Chapter One

  If Derrick Granger hadn't been staring at the strange boat, he might not have stumbled into

  trouble that day.

  But as he walked along the beach he couldn't take his eyes from the sleek vessel. It

  seemed to hover like a giant bat just above the waves, far out in the bay.

  He had never seen anything like it. It looked like it should be flying through space, not

  floating on the sea.

  It was long, low and black, and its broad, curved bow seemed split in half, as if it had

  two sepa-rate hulls. Two round satellite dishes rose like giant bat ears from the top of the

  windowless cabin.

  Even though it was far out in the bay, he could tell it was big — much bigger than the

  sailboats he usually saw bobbing in the waves.

  Derrick couldn't take his eyes from it. He pulled off his thick glasses — he was very

  nearsighted

  — and wiped the lenses to get a better view.

  Ordinarily when he walked on the beach, he wasn't interested in what was floating on top of the

  water. He worried about the creatures hidden beneath it.

  Creatures that secretly watched him, hungrily folowing his every move, just waiting for him to step too close to the

  water.

  Derrick's father said he was being, silly. His father was a marine scientist who studied dolphins and other

  ocean creatures. Derrick lived in North Carolina. But he was spending the summer with his dad at Dol-phin Bay, a little

  town in the Florida Keys where his dad conducted ocean research.

  His dad loved the ocean. Sometimes he spent hours swimming underwater with an air tank and a mask,

  studying fish and molusks and coral reefs. He said it was a different world underwater, just like in outer space. If

  Derrick would learn more about sea creatures, his dad said, he wouldn't be so afraid of them.

  "Sure, Dad," Derrick would say, rolling his eyes as he imagined himself being skewered by a

  swordfish.

  Derrick wasn't tal and athletic like his father. He was a short chubby ten year old with bad eyes and

  a buzz haircut who sunburned easily and couldn't swim. He was afraid of the water, and even more afraid

  of the creatures living in it.

  Creatures like huge lobsters with long painful pincers. Or jellyfish with poisonous stinging

  tentacles.

  Or octopuses just waiting to wrap him in their deadly embrace. Or — worst of all —

  torpedo-shaped sharks with smiles full of jagged teeth.

  OK, Derrick had to admit that it was unlikely he was going to be attacked by a shark while strolling

  on the beach. After all, he always stayed at least three feet from the water. But then, he had heard of some-

  thing called a "walking catfish" that could actually move across dry land.

  If you could have a walking catfish, why not a walking shark? Or — even worse — a running shark?

  Mother Nature was mischievous. You never knew what she might send your way.

  When he went camping with the Boy Scouts, a rainstorm caused the tent to collapse on his head like

  a soggy pancake. When he decided to take up insect collecting, a bee stung him on the tongue. And

  when he went wading in the creek, she sent a crawdad to bite his big toe.

  That was why Derrick didn't care much for the ocean or any other part of nature. He liked indoor ac-

  tivities, like eating, reading Greek mythology and lis-tening to "Clueless Hairballs" CDs.

  They were his favorite band. He even had six "Clueless Hairballs" T-shirts, one of

  which he was wearing now.

  His eyes shifted back to the ship on the hori-zon.

  Wow.

  From that angle, it sort of resembled a giant stingray, waiting for its prey.

  Keeping his eyes on the ship, Derrick moved a step farther away from the water.

  "Watch out!" someone shouted.

  As Derrick whirled towards the voice, some-thing raked across his shins. Giant jaws

  seemed to close around his right leg.

  He screamed as he fell towards the water.

  "Help me!" he shouted.

  He clawed at the sand. A wave washed over him, filling his nose and eyes with warm,

  salty water.

  The water stung his eyes, temporarily blinding him. He couldn't see what held his leg.

  But its grip was tightening.

  He imagined himself being dragged out to sea.

  "Help me!" he sputtered, coughing and gasp-ing for air. "Please, someone help me!"

  Chapter Two

  "Stop flopping around like a flounder, and I'll get it off of you."

  At the sound of the voice, Derrick became very still. It was the voice of a young girl. She

  didn't seem the least bit concerned that his leg had become shark bait.

  In fact, she sounded angry. Derrick patted the sand around his head and finally found his glasses.

  Just as he put them on, his leg slipped free from the jaws that had held it.

  He looked up and saw a red-haired girl about his own age inspecting a bent beach chair.

  "Congratulations," she said sarcastically. "You've ruined my chair. Why don't you watch where you're

  going?"

  Sitting in the wet sand, Derrick looked dumbly from the girl to the chair to his leg. There

  was a red scrape just above his ankle. As he rubbed the tender skin, he realized what had happened.

  When he stumbled against the metal chair frame, his foot had gotten lodged in the hinged

  joint. As the chair closed, it had pinched his skin.

  Great.

  He had been attacked by a beach chair.

  Derrick turned as red as a boiled lobster. Something like this would never happen to

  Hercules.

