She looked up at him and said, “Hi, Marty. This is a great book so far. You remind me of the guy.”

He was flattered. “Dirk Pitt?”

“Of course not. He’s a tall, dark, and handsome adventurer with opaline green eyes. I mean this guy.” She showed him the back of the dust jacket, which was plastered with a photograph of the gray-haired author.

“Thanks, Rad.”

“It’s a compliment.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t tell me you’re grumpy already? It’s not even noon.”

“I’m not grumpy at all. In fact, I’m in a fantastic mood.” Which was true. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so buoyed and alive and optimistic about the future. “How are you feeling?”

“Me? Why do you ask?”

“You had a lot of champagne last night.”

“You know me better than that. I can handle anything you pour down my throat…what?”

She’d caught him looking at her throat. She wasn’t wearing a scarf today, likely because the bruises were no longer visible.

She said, “I feel like a zoo animal when you look at me like that, Marty.”

“I’m not looking at you like anything. I just noticed you weren’t wearing a scarf today.”

“You’re never going to be comfortable choking me, are you?”

Alarmed by her candor, he shot Jacky a look. She appeared oblivious to the conversation.

He said, “We’re not talking about this right now.”

“No, we never talk about it, do we? Can you take a couple of steps that way?” She waved her hand to the right.

“Am I in your sun?” he asked, moving.

“Thanks.” She flipped onto her stomach, reached behind her back, and unclipped her bikini top. “Would you be a doll and rub some sunscreen on my back?”

He retrieved a bottle of Coppertone from the deck, sat on the edge of the reclined chair, and squeezed some lotion onto his hands. He rubbed them together and began massaging the lotion on Rad’s back.

“Mmmmm…” she said. “How much longer until we get to this island?”

“Shouldn’t be too long now.”

“The plan?” she murmured into the cushion beneath her face.

“Pip and I will map the ocean floor around the island so we know where best to deploy the hydrophones.”

“What are hydrophones? Underwater microphones?”

“Essentially, yes. Light doesn’t travel very far underwater, which makes cameras rather useless. Sound is a much more efficient form of underwater information transfer. The hydrophones we deploy will convert whatever they detect into audio signals that get transferred back to the ship. Special software will display them as graphs and other images that Pip and I can study in detail.”

“So you’re…listening for merfolk?”

“That’s right.”

“Ah, there! Can you feel it?”

Marty worked on a knot in her shoulder.

She sighed, and they were quiet for a little bit. Then she said, “How do you know what to listen for if you’ve never heard a merfolk before?”

“The acoustic characteristics of marine mammals differ considerably between species. Short-pulsed echolocation clicks of dolphins are distinct from those of porpoises, and they’re nothing like the long-frequency modulated songs of whales. Not to mention the vocalizations of seals, sea lions, manatees, and other large aquatic creatures. Merfolk vocalizations, it stands to reason, would be equally unique.”