Standing close behind her was an older man, his hair was mostly white and had a pair of delicate glasses perched upon his nose. Laughing quietly at how jumpy she was, she extended her hand,
"Hello, I'm Delmare Keaton, it's a pleasure to meet you."
The man shook her hand firmly,
"The pleasure is all mine, my name is Trevor Broom, but most just call me Professor." Delmare smiled gently as their hands released, recognising the name as the man who had hired her.
"I will take my leave then Professor, Miss Keaton." With that Agent Manning left, shutting the doors behind him.
A strange silence settled as the Professor moved towards the tank and tapped the glass gently. Curiosity burned within Delmare and she couldn't stop the words from escaping.
"What's in the tank?" Covering her mouth in shock at her abrupt words, fearing she had angered her employer, but let out a sigh of relief when he just chuckled.
"A dear friend of mine, come over so you can meet him."
Her face pulled in confusion as she travelled the small distance, her eyes combing the darkness of the water. The movement of something large did not surprise her, a tank has to be proportionally larger than the creature inside it. The shadowy figure moved closer and her eyes widened as more was revealed. In front of her floated a man, his skin was a light blue with stripes of darker blue, he was bald and had large expressive black eyes with no whites and a small mouth. Her gaze traveled down his muscular body, noting the tight shorts to her relief, and the webbed hands and toes. She stared for a little longer before gasping,
"I am so, so sorry for staring! I didn't mean to be rude!" The Professor gave her a surprised look and went to speak, but was overrode by the man in the tank,
"It's alright, I would be more surprised if you didn't, my name is Abraham Sapien, please call me Abe."
His voice was deep and soothing, easing the mortification slightly.
"Abraham is the reason you are here Miss Keaton," The Professor said as he turned to face her, "He wears special equipment when he is out of his tank and we have noticed it has not been working as it should, though none of us can find what is wrong with it."
Delmare nodded thoughtfully and turned to a surprised Abe. "How isn't it working for you?" He seemed taken aback for a moment before replying,
"It varies considerably, some days there might not be enough oxygen in the water, others too much. I stopped using it when the salt levels in the water began to fluctuate wildly. I can survive in salt water and fresh water, even without water for quite a while, but when it changes suddenly from one to the other, it was quite painful." Nodding along to his explanation, Delmare gave a hum of thought before turning back to the Professor.
"Do you have the blueprints for the device that I could go over?" Moving swiftly, the Professor handed her some papers off of his desk.
"Your work room is upstairs and the first door on your left, there is a bed and on-suite in there also." Thanking him With a smile, she left to get to work.
The Professor waited a few moments before turning to Abe with a raised brow.
"You didn't shock her with her own history, nor by asking her to turn the pages of your books. What's the matter Abe?" The merman floated in the water, collecting his thoughts before replying distractedly,
"I couldn't get anything from her. Not one thought or emotion. How interesting." The two shared a look before the professor moved to sit.
"She didn't seemed alarmed by me either, I wonder what she will do when she meets HB?" The Professor chuckled at Abe's musings before picking up his book.
"Interesting indeed."