She of the Sea

8 of 53 - An Evil Doctor

The next morning Webb met up with his crew at Verdanx Pharma on Live Oak Key for a debriefing by Doctor Armando. The trail leading to Cassandra Drakos had gone cold, at least for the time being, and Webb had wanted his crew to take the day off. The past day and a half they had all been operating non-stop. They needed time to rest and to decompress over the loss of their mate, Leo Grant.

Webb needed to get away from the situation too. He missed his wife and little boy.

The team sat around a conference table drinking coffee. As usual, Doctor Armando was late to his own meeting. Webb resented the man and the way he lorded over them like a tyrant. But he was the one paying the bills.

Just as he was about to lose patience, the doctor burst into the room, disheveled, the tails of his open lab coat flapping behind him.

"Bruce Webb," he said while standing at the end of the conference table. He didn't take a seat and instead leaned forward his palms against the tabletop.

The doctor was small in stature. Webb figured he remained standing to compensate, thinking it would somehow give him a psychological advantage over the Tipstaff crew. His stature also explained the man's Napoleon complex.

Webb acknowledged the doctor with a curt nod, but he said nothing.

"I'm in the process of dissecting the corpse you brought in." He sounded delighted at his ghoulish task. "I doubt it will be of much use to me as nearly all the specimen's organs were perforated as a result of your overzealous use of force. I specifically told you I wanted it alive. Why did you shoot it so many times?"

Webb's temper crept into his face. He was quick to answer. "First off, the specimen as you call it had a name. She's Mya Drakos. We were forced to put her down after she killed a team member."

"Don't presume to humanize the creature," Doctor Armando snapped. "Genetically, it's a separate, distinct species, Homo sirenas." In the same breath, he asked, "Where's the adolescent girl creature?"

The man truly was an asshole. Webb counted to ten before answering. "Did you not hear me say we lost a team member?"

"What do you expect me to do about it? You're the ones who screwed up. Where's the girl?"

Webb came up out of his seat ready to deck the bastard.

Claudia Mayhew who had been sitting beside him grabbed his wrist. "You best sit down, boss."

Webb glared at the man wanting to pummel him.

Doctor Armando wore a bemused smile. He reached into the top pocket of his lab coat and withdrew a pack of cigarettes. He lit up and took a long drag. He kept his focus on Webb. "I'll ask one more time. Where is the girl?"

"She got away." It gave Webb perverse pleasure to tell him that, even though it meant his crew had failed on their mission.

"She got away," Doctor Armando parroted. He stubbed out his cigarette. "I believe all of you need a refresher in exactly what it is we're dealing with. Follow me." He abruptly left the conference room expecting them to trail along like ducklings behind a mother duck.

The doctor led them into an antechamber fronting the autopsy suite. After they all entered and the vacuum sealed door behind them was secured, he opened the door to the lab.

An odor reminding Webb of formaldehyde overwhelmed him. It affected his entire crew as they breathed through their shirt sleeves until able to tolerate the stench. Mya Drakos lay splayed out on a stainless-steel dissection table, her chest cavity split open.

Doctor Armando stood on the other side of the table. "Do any of you really want to argue with me that this thing is human? It had fully transformed at the time you killed her and remained that way postmortem."