Chapter 14

The next day, Fenton went to work with the confidence that he didn't have any bugs on him. And because he didn't want Mr. McDuck or Gyro to be suspicious, he left his bag at home with some bugs still inside it. If he removed all the bugs, they would know he had found them. But the ones that were placed on his clothing and inside his phone, they could be explained away with simply changing his raiment and the "toilet" incident. He figured that Gyro would comment on the lack of his phone and bag eventually, but he didn't think it would happen right when he walked through the door.

"Why haven't you been answering your phone?" Gyro demanded as the elevator doors opened.

"Huh?" Fenton said. He didn't have to act like he didn't know what Gyro was talking about since his boss's abrasive manners put him off guard. "Oh, uh…I dropped my phone in the toilet. It's completely ruined."

"Oh…that's…unfortunate," Gyro said, the anger dying down.

Fenton scrutinized Gyro's face, looking for any sign of guilt for bugging his intern or anything to give away what the scientist was thinking, but the rooster's expression gave nothing away.

"You should buy another one as quickly as possible," Gyro said, turning around and heading into the lab. "I cannot have an intern that I can't contact."

Fenton, tired of everything including the lack of respect and being jerked around by Gyro and Mr. McDuck, muttered under his breath, "Maybe if you actually paid me, I could afford to buy another phone."

"What was that?" Gyro demanded, whirling around.

Fenton straightened up. "Nothing." He usually wasn't so catty, and he berated himself for showing his boss such disrespect. He was the one who took on the internship even when it offered no pay, even when he had his pick of many internships that actually did come with an hourly wage. He had gambled on the fact that once his internship was over, McDuck Enterprises might hire him full-time. But he couldn't imagine that happening now.

Suddenly his priorities changed now that he had that figured out. He no longer saw Gyro as the "all-powerful" boss, someone he had to obey least he be fired or disciplined. If it wasn't for Mr. McDuck wanting to spy on him, his internship would be terminated in an instant, Fenton had no doubt. In other words, him being at the lab was just a farce.

Well, it went both ways. If they were watching him to get information, he could quite possibly do the same.

"So, was there some sort of emergency?" Fenton asked.

"What?" Gyro snapped.

"An emergency," Fenton repeated. "You said you've been trying to call my phone. Was it an emergency or something else? I wasn't late."

"Oh," Gyro said, looking nervous for the first time. "Yes, there was…some sort of emergency, but I have it all in hand so there's no need for your help."

"Okay," Fenton said, his voice cool. "What would you like me to do? Shall I start taking the submarine apart so it can start drying or do you want me to fix the hole in the hull?"

Fenton's new assertive attitude put Gyro off-guard. "Oh…I thought I'd do that myself. You can go about your usual duties, but be ready to stop if you hear me call out."

Wondering if his change in attitude may have made Dr. Gearloose suspicious, Fenton changed his tone. "Oh, alright, Dr. Gearloose. But are you sure? It would go a lot faster if we worked on it together."

Gyro narrowed his eyes at Fenton. "I'm sure I can handle such a simple task by myself, thank you." And with that, he marched away with his usual surliness.

Fenton did the same, going right to his tasks that entailed cleaning lab supplies, organizing the desks and counters after Gyro's latest experiments, and going through the task list that Gyro wrote down in his sloppy, almost-illegible handwriting, and all the while, Fenton mulled over his boss's words, his actions, his tone. Was it just Gyro acting like Gyro? Or was there something else going on? Was Gyro wanting to work on the submarine because he wanted to be by himself? Or was he still angry about the sub sinking and was punishing Fenton by banishing him to intern tasks? Or was he suspicious of Fenton?

After going over and over that morning's exchange, Fenton felt as if he was doing himself more harm than good over-analyzing everything. His head felt muddled and he was emotionally exhausted even though he had done nothing else but what he would normally perform. It was so bad that when lunchtime rolled around, he actually took his break on time, heading outside to eat on the rocks next to the ocean.

He didn't look for the mermaid. He was certain that even if she was in the area, she wouldn't be looking for him. After snapping at her, she might not even come to his rendezvous point.

Except she needed to because she was on a mission, just like he was. And he had every intention of apologizing the second he saw her. But that's if he went to the mangrove trees. He couldn't, not if it meant Mr. McDuck following him. And no doubt Gyro had noticed him leaving the lab for his break and was finding some new way of following him. He could not let either one of them find the mermaid.

