Sphere (Page 80)

The snake stayed close to the bottom, apparently looking for food. The snake ignored them entirely, and Norman found it quite beautiful to watch, particularly as it moved farther away.

"It gives me the creeps," Beth said.

"Do you know what kind it is?" Norman said.

"It may be a Belcher’s," Beth said. "Pacific sea snakes are all poisonous, but Belcher’s sea snake is the most poisonous. In fact, some researchers think it’s the deadliest reptile in the world, with venom a hundred times more powerful than the venom of a king cobra or the black tiger snake."

"So if it bit you …"

"Two minutes, tops."

They watched the snake slither away among the fans. Then it was gone.

"Sea snakes are not usually aggressive," Beth said. "Some divers even touch them, play with them, but I never would. God. Snakes."

"Why are they so poisonous? Is it for immobilizing prey?"

"You know, it’s interesting," Beth said, "but the most toxic creatures in the world are all water creatures. The venom of land animals is nothing in comparison. And even among land animals, the most deadly poison is derived from an amphibian, a toad, Bufotene marfensis. In the sea, there are poisonous fish, like the blowfish, which is a delicacy in Japan; there are poisonous shells, like the star cone, Alaverdis lotensis. Once I was on a boat in Guam and a woman brought up a star cone. The shells are very beautiful, but she didn’t know you have to keep your fingers away from the point. The animal extruded its poison spine and stung her in the palm. She took three steps before she collapsed in convulsions, and she died within an hour. There are also poisonous plants, poisonous sponges, poisonous corals. And then the snakes. Even the weakest of the sea snakes are invariably lethal."

"Nice," Harry said.

"Well, you have to recognize that the ocean is a much older living environment than the land. There’s been life in the oceans for three and a half billion years, much longer than on land. The methods of competition and defense are much more highly developed in the ocean – there’s been more time."

"You mean a few billion years from now, there will be tremendously poisonous animals on land, too?"

"If we get that far," she said.

"Let’s just get back to the habitat," Harry said.

The habitat was now very close. They could see all the streaming bubbles rising from the leaks.

"Leaking like a bastard," Harry said. "I think we’ve got enough air."

"I think I’ll check."

"Be my guest," Beth said, "but I did a thorough job." Norman thought another argument was about to start, but Beth and Harry dropped it. They came to the hatch and climbed up into DH-8.

THE CONSOLE

"Jerry?"

Norman stared at the console screen. It remained blank, just a blinking cursor.

"Jerry, are you there?" The screen was blank.

"I wonder why we aren’t hearing from you, Jerry," Norman said.

The screen remained blank.

"Trying a little psychology?" Beth said. She was checking the controls for the external sensors, reviewing the graphs. "If you ask me, the person you should use your psychology on is Harry."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, I don’t think Harry should be screwing around with our life-support systems. I don’t think he’s stable."

"Stable?"

"That’s a psychologist’s trick, isn’t it? To repeat the last word in a sentence. It’s a way to keep the person talking."

"Talking?" Norman said, smiling at her.

"Okay, maybe I am a little stressed out," she said. "But, Norman, seriously. Before I left for the ship, Harry came into this room and said he would take over for me. I told him you were at the sub but there weren’t any squid around and that I wanted to go to the ship. He said fine, he’d take over. So I left. And now he doesn’t remember any of that. Doesn’t that strike you as pretty screwy?"

"Screwy?" Norman said.

"Stop it, be serious."

"Serious?" Norman said.

"Are you trying to avoid this conversation? I notice how you avoid what you don’t want to talk about. You keep everybody on an even keel, steer the conversation away from hard topics. But I think you should listen to what I’m saying, Norman. There’s a problem with Harry."

"I’m listening to what you’re saying, Beth."

"And?"

"I wasn’t present for this particular episode, so I don’t really know. What I see of Harry now looks like the same old Harry – arrogant, disdainful, and very, very intelligent."

"You don’t think he’s cracking up?"

"No more than the rest of us."

"Jesus! What do I have to do to convince you? I had a whole conversation with the man and now he denies it. You think that’s normal? You think we can trust a person like that?"

"Beth. I wasn’t there."

"You mean it might be me."

"I wasn’t there."

"You think I might be the one who’s cracking up? I say there was a conversation when there really wasn’t?"

"Beth."

"Norman, I’m telling you. There is a problem about Harry and you aren’t facing up to it."

They heard footsteps approaching.

"I’m going to my lab," she said. "You think about what I’ve said."

She climbed the ladder as Harry walked in. "Well, guess what? Beth did an excellent job with the life-support systems. Everything looks fine. We have air for fifty-two hours more at present rates of consumption. We should be fine. You talking to Jerry?"