EXTREME PREJUDICE
The difference between a shark and an assassin is a matter of motivation.

by JERRY POURNELLE

==========

There were only nine people on the airplane, but the stewardess forgot to serve me coffee. I should have been nattered. In my job, being inconspicuous is an important talent; but I hadnt been trying to be invisible, and it infuriated me. By the time we were six hundred miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Id made a scene and the girl wouldnt forget me, ever.

I was ashamed of myself long before it was over. The whole point to my job is to make the United Spates a better place to live. Weve no business spreading unhappiness for our own gratification. We do enough of that as official duties.

Dansworth station sits seven hundred miles southwest of Baja, and wed been flying over blue water for hours. I remembered the old days of fast jets and squirmed around lit a match to all that oil. There wasnt anything to look at below, no islands, and from our cruising altitude I couldnt see waves or whitecaps. There was just that deep blue and the steady rumbling whine of the engines to lull me toward sleepiness but keep me from sleeping. Then the water changed color.

It was many shades of blue, and green, and red, and yellow, all boiling up blue-white in the center of each patch and then the colors spreading outward in great streaks. Most of Dansworth is under water, so those, enormous color patches were all I could see.

The plane circled lower as the stewardess, still not looking at me, gave her little spiel about seatbelts and having a pleasant trip. There was an airstrip floating in the water. It wasnt very wide, but over three thousand feet long, and there were buildings along its sides at the lee end. A dirigible mooring mast floated on its own platform not far away. The plane rolled to a stop at that end of the runway.

A regular grid of concrete domes dotted, the sea around the airstrip, and farther away were big floating docks. A couple of newly painted- oceangoing ships were alongside. The whole place was clean and bright, different from any city Id been in recently. Somehow the new planned cities, the arcologies, never seem to look this bright and new; but were getting there. We have to.

Dark kelp patches grew between the isolated domes, and the water was so clear that I could see platforms about fifty feet below the surface. Silvery torpedo-shapes flashed through the kelp, and sail-boats cruised amoung the domes, their bows throwing up white spumes as they raced with the wind. They didnt have the look of yachts. Just a means of transportation.

Dr. Peterson himself was there to meet me. I strutted a bit for the benefit of the other passengers, and the stewardess looked worried, as she should have. Ignoring passengers Who rate a planeside meeting from the civilian director could get her into a lot of trouble, and jobs are pretty scarce. She wasnt wearing any rings, so she was reasonably safe from the new One Job Per Family program, but I understand the Federal Employment Commission is looking into that, too. Married women voters dont appreciate single girls who have jobs when there are still many families with no job at all

Peterson wasnt wearing anything but a pair of shorts and a wide-brimmed hat, and he looked at my lightweight drip-dry suit with sym- pathy. Ive worn it on so many assignments that it seems like an old friend, and even in hot weather Im Comfortable in it. I thought Id lost it once when Hertzogs blood spurted all over me, but it washed out all right. Ive never got any of my own on it, maybe thats why I like it. A good luck charm.

I was surprised at how cool it seemed there- in the tropic mid-afternoon. The sun was high and bright overhead, the sky impossibly blue with only tiny white fleecy clouds scudding across. I havent seen a sky like that since I last went hiking in the Sierras. Yet, despite the hot sun, the west wind was cool.

Peeson had a tan like old  leather. So did everyone else moving around the floating airstrip. It made me feel that I must look like something that had crawled out from under a rock. A part of me said that might not be too bad a description, and I thrust it away. Its bad enough getting doubts in the middle of the night; I cant .afford them in bright daylight. I wondered if that was what happened to the man Id come to see.

Dr. Peterson had a funny habit of brushing his beard with the tips of his fingers, the way a man might test a wall to see if it had fresh paint. He had no mustache, and I found out later that few people at Dansworth do, although beards are common. Mustaches get in the way of your diving mask. They cause leaks.

I shook hands with Peterson and walked over to the edge of the airstrip to look down into the kelp. I hadnt expected anything like that in the middle of the Pacific, and I said so. It only grows in cold, shallow water, doesnt it? I asked.

Right. Peterson seemed pleased that I knew that much. That is cold, shallow water, Mr. Starr. The kelps anchored to platforms below the surface, and the waters pumped up from the deep bottom. The kelp is brought in from all over the world so we can experiment with different varietiesthe stuff right here comes from the Los Angeles area.

I couldnt look away. The water was clear, and millions of fish swam in the thick kelp beds. There were long, thin, torpedo-shaped fish with bright blue -stripes down their sides, moving dartingly in schools, every fish turning at precisely the same instant. Each thick clump of kelp held a brilliant orange dam-selfish warily guarding its .territory. There were a few sea urchins among the kelp, and as I watched, a swiftly moving shape darted past to snatch onean otter, I thought.

A school of dolphins played among the fish. Two detached themselves from the rest and came over to -examine me. One rose high on his tail, lifting himself out of the water to stand there churning while he splashed water on me. I ducked back in alarm, but it was too late. I was dripping wet,

Peterson clucked and whistled, then shouted, Jolly! Thats not nice.

The dolphin whistled something, and then, garbled but clear enough so I could understand it, it said, Sorry, boss. And laughed.

==========

Peterson was still trying to explain when we got to Admiral Kingsleys office.

Theyve always been able to imitate speech, Peterson said. The stories about dolphins talking and singing go back to classical Greek times. But nobody ever took the trouble to systematically teach them before.

Yeah, well, look, I protested, we get stories about intelligent fish all the time. Used to take em pretty seriously, and I know how useful the dolphins are. But does that thing understand what hes saying?

They arent fish, Peterson said. OK. Cetaceans. Toothed seagoing mammals. They breathe through lungs, and theyve never been known to attack a man, and the Navy and fishermen have been systematically using them, as messengers- and herders since the Fifties anyway. Ive had the standard briefing, Dr. Peterson. But nobody told me the damned things could talk!

Not many can, Peterson said. At least not so that an untrained, man can understand them. Tell me, Mr. Starr, do you speak any foreign language?

Yeah. It was safe to admit that. I wasnt about to tell him just how many I could get along in. He wouldnt have believed me anyway. And was it difficult to learn? Sure.

Well, to a dolphin, any human language is much more difficult. Youd find it easier to learn Urdu or Yakut than Jolly did to learn English. Dolphin grammar isnt like any language we speak. Couple that with the fact that he has to suppress over half the frequencies and sounds he normally makes to communicate, and maybe youll appreciate why so few dolphins ever manage to be understood.

Wed reached the admirals office ten fathoms below the surface, and the conversation trailed off. There was a watertight door to the office, and a Navy yeoman as receptionist. Admiral Kingsley didnt have a beard, and his tan looked pasty, as if hed been out of the sun for a while after a long stint outdoors. 1 was told hed just come up from a seven-week tour of duty with the deep mining operation below Dansworth.

The pallor bothered me. Id had one like that myself after the worst assignment I ever drew. The FBI caught an economic saboteur and put him away at Lewisburg. Our director decided he knew too much and would probably be exchanged, so they sent me in after him. I tagged him in two weeks, but it took another six to spring me, and by the time I came out I looked like a slug. I felt like one, too. Ever since then, Ive been sure prisons dont rehabilitate anyone. Problem is, what does?

