The Mirror Cracks (The Human-Hybrid Project Book 3)

by Farley Dunn

  When the elevator doors closed, he felt his chest relax for the first time since the doors had opened.

  Christian. Now Justin, and maybe Marco before long. Who else? He had started with wanting to save one man, and now it seemed like it was everyone who needed saved.

  He was just a teenager. He hadn’t even become a wolf yet, not that he could really tell. He was only now regrowing his hair.

  What did they expect of him, to save everyone? He didn’t even know how to save himself.

  Sheesh!

  ― 8 ―

  THE WATER in the pool swallowed Garik. He sank to the bottom, turned, looked up, let the rippling ceiling of the natatorium soak into his tortured thoughts. Legs and feet were icepicks across the surface, jabbing through the water, hands splashing, occasionally someone becoming a dolphin, flashing through the water, or a penguin, leaving trails of bubbles to mark their passage.

  Workouts were better with Christian, the man tracking his progress with a timer, egging him on, calling, “Don’t be a baby. You can do one more.”

  They had started this to give Christian more time, and Garik hadn’t seen what was occurring right before his eyes. The very thing that was Christian’s conveyer belt down to Level 5 was still running, inexorably tugging him along, even as the man set out Garik’s towel, added another weight to his weight machine, or helped him work out the kinks in sore muscles.

  Whoever had programed Christian hadn’t set an off switch in Christian’s DNA, in his biobricks, in his sequence promoters. In the cellular primer that told his body how to absorb the characteristics of the wolfhound genes they wanted him to take on, they forgot that nature finds a way to bring survival characteristics to the forefront. Cherry picking this or that, precognition or intelligence, kindness or premediated focus that precluded an emotional connection with a perceived enemy was riding the knife edge of a blade, and it was easy to fall off. When you did, people got hurt. The good-hearted often died.

  A team of researchers was running tests in the natatorium on aquatically adapted humans, most of whom didn’t look especially aquatic, unlike Marina, Marisa’s sister. Then, that was the point, to bring out the hybrid side without losing the human side.

  It was a circus, a juggling act that could so easily go wrong. Justin’s hands, whiplash quick, but one of his props had fallen out of the rotation, skittering off to the side, and Justin was scrambling to survive.

  Marina, with her vestigial gills, and one side of her body displaying scales and webbed fingers.

  Marco, able to climb anything but clearly becoming more lemur than human. At least his intelligence was intact, if scenting people and getting beat up for it was a sign of intelligence.

  Was Hector, adapted with a rat, a sign of what Garik would become? Would Garik begin howling at the moon, maybe even gnaw on meat scraps and bones?

  Repeated splashing at the side of the pool drew his attention. It stopped, the surface cleared, and Giselle appeared, wavering through the water. She motioned for him to come to the surface. He nodded and waved, and he pushed off from the bottom.

  “Yes?” he said, as he broke the surface, shaking the water from his hair. He drew in fresh air, and glancing around, he noticed that the team of researchers from earlier was gone.

  “That’s my thing, you know.” She knelt on the rubberized surface surrounding the pool. “I’m the water woman, able to devolve and reconstitute myself.”

  “Oh?” Garik was several feet from the edge, and he moved his arms back and forth. The water was deeper than he was tall, and he didn’t want to touch the coping. It was a connection with the real world, the one battering his life. In the pool, he was insulated, apart, just Garik for however long he could remain under.

  It was motivation to remain submerged for a very long time.

  “It sounds wonderful, like a comic character that can liquify herself at any time and become solid again.” She touched the water, pushing her hand through the surface, and running her fingers back and forth. She sighed and laughed, a sad sound. “Not exactly.”

  “So?” Garik moved closer, curious, only now willing to touch the side of the pool with one hand, still separated, still aloof from the world, but making that tenuous connection for as long as the corrosive world around him maintained his interest. “What is it like, exactly?”

  “You do know how a sea cucumber liquifies itself?” She pursed her lips playfully, clearly enjoying the question.

