Free The Whale Song Translation: A Voyage of Discovery To Neptune and Beyond by Howard Steven Pines Page B

customary seat. During the nerve-wracking wait until her supervisor’s return, Roberts admired the Davis family photos perched on the Spartan desktop. She had always been beguiled by the images of her superior’s attractiveness at an earlier age, before life’s cumulative stresses had stamped their imprint on her face and grayed her hair.
    Despite the lieutenant’s no-nonsense approach to her job, she was highly respected by the members of her staff. In a world of gender-biased glass ceilings, Tamara totally understood the reason Davis had encapsulated her private life inside a persona of hard-core professionalism. That’s why Davis’s sympathetic demeanor, before she’d excused herself, had unnerved Tamara.
    When Noel Harrison opened the door and glided into the room, Tamara’s nagging unease flared up into full-blown fear. “Any idea what this is about?”
    “Not a clue.” Harrison sounded as cavalier as ever.
    “Where’s Lieutenant Davis?”
    Harrison sat in the chair next to her and pointed toward the door. Davis entered the office holding an oversized manila envelope. With her grim-faced supervisor staring directly at her, Tamara felt a sickening sensation in her gut. She shifted her gaze to her colleague, but his face exuded its usual nothing-fazes-me expression.
    Still standing, Davis faced her subordinates from behind the desk. She reached inside the envelope to extract what looked like a news magazine and, with a dramatic flourish, slapped the copy of a popular supermarket tabloid onto the table. The two-inch headline screamed: OCEAN CROP CIRCLE MYSTERY .
    “Have either of you mission specialists seen this photo?” Davis pointed to the image below the headline. Like a scolding school principal, Davis leaned across the desk, appearing to hover directly above Harrison and Roberts.
    As soon as Tamara recognized the picture, her heart palpitated with an electric chill. Neither she nor Harrison uttered a sound.
    “No?” Davis stared accusingly first at Noel Harrison, then at Tamara. “Well, the encryption codes embedded in the photo indicate it could only have been taken from one of our birds, exactly two days ago. I think you two might have some explaining to do.”
    Tamara turned, shocked to see Harrison’s deer-in-the-headlights expression. Two days too late, she realized she’d made a huge mistake to follow his advice. A single thought throbbed like a migraine in the center of her skull. What has Harrison done?

 
    C HANGE OF P LAN
     
    Island Fish Restaurant, Kahului, Maui—early afternoon
     
    “Everything will be fine,” said Greg. “She’s definitely taken a shine to you.”
    Amidst the laughter, the chatter, and the mouth-watering aromas of grilled fish, roasted garlic, and draft beer, Greg had been waiting along with Dmitri at the bar inside of Kahului’s most popular watering hole. Greg had agreed to keep him company until Melanie’s arrival.
    “I really hope so, pal.” Dmitri channeled his jitters into preening the curly edges of his sideburns. “She’s cast her spell upon me, for sure.”
    “I haven’t seen you so smitten since the Swedish particle physicist two years ago in Vienna.”
    “I’m definitely attracted to brainy women, and I guess I’m more receptive to romantic interludes on foreign shores.”
    “Maybe the risk of rejection is less brutal when it’s just a vacation fling.”
    Dmitri frowned. “It’s not that.”
    “Well anyway, it doesn’t hurt that Melanie’s a knockout babe. By the way, I’m assuming you aren’t serious about analyzing whale songs. It’s just your clever way to connect with her. After your fling, you can forget all about the whales.”
    Dmitri wasn’t in the mood to start another argument with his friend, especially since Melanie could appear at any moment.
    “Dude, what’ll it be?” asked the brawny bartender, sizing Dmitri up as an outlier. “You look like you could use the house special.”
    “Which is?”
    “A tribute to