whale follow-up story as the pretense. What do you think?'
'Sounds reasonable to me,' Dale answered. 'Incidentally, there have been a couple of other whale irregularities reported as well this morning — a partial pod beaching up at Sanibel and a supposed attack on a fishing boat north of Marathon. The owner was Vietnamese and highly excitable. Of course it's almost unheard of that false killers attack anything related to humans. But maybe you can use the whole thing somehow.'
Carol saw that he was already up from the couch and walking around his office. Dr. Dale Michaels had so much energy it was almost impossible for him to sit still or relax. He was just a few months away from his fortieth birthday but he still had the zest and enthusiasm of a teenager.
'Just try not to let anyone from the Navy know that you have the telescope,' he continued. 'They called again this morning and asked for a third set of equipment. I told them the third telescope was loaned out and being used for research. Whatever it is that they're looking for must be very important.' He turned and looked at the camera. 'And very secret. This guy Lieutenant Todd reminded me again this morning, as soon as I made a normal scientific inquiry, that it was Navy business and he couldn't tell me anything about it.'
Carol made some notes on a small spiral pad. 'You know, Dale,' she began again, 'I thought this story had tremendous potential as soon as you mentioned it to me yesterday. Everything indicates that something unusual and secret is going on with the Navy. I myself was amused by the amateur way that Todd stonewalled me on the phone yesterday and then demanded to know who had given me his name. I told him that a source in the Pentagon had suggested that there was some high-priority activity at the Naval Air Station in Key West and that he, Todd, was associated with it. He seemed to buy it. And I'm convinced that the bozo Navy public affairs guy here knows nothing at all about anything that might be happening.'
Carol yawned and quickly put her hand over her mouth. 'Well, it's too late to go back to bed. I guess I'll exercise and then go find that boat we talked about. I feel as if I'm looking for a needle in a haystack, but your guess could be right. Anyway, I'll start with the map you gave me. And if they really have lost a cruise missile somewhere down here and are trying to cover it up, it would certainly be a great scoop for me. Talk to you later.'
Dale waved good-bye and hung up. Carol left the communications area and walked out to the end of the hotel. She had an oceanfront room on the first floor. The Herald wouldn't pay for that kind of luxury, but she had decided to splurge anyway this time and pamper herself. As she was changing into her skintight workout swimsuit, she mused to herself about her conversation with Dale. Nobody would ever know, she thought, that Dale and I are lovers. Or at least sex partners It's all so businesslike. As if we're teammates or something. No darlings or dears. She paused for a moment and then completed her thought. Did I make it that way? she wondered.
It was almost nine o'clock and the resort was in the process of waking up when Carol walked out of her room and onto the hotel grounds. On the beach, the staff had just arrived and were setting out the chaises and umbrellas on the sand for the early risers. Carol walked over to the young man in charge (a typical Charlie Terrific, Carol thought sarcastically as she watched him strut along in front of his concession shack) and informed him that she was going for a long exercise swim. Twice at hotels previously she had forgotten to tell the guardians of the beach that she was going to swim a half mile away from the shore. Both times she had been 'rescued,' much to her dismay, and had created an untoward scene.
As Carol worked into the rhythm of her freestyle stroke, she began to feel the release of tension, the loosening of the knots that bound her most of the time. Although she told most other people that she exercised regularly to stay fit, the real reason Carol spent at least forty-five minutes each morning running, swimming,