NOVEMBER 6TH

"OK class, can I have your attention?" Mr. Banks called out to his class aboard the school bus as it turned onto the marina's main road, "We'll be arriving at the Walker-Blechman Oceanographic Institute very shortly. Now if you need to go the bathroom, try and go before we get on the boat; we're going to be out there a while, and I forgot to check if there's any bathroom facilities onboard. And they'll iterate it on board the boat, but I'll set it up here now: if we see any whales, please don't harass or harm them. They have feelings too, of course. And here we are," he rose to his feet as the bus slid to a stop in front of the institute, "...right in the middle of a protest," his voice dropped abruptly. Jesse, seated on the starboard side about halfway down the bus with Jake and Judy, turned to see about two dozen angry looking men parading in front of the institute's front door holding signs. "WHALES ARE NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN FEEDING AND PROVIDING FOR MY FAMILY" screamed one sign. "KEITH WALKER'S RADICAL AGENDA WILL DESTROY THE LOCAL ECONOMY" bellowed another. "LOCAL FISHERMEN HAVE RIGHTS TOO" raged a third, with many others saying more or less the same. "I didn't know it would be this unpopular having this here," he remarked to his new friends.

"Well, a lot of big bucks come from local fishing, Jesse; they have to be worried that if Mr. Walker gets his marine preserve put in place around here, they'll all go broke," Jake pointed out, "I do understand where they're coming from-they've probably been doing this their whole lives, and any protected areas would seem to them like they'll be cutting into their livelihoods."

"Well Mr. Walker said he'd try and work with them if they had issues," Jesse reminded them, "I can see their point too, but the whales aren't their enemies."

"I hope they can understand that," Judy added, rising up and gathering her belongings, as did the boys. "Follow me, everyone." Mr. Banks led his class off the bus, "As you can see, class, democracy in action here, just as Mr. Collins mentioned in his social studies class; in this country, you have the right to do this without worrying about getting shot..." he ducked low as the angry fishermen stepped towards him with loud shouts, waving their signs in his face, "Yes, yes, I know how you feel, gentlemen," the teacher said, covering his head, "Uh, we're just a class on a field trip here; we're not your enemies. And so you know, studies show that having large concentrations of whales in a marine environment will increase fishing yields..."

He gently pushed open a path for his students through the protesters to the front door. "Made it," he breathed in relief, holding the door open for his class, some of whom looked a bit uncomfortable with the high level of ire displayed by the protesters, "OK then, we'll be looking for a Ms. Lindley...and there she is now," he gestured at Rae, approaching with a smile, "She'll be our de facto guide on this trip, so you can pay attention to what she tells us. Good to see you again," he shook Rae's hand.

"Nice to see you again too. Hello everyone, I'm Rae, and as Mr. Banks probably told you, I'll be taking you out on this field trip," she greeted Jesse's class, "Now there's a lot you can learn from..."

"You used to be the whale trainer at Northwest Adventure Park, weren't you?" one of the girls recognized her, "I saw the whale show there at the beginning of the summer."

"Yes, I was, but now I'm working here, and I'm liking it better..."

"And you probably think you'll have immunity from stealing that whale here, don't you?" it was Bart, stepping forward with an accusing glare, "I've heard all about it: you and the Indian at the park stole it to cover up from messing up the show..."

"Well I'm sorry, young man, but you were tremendously misinformed, because that's not what happened at all," Rae emphasized, "Everything that did happen that night was done for the benefit of the whale in question..."

"Yeah right. My dad says you and all the other whale-loving hippies are all full of crap," Bart snorted, unmoved, "I'll bet that..."

"OK then, well while we're here, let's go over a few quick safety tips," Mr. Banks hastily cut in, "First off, each of you will be presented with a life preserver; please follow the instructions with putting them on. And once you're on board the boat, don't lean too close to the railing; we certainly don't want anyone falling overboard. And while some of you may be called on to help with whale tagging and other important tasks, please keep the whales' well being in mind..."

"Our first field trip is here, I see," it was Walker, approaching from the now completed conference room to the left with several more well dressed men and women. "Welcome to the institute; we're very glad that you can join us in seeing how top grade whale research goes down. And from what I've seen from the staff so far, we've got a good experience for you kids; the gray whale migration is in full swing right now, and we have a pod of orcas nearby that you'll enjoy meeting. Are there any questions before you go off?"

"Yeah, how do you live with yourself ruining people's lives, Walker?" it was Bart again, glaring the businessman down, "My uncle runs a fishing boat, and he says you're going to ruin him with your stupid marine preserve. Whales are just big dumb animals; they're not worth it as far as I can see."

