Shallow Breath

50

Maya




‘How dare you! This is my decision. You have no right to come here and tell me what to do.’

Maya is trembling, incandescent with fury. Fifteen minutes ago she had been dozing in the hotel room, conserving her strength for the long night ahead. Then Kate had walked in, with her mother and Jackson. While she regarded them, incredulous, they explained why they had come.

Kate puts a finger to her lips. ‘Keep your voice down.’

Maya sits down hard on the bed, tucking her hands underneath her. Desi goes to sit next to her. ‘Let me do this for you. This is serious, Maya. You could get hurt.’

‘Don’t you think I know that?’

Jackson paces opposite. ‘I think you’re all crazy. I vote we go home right now.’

Maya jumps up, attempting to escape her growing claustrophobia. She goes across to Kate’s laptop. ‘Can I borrow this?’



Kate shrugs. ‘Go ahead.’

Maya leans over, finding the image she wants, unplugs the laptop and brings it across. ‘See this,’ she says, gesturing to the picture on display. It is a tightly packed group of dolphins, huddled together. ‘This is a few weeks ago, when a captured group got close to the mouth of the Cove. See the tiny baby in the centre of them? And this.’ She flicks to another photo, of two fishermen in a small boat. Blue tarp has been laid haphazardly across the centre, but has drifted back to reveal a pile of dolphin bodies. One fisherman is dragging an adult by the tail, a knife in his other hand. ‘This is half an hour after the first photo. If you watch the video, half of them are still moving here. What they endured is unimaginable – not one was spared. You know, they kill the mothers first, so it’s easier to get to the babies. I’ve seen footage of their tiny tails dancing up and down in a sea of blood. Now I know about it, there’s no going back. I will not stand by and do nothing. If I do, I’m no better than them.’ She points to the fishermen in the picture.

Jackson jumps up and moves over to the window. ‘I get that it’s horrific, Maya, but there are other ways.’

‘People are trying all sorts of things,’ Kate agrees. ‘But this is our contribution.’

Jackson gives an angry growl of frustration and turns his back on them.

‘Tell me the whole plan,’ Desi says, still staring at the screen.

Jackson immediately comes to kneel down in front of Desi. ‘Please don’t do this,’ he begs. ‘Haven’t you been through enough?’

‘Jackson, we each have to live by our own decisions. If you don’t want to get involved, fine. But I can’t turn away either. I want to help.’

‘Right.’ He throws his hands up in despair and walks towards the door. ‘I’ll wait in the lobby for an hour, in case you change your mind, and then I’m gone.’

The door slams behind him.

‘Desi, we’ve got enough people,’ Kate says softly. ‘The more we have, the more risk there is of being caught.’

‘Fair enough,’ Desi says, ‘but show me anyway. A fresh pair of eyes might help you make sure you’ve thought of everything.’

‘Can you show her?’ Kate asks Maya. ‘I want to have a word with Jackson.’

As soon as Maya nods, Kate is gone.

‘So have you finished trying to talk me out of it?’ Maya asks as she pulls the laptop across.

Desi sighs. ‘I’m scared for you – but also extremely proud of you.’ She pulls her daughter close. ‘If you change your mind, I’ll take your place right up until the last minute.’

‘I won’t change my mind,’ Maya says, a clear edge of steel in her voice. ‘But I’m really sorry I’ve given you such a hard time lately.’

‘What I did was wrong, and it affected your life too. You had every right to be angry.’

‘Well, I’m not angry any more.’

‘Good.’

Maya is about to say something else when the door opens, and a tall man with long, shaggy blonde hair walks in. He stops uncertainly when he sees Desi sitting there.

‘Don’t worry,’ Maya says quickly. ‘This is my mother, Desi. She’s here to help.’ When he doesn’t speak, Maya looks towards Desi. ‘This is Carl. He’s planned the entire raid.’ She turns back. ‘How did you get on?’

Carl goes across to the other bed and lies down. ‘He’s nervous, but ready.’

‘You don’t think he’ll back out?’



‘No. He hates what those fishermen are doing. But he’s incredibly brave. We’ll at least get some sympathetic media attention. He’ll probably get shunned.’

