Dragon in the System

Chapter 3

"So you're into lizards?" Eric asked, almost eagerly.

Lori nodded. "Lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs. They're all part of herpetology, but most of my research focuses on lizards. My current study is on the use of chemoreception by leopard geckoes." She waited for the glazed look as he asked her what the heck was chemoreception, but he seemed to ignore that part of her speech and his eyes actually brightened.

"More lizards?" he asked, looking around, probably for more large cages.

Lori nodded. "They're little guys, not like Q." She used her fingers to indicate a span of about six inches. "Want to see them?" She didn't know why she offered, but hey, it was Friday night and she had a sort-of-cute guy in her office, who seemed marginally interested, in her work, at least, if not in herself.

She led him around Q to the main part of the lab. Several rows of small glass aquaria topped with heat lamps filled the rough wooden shelving lining one cinder-block wall. Each of the tanks held two or three brown-and-yellow spotted lizards.

"Cool," Eric remarked absently, studying one of the tanks for a while. "But, if you don't mind my asking, how much can you tell me about big lizards?"

"How big?" she asked. They moved around back to the table, where he downed another quarter of his Dr. Pepper.

"Really big." He pointed to Q. "Say, five or six times as long as that guy."

Lori shook her head. "Not much. The only lizards even close to that big would have to be Komodo dragons, or at least one of the other giant monitors." He raised his eyebrows, so she continued. "Komodos are huge, endangered and pretty much impossible to handle. They're really rare here, even in zoos. Nile monitors are pretty big, too, though," she added thoughtfully. "And a little more common. I haven't done too much work with monitors at all, but I'm familiar with them from a basic academic standpoint, of course. What do you need to know?"

She wondered why a faculty member from computer science needed to know about reptiles, but shrugged it off. Maybe he wrote educational software in his spare time, or maybe he had a child who wanted a pet lizard. For some reason she didn't want to examine too closely, she didn't care for that last idea.

Eric shook his head, his straight, sandy hair falling over one eye. Lori repressed the unacceptable urge to brush it back for him. God, she needed to get out more, if she was reacting like this to a guy who stopped by with a few questions.

"I know this sounds stupid," he began. He gulped a deep breath before continuing. "But could some sort of giant monitor lizard be living in the steam tunnels under campus?"

She practically fell out of her chair laughing and Eric couldn't blame her in the least. He knew how idiotic he'd sounded, but he'd had to ask. On top of everything else, he was unpleasantly surprised to realize that even though he'd expected this reaction, his ego stung. It was bad enough having everyone on campus automatically assume that because you were in the computer science department, you were an anti-social geek. He didn't need some cute little biology professor laughing in his face. And she really was cute, which somehow made it worse. Why couldn't Dr. Tremain have lived up to his mental image of her, with the gray hair and starched lab coat? Why did she have to be young and attractive? Well, he conceded, not too young. Tiny lines framed her liquid brown eyes as she grinned and Eric felt his stomach muscles clench.

"Giant lizards in the tunnels?" she asked, still chuckling softly. "Is that what the students are claiming these days?" Well, at least her laughter seemed friendly, not condescending or catty. He supposed that was a start.

Before Eric could formulate an answer, his stomach growled, loudly. Then, just to be sure his embarrassment was complete, he felt the heat of a blush suffuse his face. With his light skin, it had to show. He had to force himself not to close his eyes and crawl under the table.

"Umm-look," he began, risking a direct glance at Lori's heart-shaped face. She was still listening, he saw, with relief. She hadn't yet decided that he was a complete nut case. Dark brown eyebrows arched daintily above her big coffee-colored eyes. Wow, her skin was even paler than his, almost translucent. With her long, straight hair and her simple outfit consisting of a white T-shirt and pink denim skirt, she could easily be mistaken for a student.

"Look, I know this is going to sound crazy and it's kind of a long story," Eric began. Then he added impulsively, "How about if we go get a pizza somewhere?" He checked his watch. "It's eight-thirty and I haven't had dinner yet. Have you?"

Lori shook her head. "Not unless you count an apple and some pretzels." Since half of the apple was still sitting on her desk, she really hadn't eaten at all. "But won't all the pizza places be full of students? It's Friday night."

Was it? He guessed so. Still, he stuck to his guns. "What the heck, want to risk it?" He told himself that he wasn't asking her out, just offering to feed her in return for her professional advice. A surreptitious glance told him that she wore no wedding or engagement rings on her left hand. That was a good sign. Then an embarrassing memory from a few years back flashed through his brain and he tried to remember if he had any cash in his wallet. Did Campus Pizza take plastic?

To his surprise, Lori Tremain agreed readily to his offer of dinner. He was still staring in amazement while she checked the latch on her iguana's cage, collected her things and locked up her office.