Ocean on Top

“You have heard about him, haven’t you?” I nodded.

“And he’s — he’s — ”

She fell silent, watching me through the armor glass. I nodded to that, too. It was easier than writing an out-and-out falsehood.

I couldn’t see anything but her face, but I could imagine the clenched fists. In fact, I had to wince as what was probably one of them struck the inside of the hull and sent a painful sound wave pulsing out into the room. Her voice came again.

“I was right. He wouldn’t sell out. He wouldn’t give up everything a decent person believes in, so they killed him.”

“Why should they destroy him that way?” I countered. ‘It could have been done much more easily while he was inside, as he must have been when they were talking to him if you’re right. They could have let him suffocate or starve — which they haven’t done to you, remember — when his supplies ran out. They wouldn’t have wasted the sub that way, either.”

“Simple. Because they wanted the death to occur outside, with him in the sub, so that when a search was made it would appear a regular accident. I’m surprised you didn’t think of that.” At least she didn’t say ‘even you’.

I’m slower-witted than Marie and know it perfectly well, but I had thought of that, as well as an answer for it.

“Don’t be silly. Who’d be surprised, or even suspicious, at finding nothing when they did search for him? The Pacific has a lot of square miles at its bottom, and even more cubic ones on the way down.”

For a wonder, she had no answer to that, and was silent for several seconds. When she did speak again, she had dropped the subject of Joey for the moment and asked me to tell her what I had learned from the library.

Chapter Twenty-one

It took a long time, but I did my best. She read each page with care, sometimes nodding silently, sometimes asking questions after finishing it. I answered them all as my knowledge permitted.

About half her questions had to do with how heavily I had depended on Bert for my information. It must have been over an hour before I had painted about the same general picture for her that I had formed myself.

I closed with the plea that was the key to the whole plan.

“Marie, you’ve got to get back and report all this. Whatever Bert may have said about your staying, the Board has got to know everything. Bert and I will get back on our own when we can, and you don’t have to consider Joey anymore.”

“Bert? Why should he want to go back? I know he’s staying. He admitted it. He’s had a taste of doing what he wants, without having to consider other people. He tried to talk me into doing the same, the dirty beast. The fact that he’s staying here is the only thing that makes me willing to listen to your suggestion that I go.”

“I don’t believe that of him,” I wrote. ‘He told me he was staying, too, but implied that it wasn’t permanently. My feeling then was that he’d joined to find out what we need to know and would come back when and if he could, just as I did.”

“I can believe it of you.’” She fell silent again and thought for several minutes while I listened to my own heartbeat. It was the most encouraging thing she’d ever said to me, and I felt worse than ever about the lie. I had to tell myself several times more that it was for her own safety.

Her own safety wasn’t Marie’s concern, however. She made that clear enough in the next few minutes. When she finally did speak again, it was clear that she’d been doing some rapid pla

“All right,” she said. ‘I’ll go, though I still don’t think they’ll let me get away. There’ll be some sort of accident. I’ve an idea, though, which just might tell which of us is right about this.”

I looked at her inquiringly, but didn’t bother to write anything.

“You seem to believe that they’re willing for me to go back and report to the Board, and that the change that’s been made in you and Bert can be reversed so that you can come back and breathe air again when you want to. Right?” I nodded. ‘All right. I don’t believe either of those items. To find out, you just swim off and tell Bert that I’ll go back if he’ll come with me, in this sub. He can come back down afterward again if he likes, but I’ll be much more convinced of his yarn if I see him breathing air again, and I’ll feel a lot safer if he’s in this boat with me when I drive it out of here. Now tell me why you think that’s a silly idea and a waste of time and effort, and all that sort of nonsense.”

I didn’t need air-normal sound transmission to know there was sarcasm in her tone; I couldn’t hear it, but it was certainly there. She didn’t trust me entirely, either. At least I could get some satisfaction out of surprising her with my answer.

“It seems like a fine idea to me,” I wrote. ‘I’ll find Bert and put it up to him. I suppose you wouldn’t accept me as a substitute if he prefers to stay a while longer.”

Her expression changed a little, but I wasn’t quite sure what the new one meant.

“ ‘Fraid not,” she said. ‘It would prove your point about the return possibility, but I don’t think you’d make as good a hostage.” That was some comfort, anyway. ‘We’ll play it my way, as far as it goes. Go find Bert and learn what he says.”

I swam off obediently. Bert was waiting in the entrance chamber this time, apparently improving his knowledge of the finger language with the assistance of our same old followers, the girl and her friends — two of them, anyway. I couldn’t have told which was the missing one.

I had boiled everything down to one sentence on the pad and showed this to him the moment I was close enough.

“Marie says she’ll go if you’ll change back and go with her.”

He stared at it for a full half minute without even moving to take it from my hand. Then he suddenly snatched it and, without clearing the writing swam off down the tu

“That’s it, Bert.” He cleared the page, looking at her in a puzzled fashion.

“Why?” he wrote.

“I may explain later. Will you come?”

His answer startled Marie. I wasn’t sure what it did to me.

“Sure. I may have to come back later — there’s useful work to do down here. But it might be best if I went with you now anyway. There’s a lot to be reported that there hasn’t been time for either of us to tell you.” I thought that was a pretty tactful way of passing off her refusal to listen to him all those weeks. ‘I could make a more thorough job of it.” He paused in thought, even longer than it took Marie to read the sentences. Then he went on, ‘We’ll tow your sub to the operating room — it’ll be easier that way than for you to pilot it — and co

I wasn’t sure it was okay. Without Bert I wouldn’t be able to do anything useful, as far as I could see. No doubt the girl who was still watching us, and her friends, might be willing to keep me from starving until I learned my way around. They might even guide me back to where I could work with Joey, if that was to be my main occupation; but I couldn’t see what use I’d be to the Board that way. I hope it’s been obvious that I never intended my residence to be permanent, as Joey apparently had. I hadn’t been lying to Marie about that.

There was no use suggesting that I go back with the two of them. The sub wouldn’t take us. It was built for one, and crowding Bert in would be hard enough.