by Marita Smith
“I’m not leaving without Jacob,” Sara said as she began running alongside it, picking up speed. It collided with the door with a grating metallic squeal, and Sara rolled out of the way of the rebound. The monitor skittered to a stop, revealing a huge, swollen dent in the door. Catherine collected herself enough to add her shoulder when Sara hurled herself at the door in its wake. It hurt, a lot.
A broad-shouldered boy stepped out as Catherine rubbed her side, head pounding.
“About time,” Jacob said. Something burrowed into his hair, making its way toward his shoulder. Catherine could see the long, brown hair parting as it moved. Moses and the Red Sea.
“Catherine.” Ariana was at the computers, her voice strained. “I can’t figure out the locking system.”
Sara and Jacob crowded around the monitor. “Only the directors have the electronic key. And Fang,” Sara explained.
Ariana slapped the keyboard in frustration. “Great.”
“Kate?” Catherine said. “Can you hear me?”
The reply was laced with static, loud bursts of jarring noise. Catherine swore under her breath.
“Stop right there.”
Catherine spun toward the voice. Sara bristled at her side, the leopard crouching low.
“Fang,” Sara growled. Catherine’s heart stuttered in her chest as she took in the figure. Slim, dark hair, the posture of someone used to being in control. No, it can’t be. Fang stood just inside the laboratory, one hand clutching a slim metal box. She strode forward and the leopard lunged, hissing. Fang didn’t falter, just aimed the receiver as if it were a TV remote control and she was merely changing the channel. The cat fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Sara barely made it two steps before she fell to her knees, clutching her skull.
“Stop it,” Sara screamed. The cat moaned, a piteous whine that seemed to ring around the echoey space. “Please.”
Ariana snarled by Catherine’s side, and blue light flared across her limbs. It was enough to stop Fang’s advance. The woman stared at Ariana as recognition dawned on her face.
Catherine didn’t think, just charged straight at the woman. Anything to stop the screams. They slammed together with more force than Catherine had intended, sprawling to the floor in a tangle of limbs. The receiver flew from Fang’s grasp, skimming along the floor like a stone on a river.
The screaming stopped instantly, Sara’s choked breathing loud in the silence.
Catherine went for Fang’s arms, pinning them by her sides. It took all of her strength to keep them there – the woman was strong. Blood dripped from her wounds onto Fang’s face as Catherine leaned over her, light-headed with pain.
“How could you do this?” Catherine hissed, searching Fang’s face for something, anything. Fang’s eyes flicked to the gashes in Catherine’s arms and Catherine swore her gaze softened for a moment. It was short-lived. Fang rushed upward, pushing Catherine back toward the floor. She hit it with a heavy thump, the breath stripped from her lungs as their positions reversed. She gasped for air in vain.
Fang leant over her, crushing her legs. “I’m doing what any one of us would do,” she snapped, “given the chance.” Catherine winced as Fang dug a hand into the deepest cut on her forearm. It felt like being stabbed all over again. Her synapses screamed at her to get away.
Catherine heaved greedy gulps of air as she got her wind back. “I’d never hurt innocent kids,” she spluttered. “Bitch.”
Boom.
The floor rattled beneath them. Catherine craned her neck backward, following the strangled cries that rose from the semi-darkness at the back of the laboratory. The cages, she realised.
Fang’s eyes grew wide, her face filling with fear.
Catherine squeezed her eyes shut as the flash of red light descended, blinding even behind her eyelids, and Fang’s weight disappeared.
Shielding her eyes, Catherine brought herself to her knees. Birds swirled in the air around an enormous osprey wreathed in a red orb of light, tendrils flickering outward to rake the cages. Popping noises rippled around the room as cages were thrust open and animals poured out. Big ones. Catherine clung to a wall as a wolf raced past. The grating chorus of animal calls crescendoed.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Ariana yelled over the rushing wind above them, her hair billowing. “Catherine, come on.”
The red light kept spreading. Catherine looked for Fang, but she was gone. Eli stood below the osprey, arms wide as if in a trance.
“Hold on to something,” Ariana roared.