  "I-Fm sorry," he managed to stammer. "I didn't see it."

  The girl looked him over with cool green eyes. She was almost as tall as Derrick, and her skin was

  as brown as a coconut. Derrick was suddenly aware of his pale legs and arms. He thought of how

  pudgy and white his belly looked under his baggy "Clueless Hair-balls" T-shirt.

  "You're not from around here, are you?" the

  girl asked.

  Derrick shook his head.

  "No. Just visiting for the summer. My dad runs the dolphin research center."

  The girl's eyes widened.

  "Your dad is Edward Granger, the marine re-searcher?"

  Derrick nodded, steeling himself for another

  lash of sarcasm.

  "Wow," the girl gasped. "That's so neat. I've

  read about the experiments he's doing to find out how dolphins communicate."

  She laid down the chair and held out her hand.

  "I'm Kerri," she said as they shook hands. "Kerri Sanders. I live on the other side of

  the bay but I come over here almost every day to look for shells. That's what I was doing

  when you trashed my chair."

  She held up a bulging mesh bag.

  "See? I found all these this afternoon. You wouldn't believe all the different kinds —

  look, I even found a moon shell."

  "Ummm. Very nice," Derrick said, trying to seem interested.

  "You can have it," Kerri said, putting the small, pink shell in his hand. "I've lots more."

  Derrick shoved it into his pocket. He hoped it didn't still have a snail in it.

  "Hey," Kerri suddenly said. "You want to go swimming?"

  "No, I don't think so. I . . . I . . . " Derrick started to tell her that he couldn't swim,

  then hesi-tated. "I just ate a big lunch. I probably shouldn't go into the water."

  He didn't like to lie. But he didn't feel like be-ing laughed at again either. Kerri

  seemed disappointed.

  "How about a walk then?" she said. "I want to know more about your dad."

  "Okay," Derrick said. "But not too fast. I think I twisted my ankle when I fell over your chair." Kerri giggled.

  "You really did look funny flopping around on the sand," she said.

  Derrick's face began turning red.

  "Look, I said I'm sorry about your-chair," he said. "I didn't see it because I was

  looking at that

  weird boat."

  Kerri looked puzzled.

  "What boat?"

  "You know — the big black boat. Out there."

  Derrick pointed across the bay.

  But the boat wasn't there. There was only a little blue sailboat, bobbing on the waves like a

  bath toy.

  "It was there just a minute ago," Derrick said, his eyes searching the horizon.

  "Honest, it was there. I

  saw it."

  Kerri laughed.

  "Maybe we should go sit in the shade," she said. "I think you've been out in the sun

  too long."

  Chapter Three

  Derrick watched the three dolphins swimming lazily around the big pool at the research center.

  They were in their usual formation. Flash, the big male dolphin, was in the middle, flanked on either

  side by the females Dorie and Belle.

  Derrick had little interest in dolphins or his fa-ther's work, but sometimes he enjo

yed watching

  them frolic in the water. They were so sleek and graceful. They surfaced and dove as if waltzing on water.

  If I could learn to swim like that, Derrick thought, I'd probably like the ocean a lot more.

  Although his father sometimes put on a rubber suit and went into the pool with the dolphins, Derrick

  knew they were not simply large playful puppies. His father had told him that dolphins could be

  territorial and aggressive.

  And while their sharp white teeth weren't as menacing as a shark's, dolphins were

  fierce fighters when they needed to be. They could break bones with a flip of their tail, or crush a shark's

  chest by ramming it with their hard beaks.

  Flash had a big scar on his back where he had once tangled with a shark. That's how he had

  ended up in the research project. Fishermen had found the bottle-nosed dolphin battered

  and bleeding off the coast of South Florida.

  After many months, he had finally been nursed back to health. Eventually, he had been donated to

  the research center, just like Doric and Belle.

  Derrick sighed and looked at his watch. Almost one o'clock. Where was Kerri?

  She was half an hour late. She was supposed to meet him at the center so he could show

  her the dolphins and introduce her to his father. Then they were going to the beach to fly kites.

  He was looking forward to seeing Kerri again, too. Since bumping into her last week, he had met

  her almost every day at the beach.

  Sometime they went for long walks, searching for shells. Sometimes they built big, complicated

  sand-castles and fortresses.

  Sometimes they just sat on the sand and talked.

  Kerri told him how bored she was in school and how much she loved the ocean and

  being out-doors. Derrick told her about mythic figures like Zeus, the god from Greek

  mythology who could summon thunderbolts from heaven, and Medusa, who had a headful

  of snakes.

  "I'd hate to cut her hair," Kerri laughed.

  Kerri joked around a lot. She liked to throw water on him and slip up behind him when he

  wasn't looking. That was one of the things he liked about her. His father was so serious all the time, thinking

  about his work, but Kerri was always playing jokes.

  She probably would just make a joke if he told her he couldn't swim.

