Page 28 of Lagoon

She didn’t know what to say.

So, she said nothing.

And when they shut the door on the refrigerated room, she said, “We could all contact anyone, though, couldn’t we? We all have access to the internet. How does Harris really think he’s going to control us?”

Jonathan blinked at her. “You have someone you can contact who has the funds to charter a helicopter out here to pick us up, Riley?”

Her lips parted. No, of course she didn’t. She looked away.

He started walking away from her, down the hallway.

She went after him.

“Are you having any… symptoms from what Bub did?”

“What? No.”

“You feel normal?”

“I don’t feel normal, no, because everything about this situation is horrific. But I can’t say it has anything to do with being stabbed by Bub.”

“Good,” he said. “Well, as long as that holds true for Nancy, she’ll break within a few days, and we’ll all be packing up and heading out of here. I wouldn’t worry about her scare tactics. Anderson Scott does not murder people to shut them up.”

She fell into step with him. “But what kind of symptoms could I really have? What would he have done to me?”

“I have no idea,” he said. “I’m a biologist, obviously, so I’m not ignorant about anatomy, physical changes, but mammals aren’t my specialty, and human women are definitely not my specialty.”

“Well, even amongst mammals, we’re not typical,” she said. “Our monthly cycle, it’s different than a lot of mammals, who are only fertile once a year.”

“Right,” he said. “Maybe it was exploratory. Maybe he plunged those things into you to see if there was any compatibility. When he realized there wasn’t—”

“Why capture me again, then?” she said. “When he knocked you down in the evening, he picked me up and brought me to where he was keeping Nancy.”

“Hmm, good point,” he said.

“So, he thought he did something.”

“Or he thought hecoulddo something,” said Jonathan. “But maybe he was wrong.”

“Do we have any equipment here?” she said. “Anything that might be useful to determining or diagnosing? An ultrasound?”

“Actually, we do,” he said. “I don’t know if it’d be any use, though. I’ve never looked at a woman’s body internally before. I couldn’t say if something looked wrong.”

“I might be able to,” she said.

He shrugged. “Worth a try, I guess.”

RILEY TUCKED THEbottom of her shirt into the band of her bra. She was reclining on a stainless steel table, propped up on her elbows.

Jonathan stood next to her, running the ultrasound wand over her belly, around the places where she’d been punctured yesterday.

They were a little sore today, each one a red bump. She probed one with a finger, worry going through her.

He furrowed his brow. “It’s… something…”

“What?” She tried to sit up.

He fixed her with a look that made her freeze.

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