Page 9

Kelvin had Steph sitting on one of the sofas in the main house.

Five clipboards with papers faced her.

Davey and Michael had been replaced by the young-looking man in jeans and a shirt – the same she had passed earlier – who sat next to her.

A woman in her late thirties/early forties with long curly hair tied up in a knot sat next to Kelvin.

She looked as if she’d been chewing lemons.

There had been no formal introductions, which Steph found odd, however, she suspected that had something to do with the clipboards and content on them.

There was a small pause in proceedings as Kelvin checked through the clipboards.

Steph took that moment to take stock.

She had allowed herself to get wrapped up in the rapidly changing pace of things, terrified that if she slowed, she would miss out on some sort of lead to her investigation or the gap in a closing door.

Now she had a moment to really think about it, she had moved recklessly fast.

She had gone from trying to piece together some unfortunate story with vague word-of-mouth evidence, to being somewhere which was… well, what was it? With what had happened near the fence and the stories she had heard it was downright suspicious.

And then there was Kelvin Handle! Journalists everywhere would give their left leg to be in her position – his story alone would bring in some game-changing money – and yet he was not even the most important thing to her.

“So,”

Kelvin began, satisfied with what he had scanned.

“I said I would explain things, but before I do, I have some conditions.”

“What do you mean?”

Steph asked.

“You’re not the first to get over the fence or see something that would raise suspicion. I cannot have things coming out until I am ready. I fully intend for things to come out – I think we’re doing something truly wonderful here otherwise I wouldn’t be putting my money behind it – but not until it is ready and people are ready.”

Steph’s stomach churned a little.

“So what happens to those people?”

Kelvin furrowed his eyes and snarled slightly before saying.

“I give them money!”

Amused at his own joke, he leant back and laughed.

“That way I keep their silence. Everyone wins.”

“And if they talk?”

“Ah, well. In that case, my lawyers will destroy them. And, of course, I stop paying them a monthly income. The turning off of the money tap is probably a bigger deterrent than the lawyers. It shouldn’t be; my lawyers are vicious. However, I have never had to do that.”

“But what about family members and things like that? Surely you cannot guarantee complete silence?”

“Money, I find, does a lot in this world,”

Kelvin replied. He looked out the window at this point, frowning slightly.

“Besides, people often find they are excellent liars when they desperately need to be. Furthermore, most people who have the time to break into my grounds, do not tend to have children… or partners to blab to. Only one of them did, as I recall. Some journalist. I paid him and, so far, he has stayed silent. Had he not seen what he did, I might not have needed to pay him, but… he did.”

“Just like I saw something?”

“Sort of. I am not sure that you’re actually sure of what you saw,”

Kelvin replied.

“Even so, this brings us here!”

He gestured at the clipboards.

The middle-aged woman snorted and looked around the room. Kelvin looked at her and shook his head slightly but carried on.

“First of all, let me begin by giving you the information I can provide without using the clipboards. We are working on a project to do with our relationship with nature. That’s the official line.”

“Right?”

Steph replied. She wondered whether she would have a chance to subtly press record on her phone. She suspected not. This was not some plot-hole-riddled television show. She would be seen.

“Well, that is where I end for now,”

Kelvin said, sitting back.

“What?”

Steph snapped.

“Look, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here but…”

“But it is one that I cannot continue to play with you unless you agree to sign some documents,”

Kelvin interrupted.

Steph wondered what she had gotten herself into. Technically nothing, by the sounds of it. Not until she signed something.

“I don’t sign things I haven’t read!”

Steph replied. Completely untrue. She had often argued with her father about being too busy to read the fine print on documents or the terms for downloading software.

“Essentially, I have provided you with five options,”

Kelvin said.

“Depending on your degree of wanting to know things. Each one will require a certain amount of time from you whilst also providing varying degrees of information. I will even allow a predetermined amount of information to be disclosed by you for your own personal use.”

“Doesn’t that last part go against what you told me just a moment ago?”

“No, it doesn’t actually. I will explain that though.”

Kelvin then spent the next twenty minutes giving an overview of what each clipboard entailed. All the while, he kept looking at his watch and getting mildly agitated with himself if he slipped over his own words in his rush.

“Why me?”

Steph asked. This received a hiss from the irritated-looking woman on the other sofa.

Steph eyed her a moment before continuing.

“I mean, did everyone who made it over the fence receive this treatment or…”

“They received similar,”

Kelvin replied, suddenly checking his phone and flicking through things at a frantic pace.

“Well, they were given different options to choose from in terms of keeping quiet, but I had no interest in their skillset.”

He stopped and looked up.

“And my skillset?”

Steph asked.

“Simple: biologist and thus respectable, but also you have an awareness of how to promote yourself. You aren’t lost in your studies, know how to make connections and how people will take things. These skills could be useful to me.”

“If you thought that was useful, why didn’t you simply hire someone like me in the first place?”

Steph asked, leafing through one of the documents.

“Eventually, I probably would have done,”

Kelvin shrugged.

“Possibly even you, who knows? However, opportunities come when they come. Ideally, I would have waited longer, but you’re here now so…”

Steph sighed. She knew what she wanted to do. She knew what was best for her career in the field. However, she also knew what was best for her sales. The obstacle to either consideration was time. Then again, when would another opportunity like this come up? Whatever the opportunity was. Kelvin had explained the contracts without explaining what she’d subsequently discover. Steph picked up the second clipboard from the right and signed the necessary papers.

“Good decision!”

Kelvin said, standing up.

Steph stood up too. Kelvin grabbed her hand.

“Now I can formally introduce you to Martina Krochev, my head geneticist, and Daniel Pollard, a palaeontologist working under Krochev. What an unusual arrangement!”

With that, Kelvin started to walk out of the room, his phone in hand.

He stopped after a couple of feet, turned and said.

“They will explain what you need to know. I need to take care of something pressing. Also I shall have Davey and Michael collect your things for you from the hotel.”

“Collect my things?”

“That’s right! I am even going to provide accommodation for you!”

Without waiting for an answer, Kelvin strode off. Steph turned to look at, who she assumed she now had to call, her two new colleagues. Daniel shook her hand warmly with calloused hands.

Martina nodded curtly and said.

“Follow me.”

Steph watched Martina stalk off. Daniel looked apologetic before holding out a supinated hand in the direction of his senior. Chewing her lip, Steph followed.