The Turn Series Box Set

by Andrew Clawson

  “Our team successfully crossed an African leopard with an Arctic wolf.” Ray never stopped moving as he spoke. Reed looked up at steel support beams under a two-story glass atrium with hallways lining the second floor. Though he noted at least twenty doors and openings branching off the main floor thoroughfare, only one other person was visible in the whole place, a man who walked briskly past them, his white lab coat flapping.

  “How many hybrids escaped?” Reed asked.

  “Five. All males, each around two hundred pounds.”

  “Do they resemble leopards?”

  “Negative,” Dorcy said. “Each animal is a light brown, closer to gold.”

  “So they blend with the savanna grass.”

  “Yes. They will be hard to locate and difficult to see. Fortunately, you have experience hunting animals like this.”

  “You didn’t implant tracking devices?”

  “Our plans did not consider escape possible.”

  “Not much of a plan.”

  A thick metal door blocked their path, and the lock clicked open when Ray flashed his badge in front of the card reader. “These are your quarters.”

  Reed followed him through into what looked like a converted storage area. A reflection of the building, the room and furnishings ran heavy on glass and steel. A polished table with seating for four in the middle, with a pair of doors along either side. Against the far wall was a much larger rolling door, like that on a garage, with a small kitchen in one corner.

  “This area serves as the research staff residence. Take any room,” Dorcy said, pointing to the doors alongside them. “Through the far rolling door is a garage with any type of vehicle you may require, from four-wheel-drive pickup trucks to multi-passenger all-terrain vehicles. All keys are in the ignition.”

  “Anywhere I can lock up my weapons?” Reed surveyed the room, opened a blind and found only waving grass between their windows and the exterior fence. The glare from intense halogen lights washed over everything.

  “Gun safes are in the garage. You can set the passcode. Here are your access keys.” Dorcy handed Reed an envelope. “They’ll get you into any room or gate on the ground level. Keep them with you at all times.”

  Sarah spoke now, her eyes nearly hidden beneath a ball cap. “What’s on the upper levels?”

  “Research labs, executive offices and our communications center.” Dorcy walked over to where she stood and pulled the refrigerator open. “Our staff will not interrupt your work.” He flashed white teeth to Sarah, who kept her head down. “This is stocked for you, but if there’s anything else you need contact me and I’ll have it delivered.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Reed said. He didn’t want Dorcy hanging around more than necessary. The less he saw of Sarah the better. “I’m going to park our vehicle and store our weapons in the safe. Do you have the information I requested?”

  “On the table,” Dorcy said, pointing to the dining area. “Maps and all we have on the animals – testing results on their strength and speed, photographs, all our data.” A thumb drive flew through the air, landing in Reed’s outstretched hand. “That’s a digital copy of everything.”

  “Thanks.” Reed walked back toward the entrance, leaving Dorcy behind. “Start unpacking.” He pointed to Sarah and Paul. “We leave at first light.”

  Ray Dorcy followed Reed out of the living area, pulling the door closed behind him. “Is it just the three of you?”

  “The fewer people out there crashing around, the better.”

  “Agreed.” Dorcy held out a business card. “My contact numbers. Radio units are in the garage, charged and ready. Don’t forget your badges. Without them you’ll be stuck outside. They give access to every lower-level part of the facility except the sterile lab, which is off-limits.”

  “I appreciate your thorough preparation,” Reed said. “Once I review the materials I’ll take a trip around the area to establish a game plan.”

  “You understand time is of the essence,” Dory said. “The media have already reported on human deaths in the vicinity.”

  “Part of the Maasai tribe. What do the authorities believe happened?”

  “They attribute it to leopard attacks, or a lion.”

  “You think the wolves are responsible.”

  Dorcy hesitated, then said, “We do.”

  Reed reached for the front door, but Dorcy cleared his throat. “Early this morning a small herd of dead elephants were found. Partially eaten.”

