“So we'll spread out,” another said, somehow managing to keep the pace while flexing her body so that her feet almost touched her head, her pert nude posterior spread out almost in his face. They were having fun with him. Actually, he liked it.

  “We'll jump around the globe and check him everywhere at once,” another said, swimming just below him so that he could almost touch her fetchingly flexing buttocks.

  “The rest of you will,” Nerine said sharply. “I have songs to teach him while we wait.” She had never evinced any signs of jealousy before, but now that he was surrounded by nymphs who possessed all the features she did, maybe she was reconsidering. More likely, she knew exactly what her sisters were likely to do, and was protecting him from it. He was not quite sure he really wanted that protection.

  “We will help you teach him,” others chorused. Nerine seemed not entirely pleased with that compromise, but could not decline.

  They came to the creature. This was a monstrously thick section of a serpent, perhaps a hundred feet in diameter, rounded above, flattened at the base where it pressed against the sea floor, and extending into obscurity in either direction. The skin was patterned with figure 8s, or lemiscates. Ouroborus!

  “Sometimes we tickle him,” a nereid naughtily said. “Like this.” She scritched the taut hide with her fingernails.

  The surface twitched like the skin of an animal molested by a fly. The sea-floor trembled. Rocks tumbled down a nearby slope. “Don't do that!” Nerine snapped. “You'll make an earthquake!”

  So it seemed. If this monster really held the world together, even the slightest motion of its body would have serious consequences.

  “Here is the repulsion song,” Nerine said. “Feel my throat as I sing it, so you can get the sense of it.”

  Neris put his hands around her throat. She sang. He was instantly repelled. But he did get the feel of it, conducted through his hands in a manner that the sound alone did not accomplish.

  He tried it himself. The other nereids laughed, like bells tinkling. “You don't have it yet,” one said. “Try me.” She placed his hands at the base of her silky smooth throat, a bit low, and inhaled.

  “That's not your neck!” Nerine snapped. Somehow he now had hold of the upper contours of the nereid's marvelously contoured breasts. She had tricked him into taking a good feel.

  Neris diplomatically raised his hands, relieved that Nerine had not glared at him; it was the other nereid she glared at. Then the nereid sang. Before he knew it, he had put his face to hers and kissed her fiercely on the mouth.

  “That's not repulsion!” Nerine snapped more sharply.

  “Oh, sorry,” the nymph said contritely. “I got them reversed.” It had of course been no accident. Naturally Neris could not admit to liking it.

  “I alone will instruct him,” Nerine said severely. She clearly had the authority, as he was her assignment.

  The other nereids backed off, literally. It seemed there were reasonable limits to their fun, at least while his guardian was watching.

  Nerine demonstrated the repulsion, attraction, and pacification songs, and made him practice them. He began to get the technique; the nereids were quick to let him know as he zeroed in on each.

  Then word came back: “We found the head!” a nereid called. “This way.”

  They followed, actually swimming a quarter of the way around the world in an instant, using magic assistance. There was the gargantuan head, its jaws firmly clasping its tail. This was no passive hold; there was copious blood where the teeth had champed through the skin of the tail. The creature really was eating itself.

  “How do I talk to him?” Neris asked.

  “With your mind. Speak and focus; he will hear.”

  “Hello!” he said forcefully, fearful that his tiny voice and mind would not be audible to such a monster.

  Hello, Neris. The Ouroborus did not bother to pretend to be speaking verbally.

  “I understand you have the secret of immortality.”

  I do. It is in my blood.

  “I would like to obtain some of that blood. Maybe some what is spilling from the bite on your tail. Rather than let it go to waste.”

  Why?

  Neris rehearsed his project in his mind, so the serpent could read it.

  This project is worthy. I dislike pollution. It makes my skin itch.

  And that could cause earthquakes. “Then will you give me a few drops?”

  No. But the negation was not emphatic.

  “Why not?”

  My blood is valuable, especially to me. I part with any of it only for value received.

  Ah. Bargaining. “What value can I offer you?”

  None that I know of.

  Oops. As Rhea had indicated, what she offered the serpent was not available to him. But perhaps there was an avenue. Since the Ouroborus did not seem to be reproducing itself by that activity, it probably came under the heading of entertainment. He might be able to provide another kind of entertainment. “Maybe I can find something.”

  Maybe.

  “You have been holding the world together for about four and a half billion years. This is a very significant service.”

  Thank you.

  “It must get pretty boring.”

  Colossally.

  “When mortal humans get bored, they watch programmed entertainments called movies and television. Mostly stories of people and things. Would something like that interest you?”

  The serpent considered. Are there any about serpents?

  “I'm sure there are. Suppose I bring you some, and you can see whether they divert you?”

  Do that. If they do, we will make a trade.

  Victory! “I will return,” Neris promised.

  “Good for you,” Nerine said. The other nereids had disappeared; their job was done. “You found an avenue.”

  They returned to the land and to the school. Neris shopped for a battery powered underwater projector and a number of nature programs featuring reptiles. If this test sample worked out, he would get more competent equipment, and many more videos.

  “I'd throw in an adventure story,” Rosie said.

  “Why?”

