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  Rowan burned with a moment of offense, sparking her voice back to life. “We’re not civil—“

  Cameron shushed sharply through his teeth, having the better judgement to just shut up and listen. Rowan had never been good at biting her tongue, but managed to silence herself, and when the man motioned with his weapon, they followed begrudgingly towards the exit.

  While passing closer to the other men, Rowan peeked around Cameron’s shoulder, seeking a hint to satiate her curiosity. Whatever came out of the back of that gigantic vehicle, they weren’t meant to see it, only making Rowan’s interest grow. For a brief second she managed to catch a glimpse of the gurney through the wall of thickly armored shoulders, confirming exactly what was under the sheet.

  The man that addressed them stepped into her line of sight, and Rowan felt the barrel of the gun nudge her ribs, her back instantly straightening. She was already staring ahead when he ordered her, “Eyes forward.”

  The glimpse was too short. Unfortunately, all it left Rowan with was more questions. The only other hint to go off of was a sharp scent in the air, distinct from the gunmetal of the weapons, wafted away once the entrance doors were opened to usher them outside the facility.

  Phelps approached as they exited, and Rowan felt a wave of relief again despite having a gun to her back. Phelps would sort out this misunderstanding. He’d explain everything, and maybe they’d all have a laugh about it in a few moments. She even smiled warmly as she called out to him, a habit after growing so fond of the man while working under him for so long. “ Dr. Phelps, sir!”

  He did not return his usual warmth. Whatever was going on, it had Phelps tense even before seeing the two of them led out by gunmen; she saw it in his hurried steps and straight shoulders. When he neared, the apprehension already on the doctor’s deep wrinkled face shifted to shock and concern.

  “Rowan, what on earth are you doing here so late?” He quickly waved away the gunman’s excessive force. “There’s no need for that, good lord.”

  The tension on her spine released ever so slightly as the weapon lowered from their backs, but Phelps fidgety behavior had her on edge.

  “I’m so glad to see you. I was just trying to finish those reports and—”

  “You two should leave immediately.” Phelps cut her off with an urgent, definitive tone.

  She stumbled on her words a second time. This response was not what she’d grown to expect from Phelps. Warm, open, honest Dr. Phelps, who more often than not said too much rather than too little, and who she could always worm more words out of with a bit of not-so-subtle prodding. It was strange to see him push up his thick glasses with an unsteady hand and put the other on Cameron’s shoulder to push them a few steps further away from the building.

  Rowan insisted, once she got over her bewilderment. “But, sir, what— what’s going on?”

  “Nothing for you to concern yourself over. Go home now, both of you. Get some sleep. Regular work hours tomorrow.” Phelps words were not as casual as the expression he was attempting. In fact, they dissolved as he continued, into something that resembled more of a beg, only baffling her more. Even Cameron was left slack jawed next to her, too surprised by the doctor’s brush off to speak.

  “Sir, please, you can’t just send us off like nothing has happened.” Rowan pleaded, but Phelps was already being ushered inside by the same man who forced them out.

  He looked back at her, torn for a moment between his instinct to share and his obvious obligation to keep quiet. Before being led the rest of the way inside, he dismissed himself with a forced, “We’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Platts.”

  The doors closed behind them, and the lock latched, leaving Rowan and Cameron alone in the dark parking lot.

  After a moment of standing there together in their joint dejection, Cameron gave a heavy sigh and turned for his truck.

  Rowan frowned hard. “Hey. Where are you going?”

  He slouched his shoulders in defeat. “Come on, Row. We’re not getting any answers tonight, we might as well go home and get some sleep. I’ll drive you.”

  Like she could sleep, after what just happened. Rowan scoffed, the sound of it going frustrated with her caving will. As much as she wanted to stand there and pound on the facility door until she got her explanation, she knew that the spoiled brat way of handling this wouldn’t get her anywhere. He was right. If her mind wasn’t going to settle, they were at least better off speculating at home, where she could at least lay down and give her aching back a break.