  Reed’s teeth ground together. “So now elephants are dying because you couldn’t leave well enough alone.”

  Dorcy didn’t flinch. “We’re cleaning up this mess.”

  For some reason, Reed didn’t buy it. He might be saying all the right things, but there was something off. Dorcy handled security – the security team that allowed the hybrids to escape.

  “How did the wolves escape?”

  “A broken lock.”

  How convenient. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Our main concern is getting them back, preferably alive. You understand the effects of a new apex predator.”

  Preferably alive. “I do.”

  Once Dorcy departed, Reed walked back to find Sarah leaning over the table, her nose buried in the paperwork. “See if there’s anything useful and then get some shut-eye. Early start tomorrow.”

  “Will do.” She didn’t look up.

  With Sarah in her element, he and Paul locked their weapons away before each of them headed into a bedroom. When the door clicked shut behind him, it felt as though the entire day came down on his shoulders, rolling through his mind and ruining any chance at either coherent thought or restful sleep in the few hours before daylight.

  As the sun’s first rays appeared the next morning, Reed tossed an apple core into the garbage can and walked into the garage to find Paul had already rolled the door up. Sarah came over with a frown on her lips. “I reviewed the Soter data on their altered wolves.”

  Part of Ray Dorcy’s briefing paperwork included laboratory specifications on the altered wolves. “What did you find?”

  “The process they used is close to my genetic editing technique. They started the process in the same way I did. The RNA guide molecules pointed to a specific portion of the genome, which they then snipped out. That’s identical, including several steps I only revealed this past week in Zurich.”

  “No one other than your colleagues in Zurich knew your process?” Reed asked.

  “Nobody.” She held up a hand. “That’s not a smoking gun. There are almost certainly more ways to edit a genetic sequence than how I did it. In fact, it’s likely there are. The thing is I have no idea what those are, and neither does anybody else.”

  Reed scratched his chin. “So the Soter research team may have figured out these alteration techniques on their own, and they just happen to be identical to yours.”

  Sarah nodded. “Yes, which could mean nothing. I could tell from the data that they completed the process differently.”

  “It’s possible they used your research to get started, and then took a different turn to create the wolves.”

  “It’s possible. Right now I can’t tell if Soter used my work. If I had to guess, I’d say they talked to someone who knew about it. I have no idea who.”

  More uncertainty. Great. “Anything else?”

  She showed him a page dense with writing. “This isn’t part of the project data, but it was in the materials Ray Dorcy provided. It’s a summary of supplies. At the bottom there’s a note approving additional funding. Look at the initials.”

  Reed squinted at the tiny script. “T.P.D.F.” He grunted. “Who’s that?”

  “Not a person.” Sarah looked back to the front door, which was closed tight. “It stands for Tanzania People’s Defense Force. The Tanzanian military.”

  “You’re saying the military funded this research?”

  “At least in part.”

  The dots connected quickly. “Do you kno
w what country the two soldiers in Zurich were from?”

  “No, but I remember they had flags on their shoulder. Green and blue, with black lines.” She frowned. “What if the dead guy, Nelson, was telling the truth?”

  “And the government is involved? Those colors are part of the Tanzanian flag.”

  Sarah’s lips clenched together. “If the government is involved, we’re in over our heads. But it’s too late now. Also, for all we know it could be a coincidence. The man you interrogated and the soldiers I saw in Zurich could be unrelated.”

  “I’ve been around too long to believe in coincidences like that.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Like you said, we’re here now. If you see any soldiers around here, don’t turn your back on them.”

  “Are we ready to go?” Paul flashed a giant smile as he walked through the open garage door. “It is a beautiful day for tracking.”

  “Listen to this.” Reed brought him up to speed on what Sarah had discovered. “Like I told Sarah, be wary of any soldiers.”

  “I will,” Paul said.

  “Then let’s move.”

  Paul jumped into a three-man all-terrain vehicle as Reed climbed behind the wheel of another.