Catherine’s hand scuttled across the surface of a cage and gripped it. A red pulse of light exploded from Eli and rocketed outward like a nuclear explosion, collecting the walls with it. The cages strained but held as the hurricane of debris rained down. Chunks of concrete smashed onto the floor and sparks flew in the air above her. Catherine narrowed her eyes as Ariana’s familiar blue aura fell over her, covering them both in a sphere of light.
“Ariana?” Catherine yelled over the terrible noise of scraping concrete. A huge chunk of the roof dislodged, buckling the steel beam supporting it.
Ariana extended the blue sphere outward, encapsulating Sara and Jacob who were clinging to cages further down the remains of the wall.
The concrete screeched as it broke free of the steel, tumbling down end-over-end. Catherine gritted her teeth, memories flashing before her eyes. Her parents. Sophie. Robyn. Robyn?
Thwack. The wedge of concrete connected with the orb of blue light, but the sphere held. Catherine stared as it grated against the energy field, sliding off to pound into the ground. Catherine’s whole body shook. Alive. I’m alive.
The blue light shimmered and disappeared, leaving Ariana gasping by her side. Dust rose in thick clouds from the crater in the floor where the concrete had settled. Ariana had stopped the concrete panel.
The floating red orb in the centre retracted in a rush, and Eli fell to his knees. The spirit-osprey glided full-tilt toward Eli’s head. Catherine blinked as the bird transformed back and perched on Eli’s shoulder. Blood dribbled from where the bird’s talons dug into flesh.
Eli didn’t seem to notice. “Sara?” he called.
Jacob crawled out of a cage further down the line, coughing. A pile of metal and dry wall shifted, and Sara wriggled out holding her right arm, her leopard behind her. They were all alive.
“Jesus,” Sara said. Catherine took it all in. The laboratory had been annihilated. Everything bar the cages had simply been swept up, crushed, and blown aside. Catherine unfurled her fingers one by one from the cold metal of the cage. Every part of her ached.
Ariana clutched Eli’s arm as he swayed, the osprey on his shoulder drooping.
“I’ve got him,” Ariana said, taking the brunt of Eli’s small frame on her shoulder.
Catherine nodded. Now it was time to go.
Fang emerged from the wreckage, shirt ripped and smeared with grease and blood. She wasn’t sure what proportion was hers or Catherine’s. Nor was she entirely certain how she’d gotten clear. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, Fang swept her hair back up into its regular efficient ponytail and assessed the damage. She’d never realised the subjects had the capacity for this. And Catherine – she’d been a surprise. Fang wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but somehow she’d associated Deckker with a flippant, pliable researcher – not the woman who’d nearly gotten the better of her. Damn it.
Maybe Miranda was right. There was more to this than genetics. Fang shook her head, remembering the blue light shimmering across the girl’s skin. The third. The girl from the drawing from that temple. Miranda would know what to do.
The insistent beeping of her radio interrupted her thoughts. It garbled at her when she raised it to her ear. Fang listened to the scientist’s stammer for a heartbeat and cut across his hysterics as he paused to draw breath.
“Get Mira
nda, secure the perimeter.” Fang clicked the receiver and shut him off. The building behind her creaked, and another panel of concrete slid to the ground in a thundering crash.
Flames illuminated two scientists picking their way through the debris toward her.
“Fang, we’ve had some losses. Hawkins, Andrews … the Chief.”
“What?”
The scientist faltered. “Fang, she didn’t make it. There’s no sign of her.”
His voice seemed to come from a great distance, fuzzy and weak. Fang blinked. No, Miranda couldn’t be gone. Miranda was everything.
Fang closed her eyes. “Solidify the perimeter. Nobody goes in or out for the next twelve hours.” What else would Miranda do? “Get someone on to the press – underground gas explosion, a tragedy. All students killed.”
The first scientist nodded and skidded back into the debris field.
Fang turned to the second scientist, a blonde woman with a bad gash in her thigh.
