New Year Island (21 page)

Jacob sounded agitated. “Think of the damage those Discovery assholes will do, running around out there unsupervised.”

“I never said it was Discovery Channel. In fact, I can’t tell you too much more right now.”

“I don’t get it.” Heather stared at her. “Why the secrecy? That’s
weird
, Karen—really weird.”

“No, it’s bullshit.” Jacob tossed his half-eaten burger onto the plate. “I don’t accept that. You
have
to tell us who’s out there.”

The purple-haired waitress was back. She dropped off the check, then slipped Dmitry a folded piece of paper with her turquoise-nailed fingers. He grinned at her, tucking it into his shirt pocket, and she walked off with an exaggerated wiggle.

“Nice,” Heather said to him. “Can we focus here?”

“I don’t need pressure from you, too,” Karen said. “I get enough of that from the board. And the grants committee is just…” She put her empty glass down with a thump and pulled her wallet out of her purse. “Trust me, I’m taking good care of us here.”

Dmitry leaned back in his chair, not smiling now. His eyes were on Karen. “Who is going to island, Karen? They are already there? You should tell us.”

“That’s not the point,” Karen said. She put three twenties on top of the bill, looked at her watch, and got up. “Guys, it’s the holiday season, and my plane leaves soon. It’ll be Christmas in a couple of days. Wrap up the surveys, turn ‘em in, and then take a couple weeks.
Enjoy
yourselves. Visit family; have some eggnog; sing some carols; get drunk. That’s what I’m going to do. I’ll see you back at the Institute in January.” She walked away fast, heels clicking against the boards.

Heather looked down at her plate, stunned. Then her attention was drawn back to scrabbling motion near her feet. A big gray-and-white herring gull darted at the pigeon, which fled, bumping into a chair leg before flapping away across the beach.

The seagull picked up the french fry in its cruel beak and turned its yellow gaze on Heather for a moment. Then it hopped up on top of a nearby piling, flipped the fry around lengthwise in its beak, and gulped it down.

Scavengers and predators, she thought. Nature’s hierarchy in action—even here, with the soft murmur of children’s laughter in the background. The sun went behind a cloud, and a gust of wind blew across the patio, chilling her. Not hungry anymore, she looked at Dmitry and Jacob.

“Karen’s family’s local,” she said. “They live in Berkeley. So why exactly is she headed to the airport?”

J
ordan lifted the jug two-handed and drank, the cords in her slim, elegant neck standing out as she swallowed. She lowered the jug and looked down the beach.

Camilla took another bite of Snickers bar and followed her gaze. A few hundred feet away, the beach widened to a blunt tip pointed toward the mainland. Huge gray shapes moved restlessly in the early-afternoon haze, galumphing across the sand at the heart of the elephant seal rookery. Alpha males patrolling their harems roamed the waterline, chasing off interlopers. Challenges rolled across the beach and echoed off the bluffs behind them—deep bass rumbles that she could feel as well as hear.

Everything at this end of the beach was on a giant scale. Even the newborn pups lying next to their mothers were the size of German shepherds. The older juveniles were larger than Camilla herself.

“I couldn’t get close,” Jordan said. “It was a big crate with one of those ‘perishable’ stickers on it, buried partway in the sand.” She pointed. “Right there.”

Camilla looked, and her legs suddenly felt weak. “Oh god.”

From behind her, where the other eight contestants stood in a semicircle, she heard groans of dismay. She turned to stare at them, eyes wide. What was Julian
thinking
? He couldn’t possibly intend…

Lauren collapsed to a sitting position on the sand and hugged her knees. “No way,” she said, shaking her head vigorously. “They can’t make us do this. Fuck that shit—it’s flat-out suicide.”

Camilla turned back to where Jordan was pointing. The crate sat right in the center of the island’s biggest harem of elephant seals, its upper half just visible behind the bulk of a basking female. A monster alpha bull shuffled back and forth, guarding his turf, a massive flipper brushing against the crate with every pass.

Jordan turned to face them all, looking frantic. “Guys, we’ve just got to. There’s no other choice.” Her bare feet stamped the sand, like a toddler throwing a tantrum. “We
need
that food.” She sucked in a breath and smoothed her hands against her stomach, looking at the crate.

