Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

RIVER

"You tried to kill me," I realize, then, " You tried to kill me? Why?" If I'd been guessing for a thousand years, I never would have picked a random person from IT who I've only spoken to a few times.

She ignores the question, her face all angry like I've done something wrong. "Why didn't you die? You were supposed to die!"

Oh-kay. I'm now even happier that I decided to come here, where there are five men with superpowers and Perry, who looks harmless but would definitely shiv anyone who came at him in a fight, instead of going home.

George tsks sympathetically. "He just had to go and live, didn't he? After all the trouble you went to."

"Right?" Her eyes practically bug out, and her face is red. "It's not fucking easy to get around all that security, you know! And signing a boat out—I work in IT! I'm not supposed to be at the pier. I had to make up some shit about calibrating the on-board equipment, and it only worked because the kid who's there on Tuesdays is dumber than a bag of rocks."

I stiffen. The kid who's there on Tuesday—Gerry—might not be a genius, but he's cheerful and kind and knows everything there is to know about looking after a boat. She's got no right to be a bitch to him, even if he's not here, and I open my mouth to tell her that, but Flame shoots me a warning look.

Fine. I'll let George con her into a confession like she's a TV supervillain.

"That must have been so hard for you," George commiserates. I haven't known him long, but this seems so out of character for him. "And so terrifying when he turned up at the office, no harm done."

Kelly scoffs. "Terrifying? More like frustrating! All that work for nothing—I'd have to start over!"

Oh. My. God.

But she's not done. "And as if that wasn't going to be hard enough to manage on top of my regular workload, with the client breathing down my neck already, then I realized he'd be able to deny taking his gear out!"

George scrunches up his face. "Is that why you took it?"

She sighs and admits, "I panicked. I figured if the dive equipment was gone, they'd see it as proof he was trying to hide something. I even went down to the pier again to see if I could change the name in the logbook, but when I got there, the supervisor was on the phone to Bill Kendy, confirming that River signed the boat out and saying he'd send a copy of the log."

"That's so annoying. Why does bureaucracy only work efficiently when you don't want it to?" George sounds a little like he's trying not to laugh at this point, but Kelly doesn't seem to notice.

"I know . When I need a fucking new keyboard, it takes three forms and sign-off from two supervisors, then there's a six-week wait. But nooooo, the one time I needed people at the pier to not pick up the damn phone, they're all over it." She sighs. "That was a dumb plan anyway—like I said, I panicked. I need to stay focused on my goal."

"Killing River?" George confirms.

She shrugs. "That seemed like the easiest way, but honestly, it's just turned into a hassle now."

I am so confused, and judging by the faces around me, so is everyone else.

Except Zephyr. I don't think he's even listening.

"Okay," Perry says, "so what's the goal, exactly?"

Kelly blinks at him like she'd forgotten we're all here, then turns to me. "You gotta stop your research. Or change it."

That's not what I expected to hear. "Come again?"

She waves her hands. "Stop researching… whatever it is. Do something different."

"Why, exactly?"

Rolling her eyes, she huffs, "So I don't have to kill you, of course."

"Yeah, of course." I look at George. He's clearly better at this than me.

"Who wants River's research stopped?" he asks, and a light bulb goes on in my head. Duh. She mentioned a "client" during her ramble.

"Like I'm going to tell you." Her snort is impressive. "You'll cut out the middleman, and then I'll lose my final payment. That's the big one."

Aqua leans close and whispers, "I don't understand."

I don't bother to whisper, speaking loudly and clearly when I explain, "Kelly's taken money from someone to stop me from completing my current research, and I'd say it's probably a lot of money, since she was willing to go as far as murder." I tilt my head and study her. "Who could that someone be? Another research facility or academic? But I haven't heard of anyone else doing similar research, and anyway, academia doesn't have a lot of money to throw around."

She smirks.

"Your research is about diseases being spread to different kelp and reef flora by migrating sea animals," Aqua reminds me. "Some of the fish in this area migrate from across the ocean—like the Bluefin Tuna. If you can prove that kelp parasites and infections are carried from there to here, or vice versa, wouldn't that be important? Not just to us and the kelp, I mean. To people too."

"It could have an impact on international relations," Flame muses, and then his eyes narrow. "Or, if the problem was found to be caused by something in particular… say, a company that was dumping in the ocean…"

Aqua gasps, offended. "I would have noticed that!"

"I would have noticed that," Kelly mocks, then scoffs. "Please. Who do you think you are?" She looks at Flame. "I literally have no idea about River's research or anything. All I know is that someone—I'm not saying who—wants to pay me big bucks to make him stop. So that's what I'm gonna do."

