Moni took one glance over her shoulder at the two medics wheeling a pint-sized stretcher after her. The strides of her brisk trot grew longer.
“Thanks for the warm thoughts, honey, but my baby is fine. How many times do I gotta tell you there’s nothing wrong with her?”
Chapter 36
“I don’t choose who dies. I have nothing to do with it,” the Lagoon Watcher crowed from behind the table as he shook his cuffed wrists, which had a chain connected to his ankle restraints. “It’s all done at the molecular level-maybe even the sub-molecular level. We’re talking chemical and genetic manipulation. It’s like a virus, but fully sentient and intelligent.”
Harry Trainer nodded at his three interrogators as if he had just made a brilliant point that would make them throw open the door, strip off his orange jumpsuit and let him walk on home. Apparently, he didn’t notice Sneed’s dumbfounded gawk, Aaron’s amused smirk, and even his friend Swartzman shaking his head with a frown. The accused murderer had rambled on for a half hour without any of the three men getting more than a sentence or two in at a time. As Trainer recited the whole ecological history of the lagoon-practically from the Big Bang-Aaron had deja vu from his high school days when he just planted his head on his desk and dozed off.
No worries. All they had was a trail of dead bodies, a swarm of psychotic animals, sixteen missing explosives and a toxic lagoon. Meanwhile, this guy kept playing the Mr. Green card. Every time they asked him how he did it, he insistently denied responsibility. He blamed polluters and politicians for laying the foundation for what he called a “computerized bacteria invasion.”
Trainer’s hair looked frazzled and nearly electrified; he sported a bandage covering the cut an eight-year-old supposedly inflicted on him. With all that, and the gaunt cheeks tracing the outline of his jaw, he resembled just the kind of street-corner sign man that warns of tiny invaders.
“I haven’t got the foggiest idea what you’re yammering about,” Sneed said. “Don’t you dare screw with me, old man.” He cocked his head towards the suspect with such a menacing scowl that even the Lagoon Watcher took notice. Trainer straightened his back in his wooden chair. “I have enough evidence to lock you away until your final breath. You might even earn a date with a syringe just like the ones you were carrying in your jacket in that elementary school-you sick son of bitch. You can forget an insanity plea. No jury will accept that from a man with a doctoral degree hanging on his wall. As I see it, you’ve got two options. You can admit what you did, tell me where you hid the bombs, and help us clean up this toxic shit. Maybe then, a jury will have just an ounce of pity for you. Option Two: You can keep speaking in riddles like you’re fucking Nostradamus. If you wanna see where that’ll end you up, I’d be much obliged to show you.”
The Lagoon Watcher tried throwing up his hands. His shackles prevented him from raising them above chest level. “You didn’t even consider the truth for one second. The evidence clearly demonstrates the impossibility of my involvement. I tried to prevent this calamity. It’s the Big Sugar and the Big Cattle and the…”
“Quit sticking the blame on everybody else!” Sneed growled. “You murdered all those people in cold blood.”
“I would never!”
“You took their heads. Where did you put them? In some secret lab of yours? Where did you take the explosives? If you kill any more…”
“Explosives? I don’t know a thing about that. But if that’s the subject we’re on, what about all the rocket exhaust from the launches at the Space Center? How could you blame me-the defender of the lagoon-for what’s going on when you’ve got tons, and tons of airborne debris from these launches seeping into the water? Wouldn’t you think this played a bigger role in triggering the bacterial mutations?”
“Okay Harry, that’s enough.” Swartzman finally waved his friend quiet. Aaron noted that it took bringing up the sore subject of NASA’s launch emissions, which nearly got Swartzman canned, for him to interject. “You’re not doing yourself any favors with these tirades. Pretend this is a research paper and just get to the point.”
Aaron had read plenty of academic research papers-reluctantly, of course. They were about as clear-cut as the user manual for the space shuttle. It didn’t matter that his professor might understand it. Of all the people in the room, only Sneed’s opinion truly mattered regarding Trainer’s fate. Aaron didn’t want anything for the Lagoon Watcher short of an extended stay in the slammer after his kidnapping of Mariella, and his brawl with Moni. Yet, he could see through the political ramblings. He recognized the man’s basic point: there’s no way he could have managed all of this, at least not by himself.
After nearly losing Mariella in the Enchanted Forest following Trainer’s arrest, Aaron knew that the threat against the girl, and Moni hadn’t ceased. He’d love to take the girls windsurfing out there one day and see them laughing and smiling without a fear in the world. Yet the lagoon still reeked of decay.
“A research paper might be kind of ambitious right now, Mr. Watcher. I mean, Mr. Trainer,” Aaron said. His professor rolled his eyes as if Aaron had wasted perfectly good air by opening his mouth. The Lagoon Watcher focused on him with those erratic blue eyes, momentarily calm. “We’ve done some investigating and I know you’ve gotten down and dirty digging for answers too. It can’t hurt to compare notes. Right?” The man nodded as eagerly as a kid who had been asked whether he fancied visiting an amusement park. “So what have you seen in the water?”
“Well, all kinds of fascinating phenomenon,” the Lagoon Watcher began. Already, Sneed crossed his arms and leaned his head off to the side in a sculpture of disinterest, as much as The Thinker is a sculpture of calculating thought. Aaron reassured Trainer by scooting forward in his chair. “Dolphins have become mischievous thieves for their masters. When you see a bird flying all crooked, and following you around town, you know it’s one of their spies. Gators and snakes are like the frontline soldiers. And that turtle you tagged, Herb, it’s a real wild one. It swims like a barracuda.”
“Come on, Harry. We all know you gave that sea turtle lifts on your boat to spook me,” Swartzman said.
“You think I’m giving the turtle rides? I couldn’t even catch it in a speed boat,” Trainer said. The professor covered his face with his hand and sighed. “These enhancements are part of their remodeling of the local species. Now, they’ve started melding two or three species together and finding new tasks for them. They’re crafted to adapt to their environment, however hostile it may be to other forms of life. It’s amazing that it all starts with the little guys.”
“You mean the bacteria?” Aaron asked.
“No, no, no. I’m talking about the other little guys-the smaller ones.”
Aaron and his professor exchanged puzzled glances.
“You’ve seen them right?” the Lagoon Watcher asked. “The carbon-mechanical hybrids? That’s one name for them. Really, there is no category for organisms, or machines, like this. Herb, how do you think their nervous system functions?”
“There’s nothing unusual in the infected animals besides bacteria,” Swartzman said. “The bacteria are the source.”
“No. The bacteria are their weapons,” the Lagoon Watcher said. “They’re the foot soldiers. They’re not the generals. That would be the smaller guys.”
“If there really is something else in the infected animals, how come we haven’t seen it in their blood?” Aaron asked.
“Are you examining the blood of dead animals?” the Lagoon Watcher asked. Aaron nodded. “Well, there you are. Try capturing a live infected animal. Don’t bother with blood that’s been outside of its body for more than a few seconds. You need to get a piece of live tissue under a microscope. Otherwise the little goobers will scurry off.”