Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

came to me because you wanted help, I'm trying to give it to you. I don't know who they are, but what you've told me about there being language hidden in the whale song – it just confirms in my mind that they took Nate, and James, and all these other people. That's all I know. I'm telling you that I'm sure that Nate is alive, too. It's another piece to the puzzle."
    Clay sat down on the bed next to the scrapbook. There were articles from scientific journals on cetacean biology, on underwater acoustics, news items about whale strandings, some that didn't seem connected at all. It was the search path of someone who didn't know what she was looking for. He'd gone so long thinking of her as crazy that he'd never given her credit for how knowledgeable she really was. He was realizing only now what had been driving her. He felt like a shit.
    "Elizabeth, what about the call about the sandwich? What about the crystals and the whales talking to you – all of that? I don't understand."
    "I did get the call, Clay. And as for the other, I have dreams of the whales talking to me, and I pay attention to them. Fifty years of searching, I take clues where I can get them. Given what I was looking for, I thought magic and divination as valid a method as any tool in the search."
    "See," Kona said, "I told you. Science you don't know? Magic."
    "I guess I was casting my faith around carelessly, I just hope I didn't do something awful."
    "Nah, old Auntie, Jah's love on ye anyway, even if you're trampin' around your faith like a ho."
    "Kona, shut up," Clay said. "What do you mean, you might have done something awful, Elizabeth?"
    She picked up the scrapbook, closed it, then sat down on the bed next to Clay and hung her head. A tear dripped down onto the black pasteboard cover of the book.
    "When the call came, and the whale said that he wanted a pastrami on rye, I recognized the voice, Clay. I recognized the voice, and I insisted Nathan go out there and take the sandwich with him."
    "It was probably a prank, Elizabeth, someone you've met. Nate was going out that day anyway. You didn't cause this."
    "No, you don't understand, Clay. Pastrami on rye was my James's favorite. I always had one waiting for him when he came in from submarine duty. The voice on the phone was my James."

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
    Booty and the Beasts
    The second time Amy came out of the bedroom, she was dressed in her familiar hiking shorts, flip-flops, and a WHALES ARE OUR PALS T-shirt. "Better?"
    "I don't feel any better, if that's what you're asking." Nate sat at the table with a can of grapefruit juice and a pint of vodka in front of him.
    "I mean, are you more comfortable now that I'm dressed? Because I can be naked again in a flash -"
    "You want a drink?" Nate needed to forget the whole naked encounter as quickly as possible. Applying alcohol seemed like the most efficient method at this point.
    "Sure," she said. She pulled a glass out of one of the kitchen cubbies, the clear door folding back like the protective cover of a frog's eye. "You want a glass?"
    Nate had been sipping alternately from the juice can and the vodka bottle until he had enough room in the can to pour in some vodka. "Yeah. I don't like reaching into the cupboards."
    "You're kind of squeamish for a biologist, but I guess it does take some getting used to." Amy set the glasses in front of him and let him mix the drinks. There was no ice. "You adjust."
    "You seem to have adjusted. When did they take you? You must have been really young."
    "Me? No, I was born here. I've always been here. That's why I was perfect to work for you guys. The Colonel has been teaching me cetacean biology for years."
    It occurred to Nate that he had seen a few human children around and hadn't really thought about growing up in Gooville. Someone had to teach them. Why not the infamous Colonel? "I should have known. When you were trying to locate the whale by listening for it that last day. I should have known."
    "Correction, when I did locate the whale by listening for it, for which you still owe me dinner."
    "I think this is one of those all-bets-are-off situations, Amy. You were a spy."
    "Nate, before you get too angry, you need to remember the alternative to my spying and finding out what you were working on in detail. That would have been to just kill you. It would have been much easier."
    "You and Ryder act like you did me a favor. Like you saved me from some great danger. The only danger I was in was from you in