Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

ANGELA TOOK RILEY to the door of the laboratory—another gray, angular building, though this one was much larger than the cabins—but didn't come inside. She said that Dr. Greyson didn't like the security guards in there.

She hit a button on an intercom.

"Yes?" came a reply.

"I'm here with Dr. Stine," said Angela.

"Oh, wonderful," said the voice on the other end. "I'll be right up." It wasn't Dr. Greyson's voice. She didn't recognize it. But it was male.

Several moments later, the door opened, and a man with salt-and-pepper in his dark hair greeted her, shaking her hand firmly. "Thanks, Angela," he said.

"Sure thing, Nick," she said, gave him a mock salute, and left Riley there.

"So, you're Dr. Stine," said the man, shutting the door behind her. "I'm Dr. Nicholas White. You're my replacement, sort of."

"Really?" she said, confused. "I thought that I was recruited because of my knowledge of social animals."

Inside, they were now in a nondescript entry way. A door was shut in front of them. Dr. White went towards it, touched a button on the side, and the door slid open.

"Oh, certainly," said Dr. White. "We won't really be doing the same job, but you'll be the other doctor working with Dr. Greyson now. I would stay, to be truthful. It's exciting work. But I have a little girl at home, ten years old, and I've missed too much. Sometimes, we have to make priorities, you know?"

"I understand," she said. Children, a family, that was a thing she hadn't meant to turn her back on, not exactly. But she understood enough about biology to know that her window was closing, rather rapidly, and that she was not the sort of person who could manage to have a split focus, anyway. If she was devoted to her work, it would just be the work, then.

Sometimes, she was sad about it, but only when she remembered, and she didn't remember that often. So, in the end, she must not have wanted it that much, right?

"We talk each day," said Dr. White, leading through the hallway. Most of the doors were closed, but a few were open, and she saw lines of beakers and sleek machines and tablet computers through the open doors. "We video call each other, and she says to me, probably three months ago, ‘Daddy, I miss when you lived with us.' And I realized that, for her, it's like I abandoned her. It broke my heart. I put in my notice the next day."

"Of course," she said. "You can't miss out on your children."

"No, indeed," said Dr. White. "I'll be here with you, probably for about two weeks, making sure you're settled and that all the transitions are smooth, and then I'm off to see her again. To live with her again. I miss my wife as well, of course." He laughed.

She laughed, too. "Of course." She liked Dr. White. She was sad they wouldn't be working together.

They reached the end of the hallway, and there was another closed door. Dr. White inserted his keycard and a little light blinked green and the door unlocked. "You'll get these by the end of today, I think," he told her.

"Oh, that's good," she said.

They emerged in a large room, with bright LED lights overhead. There were tanks of water all along the walls, each with different kinds of plant matter growing in them. Some looked to have things that resembled frog eggs growing in them.

In the center of the room was a long stretch of stainless steel tables, littered with microscopes, a titration unit, a Bunsen burner, and rows of flasks and test tubes. Riley took it all in.

"Jonnie-boy!" bellowed Dr. White at the top of his lungs. He turned back to her, and continued in a normal voice, "He's around here somewhere. I said he should go to fetch you from the airport, and he agreed with me, but then he got distracted, as he often does."

In the corner, Dr. Greyson stood up. He'd been crouched down, peering into a tank on the far wall. He whipped off a set of plastic gloves, brightening at the sight of her. "Dr. Stine! You're here. So good to see you. I hope your flight was all right?"

"Yes, fine," she said.

Dr. Greyson hurried over to shake her hand enthusiastically. "I'm so happy to finally meet you. This is very exciting."

"Yes, well, I really don't know anything," she said. She gestured around. "What's in these tanks?"

"Oh, we'll get to all of that," said Dr. Greyson. "You'll want to see Bub first thing, I imagine."

"Bub?" she said.

"He's, um, well, he's extraordinary." Dr. Greyson's voice changed, going reverent. "He's the reason we're all here. We'll go to the lagoon."

The lagoon. It sounded so luxurious and exotic, she thought. It was fitting, what with the sensation she'd experienced, that she'd been dropped into some tropical, primeval environment. There were lagoons in such places.

Dr. Greyson chuckled. "Actually, it's probably not correct to really term it that. I don't know if it quite fits the strict definition of a lagoon. There is a river out here, and it's filled by that rushing water, closed off from the waterway, though, by a number of rock outcroppings. It's small, and some people say lagoons should only refer to salt water. But I think it's a bit romantic, I suppose, a lagoon, here in the heart of the jungle, where we have found this new and exciting species."

"Yes," she said. Her thoughts exactly. "I do want to see." Her heart started to pound.

Dr. Greyson smiled knowingly. "Of course you do. Let's go."

"I think I'll stay here if you don't mind," said Dr. White. "Hot out there in the afternoon, after all. I'd like to stay here in the air conditioning."

"Suit yourself." Dr. Greyson shrugged out of his lab coat, hanging it on a hook.

They went back out the door she'd just come through.

Riley was a little amused as they walked all the way back through the building. She could have simply waited at the front door for Dr. Greyson, she thought.