But it wasn't as if he found Fethry either. He wasn't sure he could face her without doing the one thing she asked. And if it meant the safety of Duckburg, he was failing his quest fantastically.

And for a minute, he wondered what he was even doing back at the lab. If the lives of everyone in the city were in danger, why was he here, cleaning up after a man who had nothing but contempt for him? Why was he working for a man who would capture the mermaid the first chance he had?

The thought made Fenton feel sick, but the only answer he could come up with was: what else could he do? If he didn't go to work, Gyro and Mr. McDuck would find that very suspicious. At the very least, he could send them on the wrong trail or feed them false information. But for his benefit, being in the lab was a waste of time.

Fenton shook his head, dispelling the negative thoughts he was focusing on. He was a scientist. He was a man of knowledge. Being in a lab was not a waste of time. He had several problems and he had everything he needed to find the solution. He just had to think of a solution.

He had an idea of what he was going to do after work, but there was still the problem of going to meet the mermaid and making sure he wasn't followed. Getting rid of the bugs the first time might only have brought a little suspicion upon him, but if he did it a second time, they would know he knew that they were spying.

If only he could swim to the mangrove trees from a different location. Not only would the water destroy any bugs that might be hidden in his feathers and clothing, but even if they were following him in person, they wouldn't be able to keep an eye on him if he remained under the water.

And that brought back his idea of the underwater breathing apparatus. It had always been in the back of his mind these last couple of days, but in retrospect, it wasn't important enough for him to dwell on all the time.

But now…it was crucial he find a way to bring his invention up to par in less than eight hours.

And he decided to throw out all the rules as well. What would it matter if he still had a job at McDuck Enterprises by the end of the week? He suspected that it was only a matter of time that he would be fired anyway. Mr. McDuck was spying on him and that breach of trust was broken.

After making sure Gyro was deep in the submarine, Fenton went back to the storage closet and pulled out everything he needed. He was only allowed to use discarded parts or things he had paid for when it came to his own projects; technically this was stealing and Fenton would have lied if he said he wasn't apprehensive about breaching this ethical line, but he had already broken into a mental institute, so stealing some equipment was just going to be added to his other misdemeanors.

He worked for hours, trying to improve the refined filters he had attached to his breathing apparatus, but after failing to separate oxygen from sea water, he growled in frustration and kicked out his foot.

And immediately knocked it against something metal. He cried out, grabbing his webbed foot to assuage the bruise that was forming under the skin. As he nursed his wound, he checked if Dr. Gearloose had heard him before looking under his desk.

Surprised, he found Fethry's old filtering system that had once been attached to one of the water tanks in the lab. He remembered Dr. Gearloose offering it to him to see if he could use any parts of it for his new device and how he had written off the notion. After all, the filtering system was far too large to put on a person's head even with the buoyancy underwater, and for second, the filters were to separate large particles in water and wouldn't even be close to as refined as Fenton needed.

But it didn't hurt to check it out. There might be a few parts inside he could use. After using some oil to loosen a few screws and bolts from the rusty frame, Fenton reached in for all the filters and was surprised with what he saw.

Besides a few iron weights in the corners, the filtering system box was almost completely empty save for a funnel and fan that fed water into a small box. It was the small box that must be the filter, but Fenton had a hard time believing that something so small could filter thousands of gallons of water, which would be the case even in the smallest of the tanks in the lab.

He placed the small box on his desk, directed a lamp toward it, and began to take it apart. It took some time since the screws were rusty and needed to be soaked in lubrication to loosen them, but eventually the lid came apart. When he looked inside, he gasped in surprise.

He expected to see one of two type of filters in the box. The first that he was familiar with was a mesh-like net that catches large particles like lead and organic matter. The other type used chemicals or substances to attract and filter out smaller particles like how the water filter took chlorine out of the tape water. But Fenton didn't find either in the small box. In fact, it wasn't a filter at all.

It was a small, white pearl.

Just like the one that the mermaid gave him.

And there was something else. Something stuck inside the box.

Using his pinky, he scraped along the sides of the box until it came out. It was a piece of paper covered in wax, one of the best ways to keep something water-proof. Pulling it out, Fenton examined it and blinked in surprise.