"Well I'm sorry you feel that way, son. I am trying to work out a deal of some kind with local fishermen; unlike some people that put these things together, I think their voice should be heard," Walker shot a worried glance towards the door, where several of the protesters, having noticed him, were pounding on the glass and shouting furiously.

"And then you trample all over them anyway. You're crap, Walker, just like her, and just like him," Bart pointed contemptuously at Rae and Mr. Banks, who winced at being put down by his classroom nemesis again.

"You hadn't mentioned there'd be this much opposition, Keith..." one of the other men mumbled at him.

"I didn't think there'd be either, Walt; guess I misjudged local sentiment to some degree. But please, you and your colleagues here should still consider investing in the institute; once it takes off, it'll pay for itself-and we'll make a deal with the fishermen somehow. Well, enjoy the ride, kids; I'm going to be trying to get these people to consider investing so we can expand even more," Walker told the class.

"And we wish you luck with that, Mr. Walker, believe me. Everyone, this way if you will; I see your life preservers are all set up for you there by the door," Mr. Banks pointed. He bent down to Bart's level with a frown and mumbled at him, "I know you're not enjoying this trip already, Bart, but please don't ruin the day for everyone else."

"Go to hell, Banks; I could care less about you or the whales," Bart muttered back defiantly, seeming even more now to Jesse to be an unpleasant reflection of what he himself had once been. Hopefully, the other boy wouldn't ruin the excursion, he hoped.

He slipped on his life preserver and followed his class out the back door and down the dock to the boat. "Everyone, this is Randolph, he'll be the captain of our little trip," Mr. Banks introduced Jesse's other adult friend to his students, "I've already given them the safety instructions, Randolph, so I guess we're ready to go when you and Ms. Lindley are."

"OK, everyone step back from the railing, we're heading out," Randolph told the class, untying the boat and bustling to the cabin. Jesse made his way to the bow, where Rae had positioned herself. "Well, I guess we made it," he told her with a grin.

"Guess so," she high fived him with one of her own, and did the same with Jake and Judy when they approached. "OK everyone, as we head on out, do you know how important whales are to marine life?" she asked the class as the boat lurched out into the marina. No one had an answer. "Well for one thing, they keep ecosystems in balance by keeping fish and krill levels manageable..."

"And steal fish out of the fisherman's nets, so we're better off without them," Bart refused to stop griping.

"Bart, come on, don't ruin a field trip; we don't get many as it is," another boy elbowed him, clearly tiring of his act already.

"Well if there were no whales, there'd ultimately be a big fish population crash, since they'd breed out of control with no predators to keep them in check, and then they'd run out of food," Rae pointed out with a frown, "And I'm not sure if Mr. Banks mentioned this to you, but where there are whales, fisheries are more productive."

"And I can mention something else to that end: whales keep the ecosystems strong just by going the bathroom..." Mr. Banks chimed in.

"Yuck, gross," a girl groaned, looking sick at the thought.

"It may certainly seem that way, Sally, but in fact, whale droppings fertilize plankton and krill and allow them to grow," the teacher elaborated, "And since they're the basis of life in the oceans, that keeps the whole food chain going. The smaller fish eat that, just like the skimming whales do too, the larger fish eat the smaller fish, the toothed whales and sharks eat the larger fish. Plus, when a whale dies and their bodies sink to the ocean floor, which is known as a whale fall, it also provides food for fish. Now as I mentioned last Thursday..."

He and Rae continued their lecture, of which Jesse knew most of the relevant facts already. He was pleased to see that apart from Bart, standing by himself on the stern scowling, the rest of his classmates were at least pretending to enjoy the lecture, and a few did seem to now be genuinely interested. He turned back to the bow railing, waiting for the first whales to come into sight. He'd checked Willy's tracker before going to school earlier, and his friend hadn't moved from the cove his pod had seemed to be in since Saturday night-unusual, but probably nothing wrong with it, he assumed; perhaps they'd simply found a good food supply there...

"There!" Judy exclaimed next to him, pointing. The first whale of the day, a gray whale, surfaced with a splash about a hundred yards in front of them. And Jesse saw close to a dozen others now surface as well behind this one, another migratory group in transit. His classmates exclaimed in awe and delight, finally interested in what Mr. Banks had been telling them about the natural world. "Aha. So here we have a group of gray whales migrating," Rae told the class, pointing down at the whales, "Some of you may know that they make the longest migration of any mammal; in a few months, they're reach their wintering grounds in the tropics, where they'll give birth to their calves..."