“Jordan…” Veronica took her by the arm, her voice filled with concern. “Have you eaten anything
at all
?”

Tears suddenly spilled over Jordan’s eyelids, and her mouth turned down at the corners. She shook her head and looked down at her feet.

Camilla looked at the empty Tupperware container by their feet, at the residue of trail mix in the crumpled bag, the Snickers bars in the other contestant’s hands. Hadn’t Jordan already taken her share?

“But why not, dear?” Veronica asked.

Jordan was crying hard now. She looked from person to person, her face desperate.

“I’m severely allergic to peanuts,” she sobbed. “I could die.”

• • •

“Well, your plan has the virtue of simplicity, at least,” Mason said.

“Shut up, Mason.” Camilla looked at Jordan, a dozen yards away. The tears were gone now, and Jordan’s jaw was set. Okay, then. They would do this, for Jordan and for themselves. The candy bars Camilla had eaten had restored her strength. Still, what they were about to do was far more dangerous than anything she had ever seen on a reality show. They were all being incredibly stupid here. Including Julian.

But Jordan had shared the Snickers bars and trail mix she found with everyone. She hadn’t asked for anything in return. Even Juan had taken a couple of Snickers bars, although he hadn’t thanked her—hadn’t even acknowledged her. Camilla was starting to have her doubts about Juan. After all, she hadn’t actually
seen
the rider’s face when he rescued the child.

Glancing at Juan briefly, she squatted next to where he, Mason, JT, and Lauren were huddled.

“Here’s how we do this,” she said. “Grab
that
thing…” She pointed at the ten-foot metal spar she had asked them to retrieve from the tower wreckage. Then she handed Mason a large metal carabiner from her backpack. “Duct-tape this onto the end, and run the rope through it.”

“We’ll be like the mice trying to hang a bell on the cat,” he said, fingering the carabiner’s one-way spring-loaded gate.

“No, you won’t, because the rest of us will lure that monster away from you four,” she said. “Once you get close enough to the crate, JT uses the pole to clip through the handle. Then everyone retreats, and we haul the crate back to us with the rope. Easy.”

“Easy, huh?” Mason laughed and held up the canister of bear spray. “Safety precaution, in case the rest of you can’t keep that beast away from us.”

Hefting the spar one-handed, like a javelin, JT stood and pointed to his left side. “Lauren, you there. Mason on my right. Juan, you behind me, steadying the pole.”

Camilla stood and walked toward the others, who were spreading out in a wide semicircle around the crate. Jordan, studying the bull elephant seal and the crate beside it, didn’t look up.

“Everyone, move in slow,” Camilla called. “Be careful—we don’t want anybody hurt.”

They converged on the crate cautiously, from all sides. The crate’s guardian reared up and tossed its head, lurching from side to side, trying to keep them all in view. Camilla watched the seal grow more and more agitated. She braced her feet, ready to bolt, but it wasn’t moving away from the crate. She started circling sideways, getting closer.

A roar came from behind her, and she whirled about, heart racing, to look over her shoulder. She had accidentally edged too close to another male’s territory. Weaving between the female seals and juveniles at her feet, she quickly scrambled away, breathing a sigh of relief when the second seal didn’t pursue her. This was going to be tricky.

“Travis,” JT called. “Buddy, now’s your time to shine.”

Travis didn’t make any move. Camilla wasn’t really surprised. She would have to do something to break all their paralysis. She looked at Brent. He scratched the side of his head, watching the seal, then met her eyes and shook his head. She knew what he was telling her:
too dangerous.
But Jordan needed food, and soon enough, the rest of them would, too.

She wove between the pups and smaller female elephant seals.
Smaller?
They were still ten or twelve feet long. But they weren’t giants, like the old bull stationed in front of the crate. Camilla eyed it carefully as she got close. It had to be over sixteen feet long. Holding its head eight feet above the beach, it watched her. Looking at it made her legs feel weak and shaky again.

“Camilla,” Brent called from behind her, “Stop. There’s a difference between brave and stupid.”

She raised a hand in acknowledgment, not taking her eyes off the bull… and crept forward. She hoped Brent understood; she couldn’t let fear control her actions. Not once. Not ever. She had decided that a long time ago.

