A Merman's Tail

Chapter 29

"If your Father can't get out of the aquarium and walk to the ocean, we may need your family to carry him out. Either that or..." My voice faded away as I considered letting the water out of the larger aquarium.

"Scott?" Mitch asked as my vision returned from far away and I focused again.

"Sorry, just thinking it would probably be easier to let the water out of the aquarium and him with it." I said with a small smile. Not knowing which aquarium he was in was the reason for my uncertainty. But that was something I just couldn't deal with until we got there.

"Will he fit?" Mitch asked.

Not a stupid question that. I thought about the diameter of the pipes and then considered trying to flush a human sized object through them. It might work if he was in the largest one. I just couldn't remember how big they were.

I explained my thoughts and Mitch nodded. We went back outside after I'd changed into some more inconspicuous looking clothes and grabbed a few things I thought we might need, including some clothes for Mitch's brothers.

After discussing the possible ways to get Triton back, it was decided that his sisters would swim there and meet us at the aquarium staying in the water, ready to look after their father once he made it back into the ocean. Mitch's brothers had taken the elixir that transformed them to bipeds and when they were ready to go we all climbed into my car.

We drove to the aquarium and Mitch and I showed them with my binoculars where they could wait until it was safe for them to come inside. Then we all waited for nightfall.

Mitch and I approached the front entrance once everyone had left.

It took a while for Terry to leave, but I guess she had extra 'work' to look after. Or perhaps to just admire. I definitely hoped that she wasn't experimenting on Triton. That was the absolute worst thing she could do, but the scientific mind wanted answers and she was nothing if not curious about new species.

I just hoped we weren't too late.

I tried my code on the key pad and Mitch and I both breathed a sigh of relief when the light on the alarm pad changed from red to green. We opened the door and walked inside before I led Mitch to the back labs where Triton might be held. We walked into the main area where all staff had access and there was nothing. No sign of any work being carried out. None of the tanks had anything in them and there were no samples in the refrigerators. It was disturbing, but it also confirmed my suspicion that the main event was in the restricted section.

We walked through to that area and I had to punch in my code again. This time it didn't work.

Mitch looked at me apprehensively and I huffed out a frustrated breath. "Scott?" He said worriedly. And I closed my eyes wondering if the rescue attempt was doomed right there.

It wasn't like I didn't know Terry's code. Back when I'd been full-time and loving the job, Terry had been so at ease with me she'd been slack with security protocol. But it was one thing to use my own code, yet another to use hers.

Mitch looked at me beseechingly and I took another deep breath before typing in the code I'd seen Terry using into the keypad. The click had me breathing a sigh of relief even louder than Mitch's this time and his thankful smile made my heart skip and try to dance again for a moment before we pushed open the door to the Restricted Area.

There in the largest aquarium hung a large dark shape. I turned on the lights and Triton's face changed from a frustrated Monarch to a happy Father's in the blink of an eye. He darted over to the glass closest to us and I could hear him say the word 'Son' in a loud voice through the barrier. Mitch ran to the glass and put his hand against it as his father did the same and they grinned at each other. Their identical smiles more than a matter of mere genetics.

Mitch held up a vial of the elixir, but Triton shook his head. I had remembered correctly, there was no purchase for feet. No platform to rest against during the transformation process and no air gap at the top of the aquarium for him to breathe in post transformation. He had to stay as he was. I checked the diameter of the pipes and knew even before I'd finished checking that there was no way we could get him through them.

He was trapped here for good if I couldn't come up with another solution.

"What are we going to do Scott?" Mitch asked as he and his father communicated non-verbally through the wall of the aquarium.

I thought furiously, knowing this had been a possibility all along. There was only one other option I'd envisaged, but it was a long shot. It involved a crane, a short stint in the air with no water, or in Triton's case, no oxygen and the shark tank. If Triton could deal with its occupants there was an excellent chance my plan would work.

We would definitely need Mitch's brothers though, it was time to lay out my plan.