Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

Jason, Lisa, and Phil were on the edge of the parking lot, submerged in the redwoods’ late-day shadows.

“They went to check the forest again. The clouds started coming in, so Darryl said they might be a while. I tried them on the walkie-talkie earlier, but they must be out of range.”

Jason nodded. “Has Craig’s equipment produced any readings?”

“Not one.” She looked around. “Where is Craig anyway?”

“In the cabin, checking on something for me.”

She pointed. “Well, here he comes.”

“Excuse me….” Jason walked toward Craig, out of earshot from Lisa and Phil. Jason had told Summers alone about Ackerman’s betrayal, then asked him to check into something. “You find anything?”

Craig nodded sadly. “I sure did.”

“How’s it look?”

“Lousy, Jason. It looks lousy.”

Jason looked crushed by this. “Really?”

“The evidence is glaring. I’m sorry.”

Jason exhaled, his eyes hardening. “All right, let’s do this inside. I’ll meet you in there.”

Craig walked away and Jason returned to Lisa and Phil.

“What’s up?” Lisa said, immediately suspicious.

“Harry Ackerman fired me. Fired all of us. He’s taking our data and presenting it to the Species Council as his own. Apparently, his businesses need a great deal of capital fast, and he’s found a way to profit from our work very handsomely.”

“Very bad.” Lisa was dumbfounded. “I don’t believe it.”

Jason nodded, noticing Phil didn’t look particularly upset. Nor surprised. Jason’s face turned deathly cold. “Let’s go inside. I want to discuss this further.”

In the living room, the three sat silently when Craig entered—carrying Phil’s open laptop.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing with that, Craig?”

Craig ignored Phil Martino, passing the two monitors on the hearth then placed the laptop in front of Jason.

“I said, what are you doing with my machine?”

Craig pivoted. “Checking up on you.”

Jason turned like a hawk. “You got a problem with that, Phil?”

The look on Jason’s face was downright frightening. Phil Martino didn’t move, didn’t breathe. “Of course not.”

Jason faced Lisa. “Before Ackerman could steal our work, he had to get it somehow. So what do we have here, Craig?”

“E-mails. More than five hundred back and forth over the past few months.”

Lisa’s eyes narrowed. “E-mails between?…”

Craig turned. “Phil and Harry Ackerman. Phil’s been sending him every stitch of information we have. See, Jason? See these attachments? That’s your outline to the Species Council. Draft one, draft two… draft eleven. And remember how he volunteered to type all of our notes?… There’s mine on GDV-4, Monique’s on migration, Lisa’s on the plankton… There are all his pictures… Transcripts of our conversations… Oh, and these four… That’s Lisa’s e-mail from the Okezie Center… Mike Cohen’s write-up on the teeth… there’s York’s on GDV-4… and last but not least, Bandar Vishakeratne’s on the brain.”

“Jesus.” Lisa was flabbergasted.

Craig nodded. “Ackerman wasn’t kidding. He has everything. ”

Devastated, Jason turned. “My God, Phil, why? Why did you do it?”

Phil’s eyes shifted slightly, and he diddled his thumbs together. He said nothing.

“Let me show you why.” Craig scrolled down. “See this e-mail he sent to Ackerman with the subject ‘salary increase’?”

Jason leaned forward. “Oh my God.”

“Ackerman doubled his salary in exchange for his services.”

Jason shook his head. “And to think I had problems trusting people.” He abruptly turned to Craig and Lisa, like he wondered if they’d been lying to him, too. Was Phil smart enough to do all this by himself?

Reading his mind, Craig gave him a filthy look. “Jesus, Jason, Phil did this by himself.”

“Of course he did.” Jason was suddenly embarrassed.

Craig just took a deep breath and continued. “Anyway, here’s the real kicker. The son of a bitch wanted to be Ackerman’s only listed researcher on his report to the Species Council. But then Ackerman refused. Said that since all of us were physically with Phil the entire time, it might allow us to establish that we actually did the work. But you thought of a way around that, didn’t you, Phil?”

Phil looked even more nervous. “What are you talking about?”

“You figured if somehow something happened to all of us, you could get that title after all. Without any… encumbrances.”

“Wait a second.” Jason gave Craig a look. “I don’t believe that.”

Lisa shook her head. “Neither do I. That’s ridiculous, Craig.”

“You sure? Because I went over some of the ‘accidents’ we’ve had lately, and you know what I realized? Phil was involved in every single one of them. Remember when you almost drowned, Jason?”

“Phil had nothing to do with that. He wasn’t even in the water with us.”

“ He was alone on the boat with your scuba gear. I personally checked that tank half an hour before we went down. It was filled. Then all of a sudden when you’re at a depth of a hundred and eighty feet and it’s empty? He almost shot me during rifle practice. And then there was that convenient little… miscommunication with Lisa and Monique. No way in hell was every one of those a goddamn accident. It stinks, all of it.”

Jason turned to Phil. They all did.

Phil looked back at them incredulously. “You gotta be kidding me. Jason, you don’t actually believe all that, do you?”

Jason just looked at him, horrified. He couldn’t respond.

“Lisa? I’ll admit, maybe I got confused, but do you think I’d intentionally try to hurt you and Monique?”

Lisa turned. “You don’t have any evidence he did this, do you, Craig?”

Phil nodded with angry vigor. “No, he doesn’t. Nothing even close to evidence.”

“This isn’t a goddamn trial, Lisa. He did it; we all know he did it.”

“No, we all don’t. He’s a scumbag, Craig, I don’t deny that, but a murderer?”

Craig suddenly looked exhausted. “What’s it matter anyway? Ackerman’s got every stitch of our work, and he’s a goddamn lawyer. We’re done.”

“Maybe we can call our own lawyer.” Lisa swallowed. “Especially for Monique and Darryl’s sake.”

Summers paused. Monique and Darryl. They didn’t know about any of this, but both of their salaries had just disappeared. What would that do to their family planning? “We should call a lawyer….” Craig picked up the phone, but there was no dial tone and he suddenly lost it. “Son of a bitch!” He whipped it against the wall, smashing it to bits. Then he exhaled, calming down. “Lisa, can I borrow your walkie-talkie to call them? I promise not to smash it.”

She handed it to him warily.

He pressed the button. “Monique, Darryl. You guys out there? Monique, Darryl, come in.”

Monique’s voice crackled back immediately. “Hello—can—hear—” It cut out.

Craig pressed the button again. “Monique, you hear me? Monique?”

There was no response.

“Monique? Hello? Can you hear me?”

There was nothing.

“They must be out of range.” Craig turned to Jason. “I wonder what they’re up to out there.”

Jason looked out the window. It was much cloudier now. “Me too.”

MONIQUE CLIPPED the walkie-talkie to her belt. “We must be out of range.”

Darryl Hollis didn’t respond. He just studied the forest, his eyes slowly moving.

The late-afternoon light was dull and faded now, the air cool, almost cold. Little drops of dew were everywhere—on the bark of the redwoods, the leaves of ferns, the dirt—even on Darryl’s knuckles. They’d been here for hours.