  “I suppose it squirts out water.”

  “And all its organs.” She grinned. “It has to regrow them later.”

  “You can do that?” He grimaced.

  “You are so funny.” She laughed. “The look on your face. I am half human, so no, I don’t expel all my organs. I do have to rehydrate everything I expel. It’s something better done in a body of water.”

  “The ocean, maybe a bathtub?” He grinned, enjoying her frankness for a change. “Or a pool?”

  “That, too. Come out. Joanie got your message about Justin’s offer. She’s planned a meeting.” She shifted her position as if to stand.

  “Wait.” Garik wrapped his hand around her wrist. “Can you answer me a question?”

  “If you ask the right one. First, my arm.” The lower part of Giselle’s arm suddenly bled water, shimmering with distorted light, and Garik’s hand washed off, sending him backwards into the water. She smiled, jammed the arm into the water for a moment before lifting it and shaking it dry. “Good as new. Your question?”

  “Are you still changing? You know, like—” It was important to Garik. Wolf boy, that sort of thing.

  “Like Christian? No. Why?” She paused and said, “Oh, I get it. Let me see how to describe this. I’m second-generation hybrid. Christian is first—”

  “Like Jantzen, and I think Justin, too.” The realization hit Garik. What would Jantzen become? What was he hybridized with? Where had his accessory DNA been sourced? What could allow him to disappear into a cloud of purple mist?

  “Yes, but every case is different, especially from the first generation. Trial and error in the initial modifications. Jantzen’s was stable, or it has been so far.”

  “And Marco? What generation is he?” The man had changed just since Garik had known him.

  “Marco is special. Intentional. Ask him about it, sometime. He loves to discuss it. Okay, I’ve answered your questions. Out.” She stood.

  “Wait. Me. What am I?” Second? Third? Or something else, intended to become a bizarre parody of a human being, only recognizable as human by what he once was? He had one hand on the side of the pool, and he floated with the water around his shoulders. The depths of the pool called to him. Her answer was important.

  “We all want to know the answer to that question.” She shrugged, gave him a teasing pucker and a wiggle of her fingers with one hand, and walked toward the door.

  Garik pushed away and let the water swallow him once again. The answer was worse than not knowing. He looked around, noticing the lack of activity in the water. He swam upward, breaking the surface, and realized he was alone.

  How long had he been down? Chill bumps erupted over him, tiny volcanoes of dread. He pushed toward the ladder, the water swirling behind him, a trail of bubbles telling where he was, where he wasn’t, and that he soon would be no more.

  Then what? Garik pulled himself from the water into the air, imagining himself as a sea creature taking its first steps on land, not having a clue that one day it would become elephants and birds and people and this place called Corona Tower.

  That was just it. Garik had no clue. And now, it seemed, no one else did, either.

  “NO, NO, NO. Justin is not welcome!” Marco Lopez flicked his tail, and he grimaced. “Ow, that still hurts.”

  “Then don’t do it.” Julia cracked open a package of gum, pulled out a square, and offered it around before shrugging and returning it to a pocket.

  “It’s instinctive,” Marco moaned, holding a part of his tail that had been s
haved, a victim of Justin’s aggressive response to his impulsive scenting trick on the mall. “You tell yourself to quit blinking and see how that works.”

  “Okay. I’m part boa, and constrictors don’t have eyelids.” She smacked her gum and grinned.

  Alyna flexed her claws, chuckling, the soft sound of the knife-like keratin unsheathing and sheathing enough to run a chill down someone’s back.

  “What?” Marco glared at her. He was still bandaged in several places, and in others, his hair was only now beginning to regrow. “You see me, don’t you?” He pointed to his injuries. “Justin did this. Totally uncalled for. Fry him, that’s what I say.”

  “Enough.” Joanie stood, her mohawk towering over her. “No trust. Prove otherwise.” She pointed to the pile of mini flash drives on the table between them, one for each person present, and she pointed to Garik.

