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“Then why bring back two top predators?”

Martina sighed.

“I did suggest trying other things. Animals that are far less distantly extinct. However, Kelvin had two trains of thought and they were both going down the same tunnel.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Kelvin is not easily swayed when he gets an idea into his head,” Martina replied, half smiling to herself. “He wanted to prove that if we could live with something such as a cave bear or lion, then, in people’s minds, living with existing wildlife would be more acceptable. I know it’s already normal for some, but for those in more urban areas he thought it would sway them more. He makes a habit of reading the behavioural patterns of others. It has helped him become rich in some ways, so who am I to argue?”

Steph inhaled and exhaled through her nose in one long action. “And his other intent?”

“Other intent?”

“You said he hadtwotrains of thought.”

Martina shrugged. “Well, I think, to see if he could. He wanted to be the first.”

“The first?”

“To bring one back. You know how men like to swing theirdicks about and compare sizes. He wants to break it to the rest of the world once he has them living in harmony with their surroundings. It is all part of the dick-swinging performance.”

“So he didn’t get you to beef the animals up a bit?”

“No!” Martina replied. “However, we found low levels of myostatin in the genetic makeup. I might have repressed it a bit more to make up for the state of the frozen specimens: I did not have complete faith in their condition despite appearances and Daniel’s excitement.” Steph looked blankly at Martina who snorted and rolled her eyes. “Myostatin inhibits muscle growth; it gives the body the signal of when to stop. Without it muscle growth can run a little wild.”

Martina punctuated her reply with her palms facing upward and a shrug. Then she fell silent, looking Steph in the eye. Steph looked away. She kept her thoughts to herself as she stared at more polished concrete.

“Now, if you’re done with your questions that make you feel important I have work to do!”

Martina got up and left the office. Steph stayed where she was. She looked at the desk. It was tidy. Just an expanse of polished wood and an open computer. Should she look? No. She wouldn’t even know what she was looking for. Besides, Martina had been surprisingly honest. She had even satisfied her interest regarding the size of the prehistoric animals. The question was: what could she do with the information? Was it even of any use or interest?

Davey was not where Steph had left him. She supposed that was to be expected as Kelvin would likely have work for him. Did he have work for her? Or had Martina been right about her job?

Steph sat down where Davey had been lying. She tapped her fingers together. She stood up. So Martina had proved interesting and useless to her at the same time. But what had she really expected? Steph paced the room.

The hunch had been well-placed; the animals were meant to be on the stronger side. But so what? That didn’t tell her how the boy had died, it didn’t help her regarding how to tackle the cave lion – if she even still needed to concern herself with helping – and it didn’t help her understand the balance of the ecosystem any better. In fact, with events as they were, she was not even sure what her role was within Kelvin’s plans.

She stopped to look out of the window. She was aware she was standing exactly where Kelvin had been the night before. She mirrored his pose from last night. What would he be thinking? What kind of person was he below the surface?

Control. He’d be wanting control. Even if he didn’t have it he would be shaping things to give the illusion of it. However, would it be as a show to others or more to fool himself? Himself. Steph was pretty sure it would be for him. A man did not spend so much time away from the public eye and simultaneously feel the need to show power to them.

The trees were moving in the wind outside which was pushing at the branches with increasing force. Steph sighed. She felt suddenly caged. She needed to be outside. Predators or no predators she needed to be outside. No. Restraint. She needed some modicum of restraint.

She shut her eyes for a moment, gathered herself and went outside anyway.

It surprised Steph to find Kelvin standing outside staring at the fencing and the gateway to the rest of his experiment. On hearing Steph he turned his head but kept his body facing forward and his hands firmly in the pockets of his black jacket.

“I would have liked you to have been able to experience things under… better circumstances.”

Then he turned back to look at the fencing and what lay beyond it.

Although feeling a little unbalanced by the way Kelvin divedmidway into a conversation that he seemed to have been having without her being present for the beginning half, Steph decided to seize on the opportunity.

“Could things be much worse? Even just Fergus dying would count as better circumstances, so what does that say?”

Kelvin snorted but continued to look forward as Steph walked to stand next to him and turned her eyes in the same direction as his.

“I suppose so,” he said. “Although I would never discount things getting worse. You know how people say to expect the worst but hope for the best? I am not sure they know what the worst is.”