  “Grab the maps and hop in,” he told Sarah. A dart gun went into the glovebox, along with a pack of tranquilizer darts. Once Sarah had strapped in, Reed fired the engine and gunned it. The powerful little vehicle shot out into the sunlight and through the outside gate, with Paul following close behind. Reed didn’t bother closing the gate. Maybe he’d get lucky and the hybrids would return on their own.

  “What’s the map show?” he asked Sarah over the rush of wind.

  “Head east to Lake Victoria, about five miles. That’s where the natives were killed and close to where the elephants were found.”

  Over the dusty fields they bounced, the ATVs churning through dirt and flowing grass baked dry by the sun. Reed often saw herds of wildebeest roaming near his place in Mwanza, or even giraffes and the occasional zebra. Here, however, he found nothing but grass and sparse trees.

  Reed turned toward Sarah. “You know the worst part of this?”

  “It’s hard to pick just one.”

  He grunted in agreement. “The biggest losers in all of this are people who had nothing to do with the experiments.”

  “The worst part is our research is meant to develop cures for disease,” Sarah said over the rumbling engine.

  “A cure that may be built on stolen research and tested on innocent creatures. Don’t forget the only reason these pharmaceutical companies exist is to make money. Sure, some people may be helped in the process, but those are mostly people who can afford to pay ten grand for a month’s supply of drugs. What about all the harm?”

  Sarah shrugged. “Hard to disagree with you.”

  For Reed, it always came back to those who couldn’t speak for themselves.

  Several minutes of bouncing later, he glanced at the map she held. “Where are we?”

  “The deaths happened about a mile ahead, and the elephants were killed a few miles beyond that. Which suggests these hybrid wolves have a hunting area.”

  Wolves and leopards. Two species with different traits. So which to use? “Leopards tend to stay in what’s called a ‘home range.’ I’d expect them to stay within a ten-square-mile area.”

  “Wolves are pack animals,” Sarah said. “Normally an alpha male leads the group. With these new creatures, I have no idea. My guess is they’re traveling in a pack.”

  Packs of normal wolves could kill hunters. So far it seemed these new ones were even more dangerous. The ATV slowed as Reed turned to face her. “From now on you do exactly as I say. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. To these predators, you’re their next meal.”

  Sarah kept quiet as they drove, scanning all around. Better cautious than dead. Reed checked the rearview mirror as they raced along at forty miles per hour, which was about the running speed of a normal leopard. Who knew how quick these new versions were?

  “The Maasai died just ahead,” he told her. “Over that hill should be trees and a small lake. That’s the spot.”

  A glittering square of water stretched ahead when they crested the rise, running beside a patch of leafy trees. Reed drove toward the wooded spot, stopping when they reached shaded ground.

  “There are pictures in here.” Paper crackled as Sarah broke the seal on an envelope. “It looks like—oh.” Her voice fell. “These are scene photos.”

  She held the snapshots, studying in silence. Reed looked over at them and felt a tightening in his chest. He didn’t see the flayed skin of the Maasai who had died here, nor the trucks in the background, ready to carry away the evidence. Instead, the snapshots took him back to a scene from years ago, to the moment when he had realized killing animals was no longer for him. He remembered that final group of hunters he’d guided onto the savanna and who had disappeared one evening from their tents.

  Gunshots had drawn him to those missing safari guests, and as he’d raced from camp, Reed had suspected the worst. He couldn’t have been more wrong – the hunters were safe, but what he’d found at the hunters’ feet that night had changed everything.

  Lions had been massacred.

  Four grown lions lay on the plain, blood running down their coats. Riddled with holes, one had an entire leg ripped off, his stomach torn open and spilled onto the ground. The others were much the same.

  And the cubs. Seven of them. All dead, powder burns on their fur. The cubs hadn’t just been killed. They’d been executed.

  “We decided to take out the night-vision gear, and look what we found.” One of the fools walked over to Reed, not an ounce of shame in his voice. “Not sure which one of us took the male, but we’ll sort it out, don’t you worry. Shame about the little ones, but it’s better than starving to death out here.”

