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“They’re supposed to guard you,” Marcus said, gesturing to the open seas outside.
“From what?” I demanded, panicking. Was that what happened to the mysterious blonde that’d been in my room? Had she decided to back out at the last minute, rather than share all of her most intimate thoughts with a stranger?
“I recommend you read the provided dossier.”
Donna reached out and put a comforting hand on my arm. “You’re a xenoscientist, right? I’d have figured you’d love the chance to interact with a kraken. Personally. If you know what I mean.” She waggled her eyebrows as I reached up to rub on my temples.
Everyone always assumed you went into monster sciences to fuck them. “I study dead monster languages and cultures. It’s different.”
“We’re not going to push you out the dock,” Marcus said, and when I gave him another nervous look he went on. “You’re not the first scientist we’ve had here—and you’re not even the first one we’ve seen freak out. I don’t know what’s on that tablet you’ve got in your hand, because it’s classified and will only open with your biometrics, but I do know that every time a scientist reads that, they’re suited up to go out the next day. Read it and see. There’s a storm overhead. You’re going to be trapped here for a bit, regardless.”
Donna nodded strongly beside him. “Hopefully the dossier will explain more of what you want to know.”
“Hopefully,” I said, mostly without any, and then waved them both out of my room.
chapter 8
ELLE
Once I was alone, I sat down on my bed and turned the tablet on. It flashed, scanning my face quickly, and then the screen went live with a video from Arcus Marlow himself.
“Doctor Kepzler, welcome to my Aquatic Life Research Installation, I hope my other employees are helping you to feel right at home.”
I felt my eyebrows crawling up my forehead. If I’d been given some Arcus Industrial employee indoctrination video, I was absolutely going to violate my NDA at the nearest topside bar.
But then the image changed away from him, showing a view from a remotely operated vehicle, shining a light beam into the dark.
“I’ve selected you to be given an extraordinary research opportunity. First dibs on a find from an unknown civilization,” he narrated over the ROV’s footage as a structure came into view.
Due to the way light traveled down here, I couldn’t see past five feet out the entire time, but once the ROV got closer, I realized it was traveling in front of a wall which seemed to be covered in writing. It seemed to glow slightly, like the ROV’s light was setting off some latent bioluminescent organism in the carvings.
I instantly knew it didn’t match any writing I’d ever seen.
“This is the outside of an unknown structure, Doctor Kepzler. I need to know what monster species this is from, how old it is, what it says, what culture it represents—I want to know everything about it.”
I did too. In fact, I was practically drooling over the screen. But why just me, why not a huge team?—
“We’re in international waters. Depending on which species it belongs to, there may be jurisdictional issues. And if we’re found out ahead of time, any other group with enough money to excavate it can claim it’s salvage.”
I swallowed—he was right. Any time we did a dig we had to be careful to get the permissions of the groups involved, which was sometimes a morass of legalese, depending on local politics, or if the monster species had any current descendants that we could find. Oftentimes I was in a race against builders who would bribe their way into paving over whatever I could study rather than letting me have at it for a year or two—and I’d read an article recently about people claiming rights over the remnants of the Titanic.
The deep ocean was the wild west, especially where artifacts were concerned.
“So right now, it’s just you. You will go down, investigate the site, and see if you can’t figure out which species or political entities we need to be coordinating with based on your expansive knowledge of monster histories and communications. You give me something solid to start with, I’ll confirm it with other scientists, and we’ll go from there.” The ROV’s footage finally reached the base of the structure—it was at least three stories high.
I was in awe.
“The rest of the data on this tablet is all the information we’ve accrued on the site remotely. You’ll be downloading your data into this same tablet every night, and we will retrieve this tablet the next time we send a submersible for exchange. I will expect weekly reports for as long as you’re down there, and no finding is too small, Doctor.”
I nodded, like he could see me, and then gave a soft laugh.
“And one more thing—while you should follow the instructions given to you by the rest of your crew as though they were me, everything you do in the water and see in the water should be kept confidential. Do not share any of your findings with them. They are merely crew.”
That sounded harsh, but I supposed billionaires weren’t known for being trusting.
“If you agree with these stipulations, and still want to take on this opportunity, say the word, ‘Understood.’”
“Understood,” I said quickly—and then the video stopped and a screen full of neatly labeled folders appeared.