"And don't stop, you lousy thieves!" it was Bart again, and Jesse saw him draw a bunch of rocks from his pocket and start hurling them at the passing whales, thankfully missing. This was the last straw for Jesse. "Stop it, Bart!" he bellowed, rushing back to the stern and grabbing his arm before he could fling down another rock, "They're not hurting us!"

"Oh they're not, Whale Boy!? My uncle's lost nearly ten percent of his catch to whales in the last year; he's barely breaking even!"

"These whales don't even eat fish, Bart, so don't blame them!" Jesse gestured furiously at the whales passing below, "And I'm getting tired of you picking on them, Mr. Banks, and every other grownup you don't like...!"

"You've got a problem with me, Whale Boy!?" Bart raised a fist in his face.

"Bart, stop it, it's not worth it!" another boy tried to pull him away.

"Stay out of this, Steve!" Bart shoved him away. "All right, you asked for it, Whale Boy!" he swung a hard punch towards Jesse. Jesse ducked it, and Bart's momentum sent him sailing clean overboard with a loud splash. Half the class cheered, clearly having also decided Bart had been going too far. "I'd call you a washout, Bart, but that would be going too far," Jesse called down coolly to him.

Bart let out an ear-splitting scream as one of the passing whales surfaced right in front of him and exhaled. "Help! Don't let it eat me!" he screeched in terror, oblivious to the fact that a gray whale, which ate only krill and plankton, was not dangerous to him. He frantically splashed away from it, although it continued following him, apparently curious about him. "Save me, somebody; please don't let it eat me!" he screamed pathetically.

"Promise no more insulting me, the whales, or the rest of the class, Bart?" Mr. Banks leaned over the railing with a triumphant grin.

"Promise, promise! Now save me!" Bart wailed, splashing water back at the whale to try and make it back off, to no avail. Laughing, Mr. Banks tossed a life preserver down to him and pulled him back aboard. "OK, now for the good stuff, class," he turned back to his other students once the now sopping wet Bart was back on the boat, "Randolph and Ms. Lindley have a couple of whale trackers here; the institute will be following their migration with them. Who wants to take a shot at tagging them?

More than half the class's hands went up. "OK then. Ryan, Wendy, you can go first," Mr. Banks singled out two students and gestured to Rae for a set of poles. Jesse, meanwhile, rejoined Jake and Judy in the bow. "We'll let them have their fun; we do it enough as it is," he told them, "It's good to see they're finally warming up to the whales."

"I know. And I'm glad Bart finally got his just desserts," Judy scowled at their classmate, who at that moment let out a loud sneeze from the stern, "I'd had enough of him too. And throwing things at the whales was the last straw for me; if you hadn't confronted him, Jesse, I was going to."

"Let's see if he keeps his word going forward then," Jesse mused. They and Jake watched their classmates tag the whales, many of them looking quite excited to do so. Finally, the whales moved on to continue their trip south. "Well I'm glad you all liked that," Rae told the students, "Now that you've met some baleen whales, we can introduce you to toothed whales. There's a pod of orcas in the area, and we're going to find them next..."

"There's a baby orca right there now," one of the girls suddenly exclaimed, pointing off the starboard bow. Jesse's head shot around as a low cry now rang out from the water. Sure enough, a baby orca was swimming towards the boat-a very familiar baby orca...

"Potlatch..." he recognized the baby from the other day-and his eyes went wide to see a gash across its back, as if it had been injured. "Rae, that's Potlatch," he ran up to her, concerned, "Should she be alone like this...?"

"No, she shouldn't..." Rae looked deathly worried herself, "Babies orcas don't go off on their own like this. Something's wrong..."

"What's wrong?" a boy nearby asked her. It was then that Jesse's eyes caught sight of something disturbing in the distance: a red stream flowing from a cove, which was augmented by the sound of agonizing wails ringing out. His heart lurched straight to his ankles. "Oh god..." he gasped softly, his eyes widening at the thought of what this might entail.

"Oh my god...!" Rae had seen it too now, and was equally horrified. "Randolph, over there, quick!" she called to him, pointing. Randolph's eyes also went wide at the sight. "Everyone hold on!" he shouted to his guests, then threw the boat's engine to maximum power. It raced rapidly through the waves towards the cove. Jesse gripped the railing hard, trying to brace himself for whatever might be awaiting them. "Please be all right, Willy...!" he begged out loud, terrible scenarios now playing out in his mind, "Please don't let this be what it looks like...!"

