Rescue

“Blacktip’s a shark.“ Then to Cody, “How big?“
    “Almost five feet,“ said Cody.
    “Big enough for what we want.“
    I tuned out the banter. Looking around me, I didn’t see anything I’d be able to use except the rifles, and they were a long crawl away, assuming I could get to them before Cody or Severn got to me.
    My watch was still on my wrist, but I couldn’t see its luminous face under the cuff of the jumpsuit. Above us, the nigh* sky was about half clouded over, the moon gone but lots of stars shining, a brilliant carpet of them with the only ambient light coming from the gauges on the dash in front of Axel-The boat veered, and now we were bouncing through the chop, the vibration from the engine yielding to the steady battering against the hull.
    I said, “Killing me isn’t going to end this.“
    Severn laughed, a barroom sound reminding me of his brother. “Maybe not, but like they say with those lawyer jokes, it’s a start.“
    Suddenly, Cody jumped and pointed, moving to the side of the boat. “I’ll be.... Haven’t seen that in years!“
    “They’re all over the goddam bay!“
    “Just like Flipper, zigzagging around the bow and everything. You know, Ax, the scientists say they’re like the closest thing to humans.“
    “They’re just fish, Cody.“
    “Are not. They’re like us, have babies and everything. There must be twenty of them, Ax. Be careful you don’t hit none.“
    “You can’t hit a goddam dolphin, he knows your boat’s there.“
    “Well, be careful anyway.“
    Cody, who hadn’t blanched at crucifying a woman and a boy, being concerned about... I shook my head, then pictured the mammals, playful and rollicking in a heavy chop. The best cover I could hope to have right now.
    Taking a deep breath, I drew my feet to my chest. Using my palms on the rough floorboard to right myself, I stood up and pitched forward over the starboard side.
    Hitting the water at that speed, my whole body felt as though it had just undergone the mother of all enemas. The wind got knocked out of my lungs, and I surfaced as the engine wound down. The water was warm, the surroundings seeming to be just small islands, maybe two or three hundred yards away, with heavy growths of low trees, stark against the lights of what I took to be larger Keys, many miles away. The boat, several hundred feet farther along, began a banking turn to come back for me, Severn and Cody yelling at each other.
    The waterlogged clothes were dragging me down, which was almost a blessing. I took a breath and dived under, my bound ankles forcing me to do the dolphin kick I’d hated but learned in the scuba class. Then something bumped me, and something else from another direction bumped me again.
    Out of air, I came back up. The boat was past me, idling, the chop rising and falling against the hull. Axel and Cody, weapons in their hands, were walking around inside the cockpit, sweeping the area with their hands cupped at their eyebrows, as though that would help them see better.
    “ —don’t have a flashlight on this boat?“
    “Cody, you want to shut up and try to spot this goddam asshole?“
    Then I was bumped again and turned to look at a smiling face with small, pointed teeth and an eye in the side of its head. It pushed itself at me, and I felt its skin. Silky, alive in an alien way I can’t describe. Looking toward the boat, I realized that what seemed to be all chop was partly the backs of dolphins, slate gray with blowholes behind the head as they arched through and out of the water, their dorsal fins small and hydrodynamic, their flat tails slipping into the water more than slapping the surface.
    Severn started turning toward me, and I dove as I heard his weapon fire. I’m not sure how deep the water was, but I touched bottom fairly quickly. A sludgy, marly texture, with sharp pieces of something mixed in, like broken glass in mud. I kicked along the bottom as far as I could, my lungs screaming for air as I broached this time, maybe forty degrees off where I’d been.
    “ —can’t shoot at them, Ax!“
    “Get the fuck... off me, you... asshole!“
    Blinking the salty water from my eyes, I watched the two men struggling in the boat, Cody having dropped his weapon somewhere, bear-hugging Severn so he couldn’t use his, though another few rounds got touched off into the air, making that distinctive popping noise.
    Then I heard the dolphins chittering, spent air coming from their holes like somebody