This is Gideon Starr, Peterson said. Admiral Kingsley.

We exchanged pleasantries and Kingsley offered drinks. I took mine and sat in a big government-issue easy-chair, the kind they have in the Pentagon, or at Langley. It seemed like an old friend.

Mr. Starr, said Kingsley, youve got real pull. Weve never had a visitor here with an endorsement like yours, from the Secretary.

And if youre lucky you wont again, I thought, but I said, Well, its getting close to budget review time. A few enthusiastic articles wouldnt hurt your research appropriation.

He smiled at that, and Peterson practically beamed. Thats a fact, Peterson muttered. Actually, if theyd just let us keep some of the profits wed be all right. How many research efforts actually make money?

I shrugged. Ill do my best, anyway.

Kingsley beamed this time. Well. Were to show you around and then let you direct yourself, he said. Orientationll take a while, though. Theres a lot here, Mr. Starr. And a lot of ways for a man who doesnt know what hes doing to get killed.

Yeah. There were a lot of ways for a man who did know what he was doing to get killed, too. Most of em had been tried on me at one time or another. Ive got a divers, card, and some underwater experience, I said. I think I know what to look out for.

Its a start, Kingsley agreed. Well, you may as well begin sightseeing. He reached out to his desk console Sad pushed a button,. Curtains opened on the wall behind him.

There were artificial lights, as well as the sunlight filtering down to this depth. Big fronds waved in slow motion, an underwater forest just outside his office. I could barely see the grid that held the kelp below us. There were shelves sticking out of every structure and shaft, and lots of shafts. Coral in , bright reds and blues grew from the shelves, and barnacles, and shellfishthere and on long lines that dangled down from the surface. Fish darted through the kelp fronds. It was a dynamic color picture thatd never come through on a TV. screen. I couldnt wait to get out there in it, and I told them so.

They exchanged grins. I expect every tourist says the same thing. If anybody could visit that place and not want to get outside, he was dead or might as well be.

Yes. Well, perhaps first an orientation tour? Peterson said. I really dont know how familiar you are with what were doing here at Dansworth.

Not at all, I told him. Im primarily an aerospace writer. Ive done some diving, but not much serious study of seapower stations. Youd better assume I dont know anything at all.

The nice part about it was I was telling the truth. Not all of it, but no lies.

The admiral hit another button and more curtains opened. There was a 3-D map behind them, a holograph tank, and by manipulating his desk console he could show things at different levels. He started with the bare floor of the Pacific. It was crosshatched with very regular lines, a checkerboard of racks in the bottom, and about sixteen thousand feet deep. Dansworth Seamount rose steeply from the -floor to within seven hundred feet of the surface. It stood there all by itself, with nothing around, at least not on that map.

Dansworth, Peterson said. The deep gash next to it is Shatterton Fissure. The geologists are having a field day here.

Um. I wasnt really interested in the geology. The theories change every year, so whats the point in studying up on them? I like technology, though, and Im a pretty good writer. I think I could make a living at it even if Langley didnt use influence to get my stuff placed in important magazines. Ill never find out, of course. You dont quit in my job. I didnt want to, anyway.

Kingsley did something to the console and the scale changed to show only Dansworth Seamount and a little area around it. A grid appeared, a 3-D chessboard, with part of the grid below the top of the mountain, and the rest above that going on to the surface. Dansworth Station, Kingsley said. Our city in the sea.

Impressive I meant it Whats the grid?

Corridors, mostly. Concrete cylinders strung together. Labs, quarters, processing plants.

The place was big, and they had color codes on the different structures in the map. It would take a long time to learn everything, but I wouldnt have to. Wed found the traitor after five years, and I wouldnt be here long at all. It seemed, a pity, because Dansworth was a very interesting place. I wondered what it would be .like to live here.

Now for your guide, Dr. Peterson said. I understand you asked for Hank Shields. Any reason why?

I shrugged. A couple of sailors in San Diego told the editor he was a good man who knew a lot about Dansworth. Anybody else would do, if its inconvenient.

No, nothing like that, Peterson said. Just that Hank doesnt want any publicity. Something about his wife. Hell be glad to show you around if you wont put him in the story.

Suits me. I needed to think  that one over, and cursed the damn fools whod asked for Shields in the first place. I like to plan my own operations, and I dont need help from the goddamn deskmen. Ill take their orders, but I dont need them trying to run my life. When do I meet him?

Hank Shields was about five-eleven, a good three inches shorter than me, but he weighed nearly as much, one hundred and ninety pounds. He matched the description perfectly: blond, blue eyes, thick matted beard like most people have at Dansworth. Except for the beard he hadnt made any attempt to change his face. The pictures at Langley might have been taken last week, once the artists had airbrushed the beard.

He looked me over carefully, then we shook hands and stood there sizing each other up. I looked to see anything in his eyesrecognition of my face, or my name, but if hed ever heard of me he was pretty good at hiding it. That didnt mean anything, of course. So was I. He had a powerful grip, as good as mine, and that figured too. Hed had my job once. Finally we let go and Peterson waved us out of the admirals office.

What would you like to see first? Shields asked.

I shrugged. Better let you decide, Mr. Shields.

Hank, he said automatically. Fine. Im Gideon. Where we going? I cant wait to get outside.

Well spend today on the inside tour and go out tomorrow. OK?

Sure. As we talked he was leading me through a maze of corridors. There were watertight doors at intervals, some open, some closed, and weld have to stop and open them, step through and seal up behind. The corridors were about ten feet high rounded on top, and rough inside. He pointed out various laboratories as we passed.

How long does it take to learn your way around here? I asked.

Years. And they keep adding to it. Well, they used to keep adding to it, he caught himself. Budgets been rotten the last couple of years.

He had a hearty voice, and was eager to explain things to me. Hank Shields would be an easy man to like. I decided he didnt know anything about me or why I was here, and I could relax.

==========

We reached an elevator shaft and went down. Im taking you to the number-one power plant, Hank said. Its the only one at sea-level pressure. The rest are just like it, only theyre pressurized to ambient. Saves construction costs.

We went through another water-tight door and out onto a catwalk. There were turbines below, big Westinghouse jobs, and it was noisy as hell, but otherwise it didnt look a lot different from the generator house at a dam. I said so.

He motioned me back into the elevator shaft and closed the door so it was quiet. It isnt any different, really, he told me. Surface water, twenty-five degrees Centigrade. -Seventy-seven if you like it in Fahrenheit. Down at the bottom the waters five degrees Centigrade.

We take the warm water down to heat exchangers and boil propane with it. Propane steam goes through the turbines. On the other side weve got condensers. They get cooled by another set of heat exchangers with water pumped up from the bottom. Turbines spin, and out comes electricity. Works like a charm, and no fuel costs. Sounds like perpetual motion. It is. Theres a power source, of course. The sun. It heats water pretty good in the Tropics. What it amounts to, Gideon, is that we have a temperature difference with the same power potential as a ninety-foot water drop. Lots of dams with a smaller pressure head than that. And weve got all the hot water we could ever want.

