The Merman's Quest: Mates for Monsters, #2

Introduction

The Merman’s Quest can be read as a standalone, but you may enjoy it more if you read The Merman’s Kiss first. And right now, you can get it FREE!

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1

Madison adjusted the focus of the binoculars again, concentrating on the white-capped waves breaking against the reef while maintaining her balance on the boat’s rocking deck. She’d been following a pod of dolphins for almost three days, only to lose them yesterday before she could get close enough to verify her find—a wild hybrid cross between Pseudorca crassidens and Tursiops truncates . Only a single hybrid of this species had been born in captivity, and no one had ever provided solid proof of one in the wild before. She needed evidence. Photos for one thing. But even more important, she needed tissue samples. DNA proof would be irrefutable, and such a discovery would help erase the blemish on her career.

The small cruiser caught a wave sideways, and she adjusted her heading to face the rolling water. Working the vessel alone while also performing research was tricky, but after last year, she wasn’t about to rely on anyone else’s assistance again. Steller sea cow my ass. Extinct for over two hundred and fifty years, the beast might as well have been a mermaid. And she’d bought into it, hook, line, and sinker, putting her full reputation behind the data her grad students provided. Now she was on her own, funding this trip out of her savings in hope of salvaging something of her reputation. I’ll show them all.

She checked the depth finder—ninety-eight feet—then slipped on her polarized sunglasses to again scan the horizon. How was she supposed to manage over a dozen research assistants, verify every scrap of data, and meet the university’s publishing schedule for tenure? Those damned assistants claimed it was a prank taken too far, but she was the one who’d had to shoulder the repercussions. The embarrassment of the peer-reviewed journal’s scathing feedback, the media hype debunking her find, all of it had ruined her career. She’d lost her position at the university and her grant funding. Even her off-and-on boyfriend—a vet at the marine research center—didn’t want to be associated with her.

Noting her GPS coordinates, she angled toward a darker area where the kelp canopy nearly touched the surface. The green water slapped against the hull, sending fine salt spray into the air. She loved the sea. Loved the smell, the rolling of the deck beneath her feet, the bite of the cold water against her skin. Although the sun beat down on her head, the winter breeze made swimming unpleasant, or she’d have stripped down and rinsed three days of salt-grime off her skin.

Where was the dolphin pod? She searched for the familiar dark bullet shapes below the waves. They had to surface soon. Her two precious biopsy darts were ready, if only she could get close enough. The equipment had cost her a significant portion of her savings, as had the boat rental, and her rental agreement was nearly over.

She cut the engine, hoping the pod would show itself. This particular pod seemed more skittish than usual, without the usual dolphin curiosity about boats. They stayed just out of range of her darts, as if they knew exactly how close she needed to be.

Something splashed to the boat’s aft. She turned, the small deck requiring no more than three steps until her thighs hit the inboard engine casing, and searched the glinting water’s surface. The glare off the water made anything lurking beneath difficult to define, even through polarized lenses.

The splash again, this time slightly starboard.  She shifted her attention in time to see a dolphin-sized, bright-green tail fin slip back into the water. Green?

Dolphins were shades of blue, gray, white or brown. Never green. Was it covered in algae? Maybe it was a carcass, bobbing to the surface as it rotted. Yet it hadn’t moved like something dead...

She reached into her pocket for her camera, holding it ready while scanning for movement. She waited