Read Online Dead in the Water by Robin Stevenson - Free Book Online

broken record, going on about this boat. I figured it was worth checking. Swam halfway here, and then I spotted my dinghy.”
    â€œLook, we really are sorry,” I said in a low voice. Please let me pass this course, I thought. I felt sick. If I failed...after all my saving and studying and planning...I couldn’t even imagine telling my parents. I’d flunked enough at school, but sailing was supposed to be different.
    â€œWe didn’t mean to worry you,” I told him. “And we weren’t just, you know, just goofing off. The thing is, we were pretty sure, well, Olivia was anyway, that those guyswere poaching.” I fumbled in my pocket and pulled out the shell. “See? It’s abalone.”
    He ignored me. “Get in the dinghy, Olivia.”
    Olivia didn’t move. “They’ve got bags and bags of it hanging over the sides of the boat. Hundreds of abalone.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “It’s so awful, Patrick. To do that... knowing a species is on the verge of extinction and to do that anyway, just to make a few bucks...”
    â€œMore than a few bucks,” he said. “A lot more. On the shell, live abalone—well, they’re probably getting forty or fifty dollars a pound.” He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. “Come on, Olivia, get in the damn dinghy. We should get out of here.”
    My mouth was open. Man, no kidding these guys didn’t want anyone to know what they were doing. This was big business. Criminal, obviously, but big business nonetheless. I had to agree with Patrick—hanging around was not a good idea. “Yeah,” I said, “let’s get out of here.”
    She shook her head. “We should take the live abalone with us. Maybe it could still be saved.”
    Patrick’s voice was low and urgent. “Olivia, these guys are making a small fortune off this. You don’t want to mess with them.”
    Still squatting at the stern, Olivia struck her knees with her fists. “How can you put a price on the survival of a species?”
    â€œIt’s not my price, honey. I’m just telling you what the market pays.” He looked up at
Salty Mist
. “Mind you, they’ll get a lower price for the meat they’ve already shucked and frozen.”
    â€œYou think they’ve already...killed some of them?” she asked.
    â€œI know they have. They’ve got a massive freezer.” He sighed. “Here’s how it works. They take their runabout out to dive for abalone to shuck and freeze. They spend a few days doing that—it’s faster than trying to keep them alive, because they don’t have to worry about damaging them.”
    â€œThat’s sick,” Olivia breathed. She looked up at me. “Abalone are hemophiliacs,you know? If they’re cut, they’ll bleed to death.”
    â€œI didn’t know,” I said. I was feeling stunned, like things were moving too fast, like there was some important piece I hadn’t quite figured out yet.
    Patrick shrugged. “Then they spend a couple days diving and taking live abalone. The restaurants prefer it and it brings a higher price.” He stood up and tried to grab Olivia’s wrist, but she stepped backward. “Olivia, get in the goddamn dinghy,” he hissed. “I’m not kidding around.”
    Olivia was staring at him. “Do you really know all this? Or are you just guessing? How do you know so much about it?”
    I had a sudden flashback to sitting in that restaurant our first night in Port Hardy: Patrick’s family’s restaurant. Olivia spotting the abalone on the menu and Patrick saying, “Relax, it’s imported.”
    â€œYou buy it, don’t you?” I said. “That aba-lone at your restaurant...it wasn’t imported.”
    Olivia gasped. “Simon! That’s an awful thing to say.”
    Patrick shrugged and his eyes slid away from us.