I shook my head sadly. “People can’t summon each other like the sisters can,” I explained. “He doesn’t know we’re here.”
Nixie sighed, settling back down. She yawned, and I curled around her, trying to sleep. I managed to doze on and off, dreaming of Ethan.
~
We were walking through a farm field, and the smell of freshly turned soil mingled with the scent of newly mown grass in my nostrils. He took my hand and led me down a golden path to a little tent set up in a sheltered spot at the base of a slope. He stopped walking, bending to kiss me with a smile. I was so sublimely happy I could barely believe it was true.
~
I woke with a start to the sound of men’s voices rising in anger. I turned to see Paul arguing with the doctor about shift rotations. Doctor Neuman wanted to send Jones for some plumbing parts, but Paul was forbidding him to go, “I want two men here at all times,” he said arrogantly, “And I’m due for a break.”
Doctor Neuman glared at Paul, “Thanks to your carelessness, we need to make some repairs.”
Paul stepped closer to the doctor, looking down on him menacingly. “It can wait,” Paul growled, “Until I get back.”
Jones and the doctor exchanged a glance, “Have it your way,” Neuman hissed, watching as Paul turned to leave. When the two scientists were alone they started griping about having to deal with Paul, planning on complaining to Edwards about his hotheaded incompetence.
“The man’s a Troglodyte,” Neuman complained, glancing up at us in the tank. “They’re not going anywhere. Go ahead and take a break. Pick up what you need, and you can take over here in the morning. He’ll be none the wiser.”
Jones left, and I sat up to watch Doctor Neuman working. I swam in slow circles around the tank while Nixie slept, watching the fish swim to avoid me. Something winked at me from the bottom of the tank, and I swam over to look down at my engagement ring. I held my hand before my eyes. Fine shimmering webbing had formed on it, rising halfway up my fingers to terminate just past the knuckles; it must have forced the ring from my finger.
I picked it up, thinking of Ethan once again. The ring was a symbol of his sacrifice, and I remembered how hard he had worked to get it for me. He’d picked a beautiful white diamond, the hardest substance on earth, symbolic of eternal love. It was flanked by two blue-green aquamarines he had chosen just for me, and I remembered how sweet he could be with a twinge of heartache. Then it struck me.
The hardest substance on earth.
I swam to the corner of the tank, taking the ring firmly between my fingers and scraping it across the spot where the two acrylic plates were joined. Flakes of acrylic shaved away, fluttering to the floor of the tank. It might be a futile gesture, and it could take hours or even days to cut a hole, but at least I had something to do other than sit and await my ultimate fate. I went to work with single minded determination.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Nixie woke up and swam alongside me, hovering above me to watch what I was doing with curiosity. “Can I try?” she asked. We took turns shaving the acrylic panel down millimeter by millimeter, and soon, so many little flakes floated in the water that the corner started to look like a snow globe.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Doctor Neuman looked up from his microscope, scowling in our direction. He got up reluctantly, setting his work aside meticulously before pulling out his stool. When he got close enough to see what was going on his eyes flew open wide.
“What are you doing?” he banged his fists on the aquarium, “Stop it at once!”
I glanced up at him with a smile.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
He pressed his face close, and I could see his bloodshot eye roll down to see the ring. It rolled back up to meet mine. Now he really started to panic.
I started back in with glee, amused at the way he paced back and forth with his hands on his head. I knew what he was thinking; Paul would be back soon, and his mistake would be revealed. Edwards would be livid when he learned that his genius scientists overlooked my ring, and I smiled up at him again.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
“Stop it!” he screeched, “Give me that ring at once!”
I bit my lip, smiling broadly. I was enjoying his distress.
I handed the ring to Nixie, first waving it back and forth in front of Neuman to taunt him. His eyes bulged, and his face grew red. He shook with anger, practically jumping up and down. If he was a cartoon character, I’m sure that steam would be pouring out of his ears.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Nixie looked at him, and back at me in surprise, “Why is he so mad?”
