The Fires Beneath the Sea ebook Read Online Free PDF

gave a low woof , his sound of recognition.
    “What now?”
    And then she saw something in the waves—round, small, and brown. Dark eyes. She was astounded: it was another otter. She could hardly believe it. First the ocean side, now the bay … it was a plague of otters, practically.
    She had to remember to ask Jax about it. Maybe, with global warming, otters were migrating differently these days, or something.
    After all, two summers ago great white sharks had been found swimming in the waters off Chatham. That June, dozens of dead sea lions had washed up on the shore. And a couple of summers earlier, a Florida manatee had swum into the mouth of the Hudson River and then headed past the Cape, too.
    None of that was supposed to happen.
    And now, two sea otters. Sea otters that were supposed to live in a whole other ocean.
    But there was no sign of anyone who could have given Rufus the piece of wood. All she saw was the high tide lapping at the toes of her sneaks.
    When the waves pulled back they left tiny airholes in the sand.
    Jax had left by the time she got home, picked up by the camp carpool, and Max and his friend Zee, short for Zadie—who wasn’t his girlfriend, though Cara thought maybe she wouldn’t mind—were getting ready to ride their bikes to the tennis courts before it got too hot.
    “Look,” she said to Max, and held out the driftwood.
    He turned it over and over.
    “Uh, that’s great, Car. A piece of wood. Real awesome find.”
    She grabbed it back and studied it. It was dry now, and you couldn’t really see the words anymore—they must have been etched too lightly, because all that was left was a couple of lines where the C and K had been. They looked like random chicken scratches.
    “They’re gone,” she muttered.
    “What?”
    “The words. Max, someone had scratched a message on it—my name and the words Consult the leatherback .”
    Max stopped putting his helmet on and looked at her curiously. Then he laid a hand across her forehead.
    “You cool? Don’t go getting spooky on me, sis,” he said. “We don’t need two Jaxes in the family.”
    “C’mon, Max,” called Zee from the street. She was already on her bike, impatient. “We barely have time for a set. I gotta be at the boat by 10:30!”
    “Coming,” he called, and pushed off, jumping the curb. She watched them pedal away, dipping and weaving their bikes playfully under the pitch pine and bear oak trees.
    She couldn’t blame him. Max was the practical one in the family, even if he wasn’t his usual friendly self lately; and the words definitely seemed to be gone.… She felt lonely and wanted to call Hayley, but Hayley was still working. Her mom got mad when she talked on her cell at work.
    Consult the leatherback.
    Her dad was supposed to drive her to the Hyannis mall to buy school clothes. But she knew he’d only agreed to it to be a dutiful parent, so her heart wasn’t really in it, either.
    “I can just buy stuff online, if you want,” she said to him in the kitchen, where he stood drinking his last cup of morning coffee. The kitchen windows faced the water, and lately her dad had a habit of just standing there staring out, his mug forgotten in his hand.
    “It’s Jax’s last day at camp,” said her dad slowly. “How about we pick him up and go on a whale watch? Teddy Soderstrom’s boat has empty seats since it’s the end of the season. He just called to see if we wanted to hitch a ride. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
    Teddy was an old friend of the family who was also the captain of one of the whale-watch boats in Provincetown.
    “OK,” she said.
    As they drove to Jax’s camp Cara considered telling her dad about the driftwood. What if it was someone stalking her or something? Danger.
    Then again, maybe she’d made up the words. Maybe, as Max had hinted and she herself feared, she was losing it a bit. And her dad already had enough to worry about.
    “Why don’t you go find your brother,” said her