  Reluctantly, she turned and followed Cameron to his truck, hopping in the passenger side. She kept her eye on the facility as he pulled them out of the parking lot, weak hope that she’d get one last clue before leaving, but the building remained as dark and deserted as she’d expect it to be that late at night.

  As they pulled out onto the dimly-lit, forest road back to the city, Cameron kept quiet and let Rowan stew in her thoughts. The silence sat until they reached the part of the road lit with streetlamps, signaling their return to civilization. Even with the warmth of the orange lights flashing by, Eureka was still mostly dead past eight-thirty, little more than a graveyard as they drove through it.

  “So. Figured it out yet?” He probed finally, smirking when his question left a crease in Rowan’s forehead.

  “It doesn’t make sense. A cadaver is the most logical explanation, but why would they need to get rid of us? It’s not like we haven’t seen them moving bodies in and out of the facility for research before.”

  “Yeah, it’s a pretty regular thing.” Cameron hummed. “A famous body?”

  Rowan sighed, shaking her head. “Famous or not, once the person is dead, usually a body is just a body.”

  “I guess you’re right. Security guards are mostly there to keep a person alive.” His grin widened when his reasoning made Rowan roll her eyes.

  “That’s the other thing, too. What the hell were the guns for? A dead body doesn’t need protecting and a live one… doesn’t really have much reason to be at ECBS.” She hoped that bouncing her thoughts off Cameron would lead her to a new conclusion but unfortunately it was the same old circles.

  Analysis wasn’t exactly his specialty.

  He let the silence between them stretch again for a second before adding, “What if the gunmen weren’t there to protect the body but instead, to protect others from it.”

  It took Rowan a second to wrap her tired brain around his words, and when they still didn’t make sense, she gave him a confused look.

  “I’m just saying what if the gunmen were there because whatever was on that gurney, dead or alive, it was dangerous.”

  With Cameron’s specific choice of words, Rowan finally clued into what he was implying, letting her head drop down to the dashboard. “Not this again…”

  “Listen, it would explain a lot.” He was only half joking now, and Rowan was too tired to argue.

  “Ok. Humor me.”

  He beamed with her cooperation, however reluctant it was.

  “What if the body was an alien—” Interrupted with a heavy groan from Rowan, Cameron raised his voice to talk over her. “You can’t keep denying the facts, Row. Secret late night transportation. Scary government guys in suits. Research lab conveniently out in the middle of nowhere. Tell me that’s not a recipe for an alien.”

  Rowan teased, “An alien conspiracy, maybe.” Which happened to be Cameron’s favorite out of the long list of conspiracy theories he subscribed to. For how much of a jock he looked on the outside, Cameron had always been even more of a nerd than her with some things.

  Unexplained phenomenon being one of them.

  He ignored the fact that she was obviously not taking him seriously. “They are probably bringing the body down to the underground labs to do super secret government research on it. Dissect it like they did with the body they found in Area 51.”

  Rowan couldn’t help but laugh this time. “Cameron, the secret labs are just a story they tell the newbies to
scare them. You’re not saying you believe that?”

  “Have you ever been there, Rowan?” He asked, exaggerating his seriousness.

  “Of course not, because it doesn’t exi—”

  “I have no proof it exists but you also have no proof that it doesn’t.” He grinned an I-rest-my-case grin.

  Rowan wanted to point out that the burden of proof laid on the one making the claim, but she was far too exhausted to properly debate. “Ok. So if there’s a secret lab under the ECBS accessible by only elevator, as the stories say, then how would anyone get out of the lab if there was an accident?”

  “Maybe if there’s an accident, they wouldn’t want anyone getting out. Maybe it’s a security feature, to make sure that whatever they take down there never gets out.” Cameron put on his spooky voice, getting another laugh out of Rowan.

  “Is it an alien, or a monster now?”

  He shrugged, trying his hardest to suppress his own laughter. “Either one. It could be anything. Who knows?”

  “We certainly don’t,” Rowan responded, their giggles deflating into a disgruntled sigh. Because as wild and ridiculous as his theory was, at least it was some sort of answer. When she tried to stick to logic and facts, it didn’t get her anywhere other than frustrated.