I hugged her, smiling as she went back to single-mindedly scraping away at the acrylic. Doctor Neuman started banging his fists on the glass and cursing us, spittle flying. I stuck my tongue out at him, driving him into a blind rage. After a few more minutes, the groove we had carved breached the seam, and I saw a few drops of water roll out, trickle down the side of the tank, and pool on the ground.
Neuman saw it too, and in a fit of panic he climbed up the ladder, looking frantically through a rack of tools mounted on the wall next to the big door. I could see his feet from my vantage beneath him, stalking across the top of the tank purposefully. He brandished a long, flexible rod, feeding it down into the water pipe until the tip of it poked out. There was a hook on the end.
“Give me that ring!” Neuman screamed down at us, his face contorted.
I made a great show of taking the ring from Nixie, holding it up to see it sparkle, then starting right back in on the wall of the tank.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
The doctor went berserk, running back across the top of the tank towards the ladder. He slipped on the smooth surface in his haste, nearly sliding off the side and down to the hard concrete floor below. He caught himself at the last possible moment, reversing his momentum. He would have been better off if he had fallen.
Doctor Neuman stumbled backwards, stepping square in the middle of the trap door, and plunging straight down into the tank. Our eyes locked in horror.
I swam to the trapdoor, helping him as he desperately tried to pry it open. It was as immovable as before, and when our eyes met, we both knew that he was going to drown. He grabbed me, clenching my wrist in a death-grip while still clawing frantically at the seam with one hand. When he ran out of air, his body convulsed, shuddering and shaking. Finally, after what seemed like a very long time, he was still.
I floated there, shrinking back in abject horror as I watched the light go out of his eyes. He went limp, drifting around in a circle while I peeled his hand off my wrist, finger by finger. I swam to Nixie, who was again cowering in the corner, quivering in terror.
She looked up at me in misery, “What is he going to do to us?”
“He can’t hurt us anymore,” I told her in a shaky voice, “He’s dead.”
She looked around me to where the doctor’s corpse was floating, starting back to hide from it. “Come on,” I took her hand, leading her back over to the corner. It may not get us very far, but Nixie needed something to focus on besides the dead man. I picked up the ring and handed it to her, “Let’s get back to work.”
Scratching sounds filled the tank for the rest of the night.
~
Chapter Twenty-Four
RING
~
I kept Nixie focused on scraping the gouge deeper, wondering how much time we had before Jones returned. The water started to trickle out faster, and the puddle on the floor widened and spread, wetting the entire cement floor of the lab. We’d still only managed to bore a pencil-thin leak, and I could barely fit my fist in the groove we’d made. I realized it would take much longer than we’d have to carve out a hole big enough to crawl through.
I looked up, wondering how long it would take for enough water to drain out so I could breathe air. Even if I managed to transform back, I’d still be trapped naked inside a cold wet
tank, and then have to watch poor Nixie undergoing the same painful and terrifying transformation. It was a lose-lose proposition.
Nixie was having a difficult time ignoring the floating corpse of the doctor, so I tried distracting her, teaching her how to play patty cake, and acting out the elephant song I’d learned as a child in Thailand. She looked mystified when I mimed a trunk and great flapping ears. I tried to make it into a squid song, but she started to look at me like I was losing my mind, so I gave it up.
I rubbed my temples, trying to think. The confusion was already starting to set in, and I remembered what Jones had said about the mermaid brain. He was right, I thought, struggling to hold onto my ability to make a plan, to think ahead more than a few steps. Clearly, chess would not be a mermaid strong suit. I remembered the game with my father, and wondered how he would take the news about me running off with Paul. I tried to hold onto my logical mind as I struggled to imagine what my next move should be.
I lost all track of time, and eventually the door to the lab creaked open. Jones had returned, hauling a tool box and a bag from the hardware store. He called out for Doctor Neuman when he noticed the wet floor. He traced the leak to its source, finally looking up to see the doctor’s lifeless body suspended in the tank. He dropped the bag he was holding and stood slack-jawed, frozen in disbelief.