  Garik considered his response. Jantzen had started this, used him as a messenger boy. He had sent him on a mission to understand Justin, and now Garik was championing a man who had once been his opponent, if not his enemy. In Justin’s plea to help was an old connection between the two men. Garik didn’t see it, but he could see how it affected his mentor. For that alone, he was willing to do this.

  “Justin’s changing—”

  The room exploded. “Tell us something new.” “Like everyone.” “As if we aren’t.” “He knew what he signed on for.” “Deal with it.”

  Garik gave it a moment to settle. “This is different. I don’t think he will mind me telling, but you do realize mantises can fly?”

  “I can shoot boiling water.” Paolo held up one hand, showing his fingertips. “Any takers?”

  Garik restarted. “Justin has boil-like places on his back. He tells me they are developing into wings. And his arms, if you haven’t noticed, no longer look human.”

  When eyes turned toward Marco, he held up his hands and said, “What? I’m human where it counts.” He made a fist and hit it twice on his chest.

  Garik continued, “I’m learning each of us has been hybridized for a specific characteristic. I learned Justin’s when I visited him. Before, I thought, mantis? What’s that got that anyone would want? Sure, his arms are lightning fast, but people can see that coming. Justin said they really wanted him for his lack of fear at a bigger opponent. Nothing frightens him.”

  “He frightens me,” Leigh whispered.

  “And me,” chimed in Giselle.

  “See? Justin knows he’s on the way out, and Christian—” everyone nodded in agreement “—and you, Marco—” bringing a frown from the man “—and who knows who else? Justin knows his anger issues, the changes he’s been trying to hide the past months. That’s why he made the recordings. He wants to be included, and that’s the only way he knew to tell us.”

  “Appreciated.” Joanie nodded at Garik, thanking him. “Anyone else?”

  “If he’s already on Level 5, how can he help?” Laura.

  “Understood—” Joanie started, when Julia pointed her head at the door and froze. “Julia? A problem?”

  “The door. Someone with bad news.”

  “Bad news?” Garik whispered to Paolo. “She can tell that?”

  “Infrared. Stress elevates the body temperature.”

  The door shuddered, the knob rattled, and then it swung wide. John Carter fell into the room, with Amy Howe behind him. Panic painted his face.

  “John?” Joanie invited him to share.

  “It’s Christian.” John crumpled. Amy patted the side of his face.

  “Your blood, John. Chill yourself down. You’ve allowed yourself to overheat.” Looking around, she shrugged. “You didn’t expect me, did you?”

  “Obviously.” Alyna’s claws were out. “What do you know?”

  “More than I’ve told. I want in, too.”

  “First, Christian.” The one word was all Joanie needed to say.

  “They’ve moved him—”

  “Where?” Garik’s mind skipped to every possibility. Level 5? He wasn’t there when Garik was.

  “Jantzen’s had a big showdown with Halo. It’s still going on—”

  “I knew Halo was competitive, but this?” Laura’s expression darkened, and she shivered. “Who next, us?”

  “Where’s Christian?” Garik said it louder than he intended, but it got the attention he wanted.

  “Disappeared.” John pulled himself to his feet. “He’s no longer in the facility. That’s what Jantzen and I have been doing, looking for him. When Jantzen discovered he was gone, he exploded all over Halo. Now, Weston’s in it. There’s no telling—” He took a deep breath and looked pale.

  “Suck it up, frog boy,” Amy said, patting his arm.

  Garik was stunned. This news was as bad as it could get.

  At least he hoped so.

  ― 9 ―

  I HAVE TOLD you what I require.”

  Garik caught the words, the superior lilt that could only come from one person, Halo Sunchaser.

  They weren’t directed at him, and he couldn’t see who she was speaking to, but the steel in her voice was of the tempered kind, beaten and honed to a knife-edge sharpness.

  An electrified sword-cutting edge sharpness.

