Rhodoreef

31. The Inventor's Son

The Little Angler sailed down the twilight zone.

It passed by sharks, squids and a huge shoal of bristlemouths. The latter was the most abundant vertebrate on Earth, yet they were hidden in these gloomy depths—except for their lambent displays. In fact, she knew that bioluminescence was the language of choice in these sunless realms—from the pinwheel flashes of an Atolla jelly's burglar alarm to the glowing lure of a sea devil.

Dea sat in meditative silence, letting the submersible journey on in autopilot mode. She was very much aware that two military vehicles were tailing her, keeping a safe distance.

Vehement opposition met the mere suggestion of her traveling alone to meet the Sea Witch. The explanation she issued out about how she learned of him on the Dark C-Net held water. What didn't was how she happened to swim into him on her way to land.

Dea had to fight tooth and nail to get Mora to allow her to go on her own in the Little Angler. He only acquiesced after she insisted that the Sea Witch would consider it an act of aggression if the military escorted her. This was not a time to be fighting amongst themselves.

"How much do you know of him, Mora?" she wondered out loud.

The merman appeared to regard Anuk as a shadowy figure with considerable intellect and resourcefulness—a "dissident aiding Callian exiles." The redeeming feature was how he was a vital cog in the nomads' story. The nomad communities could no longer safely resume their ancient migratory lifestyle with humans encroaching coastlines and sea routes. In fact Dea learned that in the recent past, there was an imminent refugee crisis in the region.

The nomads, working with Anuk, now had shelter and engaged in trade with a city-state further west. Hence, the Sea Witch was considered a necessary evil who hadn't caused any trouble to the state.

However, the state didn't seem to know Anuk was human—or that he was male. The "Sea Witch" was merely an entity that posed as a formidable wild card and happened to avert a mermanitarian crisis.

Dea thumped her flukes against the base of the seat. This state of affairs explained how they hadn't actively hunted him down for information. She intended to keep it that way.

The pressure increased as she drifted down to the midnight zone. Marine snow floated past the viewport. Dea's fingers twiddled at her wrist, though her chunky wristbands were missing. Her wardrobe of late consisted of smart casual wear with a black tail sheath.

It was extraordinary how fate made her retrace her journey to the deep when she thought she saw the last of Anuk. The prospect of meeting him stirred something in the void within. She gave her head a shake and leaned back, eyes fixed on the never-ending darkness.

The phantoms of the deep materialized. This time she spotted a spook fish, its emerald green eyes nestled inside a transparent dome of a head.

Next to demand her rapt attention was a fanfin anglerfish in action. The glowing bulb that protruded from its head lured an unwitting crustacean. The predator hovered motionless, its long, ethereal filaments shining silver in the illumination. Then it struck.

The hapless critter perished in an instant. Dea frowned and reverted to her brooding trance.

Time trickled by in a slipstream of blackness marked with ephemeral light bursts.

The AI alerted her back to attention, "Approaching destination."

She straightened up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

The gargantuan bulk of the mining station materialized ahead, contours hardly visible in sporadic pricks of light.

"What if he's not in," Dea muttered to herself. "What if he's in his land lair..."