“Salvage what you can. Lab fridge first, then files. We’ll move to the secondary location.” The woman limped off. Fang called after her, “And make sure you get that leg seen to.” The woman stopped and nodded before turning back to the charred concrete. Fang watched her disappear beyond the flames before sinking to the ground and bringing her knees up to her chest.
Catherine swore under her breath. The streets were empty for now, but soon the sun would be up. Her earbud was dead, useless. Catherine dug her phone out of her jacket, relieved to see the screen flash to life.
“Where the hell are you?” Kate screeched.
“Change of plan.” Catherine sized up the group behind her. “Two ring-ins, and Eli.”
“Jesus.”
Catherine heard static as the phone was jostled. She recognised Bohai’s voice.
“My father has a warehouse we can use. We’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.”
Catherine peered at the texted address.
“Okay. Everyone, this way.”
The unusual group picked up speed.
Catherine wheeled the bike into the lot of industrial buildings, motioning the others past her into the cavernous warehouse. She cut the engine and brought the roller door down behind them. They were safe, for now. She yanked off her helmet, surprised at how calm she felt, knowing that the moment she stopped, the adrenaline would wear off and panic would catch up with her. Fight or flight.
Kate sat hunched over a jacked-up laptop on top of a pile of boxes. Spotting Catherine she jumped down, computer under her arm.
“Holy shit, Catherine, are you okay?”
Catherine brought a hand up to her throbbing temples. Her fingers came away dark and sticky. Oh.
“I’m fine for now. We really need to keep moving,” she said hoping her voice carried the conviction she didn’t quite feel.
Kate nodded, waving the laptop. “I’m on it.” She sank down to the floor and plunged straight back into the online world.
“Is everyone okay?” Catherine ignored the pain that was finally creeping up on her. Jacob heaved for breath, hands on his knees. Sara leaned over to rub circles into his back.
“Yeah.” Jacob straightened.
Eli and Ariana sat slumped against a wall of boxes. Nodding, Eli listened as Ariana spoke in a breathless rush.
Catherine cast her eyes back to Jacob’s hair. She could have sworn she’d seen something move again.
“Jacob, do you have a partner animal?” she said.
Jacob beamed. “Poppy.” He held out a hand, and something tiny flew out of his hair and cruised onto his outstretched palm. A bee, Catherine realised, jaw dropping.
As if sensing her next question, Sara added, “We kept her secret from Fang.”
Jacob frowned at Eli. “We tried to warn you, didn’t you hear her?”
Eli stopped talking to Ariana and looked up at Jacob, at the bee twirling on his hand. His mouth puckered into a little ‘o’ of understanding.
“Excellent,” Kate muttered to herself. “We have to leave now. A ship departs within the hour.”
Bohai yanked a dusty white sheet from a panel van speckled with dents.
“Count me in,” said Sara, heaving the sliding door open. “Anywhere that isn’t that place is fine by me.”
Catherine pulled herself into the front and rested her head on the seat. Her skull pounded and she felt woozy. Gritting her teeth, she dug her hands into the seat, willing herself to stay conscious. She was not going to pass out.
The streets were already lightening by the time Catherine caught a whiff of briny air. Bohai slowed as they pulled into the harbour, streetlights blurred by the smog.
“Three months,” said Sara in the back. “We’ve been there for three months, hooked up to their drugs.” She shivered in her seat, wrapping her arms around herself.
“We were the only ones who survived the treatments,” Jacob added, looking out the window into the dawn haze.
Treatments. “Fang. Fang did this?” Catherine’s stomach clenched as she remembered the receiver Fang had used on Sara. She turned in the passenger seat, ignoring the stab of pain in her neck.
“Sara. How did she stop your leopard?”
Sara shifted, exposing her neck. A red gash ran down the base of her skull around a metal box.
“The implant,” she said. “Both me and Ming have them.”
“Ming?”
Sara stroked her cat. “Yeah, her name’s Ming.” The cat purred under Sara’s hand. “So we did what they wanted us to do.”
Jacob shook his head when Catherine’s gaze landed on him. “Not me. They thought I was dead weight, not dangerous enough to need a tag.”
