Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor

off.”
    Her gaze flickered over him. He didn’t doubt she was assessing the damage. She looked away after a brief appraisal. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t even know about it.”
    “I guess it’s unanimous, then. Air-breathers don’t give a fuck what happens here.
    One would’ve thought it would warrant at least five seconds on the news considering the death toll.”
    She blinked at him, turning red, and cleared her throat. “I don’t actually watch the news. It’s always depressing.”
    “That’s a little dangerous in this day and time, isn’t it? Not keeping abreast of the weather at least.”
    She shrugged. “Water City always sounds the early warning if there’s dangerous weather headed our way. In any case, I’d notice if my neighbors broke their moorings and moved away.”
    “Would you?” he asked dryly.
    “Maybe not,” she admitted uncomfortably. “But I always have an assistant to keep me informed.”
    “Tell me about Paul.”
    Anna felt her face heat with embarrassment. “I don’t really know much about him. When I fired my last assistant, the research center sent him over—the company funding my project. He had all the right papers. I just assumed he’d been thoroughly checked out.”
    “You said you’d found out that your father was your patron and he’d sent Paul.”
    She shrugged. “Either he was lying about being my sponsor or he owns the company or some part of it. I don’t know. I don’t even know if what he said about Paul was true. Although ….”
    “Although?”
    She lifted her hands to her cheeks. “He … uh … I thought he liked me, you know? He acted like he did. Anyway, he told me he was a member of Humans for Humanity and kept trying to talk me into joining them. I’m not really much for socializing, though, you know? And I also didn’t think it was a very good idea to get personally involved with my assistant, but he said they were having a get together, a party, to welcome new members and talked me into going with him. I actually thought it was sort of a date. But then, when we got there, he introduced me to Miles Cavendish and vanished and Miles spent most of the evening … flirting, I thought, and then he took me to his office and told me …. A pack of lies, I guess.”
    “Humans for Humanity is the terrorist organization that Miles Cavendish started thirty years ago and built into a multi-national group, whose sole purpose is to eradicate mutants.”
    Anna gaped at him. “That can’t be right! Everybody knows about the organization—I mean everybody! And most of the wealthy people in the U.S. are members. It’s an elite … social club, really, but they lobby against genetic … uh … altering the human race artificially. They believe humans should evolve naturally.”
    “It’s a terrorist organization and well known as one—to lawmen worldwide,”
    Simon said grimly.
    Anna blinked at him. “Well! I don’t understand how they could get away with being so … public!”
    “It’s because of that façade that they get away with it—that and the money behind it. As you say, the wealthiest people in the world, and most influential, are members.”
    Anna pressed a hand to her chest. “But I’m not! I’m not wealthy or influential and I’m not a member!”
    Simon pulled the papers out of the file he’d brought with him and tossed them onto the bed at her knees. “You didn’t write those?”
    Anna stared down at the papers unhappily. To think that she’d been so pleased with herself when she’d been taken seriously enough to be published! “I have a right to my own opinion!” she said defensively. “Yes! I wrote them. That doesn’t make me a terrorist, damn it!”
    “No, that just makes you a racist and a bigot. Helping your father build a bomb would make you a terrorist. Did you? Help him?”
    Anna gaped at him for a moment in shock and then glared at him. “That’s completely untrue! I don’t