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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Mira Grant
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October 15 - October 22, 2025
The poor fool didn’t realize that nothing was ever going to eclipse the Atargatis in the public consciousness, no matter how compelling.
In Theodore’s experience, money was not the thing that made good security. Neither was managing your hiring quietly and through a casting agency, with aesthetics taking a higher degree of consideration than actual experience.
Everyone above a certain pay grade within the corporation knew that the Atargatis hadn’t been lost; she had been attacked.
That was the thing about the future. It didn’t wait. No matter how hard you tried to run, it always caught up with you in the end.
She hadn’t suggested changes, or involved her lawyer, or done anything to get herself a place on the Atargatis, because when she came right down to it, she hadn’t wanted one. She’d looked at her data, everything she’d derived from primary and secondary sources, and she’d seen the shadow of a creature she hadn’t wanted to meet. Not then, not now, and not ever. Certainly not in the middle of the ocean, with no high ground to run for.
“Does Dad know?” “He’s the one who invited me to go.” Lani laughed, short and bitter. “Wow. I can’t tell if that’s his tomcat way of giving you a dead mouse so you’ll love him again, or if it’s him trying to get you killed so he can move on. Want to take a bet?”
Sometimes loving each other isn’t enough to make up for all the things you know about another person.”
What was the point in finalizing their divorce? They would always be married where it counted, in the horrors they had shared.
This is my chance to set things right. If I don’t take it, I might as well go home and sign those divorce papers right now, because I’m never going to be this brave again.”
Her words hung between them, holding every hallmark of a lie. There was no way to prove it, and so they simply smiled at each other and let the moment go.
Are mermaids real? Yes. Are mermaids friendly? No. Why is this so hard?
There was no chance Imagine could avoid culpability in the matter of the Atargatis mission. The courts might have been willing to forgive them, but the people never did. For James Golden, prison might have been kinder.
Where there’s water, we find mermaids. Maybe it’s time we started asking ourselves exactly why that is.
Oh, his insurance was willing to do enough of the repair to make him functional again, but he didn’t want functional. He wanted to walk and dance and run and live his life as painlessly as possible.
He’d looked at the man, at the skills on his résumé, and he’d thought about Imagine’s latest generation of professional faces, the ones who’d been chosen through website participant vote, the ones who trended small and sylph-like and terrifyingly breakable.
“Ex-girlfriend used to talk about the Serranko series like they were sex toys,”
Footage of Olivia being whimsical was rare enough to be money in the bank, even if it would have to be stripped of all context before it could be used.
“World’s foremost scientific expert on mermaids—no, really, that’s an actual thing an actual human decided to do with their life, and I guess I’m not one to talk, since I’m out here dressed like an off-brand Emma Frost to avoid Marvel’s copyright lawyers—and pretty much the only person who turned down a spot on the Atargatis, which means she’s also incredibly sane. If this ship starts going down, get next to Dr. Toth. She’ll glare the water into staying away from you.”
“Shit,” said Ray, lowering the camera. “We’ve got a postproduction problem child.” “Hmm?” “Dr. Toth just gave me the bird.”
“Careful not to drop anything, all right? About half of it explodes if you annoy it, and it’s all been sanctioned by Imagine, so no ‘accidentally’ forgetting to carry my grenades.”
“Now, Michi, what did we say about torturing the hired help?” “That it’s damned funny, and I’m not going to stop unless I’m given a solid reason to do so.”
“I know them,” he said. “They have a web series about killing things.” Dr. Toth rolled her eyes. “Of course they do,” she muttered. “God forbid Imagine send out a second ship without making a show of force. The first voyage had women paid to dress up like mermaids, ours gets hired killers. Ever wish you were on the Atargatis instead?” “Every day,” said Tory.
“I would not want her looking at me like that. Think she’s going to ask us to help her hide a body?” “Maybe. I hope not. But maybe.”
Theo also tells me he’s planning to come on this voyage. This is proof that even smart people can be wrong.”
but genuine surprise and amazement didn’t work that way. People could tell when they weren’t real.)
The ship could vanish without a trace and not a scrap of research would be lost.
