The Secret Beneath The Waves

Chapter 3: The "human surveillance camera"

*Picture of Tony at the top of the page

Chapter Three - The "human surveillance camera"

Waking up the next morning to a sound of a gong, Spencer groaned, turning over to switch it off, resulting in her rolling off the bed, in a swaddled bunch of blankets. Mumbling incoherent things underneath her breath, she got up, padding across the hardwood to take a shower.

"Another day, another dose of Andrew" she mumbled, tugging a brush through her messy hair. Grabbing her bag, she headed out the door, the attempt to brush her hair long since forfeited. Opening the door, the bright sun shone brightly, as the gentle waves from last night caught the rays of sunlight, gleaming. Making her way down the two flights of stairs to the lab stations, a familiar bob of red hair once again, stood out like a traffic cone amongst everyone else. "Out of my way!" Andrew called in a nasal voice.

The crowd parted for him, and he came to stand in front of her again. "Ms. Evans" he said, out of breathe once again. "I received a complaint from a few people in the genetic office. They said that you were 'disturbing the peace', is this true." Spencer just stared at him. The quietest person on this boat is not gonna 'disturb the peace,' Andrew." she said coolly. Andrew narrowed his eyes, but waddled away, she was right.

Continuing on to the lab, she was soon met up with by Adri, the two chatting as they sat down at their separate cubicles. Scanning over graphs of species' drastic population increases and decreases, then punching in numbers in a computer, she worked fast and efficiently, proceeding to go through all of the graphs as well as the reports, well until-

"Knock knock" came a voice from the door. Sighing, Spencer turned around, to be faced with a tall boy holding a stack of binders and notebooks. "Can I help you?" she asked, annoyed as to why she was being held behind from finishing her work. The boy, who had been staring at a picture on her desk, jumped slightly, then grinned. "Oh, hey" he said. "Uh..." regaining his, what she thought , were usual character traits, he grinned handing her a manilla envelope. "Andrew wanted you to have these." he said, sticking his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Thanks" she responded, taking them and adding them to the -thankfully- diminishing pile of paperwork that needed to be finished. She continued punching in numbers on the computer, and scanning over graphs and tables, before she stopped abruptly. "Is there a problem?" she asked, spinning around in her chair, this time irritation clear on her face. The boy nervously grinned once more. "It's just that, uh...I've been told to keep an eye on you...also by Andrew." She groaned, and finished her work. Of course Andrew had decided to keep a human surveillance camera on her now.

She made to pack up. The boy, in the meantime had been leaning against the doorframe quietly, spinning a pencil around over and over in his hand like a drumstick.

"May I ask what your name is?" Spence said, as the boy trailed after her as she walked up the flights of stairs. "I'd like to be able to address my stalker by name." Rolling his eyes, the boy replied, "Tony Ranger, at you service, Spencer Evans." Clapping her hands, Spencer continued across the busy boat, other biologists carrying sacks of the mutant fish into the other wing of the lab. The stench was absolutely pungent. "So" Spencer said. "You've been assigned as my watchdog. Think you're up for it?" Tony snorted, "You're lack of faith in me is highly intriguing, yet terrifying. Yes, I think I can keep up with you."

"The amount of sarcastic tension between both of you is agonizing" Adri said, coming up from behind them. She turned to Tony with disgust. "What are you doing here?" Astonished, spencer looked at both of them. "You two know each other?" Adri nodded, clearly horrified by the idea. "Tony and I go waaaaaaaaaaay back" she said. "We were both in the same training course for the biology program. Something you should count yourself lucky for being able to skip. The tattooed guy you met yesterday runs it." she wrinkled her nose. "Adrianna and I were classmates." Tony said. "She's just jealous because I got the higher score than she did on the final exam." Adri huffed, "That's because the teacher is a sexist idiot." she stomped off to her bubble.

Spencer turned to Tony. "He was" he agreed, "but don't you dare tell her I said that." he jogged up the next flight of stairs, and Spencer retreated to her bubble as well.