Yeah, OK. We started up in the elevator. It sounded impressive as hell but there hadnt been anything to see. Just a minute. The water by the airstrip was cold.

Right. Thats used cooling water. We dump it high because its full of nutrients. Artificial up-welling. You know, like Peru? Over half the fish caught anywhere in the world are at natural upwellings. Weve made our own. Lot of profit in fish, fish meal, frozen fish, game-fish, you name it.

I could appreciate that. With meat prices where they were in the US, were getting to be a nation of fish-eaters anyway, and Dansworth supplies a lot of the fish. But where do you get the hot water, then?

Bring it in from up-current of the station, where there are black platforms below the surface to help get it hotter. No problem. It has to be pumped anyway. With dolphin-hide liners 6n the pipes, its about as easy to pump the water a long way as a short. ,

I gave him a blank look. I must be densedolphin hides? You kill them for that?

He laughed. It was a real long laugh, hearty, and after a second I joined in because it was infectious, even if it was obviously on me. Whatre we laughing about? I asked him.

Dolphin-hides a process name, Hank wheezed. Youll see. Weve got a way to duplicate the effect that dolphins use to control water flow across their skin. They get true laminar flow, if that means anything to you.

I nodded. It did, just. Smooth water flow, no friction.

Yeah. We havent got it worked out for boats yet, but were trying. Easy to make it work with steady flows, like pipes. Youll see tomorrow.

We toured the station. Fisheries, where they used graded nets to catch fish at just the right sizes and let the others through. There were dolphins involved in that too. They chased the fish into the nets. The men in charge used little boxes with keys to play dolphin-sound tunes and direct their partners. The dolphins seemed to be having more fun than the men, but nobody was .working very hard and I could see a lot of grins.

In another place they had plant-research farms. Different kinds of kelp and other seaweeds, and different creatures living in them. Shrimp, fish, shellfish-anything that might be edible, and some that werent. Everything grew like crazy, and Hank said it was because of the nutrients in the water they brought up from the bottom. Infinite supply of that, too. All free since we need it in the power plants to begin with.

We took an elevator to the surface at the,downwind end of the airstrip, and watched the big ships loading up at the floating docks. I asked how theyd survive in storms, big structures like that exposed to the waves.

They wouldnt, Hank said. So we sink em if theres a big enough blow coming. Ships stay way the hell away unless theres good weather. We get good predictions from the satellites.

It was a whole new world. Everything was bright and clean. The shops along the airstrip had no iron bars or reinforced doors. I hadnt seen a policeman since I arrived. Hank told me the Navy Shore Patrol did all the policing they neededmostly drying out sailors whod had one too many.

Id never known people could live like that.Why cant we, back in the States? One day we will, if we can hang on long enough.

We went through hydrogen plants, where they electrolyzed water into its parts and liquefied the hydrogen and oxygen. The compression and electrolysis made heat, and they pumped that back into the system with heat exchangers. No stage of the Dansworth operation was very efficient, but overall it was fabulous. I knew the hydrogen was important to California, where they pipe it through the old natural gas pipelines and people burn it in floor furnaces and stoves.

Were starting to get salable quantities of metals out of seawater, too, Hank said. That wouldnt be economic if it was the only reason for the system, but we pump a lot of water through here. Powers free except for building the equipment to get it. He went on about Dansworth and how it was the wave of the future until he stopped suddenly and grinned.

Jm an enthusiast, he said.

Ive noticed. I grinned back. Youre making me one.

Yeah. Now lets go home and have dinner. Judys expecting you to put up with us while youre here.

Well, Ill be all right at the YOQ. Wouldnt want to put you to any trouble.

Crap. No trouble. Only problem with Dansworth is we dont get many visitors. Theres three thou sand people here and we know every one of them, or it seems like it anyway. Judyd kill me if I didnt give her a chance to hear the latest gossip from the States.

Yeah, I supposelook, youre sure its no problem? I wasnt being polite. My father had a big thing about hospitality. It was about the only thing my father taught me that I hadnt sacrificed to the job; but Hank gave me no choice, just as the job gave me no choice. No choice at all.

==========

Judy Shields was a willowy brunette, thin but with muscles. She had an aristocratic look and the same deep tan everyone seemed to have, but the effect was partly spoiled by freckles on her nose. My kid sister had freckles like that, and she hated them. I can remember her making unhappy sounds at the bathroom mirror while the rest of us waited outside for our turn. A rapist finished her on her eighteenth birthday.

Judy Shields was happy to meet someone from Outside, as they called it. I also got introduced to Albert Shields, age nine and called Hose-nose for no reason I could understand.

Mr. Starrs a science writer, Hank told the kid.

Sure! Ive seen some of your books, Mr. Starr. You going to put Dad in a book?

I lifted an eyebrow and looked at Hank. According to Dr. Peterson, your father doesnt want to be in a book.

Aw,-why not? Id sure like to be in a book. Jimmy Petersons fathers in a lot of books, and hell never let you forget it, either.

Off to your room, Hose-nose, Judy said. Out, out, out.

So you can drink, huh? The kid winked and went out.

Hes got a point, you know, I said. A little publicity never hurt anybodys career. I looked over at Hank with complete innocence. It seemed like the right thing to say. He looked back helplessly.

Its my fault, Gideon, Judy said. My family never wanted me to marry Hank. Itswell, its all very unpleasant, and Id rather they didnt know we were here, thats all. I suppose it would do Hank some good to be written up.

Not as much as that, and by damn I dont need your mother dropping in for a visit, Hank said. He poured me another drink.

Well, forget it, then. I hoisted 1 the martini. Heres to Dansworth. Its quite a place.

It was, too. Although we were a hundred feet under water, the Shields apartment wasnt small or gloomy. There was a big window looking out just like the admirals, and the same unending color swarms of fish around the coral. Inside, the walls were concrete, and theyd hung them over with woven mats, needlework tapestries, pictures, and the like. There was a shelf of books on one wall and a shelf of ship models on another. It was nothing like homes in the States where the TV dominates the room. You could tell that the people who lived here liked to talk, and read, and do things together.

We like it, Judy said. Now. Whats the latest gossip? Is Gregory Tolland going to hang on as President? Whatever happened to Aeneas MacKenzie?

I shrugged, and told her what the press people were saying. MacKenzies gone off to Baja. Probably joined up with Hansen Enterprises, I told them. And they say Tollands going to hang in there. The press supports himdont you get any news here at all?

Very little? Judy said. We like it that way. No TV, and we dont read the Stateside papers. Is it true that MacKenzie found Equity Trust people in the White House itself?

It looks that way. I didnt really want to talk about it, although I suppose half the people in the country were having the same conversation at just that moment. Usually Agency people have about as much interest in politics as they do in Donald Duck, but some of us really thought Tolland and his Peoples Alliance would put some new pride into.the United States. Hed started off well, and certainly MacKenzies investigations had cleaned up a lot of dirt accumulated in Washington for thirty years. Wed helped in that. And then MacKenzie got too close to the White House, and he was out, and Tolland sat there alone in the Oval Office. The consensus is that President Tolland was as surprised as anyone. At least the press thinks so.