Welp, we know it's definitely disappearing then
“The seas are huge but oceanography is small,”
Let him get his research stolen because he was too arrogant to cover his own ass.
Like you, we are employed by Imagine. Unlike you, we are here to make sure everything goes smoothly, and that you return safely home.”
The Melusine was a haunted house. She had been since the day she’d been commissioned.
“I am Theodore Blackwell, and I will be on this voyage with you as a spy for Imagine.”
“Come now,” he said. “You can’t think I’d try to hide it, can you? You’re some of the smartest people in the world. Top of your respective fields—although admittedly, some of you are working within a field of five. In those cases, all five members are probably on this vessel. Good luck figuring out who’s on top.”
She lived in crowds but she didn’t like them; they were too large and chaotic for her to find them comfortable. Give her a camera and a script and she could change the world. Give her something like this and she withdrew.
Why didn’t Imagine want us to know that we were pushing off? she wondered. What don’t they want us to see?
ASL was a beautiful language. It was also a language she didn’t want to sneak up on; the idea of being accidentally slapped in the face by a particularly vehement point didn’t appeal.
“I know I’m supposed to talk to them, not you, when I’m talking to them, but do you know how I can get their attention without getting punched by mistake? I want to say hello. I don’t want to visit the infirmary.” “They’re not fighting that hard,” said the translator. One of the two redheads began making a violent, repetitive sign directly in front of the face of the other. “They don’t usually hit strangers,” amended the translator.
“I’m Heather Wilson,” signed the second redhead. “I’m a submersible operator.” Jillian blinked. “Really?” Heather scowled. “Why are you surprised? Is it because I’m deaf?” “No, it’s because I’m claustrophobic,” said Jillian.
“I would have warned you, but you seemed displeased enough by my presence that I didn’t want to push my luck when we were close to shore.” “Why? Were you afraid I’d throw you overboard?” “The thought did cross my mind.”
It was a small but necessary evil: by omitting changing rooms, the ship’s designers had blocked Imagine from placing cameras in the pool area. Most filming licenses still refused to grant consent for even nonsexual nudity.
This trip could change everything.” “Why? Because if we find mermaids we’ll have something intelligent that has hands and looks vaguely like us, and maybe then we’ll respect it? We have that. Chimpanzees, great apes, orangutans—they have hands, they look vaguely like us, and they’re intelligent enough to be considered people in a court of law. Dolphins don’t get that courtesy solely because they look more like fish than like the girl next door. Mermaids split the difference. Finding them won’t make us treat the oceans any better, and it won’t magically turn them into a protected species. If
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“Imagine brings back proof, irrefutable proof, and what do we get? We get to hear how many ways the world can say hoax. I am going to be eyewitness testimony. I am going to make those people eat their words.”
“You’re hiding this, which means you don’t want me shouting it to everyone else on board this ship, and I’m fine with that; if I keep your secret, you owe me.
Just leave me out of your bullshit justifications for selling your ethics to the highest bidder. I’ve heard them before, and they’re tired. So am I.”
“I’m Olivia Sanderson, from Imagine. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your—” “No,” said Tory, and turned, and walked away. Olivia stared after her. “Well,” said Ray, stepping up next to her. “I think I’m in love.”
“All right, everyone: we are on the maiden voyage of an untested research ship built to the specifications of an entertainment corporation.”
Ships were basically enormous petri dishes for disease, and no matter how educated or adult the passengers seemed to be, there was always one who wouldn’t wash their hands if there was a gun to their temple. Mermaids were one thing. Norovirus was something entirely different, and far more believably dangerous.
“A media personality is someone who’s famous for being famous about being famous.
“I’m tall and hot and I decided to go into a profession where most of the time, it’s my job to be unobtrusive. Clearly I must have hit my head.”
“Even ASL has a yell mode,” said Hallie. “It involves a lot of waving and slapping of hands, and it’s distracting as hell, especially if you’ve been trained to pay attention to signing.
Mankind’s exploration of the oceans had been going on for centuries, yet had barely scratched the surface, leaving much of the depths uncharted.
