"Ah, but then you go on to state… hang on, hang on… ah, here it is, 'A deep-dwelling sea creature repudiated to be as large as Nessie would avoid traversing the shallows that lead out of Loch Ness and the Bona Narrows to the Moray Firth. The solution to returning to the North Sea may, in fact, lie in the Loch's unique geology. While the surface of Loch Ness lies fifty-two feet above sea level, its depths remain more than seven hundred feet below sea level. The bottom of this trough is flat and smooth, covered in a layer of sediment, twenty- five feet deep. At its northernmost section, Loch Ness is blocked by glacial sediment, however, it is now believed its northern basin may extend beyond Inverness and all the way to the Moray Firth. It is therefore likely that the extreme depths of the Great Glen do not stop at Loch Ness, but may in fact, continue north into the sea by way of a deep underground aquifer."' Max stopped reading. "Aquifer? That's an underground river, correct?"

"A river running through stratum… through rock, yes."

"And do you still stand by these words, Dr. Wallace?"

"It's just a working theory."

"A working theory from an accomplished scientist. Now let's look at your working theory about Nessie." He turned to the next marked section. "Again I quote, 'It is my opinion that the animal referred to as Nessie, if it exists, is an undiscovered species of sea creature, perhaps even a mutation. Even in this day and age, large, extinct land and water creatures are being discovered all the time, thanks to advances in technology and our ability to gain access to hostile environs. The giant Muntjac of Laos, the two hundred pound Saola, a cowlike beast, and the discovery of six new species in the Andes Mountains all being examples. Though most probably of the same species, Nessie is not, however, the same animal confronted by Saint Columba in 565 A.D., back at a time the theorized Loch Ness aquifer may have been open to the sea. In fact, our timeline suggests the modern-day Nessie is a rogue, an animal that became trapped and cut-off from the Moray Firth, not millions or even thousands of years ago, but post-Saint Columba and fairly recently at that, most likely within the last hundred years.'"

I looked around, amazed at the number of people nodding their heads in agreement.

"Dr. Wallace, could you clarify this last part for our jurors?"

"What part?"

"About the monster being less than a century old."

"Again, it's just conjecture."

"Humor us."