Hank laughed unpleasantly. He clearly didnt believe it. Maybe he was trying to justify something, like running out.

Id rather talk about Dansworth, I told them. Hank, you never did tell me what you do here.

Im a generalist. Sea-farming methods, mostly. Some clumsy engineering. Divingacademic trainings not worth a hoot compared to just getting down there and fooling around. Weve still got a lot learn.

Do you dive too? I asked Judy.

Oh, sure. I have to. Im the schoolteacher. A lot of the classes are out on the reefs.

Isnt that dangerous for the kids?

A little. Traffic accidents are bad for children too. And we dont have gangs and muggings or smog or enriched white flour.

Yeah. Paradise. There was something else about Dansworth. Everybody was doing something he was interested in. I wondered when Id last met anybody like that. There are a lot of go-getters with the big international corporations, but theyre in Short supply back home.

And yet. Its my country. We built Dansworth. The arcology projects in the Midwest havent worked so well, but well lick that too. Were finding ourselves again.

Dinner was fish, of course. All kinds of fish. There was one thing that tasted like steak, and I asked about it. Whale?

They all shuddered. No, its beef. Dr. Peterson sent steaks over in your honor, Judy said. Her throat seemed tight. Hank didnt look too good either, and I thought the kid was going to throw up. It was very quiet in the room.

OK, whats wrong? I asked. Obviously I put my foot in it.

You wouldnt really eat a whale would you? Hose-nose asked. His eyes were as big as saucers, I mean really

I never have, as far as I know, I answered. Butd thought they were raising whales for food out here.

No. Thats over, Hank said. Gideondid you meet Jolly? Dr. Petersons talking dolphin?

Sure.

Would you eat him?-

Good Lord, no.

Whales may be at least as smart as dolphins. Killer whales certainly areof course theyre a kind of dolphin anyway. But even if the bigger whales arent as intelligent as we are, theyre more like apes or gorillas thancattle. Theyre aware. Would you eat monkeys?

I see what youre getting at. I saw it, but I didnt have the emotions they did. It really disturbed them.

The reason we can let the children swim without worrying about them is that the dolphins watch out for them, Judy said. We wouldnt be able to operate this place without them.

But whales eat dolphins, I protested. Dont they?

Killer whales do, Hank said. OK. I grant that, and the dolphins have no use for their overgrown cousins. But dogs eat sheep too, until theyre taught to take care of them. Its the same thing.

You have killer whales here?

No. Theyd be too hard to take care of, Hank said. Were concentrating on training the dolphins right now. But therell come a time

And what about sharks? I asked. Any chance of taming them?

No. Theyre vicious and stupid, and you cant even hate them. I suppose they have a place in nature, but theres none for them here.

Hanks voice had an edge to it when he said that. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was. Hed been a shark, and hed found a place here. A bloody traitor to the Agency, a man whod run out, making it just that much harder for the rest of us.

After dinner we sat around watching the fish look in at us. They were attracted to the lights. There were dolphins too, including a baby that kept perfect station just behind and under her mother. I was, told Id meet them the next day.

Hank and Judy kept asking me about the States, and they didnt like what I told them. That didnt surprise me. Even after a few hours here, I could feel the contrast with the way we lived at home. Everyone at Dansworth had a purpose, but back home everyone seemed to be like a man hanging on to a rope over the edge of a cliff, and nobody seemed to quite know what to do about it. Until somebody does, its my job to keep some Charlie from sawing the rope in two. God knows there are enough trying it.

Theyd listen to stories about the Outside for a while, then theyd get off onto something else going on at Dansworth. Minerals. Ecological farming, fish and plants, pollution-free power, talking to dolphins. Hank was working on all of it, trying to keep track of the big picture, but there was so much going on he always had more to -do than he had time for.

Thats when I really hated Hank Shields. He was enthusiastic about his work. He had a wife and family. He had a job he really believed in. He slept nights, with none of those little doubts that grow and grow in the quiet darkness until you get up and turn on the lights. He had all the things Id never have, and why should he?

Hed been one of us. Hed quit. We cant quit, but Hank Shields had tried it. Now he sat smugly in his living room, with his lovely wife, and thought about this Paradise he lived in. He thought he was safe.

Hed soon learn different.

==========

For our first days diving we used only masks and snorkels and fins. The water was clear, and there were fish everywhere. I was surprised to see Pacific barracuda swimming near us, and they made me nervous, but Hank said they wouldnt hurt anyone. They hardly ever did back in the States, of course, and here they were well-fed and the vicious ones weeded out.

The dolphins did that. Wed no sooner gone off the platform into the water, Hank and me and Hose-nose, when five dolphins came around. Hank had a little box attached to his belt, and played a tune on some keys sticking out of it. The dolphins arranged themselves in front of us and Id swear they were laughing at us.

This is Jill, Hank said,pointing to the mother Id seen the night before. And the little ones Susie. Jill, meet Gideon Starr. He also made clicks and wheezes on the box.

You telling me she understands English? I asked.

Quite a lot. So does Jumbo, the big male there, Hank said. The dolphins laughed again- But none of these can speak English, at least not so that you could understand them. Were teaching Susie, but shes very young. Actually she doesnt speak dolphin very well either. Shes learning both languages together.

Hose-nose was swimming around the big female dolphin, pushing Susie away from her mother. Jill turned in a tight circle, Susie following exactly, leaving Hose-nose behind and then coming up face-to-face with the boy. The dolphin chattered loudly.

Stop it, Albert, Hank said wearily. You know better. He turned to me. Kids. He knows that dolphins dont like people messing with their children. Jill wont actually hurt him, and Hose-nose counts on it. Well, Gideon, you ready for a wild ride?,

Hank produced harness things, big rigid rings with trapeze bars hanging behind them. The dolphins stuck their bills into the rings, and we each grabbed a bar. Hose-nose . had Jill and I drew Jumbo, while another male called Fonso towed Hank. We moved through the kelp beds at about five knots, with a kaleidoscope of colors flashing below us. The other two dolphins ranged around us in tight circles, charging toward me and then diving under just as it seemed a collision was inevitable. It took me a while to get used to it, and I saw Hank watching me out of the corner of his eye, while Hose-nose was openly laughing.

I was damned if Id give them anything to laugh about, but there were a couple of times when I held my breath. A six-hundred-pound dolphin is big, and when he comes straight at you moving about twenty knotsits scary.

It was also hard to manage my snorkel at those speeds. We made enough of a wake to swamp the thing quite often, so I was pretty busy keeping my mask clear of water and trying not to inhale too much brine. Eventually Hank made more clicks and wheezes on his box and the dolphins slowed down a bit. I was sure Id been tested, and wondered if it were standard treatment for visitors. Dudes are fair game anywhere.