But the moment the boat turned into the cove, he stumbled backwards from the railing in shock and horror. For no fewer than ten orcas lay floating near the shore of the cove, dead or clearly dying. And it was clear that whatever had happened to them had been brutal. "Oh my god no...!" he whimpered, his legs giving out from under him now. He collapsed to the deck, in synchronization with a scream of grief from an equally horrified Judy, and a thud as Jake fell to the deck in shock himself. Many of their classmates screamed in horror too at the sight. The boat drifted lazily towards the whale's bodies, Randolph clearly in shock himself. "Oh my gosh...!" he stumbled out of the cabin now, his jaw open wide, "What happened here...!?"

No one had an answer. The wails got louder as the boat got closer. About five other orcas who apparently had escaped whatever had happened floated near the victims, wailing in agony for the deceased. And Jesse immediately recognized Catspaw among the mourners. His blood froze cold. Did that mean...?

Breathing heavily in fear, he ran back to the railing and forced himself to look at the dead whales. To his relief, none of the dead orcas had a flopped over fin, so Willy was not among the casualties, at least at far as he could see. But then again, his friend also visibly wasn't among the mourners either. What had happened to him then, he wondered? Had whoever had done this captured him and the other whales? Or was his friend's body now at the bottom of the cove...?

He now heard a splashing sound in the water. A pale Mr. Banks had gone down the ladder and was stumbling through the surf towards the sand, where Nekilstlass lay, barely moving, and having been visibly shot repeatedly. She let out a weak whimper at the sight of the teacher. "Hey, it's all right, old girl, it's all right," fighting back tears, Mr. Banks put an arm around her, "I'm sure you fought for your family as hard as you could. Where's everyone else!?"

Nekilstlass gave him no answer. With one final whimper, her head slumped down, her eyes closing for the last time. Perhaps sensing this was their matriarch's end, the live whales let out an even louder barrage of grief in the water. Mr. Banks sadly lowered his head on top of Nekilstlass'. "So, for all of you who thought whales made no difference in the world," he turned back to the boat, his eyes locking in on Bart, who himself looked stunned at the carnage, "What do you all think now!?"

He broke down, whimpering, "Why!?" out loud repeatedly. There was a thumping next to Jesse as a sick-looking Jake ran towards the stern and started throwing up over the railing in grief. Jesse felt much like doing the same, even with Willy apparently not among the dead. Most of the rest of his class was crying hard now, including Judy next to him. "Who would do this!?" she moaned to him, "Who would treat them like this!?"

"I don't know, Judy...WILLY!" Jesse ran to the railing and screamed for his friend. There was no answer, other than the continuing wails of Willy's surviving family members in the water. "WILLY!" he screamed again. Still no answer. He frantically pulled out his harmonica and desperately played the familiar tune again. Again, nothing at all. Jesse dropped it to the deck and collapsed sobbing against the railing. Alive or not, Willy was gone, he knew, maybe forever.


"My god...!" an equally horrified Walker mumbled back at the institute, "How many were killed!?"

"We counted..." Randolph wiped at his eyes, still in shock, "...counted eleven victims. There may have been more that sunk to the bottom. Fifteen pod members are unaccounted for. Only six confirmed survivors at the moment."

"Dear lord. Do you think they'll be able to survive as a pod with that big a loss!?" the businessman inquired.

"Who's to say, Mr. Walker?" a tearful Rae shook her head, "Orcas have highly socialized structures; this big a loss could destroy them. Please, use your influence to find out who could have done this."

"I will," Walker agreed, turning to walk back to the police that had been called to the institute once word of the terrible occurrence had come out. Shaking her head sadly, Rae walked over to Jesse, slumped down on the dock with his head hung low. "You all right?" she asked him sympathetically.

"No," Jesse mumbled, "He's gone, I know it."

"Well we don't know that for sure, Jesse. With that many whales missing, maybe he got taken somewhere..."

"But half his family's dead," Judy sobbed on Jesse's other side, "What does he have to come back to now if he is alive!? I just..." she wailed in grief loudly. "Who would be that cruel to kill that many of them!?"

"I don't know, Judy," Rae put a sympathetic arm around the girl, "Sometimes humans can just be crueler than we could have ever thought." She looked past her to a numb Jake. "How are you doing, Jake?"

"Kago's gone too," Jake whimpered, looking crushed, "And so's Polaris and Willy's siblings," he gave Judy a sad nod, "Everyone we knew well's gone. How did...!?"

"Hey, I've got something here!" came the shout of the institute's security guard from the boat. Jesse spun at the cry-and nearly fell over to see the man hefting a set of bloody pikes and machine guns from the boat's hold. "What in the...!?" he gasped in shock.

"What've you got!?" the leader of the police ran onto the deck.