"No," George disagrees. "What you're going to do is pack a bag and run for it before the police arrive to arrest you."

She falters. "What do you mean? They can't arrest me; there's no proof I did anything."

Oh, no. She can't be that stupid. "Kelly," I say patiently, "have you never noticed the number of security cameras at the Institute?"

"They're dummies," she asserts confidently. "Everyone knows that. It's why we have those stupid swipe cards to monitor everywhere we go in the building. Like anyone really cares what's in the labs."

I shake my head slowly, and horror dawns on her face.

"They're not dummies?"

"They're not. They're very real. Bill has already requested the footage from Tuesday that will prove I was in the lab and show you taking my gear—twice."

She begins to shake. "No. No no no no no."

"You're definitely going to lose your job," I continue, "and George is right. The Institute will call the police. They have to, if they want the insurance company to be happy. I don't know what the charges would be?—"

"I do!" Perry volunteers, all chipper. "I used to work for lawyers. Let's see… there was a lot of planning involved, right? Security cards and boat logs and the rest. So… falsifying information, for sure. Damaging private property, since you butchered River's equipment. Now, said butchering was supposed to kill him, which makes it attempted murder. You could argue that you thought he'd check his equipment before diving and that you only meant to prevent him from diving, which might dial it down to some kind of assault charge… I'm not sure. Stealing the gear after, though—that's evidence tampering. And I guess there's a possibility of insurance fraud? It really depends on what angle the investigation takes."

By now, Kelly's shaking so hard, I'm surprised she can stand. "No. No! I'm supposed to get my money and go on with my life. Nobody said anything about police. I'm just a tool—don't they arrest the people in charge?"

"Either way, you'll lose your job," Flame points out calmly. "Do you really want to risk the rest? Tell us who hired you and run for it. Never do anything like this again, and we won't tell anyone you were even here."

For a second, she says nothing, just stares wildly at us all. Then her shoulders slump and she whispers, "I only ever spoke to one guy. He didn't say who he worked for, but I took a photo of his face when he wasn't paying attention and reverse image searched it. He's a VP at Scullitech."

I have no idea who that is, but I'm going to find out. "Go," I tell her. "And seriously, don't ever do this again. It's not worth it. You've already been screwed out of a job, and you know the Institute will blacklist you." I feel a little bad for her. Maybe I should offer her money or?—

"Why couldn't you have just died?" she asks.

Uh-huh. "You drive safe, now."

We watch until she's crossed the road to a beat-up Honda parked illegally on the beach side, and after she's driven off, I turn to Aqua. "It might not be dumping. Not the illegal kind, anyway. Or it could be a slow leak or something that this VP wants to cover up because it proves he made a mistake. But we'll find out." I glance around at the others. "Does anyone know what Scullitech does?"

Perry waves his phone. "According to Google, they're the leading manufacturer of oars and other rowing stuff. They're an American company, headquartered in LA, but their main plant is in Mexico—right on the Pacific coast."

"Checks out so far," George says. "Later, we'll pinpoint the factory on a map and Aqua can have a look-see at the water in the area. It might be something really minor that they just don't want anyone noticing."

"Or it could be that they've damaged the kelp in that area, and my research would not only bring that to light but prove that they're responsible for damaged marine ecosystems between here and Japan." I shrug. "Aqua and I will work it out."

Aqua beams. "Together."

"Together." I nod and smile back at him. This may have been the most fucked-up thirty-six hours of my life, but I can't deny that the most comfortable, the most right I've ever felt is here, with Aqua. I'm a scientist. I don't believe in fate. But if I did, I might even say we're fated to be together.

"Let's go surfing!"

Twenty minutes later, as we skim hand-in-hand across the water, a wave carrying us toward shore, I'm grinning so widely I think my face might split. Later, I plan to suck my new boyfriend off in the shower, but right now, nothing could be better than this.

Off to the left, I see a shadow that I'm pretty sure is a shark—a big one. But Aqua assured me it's just curious and would never hurt me… and if it tried, the ocean would protect me. I'm not even sure what that means, but hey—the ocean saved my life once already, and it brought Aqua to me. Plus, I've always loved the water.

I guess it makes sense that Aqua loves me back.

Thanks for reading Aqua ! Flame's book is up next, and you can find it here: https://readerlinks.com/l/4227345

If this was your intro to the series, you've missed out! Start at the beginning with Aether and Perry's story: https://readerlinks.com/l/4227297

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