Seas Of Passion

Chapter 3

Inside the Seascape Technical Development facility, Gordon Manfree was finally about to speak to his superiors about his continued failure to capture Alan. He had been in a sour mood ever since his previous meeting with the young shifter, doubly so when he learned that Shanice could now speak mentally as well, something he had been trying in vain to figure out how to do since the project began. He was back in the room with the second shifter, who sat watching him with the same bored, expressionless eyes as he always did, eyes that made Manfree livid because of how little regard they showed for him.

“You are very frightened about something; I have heard that your project might be ‘scrubbed’. What does that mean? I know that it means cleaned, but in this case it seems to have another meaning as well.”

“Shut up you worthless fish man, tell me how to mind speak and I’ll tell you what it means.”

“That would be a small thing for a big thing, I am not stupid. I have not lived as a human for very long but I can tell a foolish thing when I see it. Your speech still confuses me sometimes though; so many words have more than one meaning.”

“You think you’ve won don’t you, you think if my project gets scrubbed then you go home, is that it? What an idiotic fish you are, if it gets scrubbed then you’ll be killed or experimented on for real, probably vivisected and taken apart. You’ll never see your ocean or friends again,” Gordon said with a sneer, taking momentary enjoyment in the thought of the shifters life ending painfully.

“You are trying to make me upset because you are upset, you do that a lot I’ve noticed. You are so weak, such a cowardly little fish. However, even if that does happen to me, you will not be here to see it because…how did that guard say it? You are getting put into the shi*-can.”

Gordon angrily got up and went to the console attached to the wall, intending to lower the oxygen level in the holding cell when he found that his fingerprints were no longer recognized on the computer system.

“Unauthorized or unrecognized fingerprint detected, access blocked. Log file has been generated, please input password or override code within 30 seconds to avoid alert.”

Gordon stared at the small screen in bewilderment as the words blinked before him. He input his password and nearly punched the wall when the same message appeared again. As the timer counted down, he desperately tried his override code, but that too did nothing and an incredibly annoying beeping sound began to emanate from the panel. Just as that happened, the door to the observation room opened and Gordon’s supervisor walked in.

“Mr. Freeman, your access has been revoked, please don’t touch anything. I was going to call you to my office, but we may as well do this right here.  You haven’t yet caught the shifter as you said you would and the one we do have isn’t revealing anything. This project has taken too much time and money to say nothing of the fact that you are only here because of your fathers work. This project is hereby scrubbed, you-”

Gordon’s air of superiority dissolved and his nature came to the surface as he ran to his superior and grabbed his hands.

“Wait, I can get them! I know I can, I laid a trap for them to come here and have the men ready, just-”

“Mr. Freeman, you weren’t to bring them here under any circumstances. They are incredibly dangerous and now you’ve put the facility in jeopardy. ”

“They would have come anyhow; they are after the second one. Just give me this last chance and I’ll do it, you have to! I will get them or die trying, they won’t beat me again, and I swear it on my mother’s life!”

“It seems there is no other way, you will not be getting any other chances after this Manfree, I’m not going to stick my own neck out for you, up until now I’ve humored you to honor your father, a good man and friend of mine, but you’re nothing compared to him and I don’t have a problem saying that. If you cost me any more I’ll have you eliminated myself. Don’t talk to me unless it’s to tell me you’ve gotten what we want.”

Gordon undid his collar and nodded as he clenched his fist until the man left the room. He sat down and rubbed his temples while he heard his supervisor instruct someone to give him his permissions back in the system and then he sneered at the shifter in the holding cell.

“Well, looks like I can still do what I wanted to, it’s time for you to be taught a lesson again, this is for being so mouthy.”

As he spoke, one of his assistants came in and told him that a taxi was approaching the facility with a woman inside who matched the third shifters facial profile. Gordon gulped as his blood ran cold, feeling the terror of the woman he had dealt with before. As he thought back to how she had been when the second shifter was captured, how violent, calculating and emotionless she was, he felt his legs quiver. Facing the threat of elimination either way, he decided to hedge his bets. He had four armed guards wait in the corridor connected to the main lobby of the facility and watched on the cameras as the taxi pulled up and Lara stepped out. She had the air of a shark around her even as a human, standing 6 feet tall with short, brown hair and long, toned arms and legs. He hurried out of the security room and composed himself as he walked out to his reunion with Lara X, the third shifter.