“Oh, got it.” Norris gave an earnest nod. “I know you were born a snow leopard shifter, but you got captured and experimented on, and something went wrong. I don’t know exactly what.”
Carter waited for more, but Norris only stood there gazing at him worshipfully, no doubt thinking about phones. With immense relief, he realized that Norris hadn’t seen him shift at Tomato Land and hadn’t talked to those of Elayne’s group who had. There was nothing he could give away to Fen.
Except for this conversation, which had nothing to do with third parties. Dammit.
“And my boss?” Carter asked, somewhat at random. “What do you know about him?”
“I thought you were the CEO.” Norris looked puzzled.
“I am, of my own company. I meant Roland Walker. The boss of Protection, Inc: Defenders. He’s a big black guy with a short gray beard. What do you know about him?”
“Oh, him. I saw him at Tomato Land. He turned into a phoenix. Pretty cool. Though not as cool as a Dunkleosteus.”
“Right,” Carter sighed. “A gigantic fish that can’t breathe or move on land ismuchcooler than a bird of fire. Okay, let’s get back to Fen before the wizard-scientists show up.”
They returned to find her crooning over the sugar glider. She had him cupped in her hands, their noses almost touching. Fen glanced up at them. “I’ve named him Sugar.”
“Good name,” said Carter.
Norris tentatively reached out to pet Sugar’s head. “Cute little thing.”
Carter glanced upward. Dawn was breaking, changing the gray-white sky to blue and decorating it with streaks of gold and pink. “We should get moving. Fen, if it’s okay with you, Norris could come along with us and tell us what’s going on while we paddle.”
Her eyes glinted with suppressed laughter. “Oh, sure, it’s fine with me. Hey! Norris, can you tell us which way the Most Dangerous Game guys are, so we can make sure we’re going away from them?”
“The who?” Norris asked.
“Our kidnappers, we’ll explain later,” Carter said impatiently.
“No, sorry. I can only do people I’ve met. But I could find the wizard-scientist who contacted me!” He frowned, concentrating, then pointed. “He’s that way.”
Fen and Carter instinctively stared in that direction. Fen asked, “Can you tell how far away that way?”
Norris shook his head. “He could be behind that tree, or he could be in Australia. No idea.”
“That is the most useless power,” Carter burst out, aggravated.
Norris looked wounded. “Hey! I found you guys, didn’t I?”
Peaceably, Fen suggested, “Let’s keep heading north.”
The three of them piled into the boat, which sank noticeably under Norris’s weight. He offered, “I could turn into a Dunkleosteus and swim beside you.”
“Maybe later,” said Carter, and handed him an oar.
Fen sat in the middle of the boat as Norris and Carter began paddling north. Sugar scampered up her arm and perched on her shoulder. Carter eyed the little creature, wondering if Norris was right that it was magical. Itdidseem odd for a random animal to adopt Fen in the middle of a swamp, let alone tickle Norris on her behalf, but otherwise it showed no sign of being anything but cute.
Cute is enough, purred a monster.
“Okay, Norris,” said Fen. “Begin at the beginning. What are you doing here?”
Norris seemed to ponder that. “You mean when I found out you were being targeted? Or earlier than that, when I became a Dunkleosteus? Or do you want the very beginning, when my grandmother gave me a book on marine biology when I was nine, and I was so inspired that—”
Carter repressed the urge to clutch at his head. He saw Fen’s fingers twitch, and guessed that she was thinking of hurling something at Norris’s head. Since the closest thing to her hand, which she was trailing in the water, was a large floating bullfrog, Carter hurriedly said, “Let’s go with how you became a Dunkleosteus.”
Norris looked mildly disappointed, having evidently geared up to tell them his life story, but said, “I’m a marine paleontologist, and I was trying to get a grant for a research project on reconstructing DNA from a Dunkleosteus tooth. It was very difficult, expensive, experimental work, and I’d been at it for years with no success. Then I got approached by this woman named Elayne.Shewas supportive.”
“I bet,” muttered Carter.
