“Hey boss, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“What’s this secret project you’ve got going on here?”

“Well…it’s a secret.”

“Hell, we’re trapped. Who am I going to tell?”

“That’s a good point.”

“Besides, we need something to do while we wait. I don’t suppose you brought some cards down here with you?”

“No, I can’t say that I have.”

“Ok, then spill it.”

James thought for a moment. He really didn’t have any good reason not to tell him. The secrecy was more of a habit now than anything else.

“All right. You’re right. You deserve to know. I’m just not used to telling people.”

“That’s ok.”

“Well, we’re going to build an enormous aquarium.”

“You mean, something for fish?”

“Yes.”

“Like the one down in Atlanta?”

“Bigger. Or at least deeper. Much deeper.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, there are fish out there that only live down where it’s very dark. We want to make an environment for them here. It will be the only deep sea aquarium in the world.”

“Huh.”

“Believe me, it’ll be amazing.” John didn’t say anything. “You know those big ugly fish with the lighted thing hanging out over their mouths?”

“Yeah, seems I saw one in some movie.”

“We’ll have those.”

“Will you have sharks?”

“Not sure. I doubt it though.”

“Always liked them guys.”

“Yeah, me too. What I really wanted was a whale.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“You mean one of those big suckers?”

“Yep. The full Moby Dick, just swimming around down here for people to see.”

“Now that would be something!”

“Yeah.”

“You said you wanted that. Why aren’t you getting one?”
”Well, there are a number of reasons, I guess. It’s not easy to find young ones. They’re a protected species and that means lots of red tape. There are lots of people in the world that would freak out if we had one in captivity.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

“That’s not the big reason, though. We would have figured out someway to get one if we could. The real reason is that we just can’t make something big enough for them to live in.”

“That’s a shame. How big would it have to be?”

“Oh, a few hundred feet deep, but that wouldn’t be a problem. We’d need a tank roughly five square miles or so. That we just can’t do.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” They were quiet for a minute. “Hey boss, why’d you want a whale?”

“It’s a long story.”

“And…?”

“Good point. It starts with my grandfather.”

“He look like a whale?”

“No, of course not.”

“Sorry, boss, I was just playing.”

“That’s ok. He served in World War II. Fought in a submarine out in the Pacific. He wouldn’t tell me any stories about the actual fighting. Guess that wasn’t something he’d share that with a young boy. There was one story that he told me, though. After I heard it once, I begged him to tell me again and again.

“They were on patrol, listening for Japanese subs. They’d heard something that sounded hostile so they went silent. Shut the engines down and tried to keep still. As they were sitting there underwater, something knocked against the sub.

“This scared them because it was so out of the ordinary. They didn’t know what to make of it. Then they felt the sub shake a little bit. And then again. Still, they had no idea what was going on. Then it stopped.

“The patrol somehow got free from the hostiles and returned to base. When they go there they found something that shed some light on what had happened. There was a set of suckers from a giant squid.”

“Really?”

“Yep. The thing had attacked their sub. Maybe it thought it was a whale or something. Who knows?”

“Wow.”

“Ever since then I’ve been fascinated by the things. Even seen them a few times. Ever been to the Canary islands?”
”No. Can’t say that I have.”

“Some of the best whale watching in the world there.”

“I’ll have to take your word on that.”

“Oh, it is. The beaches aren’t bad either.” James realized the contrast between his memories and the mine they were now stuck in. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t go on and on about that.”

“No problem. So you wanted a whale to watch.”

“Yes. And I know it sounds silly when you say it. But people would have come from all over the world to see it. It would have been amazing.”

“As you say, boss. I’m sure they’ll come to see the other stuff though, too.”

“I’m sure you’re right. In fact, I know they will. This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of this stuff.”

There was quiet for a minute. “So you’re just going to scoop this stuff out and fill it with water?”

“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that but that’s the basic picture. We’ll have seal the sides to make sure the rocks don’t bleed into the water. And we have to have places for people to come down and look at the fish. You need that, too.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“But the big part will be removing all of this rock. We were just talking about what to do with it. We think we can use it to shore up an upper structure. That should let us add more space above ground.”

“And that’s better?”

“Yes. The deeper we can make this, the better.”

“Well, that all sounds good, boss. Guess I just have one more question.”

“Yeah?”

“When do you think they’ll get around to rescuing us?”