Mayor Danelia was beside herself. She’d been receiving insane reports all day, and now that their little ‘expansion project’ had been exposed, she was ready to kill somebody.

  “So you’re telling me they released the two hostages? That’s the report from the site?”

  “They found the girls, yes. Although weren’t there three?”

  She hesitated. The number three felt right somehow, like a whisper at the edge of her thoughts—but it vanished as quickly as it came. No, it was two.

  Only two.

  “And what do they want in return? The vandal merboy, I’d imagine?”

  “That’s right.”

  “How badly has he wrecked the city? Can we just let him get away with it after all?”

  Her assistant reported of the channels Kyle had tampered with, which the Major really didn’t care about overmuch, aside from how many days behind this would put them. The fact that the secret portal they’d had been under one of the machines the whole time, exposed by the excaping orphans, was the point of interest.

  “So that means our people can go down and start working from the ground up?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Well, why didn’t you tell me that part first. That’s good news, isn’t it?”

  “It’ll ramp up our timeline. Yes. But we’re also putting ourselves at risk of attack.” She lowered her voice. “From the natives.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Danielia said, knowing she had to project confidence even if the thought of a full-scale revolt by the natives made her gut churn. “They’ll probably just scatter out to sea like they always do.”

  “That never happened, and you know it,” Orwen Albi retorted. The self-appointed ‘geothermal initiative advisor’ was rarely far from her side since this all escalated, a fact that the mayor was finding less appealing with each interjection.

  “At any rate, Madam Mayor,” her assistant said, “whatever happened in the past,”—she shot Orwen a warning glare, protecting her boss against the interloper—“it might behoove us this time to consider good relations with these people. We’ve had close calls before.”

  “Yes, we have. Which is all the more reason to scare them off,” Orwen shot back. “We don’t need our citizens going out for a swim one day, only to get lured into a trap, or mind-wiped, or whatever voodoo they’re capable of now.”

  “They’re not as primitive as you may think,” he continued, “they’ve got a sophisticated society going on down there. After all, they managed to live quietly right under our noses, until one of them broke loose again.”

  “Alright, fine,” Danielia capitulated. “We take a stand. We’re acting within our sovereign territory, after all. We simply invite them to remain if they like—subject to our rules and regulations of course—and go from there.”

  “They won’t like it.”

  “Then they can leave.”

  Orwen opened his mouth to argue, but caught yet another sharp look from her assistant.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  'Fine, he thought inwardly. 'If she wants to pretend things are fine, so be it. She’ll learn soon enough. They’ll all learn.' His arm ached and he rubbed at it, allowing the pain to reinforce his convictions, if only internally.

  * * *

  Aquasentinels Lam and Alison, after having gotten themselves cleaned up of any remaining sewage, were suddenly put on a new assignment. They were to leave the city limits at once, and proceed to a work site where there had been a disturbance.

  On their way out of the city, they ran into an old friend on sentinel duty.

  “Ow’s yer day goin’, Marla?” Lam asked with something of a glum countenance. “Doin’ well?”

  “Not so great,” Marla answered. She’d been dying to talk about her adventures, not to mention her concern about those lost girls and everything she’d done to try and find them, but nobody had been of a mind to talk about anything but the wayward alien merboy and how he’d all but destroyed the city.

  “Heard they caught that toxic boy out by the chasm?”

  “Did they?”

  “Damn right they did. Little bastard’s goin’ ta pay for the mess he made. We’re on our way out to place him under arrest.”

  Alyson, who’d remained uncharacteristically silent, stuck a finger in her ear and it came out oozing.

  Marla shrank back. “Good quick swim’ll do you some good,” she offered.

  “A little tired of swimming at the moment,” Alyson replied. Still, she donned her breathing gear and set her fin, and the two aquasentinels were off, heading for the newly-minted construction zone.

  As soon as they were out of sight, Marla hurried up to the sentinel shack to ask for more time off. She needed to alert her friends.

  * * *

  Headmaster Oliver, with Ms. Terri and Mr. Albi in tow, arrived at the sentinel shack just as Marla was putting on her fin.

  “Hold on there, Marla,” Oliver called out, “you sure it’s wise, us going out there all half-cocked.”

  “That boy’s in trouble,” she said, adjusting her gear, “they sent the aquasentinels out there after him and everything. We’ve got to find a way to help him, so he can lead us to the girls.”

  “What girls?” Mr. Albi said. “Those girls?”

  As if in a dream, Calistya and Khrystal floated up to the sentinel post and exited the water, looking exhausted, but otherwise no worse for the wear. Behind them, a dolphin popped its head out of the water and chattered.

  “Oh my goodness Calistya!” Ms. Terri cried, giving the girl a hug. “And Khrystal, come here!” She hugged Khrystal twice as hard.

  When the teacher pulled away, she was teary, and so were the girls. They were also shivering.

  “Oh, Headmaster,” Marla said, looking a bit teary herself, “you’ve got to get these girls back to the school. They’re in a state, they are!”

  “Wait,” Calisya said, not caring the least about what kind of a state she was in. “Kyle’s in trouble. They’re going to arrest him! You’ve got to do something!”

  “Alright girls. You go with Ms. Terri back to the school. Get warmed up and cleaned up, and we’ll go see what we can do for the merboy. Alright? Is that reasonable.”

  The girls nodded, still shivering.

  “Salty can show you were he is,” Khrystal said, pointing to the dolphin who was already pointed back out to sea, raring to go.

  “Alright, we’ll follow Salty,” Mr. Albi said.

  The group parted ways, three into the city, and three-and-a-pet out to sea.

  * * *

  “What’d you mean, trading shell?” said Aquasentinel Lam. “We weren’t sent out here to arrest the boy?”

  The foreman of the working crew, acting on the authority of the mayor, had concocted a temporary prison in the cab of his largest machine, the doors of which were barred. The cab was cramped, its narrow walls pressing in on all sides, but it was the only space secure enough to keep the boy contained. The foreman eyed the barred doors, mentally justifying the makeshift cell as temporary—until proper arrangements could be made.

  “The mayor gave specific instructions. We’re to keep the boy here, use him as bait. When the others show up, we’re to detain ‘em and bring ‘em back to the city.”

  “What others?” Aquasentinel Alyson asked. “What makes you think they even know he’s here?”

  “Oh, they know,” said the foreman, “these mertypes are psychic. Of course they’ll sense him. They always know when one of their own is in trouble. And that’s just what she wants. Can’t have the lot of ‘em down there hidin’ once we start drilling. Ain’t that right, boy?” He directed his last comment upwards to the cab. The merboy seemed to hear, but didn’t react.

  “It ain’t good for him,” Lam said, “all cooped up. We should bring him back to headquarters where he’ll have a decent swimming cell to move about in. Sea creatures can’t stay still like this.”

  “Not my decision,” said the foreman. “Take it up with the major.