  “Because educational programs will interest him only so long. You need to addict him to entertainment for its own sake.”

  She had a point. He found The Dragon that Swallowed the World and Seriously Serpentine. They were cheap junk videos, but prominently featured large reptiles. If Ouroborus identified...

  Neris brought the equipment to the serpent and set it up by one eye. He had gotten the largest screen available, but it still was smaller than the eye, and there would be no three dimensional effect. Would it suffice?

  “I have set this to operate when you blink,” he told the Ouroborus. “One blink turns it on. Two blinks turns it off. Three quick blinks makes it pause in place. The discs are arranged to play one after the other automatically. I can get fancier features if you want them. Let me know when I come again tomorrow.”

  The serpent did not comment. He merely blinked, starting the first video.

  Neris and Nerine withdrew.

  Six hours later, back in the dorm, he got a message: Bring more adventures.

  And there it was. It seemed that the big serpent could reach his mind anywhere, now that he was attuned. It was not really surprising that such a large creature had a large mind. Neris kissed Rosie. “You were right.”

  She kissed him back. Their relationship had become increasingly demonstrative; they truly liked each other. But both knew it would never be romantic. That limit allowed them to be expressive. “I wish I could meet him.”

  “It's a long swim.”

  Then she stood still, her mouth falling partly open in seeming awe. “Oh, my!”

  Ouroborus was contacting her directly. Neris had not realized that the giant serpent had the ability to relate to a new mind at such a distance; maybe he simply had not before had reason to exercise his powers.

  “We never knew either,” Nerine said, amazed.

  Then Rosie turned to Neris. “We're going to a movie. Now.”

  They went to a slasher feature. It turned neither of them on, but Ouroborus was in their minds, watching with both their attentions, reading their male and female viewpoints and reactions, especially their feelings. He was getting more than three dimensions, and he loved it. Especially the flowing blood.

  The projection equipment was no longer necessary. They had found a better way to entertain the serpent.

  Later Neris broached another matter to Rosie: “I have learned to sing, magically. Attraction, repulsion, love. But I need to train, and to zero it in. I want to be the best I can be at this. May I practice on you?”

  “Sure,” she agreed readily. “Of course it won't make me love you, but I'll tell you when I feel some effect.”

  He sang repulsion. “Ugh!” she said. “That does make me want to get the hell away from you.”

  He sang attraction. “And that makes me want to come to you.”

  He repeated both, zeroing them in as she guided him. “You're getting it, Neris. Those songs sort of grab me by the scruff of the neck and move me one way or the other. I lose much of my personal volition.”

  Then he tried passion. Suddenly she was in his arms, madly kissing him. That interrupted the song, and she stopped. “Sorry! That caught me by surprise.”

  “I know. A nereid sang that, and I was kissing her before I knew it.”

  “Now I am on guard. Try it again.”

  He sang it again. She fought visibly to resist, but in moments was hugging and kissing him again. “That stuff is powerful! I can't resist it. If you continued, I'd be having sex with you, orientation no barrier.”

  “If it works that well on you, it will surely work on any other woman.”

  “Yes,” she agreed seriously.

  “You're doing it as well as I do,” Nerine said. “You've got it, Neris.”

  Neris nodded, well satisfied. But he intended to keep practicing.

  A small package arrived special delivery: a sealed vial of blood. “Ouroborus got a nereid to handle it,” Nerine explained.

  Neris turned it over to Kelsey. “Test this. Prove it out. Market it, and deposit my ongoing share into my business account.” That was the one Crosby had set up for him.

  Nerine nodded at the young man, smiling. It was clear that her favor was important to him, and not just because he didn't want her to cut off his balls.

  Kelsey didn't say a word. But a month later the first payment was made: a hundred thousand dollars from an anonymous source. Neris knew it would be virtually impossible to trace, because Kelsey's connections were not on the regular business map. He doubted that people were getting younger or healthier yet, but the early indications must be such that the shady investors were lining up to get in on the ground floor. It would probably be well worth their investment.

  “Now I have a problem,” Neris told Nerine. “I'm too young to run a company, but I don't want the controls out of my hands. I need competent mortal people I can absolutely trust.”

  “Ask Rosie. She's of age now, about to graduate, and she worships you.”

  There it was. Rosie was a competent botanist, smart, motivated, and his closest mortal friend. They had effectively roomed together for years, and trusted each other completely. She didn't need to understand the source of the money or the chemistry of longevity. She just needed to hire folk who did.

  He went to Rosie. “I know you plan on signing on as a biological researcher at some large existing company, and I'm sure you're competent. But I need help and I value your association. I have a preemptive offer: run my company instead, answering only to me, with carte blanche. I will double any salary you stand to make elsewhere. You will also have time and money to do any private research you wish, no questions asked.”

  She didn't hesitate. “I thought you'd never ask,” she said, and kissed him. She had evidently thought it through before he did.

  Thus Pollu Shun was formed, with a management staff of one. She quickly hired an accountant and a man to procure whatever equipment they might turn out to need. But then she had a problem. “I need the world's best marine chemist, discreet and trustworthy. This is the essence of this project. I can't just hire one away from a leading company; that would make a wave. This has to be quiet, at least at the start.”

