Page 19 of Daughter of the Deep

Then her housemate Kay calls, ‘Oh, no way. Look at these phased-optics reaction times!’

And Nelinha is off.

She is the most caring friend you could ever want, but you have to accept that sometimes you’ll take a back seat to shiny new tech.

In a matter of minutes, theVarunais underway.

We head due west. Socrates keeps pace with us easily. He and I talk as best we can, but as usual it’s all questions and no answers.

I wish I knew how he found me, and whether he understands that Dev is gone. He can’t tell me these things.

No, that’s not correct. I know enough about dolphin intelligence and communication to know he is absolutely capable of telling me. Dolphin language is infinitely more complex and nuanced than human languages. It’s just that I can’t understand him well enough.

‘Thank you,’ I say to him, also using sign language to make my point more visual. ‘I wish I could repay you.’

He gives me his sideways dolphin smile. I imagine he’s saying,Yes, you owe me all the squid.

A voice behind me says, ‘I got upstaged by a dolphin.’

Gemini Twain leans against a capstan. His arms are crossed, his expression glum. His dark hair is flecked with sea salt.

‘My one job was to protect you,’ he tells me. ‘I’m sorry.’

I’m tempted to snapI don’t need a protector.But he looks so depressed I don’t have the heart for it.

‘Don’t beat yourself up, Miles Morales,’ I say.

Gem laughs under his breath. ‘Easier said than done.’

He pulls at his collar like he’s wearing a tie that’s too tight.

I don’t know much about him. After his altercation with Nelinha during our chum year, I decided I didn’t want to deal with him any more than I had to. I guess Harding-Pencroft hasn’t always been easy for him, either. He’s the only Latter-day Saint at HP, as far as I know. How does a Black Mormon kidfrom landlocked Utah get interested in a career at sea? I’ve never asked. Now I hope we’ll get more chances to talk – not because I like him, or because I feel like Ihaveto like him, but because he’s a classmate. Today I was reminded that anyone in my life can be taken away in the span of a heartbeat.

‘What did you see,’ I ask him, ‘when you looked at Dr Hewett’s tablet?’

He frowns. ‘A dark shape under the water. Like a massive arrowhead.’

‘TheAronnax,’ I guess. ‘Some kind of submarine?’

Gem scans the horizon. ‘Not like any I’ve ever heard of. If that’s what attacked HP, and it’s after us …’

He leaves the thought unfinished. Any vessel that can destroy a square mile of the California coast is not something we can fight in theVaruna, even with assault rifles, zappy guns and a luchador dolphin. If we can’t go to the authorities, which Hewett seems adamant about, then our only hope is to run and hide. That leads me to an uneasy question: run and hidewhere?

Ester strolls over with Top at her heels and a dead squid in her hand. Without preamble, she hands me the squid, which is both warm and icy – and extremely gross.

‘I found it in the freezer,’ she says. ‘I put it in the microwave for sixty-five seconds. I didn’t do it any longer because I didn’t want it to get too squishy. I mean, it’s a squid, so it’s already squishy.’

She says all this without a pause and without meeting my eyes. Of course, she’s just trying to make me feel better. She knew I would want to give Socrates a treat, and she found just the thing.

I’ve heard ‘experts’ say that autistic people have trouble with empathy, but sometimes I wonder if these experts have ever actually sat down and talked to autistic people. When we first met, I didn’t understand why Ester wouldn’t say somethingcomforting when one of us was upset. I found her behaviour a complex code, like jumbled words and signals. But once I cracked that code I realized that she just does things a little differently. She’s more likely todosomething nice, or offer an explanation, as a way of helping me feel better. She is, in fact, one of the most empathetic people I’ve ever met.

Top sits at my feet and wags his tail. He gives me his most soulful stare.I’m a very good boy. I almost killed someone earlier.

‘He’s already had tons of treats,’ Ester assures me. ‘The squid is for Socrates.’

‘As long as it’s not for me,’ Gem says.

‘That was a joke,’ Ester says, her expression deadly serious. ‘I get it.’

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