  Rowan gnawed on her lip, unsettled despite Cameron’s attempt at lightening the mood. Because all his joking did this time was make her curiosity for the truth that much more unbearable. What if it was something else? Something she hadn’t thought of. Something so unlikely, so unbelievable that her logic wouldn’t allow it to be a possibility. What if it was something more sinister, like her gut told her?

  “Whatever it was… Corpse or famous celebrity, or a damn alien, I have to know.” Rowan paused to give Cameron a serious look. “I’m going to confront Phelps tomorrow about it and make him tell me what’s going on.”

  Cameron practically beamed with her resolve. “I mean, we’ve already seen too much anyway, right? You can play the teacher’s pet card. I bet he’ll make you head of the super secret government project.”

  A grin cracked through Rowan’s attempt at seriousness. “And if it’s an alien, I’m going to study the shit out of it.”

  “I’m so jealous, why do you get to dissect the alien?” Cameron whined, leading Rowan into a fit of laughter.

  “Scientist privileges,” she responded with a sly grin.

  Chapter Two

  With barely any sleep that night, Rowan still arrived at the ECBS bright and early the following morning with two, large cups of coffee in hand: one for herself to keep the eye bags subdued and another, she hoped, to loosen Dr. Phelps’ lips.

  She had spent the rest of her night constructing the case she would make once he arrived for work. Rowan was top of her class, excelling in his program, the best assistant he’s had, and not to toot her own horn, but definitely his personal favorite. She deserved, at the very least, to know what was going on after last night’s confusion.

  He owed her that much.

  Even with her speech all planned out, Rowan sat outside his office with her back tense, legs bouncing with anticipation and gnawing rough on her lip with her nerves. Because something about what happened felt important. Important in a way she didn’t understand yet, but felt in her gut like a sixth sense. Like there was a reason she stayed late that night, seen what she saw. A reason beyond simple coincidence or probability.

  Whatever it was, whatever the cause for his secretiveness, for the guns and the armored vehicles, she could handle it. Rowan was ready for something bigger. Bigger than a research analyst job at a small facility in the middle of nowhere. Phelps wouldn’t be able to argue. He knew her drive, her passion, her ambition, and she could tell this was her chance.

  Of course, “chance” suggested a certain amount of luck Rowan did not believe in. Rather, this was an opportunity waiting to be taken, and Rowan wasn’t going to just sit around and let it pass her by or hope it would be handed to her. She’d gotten this far in her career only by hunting down every single opportunity that came, so this would be no exception. She wasn’t even sure what she was going into his office to ask for, but she knew she wasn’t leaving without a yes.

  There was no way to argue against “chance” when it came to what she happened to hear while waiting for Phelps, though. Unintentionally eavesdropping on a conversation between doctors as they passed by, Rowan picked up a name she knew, a name she shouldn’t have heard, a name that turned the nervous fluttering of her heart into hard, heavy pounds against her eardrums.

  “Did you hear? Adam said he saw Dr. Miller in the building this morning.”

  “Yeah right. Adam likes to exaggerate.”

  “Miller and Phelps went to school together, and they worked together on the influenza anti-viral. Maybe it was a friendly visit.”

  “Even so, doesn’t Miller work for HHS now? Why would anyone on a government wage set foot in Eureka? The only way I’d show my face in this town after leaving would be if I lost a bet.”

  Rowan didn’t have enough time to process the information. The rest of their conversation moved further down the hall, and approaching from the other end was Phelps, at a pace noticeably quicker than his usual mosey, similar to how he had rushed inside the building the night before.

  His steps faltered when he saw Rowan waiting for him, knowing why she was there and reluctant to face her. He managed to push through the apprehension, though, and went right for his office door, fumbling with the key as he greeted her politely.

  “Morning, Miss Platts.”

  Stuck in a moment of disbelief, Rowan almost allowed Phelps to escape into his office completely unharassed, but managed to shake out of it just in time to keep him from closing the door behind himself.

