Chapter Twenty-Five
Artwork by Keith Elder
The viewplate of the diving suit fogged over yet again, and Gadget reached automatically with one thick-gloved paw to swipe at it. It clanked uselessly against the glass.
Youre underwater, silly, she berated herself, and that fogs on the inside of your helmet.
The retrieval operation was a two-person job, and with the exception of Arthurwho slogged his way through the lakebottom muck beside her in his bigger suitshe was the only soul in Thorn Valley who was certified to use the scuba gear.
Well, "scuba" wasnt right. The "s" and "c" in scuba stood for self-contained, which these clumsy suits definitely werent. They were run off air-hoses, connected to huge compressors weighing down the boats above them. Those same compressors would soon be laboring and wheezing to run the suction hoses Gadget and Arthur dragged along. Gadget had used a similar setup before to clear sand and debris away from an ancient shipwreck.
This time, she wasnt after treasure.
Devin had gotten very protective, and didnt want her going down into the dark, cold waters on her morbid errand. His concern and love for Gadget touched her greatly, but as she pointed out, there was no other choice. Arthur, God bless him, was a crafty and capable rat in all matters but cuisine, but in all fairness he was only a little younger than Dr. Ages, and wasnt aging as well. A strong pair of armsand a sharp pair of eyeswere assets that only Gadget could lend Arthur now.
Devin had glumly conceded the point, and coaxed a promise out of herfor her unborn childs sake, and for her own, shed surface quickly if she started to feel lightheaded or strange in any way.
Compared to what? she wondered, lurching through the near-dark of the lake, lights from the boat above casting haloes and filtering down through the silt dredged up in the wake of her progress. My normal days would land most people in the looneybin. She felt a sudden pang of longing for her sanctuary cave, with its rocky stillness and its soft bed, with the door she could lock against all the madness outside. She smiled at the quickness with which some corner of her heart had latched onto that place as home. Devin will most definitely be welcome there, especially after this nights dark work, she nodded silently.
Arthur gestured her forward, squinting eyes peering through his faceplate. The dark blur ahead resolved itself into the towering rocks the pike had fled to, and where the object of their mission lay.
Arthur went down on his knees and aimed his suction hose at the forlorn, drifting shape Gadget knew was the body. As she threw the switch on her own silt-sucker, she felt her air supply hitch and diminish a little. Her lungs really had to pull for a breath now. What about Arthur? I hope the old fellows getting enough air. Working together, she and Arthur cleared some working space in a ring around the body. She didnt envy Devin and the others in the boats above, as they were surely working double-time scraping algae, dead leaves, and mud out of the systems filters.
Arthur yanked twice on his line, and sat down beside the body. Most of the moss and grime that had earlier covered it was now gone, and its fur was a dull patchy brown in the lights. Arthur reached a paw out as if to touch it, but covered his faceplate instead. Gadget took a step toward him, concerned, but he waved her off gently.
From above came a shock rippling through the water, and a slapping sound to go with it. The two aquatic explorers raised their paws to receive the clear, box-like glass tank lowered to them from one of the boats. A last few air bubbles made for the surface as they bobbled out of the tanks corners. With much fumbling of paws, they guided the tank to rest with its open side facing the body.
Gadget gulped the steamy air inside her helmet and bent to look for a good pawhold that wouldnt damage the unfortunate remains, but Arthur just stood in his suit and trembled. He sent little waves of distress up his air-hose as he joined her and nodded quicklya lets-get-this-over nod. They laid their covered paws on the ruined once-white fabric of the bodys lab coat, and rolled it gently into the tank, bits of fur coming loose despite all their care. Then, rocking the tank back and forth, they turned it right side up and let its contents settle.
They hefted the thick glass cover of the tank, and slid it across the top, hearing its seal close with a muffled click. Gadget was reminded of a television special shed seen, when a magician had himself chained tight and lowered into fresh concrete inside a glass coffin. No magic trick was going to bring this fellow out of the waters safe and sound, Gadget reflected, but she drew back in amazement as Arthur threw himself across the tank. His chest hitched and heaved as he pounded a paw against the cover.
