“Is something wrong, Baba?” Alexei asked.
She gave a short chuckle, decidedly lacking in humor. “You mean besides discovering that the man I’ve been having dinner with almost every night is a cold-blooded killer who is apparently leading some kind of paranormal guerrilla war against Humans and threatening the safety of all the water-dwelling magical creatures, not to mention my job?”
“Yes,” Alexei said perfectly seriously. “Besides that.”
“Well, it just occurred to me that my two problems might not be as unrelated as I thought.”
Gregori lifted an eyebrow.
Beka pointed out toward Kesh’s boat, where a dark figure was poised at the port side, slowly lowering the two canisters and what looked like a bulky, rolled-up sail into the water. Once they’d disappeared beneath the surface, Kesh dived in after them, his Human-shaped body cleaving the water neatly with barely a splash. After a moment, a sleek seal head bobbed into view then vanished under the waves with a flash of a ruffled tail.
“So?” Gregori said. “He is dumping the body and whatever is in those containers.”
“Yes, but it is where he is dumping them that makes me think he might be involved with whatever is destroying the Selkies’ and Merpeople’s home waters, and making their people ill,” she said. “I can’t be certain, of course, but I am fairly sure that we are right above the trench where the contamination began.”
“So whatever is in those containers . . .” Gregori’s eyebrow rose even further.
“May very well hold the answers I need,” Beka said. “The problem is, if he is taking them down as far as the bottom of the trench, I can’t dive that far. I’ve gone down as far as I could and didn’t see anything, but he must be tucking them away in some hidden spot. The Selkies and Merpeople looked for anything unusual before they had to abandon their homes, but they are too frightened to go back and search any further.”
“Do you want us to try and grab him when he comes back up?” Alexei asked, always happy to take the direct route. “We could beat on him until he tells us where he hid the rest.”
Gregori snorted. “Use what little brains you have, my large friend. Trying to hold a Selkie on the ocean would be as much use as trying to hold a sunbeam on a clear day. To catch this one, we will have to wait until he is on land.”
“Oh, right,” Alexei said. “Then what will you do, Baba?”
“Don’t worry,” she said, a plan forming in her head as she watched the empty boat bob up and down on the swells. “I can’t dive down that far, but I know someone who can.”
*
WHEN THEY RETURNED to the shore where they had left Beka’s Karmann Ghia and the Riders’ motorcycles, Beka stared pensively at the fast but not very large boat they’d used to follow Kesh.
“I hate to say it, but I think we are going to need a larger boat than this for what I have in mind,” she said.
Alexei looked vaguely guilty. “Uh, that is probably just as well, Beka. We, uh, sort of borrowed this one, and I should probably get it back to its owner before it is missed.” He whistled a bar or two from an old Russian tune, gazing off into the distance so he wouldn’t have to meet her eyes.
“Alexei! Gregori! Don’t tell me you stole this boat!”
“Very well, Baba,” Gregori said placidly. “We will not tell you. But Alexei is correct; we should probably return it soon.”
Beka sighed. She was right back where she started, needing a boat, and only knowing of one she could use at a moment’s notice. At least Marcus already knew about her mission. And about Chewie, who was her secret weapon.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I think I know where I can get a boat that will take me out there. Then it is just a matter of finding the canisters and figuring out what Kesh has done to poison the water. Once I know the cause, hopefully I’ll be able to fix it. And then I can turn Kesh over to the Queen to face her wrath for everything he’s done.” She said it all so confidently, she almost convinced herself.
“It sounds like you have everything under control,” Gregori said. Beka thought she detected a strange tone to his voice. “Perhaps you no longer need us after all?”
She peered at him, and then at Alexei, who still wasn’t meeting her glance. This wasn’t about the stolen boat, then. Or at least, not only about the stolen boat.
“Out with it,” she said. “What’s going on?”
Alexei shrugged, like a mountain shifting during an earthquake. “I have a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling?” Beka repeated. She scowled at Gregori, hoping he would be slightly more forthcoming than “a bad feeling.”