“Let’s not celebrate until—” The rest of the sentence died in his throat. Some distance down the beach, the Oannes floated a little way out to sea. “It’s Pip! She must have come looking for us.”

They swam toward shore. When it became shallow enough to stand, they tugged off their flippers and ran side-by-side up onto the beach. Elsa stumbled to her knees, then fell on her chest in the sand, laughing in a way that sounded like she might be crying too.

Marty knelt next to her and offered his hand. “There will be time for that later. Let’s get to the ship. Pip and the others will be worried sick about us.”

Wiping tears from her eyes, Elsa took his hand and they hurried at a brisk walk toward the hulking research vessel. Yet after only a few meters she squeezed his hand tightly and came to an abrupt halt.

He was about to ask what was wrong when he saw what had startled her. Ahead of them, huddled together on the sand, were the silhouettes of what appeared to be two or three merfolk.

Marty’s initial zap of fright was promptly pushed aside by reason and calculation.

They were on land. They no longer posed a serious threat.

This is your chance to kill one, he thought. Your chance to finally prove to everyone that you were right all along. Hurry! Before they get away.

“Stay here,” he told Elsa quietly, and then hurried toward the merfolk.

One was lying off on its own, unmoving. Another was sitting up, its pale back to him, bent over and…feasting on something? Marty had a bad feeling in his gut even before he made out the “something’s” head and frozen, terror-stricken expression.

Oh Lord, Pip, no.

A mournful sound had unwittingly escaped his lips, causing the merfolk to whirl around in alarm, its bloodied mouth dripping with torn flesh, its black eyes unafraid.

Aiming down the assault rifle’s iron sight at the center of the creature’s swollen forehead, Marty felt only cool rage as he squeezed the trigger and ended the blasphemous thing’s life.

Epilogue

Epilogue

25 YEARS LATER

RBC Place London, London, England

Jointly hosted by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and the European Cetacean Society, the World Mammal Conference was a biennial event that drew interdisciplinary scientists from every continent. This year it was a jam-packed six days filled with academic presentations, panel discussions, round tables, poster sessions, and workshops. Capping off the final evening was a sold-out closing banquet. The cocktail dinner was followed by a live performance of a band playing soul, funk, R&B, and pop. Presently the waitstaff were bustling about the auditorium, topping up empty champagne flutes in anticipation for the evening’s main event: the presentation of the lifetime achievement award to Martin Murdoch, emeritus professor of marine biology at Oxford University.