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Zena grinned as Martin moved towards her Rzinov moving away from them, he had glanced at Martin said nothing but the expression on his face said it all ! “What’s up with our beloved governor then ?”
“You remember the child I was telling you about ? “ Martin said nothing for a moment, trying to remember what she had said earlier, trouble was Zena had a habit of rambling on and he didn’t always take notice of everything she said.
It was something she was all too aware of, made clear, her contention on that fact !
“See I bet you didn’t, as usual, listen ! “ She frowned, then continued “The child with the webbed feet and webbed
hands ?” Ah yes, now it came back to Martin but in fact it was not her that had reminded him, Linda the radiographer had, when she had carried out the scan on the childs limbs, remarked to him, on her way to Rzinov’s office ?
“Its not totally unusual, rarely seen I admit, but it’s not the first nor the last time it will show itself. Rzinov won’t like it because the childs parents will INSIST the child’s not normal, when it really won’t have any handicap at all, still more than able to balance, to grip with its fingers, write, walk and and “
She was right Rzinov was not a surgeon who took his work lightly, nor was he amused by stupid parents concerns over a more than healthy child which they were of course insisting in a round about way he mutilated simply to appease their perceptions ? he wasn’t having any of it and sent the parents away with a good talking to !
It had been interesting to discover, that it was not the first instance of such, having occurred in the family ? Three generations ago, one of their relations had the same peculiar, as they were quick to remark, defect in their physiology. Rzinov was not into folklore nor as he put it ‘old wives tales’ but could see that there was a strong probability that somewhere, there had been a gene present in the DNA, which allowed the skin to develop between the joints of the toes and the fingers.
Canthrop was Rzinov’s companion. An anaethetist, she was also qualified as a marine biologist and often loved to go deep sea diving ? Rzinov had not seen her eyes as he had told her of the child, if he had, he might have seen them flicker and in them something jolted to life, in the form of a memory ?
She had been diving with some friends off the New Zealand coast, they were loathe to touch coral reefs, in particular the great barrier reef in Australia, because of the damage to the coral, by constant visits from tourists.
This particular area had a few wrecked ships, some hundreds of years ago, brought to grief on the rocks, from the second world war. Sunken merchant shipping vessels. Even older in the form of ships that had transported convicts.
The skeletons on some all too clearly visible, even if on occasion the bones were lumped around with silt, the outline of the skull. all too clear and the jaw bone, was often missing, detached after the skin and muscle had gone.
Lainey, Robins and Tania had been diving with her, her usual group of friends, who also enjoyed diving ? Deep sea mostly but some scuba diving aswell, which was often less interesting, but that did depend, where they were diving ? They were skirting this old navy metal battle cruiser, a relic from the 2nd world war ?
Robins and Tania had gone inside, through a huge hole, likely to have been the result of a torpedo attack ? Cautious as always to be onguard for sudden attacks by sharks? Of course, IF the vessel had carried munitions, they could, over time become unstable. A wrong move and the whole thing could explode! Outside Lainey was over to the portside of the vessel. Canthrop was not in her sight, nor were the others, not that Lainey would have noticed, she was too busy photographing the side of the ship and the marine life around it.
Some time later, when they all returned. Tania waving something in her hand, before they would head off up to the surface. Canthrop had continued taking pictures and the others, she had told them to go on ahead, she would follow shortly! Click, click; as she took the last few pictures, before starting to follow them. She stopped, her feet ‘paddled’ as she tried to focus, not believing what her eyes were seeing ?
It was by any stretch of the imagination anything less than what could be legitimately be described as a huge, white shark. The outline of the great white and its terrifying jaws had Canthrop remembering the horror story of a previous diving crew, two of them had not survived the shark attack! It moved towards her and then veered off? About to make her escape, she paused to glance at the sight of something in front of her ?
At first, as anyone might have done, its natural to assume, she thought it was the others, or one of the others?
Logical were it not for the realisation as she looked at the figure, that it was apparent, whatever it was, had no breathing apparatus, no suit, nor were there any other visible signs, of the usual bubbles of air ? Ah yes there were bubbles, a mass of them released as she moved down slightly to move in closer she gasped !
The figure was female and her companion, male! In comparison to us, the upper torso could be described as definitely, male and female, scaled lower torso of fish like appearance, webbed feet, webbed hands and almost identical where their looks were concerned plus the tails, scales ran along the length of their lower torso terminating in a y shape set of fins ?
If Canthrop had gone to raise her camera, it was too late. The buzzer now ringing in her ears was making it clear, that she had reached the minimum amount, of oxygen in her tank, to get back to the surface safely, let alone without the risk of ‘bends’ occurring ! She HAD to go and go now, or it would be the decompression tank and sheer agony ! The sight of the great white returning, disturbed by the buzzing sound? She managed to disable it but it would appear that might be too late!
Suddenly one of the ‘Mermaids’ darted forwards, at which point the shark changed course towards it! Both of the creatures scattered as the great white pursued them allowing Canthrop to escape. It seemed an eternity, rising to the surface? Now aware of the female ‘Mermaid’ alongside her helping her to swim faster upwards? Until she was now at the surface where the ‘Mermaid ‘ vanished from view.
Nearing the surface, she was pulled onboard the boat, to relate the story, albeit minus the tale or tails of the ‘Mermaids’ A narrow escape from the great white had been relayed in detail to them, as they listened whilst she relaxed. A shower and changed before heading onto deck. The boat engines started up and they headed back to the shore.
As Canthrop leaned on the rail of the boat, something caught her attention? In the water, almost directly in front of her? The sight of the two ‘Mermaids’ their almost metallic in appearance scales, glinting in the moonlight, as they splashed about before they vanished from view.
“You know I once swore, I saw a Mermaid when I was diving.” It was Lainey now stood next to her. “The others told me it was the mix in my tank that had, had me, hallucinating. I told them it probably was and laughed.
Suited my purposes. but I know what I saw.” She stepped back as the others came out from the hatch. “Oy you two! food is on the table in the galley ! “ Lainey grinned. “Don’t tell me, dish of the day, fish ! “
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