Cortez sat in his office, staring into the dark. His hands lay slack on the fine rosewood surface of his desk, the furrows in the material biting into his long fingers. He saw clearly, despite the dark, the changed features of those appendages. He reached over to turn on the light, blinking heavily, and examined the mutated hands more closely. They were exactly like his creations, and he wondered again, like many times before in the last six years, when Marcus had infected him. He tried to recall when the man had possessed the opportunity. It had to be one of the visits in the jail.

When Cortez had come under scrutiny, he had informed Marcus that he could no longer be on his payroll and had dismissed his services, not wanting any more fuel to add to the already tough to put out pyre. Marcus had seemed understanding and had often visited him in the first month he was incarcerated to talk.

Marlin should have guessed.

Marcus it seemed did hold ill will to the sudden cutting of funds and access; either that or he had a very warped sense of humor. His top scientist had slipped some mutagen to him during that time – and not any normal strain. Not being a scientist, Marlin could only guess, but his best estimate was that Marcus had come up with a way to make the mutagen self-irradiating. His changes were accelerated without any outside influence.

Marlin tried to hide his “ailment” when he first realized what was happening, claiming that the extra bulk had come from working out. By the end of four months, there was nothing he could do to hide the differences he was beginning to see. He was released from prison before it was too noticeable, and he returned to his office only to find himself in another kind of incarceration.

He was faced with a weighty decision as realization set in. He could no longer appear in public, and though he maintained a schedule, showed that his hold of the company was still strong; questions he couldn’t answer were being posted his way.

Marlin was forced to a decision – should he attempt to continue running the company he had founded, or should he turn it over to a person he could trust and leave before he was discovered for what he was now – a freak?

He decided on the latter, but he insisted that he keep the office. He retained his shares and the right to make decisions. Keeping his office served a second purpose – keeping most of his hidden passages to the basement below and the incriminating evidence that the cavern held from prying eyes.

He listened intently to the conversation that Tigershark and Angelina were having in the cavern, evidentially unaware that the cameras there were still working. Someone was making contagious mutants. He raised a hand to his elongated face, rubbing his muzzle thoughtfully; Tigershark and Angelina thought he was responsible. How interesting that was.

He was going to have to get involved in this somehow.

He smiled wickedly at the thoughts running through his head: what better revenge on Tigershark than to have a hand in the downfall of the human race? That was ironic – normally Marlin could care less about gemue affairs. Now he wanted to humiliate Tigershark, make him less than nothing for the world to see. Tigershark’s tie with the Gemue Allegiance would serve him well. Oh, if he could bring this and the fact that the Gemue Allegiance conspired to keep knowledge of this danger away from the population to the public eye!

A rough laugh escaped his lips. This was going to be fun!

******

“Damn it, I told you not to tangle with that girl,” Angelina said as she treated the gashes across David’s chest.

“I had to try.”

“I suppose, but what if she had killed you? I mean you said yourself she totally disabled you with a thought. She could just as easily have taken your life.”

“My question is why she didn’t?” Tiger uttered softly. “I mean, I looked up and she was just gone. She had the upper hand.”

"You are one lucky bastard, you know that?"

“Hmm, two near death experiences, and I’m still here. You’re right, damn lucky, but I only have seven lives left. Must be why they named me after a tiger-shark.”

“Smart ass,” Angelina quipped, standing up and throwing the rag back into the water of the cove. “I can’t do much else with those until Doc gets back.”

“It’s all right, they don’t really hurt.”

Doc returned from the caverns behind the alcove not five minutes after Angelina had spoken. He had gone there after Angelina and David told him about the young gemue. Neither of them was sure what he had gone back for.

He was ashen as he came into the wan light shining through the entrance and plopped down next to the two of them. His head was shaking slowly from side to side, and the expression on his face was shell-shocked.

“What’s wrong?” Angelina asked.

“I’m fine.” The reply was automatic and insincere. “I ran the test on all of the gemues in the cells. They’re not contagious.”

“What?” It was Angelina who said it. “What do you mean they’re not? Cortez has to be the one who is responsible for this!”

“Calm down, Angel,” Doc said. “They are not the carriers you are looking for. Trust me.”

“Of course, but…”

“That leaves us at a dead end,” David finished.

“You can call in your contact at the police,” Doc added to Angelina. Looking then to Tiger he said, “I found something else back there.”

David looked at him with a raised brow. “Oh?”

“Near the tank where you found the girl, there was a pool of blood.” He looked over both Angelina and David quickly with his eyes. “Neither of you are wounded bad enough to warrant the amount I found. I figured it was the gemue you mentioned. She probably cut herself on the glass on the floor.”

“All right,” Angelina said slowly. “And?”

“Well, I was originally concerned that she might have been a carrier. Again, there was no trace of mutagen. However, I did find something infinitely more confusing about what her blood told me.”

Tiger stood, slowly turning to face the doctor. “What?”

“I ran a plate on her DNA markers just out of curiosity, you know. I’m always interested in new specimens.”

“What made this one so interesting?” Angelina prodded, knowing how easily Doc Thomas could get distracted.

“I found…” he paused, rubbing his thick neck a moment, and then mused, “How do I put this gently?”

