“That is unfortunate,” Connor echoed. He scowled at himself. His voice wasstillpitched wrong.
“There’s food upstairs, too. You can get lunch,” his dad said, and he continued walking toward the elevator. Once again, not noticing Connor’s peaked tone.
Connor glanced at the last spot he’d seen the creature before following. The doors closed shut with a hiss of air. Connor settled himself into the corner and held onto the bar for support. The elevator’s metal doors were shiny enough to reflect his face at himself; a distorted expression. He forced his body to stop its excited thrumming and steadied himself.
Connor turned to his dad. “Do you study mermaids?”
His dad’s attention, which had never fully left his tablet, was captured. Curiosity filled his expression, and a sharpened gaze darted to Connor. His dad had never looked at him with so much interest before.
“Did you experience something?” Ben asked, his voice high and excited.
“I would have been blind to miss it,” Connor said.
“Blind to…” Ben paused. “Oh, yousawsomething? How close did it get? Which one was it?”
There were multiple? As in, a family was swimming around out there? A pack?Or, Connor thought wryly,an entire species. He squeezed the bar of the elevator as the doors pinged open. His heart was racing again, pure excitement taking charge of the muscle.
“Come on.” Ben put his arm over Connor’s shoulders and urged him along. “We can talk while I get this brewed. Could you tell which one it was?”
A pungent scent of fish and coffee washed over him. Despite it and his urge to make a wry comment on the matter, physical affection was so rare from his dad that he couldn’t bring himself to push away. “Why don’t you give me a rundown on distinctive features? I have no way of knowing which one it was since I didn’t know anything of the sort even existed before now.”
They walked into a large kitchen that was big enough to house the staff of several restaurants. The only part used was the corner nearest the door where the coffee machine was set up. Clean cups were placed on the draining tray of the sink. Did they have a super-secretive cleaner on staff? He couldn’t imagine either the guards or the scientists would be bothered with so small a task.
“The tail was green and blue. I think it had black hair. It was hard to tell with the way the light was hitting it. It could have just been dark brown. And its eyes were dark blue, sort of like—”
The breath went out of Ben.
Connor paused, casting his dad a questioning look.
There was awe in his expression. “It was close enough you could make out itseyecolour?”
It freaked me the hell out, Connor wanted to say, but that tipped over the scales of how much emotion he felt comfortable showing his dad.
“I was leaning against the glass, and he just popped up. I think he scared me on purpose,” Connor relayed, recalling his fright. It seemed less of a nightmare now that he was talking about it.
“He?”
“It looked male.”
“Fascinating.” Ben released Connor, dragged a stool from under a stainless steel table, and urged Connor to sit.
Connor, for once, agreed with his dad’s take on fascinating.
“It must be a new juvenile,” Ben mused, talking more to himself than Connor as he pulled up another stool. “How close did you say he got?”
“At the glass.”
“At the glass.” There was the blooming awe in his dad’s eyes again. “He’s bold. They hate the lab, you see. They don’t like being watched. But this new juvenile must be a curious creature to venture in. Maybe seeing someone new in the lab caught his interest?”
“How many are there?” Connor asked.
Ben muttered to himself about checking the footage and seeing did the outdoor cameras catch a good angle. Then he was tapping at his tablet and typing. Connor examined his dad, seeing that he’d lost his attention as suddenly as he’d gained it. With a sigh, he got up and set the coffee brewing. It was the same one they’d had since Connor was a kid. Coffee-boy had been his job on days when there were no babysitters available, and he had to go to work with his dad. He had never seen any mermaids in the water then.
Connor leaned against the counter as the coffee machine spat; after a few clicks, steam rose out of the top, and the emptied coffee pot filled. If he had his phone on him, Connor would google everything he could about mermaids right that second. But then again, he wasn’t sure if turning on his phone to sate his curiosity was even worth it, given the barrage of hate messages waiting to greet him. He’d rather stop by the library in town. Actually,his dad had an enormous collection.
“Mind if I drop by your house on the way home?” Connor asked casually. “I left some clothes there.”
His dad didn’t hear him until Connor repeated the question. Twice. At which point, he cast Connor a pointed frown. “I don’t have time to drive you over.”
