Page 15 of Lagoon

“Have fun on your own,” said Angela. She pointedly went back into the woods, heading back for the cabins. It was early for her patrol to be over, but she didn’t care about that either. She’d just tell Harris that she’d checked everything over.

As for ratting Nancy out, it was a satisfying thought but probably not worth it. She didn’t want to get fired, after all. The job paid well, despite all its drawbacks and oddities.

She emerged out of the woods to see that everyone was gathered outside Nancy’s cabin. The guards, both Dr. Greyson and the new scientist Dr. Stine… well, Dr. White was missing.

“Hey!” called Lieutenant Harris. “Ramirez, there you are. Where you been?”

“On patrol, as ordered, sir,” she said, and she had to fight to keep the annoyance out of her voice. Didn’t he remember?

“Right, right,” said Harris. “You, uh, you seen Nancy?”

“No,” said Angela without an ounce of hesitation. “Is something going on? Why are we all crowded around here?”

“There’s been a casualty,” said Harris. “Dr. White’s dead.”

Angela went stiff.What?

CHAPTER SIX

RILEY FELT OVERWHELMEDas she sat down at a round table in the middle of the mess hall. Everyone was gathered there now. About an hour and a half had passed. She’d been able to go home and get a shower, put on different clothing.

Dr. Greyson sat down with her, also in dry clothing, his face white.

“Are you all right?” she said.

“I called Nick’s wife,” he said. “It was awful.”

“I can imagine,” she said.

Lieutenant Harris raised his voice from another table, where all the guards were sitting. “Where’s Nancy? We kept an eye on her cabin, and she never came back.”

Angela slowly raised her hand, cringing.

“Ramirez?” said the lieutenant. “You got something to add?”

“Look,” said Angela, glancing around the room, “you know how she is. She said if I ratted her out to Greyson, she’d get me fired. I didn’t know people were dying, all right?”

“You saw her,” said Dr. Greyson, getting to his feet.

“She said that she wanted to get a look at the lizardman,” said Angela. “She said that it wasn’t fair that we never got to see it.”

Certainly, Bub had to have a proper species name, didn’t he? Riley needed to find out what that was.

“So, what? Where did she go?” said Dr. Greyson.

“She was heading along the riverbank,” said Angela. “I think she was trying to sneak into the lagoon from behind.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything,” said the lieutenant to Angela. “Youaregoing to get yourself fired, Ramirez.”

Angela spread her hands. “I went up there. I went looking for her. She wasn’t there. But I did find this.” She set something down in the middle of the table.

“Shit,” said the lieutenant, probing it with one hand. “Where?”

“What is it?” Greyson hurried closer to the guards’ table. Riley got up too, following him.

“Lying on the rocks next to the lagoon,” said Angela.

Riley got close enough to see. It was a gel nail, bright red, broken off. “She was wearing these? She had this kind of a manicure out here?”

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