I saw how the barracuda-management program worked about an hour out. We were free-swimming in kelp beds, the giant fronded stuff that grows off Catalina Island, diving down among the fish and watching sea otters collect the spiny sea urchins to take them up to the surface and crack them. One of the barracuda got too interested in an otter, and the dolphins converged around it. The barracuda realized its mistake immediately and darted off, doing maybe thirty-five knots, much faster than a dolphin, but one of the dolphins had anticipated that. It had started on a converging course before the barracuda saw him, and snap!

I began to have a healthy respect for dolphin teeth. The barracuda made a nice meal for the five of them, a tidbit apiece with Susie getting most of the innards.

Well, people keep dogs, and they have big teeth. Families will trust their babies to the temper of an Alsatian that could take the kid apart in three bites, yet puts up with being sat on and ridden but dogs have been bred for that behavior for thousands of years. The dolphins are only wild animals.

Or are they? They arent really wild, and is it fair to call anything J;hat smart an animal?

==========

We went out again the next morning. The Shields had a lock system so you could go out from their home, twenty fathoms down; at that depth we were below most of the kelp, although there were some giant fronds growing up from platforms attached to the deep-layer corridors and labs. A couple of sailors brought over equipment for me and got it fitted properly, while Hank and Hose-nose put on their own gear. The kid was enjoying his respite from classes, and Judy Shields was mad because she couldnt come with us. She had to teach the school her son was playing hooky from

They used helmets with a faceplate that covered the whole face, mouth and all. Id never used that system before. The advantage was you could talk with it, and I could understand Hank a fewfeet away, although it was tough; but there was also a plug-in system to connect to the underwater sled, and .when we were all attached to that everything was easy. There was a little garbling, but not much.

The sled was a four-man job with two pairs of seats protected by what Id have called windscreens except that of course these were waterscreens. It was powered by batteries, and held air tanks so we didnt have to use the backpack air while we traveled around the station. When we got outside and Hank had showed me how the system worked, he used the dolphin-talker box to play a tune. Jumbo, Jill, and Susie showed up.

Well only need Jumbo, Hank explained. His voice sounded heavy, and a little mushy in my helmet phones. Jills off-duty anyway, of course, because raising Susies a full-time job. The others have work to do.

It took a little while for our eyes to get accustomed to the light down that far, and I was surprised to see just how much filtered through to twenty fathoms. There werent many reds or yellows, of course; water absorbs that end of he spectrum so that down that deep everything seems to be different shades of blues and greens.

We took the sled out to the edges of the great colored patches of diatems and plankton that surrounded the upwelling cold water with its nutrients. There werent any structures out here and it was officially not part of Dansworth at all, but Hank wanted to show me the color changes. We were up to about sixty feet now, but wed been down a couple of hours. On the way the dolphins played their game with the sled, darting ahead and then racing back to do a couple of right turns around us, urging Hank to get up more speed.

Finally I asked Hank about decompression.

No problem, he said. Judyll have the whole apartment pressurized when we get back. Well go in and- let the system take care of gradual decompressionor leave it pressurized if you want to go out tomorrow. Thats one of the big advantages at Dansworth, the deep-water boys can get saturated and stay at pressure as long as they want.

What do you do if you want to get down really deep? I asked. As , wed cruised through the last of the experimental kelp farms a couple of miles back, Id seen the winking lights of the mining operations far below, down at the top of the seamount itself.

Have to use special gas mixtures, Hank said. Expensive. He-hums gone out of sight. We use rebreather systems so we wont waste it.

I want to try that. The editors insist on coverage of the deep mines.

Better to use the crabs, Hank said. Little subs. The outside gear takes a lot of training.

Ive been down with Navy gear, I told him. And out into space for that matter. It cant be all that different.

It is, though. Well, OK, maybe next week. Cant take the boy down there.

Hose-nose mumbled disappointment. Hed seen all this before, although he said he hadnt beenthis far from the station itself before, and he wanted to see the mines.

We swamaround the edges of the color patches. The cold water spreading out to here made distinct layered patches in the warm tropic waters, each layer edging downward away from the upwelling point. There were different creatures in each layer, and the layers were separated by twenty or thirty feet of water. The scene was fascinating.

We were about ready to turn back when we heard a shrill whistle and a loud scream. I looked around, scared stiff, then decided it was the dolphins playing games on us.

Hank had his box out and played a series of clucks and gobbles on it. One of the dolphins answered.

Quick! Hank shouted. Into the sled! Shark!

Hose-nose moved toward the sled fast. I was confused, not knowing what to do for a second, and stayed with Hank. We swam toward the sled, and then, just beyond it, I saw the thing.

It was a big blue shark, over twenty feet anyway, and it was-charging toward little Susie while Jill tried to stay between the shark and her daughter. I didnt see Jumbo at all.

The-shark was beautiful. It raced through the deep water, a deadly blue torpedo, straight toward the baby dolphin. Jill would have had no trouble keeping away from it if she hadnt been worried about Susie, but now she was right in its path.

Even from forty feet away I could hear the underwater crunch! as the shark hit the big dolphin. Jill whirled away, tumbling and twirling, and the shark headed for the baby.

It was like watching a bad movie, all in slow motion, it seemed, although nothing was moving slowly at all. We were kicking hard to get to the sled and the shark took another tight turn and came back at the little dolphin and Hose-nose was screaming something and we couldnt get to the sled in time and even if we could I didnt know what to do-Jumbo came from nowhere and struck the shark just behind its gills. He had come on at full tilt, seven hundred pounds of dolphin moving at twenty-five knots, and the impact was terrific.

It didnt seem to affect the shark at all. The deadly blue shape was knocked off-course and missed Susie, but that was all. It started another tight turn, while Jumbo whirled with it, trying to get up speed and at the same time keep the shark off the baby.

Susie was making screaming clicks, and kept trying to jet to her usual station behind and below her mother, but Jill was tumbling out of control and I was sure she was dead.

We reached the sled and Hank took a king lance with a slender ice-pick tip from a rack along the sides. There were other lances there and I grabbed one and followed.

Stay with the sled! Hank shouted. Button her up!

Yeah, do that! I told Hose-nose. I kept right with Hank. He looked back for just a glance to see I was with him, a twisted look of pain and rage and thanks all at the same time.

We got to the two dolphins and took up positions on each side, lances held out toward the shark. Once we were there, Jumbo streaked off to get up momentum.

The shark didnt like the situation now. I dont know just how conscious those things are, but it had three functional enemiesnone as big as it,was, but all acting aggressively.

On the other hand, there was a faint trail of blood from Jill and that attracted the shark. I saw that Jill want dead, but she wasnt under control either. The impact had done something to her, knocked her unconscious perhaps.

The shark circled. Jumbo flashed at it, and the shark dodged in a tight turn above us, then when Jumbo was past made up its mind and -started straight toward me. -I kept the lance pointed out at it. It seemed that I had plenty of time, although the whole battle hadnt lasted more than a minute.

The shark was moving s&t and I didnt know if I could hit it straight on. Just before it got into range of the lance, Jumbo was there again, wham!, striking the shark at the same place, just aft of the gills, and diverting it. As it passed overhead I rammed the lance deep into its belly. 

