The sea had become even rougher, and something was strange out there: without waiting for Sangreal, who was an expert and had gills (and therefore could hold his own without them), the Panorme family climbed back on board.

They spent hours analyzing the photos, loading them onto their laptop.

What Seraphin had thought was a strangely bony octopus was, upon closer inspection, actually a hand... but not a human one.

«It doesn't have claws» Ionia commented «And it has webbing from one finger to the other. Oh, Panorme Tree, can you say webbing in this case? It has webbed hands, anyway»

«The fish has hands» Martine chuckled nervously «We're not going crazy, are we? There's photographic evidence of this»

«They're very clear photos» Celestine said, nodding. «It's pretty clear what it is»

«That's an arm» Nana confirmed

«That's definitely an arm» Celestine continued, pointing at it with her pinky «A wrist, a forearm»

«Does the fish have hands?»

«It looks like it. If it's a fish».

They argued for a while, bouncing ideas back and forth. They circled around, always coming back to the same two: it was a normal fish, but the photos somehow lied, it wasn't a normal fish, and so they had to figure out what it was.

Seraphin had to sit down, placing his hands on his thighs, clenching his fists to keep from shaking, still clad in his diving suit.

«You've never been afraid of the sea before» Martine told him, a little ironic and a little worried. «Not even when you tore your fingers on the hooks»

«It's not the sea that scares me. It's just... I was influenced, I think» Seraphin smiled awkwardly at her.

«You're not the type of person who is influenced»

«Yes, I am»

«What did you really see down there?».

That question stopped the other sisters from talking: they all turned their faces toward him, in an almost devout silence, waiting. Seraphin didn't seem to like that kind of attention: he kept swallowing, sucking in his cheeks, slamming his closed fists on his thighs.

«At first, it didn't even look like a hand to me» he clarified, his eyes rolling in their sockets, as if looking around, as if a monster, a bony octopus, might grab his neck at any moment. «I was convinced it was, I don't know, a parasite I didn't recognize, attached to the body of a sick fish with a long body»

«And why did you run... well... swam away like that?» Nana inquired suspiciously

«Because a sick fish that size could hurt me. I'm not like those idiot scientists in the movies» Seraphin puffed out his chest, proudly. «When I see something that seems dangerous, or even worse, sick, I step aside»

«He's right» Celestine agreed. «We don't know what that thing is, staying in the water at the same time could be a big mistake. We don't know if it's an aggressive creature, perhaps territorial. And like Seraphin says, we don't even know if it's sick»

«And Sangreal?» Martine said «We left him in the water with that thing»

At that moment, Sangreal reappeared. He had dressed, though his shirt was still open over his pale belly, the very defined line of his pectorals marked by shadows, the skin clinging to his abs, dusted with reddish, curly hair.

«Shut your mouth, Marti» Celestine hissed.

«Why did you get out of the water so soon?» Sangreal asked, smoothing his hair with one hand. Wet and heavy, slightly curled at the ends, it fell over his shoulders in perfect order.

«There was some thing» Nana said, speaking very loudly «Look».

She handed him the camera, and he, perplexed, took it. He squinted.

«What... what am I supposed to see in this?» He asked, raising his face, scanning the expressions of the Panorme family, silent.

Seraphin took a deep breath and hoped he wasn't making a fool of himself.

«My sisters say there's a hand» He explained.

Sangreal blinked very, very slowly, then handed the camera back to Nana. His expression was completely unreadable.

«Excuse me» He said, then left, without offering his opinion on the "thing" in the water.

For a while, the Panorme sisters discussed what problems this guy could possibly have, who asked questions but didn't give answers, even when they'd shown him a really, really interesting photograph. Ionia suggested he'd been as impressed as them, if not more so. Nana contradicted her, saying he seemed offended, and Martine shrugged, saying she thought he was just very autistic and hadn't realized he needed to give them an answer, so he'd left without doing so, since no one had said anything to him.

«It makes sense» Celestine concluded, and that was enough.

Later, when Captain Prue's voice came over the speakers to invite everyone to lunch in the refectory, they encountered Sangreal again, with the same unreadable expression.

«I’m going to ask him if we offended him» Seraphin announced, then shoved his hands in his pockets and hurried straight to the table where the other was sitting alone, with a glass of water in front of him and nothing else.

