Page 4 of Lagoon

Peter folded his arms over his chest and leered at her. “Nate, you know you ought to keep that kind of stuff to yourself.”

“Sorry,” said Nathan with a shrug of his massive shoulders. “Didn’t mean nothing bad by it.”

“Leave her alone,” said Angela, giving them both a withering look. She gestured with her head. “This way.”

They took off together up the dirt road that led to the laboratories.

Why were there so many security guards, actually? “How much security do we have here?”

“Oh, there are six of us,” said Angela.

“Six,” she said softly.

They walked on.

Riley licked her lips. “At my last job, there was no security at all. No one with guns anywhere.”

“Right,” said Angela. She gave a surreptitious glance around, and then lowered her voice. “Well, the, um, the creature, the lizardman, he…”

“What?”

“He’s been violent before,” said Angela. “Not while I was here, but…” Her voice got even lower. “I think people died.”

Riley blinked at her. Well, this was a thing to be finding out right now, after she was already here. Of course, working with animals in the wild, it was never going to be entirely safe. She knew that there had been injuries with scientists and chimps, but in her position, she and the other scientists had not interacted with their subjects. They’d observed them, named them, watched their struggles and alliances and their children be born, but they had stayed out of sight. It was like a one-sided relationship.

This, it wouldn’t be like that, and she supposed she’d known that when she’d taken the job. It was the novelty that had excited her. She’d wanted a new experience.

“So, you guys are here to shoot the research subject,” said Riley.

“I…” Angela shrugged. “There are some locals who come in sometimes, teenage boys mostly, trying to steal things. We don’t shoot them. We usually give them food and other things and send them off. But Dr. Greyson prefers not to to have to worry with that. And if there are animals—other animals—we can protect the site that way.”

Riley nodded slowly.

“Don’t tell anyone that I said anything to you about the lizardman being violent. I don’t think I’m supposed to know.”

“So, then I’m not supposed to know either,” Riley said softly.

She looked up at the leaves with their dark green foliage, like a canopy over the road. They still seemed beautiful, but now there was something terrible in their beauty, some inherent threat.

CHAPTER TWO

ANGELA TOOK RILEYto the door of the laboratory—another gray, angular building, though this one was much larger than the cabins—but didn’t come inside. She said that Dr. Greyson didn’t like the security guards in there.

She hit a button on an intercom.

“Yes?” came a reply.

“I’m here with Dr. Stine,” said Angela.

“Oh, wonderful,” said the voice on the other end. “I’ll be right up.” It wasn’t Dr. Greyson’s voice. She didn’t recognize it. But it was male.

Several moments later, the door opened, and a man with salt-and-pepper in his dark hair greeted her, shaking her hand firmly. “Thanks, Angela,” he said.

“Sure thing, Nick,” she said, gave him a mock salute, and left Riley there.

“So, you’re Dr. Stine,” said the man, shutting the door behind her. “I’m Dr. Nicholas White. You’re my replacement, sort of.”

“Really?” she said, confused. “I thought that I was recruited because of my knowledge of social animals.”

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