  Garik shivered, glad he wasn’t in the room. He stood outside the ajar door of the facilities management offices on Basement Level 2, where he had once waited while Jantzen had cleared the calendar with Rachel Prager for Garik to spend the day with him. The long rows of closed-off windows lining the corridor suggested a warren of rooms and no telling how many employees. There was no way to know who was receiving Sunchaser’s tongue-lashing ultimatum.

  After making his escape from Joanie’s—Christian, lost!—Garik’s head had spun. The corridors had been vast, blurred transitions from non-real space to the infinity of a failure where he had stumbled while guarding someone he had committed his life to protect.

  Despair and despondency had transitioned to anger, though it was currently anger with no focus. Who did he blame? Halo Sunchaser? Marisa had worshipped her, or at least her electrified sword, and the woman had been kind enough to escort them on the beginnings of their much-anticipated tour of Corona Tower. Kevin Lee seemed to regard her as a near friend, or as much of a friend as someone as mysterious and powerful as Sunchaser could be. Garik had felt sorry for her when she had dropped everything—literally—when Weston Rodheimer had appeared at the beginning of the tour.

  Who wanted to live in that kind of fear? Garik had Arik, his aunt’s boyfriend, to contend with, so he understood.

  “Halo,” Garik recognized Rachel Prager’s bright, efficient voice, “I am certain Jantzen wishes to cooperate with you fully and without reserve. He has not been in this office today. When I hear from him, I will pass on your message.”

  “I will follow through on this, Rachel. What happened this morning was unconscionable and highly inappropriate to a person in my position. I will not have my authority undermined for the sake of a failed project participant.”

  “Halo,” another familiar voice, Weston Rodheimer, “Jantzen is not proven guilty of insubordination. He is technically your superior, so he has the right to question. We must resolve this with care.”

  “Don’t lecture me, Weston. When my parents were killed in the South Africa race riots, they died as the result of cumulative disrespect that began as a disregard for authority. Bongani hasn’t spoken to me since I left, but I accepted that insult from my brother rather than live with the racial inequities that took my parents from me. This is important to me.”

  “I understand, Halo.” Rodheimer, again. “The situation today is far different. As a senator, Bongani must keep himself separate from his sister in North America. To do otherwise is political suicide. It is why we let no one know you are a successful part of our genetic modification program. You will have a chance to prove yourself to Bongani when we are allowed to publicize our success. Jantzen’s situation is completely different. He supported Christian throughout his tran
sition and was unprepared for the unexpected departure of his longtime friend—”

  “Friend?” Sunchaser laughed bitterly. “Are you sure? I hear the tales. I suspect it was once more.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Jantzen has supported our program and been key in most of our advances. He is second in command. I will not have him undermined without just cause.”

  The door clicked, closing completely, and Garik jumped at the metallic noise, thump, thump, that told of the locking mechanism falling into place. This was not a door his passkey would open, although he wouldn’t try it even if it did.

  His disappointment not to hear more of the conversation was put aside by his confusion. He remembered how Rachel had “arranged” for Jantzen to keep him out of harm’s way after the broken mirror incident involving Devon, and he suspected she had been guarding her words with Sunchaser. She knew more than she was sharing. She had told Sunchaser that Jantzen hadn’t been in this office today, not that she didn’t know which office he might be in.

  Garik considered where his mentor might be. Facilities management wasn’t his only home base. He was a researcher and maintained offices in the research labs, and he was certain Jantzen frequented the research hospital, also, and likely had space set aside for his current projects there. Space was not at a premium in the five-story basement research complex, from what Garik could tell.

  Garik hit the heel of his palm to his forehead, whispering, “Stupid, stupid Garik. Of course.”

  He glanced down the corridor, placing the locations of the underground elevators on his mental map. The floors got smaller the farther down they went, and not every elevator accessed where he needed to be. The main elevator was five city blocks away, if he followed the contours of the city above, and he didn’t have his ZBoard with him. His apartment in Corona City was farther, and he wasn’t sure where the closest access to additional motorized transportation was located.