Chapter 34

A few days later...

Alan was again out on his boat, this time however, it was his own choice. Alan wanted to find out exactly what that marine animal was. He sat on the side of the boat in a wetsuit and fins and placed his mask on before slipping into the water, a portable sonar scanner in hand. This scanner would relay recordings of sea creatures nearby, back to his laptop. At the end of every day, it would send a file of clips of anything of great size, for example a whale, dolphin or in his case, the 'large fish.'

He placed his scanner firmly on a rock, reasonably deep. Satisfied, he headed to the surface and then back to the mainland.

OoOoO

"Where've you been?" Lewis asked Alan as he came back after his lunch break, his hair wet.

"Investigating something,"

OoOoO

Unfortunately for our mer-friends, they had no idea the sea was being monitored; they swam with their kids back to Mako.

OoOoO

Alan looked at his laptop eagerly, opening the files that the scanner had sent on schedule. Three readings had picked up activity that wasn't of the normal sized fish in the area. In the first scan there were seven bleeps on the screen, half the size of a dolphin, accompanied by two larger bleeps, both about the size of a dolphin. 'Could it be a pod?' Nine of these marine creatures were definitely something to look into. Though they were dolphin sized, dolphins did not usually have only two adults with seven calves. They could only have one calf every 2 years, these smaller bleeps looked about the same size, therefore the same age from this scan; this is what Alan considered. He clicked the next file open. The next scan was of two large bleeps swimming the same purposeful direction an hour later. The final scan, again was of two large bleeps, again swimming the same direction. Dolphins and other known sea creatures weren't known to go one particular direction, it was as if they knew where they were going. This needed investigation. He was going to go back and get some more detailed scans and hopefully, some visual images. First, he needed the equipment.

OoOoO

Alan monitored the creatures with the sonar scanner for a week before he could install the new equipment. As he monitored them, he observed that the creatures only appeared at certain times of the day, almost exactly to the minute. The first group would leave at around 8.30am, seven small and three big. The second group left at around 9am, this was a group of two larger creatures, both groups heading towards the shore. The next readings were after 3pm, the same time with groups of the same number as the first day. There was also a couple of dolphins that swam by occasionally during the week, these he could tell, actually were dolphins.

These were the core readings, then on two out of the seven days, he saw irregular patterns, normal to fish – they would spin round going no particular direction. Then after about an hour of this, they would head back in the same direction they came.

'Funny,' Alan thought about the groups heading to the mainland, 'It's as if they're rushing to work,' he ran this over in his mind. 'Rushing to work...could they be actually? Mermaids? No. Don't be silly Alan. Mermaids do not exist. It's just an uncanny coincidence,' he thought, 'Or is it...? I need a scanner with more precision and a larger range...and I know exactly where to get one,'

OoOoO

Alan knocked on the door. It opened a moment later.

"Alan, what a lovely surprise," Denman exclaimed, "Come in,"

"Hey Linda,"

"What brings you here?"

"I was wondering whether I could borrow one of your powerful sonar scanners, the ones that give a very clear reading, making out the shape of the marine life,"

"Personal or professional?" she asked curiously.

"Personal..."

"Alright, I can lend it to you for one week; it needs to come back in one piece,"

"I can manage that, thanks Linda."

"Can I enquire why you need one of these for personal use?"

"I just want to have clearer shape images, work won't allow me to use their scanners," he fibbed.

Alan didn't know why he'd just lied to his Aunt, somehow he didn't want anyone to know just yet.

She bought it and Alan left her house carrying a very important scanner.

OoOoO

As soon as he got back home, he took his boat out and switched the scanners, bringing the not-so-high-tech one back onboard. Hopefully, this would get him better results so he could in fact, make out what the animal was.

OoOoO

Meanwhile at Rikki's Cafe...

"...Happy Birthday dear Natalie, Happy Birthday to you.." Everyone sang in unison. It was Natalie Charles' third birthday and everyone was celebrating. Anna cut the cake giving a piece to everyone. Ben, and Anna had invited a couple of mums and little girls from play centre to celebrate with them.

"How time flies," Cleo muttered.

"What was that Cleo?" Emma asked.

"Oh, don't you think that time has flown by so quickly? Natalie is turning three! She is the youngest of us all,"

"You must be getting old," Emma laughed.

"Hey, you're older than me,"

"True, true. But your right, the past few years have gone by amazingly fast."

OoOoO

Alan's P.O.V

I opened my laptop, I wondered if any new scans had come in. I opened the file, suddenly a live scan filled the screen. Oh my goodness me. I had not had a reading like this before.

Wow, the definition was amazing. I could see a couple of dolphins as clear as day. Suddenly a mass of creatures came onto the screen. There had to twenty of them. Seven were the small creatures but with them there were creatures smaller still, ones that I hadn't seen swimming with them before. It was only a second before they had left the range of my scanner. Since the scan was recorded, I looked at it again, and again. No it couldn't be. I zoomed in on the creatures the more powerful sonar scanner gave accurate images of shape, sizes and weights of the creatures. When I zoomed in, it revealed them to have human torsos and arms projected above their head, but in place of where legs should be there was a tail. I sat back in my chair, shocked. This here was credible evidence that mermaids existed. I had no idea what I was going to do about it.

A/N: I am so sorry that this has taken such a long time to upload; I've have been insanely busy lately. Please, please review. If you do it might make this story higher on my priority list making it update sooner, no promises though, as I said I'm really busy. Please review though!

Anyway, thanks for reading, I'll try update soon.