It was as simple as could be, a set of symbols scrawled in a scratchy hand, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what the symbols meant. The first was a few wavy lines, an obvious pictogram for water. The next was an arrow pointing to the third symbol, which took Fenton a while to make it out more due to the creator's work than Fenton's understanding. He finally saw that it was a filter, having recognized the same symbol on a few of the filters he had been working with lately. The last was easily recognizable from all his chemistry classes. Two bubbles with an "H" inside with a third bubble with an "O". H₂O. The molecular compound for water.

The paper seemed to be an explanation that water entered the filter and water came out. No, that wasn't right. Pure water came out. H₂O and nothing else.

So, the pearl purified the water completely, which was almost impossible. Only the most refined water filter could completely purify water. And what Fethry had here wasn't even close. It must be the pearl. It had to be pearl.

At that point, a scientist would have made documentation of the strange filter, taken pictures, and work things out properly with hypothesis, experiments and everything. And while a part of Fenton's brain screamed to use the scientific method, he pushed that all out of his mind and set to work. He didn't question the existence of the pearl or that it had some sort of power, he was beyond the point of questioning things that were beyond his understanding.

He put the pearl back in the small box, replaced the lid, put it back in the filtering system and grabbed the nearest liquid which so happened to be a mug of coffee that he had forgotten to finish the day before. He dumped the sludgy contents into the filtering system and watched. What came out of the filtering system was the same cold coffee he had put inside it.

Fenton frowned feeling disappointed that it didn't work, then disappointed in himself for expecting it to work. Had he lost all his senses? Just because he saw a mermaid didn't mean that magic now existed. A mermaid wasn't scientifically impossible, but a pearl that could filter water, that was definitely impossible.

Yet Fenton couldn't let the idea go. The pearl was in the filtering system for a reason. And that paper with the instructions was kept there as well. Was it all just the crazy imaginings of Fethry Duck or did it have significance?

"Why would someone put instructions inside the box?" Fenton said. "If Fethry wanted to leave an explanation for someone, why the pictures instead of writing? And why inside the box? Couldn't he have left it outside the box or on the side of the filter?" He studied the paper, turning it this way and that as if looking at it from different angles would help him figure it out.

"What if it's not an explanation," Fenton wondered. "What if it's part of the filter? Maybe it can't work without the paper."

Like a spell or talisman or something, Fenton thought, not wanting to speak the words out-loud.

Deftly, he took the filter apart again, mopping up the excess coffee as he worked, and put the paper back where he found it. Then, once again with the risk of feeling stupid a second time, he poured the coffee back through the filter.

And this time, clear water seeped out of the other side.

For a second, Fenton wasn't sure if he could believe what had happened. He took a clean cup from his desk and scooped up some of the water and drank it, expecting some lingering taste of coffee, but it was cleaner and purer than any other water he had ever had.

"Amazing," Fenton whispered. "This is…" And a stab of fear hit him in the chest before he could say another word. The pearl, it was what made the purification of the water possible. Fenton had no other explanation than it was magic. Mermaid magic.

Was it his mermaid who gave the pearl to Fethry? Or was it a different mermaid? Either way, it wasn't safe to leave something like it in the lab. If Mr. McDuck found out, could he use it to find the mermaid?

Having no idea how mermaid magic worked, Fenton didn't want to risk anything. Without saying anything or making any sudden movements, he took the box from the filtering system and left the lab, taking nothing else with him. He didn't want to risk bringing any more bugs.

He knew his internship was at a premature end, and he might as well cut ties with McDuck Enterprises on his own terms. He didn't say anything to Dr. Gearloose and left the lighthouse, expecting to never come back again.

Gyro pulled out the motherboard of the submarine, feeling drops of seawater drip onto his shoes. He grumbled to himself about how this was supposed to be intern-work, but McDuck had insisted that Fenton no longer be allowed near the mini-sub—because of paranoia or because he believed Fenton to be incompetent, Gyro couldn't guess.

As he navigated the large piece through the submarine hatch, the Bluetooth watch around his wrist beeped once. He took notice but didn't react. His beak was in a firm line but he kept at dismantling the submarine with his usual determination.

The target was on the move.