“Too right, I don’t.”Priddy grabbed for a handhold as the boatslowed, the loss of momentum destabilising her in the heavingwaves.Maybe it had been the run down here, or his admittedly crazyleap off the rocks, but for once in his life he felt a touchseasick.“If you’re looking for your singing dolphins, I guaranteeyou they’re not gonna hang around at those coordinates I can see onKit’s board.That’s the place the guy from theLovely Rosethought he’d been, butyou heard Trewin.There’s nothing there.”
“There certainly won’t be, if we wait for the storm to pass.I’m not looking for dolphins, Priddy.”Geoff’s brow creased.“Iknow I loaned you my dressing gown.What I can’t work out is howyou’re now wearing my jumper.”
Simple.My merman boyfriend came naked out of the sea, andyours was the first open window he found.Then we went to bedtogether, and got up in a hurry, and he ran off—naked again—and Igrabbed this.“Must’ve picked it up byaccident.”
“Er...right.Kit, come here.I’ll mind the helm.”
Kitglanced over his shoulder.“Are you sure?Even at this speed, it’sa tricky route.”
“I can pilot a damn boat!I was sailing skiffs in the Bay ofBiscay while you were still...”Geoff shut up before he couldremind himself too vividly of the age gap.“I want you to explainto your friend what we’re doing here.He’s got no reason to trustor believe me.And I’d rather have an extra pair of hands on boardthan a wild-eyed bloody liability.”
Reluctantly Kit made room for him at the pilot’s station,then came to sit on the leather bench seat that ran the length ofthe cabin.He patted the space beside him as if Priddy had been asmall but awkward dog.“Come here and sit down, mate.You look abit green around the gills.”
Priddymight have been able to stay upright if Kit had chosen differentwords.But he had a fucking hole in his neck with blue-green frondsinside, and his back was aching fiercely, a nauseating pain rightat the base of his spine.He let go his handhold and half-fell ontothe seat.“I’m fine.”
“That’s good, because you’re gonna think I’m bonkers in aminute.Geoff believes...”He paused, then continued loyally,“AndIbelievetoo, after what I’ve heard, that there might be more to thesemermaid stories than meets the eye.”
“Outrageous,” said Priddy, politely.
“I know, right?But listen.Geoff was part of a research teamworking off the Scilly Isles in the nineties.He kept coming acrosspeople—fishermen in the little villages, mostly—with stories likeMichael Henderson’s.And...”He glanced up.“Seriously, Geoff?Youwant me to tell him the whole lot?”
“I need him on board, so to speak, since we can’t chuck himover.I don’t particularly care if he thinks I’m insane.Goon.”
“Well, there was this guy living on Bryher, or at any ratevisiting his boyfriend there for a couple of days every month.Whenthe moon was full, apparently, and Geoff thought he was maybe afisherman using the bright nights to cheat on his missus or whoeverin the next village along.But one night there was a storm, and afishing boat got into trouble off Hunros Bay, and this guy just...ran to the end of the jetty and dived in.He vanished into thewaves, and Geoff thought he must have drowned too, but two dayslater the crew of the boat turned up, just like the Hendersons.With a similar story, only they were talking openly about beingrescued by people with fishtails.Mermaids.”
“Mermaids,” Priddy echoed.The rock and yaw of the boat wasmaking his guts roil, and he couldn’t think of anything intelligentto say.“You’re right.That does sound nuts.”
“Seriously, after all those stories you told me?I mean,Istruggled to take itin, and if it hadn’t been coming from a head of department atNortheast Atlantic...I’d have thought you’d have lapped itup.”
“Stories are one thing, Kit.”
“I know, and if I hadn’t heard Michael Henderson today, tellingthe exact same tale about being rescued, and wrapped up in these...membranes or whatever...But there’s more, and you do need to know,because I want your help with this too.”
“With what, for God’s sake?Why are you two so desperate to getout there today?”
“Because Geoff’s been chasing this for twenty years now.One ofthe Bryher fishermen could describe exactly where he’d been kept,and Geoff and his team got the research boat to the site in timetofindsome ofthis stuff.Priddy, are you listening?”
He wastrying.His ears kept popping, though, and he must have done somedamage to himself after all with his leap off the cliff.His legswere hurting abysmally.“I’m listening.He got some of themembrane?”
“Yes.It didn’t last long out of the water, but his team hadtime to do some basic tests, and it had the most amazingproperties.Like stem cells, only better.”Suddenly Kit beamed, andlooked like the friend Priddy remembered, worry burning off inenthusiasm for the project in hand.“They brought a fish in with itby accident, and this damn stuff was wrapping it up to fix itsinjuries at one end, and doing God knows what to its gills at theother so it could—get this, Prid—so it couldair-breathe.”
“Mate, could you please stop talking about gills?”
“What?Anyway, all Geoff and his team wanted was to find somemore, because you’ve got to imagine the potential of this stuff,the importance.It could revolutionise treatment for people withdegenerative illnesses like motor neurone andParkinson’s.”
Priddywas fairly certain he was about to throw up, and Geoff wouldn’tcare for that, not in the beautifully upholstered cabin.Probablyhe’d never get his security deposit back then.But the prospect ofgetting up and making his way to the side was more sickening thanthe heave of the deck.“All right.Did he find more?”
“That’s just it.No, never.This guy on Bryher—his boyfrienddisappeared around that time, and Geoff thinks he somehow blamedthe research team.Their boat was scuppered overnight in theharbour—torn apart, really.And ever since then, whenever Geoff’sfollowed a trail of legends and sightings and got close, someone orsomething always comes along and intervenes.There’ll be a suddensand-slide across a perfectly stable section of ocean floor, or anunderwater probe will vanish.That’s why we have to head for thecoordinates where theLovely Rosecrew were being held, because...”He trailed off.Geoff Blades’ shadow had sliced the thin, coppery light coming inthrough the cabin’s for’ard window.“Shit, Geoff.I know theautopilot’s on, but she won’t make it through the shoreline channelon her own.”
“We’re not in the channel anymore.”
Priddyknew that.For the last thirty seconds, he’d been feeling the vibethrough his bones of increasing engine power.He’d felt the chaotictilt of the cliff-base waters smooth out into the regularpitch-and-drop of a big Atlantic swell.He stared up at Geoff, whowas watching him avidly, just as he’d watched Michael Henderson.The time for respect was over.“What the fuck are you up to,Blades?”
“You don’t look well, Priddy.Not well at all.There’ssomething on the side of your neck, you know—let’s put your lovelyhair back and take a look.”
Priddy recoiled.There was no need—Kit had knocked asideGeoff’s reaching hand, jolted upright to block him—but the reflexstill fired, and it ended Priddy’s world.A pain like nothing he’deven dreamt of before leapt out of the cabin walls and up from thefloor to consume him.He crashed back onto the bench seat, backarching, fists closing into white-knuckled knots.A white heatripped from the soles of his feet to his groin.Through crimsonveils he saw Geoff Blades shoving Kit aside.A big hand caught hisjaw, wrenching his face around into the light.“I should’ve bloodyknown.My God, I thought you were just a hysterical little fake,but youweren’tbloody breathing when we found you on that beach, wereyou?”
“What the hell are you doing?”Kit demanded.“We’ve got to turnthe boat around.Something’s the matter with him.”
