretty far-fetched.”
She nodded. “There's a lot of skepticism about the program.”
“But you believe it?”
“I know what they did for me. No one was more disturbed than I was when I arrived in Chile and first saw the dolphins.”
“And they brought you peace.”
She smiled. “You remember I told you that?”
“I remember everything you've ever said to me.” He started down the deck. “I'll see you in an hour with fresh coffee.”
She watched him walk away before she lay down on the deck and propped her head on his jacket. It smelled of lime, salt air, and musk and was still warm from his body. The scents were vaguely comforting as her gaze returned to the dolphins.
“I'm here, guys,” she called. “No one is going to hurt you. I know it's a little weird, but we just have to get through this.”
Keep talking. Let them hear you and identify you. Keep talking.
They started the engines at six-thirty the next morning. They allowed an hour for the dolphins to become accustomed to the sound and vibration, and then the Trina slowly began heading east.
Melis's hands clenched on the rail. Pete and Susie hadn't moved from the area where they'd been swimming. “Come on, we're leaving.”
They ignored her.
She blew her whistle.
Pete hesitated and then swam in the opposite direction. Susie immediately followed him.
“Pete, you come back here!”
He disappeared beneath the water.
“Shall I stop?” Kelby asked.
“Not yet.”
Susie was gone, too, following Pete into the depths.
Lord, what if they'd left her? What if they'd decided to—
Pete's head suddenly broke the water three feet from where she stood on deck. He chortled gleefully as he rose and paddled backward upright in the water.
She went limp with relief. “Okay, very funny. Where's Susie?”
Susie's bottle nose appeared next to Pete and clicked shrilly as she tried to imitate him.
“Yes, you're both wonderful. Showtime's over,” Melis said. “We're leaving.”
And they were following. Cutting through the water after the Trina. Playing and riding the wake.
“It's a go?” Kelby asked.
“It's a go,” Melis murmured. “Give them another hour and then you can up the