Gadget pulled at his arm, and he let himself be led off a few paces. He sat there, huddled and shaky, as Gadget went back to check the lines tied to metal rings at the tanks corners. She pulled at one of the lines, and the whole affair rocked and swayed toward the surface of the water. As she returned to Arthurs side and peered through his faceplate, she saw his eyes were shut tight and he was breathing more shallowly nowmuch more. Hooking an arm around his, she undid the weights at his ankles and her own, then kicked with all her might for the surface. Arthur was barely able to move his paws to help at all.
When Devin, Gadget, and Roger managed to haul Arthur into the boat and get his helmet off, they first thought his suit had sprung a leak. Actually, Arthur had. His grey-flecked fur was wet, not with lakewater, but with a flood of tears.
"I should have made both of you promise to come up at the first sign of trouble," Devin grumbled.
"I thought you were having a heart attack" Gadget started.
Devin pulled one of her gloves off and guided a paw to Arthurs neck. She felt the jumpy, weak pulse there. "Feel that, Gadge? He was having one."
Gadget whistled. "Damn. Good thing we brought the bottled oxygen. Too bad we couldnt take it down with us"
As Gadget fitted the breathing mask on him, Arthur reached a paw weakly toward a nearby boat, where the glass tank was tied down. "I had to go," he wheezed. "That was my son down there."
Far from calm, but thankfully far away from the lake, Gadget lay in the dark of her room just off her workshop. She knew she should try to salvage the rest of this night, building up strength for the long day of questions and discoveries ahead, but her heart was uneasy. It shouldnt be, she tried to convince herself. Im here in a warm bed, held by a good guyno, a great guy who loves me, with nothing to do tomorrow but look for the truth. A good place to work from, maybe, but the ups and downs of the day had spun her about so badly that she could not sleep.
Devin half-woke, his paws seeking out her own, which were clenched unknowingly in her long headfur. She let him guide her paws to his chest and hold them gently there. "Please, sweetheart, get some rest," he mumbled to soothe her, his eyes shining in the dark as he blinked them sleepily. "If youre still worried about Arthur"
"Thats some of it. "
"You had no way of knowing his ticker was going bad. With those suits you both had on, there was no telling how either of you were feeling."
Gadget shook her head. "Its not so much that I should have caught the heart attack diagnosis, Dev. Thats not what bothers me."
Devin kneaded her still-tense shoulders, putting his sleepy half-thoughts in order. "Hmm. So what does have your tail in a knot?"
"I just feel so bad about Arthur losing his son. I cant bear to think of what it would be like to lose a child"
Devin shushed her and took her paws again, guiding them from his chest down to her stomach. "I, for one, will work hard to make sure you never find out. Im your personal physician, milady--on call twenty-four-seven." He pulled his paws back up to her shoulders and went back to working the days stress out of her.
Gadget sighed as his strong paws seemed to pull the soreness deep out of her muscles. "Devin? Tell me something, and tell it to me straight."
"Ill do my best, Gadge. Id feel awful if I didnt."
"I know, I know. But when Im pregnant out to here," she made a guess, rounding out an invisible stomach with her paws, "with a child that isnt yours when just moving around makes me tired, and when Im cranky all the time, will you love me any less?"
"Well," he drawled, "speaking as a doctor"
"not as a doctor, as you!" she elbowed him gently.
"Ouch! Ill get there, dont worry. From all appearances, youre physically fine for a pregnancy. It might be an emotional rollercoaster, and you might have a little balance problem in the next couple of weeks, or need to rest more often, but I think youll be active up until the minute you pop."
"Dont dodge the question, Doctor Packard," she growled, a note of worry still in her voice. "Will you feel different about me through all this?"
His grip on her shoulders tightened and she felt his whiskers tickle her ear. "Speaking as myself, Id be a fool to let you doubt my love, or let you out of my paws, for an instant."
Gadget felt a warm flush ripple through hermostly happiness, but with a twinge of embarrassment. "Thank you so much, Devin. Am I silly for worrying?"
"Very silly. Now go to sleep."
Under Devins patient kneading, she gave in, and put the days worries off for a while. With a sigh of satisfaction, she settled in. She felt as though she and Devin might have been locked away in a time capsule, marked "Do Not Disturb," or better yet, "Do Not Open Until All This Weirdness Blows Over."
Still, falling asleep was like slipping into deep waters, and in her dreams she was drifting, drifting, plowing her paws slowly through the dark for something she was not sure she wanted to grasp.
Button images by Keith Elder