sounded, and doors in the ceiling slid slowly apart. Next, the floor started to move upward, and moments later, they and the helicopter were lifted up to the deck, where crewmen, alerted by the call, hurried in to prepare the SeaCobra for action.
32
THE VESSEL THAT Dr. Throckmorton had commandeered for his survey was a stubby converted stern-trawler used by the Canadian Fisheries Service. The one-hundred-foot-long Cormorant was docked near where Mike Neal's boat had been tied up on the Trouts' first visit to the harbor.
'To quote the great Yogi Berra, This is like deja vu, all over again,' ' Trout said, as he and Gamay walked up the gangplank onto the deck of the survey vessel.
She gazed out at the sleepy harbor. 'Strange being back here. This place is so peaceful.'
'So is a graveyard,' Paul said.
Throckmorton bustled over and greeted them with his usual ef- fusiveness. 'The Doctors Trout! What a pleasure it is to have you aboard. I'm so glad you called. I had no idea after our discussion in Montreal that we'd be seeing each other so soon.'
'Neither did we,' Gamay said. 'Your findings created quite a stir with the people at NUMA. Thanks for having us aboard on such short notice.'
'Not at all, not at all.' He lowered his voice. 'I recruited a couple of my students to help out. A young man and woman. Brilliant kids. But I'm pleased to have adult scientific colleagues aboard, if you
know what I mean. I see you're still wearing your cast. How's the arm.
'It's fine,' Paul said. He glanced around. 'I don't see Dr. Barker on board.'
'He couldn't make it,' Throckmorton said. 'Personal commit- ment of some sort. He may try to join us later. I hope he shows up. I could use his genetic expertise.'
'Then the research hasn't been going well?' Gamay said.
'On the contrary, it's been going fine, but I'm more of a mechanic in this field, if I may use an analogy. I can bolt the frame and chassis together, but it's Frederick who designs the sports car.'
'Even the most expensive sports car wouldn't run forever without the mechanic to make the engine go,' Gamay said with a smile.
'You're very kind. But this is a complex matter, and I've run into a few aspects that have me puzzled.' He frowned. 'I've always found fishermen to be superb observers of what's going on at sea. The local fishing fleet has moved on to more productive grounds, as you know. But I talked to a few old-timers, shore captains who watched the fish stocks vanish and be replaced by these so-called devilfish. Now the devilfish have dribbled down to nothing. They're dying, and I don't know why.'
'Too bad you haven't been able to catch any.'
'Oh, I never said that. Come, I'll show you.'
Throckmorton led the way through the 'dry lab,' where the com- puters and other electrical equipment were kept high and dry, and into the 'wet lab,' basically a small space with sinks, running water, tanks and table space used for the damp pursuits such as carving up speci- rnens for investigation. He donned a pair of gloves and reached into an oversized cooler. With a hand from the Trouts, he pulled out the frozen carcass of a salmon about four feet long and placed it on a table. 'That's similar to the fish we caught,' Paul said, bending low to inspect the pale-white scales.
'We would have liked to keep this specimen alive, but it was im- possible. He tore the net apart and would have devoured the rest of the ship if he lived long enough.'
'Now that you've seen one of these things up close, what are your conclusions?' Gamay said.
Throckmorton took a deep breath and puffed out his plump cheeks. 'It's as I feared. Judging from his unusual physical size, I'd say he's definitely a genetically modified salmon. A lab-produced mutant, in other words. It's the same species as the one I showed you in my lab.'
'But your fish was smaller and more normal-looking.'
Throckmorton nodded. 'They were both programmed with growth genes, I'd venture, but where my experiment was kept under control, there seems to have been no effort to restrain size with this fellow. It's almost as if someone wanted to see what would happen. But size and ferociousness led to its downfall. Once these creatures destroyed and replaced the natural stocks, they turned on each other.' 'They were too hungry to breed, in other words?'
'That's possible. Or this design may simply have had a problem adapting to the wild, in the same way a big tree would be uprooted in a storm while a straggly little scrub pine survives. Nature tends to cull out mutants that don't fit into the scheme of things.'
'There's another possibility,' Gamay said. 'I think Dr. Barker said something about producing neutered biofish so they couldn't breed.'
'Yes, that's entirely possible, but it would involve some sophisti- cated bioengineering.'
'What's next for your survey?' Paul said.
'We'll see what we can catch over the next few days, then I'll bring this specimen and anything else I catch back to Montreal, where we can map the genes. I may be able to match it up with some of the stuff
I have in the computers. Maybe we can figure out who designed it.' 'Is that possible?'
'Oh, sure. A genetic program is almost as good as a signature. I sent Dr. Barker a message telling him what I found. Frederick is a whiz at this sort of thing.'
'You speak very highly of him,' Paul said.
'He's brilliant, as I said before. I only wish that he weren't affili- ated with a commercial venture.'
'Speaking of commercial ventures, we heard there's a fish- processing plant of some sort up the coast. Could they have had any- thing to do with this?'
'In what way?'
'I don't know. Pollution, maybe. Like those two-headed frogs they sometimes find in contaminated waters.'
'Interesting premise, but unlikely. You might see some deformed fish or fish kills, but this monster is no accident. And we would have seen deformities in other species, which doesn't seem to have been the case. Tell you what, though. We'll motor out and anchor for the night near the fish plant and make a few sets with the net in the morning. How long can you stay on board?'
'As long as you can stand us,' Paul said. 'We don't want to im- pose.'
'No imposition at all.' He put the salmon back into the cooler. 'You may decide to cut your stay short after you see your cabin.'
The cabin was slightly bigger than the two up-and-down bunks it contained. After Throckmorton left them to get settled, Paul tried to ease his six-foot-eight length into the lower bunk, but his legs hung over the side.
'I've been thinking about what Dr. Throckmorton told us,' Gamay said, trying the mattress on top. 'Suppose you were Dr. Barker and you were working for Oceanus on this biofish thing. Would you want anyone testing genetic material that could be traced to your doorstep?'
'Nope. Judging from our own experience, Oceanus is ruthless when it comes to snoops.'
'Any suggestions?'
'Sure. We could suggest that Throckmorton find another location to anchor for the night. Fake a toothache, or make some other ex- cuse.
'You don't really want to do that, do you?'
'As you recall, I whined the whole trip up here because I couldn't go play with Kurt and Joe.'
'You don't have to remind me. You sounded as if you hadn't been picked for the Little League team.'
'Dr. Throckmorton is a fine fellow, but I wasn't prepared to baby- sit him away from the action.'
'And now you think the action may have moved to our doorstep.'
Paul nodded and said, 'Got a Loony?' Gamay dug out a Cana- dian dollar coin with the picture of a loon on one side.
Paul tossed it in the air and caught it on the back of his cast. Heads. I lose. You get to choose which watch you
