Page 42 of Lagoon

Angela hesitated.

“I think it’s madness that we’re letting this happen to us is all,” said Riley. “We have to callsomeone. If we had more resources, a better medical facility, doctors—”

“I think we need to talk to Anderson Scott first,” said Angela.

Riley folded her arms over her chest. “It’s disturbing, the way everyone here kowtows to him. He’s just a man. He owns Harmonia, that’s all. He has too much money. He’s not God.”

Angela shrugged, sighing heavily. “You’re right. It’s like some kind of weird cult influence, isn’t it, working for him for too long? You get it at every turn, from every single communication from the top, that the most important thing is to protect the project, and that protecting Anderson Scott protects the project, because he’s the one who is funding it. He does things for you, here and there, and you start developing loyalty.”

“What has he done for you?”

“My mother had some awful medical debt. I put in a request to see if there was a way… maybe she could become my dependent technically or something, and then I could get her on my health insurance?” said Angela. “He contacted me about it, and he waved his magic wand and erased all her debt and then put her on the company health insurance. He told me how grateful he was that I was out here, serving the project, this amazing discovery that would have this amazing affect on humanity at large. He made it sound like I was doing missionary work or something, you know? I felt…”

Riley sighed.

“He’s done similar things for others,” said Angela. “He doesn’t interfere with us often, but when he does, he wields his power in very godlike ways. You’re grateful to him.”

“So, fine,” said Riley. “Let’s get in touch with him. Why hasn’t anyone gotten in touch with him?”

“Nancy was the liaison,” said Angela in a tiny voice.

“No one else had the capacity to contact him?”

“No,” said Angela.

“But Jonathan is in charge down here.”

Angela didn’t answer.

And Riley realized that Jonathan was not really in charge, not in that way, and that all the people down here were under some kind of strange spell. Or maybe it was shock or trauma or something else. Since the minute she’d stepped foot in this place, things had been going wrong. If someone had outlined a scenario for her where she was in fear for her life, she had an expectation of the way she’d behave, but maybe that wasn’t true. Maybe this sort of situation made people behave positively erratically.

What was the situation, anyway?

Being mutated into amphibians?

Right. Who had any idea how to behave in that situation?

“He’s going to be angry when he finds out that the lizardthing is dead,” said Angela. “And when he finds out that we’re all mutated… I don’t think that going public with that information is within the scope of protecting the project.”

“I just said let’s talk to him,” said Riley.

“Well, Nancy—”

“We have all of Nancy’s electronics,” said Riley. “Luther’s supposed to be able to get into them, right? So, Luther needs to do that.”

“Assuming Luther hasn’t turned into something with webbed fingers and big bulging eyes who wants to fill us up to bursting with his eggs,” said Angela.

“Yes, assuming that,” said Riley, her voice breaking.

RILEY PEERED INTOthe open door of the main laboratory. “Hello?” she called.

“In here,” came Jonathan’s voice. “But to warn you, things have, erm, progressed.”

She stepped inside, Angela behind her, holding the gun.

“You’re talking,” said Angela. “I guess that’s a good thing.”

“Harris can still talk,” said Riley.

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