  Derrick had come close to telling her a couple of times. But something — a nagging fear of what

  she might say — always silenced him. Whenever Kerri suggested they go into the water, Derrick

  had to make up an excuse to stay on the beach.

  He looked at his watch again. Almost 1:15.

  Where was she?

  Just then his father emerged from the little of-fice where he spent hours each day studying

  computer charts and tinkering with electrical devices. He walked over to Derrick.

  "It's almost feeding time," he said. "I thought your friend would be here by now."

  Before he could turn to see what it was, two hands shoved hard against his back.

  He didn't even have time to scream.

  For one terrifying moment, he seemed to be suspended over the edge of the pool, looking

  into the dolphin's eyes.

  Then black fear enfolded him, and the water closed over his head.

  Chapter Four

  When he felt the first shock of cold water, Derrick began thrashing his arms and legs.

  He wasn't trying to swim. He was just trying to keep from sinking.

  But it wasn't working. He kept bobbing under the water. He was trying to hold his breath,

  but his lungs were already starting to burn. He would have to take a breath soon.

  And if he tried to breathe underwater, it would be the last breath he ever took.

  Suddenly, as he batted his arms around in the water, he felt his head burst above the

  surface. He gasped for air and tried to shout.

  Miraculously, his glasses had stayed on his face, although they were perched precariously

  on his nose. Frantically, he looked around the pool, searching for whoever had shoved him off.

  Even as panicky and terrified as he was — he couldn't believe what he saw. Kerri was standing at the

  edge of the pool.

  Looking down at him, laughing.

  How could she be laughing, he thought. Couldn't she see that he was drowning?

  He made a strangled attempt to cry out, but water went down his throat and he began

  coughing. He made another desperate attempt to call out. Then he felt himself sinking into the cold water

  again.

  He was completely under the water again now, thrashing about violently. The water was so cold. His lungs were

  burning again.

  I can't hold my breath any longer, Derrick thought. I've got to breathe.

  He wasn't sure what happened after that. Later, he just remembered feeling something bump

  hard against his body, and a big piece of plastic seemed to slide against his hand and arm.

  Instinctively, he grabbed it. As his arm curled around it, he felt himself pulled up through the water as

  if a powerful boat was towing him.

  A second later, his head broke through the surface.

  He took a huge, shuddering breath, desperately holding onto the piece of plastic that had

  saved his life.

  Only it wasn't a piece of plastic. It was a fin.

  A big shiny dolphin dorsal fin, sticking up from a scarred back. Somehow, he managed to hold on, and Flash

  towed him to the little metal ladder at the end of the pool.

  "What happened? It looked like you had for-gotten how to swim."

  Kerri's anxious face peered down at him as he sat panting at the edge of the pool.

  "I didn't forget," Derrick said.

  "Then what happened? I thought you were just playing, but then it looked like you were really in trouble

  until the dolphin found you. What happened?"

  Before Derrick could answer, his father and Boris appeared beside them, holding a big

  bucket of cold fish.

  "Derrick, are you all right?" his father asked, an anxious frown on his face. "How did you get wet?"

  Derrick glanced at Kerri, whose face was sud-denly drained of color. His father didn't alow horse-play around

  the dolphins. If his dad knew that Kerri had pushed him into the pool, he might ban her from the center.

  "I slipped on some water," he said. "I just got a little too close. But I was able to grab the

  ladder. I'm OK."

  His father shook his head.

  "You've got to be extra careful around the pool. Either that, or wear a life jacket."

  He picked up the bucket and went over to the feeding platform, a small wooden deck a few

  feet above the water.

  "You're just lucky Flash didn't think you were trying to take over his territory," his father said. "You

  could have been seriously hurt."

  Derrick nodded, not wanting to look at Kerri.

  "Let's get these dolphins fed, Boris," his father said.

  Boris bent to pick up the heavy bucket — but not before his eyes met Derrick's, and a smirking smile

  briefly bent his lips.

  After they had dropped dozens of herring and smelt into the churning water, Mr. Granger

  asked Kerri and Derrick whether they would like to see his new dolphin-signaling device. He went into his

  office and came back with a laptop computer, connected to a strange-looking microphone on a long cord.

  "This is a called a hydrophone," he said. "It's basically a microphone that works underwater."

  He went to the far end of the pool and lowered the hydrophone into the water.

  "Boris, get them to follow you to the other end

  of the pool," he said.

  The assistant went to the other end of the pool. As he made quick, flicking motion

  with his arm, as if he were throwing out food, the dolphins swam towards him.

  They waited in the water, squealing and click-ing.

  "Now watch what happens when I give them the signal," Mr. Granger said.

  He tapped a few computer keys. Immediately, the dolphins turned and zoomed

  towards him. He re-warded each of them with another fish.

  "That's amazing," Kerri said. "How did you do it?"

  "The hydrophone broadcasts a special high-frequency underwater signal," Mr.

  Granger said. "I've trained the dolphins to respond differently as I vary the frequency. Watch

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7