Page 1 of Lagoon

CHAPTER ONE

“SO, WHAT DOyou think?” said Dr. Jonathan Greyson from the computer screen.

Dr. Riley Stine was on a video chat with him. It was supposed to be a virtual job interview, but it wasn’t much like any job interview she’d ever had before. She laughed, shaking her head at the screen. “It sounds amazing,” she said.

Dr. Greyson raised his eyebrows. He was wiry, his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was wearing black-rimmed glasses. “Why do I feel as if there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

“Well, it’s only…” She let out a laugh. “You do know I’m a primatologist, right?”

“Yes, Dr. Stine, that’s what we’ve been discussing,” he said, amused. “It’s the reason you came to my attention. I know your contributions in Africa were significant, and it’s really unfortunate that the money ran out and they couldn’t keep the entire staff on. That entire research project was essentially gutted, and it’s appalling, in my opinion. I can guarantee you, if you come here, that doesn’t happen.”

“Right,” she said, “because you’re swimming in corporate money.”

“This project is actually a personal investment by Anderson Scott,” said Dr. Greyson. “It’s not even related to Harmonia.”Anderson Scott was one of those one percenters, an eccentric billionaire who did capricious things with his money, like fund scientific research. He owned Harmonia, a huge website that shipped everything in the world anywhere in the world. “And that’s why, honestly, we have to be so tight-lipped about it. If you take the job, I promise that I can fill you in on the rest of the details.”

This was why it was a strange job interview. It was more of a joboffer, really, and Dr. Greyson was practically begging her to come aboard. He’d spent the first part of their conversation complimenting all her work with chimpanzees and quoting the papers she’d published, like he was her fan-boy or something. It was flattering, of course. She had never met this man, and he knew so much about her theories and research, about the things she was the most passionate about.

She was in a tight spot. She’d been studying chimps in a very large enclosed area—hundreds of acres—that simulated a natural habitat. It had been her dream job. She’d worked there for five years. Then the funding fell through. It was deemed that they weren’t uncovering anything new in their research, that all there was to know about chimpanzees was already known, and the entire project’s funding was cut down by two-thirds.

Now, she had nothing. No prospects for further jobs and not a lot of savings or anything either. She’d lived onsite in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and so, now, she didn’t even have a place to live. She was currently staying in her parents’ guest room, at the ripe age of thirty-one.

This job that Dr. Greyson was offering, it was like a dream come true. A steady, hefty paycheck that didn’t need to be approved by a committee, and the freedom to work without the typical pressures in her field.

It was only… it wasn’t chimps. It wasn’t primates.

“I don’t know anything about amphibians,” she said.

“I do,” said Dr. Greyson. “I don’t need you for that. I’ve got the biological side of it all nailed down. That’s my expertise. That’s why Anderson Scott hired me for this.”

“But… what else is there? I don’t even want to study salamanders.”

“Not a salamander,” he said.

“But you said—”

“I said similar,” he said. “Honestly, I really wish I could tell you more, but I am bound by an ironclad NDA and until you sign one there is no way I can give you more information.”

“Well, I can’t agree to this job without knowing what itis,” she said.

“Well, you can’t know what it is until you agree to the job.” Dr. Greyson had a sort of impish smile. It made him look boyish and even a little attractive.

She shoved that thought aside. She couldn’t let that distract her. “You seem very eager for me to come aboard.”

“Oh, I am,” he said. “And you don’t want to turn this down. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. This is discovery on the ground floor, a species we didn’t know existed.”

“Well, okay, but a new species of salamander?”

He just chuckled. “Would I want you if that’s what it was?”

“Why do you want me?”

“Because you have knowledge of what are some of the most highly intelligent and highly social creatures.”

She sat up straight. “Wait a minute… you’re not saying that the salamanders—”

“I haven’t said anything,” he said, grinning from ear-to-ear. “Because I’m bound by the non-disclosure. So, I disclose nothing. But you want to see this, Dr. Stine. Believe me, you want to. You want to come here and do this work. This is the find of a lifetime.”

A society of salamanders?

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