It was a charged lance, and it should have injected a full bottle of CO2 into the shark. I cursed when nothing happened and realized I hadnt pulled- the goddam safety pin out. All Id done was give the shark a tiny puncture wound, nothing that would hurt it at all.

It did the job, though. The shark flinched in surprise and turned slightly. Hank was right there with his lance, and he hadnt forgotten. The needle went in and there was a loud whooshing sound. The shark wriggled for a second, then started floating upward, fast, its insides blown up and compressed and great bubbles of bloody gas coming from its mouth and gill slits. Jumbo came screaming around in another tight circle and rammed it amidships, forcing out more blood, but the monster was dead and headed topside, buoyed up by the gas injected into its innards.

Hank was still shouting. He was under the unconscious dolphin, pushing it upward toward the surface, kicking hard. Jill had neutral buoyancy; she wasnt heavy, but she was very massive, and it was slow work. I swam alongside and kicked upward, pushing at that great heavy body. She felt warm and hard, almost rigid. Susie kept swimming around us, screaming plaintively. Then Jumbo was there pushing upward as well.

Get back down! Hank ordered. Youll have the bends.

So will you. I kept shoving upward. It seemed to take forever, but the light was getting brighter.

He didnt say anything else, and after a long time we broke surface. I had managed to keep the pressures equalized and breathe out steadily on the way up, only taking in a few breaths at intervals. It would be a while before we felt anything, I decided. We didnt have any embolism problems. Or if we did, I didnt feel anything. Yet.

When we got the blowhole above water, Jill let out a long whistle of breath and started breathing again. She was thrashing around feebly, unable to keep herself above water without help. The only blood I could see was from an irregular tear just below her fin, whether shark-bite or just abrasion from the sandpaper sides of the blue shark I couldnt tell.

Hank played another tune on his call-box and Jumbo darted away from us, swimming in a big circle that kept widening before coming back and making clicking grunts.

No more sharks in sight, Hank translated. He stuck his helmet down below the surface and shouted. Hose-nose!

Yes, sir. The kids voice was faint but we could hear it. I couldnt- make out any expression in it, but I could imagine what the boy was thinking. He was well-trained, to stay down there while his father brought his friendJill was certainly more than a petup to the surface.

Go get help. Jumbo will stay with us.

Yes, sir. There was a pause. Is Jill all right?

Shes alive. Get going.

Yes, sir.

I heard the sled motor start up, a high-pitched whine, and then it receded. We were alone up there, saturated with nitrogen and holding up a bleeding dolphin, while more sharks might come around at any moment. I thought I remembered that blues hunt alone. I also remembered that sharks can smell blood for miles.

All right, get back down to forty feet, Hank ordered. Jumbo and Ill hold her up. Stay five minutes and then come up and relieve me. Your lance is still armed, isnt it?

Yes. OK. I let air out of the buoyancy compensator and sank slowly. It didnt need two to hold up the dolphin. At least not two men; Jumbo was doing most of the work anyway, but he couldnt quite hold Jill alone. It took someone on the other side to do that, to keep her from rotating and falling away. The five minutes took forever, then I surfaced again. Hank made more noises on his call-box, sending Jumbo on another long patrol out around us. When the dolphin returned, Hank gave me his place. He seemed a bit gray and sweaty under his faceplate and I thought he had a touch of the bends, or an embolism, or both. The only thing we could do for that was to get. him down again, and I pointed emphatically. He nodded.

Thanks, he said. Then he sank out of sight, and I was alone on the surface.

Not really alone, I decided. There was Jumbo on the other side of our burden, and Susie just under us, still clicking and whistling but not so plaintively now. Jumbo clicked at her, and she was quiet. There were swells, about five feet high, with tiny whitecaps on them, and it was hard to hold the dolphin upright so the blowhole was above water. I kept getting saltwater into my mask and it was hard to clear. I was still on tanks; a snorkel would have been flooded. The sun was hot, but the water was only warm, friendly, comfortable except for the waves. I cursed them.

We floated there, Jumbo and I, holding up the wounded dolphin, and-1 thought about Hank Shields. Wed worked well together, and the only mistake had been mine. A stupid one at that. Shields had been a good man. He was doing a good job here at Dansworth. He wasnt hurting anyone; he and the work at Dansworth were helping make life better for people in the States.

That wasnt a profitable way of thinking. Shields was a goddam traitor. Hed run out on the team.

Maybe what he was doing now was more important, but that wasnt my decision.

Jumbo made more sounds at me, but I couldnt understand them. No comprende I said, then laughed at myself. For some reason Id used a language foreign to me thinking Jumbo might know that. Of course he wouldnt understand any language I knew. Except perhaps English. I dont understand, I said as clearly as I could.

OK, the dolphin replied. It was quite clear and distinct. He began nudging Jill, and she responded a bit, moving her tail about to help keep herself above water. She breathed noisily. After a while she could hold herself up with only a little help. I pointed out toward the sea and made a big circular movement with my arm. Sharks? I called.

Jill clicked something that sounded scared. Susie clicked back.

No. OK, Jumbo said. Again-ft was quite clear enough to understand. He darted away, leaving me to hold up Jill with her help. He tore off in a big circle and stayed out there a long time. When he got back he made clicking noises.

Another shark out there, I heard. Probably a lot of them. Theyll eat the dead one first. This wasnt from the dolphin but it took a moment to realize I was hearing Hanks voice from seventy feet down. I cant come up, Im afraid. Can you hold on?

Sure! I called. I wondered. But Jumbo was racing around us in a tight circle now, and I had my lance. I took the bright red ribbon hanging on the safety pin and pulled it out, then held the lance warily. The thing was as dangerous to humans and dolphins as it was to sharks.

I thought about the sharks. Come to blood from miles away. Eat each other. Stupid, single-minded killers. I didnt like the thought.

==========

After a while I saw Hank rising from below. He hadnt given me any warning, and my lance was pointed slantingly downward, just where hed come up, the point probably invisible because hed be looking up at the bright surface and the lance was shadowed by the dolphin and her daughter

It was simple. An accident, and no questions. He was swimming badly, and I was sure he was suffering, how bad I couldnt tell.

An accident. No witnesses. Terminate with extreme prejudice. He was almost to the point of my lance now. A tiny movement and hed be a closed-file entry-No. He was a goddam traitor, but hed fought to keep the dolphin alive. Hed earned that much. The sharks might come back, and Id need him. The job could come later. Right now, I wasnt risking the dolphin. It made an ironic joke, because my supervisor hated dolphins more than he hated Hank. Get your ass down there under pressure! I shouted. Youre in no goddam condition to come to the top. I shifted the lance point so that it missed him. And give me warning when you come up. You almost impaled yourself.

He looked at me funny. It was a knowing look, and it said a lot. I frowned. Get below!

He sank back down without a word. A Navy recovery boat with a-compression chamber reached us about twenty minutes later, but it was only ten minutes before a whole school of angry dolphins was around us, looking for sharks to kill. They found two.

