Free Ocean: The Sea Warriors by Brian Herbert, Jan Herbert Page A

wondered what the new recruits might be able to do, beyond their pre-Sea Warrior professions and activities. They were oceanographers, professors, environmental activists, migration experts, fishermen, divers, and more. Among the people onboard that she liked the most personally, she had spoken briefly with two men—a dolphin trainer from San Diego and a Chilean author of a high-school textbook on ocean ecosystems who lived on Juan Fernandez island off the western coast of South America. She also liked the tall, blonde actress, Monique Gatsby. In recent years, the former model had generated worthwhile publicity about a number of ocean causes, using her star power to protest against overfishing and the dumping of toxins, plastics, and nuclear wastes into the ocean. She had a captivating smile and pleasant demeanor, and Alicia thought they might become friends.
    Another volunteer was a Canary Islands artist who specialized in making illustrations of colorful fish for various publications, and knew a great deal about Mediterranean species. They had also plucked a scientist from a National Oceanographic ship at sea, and a Japanese environmentalist from an old, unseaworthy vessel operated by anti-whaling activists. Kimo and Alicia had even been to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the coastal bases of Antarctica, where a number of scientists worked.
    One of the new recruits was an irritating, egotistical man named Vinson Chi’ang, in his mid to late thirties. An outspoken author and oceanographer who appeared regularly on cable news programs to encourage ocean-related ecological programs, Chi’ang wrote the “Think Blue” series of non-fiction books, popular with schoolchildren. When Alicia left the jetfish transporter moments ago, the mustachioed Chinese-American man had been speaking in a loud, authoritarian voice in the passenger compartment, saying how important it was for the public to “think blue” in addition to thinking green, that blue was even more important to the world from an ecological standpoint than green. A handful of the volunteers hung on his every word, while others made disdainful expressions in his direction, obviously finding him annoying.
    A young woman seemed to worship him, an attractive French oceanography student named Pauline Deveaux. She had joined the voyage at the port of Cherbourg, when Chi’ang was already aboard. It wasn’t long before she was sitting next to him on the jetfish transporter as he spoke about the plight of the ocean, expressing his opinions about actions that needed to be taken. Napoli Mora, a well-known environmental activist from Italy, kept interrupting Chi’ang, trying to override whatever he said with something that Mora considered more significant. At times, Mora, a small olive-skinned man in his sixties, looked ready to throw punches at Chi’ang, so Alicia hoped they would find a way to get along—instead of trying to talk over each other.
    A number of the volunteers said they had been strongly attracted to the sea from an early age, and felt a deep, calming sensation whenever they immersed themselves in saltwater. Some had been going out on boats in recent weeks without knowing why, or camping on beaches for the first time, or hiking for miles along the seashore—all before learning about the Sea Warriors and their own personal connections with the fledgling organization.
    To Alicia, it all seemed predestined.

    For days, since Beavan told her about the food delivery man leaving a door unsecured every morning, Gwyneth had been watching, and found it to be a potential escape route. Day after day the man followed the same, predictable routine, leaving the delivery door blocked open for a few minutes so that he could get in and out easier with his boxes.
    That morning she went out into the exercise yard at her customary time, where she saw Beavan striding around the perimeter at a brisk pace. Two medical attendants in gray smocks were in the yard watching