Eli coughed and cleared his throat. “I’ve got one.”
He was so small, Catherine thought. Caramel-dark skin, narrow eyes. Catherine flicked her eyes from Eli to Sara again. They were her responsibility now.
“You two, though; wow, that was some light show back there,” said Sara. “Do you think me and Jacob could learn how to do that?”
It was false bravado, Catherine thought, but it made her instantly like the girl.
Ariana and Eli shared a glance. “I’m not really sure,” Ariana managed.
Catherine willed her eyes to stay open. She had to get this strange little family home.
21
Mutation
Terence flicked the switch by the door and a bank of fluorescent tubes staggered on, revealing the clinical space. Robyn stared. The lab. Their lab. A long row of fume hoods and parallel benches ran down one half, and the other side branched into a series of glass-walled rooms. Derek nearly skipped toward the first room.
“Liquid and gas chromatographs, and a DNA sequencer,” Derek breathed, sticking his head back around the door. “Brand new, by the looks of them. Holy shit.”
Robyn ran her eyes over the contents of the next partition. Gel electrophoresis equipment, centrifuge, mini-autoclave. She opened the fridge and fingered through the stack of reagents, most of them not even opened. This was way beyond the scope of her lab back at the university, and Robyn couldn’t hold in a small burst of hope. She itched to be doing something, to be contributing. Kate was right. They had been going a little stir-crazy at the farm, though she still wouldn’t go so far as to call it moping.
“This is incredible,” Derek said, spinning in a lab chair, arms above his head like a little kid. Robyn smiled as she emerged back into the main lab. Dumping the cooler on the bench, Terence pulled out a rack of vials. The blood sloshed with the movement. Four vials: two walkers, two animal partners.
“So, where do we start?” Terence said.
Robyn pulled her notebook from her backpack and clicked her pen open. “I have a few ideas.”
They fell into an easy rhythm. Robyn preferred working with the data peaks of the chromatograms; Terence d
ived straight into the genetic sequencing and Derek shut himself away with the bacterial library he found in the fridge.
Robyn was propelled by the excitement she always felt at the beginning of a new project; everything a possibility, nothing a certainty. It was as intoxicating as a drug. When Terence tapped on the door of the machine room with a sandwich in one hand, she jumped.
“Jeez, you scared me.”
Terence pointed to the clock on the wall. It was well after 4pm. How did it get so late?
“Lunch?”
Robyn’s stomach growled. “Yeah.”
Terence pushed through a swinging door at the end of the lab that led into another corridor. Rooms branched off either side.
“There’s more?” Robyn peered through the internal windows. Beds on one side, an industrial-looking kitchen on the other. Derek waved from a stainless-steel counter with a sandwich.
“Yeah. I guess we were blindsided by the lab, but there’s a whole wing for staff and the kitchen. There’s even some outside space.” Terence held the door open for her. It was like stepping into the bowels of a restaurant. A huge fridge hummed in the corner where Derek sat at the long counter. He tapped the empty stool next to him. Terence sat on her other side, handing her a paper-wrapped sandwich from a cooler. Robyn eyed it with suspicion.
Terence smiled. “Different cooler, I promise.”
The sandwich was good – marinated eggplant, feta and rocket. “Did you make this?” Robyn asked over her mouthful. “It’s amazing.”
Terence nodded, cheeks tinged pink. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I could almost live here,” said Derek, finishing his own sandwich.
Robyn chewed thoughtfully. It really did have everything they needed.
“As long as Terence cooks,” Robyn said.
“Deal,” chuckled Terence.
“Plus we’ll get coffee,” Robyn promised.
Derek smiled over his mouthful. “Great. When can I move in?”
They went to bed late, and even though she was exhausted, Robyn lay awake. The air felt heavy and her mind refused to slow down. She crept out into the corridor, closing the door with a soft click behind her. Derek and Terence were in the room next door; Robyn peered through the internal window at the slumped figures. One like a brother, the other … Robyn shook her head and followed the lights set into the edges of the floor back to the lab, which purred with machinery. She wasn’t sure what Derek was to her.