The Merlin Effect by T. A. Barron Read Free Book Online Page A

Merlin.”
    “Not in the least! It’s a marriage of convenience, that’s all. Our interests don’t overlap one bit. Isabella is studying one fish in particular that was supposed to be long extinct, but was found recently in the catch of a local fisherman.”
    “And Terry?”
    “I didn’t really know him when I asked him to join us, which was risky. But I knew he is a leader in sonic imaging technology, even if he is only in his twenties. He was the first person to merge sonar, much like whales use to communicate underwater, with the same thermal sensing devices used by satellites. I thought, naively, that getting him meant getting to use his equipment. Was I ever wrong. He’s been using it to study the unusual volcanic activity off this coast. And he’s—”
    “A total jerk.” She touched the black cable with her bare foot. “Too bad you can’t just get Isabella to take you down in the submersible. Then you wouldn’t need to use Terry’s stuff to get a picture.”
    “She guards the submersible with her life! Being the director of the Institute’s deep-water research program is not nearly as important to her as being the submersible’s chief pilot. And she’s reluctant to take it down anywhere near the whirlpool, for fear it might be damaged. So unless I can come up with something very convincing, she won’t risk it.”
    Giving the counter a pat, Jim rose from his chair. “It’s time.” He punched the commands into the computer once again, then waited.
    Nothing.
    Lips pinched, he shrugged. “Looks like I struck out.” He turned toward the door.
    “Look,” exclaimed Kate, pointing to the screen. Slowly, a hazy image was beginning to form.
    He whirled around. Instantly, he activated the printer. For several agonizing seconds, they waited for the hard copy to emerge. At length, a single sheet of paper edged its way out of the printer.
    He snatched it up, his face alight, and studied the hazy image. “It’s there!” he announced buoyantly.
    Kate took the paper, and her heart sank. “It doesn’t look like anything,” she lamented. “Just a weird gray blob.”
    “You could call it that,” agreed her father. “Or you could call it an underexposed picture of the area below the whirlpool. Here, look closely. Imagine it with five times the resolution, if I had been able to make a complete image. Can you see those three lines? Could be masts. See? Mizzenmast, mainmast, and foremast, with the mainmast broken. And maybe, just maybe, the hull of a ship, viewed from an angle of about forty-five degrees.”
    She shook her head.
    “And look here,” the historian went on. “That patch, could it be…sails?” Poring over the picture, he muttered, “No…no. They couldn’t still be intact after four hundred fifty years! The pressure alone down there would have ripped them to shreds.” He focused again on Kate. “Forget the cocoa, we should be drinking champagne! There’s something down there, no doubt about it.”
    “If you say so,” she answered uncertainly. “Are you sure it’s not just a smudge?”
    “I admit it’s not clear enough to prove anything. It does fire the imagination, though. Even this quality isn’t bad for three thousand feet down! I’ll give Terry this much. He knows his stuff.” His expression darkened. “But he didn’t count on the fact that the buoys’ sonic beams seem to attract the local whales. It was probably one of them who wreaked havoc on the buoy.”
    Kate cleared her throat. “Dad, there’s something—”
    “I still can’t believe it,” he interrupted, tossing the page on the counter. “By itself, this picture is worthless. Just asmudge, as you said. But a longer shot is going to show us something. Maybe something amazing. I just need to hook up the transmitter dish, and we’ll find out.”
    As he started for the door, she caught him by the pant leg. “Dad, I’ve got to tell you something.”
    “Tell me after I reconnect the dish.”
    Rising under