When she was fifty feet away, the bull suddenly lurched forward, bellowing as it charged. Camilla pivoted and ran, her feet kicking up the sand. But her spin was clumsy, and she stumbled. The beach shook under her knees, and she bounced to her feet, knowing the monster seal was close behind her. The chocolate bars were back in her throat, threatening to come up—oh god, she was dead now. Camilla ran.

“Hey, hey! Over here!” Brent shouted.

Out of the corner of her eye, Camilla saw Brent running forward, waving his arms above his head. The elephant seal turned to chase the bigger target, and Brent shambled away.

To Camilla’s horror, she realized that Brent wasn’t very fast. She yelled wordlessly and ran back toward the seal.

It turned toward her again, then spun and humped back toward JT’s group, who had gotten within twenty feet of the crate. Lauren ran, and the rest scattered, too. The bull took up its post in front of the crate again, bobbing its head and roaring at them all.

“Lauren!” JT shouted. “You’re supposed to have my back.”

“Like you had
my
back the other night on the dock, first time we saw one of these babies?” Lauren shook her hands loosely, limbering up her fingers. “I seem to recall you running past me like I wasn’t there, JT.”

Mason laughed.

“He’s right, Lauren.” Juan raised his voice, addressing them all. “We need to work together. If we don’t, somebody’ll get killed.”

Camilla racked her brain, trying to think of a solution. If only they had something to drive the seal off without hurting it… Fire! That was the answer. Grinning, she turned to Jordan to share her idea.

The expression on Jordan’s face stopped her cold.

It was a look Camilla had seen before, but never in person. She had seen it on TV, on world-class runners waiting for the starter’s gun. On champion figure skaters about to enter the arena. On professional boxers eyeing an opponent. The laser-focused concentration of someone for whom winning was everything—the
only
thing in the world that mattered. It transformed Jordan’s beautiful features into a mask of fierce determination, her eyes into green ice. Jordan’s nostrils flared. She bounced in place once, setting her feet, and then sprinted directly at the crate and its terrifying guardian.

“No!” Camilla shouted. “Wait.” She started after her, but it was futile. Jordan ran with the light-footed grace and speed of a trained athlete; she couldn’t keep up. The distance between them grew.

The alpha seal swung its head in Jordan’s direction and exploded into motion. It came on like a bulldozer, with shocking speed. Sand flew. Jordan didn’t even slow down.

Skidding to a halt, Camilla clapped a hand over her mouth. Her team captain had gone absolutely crazy.

Jordan ran straight into the oncoming seal’s charge. The slim young woman and the five-thousand-pound behemoth came together like a bicycle running head-on into a bus. Camilla screamed.

The massive alpha bull slammed its chest forward, toppling onto Jordan, and she pivoted away to the side. A slender white hand snaked up to deliver a vicious slap across the elephant seal’s eye.

Camilla’s scream cut off in mid breath. Who was this woman?

And then Jordan was sprinting along the waterline with the angry elephant seal in pursuit, hurdling over smaller seals in her way as she led the giant bull away from the crate.

Several of the smaller juveniles failed to get out of the bull’s path in time. They disappeared under its bulk to lie injured or dying in its wake, crushed into a bed of crimson-stained sand.

Camilla looked away, closing her eyes. Then she opened them again. On the open sand, the monster was faster than Jordan.

“Jordan!” she screamed. “Back this way!”

Jordan didn’t turn back. The alpha bull was closing the gap, only a few yards behind. Camilla had a horrifying premonition of seeing Jordan’s body crushed and bloody in the sand.

Jordan looked over her shoulder at her pursuer, her face a mask of angry resolve. Then she dived to her hands and knees, rolling over and over sideways as another massive shape reared up from the sand directly in front of her.

The second alpha bull roared, sending lesser seals scattering as it drove into the intruding bull. Chest to chest, the two behemoths slammed together and tore into each other. Forgotten by her pursuer, but still in danger, Jordan dug her heels in and scrambled backward. Gouts of blood spattered the sand around her as the two monsters towering above her sank their teeth into each other’s scarred flesh. Jordan scrambled to her feet and ran back toward Camilla.

Camilla stared at her, torn by conflicting emotions. Jordan had somehow managed to avoid getting killed or injured. But she had hurt the elephant seal’s eye and led it into a bloody fight with a rival
on purpose
.