Decisions

by Mel Todd

  The last few times they’d talked there hadn’t been any mention of shifters and she figured Helena had calmed down. Maybe they could talk about it, maybe. It still felt like her secret and honestly, she enjoyed keeping it to herself.

  Heading home she grabbed Thai food to go, ate and collapsed. Exhaustion weighed at her and she enjoyed the peaceful sleep knowing she’d done everything she could do to pull this off. At this point it had moved out of her hands. Besides, she’d missed her sister.

  8

  Dreams

  McKenna Largo is in the news again as the hunt for her and the missing children is still underway. A reward is being offered for any information leading to her or the children’s whereabouts. As you know one officer was killed during the kidnapping. The memorial for that officer is being held tomorrow and is closed to the public. The family is requesting donations in her name be made to the Police Assistance Fund. ~KWAK News

  The lab gleamed around her, and she tried to focus on figuring out where she stood. This lab she didn't recognize. In fact, she didn’t recognize most of the equipment that surrounded her. It sparkled and shined in the way she’d only seen clean labs shine. The ones where humans never entered much less dust. Even as she tried to turn her head, the body moved. Cass squeaked, but the body made no sound, It didn't react at all and she couldn't hear her own squeak., she. Her body didn’t react and she didn’t hear anything.

  What by all the sciences? Where am I? What the hell is going on?

  Feeling like she’d fallen into the rabbit hole she choked as she saw a hand move in front of her vision, humanoid but with fur and claws.

  Odd the fur is the same color as I think mine is, maybe.

  She tried to turn her head, but her vision remained locked on the machine keyboard that she typed on.

  Okay this is very surreal, a dream where I can’t control the dream? Huh.

  Her analytical mind kicked in and she stopped trying to control anything, but instead paid attention. Her dream self, assuming this was a dream because assuming anything else at this point would make her panic, typed on the controls and Cass focused on the machine. It didn’t look like anything she’d seen before, words and symbols she didn’t recognize, but somehow understood. Numbers were listed on a keyboard with other symbols she recognized as letters, but they didn’t match up to the English ones she knew.

  "Prepare two hundred hands of Kaylid for decanting." a voice said. Cass blinked when she processed the fact it wasn’t in English but she understood it anyhow. The body she was in seemed to sigh and her head dipped a bit.

  "Acknowledged. Running viability checks now." More keys were pressed, and bodies eyes glanced at the screen looking at the information scrolling across the large screen in black boxes on a light gray background. Each box held a thumbnail image, but it didn’t make sense to her eyes, then a bunch of other numbers and symbols. They moved slowly enough she could tap and acknowledge as they went past her.

  Two with the same symbol were tapped and flipped to the right removing them from the list. Even as they moved, they started to make more and more sense though the odd color combination caught her off guard. Then a box scrolled by with the symbols in red grabbed her eye and she hit a key to pause the flow of words. Tension rippled through her body even as her hand touched the icon and flipped it down to the bottom of the screen. The flow of icons stopped, and she turned to what Cass now realized was a huge transparent wall that looked into a bay holding hundreds if not thousands of large tube-like canisters. A tube moved through the hundreds of other canisters though she couldn’t focus enough on it to see how it moved. It stopped directly in front of the window, a figure floated it in, hanging like a puppet with all the strings cut. She couldn’t make out the figure other than humanoid, arms and legs.

  The body sighed, and she wished fiercely she could figure out what the body she rode thought.

  When did I stop thinking this was a dream?

  Information appeared on the transparent wall and the person tapped it, highlighted something then sighed. With a swipe to down again the canister moved all the way over to the right and it was released.

  Wait, stop!

  She didn’t know why she wanted to grab it to stop it from going where it went. The icon flashed red, then dissolved into pixels and the body went back to scrolling through the icons.

  Cass awoke with a sob in her throat. She didn’t know how she knew or what that was, but she knew the being in that container had been killed. Though the impression that came through was ‘disposed of’ and not enough emotion to make it murder.

  "I’ve never had a dream like that. It felt so real. Heck, I don’t even watch sci-fi." The sound of her voice in the early morning light made her feel a little more anchored into this world, weird as it was, it didn’t have spaceships or aliens. That made her pause.

  Why did I think it was a spaceship and aliens?

  She shook her head, shut off the alarm which would have gone off in a half hour anyhow, and headed for the shower, she had kids to torture and a sister to rescue.

  On the drive down to her sisters she listened in horror to the news and that yesterday the cop had been kidnapped with a bunch of kids that could all shift, plus another cop killed.

  She had to pull over at a gas station and get a large coffee to wash the bile out of her mouth.

  I can’t tell anyone. No one can ever know. I don’t want to be put at risk. I can’t put others at risk like that.

  She knew that this cop hadn’t chosen to tell anyone, but it didn’t change her determination to never let anyone know. Getting back on the road she listened to all the news stories but there was nothing else available. Finally, because otherwise she’d show up at Helena’s in tears, she flipped it to the music on her phone and let the beats wash away everything.