"These were down in the hold," the guard said grimly, "And I should mention, Officer, Mr. Johnson and Miss Lindley are the only ones who would have keys to the boat," he pointed accusingly at Randolph and Rae.

"I see," the policemen nodded. "Well," he strode off the boat towards Jesse's adult friends, "Do the two of you have an explanation for this?"

"I never saw those before, Officer," Randolph insisted, "Rae and I haven't been out since Saturday, and that particular pod was alive and well then..."

"Still, you are the only ones who've used the boat thus far here?"

"Are you accusing us of doing this!?" Rae snapped at him, "Randolph and I love and respect whales; we'd never kill them, especially not that brutally!"

"Perhaps, but I'm afraid this evidence looks pretty damning right now. So I'm afraid that the two of you are under arrest for killing protected animals," the policeman drew his handcuffs, "You have the right to remain silent..."

"There, there must be some mistake here, Officer," a stunned Walker jumped in, "I have absolute full trust in Randolph Johnson and Rae Lindley; they would never do anything like this!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Walker, but I have my duty under the law, and this looks bad," the lead policeman shook his head.

He placed his handcuffs on a stunned Rae. "No, you can't do this!" Jesse rushed forward, horrified at this turn of events, "Those must have been planted by whoever did actually kill the whales! Rae and Randolph would never hurt any whales...!"

"I'm afraid I have to do this unless you have any other evidence, son," the policeman shook his head.

"Wait a minute, how did you know to look in the hold!?" Jake suspiciously thrust a finger at the guard, "There was no reason for anyone to look in there; I saw you go right down there! Do you know something!?"

"Absolutely not, kid," the guard shook his head emphatically, "I smelled the blood and gunpowder and checked."

"Hey, you've been here on watch here at the insitutue a lot of the time; you'd have access to the boat too!" Judy accused him as well, "What's your alibi!?"

"That's ridiculous! I've been on duty here all this morning! Ask the rest of the staff, I've never left the building!" the guard insisted.

"You know more than you say!" Jake stormed towards him, "Where's Kago and the other whales!?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, kid...!"

"Jake, Jake, there's no need to get upset...!" Mr. Banks tried to calm him down.

"No, there is, Mr. Banks!" Judy cut him off. "Tell them the truth!" she joined Jake right in the guard's face, "You planted that evidence to frame Rae and Randolph, didn't you!? Tell them the truth!"

"OK, I'm going to ask you kids to back down, or I'll have to ask the cops here to arrest you too," the guard threatened them.

"Admit it, you killed them!" with an enraged roar, Jake lunged at the guard and started punching him, and Judy couldn't stop herself from doing the same. Stunned, Jesse could only watch as the police rushed the boat and pulled his friends off the guard. "Calm down, kids, that's an order!" the lead cop demanded to them.

"Arrest them; that's unwarranted assault and battery," the guard snarled, rubbing his face, "I'm pressing full charges against them for it."

"If you wish. Let's go, kids, you're coming too," the police dragged the still struggling Jake and Judy off the boat towards the handcuffed Rae and Randolph. Jesse snapped back to attention, knowing he had to do something. Without even thinking, he seized the nearest officer's gun as the man passed by them. "Let them go!" he ordered the police, leveling it right at them, "They're all innocent!"

"Jesse, no!" Rae pleaded him in shock.

"I have to, Rae! You can't go to jail for nothing!" Jesse pleaded, "Take the cuffs off them, now!" he demanded to the police, who had their hands on their own weapons now, "They haven't done anything wrong! Let them go or I'll...!"

"Jesse, don't do this! This is a misunderstanding; we'll be released soon enough," Randolph begged him, "Don't go down this path."

"Jesse, it's all right," Walker approached and put a hand on his shoulder, "I'll see to their legal needs; we'll get this cleared up..."

"Is this your idea of a civic operation, Keith!? Hiring whale killers as your supposed research staff!?" a furious would-be donor demanded to him.

"I swear this is a mistake, Walt! Something's not right here...!"

"Well count me out. I don't want any part of something that's just a public relations debacle at best and maybe something worse. You're on your own with this now," the man turned and stormed away. The rest of the potential donors quickly followed, disgust now on their faces. "Jesse, it's all right; there's no need for a gun here," Walker pleaded with him. Jesse, now feeling a surge of guilt for having let his emotions take hold of him so heavily, lowered the gun. "All right, you're under arrest now too, son, for threatening officers of the law and illegal use of a firearm," the lead policeman told him sternly, gesturing for more handcuffs from a colleague, "You have the right to remain silent; if you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."