"Now!" Merced shouted, flipping his mask into place. "Over the side!" He turned and leaped for the water. Mataroreva, Dawn, and Cora followed. Once in the water they surfaced. Cora looked around for Rachael, finally spotted her still on the deck above. In a moment she joined them, preceded by a sealed container. Cora did not have to ask what it held.

"Have to replace those modules," her daughter was complaining.

Water geysered around them as three more ma.s.sive black and white shapes exploded from the sea to join the first. The stem of the catamaran began to buckle under their combined weight.

191

192.

CACHALOT.

Cora tried to right herself in the confused water, saw a huge shape rushing at her. There was an in- stant of unavoidable, primeval panic before she rec- ognized it. The shape dipped beneath her and she slid back until she could clutch the slick dorsal fin.

Merced was right behind her. The moment they were securely seated, the whale turned and accelerated.

She thought to switch on her translator.

"Sorrry as the windds arre wwe to hawe taken so long, sorrry arre wwe thhat wwe had to abandonn

youuuu."

"h.e.l.lo, Latehoht," she said weakly. "Never mind your timing. For some reason I just can't find it in my heart to criticize you."

The five of them were deposited alongside the abandoned catcherfoil still anch.o.r.ed off the reef. Cora slipped off the wide, slick back as another huge blunt head surfaced near them. Thick ivory teeth gleamed in the sun.

"Healthffullll?"

"Healthful we are, Wenkoseemansa, and thank you."

The whale disappeared, was soon replaced by his mate. Cora watched the Dantean scene taking place around the catamaran. "What about the? ..."

"Badd mmen on shhip arre in flight rrather thhan fight," Latehoht sang l.u.s.tily. "Sit somme within the rreeff whherre wwe cannot go. Thhey arre fearrful and hidden. Thhey will trouble you not, thhey will not bothher you. Onn thhe shhip stand fewerr and fewerr.

Only in its depths hidde soinme like their afrraidful brrethrren inn the rreef. Thhey mayy yet comme out.

Wwe will kill thhen only thhose necessarrry. Did wwe wellll?"

"Most well." Cora saw Sam offer Rachael a hand up the foil's boarding ladder. The girl disdained the offer, instead carefully handed up the crate containing her precious instrument.

193.

"Got to go nowww," Latehoht whistled. She nodded at her human friends, slapped the water once with her jaw, and dashed off to rejoin the fading battle.

They stood by the stem of the badly damaged ship and stared incredulously as a few of Hazaribagh's team attempted to regain control. The orcas were so fast that the hapless crewmembers barely had time to take aim with their weapons. One or two of the whales were hit by the hypodermic darts and had to be kept afloat by their fellows, but for the most part the resistance was as ineffectual as it was sporadic.

It is difficult to aim at something hidden beneath the surface of the sea, more so when that something emerges like a rocket straight toward you.

Only one orca was badly wounded, by an explo- sive sh.e.l.l. The watchers near the reef could hear its cries for help via their headphone units. The fight shifted as the crew of the factory ship soon discovered that several tons of killer whale jumping at one's face inevitably had serious effects on one's aim. Those still resisting retreated to the second deck, where the pro- digious leaps of the orcas couldn't reach them.

Hopes of driving off the attackers faded quickly for those on board. The moment the gunmen moved out of range, the orcas concentrated their a.s.sault on the interior of the twin hulls. Their attack had already sunk the second suprafoil. Now they pounded at the fibermetal hulls, working in relays. Eventually the con- stant pressure of many tons would breach one hull or the other and the factory ship, too, would sink.

The transmitter behind the watchers buzzed for attention. Mataroreva moved to the battered cabin, acknowledged the signal.

"Call them off!" a voice from the speaker pleaded.

Cora recognized the anxious voice of Dewas Ha- zaribagh.

"Call whom off?" Mataroreva replied, thoroughly enjoying their former captor's discomfort. " 'Why

194 .

should I give such obviously resourceful folk as your- selves a chance to escape?' " he added, mimicking the manager's former evaluation of their own status.

"Call them off, I tell you! We'll do whatever you

wish!"

"Of course you will. You can't bring weapons to

bear between the hulls unless you open the service bays-which would promptly fill up with large, unwel- come visitors. You're stuck, Hazaribagh. You'll last less than most once you're all in the water."

"I will not beg for myself, but as for my people-"

"Uh-huh." He turned to the railing. "Cora, you tell

them."

She leaned over the side, adjusted her mask to

make certain she was speaking into her translator pickup. Several strange orcas waited in the water below. They looked up alertly when she spoke.

"Tell your companions they've done well enough.

Stop the attack." She looked back toward Sam.

He addressed the transmitter. "Throw all your weapons over the side, Hazaribagh. You can worry about salvaging them later." He p.r.o.nounced the word "salvage" in a particularly unpleasant manner.

Splashes began immediately, dotting the surface around the a.s.sailed factory ship.

"Fine," Mataroreva told his distant listeners. "Now all of you sit tight. I don't want to see anyone on deck.

You can drink yourselves into a stupor, commiserate in groups, make love, do anything you want. But don't try to start your engines or I'll have you sunk.

And once you're down in the water, I don't think I could keep control of my friends."

"As you wish."

Minutes later a cetacean call sounded near the bow. "Samm! Samm!" All whale voices sounded much alike, but this one's pitch and phrasing Cora had learned to recognize. The voice was that of a happy Latehoht.

195.

Mataroreva jogged out of the battered cabin, shouted a hasty "Take over!" and jumped over the side.

Latehoht swam delighted circles around him and he around her. He kicked water in her face and she spit it playfully back at him. Wenkoseemansa floated lazily nearby.

"Frriends comme behind ussss," he offered, noticing an intent Cora staring over the railing at the male- whale waterplay.

"I guessed as much," she murmured. "I didn't think you'd return with only cetacean help. Sam worried that you might not have escaped." She watched as the subject of her thoughts let out a whoop. Latehoht had slipped her tail beneath him, and the gentle flip that resulted sent him soaring through the warm after- noon air.

; "What the h.e.l.l happened?"