Frank Schatzing - The Swarm

'Your people?'

I'm not a Makah.'

'But aren't you-'

'Look, Licia, don't take this personally, but I'm not in the mood for family history.'

She pursed her lips. 'OK.'

'I'll call you when Ford gets in touch.' He smiled wryly. 'Or you call me – he'll probably not want to wake me or something.'

Delaware shook her red ponytail at him and walked slowly to the door. She paused. 'And another thing,' she said, without turning. 'It's time you thanked Greywolf for saving your life. I've been to see him already.'

'You've done what?'

'I mean it. You can despise him for everything else, but he still deserves thanks. If it wasn't for him, you'd be dead.'

She went.

Anawak slammed the bottle on to the table and took a deep breath.

HE WAS STILL sitting there, flicking through the channels, when an emergency broadcast came on. The TV stations were full of newsflashes with the latest on the situation in British Columbia, plus broadcasts from the US where shipping was at a standstill too. In the studio, a woman in naval dress was speaking. Her short black hair was combed sleekly off her face and there was an austere beauty about her features. She looked Oriental, perhaps Chinese. No, half-Chinese. One small detail didn't fit with the rest: her eyes were a deep un-Asiatic blue.

A text box popped up at the bottom of the screen: General Commander Judith Li, US Navy .

'Should we consider withdrawing from the coast of British Columbia?' the interviewer was asking. 'Giving it back to nature, so to speak?'

'I think you'll find that we haven't taken anything in the first place,' said Judith Li. 'We live in harmony with nature although, of course, there's room for improvement.'

'Yet in the present situation there seems little sign of harmony.'

'Well, that's something we're working on in close collaboration with leading scientists and scientific institutes on both sides of the border. Sure, it's alarming when animals collectively change their behaviour, but it would be wrong to over-dramatise the situation. It's certainly no cause for panic.'

'In other words, you don't believe we're dealing with a mass phenomenon?'

'Before speculating on the type of phenomenon, I'd want to know for certain that this is a phenomenon at all. In my opinion, we're looking at a cumulative series of broadly similar events-'

'Events that the public knows nothing about,' the interviewer interrupted. 'Why is that?'

'We're keeping the public informed.' Li smiled.

'Well, I'm surprised and delighted to have this chance to talk with you, but let's be frank: the provision of public information, both here and in the United States, has been patchy to say the least. And now we're finding ourselves in a position where we're unable to report the views of experts since all attempts at communication are being blocked by the authorities.'

'Crap,' growled Anawak. 'Greywolf was only too happy to shoot his mouth off. I thought everyone heard it.'

On the other hand, had Ford been asked for an interview? Or Fenwick? Palm was an expert on orcas – had any news crews or reporters been in touch with him? And what about himself? It wasn't so long ago that Scientific American had cited him in an article on cetacean intelligence, but no one had come banging on his door.

Belatedly he was struck by the absurdity of it all. In any other circumstance – terrorist attacks, plane crashes or natural disasters – anyone resembling an expert was dragged in front of the cameras before the day was out.

Yet they were working steadily in silence.

Come to think of it, even Greywolf hadn't given vent to any outbursts since that interview in the paper. Until then he had seized every opportunity to push himself forward. The hero of Tofino had been dropped.

'That's a one-sided perspective,' Li said smoothly. 'Clearly we're in an extremely unusual predicament. Nothing like this has ever happened before. So of course we're anxious to prevent hordes of self-appointed experts jumping to conclusions. I mean, apart from anything else, we'd never be able to set the record straight. Besides, I don't see any threat we can't handle.'

'So you're saying it's under control?'

"That's certainly our goal.'

'Some people would say that you're failing.'

'In that case I'd like to know what they expect. The military is hardly going to attack the whales with warships and Black Hawks.'

'The number of casualties is rising by the day. The Canadian government has restricted the emergency zone to the coast of British Columbia-'

'The restrictions apply to pleasure-boats only. Ferries and freighters have not been affected.'

'The past few days have seen a spate of reports about missing vessels. Perhaps you could comment on that.'

'Let me make this quite clear. Those reports concern fishing-boats. Small motorboats,' said Li, in a tone of martyred patience. 'Every now and then a ship goes missing. We're looking into the incidents. Needless to say, we're doing everything we can to search for survivors. But in the meantime we shouldn't assume that every unexplained incident is the result of an attack. I hope people will see that.'

The interviewer adjusted his glasses. 'Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that a recent incident involving a freighter belonging to Inglewood, the Vancouver-based shipping line, resulted in the sinking of a tug.'

Li pressed her fingertips together. 'I assume you're referring to the Barrier Queen !

The interviewer looked briefly at his notes. 'That's right. There's very little information available on what actually happened.'

'Too right,' agreed Anawak. He'd forgotten to chase it up with Shoemaker since the crash.

'The Barrier Queen ,' said Li, 'had a problem with her rudder. A tug sank during a botched attempt to fix a tow line.'

'Then if I understand you correctly it wasn't attacked. You see, according to my information-'

'Your information is obviously wrong.'

Anawak stiffened. What the hell was she talking about?

'All right, General, two days ago a Tofino Air seaplane crashed into the ocean. Could you tell us a little more about that?'

'A seaplane crashed. That's correct.'

'Reports suggest it collided with a whale.'

'The incident is under investigation. Please forgive me for not commenting on each individual case. My work is at a higher level, as I'm sure you'll understand.'

'Of course.' The interviewer nodded. 'Perhaps we should talk about your work, then. What exactly does your job entail? How would you describe the committee's brief? Presumably it's a case of responding to events…'

Li's face twitched. 'Emergency committees are there to act as well as react. We meet the situation head on, tackle it and see it through. Early detection, clear and comprehensive planning, prevention and evacuation are key to our success. But, as I mentioned before, we're on unfamiliar ground. So far, we haven't been as good at detecting and preventing incidents as we'd normally expect. Everything else is covered, though. You won't find a single boat out there in danger from the whales. Essential items of cargo from at-risk vessels are being diverted to nearby airports. Larger vessels are sailing under military escort. We're maintaining constant aerial surveillance and we're ploughing large sums of money into scientific research…'

'But you've ruled out military action.'

'We haven't ruled it out. We said it was unlikely.'

'Environmental groups are claiming that the change in the animals' behaviour is due to human intervention. Noise, toxic waste, shipping. . .'

'We're doing all we can to find out.'

'What progress has been made?'

'Let me spell this out clearly: until we're in a position to pass on concrete information, we refuse to engage in speculation. Nor will speculation be tolerated from any other quarter. Fishermen, industrialists, shipping lines, whale-watchers, pro-whaling activists and any other would-be vigilantes will be dealt with severely. This situation must not be allowed to escalate. When animals attack, it's because they're feeling threatened or they're ill. Either way, it would be foolish to use violence against them. We need to find out what's causing the problem so that we can deal with its symptoms. And until then we'll stay out of the water.'