==========

They let Hank come home for dinner. Hed suffered a painful mediastmal emphysema, but nothing permanent. We ate dinner in the Shields apartment pressurized to fifty feet. It was a quiet dinner, and afterwards he sent the boy off to his room.

Thanks, he said. Dont think I could have saved Jill by myself. The babies always die if they lose their mothers, and Susies the best prospect weve ever had. You did a good job today. So did you.

I try. Maybe Ill earn my way back into the human race.

Before I could say anything, Judy came back into the room. She looked at Hank sprawled out in a reclining chair and clucked at him.

A bubble had formed inside his chest cavity, and another under the skin at his neck. Decompression forced them back into solution, and now we were paying the penalty by being confined while the pressure was slowly reduced. It wasnt really a problem, since large parts of Dansworth stay under pressure all the time.

Guess you cant take me diving tomorrow, I said.

No. Surgeon says itll be a week. I expect you dont want to go without me, Hank said slowly. Be no point to it. Right?

I looked up sharply. Judy was frowning, not really understanding. I couldnt keep from watching her. She reminded me of my sister, all right, but even more of the last girl Id really been serious about. The one Id driven away because of the job. It would be easy to be in love with her, and she was going to be alone pretty soon.

Well dive together next week, Hank said. Cant put it off forever. If I dont take you, therell be somebody else to show up for the same dive. Right?

Yes. So he understood. I wondered what had given me away.

Were pretty heavily insured here, Hank said slowly. The Navy pays staggering premiums, but our families are well provided for if theres an accident. He saw Judy about to say something, and continued, So if you havent filled out the forms yet, you ought to. Youll be covered, be a pity if you havent set things up properly. Morbid subject, of course. Lets change it.

We did, talking about dolphins, and about sea-farms and the power plants. And sharks.

They adapt, Hank said. Weve tried the lot. Electric signals, noises, chemicalsnothing stops them all. But most avoid this place. The dolphins hunt them. If sharks werent so stupid they wouldnt come around at all; but therere so many fish here, and the wastes from the processing plant cant be completely disposed of without getting some blood and guts in the water. We were up-current of that, and usually the sharks dont come there. I doubt it would have attacked us anyway, except for Susie. Baby dolphins a tasty dish to a shark.

Judy shuddered. Ive never seen a shark attack, she said. But Hank, you were out of your-mind to take Albert out beyond the perimeter. Close to the station weve always got plenty of dolphins on patrol, but out there with just JumboI wish you wouldnt take the boy out that far again.

I wont, he said. He stood and put his arm lightly around her. Its been a good five years, he said. He wasnt talking to anyone in particular. He kissed her. Im a little tired. Gideon, if youll excuse me, Im sure Judy can entertain you

No, of course not, I said, and went off to my own room. I had a lot to think about, and I didnt want Judys company just then. I , wasnt sure I wanted my own.

==========

They put me through a week of training before theyd let me take a deep dive to the mine sites. It was another week after that before the surgeons would let Hank go with me.

We went down in a concrete shaft that contained a series of elevators. Every hundred feet wed have to get out and pass through a pressure-tight door. Not only did the pressures change at each depth, but the gas mixtures as well, and at the third we had to put on our hearing aids.

They werent really hearing aids, of course. They were tiny computers and electronic speech-filtering devices. The gas mixtures that let men live at the lower depths and higher pressures contained a lot of helium, and a man talking in a helium-oxygen mixture sounds like Donald Duck. Some of the old-timers could understand each other without hearing aids, or claimed to, but most people couldnt make out a word.

The hearing aids take that gobble-gobble and suppress some of the frequencies while amplifying others, so that the result sounds like normal speech in a flat mono-tone Its impossible to get much expression into a voice, but you can be intelligible.

We went on down until we were at the lowest level, seven hundred and eighty feet below the surface. There was a large structure there, with laboratories and quarters for the workmen, mostly Navy people. It was also cold. They heated the structures, and they had plenty of power to do it with, but helium conducts heat better than normal air. You feel heat losses and feel them fast. When we went outside wed need heated wetsuits too. The water at that depth is quite cold.

The first couple of days we took it easy, going out with a gang of Navy men to watch the mining op-erations.They were just getting a good start, sinking shafts into the sides of the seamount, taking samples for the scientists as they dug. Everybody was excited about what they were learning. This was the United States first chance to catch up with the big international corporations who had a big edge in undersea mining technology.

==========

On the third day we went out alone. It was dark and gloomy except where our lights pointed, and there were ghastly streaks of phosphorescence everywhere. It reminded me of some big city, deserted at night, and it had the same air of undefinable menace. The dolphins couldnt come with us, although Jumbo and Fonso were overhead, and once in a while one or the other would dive down to our level, chatter at Hank for a second and get a reply from his belt call-box, then head back topside. The depth was extreme for dolphins, Hank said, and although they were breathing surface air rather than high-pressure stuff as we did, so they could go up and down without decompression problems, at that depth nitrogen will go into solution quite rapidly; the dolphins had to watch out for embolisms and bends themselves.

It wasnt quiet down there, and we werent alone. There were hundreds of tiny clicking sounds, which I didnt understand until Hank took me to the seamount itself and I saw little shrimp, or things that looked like them, scuttling along on the bottom. They made snapping noises with their pincers.

There were also eel-like things, not very large, and strange-looking fish, also small. The real deep-bottom monsters are much farther down, of course, down, where men cant get at them without bathyscaphes and protective equipment; but these were strange enough. There was one thing about seven inches long, dark blue in the yellow-glaring lights, and it seemed to be all teeth and eyes. Im told it can swallow fish larger than itself.

Nothing seemed interested in us one way or another. We could get quite close to the fishnot that Id want to touch any of them. It was a fascinating scene, but a little scary, and the knowledge that anything going wrong with the gear would kill us instantly didnt help. I dont like situations where I have to rely on equipment some unknown tech has made.

We swam around the bottom until we were out of sight of the station lights and mining operations. The top of the seamount was fairly flat, and rocky, scoured clean of mud, with small pebbles between the larger rocks. Even down this far were anemones and barnacles with feathery flowers waving gently in the current. Once in a while larger fish up to a couple of feet long would cruise by. I kept watching for squid or octopus but I didnt see any.

There was a light well ahead of us and Hank waved me toward it. We cruised gently along, conserving energy. The rebreather apparatus didnt even leave bubbles behind, and despite our lights nothing paid much attention to us; I began to feel like a ghostly intruder, unable to affect anything, an observer in a plane of existence I didnt belong to.

The light turned out to be a shelter. It was a hemispheric dome held up from the bottom on stilts. The hatchway underneath swung upward and opened at a touch. We came up inside a space about thirty feet in diameter and fifteen feet high. Cabinets lined the walls, and there were more lockers under low benches. Plexiglass windows looked out onto the seamount and its surprising inhabitants.

The shelter was heated, and we could disconnect our batteries. I took a seat and gratefully removed the scuba gear with Hanks help. Then he was taking off his own, his back toward me, and I had the long shark dart, safety still on because I didnt want him to float. I aimed it just under the diaphragm and my hand wouldnt move.

