The trial was going badly. At least it seemed that way to both Carter and Dudley as they chatted in urgent whispers by the coffee vending machine. Who had chosen Baton Rouge for the trial? It was insanity - the judge was a complete hick and his courtroom reflected his values. Carter Blake took the stand and questions immediately turned to his criminal past, to his work at Aquatica and how he’d been on parole at the time. Things had gone downhill from that moment on - his credibility as a witness seemed not only suspect but the story he told seemed to be building up toward the charges being laid at his door. The teams of lawyers working for the defense were having a field day. The more they dug into matters the closer they seemed to get toward pinning the problems directly on Carter rather than Quentin Edwards, the smug looking older man who had clear corporate decision making power to have spun the project off in the first place.

Prosecution lawyers, also from the lawfirm of Wolfram and Hart, but contracted by an unknown third party worked equally hard to establish Carter Blake as merely a pawn in the executive games. He had no power and was moved around the game board at the whim of men like Edwards. As proof, they cited the parole and how Blake had willingly confined himself to the man made artificial habitat of Aquatica even when there was ample opportunity to have made a run for the mainland on one of the many boats that brought supplies and ferried exiting personelle back for weekends.

Documents - resumes and contracts of employment - were pulled out as evidence and pulled apart by all parties. Signatures on the contracts were those of a direct subordinate of Edwards, the prosecution states, and therefore he would have been cognizant of the arrest and detention of men like Blake. If he’d represented any kind of security risk, why would he have been approved in the first place? Questions of his being a corporate scape-goat were argued for the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening. Eventually the judge called a recess, ordering all parties to resume in the morning.

Court resumed and Carter found himself still in the witness stand.

“What was the nature of your role?” the lawer asked.

“They called it ‘shark wrangler’” Carter answered, “If the folks who ran Aquatica were cattle ranchers, I’d have been a cowboy out on a horse riding the range, driving cattle, fixing fences.”

“So, you had intimate knowledge of the sharks?”

“You could say that.”

The lawyer nodded, “You swam with them?”

“Yes, I swam with them. Once you understand their behaviour, they’re more predictable and far less dangerous than people.”

“So you think people are dangerous?”

“Yeah, I do.” Carter shrugged for emphasis, “Sharks kill and eat. People kill for pleasure. Sharks hunt, and only take what they need. People let jealousy, ambition and greed rule their thinking … “

The lawyer waved a hand, “I’m sure that’s enough, yes. You spoke of hunting and killing. What did you observe of the Aquatica experiments in that regard?”

Carter took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, “What I saw scared the shit outa me. Those sharks fed on their own, I mean, other sharks … I never saw them attack one another. It was like they saw normal sharks as nothing more than meat - animals to be hunted - beneath them.”

“That’s a lot of conjecture and anthropromorphism there Mister Blake.”

“Yeah, well, you never swam with them and saw them eat a Tiger Shark for breakfast. You never watched three sharks work as a pack rather than the solitary hunters that nature meant for them to be. Theres something unnatural about watching them swim in formation, coordinate an attack and share the spoils.” Blake looked deeply unsettled. The memories rattled him. The lawyer allowed him a few moments to compose himself, and for the court to see the effect on him.

“Mister Blake, was is your responsibility to feed the sharks?”

Carter shook his head, “No, team effort. I just observed and reported back if they wanted the up-close-and-personal viewpoint.”

“They?”

“Yeah, McCallister and the other scientists.”

“So you just followed their orders, did their bidding.”

“You could say that, yeah. Like you said - cog in the corporate machine. A pawn on the chessboard. Mine wasnt the hand moving the pieces.”