“Just spilling it would work for me,” Tigershark muttered, never one to like secrets.

Doc flushed uncharacteristically. He caught Angelina’s gaze, “The girl shares DNA markers with you, Angleina.” He pinned Tigershark with his gaze next. “and your, David.”

“What does that mean?” Angelina asked. Tigershark nodded in agreement.

Doc rolled his eyes. “She’s your daughter, Angelina – you and David’s. Both your markers are there, plain as day. You are her biological human parents."

“What?” the two spluttered in unison.

David and Angel looked at each other in shock.

“But…” Tiger stammered. “That’s impossible! We never… even if…how?”

“I am just guessing here, but I would say she is no more than about six or seven years old, just by the health of the tissue I found there.”

Tiger looked away a moment, his gaze losing focus and eyes darting back and forth. Finally, he shook his head. “That can’t be. In that time frame we were both being… tested on… by… Marlin Cortez," he trailed off as his own words hit him.

His face clouded first with realization and then with total fury. “That fucking bastard!”

He rose and moved several feet away, his whole body taught with anger.

Angelina looked up at the vehemence of Tigerhsark’s curse, her brow furrowing. Pulling the thought from Tiger's mind, she gasped, and, turning to Doc, said, “He… took from us?”

“I’m afraid so, Angel,” Doc said bleakly. “The tests show she was conceived and then experimented on while she was but a zygote.”

“Son of a bitch! That was our daughter?” Tiger growled, then shook his head, “She is way too physically mature to be six!”

“That is what I am saying,” Doc insisted. “I’ve done enough blood and tissue works on you two to know your DNA. There isn’t a mistake. The only thing I can figure is that she adopted a more shark-like rate of growth, so she would be physically more mature than a human of her age.”

Tiger and Angelina cast shocked and uncomfortable glances at each other, neither knowing what else to say.

Finally Angelina broke the visual contact with Tiger, shaking her head and saying, “I’m going to call the police in.”

Tigershark stood at the edge of the entry pool staring into the setting sun shining through the entrance.

“David, you okay?”

He glanced her direction, not sure whether nod or negate in answer. “I’m not sure yet.”

Angelina’s gaze strayed to the slowly sinking sun. A grimace worked over her features. “Do you think we’ll find her again?”

Glancing to the view, he shook his head in the negative. “Who can say? It’s a big ocean.” A sigh escaped him. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

“Yeah.” It came from Angelina as a very small sound. This revelation had shaken her deeply.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to be a dad, Angel.”

She huffed beside him. “Like I’m any more ready to be a mom?”

Reaching across the small space between them, Tigershark wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him.

******

Cortez watched with a widening smile as the two gemues and the doctor discussed Blue’s secret. He barked a laugh at the pained look on Tigershark’s face, for the knowledge that he just lost the daughter that he didn’t even know he had.

“Delicious,” Marlin purred, curling his lip into a smile. Even better was the fact that Blue would have nothing to do with these two; she was set in her ways and she liked Bull. These two were strangers to her, and she avoided strangers, especially after her escape.

She had been a better project, a more successful project, than he ever hoped for from Tiger or Angelina. After her conception she was moved to a separate facility from the cavern, given to a subsidiary, which was going to explore the breadth of her abilities. Her DNA was spiked with just a tad bit of octopus, with the hopes that she would develop the ability to heal all wounds. Overall it had been a smashing success, but the scientists were not kind in their treatment of Blue, and she broke free of their facility.

She had been in the open ocean for three years when Bull had found her again. The discovery had been a shock to him, because he thought the project done with from the time she had been reported missing. She immediately trusted him, poor lamb, and followed him willingly back to the main complex. She was completely healed, a drastic and welcome discovery, considering the pictures he saw just after her disappearance. There was barely a trace of scarring to show of her ordeal.

She considered him a father, and was warm and affectionate toward the mutated businessman. Wouldn’t that just gall Tiger to no end that his only flesh and blood would refuse him so quickly, love another who had no intentions but to exploit her anyway? Marlin’s shoulders shook in silent laughter. How rich!

And he wasn’t done yet.

Cortez focused again as movement caught his eyes. Narrowing them, he watched as police swarmed the place. Several approached the two gemues warily, to ask what was going on, no doubt. After several minutes the police spread out, searching the tunnels. His work was compromised!

He could do nothing but watch as the police invaded the caverns and laboratories and removed what was left of the past eight years worth of his work. Tigershark had one upped him again. Cortez swore to himself that no matter what, Tigershark and Angelina would die for this. He frowned then, unhappy that he had had to hurt Blue to enable his escape, but it had been necessary.

Now he must abandon his life's work, and his business to escape the dragnet that would surely be thrown to catch him. He would have to seek out just whom it was creating these contagious gemues, and make them a proposition.

A/N: In the comic this was one of those secrets I decided to try to keep until this part of the story. Blue is in fact the daughter of our two heroes...scary huh? Nothing like being sick from Radiation Treatments and so out of it that you're unaware of some of the procedures accomplished while in the madman's care! I would be as pissed off as Tiger is right here...

NEXT UP: Exposure

Mira worries that Tom's newest project might cause them problems...and for Steve it's just another night at work - none of them can predict how the night will end...