  “Who do you have in mind?” For obviously she did have a notion.

  “Hedva.”

  “Our science teacher? She is a chemist, but--”

  “She's qualified. Marine chemistry is her dream. We can fulfill it.”

  “We can,” Nerine agreed.

  It did fit; Hedva was another one he trusted, and if anyone could make the breakthrough on pollution, it was she. He also privately relished the chance to work closely with her, as his crush had never entirely faded. Would she be willing to work for former students? “Do it.”

  But there turned out to be another problem. Hedva spelled it out for Neris, Rosie, and Nerine: “I'd love to, but I can't. The project seems likely to require five years of intensive research to do it correctly, and it must be done correctly so that the naysayers have no edge to grasp, and I have only two years to live.”

  “Two years!” Neris exclaimed, appalled.

  “I have leukemia, cancer of the blood, a variant that is resistant to the new targeted treatments. Rather than endure the pain and futility of old-style chemotherapy I have elected to live out my remaining term untreated, and go quietly when my time comes. I do take ameliorative medication so that I am not in pain or dense minded, but that's the limit.”

  “You never said,” Rosie said, hurt.

  “It was not your business, dear. In any event, I didn't know, when I first met you and Neris. Then there seemed to be no point in making a point of it; the outcome would not change.”

  “My people have ways,” Neris said carefully. “It might be possible to find a healing elixir.” Possibly the blood of Ouroborus.

  “No,” she said firmly. “No magic. I am hopelessly mundane.”

  “You are the one we want,” Neris said. “Work for us for those two years, at least, and keep an eye out for your successor.”

  “That much I may be able to do. I do want to try to help abate the marine pollution.”

  So Hedva was on board, but Neris wasn't satisfied. He wanted to find a way to help her. She was in her early 40s and looked it, but without the cancer should have another forty years to live.

  “I want to cure her cancer,” he said to Nerine. “Can we find a non magical treatment?”

  Not for this. It was the Ouroborus, who also had an interest in the project. I know of all treatments. Only magic will avail her.

  “Damn!”

  They got started on Pollu Shun. They set Hedva up with the laboratory she wanted, and competent assistants who were in sympathy with the mission. Money was no object; they could afford whatever they needed. They started testing chemical processes to nullify assorted types of pollution. Some had promise, but there was none for the particular type that was impinging on the sea god's domain. Still, within six months the lab began to get a reputation in marine biology circles. Hedva really was good at her job.

  “Neris!” It was Nerine, waking him at night.

  “What?” he asked sleepily.

  “Something is happening. We have to stop it immediately.”

  “What? Where? How?” he demanded as he scrambled into his clothing.

  Rosie woke. She still slept with him, sharing his bed sexlessly because she felt most comfortable near him. It was his godly aspect, involuntarily radiating. He didn't mind; he felt comfortable with her too. For one thing, their seeming romance kept other girls from pursuing him; he wasn't yet ready to commit seriously to any woman. He was, he reminded himself, only fifteen; there would be time after they accomplished their project.

  “At Pollu Shun,” Nerine replied tersely. “I'm not good at the future, but trouble is brewing.”

  It is, Ouroborus' thought came.

  “It's shut down for the weekend,” Rosie said.

  That did not reassure Nerine. “We have to get over there.”

  They responded to her urgency, bundling into the car and crossing town.

  “Too late!” Nerine said before they got there.

  Then there came a flash of light, followed by the sound of an explosion. As they came to the building they saw it: it was collapsing, and smoke was roiling into the darkness.

  “Somebody bombed the lab!” Neris exclaimed, shocked.

  There was nothing they could do but halt and wait, watching with regret and outrage. Soon the sirens of the police and fire departments converged. But it was already clear that the lab had been completely destroyed.

  “Why?” Rosie asked, aghast.

  “Who?” Nerine asked.

  “We'll find out,” Neris said grimly.

  “You two do it,” Rosie said. “I'll go console Hedva.”

  “Hedva!” Neris said. “This'll delay the project months, and she doesn't have that time to spare. She'll be heartbroken.”

  “Exactly. Fortunately we do have the money to rebuild it, or maybe buy an existing lab so that little time is lost.”

  “We do,” Neris said. “Promise her that.”

  Neris and Nerine broached Kelsey. “You don't even need to read my mind to know we had nothing to do with this,” Kelsey said. Obviously he already knew of it.

  “Yes,” Neris agreed as Nerine nodded. “But who did?”

  “Not the criminal element. We track that, and they're clean, so to speak. But this was not an amateur job either. My guess is that they hired a private contractor, like retired military. No tracing that.”

  “Who hired it?”

  “My guess, again, is it's one of the polluting industries, maybe fossil fuel: oil, coal, or gas.”

  “But we're not interfering with them.”

  “They don't necessarily know that. Or maybe they fear that nullifying pollution is not all you're into; that it's a warm up for stopping pollution at its source. Or maybe it's just a warning.”

  “A warning?”

  “To stay clear of their business. The next strike could be to take out your personnel. That is, killing chemists and CEOs. The fossils don't play bean bag; they've got trillions on the line.”