Page 45 of Lagoon

She took out her gun.

He didn’t have one. He’d decided, last night, it was better to hand them over to the women, since they were the ones who were in the most danger and since he and Jonathan didn’t know if or when they would become dangerous. It had seemed intelligent and even somewhat heroic last night. Now, he felt an itchiness around the decision, something he didn’t quite care to examine.

“I’m fine,” he said, willing it to be true.

“You’re… you know… transformed.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” He was sarcastic. He looked up at her. “Nancy didn’t tell Anderson Scott shit.”

Angela stopped, still holding the gun, but pointing it at the ground. “She said all that stuff about promoting internally.”

“She made that up. I don’t even know why,” he said. “I think she probably could have authorized the personnel changes, firing Harris, whatever. She seems to have been the one who signed off on Dr. Stine, for instance. Anderson Scott doesn’t know anything that’s going on down here, not so far as I can see. He doesn’t ask. She doesn’t offer.”

“Well, maybe there’s communications elsewhere and you just haven’t found them.”

“Oh, they’ve been communicating,” said Luther. “Just not about this.” He gestured all around at the cabins and the path to the lagoon. “I’ve been reading all their conversations.”

“So, what do they talk about?”

“Their kid, mostly.”

Angela holstered the gun and hurried over to sit next to him on the steps. “Shut the front door.”

“They have a child which they gave up for adoption,” he said. “It’s some kind of open adoption situation where the parents send them pictures and videos every day. They have some app where they log in and see what’s going on and then the two of them talk about their little girl. He makes a lot of veiled threats to her. He’s kind of a dick. I get the impression he took the little girl away from her by force. He says stuff like, ‘I can get you institutionalized again’ and shit like that.”

“Oh, my God,” said Angela, who was reading over his shoulder, pressing in against him, her shoulder touching his shoulder.

He swallowed hard. “Uh… maybe you, uh, maybe…”

She looked up at him. “Too close?” Her voice accused him.

“I’m fine,” he decided, squaring his shoulders. In his pants, that thing of his was lengthening. He was afraid it was going to burst right through his clothes, but it found a way down the length of his pants leg. He let out a breath, trying to steady himself.

She got up anyway, drawing the gun. “I’m going to tell you what I told Greyson. If you try anything—”

“I won’t,” he said.

She eyed the outline of the thing that was lengthening in his pants leg. “It’s, um, growing.”

“Does that,” he said.

She licked her lips, and her scent changed in a way that made his eyes cross.

He choked.

“What?” She was breathless.

“You seem to be a little worked up looking at it is all,” he said. “I get that it’s not the same or whatever, because if it’s a physical fight between us, I can overpower you, but, uh, you do have a gun.”

She shoved it into its holster. “I’m not worked up. That stinger thing is not making me hot.” But she was still breathless.

“We need to consider the idea that the other guys that we work with are fucking douchebags. Maybe they raped Nancy because they were always going to rape Nancy, and maybe—”

“Greyson said something like this,” she said. “Hashtag not all men, right? You’re one of the good ones, Luther.” Her voice was bitingly sarcastic but still breathy.

“Well, if it’s going to be a gender war between men and women, and all men are the enemy, good luck continuing the human race,” he said with a sigh.

“We’re not exactly human anymore,” she said.

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