Chapter 1

I looked at the pamphlet. It showed a small tropical island surrounded by a sandy beach with clear water. The sun was shining on the straw-roofed bungalows scattered along the beach. The houses merged into the tropical forest that covered the whole inner part of the island. Notably, there was a larger and more modern-looking building in the middle of the island, which had satellite dishes and various antennas on its roof. On top of the picture, large letters read:

“Welcome to the Dolphin Club! Sign up as a subject now and have the sex of your dreams!”

There were a few blocks of text sprinkled around the picture but I chose to ignore these for now. Instead, I asked my colleague Jill: “Sooo, why exactly are you showing me this?” She gave me a quick smile: “This is part of our new investigation.” “Love Island?” “Yes, Love Island. Apparently, they are wanted for embezzlement of research funding. They have applied for some government grants to build this ... institution. And now the government thinks that they may not have been honest with their intentions. But the government can’t prove it, so they came to us.”

Jill knew how to convince me of a project. Government contracts always gave good money, and especially safe money. With private contractors, there is always a chance that they cannot pay, or do not want to pay if they are unhappy with the result of the investigation. But the government ... that was easy money. I looked Jill in the eyes: “Sounds interesting. I’m in.”

Shortly after I sat down with Jill and a few more colleagues in the meeting room. Jill gave a long explanation of what this research project was about, and how it worked financially. They were apparently researching various sexual activities and their impact on the participants. But they did it really professionally and thus were able to secure funding from different government and health agencies as well as private funders.

Jill continued her talk: “One of the more controversial parts of the project is that the test subjects are filmed almost all the time. These films are then analysed for research purposes, but they are also sold on a website called ‘dolphin-club.project.’” A colleague asked: “and the test subjects were aware that they were being filmed and that their films were sold?” Jill answered: “partially. I mean yes, but it was not really clear if all the participants understood the impact of that. Or well, at least the public reach this project would get. Our contractor is of the opinion that not all subjects were aware of what they signed up for.” Another colleague continued for her: “which violates the ethical guidelines required for government research grants.” Jill said: “Exactly.”