‘We’re talking about the skipper of the boat,’ Maya explains to Desi. ‘He’s a local sympathiser. We call him Isamu. It’s not his real name – only Carl knows his true identity. Carl’s worked really hard to find him. There are sympathisers here, but they’re mostly intimidated into silence, so Isamu is extremely brave. We were intending to go out last night but the weather was too rough. Tonight’s expected to be calmer.’

‘So tell me the plan.’

Carl sits cross-legged on the bed. He is watching Desi as Maya begins to talk, and she can tell he is still wary.

‘This entire hotel complex is built into the cliff – there’s only one way of getting down to the sea. First you have to go up to the roof here, and through the gardens. Right at the end, hidden in the trees, a small path leads down to the water on the ocean side. Isamu’s boat will be waiting there with the scuba tanks and cutting equipment ready. Once we’ve got across the mouth of Kii-Katsuura’s harbour, we can travel around the peninsula and into the next inlet, which is where the Dolphin Resort pens are located. It will still be dark, and the boat will travel parallel to the rocks, so we’ll be pretty well hidden. We’ll pause in one of the small bays, and that’s where we’ll enter the water. Then we’ll descend immediately and fin across to the pens. We each have two pens to cut – Carl’s taking the two on the furthest side, while Kate and I will work together on the other group of four. Originally, we were going to return to the boat, but there’s been a change of plan. When we’ve finished, we’ll swim over to the far side, and run for Carl’s car. We’ll try to get away before they’ve realised what’s happened.’



‘Meanwhile,’ Carl adds, ‘Isamu will drive the boat out into open water.’

Maya nods. ‘That’s right. Kate and Carl discovered that, when other groups have cut the nets, it’s been difficult to get the dolphins to leave. No one’s certain why, but there’s a consensus they need to be driven out. We can’t do that, so we’re trying something different … Isamu will lead them out. It’s Kate’s idea. Apparently my dad used to tell this story about a whale in America that got to safety the same way.’

‘Humphrey,’ Desi says. ‘I heard that story too.’

‘That’s the one. Kate’s sourced the equipment. Isamu will play dolphin calls under the water to encourage them to follow.’

‘A benevolent Pied Piper,’ Desi says, studying the map again. ‘So how confident are you?’ She looks towards Carl.

‘We’re pretty sure we’ll reach the pens, but after that there’ll be some luck involved. We have to stay hidden. We have to successfully cut the holes. And the dolphins have to choose to leave. But this’ll give them the best shot. It would be too cruel and traumatic to bang things behind them and drive them out, after what they’ve been through already.’

‘You’ve mentioned all these pens,’ Desi says, studying the map and pointing to those that form the perimeter. ‘But what about this big one in the middle?’

Maya looks despondent. ‘Those dolphins are tame. They’ve been there for too long. The consensus is that they’re too used to handouts. They wouldn’t survive at sea any more.’

Desi seems thoughtful. ‘You’re probably right. You remember the Atlantis stories I used to tell you? Those dolphins had trouble in the wild after people spent a million dollars and a year’s worth of training trying to help them readjust. Once you’ve interfered with nature, it can be difficult to go back.’ Her eyes return to the map, and she frowns. She runs her finger south across the land until it reaches the next inlet. ‘What are these here? Are they dolphin pens too?’

‘They are, but they’re in Taiji harbour,’ Maya explains. ‘The dolphins there are still wild. They’ve only just been captured and haven’t yet been sold on. There are quite a few rebels in those ones, refusing to feed and the rest of it. But it’s heavily guarded.’ She points to a car park on the opposite side of the water to the pens. ‘A police van sits there’ – her finger moves slightly to the left – ‘and that’s where the dolphin fishermen gather in the morning, deciding whether it’s a good day to go out to sea and kill more. All those people have a clear view of the harbour pens. They’ve been deemed too risky to attempt – that’s why we’re only doing the ones further north, at Dolphin Resort.’

Desi continues to study the plans for a moment, then looks up at both of them.

‘How long do you think it will take for the alert to go up at Dolphin Resort?’

Carl is obviously intrigued. ‘The trainers come out not long after first light. They’ll see they’re gone straight away.’

‘And what do you think the police and those fishermen are going to do when they find out there’s been an assault on Dolphin Resort?’ she asks. Without waiting for an answer she continues, ‘Isn’t it likely that they’ll all converge over there? And if they leave, surely there’s a window of opportunity that seems too good to miss. Why don’t I try to cut the harbour pens too?’