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."Tell us again why this is necessary?" the Earthpeacer asked the secretarywhen he'd stopped beside them."You know why," Babcock replied."We've got to make this as authentic aspossible." He placed a firm hand on Sunshiny's shoulder."It's the only way.""I know," Sunshiny Ralph said morosely."It just seems so-so human." He usedthe word like a curse.Babcock couldn't argue the charge.His face reflected deeply somber sympathy.It was an expression identical to his delighted look of a moment before."I feel your pain," Babcock intoned."But remember, what we do here today wedo for a higher cause."There were nods among the sniffles.Though most still fought back tears, theysat more proudly, shoulders forced back, chests thrust forward.Babcock flashed the men a dyspeptic wince that might have been a smile ofencouragement before turning away.It was time to deal with more pressing matters.The endless churning water hadhad a negative effect on his already full bladder.The pressure was too greatto ignore any longer.Turning from the men, he began to hurry back along the deck.He had takenbarely a step before something far above caught his eye.It was framed againstthe azure sky of the Caribbean.He stopped dead.On a lone mast high above the giant ship fluttered a green flag.On it wasembroidered the familiar dove-and-tree symbol of Earthpeace.Bryce Babcock'ssour face collapsed as he watched the flag snap crazily at the sky.He wheeled back on the men."What is that still doing up there?" he demanded, jabbing an angry fingermastward."Uh, dude," Sunshiny said, "we thought, you know, fly the colors till thebitter end.""That's the first thing that should have gone, you idiots!" Babcock snapped."Get it down from there! Now!" His baggy eyes suddenly widened."Oh, no."Face sick, the interior secretary glanced down at his trousers.A seeping wetstain was easing over his crotch.As he gasped in anger, warm rivulets beganthe remorseless trickle down the front of his thigh, dampening the band of hisblack dress socks."Dammit," he griped."I knew I should have lined with plastic."Shaking the growing wetness from his leg, Bryce Babcock hustled belowdecks onsquishy shoes.BY ORDER of the interior secretary, the Earthpeace flag was lowered.It wasfolded reverently and placed in a simple cardboard box in the hold.At thesame time, the last white lapel pins were collected.Page 45ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlJerry Glover had the honor of bringing the shoebox containing the insigniasdown below.He hid it behind the former President's cage.Sneaking a peek atthe prisoner, he found that the ex-chief executive was still snoring,oblivious to all that was going on around him."You're gonna be in for one mother of a shock when you wake up," Jerrywhispered."This ain't no bourgeois National Review cruise."Leaving the old man in the darkness of the damp hold, he hurried back up ondeck.The catwalk door closed with resounding finality.The noise echoed through theshadowy hold.For several long seconds, intense silence filled the rusty belly of the ship.The only sounds were those that filtered through the Grappler's thick hull.Waves crashing.Creaking metal.Muffled shouts.Muted, distant.Another sound.Closer.This one originating within the hold itself.So softwas it that it could have been mistaken for background noise.A soft, urgent scratching noise.Very faint.And this new sound issued from out of the dark cage interior.AT THE PUERTO RICO TRENCH, the Grappler made an unexpected course alteration.Instead of turning south for the run to the southernmost tip of Africa, theship veered northeast, aiming for the wide expanse of the Atlantic.Scaffolding was lowered over the sides.Paint strokes removed the last of theGrappler's identifying marks.New identification numbers were stenciled inlarge white letters on the gunmetal-gray hull.The men in the stern were given word to begin the task that had caused themsuch grief.Nets were lowered from heavy steel arms into the churning ocean water.Sonar in the helm was quick to locate a school of fish.In a matter ofminutes, the dripping nets were hauled back up to the deck, laden with bluefintuna.The fish were dumped unceremoniously onto the deck.Men who had held themselves together until now broke into tears at the sightof the hundreds of fish slopping out around their ankles."The carnage!" Sunshiny cried."The viciousness! Oh, the humanity!""Humanity is right," another Earthpeacer blubbered, wiping at his runny nose."Fish would never kill one another for food.They don't have it in them."Sunshiny Ralph steeled himself."We're supposed to be a fishing boat now.Weneed to have something in the hold if we're stopped."Jerry Glover sniffled, nodding agreement."This is necessary.For the greatergood."The men waded into the pile of live fish and began to load them, as gently aspossible, into a special metal sluice.The tuna disappeared down the chute,flopping moments later into the hold of the big ship.The work went on for only a few minutes.The cries of the men, which had dieddown after a time, grew frenzied once more when the last of the dumped netsrevealed the familiar shape of a large dolphin.The creature was dead.Gasps went up all around."Oh, my God!" Sunshiny shrieked.He hopped up and down in front of the deadmammal."This is awful!" Jerry echoed, clutching his own throat.Another man dropped to his rear end on the deck, knees pulled to his chin."Greater good.greater good.greater good." he muttered over and over ashe rocked back and forth.As Sunshiny attempted mouth-to-blowhole resuscitation, buckets of ocean waterwere hastily brought up in a futile attempt to revive the animal.To noavail.The mood went from frantic to funereal.No one seemed to know what to do withthe dead creature.A burial at sea seemed the most fitting, but someone arguedthat this was just a fancy term for dumping the poor creature overboard."These are the geniuses of the deep," Jerry wept."We can't just chuck it outlike garbage.""If they're so smart, why do they keep getting caught in nets?" one timidPage 46ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlEarthpeacer asked.The rest joined Sunshiny and Jerry in pelting theblasphemer with a dozen flapping, undersize tropical fish.Afterward, they wrapped the dolphin's corpse in a spare Earthpeace flag andlowered it gently into the sea.There was no joy aboard the transformed Radiant Grappler II after thisincident.The dark mood remained with the crew like a stubborn black cloud onthe remainder of their uneventful trip across the Atlantic.Chapter 16The summer sun was dying long and slow across the reddening New York sky.Asthe afternoon blurred into dusk, a palpable sense of loss seemed to rise withthe gloaming-the sort of wistful malaise that began to set in on the last fullmonth before the start of autumn and the winter it presaged.A soft breeze off Long Island Sound touched the shadow-smeared leaves ofancient oak and maple.Alone in the drab confines of his Folcroft office,Harold W.Smith noticed neither the sigh of leaf nor the encroachingdarkness.Fingers moved with perfect efficiency of motion, striking silent keys.Smithwas lost in his element.As he surfed the Net, page after electronic pagereflected in his owlish glasses [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]