Hatched

Chapter Twenty-Two

July 1st, 2021

0930 hours

"I could get use to this." Quinn mused haughtily from his desk as Robyn entered the small office. Actually, it was her desk, only it had been shoved into the storage closet inside her lab.

She sighed heavily in reply. "I'm not here for you."

"You came when I called, so I fail to see why you're suddenly so belligerent." Quinn stared at her pointedly, eyes probing, dissecting her behavior, as usual.

"I'm too tired for this." She mumbled, gazing around at the others. They were all crammed between stacks of boxes or cramped up into corners. It was the oddest, most uncomfortable place to hold a meeting, but she figured Quinn wanted a quiet, inconspicuous place to talk. He'd sounded stressed on the phone, a hint of panic edging his voice that normally wasn't there. Originally, one of his agents called and she'd ghosted him the first few times. However, Quinn seemed to have the patience of a saint and persistence to match, thus her phone had rung incessantly until she answered, only agreeing to come after a long, heated argument.

Robyn was weary from the constant battle of the minds, the incessant undermining and endless bickering.

Quinn continued to watch her intently, frowning slightly with concern. The motion was fleeting, and Robyn doubted she had even seen it, but for a second it looked as though he actually cared. She brushed it off quickly: at this point there was nothing much that would change her opinion of him. Except for what he did for her the previous night, when she was so scared she thought she was having a heart attack. Aside from that, he was still the pompous jerk he always was.

"Robyn," Quinn addressed her directly "do you have the documents I requested?"

"You mean, the research I did on my own, after deliberately defying you and committing theft?" She animatedly flapped a thin, manila folder in emphasis. "Yes, I did."

"Did you happen," Quinn hissed, irate with her flippancy "to notice anything unusual while you were conducting your secret investigation?"

"Stop being so enigmatic for once!" She blurted, unable to contain herself any longer. "It's annoying, so just spit it out already!"

Quinn smiled, presumably unaffected by her rising temper, though his demeanor darkened considerably. "What did you find?" He whispered, eyes boring into hers seriously, despite his soft grin. The irises were stormy again, and Robyn balked. Whatever he was leading up to, it was serious.

"I came across some anomalies." The answer came out slow and probing as her anger subsided.

"Please continue."

"I just assumed the samples had been contaminated." She shrugged, embarrassed.

"What did you find, Robyn?" His serious gaze never strayed from her flushed face, and it unnerved her.

"I was wrong, wasn't I?"

"What the heck is going on?" Gordon grumbled from the corner. Robyn jumped: she'd completely forgotten the others were there, so engrossed as she was in what Quinn was implying.

"Hang on," Quinn ordered, still holding Robyn's focus "was the specimen Sarcopterygian in nature?"

"No." Robyn breathed out in a rush, taken aback; she had no clue how Quinn knew to make that connection. "The DNA analysis more closely matched something of the Varanidae family."

"That is interesting." Quinn mused palatably, handing her an open file. She noticed his tone didn't reach his eyes: an anger burning in their hard, coal depths resulted in a murderous, malicious sort of grin. She shivered, unsure where his rage was directed. "It does confirm my suspicions. Read this and tell me what you glean from it."