  An invisible fist squeezed Reed’s chest, a relentless press of anger and sorrow driving the air from his lungs. What type of man did this? What kind of person perpetrated such indiscriminate slaughter of an entire pride?

  Reed could only stand, fists clenched, rage welling from the blood-soaked ground, up through his body, unleashing the cold hand gripping his lungs.

  “Why?”

  The man looked at him with an uncertain grin. “This is a safari,” he said, slapping Reed’s shoulder. “We’re on a safari, Reed. We’re here to kill lions.”

  “This isn’t how you do it.” His voice was low, the words soft.

  Another one spoke. “Kill shots, all of them. None suffered, certainly not the little ones.”

  The next words out of Reed’s mouth were in Swahili.

  “Disarm these men.” The guests had no idea what he’d said.

  Though when his employees leveled rifles at them, their smiles vanished in a hurry.

  “Lay your weapons on the ground.” Reed pointed his sidearm toward the fool who’d touched him. “Do it now or I’ll bury you out here. Every single one of you.”

  A voice intruded on Reed’s memory, drawing him away from the images of that night back to the present. “You okay?” Paul had pulled up beside them.

  “I’m good,” he said as leaves rustled overhead. This wasn’t the first time he’d relived that night. Every horror that passed his vision now took him back to that pivotal night when the world seemingly righted itself.

  Reed studied the photos in his lap. “Heavy lacerations consistent with claw attacks.” He shook his head and flipped to another photo, pushing away the memories. “The damage reminds me of what a wolf’s teeth do.”

  Sarah and Paul watched as he solemnly examined the photos, taking in one devastating scene after another. Ray Dorcy was in one image, carrying a loaded body bag. As the photos cascaded through his hands, Reed heard the screams, saw families wiped out in a moment. The killing ground came to life before him, engrossing him so that only when he turned the final image over did he realize they had company.

  Reed kept still as he spoke
in a whisper. “We’re not alone.”

  Only Sarah’s lap restraint kept her from jumping out of the vehicle. He pointed over her shoulder.

  “Be calm,” he said. “If they wanted to hurt us, they’d have done it.”

  Reed, who’d spent more than half his life stalking prey and avoiding predators, hadn’t heard their approach. Ten African tribesman stood fanned out behind them, each carrying a spear taller than its owner. Each man was clad in a wraparound toga-like garment, and each wore silver jewelry around his neck. Different amulets and jewelry than what Olekina’s tribe wore, but the symbolism rang loud and clear. These were warriors, men whose survival hinged on their ability to hunt, to provide food to their families.

  Rarely had Reed felt as vulnerable as he did right now.

  “They’re not moving,” Sarah whispered. “What are they doing?”

  Paul remained frozen beside Sarah. “Watching us.”

  Arrayed in a half-circle to their rear, the tall sentinels studied the intruders.

  “I’m going to step out of the vehicle,” Reed said. “You do the same.”

  “Do you think they know Olekina’s tribe?” Sarah asked.

  Reed shook his head. “It’s several hundred miles from here to Olekina’s territory outside Mwanza. Likely too far for them to know each other.”

  “Darn. Because we’ll never outrun them if this is bad,” she said.

  His hand found hers, grasping it tightly. “Trust me.” One foot swung over the door frame. “Just don’t make any sudden moves.”

  With that, he stepped out and faced the native Tanzanians. None of them blinked. A flock of birds meandered through the sky overhead, their tiny shadows flitting across the ground. Reed gulped a lungful of heated air and played the ace up his sleeve.

  “Habari ya mchana!”

  Sarah jumped and nearly fell back onto the vehicle. Paul seemed to relax a bit.

  “Smile,” he said through gritted teeth. She took one look at the rictus of a grin on his face and mirrored it. The silence stretched out as the birds disappeared on the breeze. None of the tribesmen moved.