Sangreal saw him, stood up, turned his back on him, and went to sit at another table.

For a couple of days, this dance played out in exactly the same way.

«What's the matter?» Seraphin asked his sisters «I haven't done or said anything to him! Why does he hate me?»

«He doesn't hate you» Nana replied, patting him affectionately on the arm and cooing softly «He hates me, and by extension, he hates you, too»

«So he hates me?»

«Yes, but not for anything you did».

The rest of the crew, however, was extremely friendly: everyone had taken a liking to the family who had jumped into the water as soon as they dropped anchor, hunting for mysterious fish.

«I've never seen anyone happier to have to jump into that rough sea» Captain Prue commented, admiringly. «Never, I swear. We'd just finished dropping anchor when we heard you hit the water like cannonballs».

Riding the wave of popularity, and to make themselves look active and proactive, the siblings went into the water several times in those days, but they never saw anything resembling the "monster" (or, as Nana called it, "the unlucky fish"), nor did they manage to glimpse even a fin of the oarfish.

They took some samples, caught shrimp, and tried to understand what kind of plankton lived in the area, to better understand the Regalecus' diet.

Their krill expert never joined them, in fact, at a certain point, he disappeared completely: he stopped coming to lunch, walking on deck, even going diving. It was as if he had never existed on the ship, almost as if they had seen the ghost of a man and not a real person.

«Bad omen» Nana commented, laughing but not too much.

Seraphin was confused: he was supposed to be in charge of the entire operation, but his supervisor had vanished, and now he didn't know if he was allowed to ask the crew to move the ship to the next observation point, or if they should just stay there and wait for him.

He called a meeting.

The small, gleaming, immaculate white living room was filling up with people standing and sitting, dressed in white and gold uniforms. Seraphin, walking slowly to the center of the room, wondered how many times a day this place was getting cleaned. The cleaning lady was there even now: she stood in a corner, away from the others, wearing an apron that looked like leather (though it was also lacquered white) and she was holding a large bucket at her side, from which peeked out the long, heavy handle of the mop. She was small, with a bob of black hair, dark eyes, and no makeup. And she was staring at him intently.

«So, friends» Seraphin began, breaking his gaze from the cleaning lady's «My sisters and I have completed our duties here for the moment. We've gathered some very valuable information, but now it seems that what we're looking for has moved somewhere else. We could stay and wait for it... or we could move on and check out other areas, other possible oarfish sighting spots. Right now, we're all leaning toward that solution. Is there anyone among you who's against the idea of ​​moving?».

Captain Prue Goldhind chuckled, only half raising her hand.

«Yes?» Seraphin questioned.

«And your friend, the one who's supposed to supervise your work?»

«We admit... I admit... that I don't know where he is right now»

«Really?»

The captain's raised, almost mocking eyebrow made Seraphin break out in a cold sweat, his palms starting to feel clammy. As the leader of the operation, it was theoretically his job to know where everyone was, at all times. And now? Now his own supervisor was gone. What would happen next? Could Prue tell President Alkahest that he wasn't worthy of leading the operation? Who would replace him?

«Indeed» He said, trying to sound as calm as possible. «I haven't seen him in days»

«And you're only telling me this now?» The captain's tone became a little harsher, more bitter.

«I didn't think... I didn't think it would be a problem. Personally, I just thought he was avoiding me»

«He's not here right now»

«No, no. He... he's not» Seraphin looked around. «We have to find him».

«Yeah».

The captain unclipped a tiny walkie-talkie from her belt. It was a small thing that looked like it was made of plastic, scratched, grayed, out of place against the rest of her uniform. Pressing a button, Prue spoke, putting her lips close to the device.

«This is Goldhind, Sea Wolves, can you read me?»

«This is the Sea Wolves, we can hear you loud and clear»

«Do you remember Sangreal?»

«Sangreal?»

«That tall, red-haired, bearded young man»

«Oh, that Sangreal». Even through the distorted voice of the small speaker, the delighted tone of the woman on the other end was clear. «Yes, yes, we remember him»

«You have to find him»

«You gonna give us anything to smell?"

«I don't have anything of his right now, but you can go to his cabin, it's number twenty-two»

«Yes, ma'am. We'll report back as soon as we find him»

«All right. Over and out, Sea Wolves»

«Over and out, Captain Goldhinde».