He reached into his breast pocket slowly, lifting his phone to his ear in a daze, “Houston… We have a problem.” He groped for a chair, clearly rattled, “He’s dead… Neuman’s dead… I have no idea– I just got back…” His voice raised, “Jesus! He told me to… You took off too! Listen! You need to get back here right away…”
He put the phone away and slumped in his chair, mopping his forehead with a handkerchief. Within a few minutes Paul came barreling in through the door, grim faced and serious, surveying the scene in the laboratory with dismay. I slipped the ring as far down my finger as it would go, turning the stone towards my palm again.
“Get your sorry ass up and stop this leak!” Paul yelled at Jones and turned to glare at me; I could see him trying to work out what happened to no avail. He pulled out his phone and retreated to the far corner to call Edwards, speaking in a low, even voice as he described the scene. Then he called someone else, and by the change in his tone, I knew he was speaking to a woman. I assumed it was Olivia.
“What have you gotten me into?” he asked, telling her what was going on. I listened in fascination as a whole new side of Paul appeared. He whined and groveled, begging to be relieved of his task. “I have no idea how she did it,” he glanced up at me. “It’s like having a tiger by the tail… Maybe we should just give up on this whole project…” He winced when he heard the tirade that I was sure was coming from the other end of the line. “But I miss you… Don’t you want to see me? But…But–” She hung up on him, and he stood stunned for a moment. I’d never seen him look so upset.
He returned to the tank, watching Jones trying to stem the flow of water with some shop towels and duct tape. Paul lashed out at him, berating him for his stupidity while pacing back and forth, completely agitated.
“You fool,” he barked at Jones. “I warned you not to leave anyone alone with her. You have no idea what you’re dealing with! What are we going to tell Edwards?”
Jones scowled up at him, “I wouldn’t have had to go anywhere if you hadn’t let her tear up the bathroom!”
Paul cleared the space between the two of them in seconds, grabbing Jones by the throat and shaking him. Nixie whimpered and clung to my side.
“Idiot!” Paul growled through gritted teeth, watching as Jones choked and turned purple.
He released him, thrusting him away in disgust. Jones slipped on the wet floor and fell backwards, cracking his head on the cement floor, convulsing for a minute, then lying still. A pool of blood began to slowly form around his head, spreading out on the wet floor like a gruesome halo. His chest stopped moving.
“Damn,” Paul looked down on him remorselessly.
He glanced up to me, and my eyes met those of a cold blooded killer. I wondered how I could have missed it before, because now that I looked back, there were plenty of signs pointing right at him.
I was glad that there was a wall between us.
Paul paced the floor of the laboratory, his fists clenching and unclenching, and I swam Nixie to the far end of the tank to avoid the terrible sight of yet another dead body. Edwards arrived before too long, entering the room and racing straight over to us. His tight face grew even tighter when he saw Neuman floating in the tank. He looked at Paul, and down at Jones on the floor.
He shook his head in disgust, and went over to nudge the lifeless body with his foot, “What happened here?”
“He slipped,” said Paul defiantly.
Edwards took a deep breath, slowly exhaling in frustration. When he spoke his voice was menacing, “You stupid incompetent animal. I leave you in charge, only to come back a few short hours later to find I’ve lost both of my scientists…” he voice grew louder and higher, finally nearly yelling, “Do you have any idea how difficult they’re going to be to replace?”
A vein in Paul’s forehead bulged, and he took a step towards Edwards with a murderous glint in his eye.
“Watch it,” Nathan Edward’s voice was shrill, but he held his ground, “Olivia would certainly not appreciate anything happening to her biggest benefactor.”
I saw Paul check himself, and struggle to regain control. Every time the specter of Olivia was invoked he changed; the mere mention of her name acted on him like some kind of shock collar. Clearly, Paul was her man, lock stock and barrel.
