EVERYONE PACED NERVOUSLY IN THE WAITING ROOM adjacent to the ER. While doctors worked on Stuke, a nurse helped Raeburn get cleaned up and gave Dr. Doyle some scrubs to change into. All of them were still in swimsuits and vests. The kids were barefoot, having kicked off their swim fins on the beach. Dr. Doyle’s and Dr. Geaux’s clothes were soaked. They hadn’t paused to gather up anything other than Apollo.

Now that Emmet had a chance to think about it, he was really proud of his dad. Dr. Doyle was an outdoorsman. Even though Emmet always made fun of him, calling him the Bird Nerd, his father was experienced at a lot of things. In Montana he’d been part of search-and-rescue teams that went into the mountains to find lost hikers and campers. First aid and triage were second nature to him, and he’d kept them all calm while they got Stuke to the hospital.

While they waited, the group huddled in the waiting room to discuss what had just occurred.

“What happened out there?” Dr. Geaux asked. Emmet and Riley were still a little too shaken up to talk, so Raeburn spoke up.

“Some kind of giant eels swam up on the reef from the deeper water offshore. One of them attacked Stuke. But I don’t think it was an eel exactly. It looked like one, but it was bigger than any I’ve ever seen. It had a mouth shaped more like a barracuda’s, and it could swim really fast,” she said.

“Did it have any other unusual markings or colorations that you can remember?” Dr. Geaux asked.

“It had bluish-gray scales, and it was spotted along the gills, like some morays I’ve seen,” Calvin said. “And …” He stopped, thinking, trying to recall details.

“What, Calvin?” Dr. Geaux prodded him.

“Like Raeburn said, they came out of the deep water offshore. And they headed straight toward the reef like laser beams. The weird thing is they ate the lionfish. Like they hadn’t fed in weeks. We were swimming over the reef and there must have been a hundred lionfish there, maybe more. And those things, I think there were at least six of them, cleared that reef in minutes. I know a few other fish will eat lionfish if they’re hungry enough, but they’re not anything’s first choice. But these things were like lionfish vacuum cleaners. It made me think of …” Calvin stopped.

“What is it?” Dr. Geaux asked.

“It’s nothing,” Calvin said.

Emmet looked at Calvin, then paced back and forth waving his arms around wildly. “You know it’s not nothing. I tried to tell everyone, but nobody would believe me. I said he’d be back.”

Dr. Doyle put his hand on Emmet’s shoulder. “Emmet, we have no evidence that this is Dr. Catalyst’s doing. Unlike land animals, it’s not unknown for new species of sea creatures to be discovered. The ocean is a vast ecosystem that is home to —”

“Come on, Dad!” Emmet interrupted. “Who else would it be? I just learned less than an hour ago that the lionfish is an invasive species, exactly like the pythons and boas. The Pterogators appeared to take them out. Now, all of a sudden, this swimming dragon comes out of nowhere and starts chowing down on lionfish? And don’t you think it’s strange that it shows up right where we happen to be? What more evidence do you need? It’s him. You know it’s him. Dr. Catalyst is back!”

Dr. Geaux and Dr. Doyle exchanged uncomfortable glances. Dr. Geaux ran her hands through her short hair, like she often did when she was tired or nervous.

“Emmet, hon, I know how you feel about Dr. Catalyst. But we don’t have a single shred of evidence he’s involved here. And we need to find out more about what we’re dealing with. I’ll need to coordinate with NOAA and get a dive team out there. We need to photograph or capture one of those things so we can test —”

“Actually, Dr. Geaux,” Riley spoke up, “I think I have all the pictures you need right here.” She held up her right arm. Still dangling from her wrist was her underwater camera.

Emmet was thunderstruck. He’d been terrified, trying to find a way to get out of the water, and Riley had been playing crime-scene photographer.

“Seriously? You took pictures?” Emmet asked.

“Just at the beginning. When Calvin first spotted them. I thought they were weird looking. I didn’t realize they were dangerous. After Stuke was attacked, I forgot I even had the camera. If it hadn’t been for the wrist strap, I probably would have dropped it.”

She handed the camera to Dr. Geaux.

“Riley.” Dr. Geaux smiled. “You may have just given us a giant head start. I’m going to get these looked at. And then we’ll figure things out. But now I have to ask all of you … given what we went through at the park the last time, let’s keep any Dr. Catalyst talk to ourselves. Agreed?”

Each of them nodded in agreement.

But a few seconds later, they no longer needed to remain silent. A television running in the corner of the ER broke in with a news flash. A blond woman sitting at an anchor desk spoke with a grim expression

“Channel Five News has just received a new video from a person claiming to be Dr. Catalyst. South Floridians will remember him from earlier this year. Dr. Catalyst, as he called himself, was an environmentalist and geneticist that some are calling an ecological hero, but others a terrorist. According to authorities he was presumed dead, after releasing a fearsome new species of alligator in the Everglades and kidnapping a respected avian biologist. In this most recent statement, the person claiming to be Dr. Catalyst says he has unleashed a new hybrid species aimed at ridding the coastal reefs of the invasive lionfish, which have decimated the ecosystem. Dr. Catalyst warns that his new ‘creation’ lives only in salt water but is fast, aggressive, and should not be approached. He also says he plans to release more creatures soon, unless a set of forthcoming demands are met.

“Here at Channel Five News we must emphasize we cannot confirm the identity of the person claiming to be Dr. Catalyst, as Dr. Catalyst was declared missing by the FBI. We are working with our sources to learn if his status has changed. However, we have video of what this Dr. Catalyst claims are his newest hybrid creations. We must warn our viewers what you are about to see is graphic in nature.”

And right there, on the TV in the ER, Stuke’s friends watched again as he was attacked by something out of a nightmare.