He finished taking off his gear and sat across from me. We didnt say anything for a long time.

Its not going to do either one of us any good, he said finally. Why the hell dont you get it over?

Get what over?

Ive had you made out since you came here. Gideon Starr. Science reporter able to move around and interview almost anybodygreat cover, Gideon. I knew about you before I left the Agency.

I see. They dont know that, back at Langley. I watched him warily now. We couldnt just leave here and go swimming again, not with it out in the open like this.

I thought they might not. I cant run, you know. Where could I go? And Im sure your people are watching the transports.

Humph. I didnt say anything else but he knew what I was thinking. Anybody as good as he was couldnt have any trouble outwitting gate-watchers.

Yeah. OK, Im tired of running. I like it here Gideon. and what good does it do Judy? That how you spotted us? Shes not too good at this game.

No, it was the dolphins, I said. Turner. You remember Turner?

He grimaced. Sure. Holier than thou. America for the Good Americans, whoever the hell they are. I think he likes termination orders. Whats he got to do with this?

He hates dolphins, I said. Afraid theyll replace people or something. Reads everything he can find on them. Something he read made him wonder if you were out here at Dansworth. I dont know what it was, but he had Plans take a look. Then we spotted your wife.

I see. Yeah, there was a Science article that might have given me away, but I didnt think anybody in the Company would read it

He did. And really got mad. Double traitor, he called you. Traitor to the Agency, and traitor to the whole human race. Not that the dolphins made any difference,-Harold Braden. OK, you cut and ran. Theres a few get away with that. But not when they warn their subject first. We cant allow that, Bra-den. I shifted the shark dart in my hand, turning it over and over, wondering what would happen if he decided to fight. He was nearly 38 big as I am, and hed been a good man in his day. But he was out of training, and he seemed to have given up.

I had to remember that a man hasnt really given, up until hes dead. Not a real man.

Call me Hank,, he said. I killed Harold Braden five years ago. Did the tell you who the subject was? The man I warned? No.

Aeneas MacKenzie. I whistled. It didnt come out as such; the hearing aids werent designed for that. The whole conversation had an eerie quality, as we talked of life and death in flat monotones. MacKenzie. Greg Tollands manager. If youd got him, Tolland wouldnt have been PresidentI thought for a moment. Five years. It was after the election! Tollands orders! Again the exclamation points didnt come through. All Hank could have heard was another monotone. Yeah. I know.

But Id believed the story. Tolland made Aeneas MacKenzie his Solicitor General, and MacKenzie found graft and corruption all through Tollands Peoples Alliance. It had nearly destroyed President Tolland, but we all believed he hadnt known any of it until MacKenzie uncovered the mess

Only Tolland had ordered MacKenzie terminated with extreme prejudice before he even started his investigations.

You know MacKenzies gone over to Hansen Enterprises? I asked.

You told me. Hank kept watching me, and every now and then hed look away, out the windows, to watch the fish and shrimp cruising past; and when hed look back again, he did it with surprise that he was still alive. I guess it figures. Laurie Jo Hansen never had much use for Greg Tolland to begin with. He laughed. The hearing aids made it come out Ha, ha, ha, and a snort. Funny. We always thought the big corporations were the enemy.

They are. You know how they work.

Sure. How do we work? Its different. We have no choices. Were soldiers. How else can the people fight that kind of power? Dont play games with my head, Shields. It wont work.

Didnt think it would. You cant admit youre wrong. Youve spilled too much blood for the cause. Admit .youre wrong and youre a monster. I know, Gideon. I know. We were quiet for a while. Finally I said, Hansens got a setup like this in the Sea of Cortez. Experimental. Not full production scale.

Hank nodded. Pity I didnt run to her in the first place. Youd have had your problems getting to me. Too late now. Not even Hansen could keep your people away from me. Not forever. And Id always come out in the open if the family was involved

Family. I thought about Judy. Shed be alone soon. And that was stupid, because Id always be alone. Nobodyd look for a dead man.

I dont know why I said that. In my business you do your job and thats all. Hank was right, you cant question your orders. If the people at the top dont know what theyre doing, if it isnt worth it, what are you? A goddam hired killer, a criminal, and Im not that, Im a patriot. A soldier.

Hank gave me another funny look. If you report me dead and I turn up again

Yeah. If that happened, I was meat. I should be. One day Id find myself across a room from somebody like Gideon Starr. Get it over, my mind said. Hank was looking out the window again. One quick thrust. Or the right blow, and push him out without the scuba gear. Without the gear hed go straight up, and nobody had ever survived a free ascent from these depths. Hed float, lungs ruptured, embolisms all through his blood and brain. Quick, painless, and easy to explain.

And I knew I wasnt going to do it. If a man bought it with his gear on down here, hed go right to the bottom, I said. No way ever to find a body.

But hed have to leave Dansworth. You think Id get past your people? He turned to face me again, but this time he didnt look surprised. Just tired. I told you, Gideon, I killed Harold Bra-den. Hank Shields doesnt let his friends trade their lives for him.

Friends?

By me, yeah. He didnt say anything else, but I remembered how it was with the two of us swimming Jill to the surface, watching for sharks, waiting for the flash of pain in the head that signals embolism, or the crippling stab in the joint from bends

We sat there some more, thinking. If you got to Hansens outfit off the Baja coast, youd be OK, I said finally. Seven hundred miles. Open water. Dont dolphins go that far?

This time he really looked at me.

There are spare air bottles in here, arent there? I asked. Air and helium-oxy? Enough to let_y.ou decompress? And youve got the call-box. Trust the dolphins to take you seven hundred miles?

He thought about it. Wed make about ten knots. Three days. Warm water. He started rooting around in the lockers and came up with canteens. Fresh water. I wont need food. The dolphins can catch fish, and a man can live a long time on fresh raw fish. Howll you explain the supplies missing from here?

Whos to know we were ever here? Ill have good stories, for the Navy and for the Agency. Youre down in that muck, in five hundred fathoms.

Youre crazy. Theyll watch Judy. I have to send for her, Gideon. When she comes to Hansens outfit, theyll Suspect. Then weve both had it.

They wont bother with her. Not if youre dead.

Why, Gideon? he asked,

Get the hen out of here. Just do it. Please. Before I change my mind, before I get my sanity back. For Gods sake, Hank, go

He put on the scuba gear and gathered up water bottles. Then he made a neat towing package of the other stuff, heli-oxy bottles, and some pure oxygen for when he got closer to the surface and wouldnt get oxygen poisoning. He could stay down a long time with those. Much longer than the decompression time hed need. If there were storms, hed just go under. The dolphins would take care of him.

Dr. Petersons going to hate losing Jill and Susie .-. . He looked back at me for a second. Youll tell Judy?

Shell know. Not at first. Later. He winced. It was going to be tough on the family. His only other choice would be tougher. He waved, just a quick flash of a hand, and dropped through the bottom of the shelter.

==========

A long time after, as I swam alone back to the mining station, I saw a whole school of sharks. One was wounded, and the others were tearing him to pieces, eating him while he was still alive.

I wondered if theyd see me, but I didnt really care.