  “Is it true, sir?”

  A flash of panic swept over his face at her question. “Is what true?” he asked, like there were a number of things she could be asking about, and her knowing any one of them was highly undesirable.

  “Was Dr. Miller here?”

  Rowan’s question came out too loudly, and Phelps shushed her, tugging her into his office and shutting the door behind them before someone overheard her.

  “Does this have something to do with last night? This isn’t a coincidence, it can’t be. Miller was here because of the body, right? It was a body, wasn’t it?”

  Phelps shushed her again to try and get her to lower her voice. He seemed worried at first by exactly how much information had just come out of Rowan that she probably shouldn’t know, but he gave in quickly. Dropping his pretenses while collapsing into his high-back desk chair, he gave a defeated sigh while adjusting his bowtie straight again.

  “You’re too perceptive for your own good, you know that, Rowan?”

  “Please, sir. You can’t lie to me. You know how I feel about Dr. Miller. Please.”

  Rowan hurried to discard the coffees onto his desk and collect a chair to sit across from him. Although, it was barely sitting, with how rigid in anticipation she was.

  Phelps gave her his “tough” look, an attempt at a scold he could never quite manage because he didn't have kids of his own. Offering another defeated sigh, he muttered that he’d be hearing about this later before answering.

  “Yes. Miller is here, and as much as I’d like to say it was just to visit an old friend, I’ve never been paid such a pleasantry. And… And that’s already far more than you need to know so that’s all you’re getting out of me.”

  His words were meant to sound like putting his foot down, but it came out more like a plea not to push it further. As if Rowan needed anything more to start piecing together a picture of what was going on. She was on her feet again, pacing across Phelps’ office as she put together the puzzle he’d presented.

  “If Miller is here that means… That means this is something big. The government wouldn’t just send one of their top scientists off to the middle of nowhere for nothing.” Rowan couldn’t help her over-exhausted mind going to places
it probably shouldn’t have, reminiscent of the alien talk the night before with Cameron. The possibilities made her head spin with foolish fantasies, and put a giddy, girlish grin on her face. “Something big, here in Eureka. Holy sh—”

  “I’m stopping you right there before you get ahead of yourself. This has nothing to do with you and will have nothing to do with you. You’ve already seen too much, but I’m trusting you to not tell anyone about it. I can trust you, right? Rowan?”

  Rowan brushed away his words, unable to help herself from prodding further. “Are you going to be working with Miller again, Dr. Phelps?” She couldn’t help the stars that were no doubt in her eyes at the prospect of the old colleagues reunited.

  Her excitement only softened Phelps up further. He hesitated, but caved too easily, a less than humble smile crawling onto his face. “I have been asked to be of assistance, yes.”

  Rowan couldn’t breathe through her excitement. “This is history in the making.”

  Phelps chuckled, trying to brush her off. “Come now, it’s not—”

  She scoffed at his attempt at regaining some modesty. “You two cured influenza the last time you worked together! This is huge.”

  Rowan was trying to calm down her shaking, because he wouldn’t take her seriously if she was in hysterics, and an idea was starting to form. An idea of her, his assistant for over a year, shadowing him on this secret project. Or maybe… Working with them? She didn’t even know what the project was, what the study would be based around, what the gurney and the body and the armed men had to do with any of it.

  And she didn’t care.

  Whatever it was, it would be groundbreaking if Miller had anything to do with it.

  While fantasizing, Rowan’s expression shifted to the big, doe eyes she’d use to get in Phelps’ favor, and once he realized what she was doing, he immediately protested. “No. Absolutely not. Get the thought out of your head, Rowan, because it’s not happening.”

  “Please, Dr. Phelps. Please. This is everything I’ve ever wanted. A project like this could make my career. And to work with my idols. Sir, you and Miller were the reason I went to university, why I pursued biology, you’re the reason I am where I am. If I can so much as be involved in something with the both of you...” Rowan paused because she didn’t even have words to express the rest of her thought.