“Now,” Edwards spoke calmly, like he was talking to a defiant child, “I want you to stop this leak right away.” They both turned to focus on the giant aquarium. “We need to increase the pump intake to keep it completely filled. Doctor Neuman had a theory that the longer we keep her in this form, the easier she’ll be to manage.”
Paul grumbled, “Neuman didn’t manage her very well.”
“She has powers beyond your very limited comprehension. Let’s not repeat his mistake. Keep the water level high,” He looked at me and Nixie, huddled together in the far end of the tank. “How on earth did she do it?”
“She must have lured him into getting close enough to drown,” Paul glared through the water at me with palpable hatred.
Edwards cocked his head as he peered in at us. “The creatures are lovely… and even the most intelligent of men can be fools,” he mused, speaking about us like we weren’t even there. Obviously he had no idea how sensitive mermaid ears were. He looked sideways at Paul, adopting the same faux-sympathetic tone he used on me, “Not to worry. She’s already more animal than human. Neuman said that once she loses some brain function she’ll become quite docile.”
I went rigid with fury, and Nixie whimpered again, her small body quivering by my side. I wanted to hold onto that rage, clinging to the only thing standing between me and despair. Something inside of me was growing rocklike and hard, and I embraced it. Angry energy bristled all around me, uncovering a predatory capacity to fight and kill.
I would never let Edwards get the better of me, and I vowed to hold onto my humanity. I fought to think clearly, doing multiplication tables in my head. I clenched the ring hard in my fist; it was the only tangible connection to reality, and if they took it away from me I would surely be lost. Then it occurred to me that I might forget Ethan, and I clutched it even tighter.
I squeezed my eyes shut, summoning an image of his smiling face, remembering how his eyes crinkled up at the corners. I would never be able to kiss that face again, and with the misery of that thought, tears leaked out to mingle with the cold salty water. If all I had left of my love were the memories of it, then they were the most precious things in the world. Losing them was the scariest thing I could possibly imagine.
Paul was fiddling with the pumps while Edwards retreated to the laboratory, rifling through Doctor Neuman’s desk. He took a
laptop and some papers into his briefcase, shaking his head ruefully at all the damaged equipment. He pulled out his phone with a sigh.
“Do you want to hear about the little mess I found when I got back to the lab?” he asked sarcastically. I could only assume he was calling Olivia too; she seemed to be the one everyone answered to. He described the scene in the lab, telling her he’d already made arrangements to transport us to another location immediately.
“A cargo plane is fueled up and waiting, and the tank is being prepared as we speak. I’ll wait here until Paul brings the truck around and supervise the loading. Meet me at the lab in Berne in…” He looked down at his diamond encrusted watch as he calculated the time, “About fifteen hours.”
I froze, listening intently. Just knowing the ocean was so close had been more comforting than I realized. He was going to take us out of the country… All hope would be lost in a landlocked Swiss city.
“Oh… and Olivia? You’d better call your boy and calm him down, he’s starting to look like a loose cannon. We can’t afford any more setbacks.”
I nearly gave in and cried, but Nixie took my hand and looked up at me, “Marina, don’t worry. It will be alright. Your person will come for you. ”
I smiled sadly down at her earnest little face, “I’m afraid we’re on our own.”
She shook her head firmly, “No Marina… You have to have faith in what you cannot see.”
I remembered the similar words that Rosa had sent me off with that day at her house. I still didn’t understand exactly what they meant, but before I had a chance to ask, Nathan Edwards voice drew my attention.
“I want you to prepare the tranquilizer darts, and then go retrieve the tanker truck from the harbor lot,” he ordered Paul.
“Why don’t I just call and have it brought around?” Paul asked.
Edwards spoke slowly, acidly, “Because we’re going to move them ourselves. You’ll work the lift, and drive us to the airport. The less people exposed to them, the better. I won’t have any more idiots involved in this project.” He looked as disgusted as he possibly could, “If you want something done right…”
The Turning Tides (Marina's Tales) Page 23
