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“Why’s it called wahoo?” Courtney asked, picking up the line and settling it in her holder.

“When I hit the drag, give it a good yank,” Mike said. “Then hang the hell on.”

When the hook hit the wahoo, it took off like a rocket in a three-hundred-yard run, the line screaming out of the reel.

“Waaaaaahoo!” Courtney screamed, fighting the bucking rod.

“Now you know,” Mike said, grinning ear to ear.

Wahoo weren’t sustained fighters, and lighter than most sail, so in twenty minutes it was onboard and pictures taken. They were, however, good eating, and it went in the cooler. The fight hadn’t even disturbed the other kites, so Mike got the whole line rerigged pretty quick.

“Mike, I gotta know,” Courtney said. “What’s in the Bluebeard Room?”

“Get used to disappointment,” Mike said, chuckling. “Okay, I’ll tell you. I have locks of hair from each of my conquests, with date and time, up on the walls. It’s a little bizarre, so I stopped showing them off and now I keep it locked.”

“That I can almost believe,” Pam said. “Are we going to do a scene tonight?”

“How do you feel about it?” Mike asked.

“Nervous as a virgin,” Pam admitted. “Eager as one, too. I’ll admit, I really, really enjoyed the scene the other night. And, okay, what we did this morning.”

“I’ve got one problem with it,” Courtney said, frowning. “I hate to be petty, but you’ve had more… in time with Mike than I have.”

“Pam, do you mind if we adjust that a bit, tonight?” he asked. “It might mean you get a bit shortchanged.”

“I can handle that,” Pam said.

Mike turned to a control and hit a series of keys, and steel guitar started to ring from the speakers.

“What is that?” Courtney asked.

“A one-hit wonder from the ’70s,” Mike said. “It’s off an MP3 collection from my CDs. This piece is called ‘Thunder Island’ by Jay Ferguson. There’s probably a bunch of stuff you won’t recognize. Generational thing, and I’m also into Goth and industrial. On the other hand, there’s also Pink, Enya, Evanescence, stuff like that. I like a lot of modern music.” He looked up as one of the lines dropped loose then nodded. “Fish on. Pam’s side.”

Pam got up and put on the harness and lifted the rod, stepping back and then hitting the drag.

“Holy cow!” she shouted as the fish began its initial run. Suddenly the sail burst out of the water and tail-walked from port to starboard, shaking its head.

“Keep pressure on it,” Mike warned. “Otherwise it will throw the hook.”

“It’s strong,” Pam yelled.

“That’s what the harness is for,” Mike said. “Let your back do the work.”

He got the other lines reeling in with electric motors and halfway back one of them hit.

“Damn,” he said. “Courtney, get it. Try not to cross the lines.”

Fortunately, the two sails stayed well apart and both girls had one hell of a fight on their hands. Pam got hers in in about thirty minutes, bringing it into the transom where Mike pulled it up onto the deck.

“I’d like to make sure we can release it,” Mike said. “Can you get the camera and get down here?”

They took pictures of Pam with her sail in the flooded flush deck and then Mike fed it some raw wash and a ballyhoo and got it back running with a tap on the tail.

By that time Courtney had brought hers alongside and he landed that one and got pictures. All in all it took about an hour to get the two sails to the boat and off, and by that time both girls were elated and exhausted.

Mike got the lines back up and soon after there was a dolphin on board. He climbed up to the tuna tower and noticed that, by luck as much as anything, the kites were dropping by a weed line. Shortly after the dolphin, Courtney hooked up to another tail walker — her first one hadn’t left the water — and she fought it for about three minutes after its first run and then the line went, mostly, slack.

“Probably threw the hook,” Mike said, letting the kites back out. “Put it on the winch and let that reel the line in.”

When the line came alongside it was clear the fish hadn’t thrown the hook. The sail was gone from just behind the head with a big, crescent, bite mark just past its gills.

“Oh, wow,” Courtney said, looking at the head as Mike pulled it over the side.

“Want a picture of this?” Mike asked, grinning and unhooking the head.

“Yeah,” Courtney said. “And you want us to go swimming in this water?”

“Any time you enter the water you’re in the food chain,” Mike said. “But snorkelers and divers hardly ever get unprovoked attacks. It’s safer than driving in Springfield.”

“Maybe,” Courtney said. “But if you’re in a wreck, they don’t eat you.”

They landed a couple more sail and dolphin by noon, then the run pretty much ended.

“Let’s get lunch,” Mike said, reeling in the lines. “They probably won’t start hitting again until this evening.”

Chapter Ten

Mike pulled the wahoo out of the cooler, skinned and gutted it, and cut it into steaks with a machete. Three of those went on the deck grill in a light olive oil marinade. Along with leftover rice and some cut fruit, it made a great lunch.

“If we keep eating this light,” Courtney said, “and getting all this… exercise, I’m liable to lose weight.”

“You don’t have any weight to lose,” Mike said, laughing.

“I could lose some on the hips,” Courtney said, shaking her head.

“You could stand to gain some on the hips,” Mike said. “But, yeah, eating like this is as natural a way to lose weight as you can ask. I actually have to be careful or I start losing muscle mass. I need to do more swimming.”

“How far can you swim?” Pam asked curiously.

“I’ve done twenty miles,” Mike said, shrugging. “But that was when I was younger and in shape for it. Five miles is about right these days. That’s just swimming with goggles. With fins I’m good for ten to fifteen.”

“Damn,” Courtney said. “That’s a long ways.”

“And staying able to do it takes doing it,” Mike said, smiling. “I haven’t been keeping in shape since you girls have been here.”

“Don’t let us stop you,” Pam said. “I’d love to have something wear you out.”

“You wear me out, Pam,” Mike said, grinning. “But, yeah, I think I’ll go swim.”

“Out here?” Courtney said. “What about that sailfish?”

“If I worried about sharks I never would have joined the SEALs,” Mike said. He walked up on deck, picking up a pair of swimming goggles, and went over the side with a splash.

The boat was well out to sea and moving with the different vectors of wind and current. Mike decided that keeping no more than a hundred yards away was prudent. He generally stayed within no more than fifty meters, letting the Stream be his opponent and swimming into it. He was used to swimming in deep water, having done so all over the world. Sometimes fleets would just stop at sea for some down time; it was called “Steel Beach.” SEALs attached to the fleets would generally spend the time doing races from ship to ship, sometimes swimming as much as ten miles.

He got into the rhythm, riding the swells, keeping half an eye on the shadow of the boat, just looking into the deeps. One time he saw a pod of sailfish riding the current northwards to cooler, more productive, waters. They turned to check him out, their sides flashing in bands of color, then turned away, hurrying north. Another time it was a turtle, disinterested in the marine mammal paddling overhead, being carried in the current and headed to wherever turtles head thinking whatever turtles thought. A small bait pod came past, chased by a tiny pod of dolphin. A string of sargassum weed came past and he ducked under it, turning over to look at the small fish on the underside. The weed lines were the only cover in the blue waters and the small fish huddled in their shade, hoping to escape the predators that roamed the big blue. The predators, however, knew that and thus homed in on the weeds, or human trash, or floating tree trunks, whatever floated at the surface. It was the reason to fish along the weed lines.