Out the front door they went, but they did not walk down the dirt path toward the cabins but instead went the other direction. The way was steep and rocky. It grew steadily more so as they continued on.

Finally, they arrived at a stunning spot. There was a waterfall, rushing down into a pool of water, surrounded by jagged rock formations. The water reflected back the blue of the sky, and the air felt cooler here, even though they did not quite have the shade of the trees. There were flowers growing on the far side, amongst the rocks, bursts of yellow and purple and red.

It was lovely here.

"Yes, it's breathtaking, isn't it?" said Dr. Greyson in a quiet voice. "This is where he was found. Well, there were two of them at one point. I don't know if the other one was his brother or son or simply a friend. He mourned the loss of him, though. It was quite tragic. It happened right when I arrived, you see. Before I got here, it was a bit of a shit show, pardon my French. They were treating Bub like, well, like a rabid animal. It was horrific. I put a stop to all of that, but I wasn't in time to save Bub's brother's life."

She was putting this together, then. The violence, the deaths, the security guards. "So, he's not rabid?"

"I think he's incredibly intelligent," said Dr. Greyson. "We do have some communication, he and I, but he doesn't trust me. And why should he, after all, after what we have done to him and his family?"

She nodded. "Yes, any intelligent creature retaliates."

"You published that paper on the chimp wars," he said.

"It's extraordinary," she said. "Chilling, in some ways. They are such loving and caring creatures, forming friendships and relationships that are complex and beautiful. But when they are brutal, they are brutal ."

"Well, we're all that way, deep down," said Dr. Greyson. "Otherwise, we never would have survived in the first place. Civilization, it makes us weak, but that sleeping viciousness is there, waiting to be awakened."

She was stunned. "I was thinking almost exactly the same thing on my way here," she said, shaking her head at him.

He smiled. "Yes, well, perhaps you said something like it in your paper, truly. I shouldn't be parroting back your own thoughts to you as if they are my own. How appalling." He shook his head, scuffing his toe against a rock. "Just like a man, I suppose. I apologize for that. We're due here. It's been a bit of a stag party."

"No, no," she said. "I never said anything like that. You're being a little hard on yourself, doctor."

"Ah, well, I simply hold myself to high standards," he said. And then he pointed. "There."

She watched as something rose up out of the water, something with spines on its back, with gleaming scales, almost like a fish. It dove, down under the water, and she was reminded of sea serpents in paintings, bobbing up and down as they surrounded ships.

A shiver went through her.

Another spine appeared, further off.

Then, on the opposite side of the lagoon, something large and sleek and yet strangely human-shaped hoisted itself up on a rock. It had a head, arms, legs. Its fingers were webbed. So were its toes. Its face was flat and strange, its eyes large and bulbous on either side of its head. It was covered in shimmering, iridescent scales.

It—he—Bub—was beautiful.

She let out a little breath, and she felt the sight of this wash through her. Impossible! "Does he walk upright?" Her voice was barely there.

"Can, if he comes on land. But he mostly swims."

"How… primates evolved to do that, but nothing else has. He's shaped like a human. He… How ?"

"I know," said Dr. Greyson, chuckling. "I know. Marvelous, isn't he? This could revolutionize everything we know about the way we evolved. What if Bub is part of our ancestry? What if there's some missing link, something that pushed us over the edge?"

"What are you saying? You can't think there was some sort of intermating between something amphibious and something mammalian. It's entirely impossible."

" Bub is impossible," said Dr. Greyson.

Bub lifted a hand, a greeting?

Dr. Greyson lifted his hand, too.

So, yes, a greeting . Her breath caught in her throat. Carefully, slowly, she raised her hand as well.

Bub gazed across the lagoon at them.

"Did you teach him that?" she whispered.

"I'm hoping you can help me reach him better," said Dr. Greyson. "I'm not good at communication in general, you see? I much prefer to observe living creatures than to interact with them."

She laughed.

"It's not a joke. I'm hopeless in that way. I certainly am not the least bit social," he said.

Abruptly, Bub dived back into the water. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she could see him under the water, swimming towards them.

"Is he coming closer?" she said.

"I think so," said Dr. Greyson. "He's wary of you but curious."

Bub's head broke the surface of the water, only five feet away.

She couldn't help but gasp. Up close she could see just how large he was. He was probably over seven feet tall. When he breathed, she could see that he had gills behind his cheekbones and these flattened and flared with the in and out of his breath. His big eyes glittered black and curious.

At least, he seemed curious to her, just as Dr. Greyson had said.

One had to be careful with animals. It was easy, especially with chimps, to assign to them humanizing emotions, even if the data didn't really warrant it. It could be very hard to be objective, especially as she began to come to know and understand an animal subject. In some ways, they began to feel to her like an old friend.

But animals were not human, no matter how similar to humans they were.

"This is Riley," said Dr. Greyson to Bub. "She's going to be working here with us. I think we're all going to be friends."

Bub swam closer.

Riley leaned in, eager to get closer.

Bub came closer still, his gills working quicker and quicker. He seemed eager, also.

Then, in a movement too quick to anticipate, Bub's webbed hand reached up and seized hold of Riley's wrist.

Before she knew what was happening, she was tugged down into the lagoon—cold, black water over her head.