  Pulling into the drive at Helena’s she had the odd dichotomy again as she looked at the house. Elegant, but warm, it screamed money and taste. Helena, eighteen months older, fell into everything with ease. Meeting her husband Oswald on a trip to Norway after she’d graduated college, he’d fallen head over heels for her. He then immigrated to America and created a very profitable ecologically friendly solar charging company. He’d already filed the patents before he met her and decided that America needed to get more into the solar arena. Working out of the Sacramento valley he had easy access to sunshine, smart people and easy trade via the port of San Francisco. It would be so easy to hate them for their easy success. But she knew they'd worked hard for what they had.

  Helena had a Bachelor’s in Chemistry but had no desire to work in that field. Instead she’d set up an event planning business, and it had exploded. Both of them made good money, gave back to the community, loved their kids, and made Cass feel wholly like a failure. Even with a PhD, she lived in an apartment, owned nothing (except school loans), and had no social life. But she did love what she did, so she’d have to settle for that.

  As she got out of the car, she grabbed her over-night bag and headed up the drive. Before she got there, the door flew open and two kids, honey blond hair, shorts, and t-shirts in neon colors came rushing out.

  "Aunt Cass! Aunt Cass! You came to see us?"

  She didn’t have time to get a word out before both kids had their arms around her, squeezing tight. It went a long way towards washing the stress of the week off her soul and she dropped her bag wrapping arms around them.

  "Yes, I did. I missed you both." She looked up to see Helena leaning in the doorway looking at them a soft smile on her face. Once again Cass was struck with a bit of envy. Where her own hair appeared medium brown, Helena’s had red highlights that washed through it. Cass’s short compact gymnast body had morphed into a petite Venus in Helena, all curves and sweetness. With he addition of the two extra inches Cass so desperately missed sometimes, Helena appeared sweet, generous, loving, and “mom next door” sexy. Granted she was all of those things. She also had an iron will, never forgot a slight, and had a mind that could
track people's likes and dislikes without effort. And she loved without restraint.

  "Missed you." Helena said as Cass made her way up the sidewalk. The two kids grabbed their aunt's bag and were lugging it in. She pulled Cass into a hug and she sunk into it, welcoming the love, and pushing her secrets down where no one would ever know.

  "Me too. So, what tortures do you have in store for me?" The running joke was Helena always trying to get Cass to style her hair, wear make-up and more flattering clothes while Cass never paid enough attention to remember how to do it when she got home.

  "None." At Cass’s arch look she laughed. "Really. I’m swamped, Oswald is swamped, and the kids are driving me crazy. So glad summer camp starts next week. Two weeks to get stuff done. You can have anything you want. I have your favorite wine, your room is the same as always, just please go do something with the kids." She pointed to an envelope on the entryway table. "Two hundred cash, plus season tickets to Great America. Just keep them."

  Cass started laughing. "Good thing I got here early. Fine, fine. Let me get into some shorts. I'll borrow one of your travel packs and your keys, and we'll be gone."

  "Bless you." The words were said with heartfelt reverence and Cass laughed. Thirty minutes later the kids were packed up. Much to their enjoyment they headed to a day of sun, too much sugar, and amusement park rides.

  9

  Threats

  This week on Dr. Phil: Does being a shifter unlock different parts of your brain? Dr. Phil has three shifters who have all had strange dreams about ships, working in groups with other shifters in weird forms, and a combined feeling it is real. Are they tapping into each other's minds creating these dreams, or are these dreams being implanted by aliens like some believe? Turn into Dr. Phil this week and see his take on this strange turn of events. ~ TV Ad

  The weekend restored her spirits and rejuvenated her mind. She left among many hugs and kisses from Troy and Laila and big hugs from Helena and Oswald, but she was ready to go home. As awesome as the kids were, they were a different type of exhausting.

  The visit had been great and other than expressing horror about the tragedy about the missing kids, they didn’t talk about shifters at all which made her feel a bit better. But she didn’t mention her ability, still too worried, too raw to even consider it.

  Construction caused the drive to be a longer than normal so she listened to music and wondered what else would be on her schedule for tomorrow. Chuck would have something to say about her vacation day but she had lots she rarely used so he wouldn’t say much besides making her feel small. The ringing of the phone surprised her, and she glanced at it. The caller ID displayed unknown, so she declined it and continued driving. The ringing disappeared and no voicemail appeared so she shrugged

  Figured, I hate spam phone calls.

  A minute later she received a video message from a number that simply it displayed 0101. When she pulled into her driveway, she looked at it, frowning.

  No one sent her video messages. Aside from doing video calls with the kids she never used video messaging. Cass saw no need. Beside her social life began and ended with Helena.

  Shrugging, she clicked it and it started to play, a figure in a dark room speaking.

  "Cassandra Borden. You are not very good at getting clues. When your request was rejected that should have been your first clue. When your supervisor so nicely informed you of reality that should have been your second clue. Instead you published, in not just one but three different journals your findings. Let me make this clear. If you do not retract your articles and claim you falsified the data, you will regret it for what is left of your life. You’ve been warned. I only make one warning and you won't like the consequences if you do not do as I say." With that it went black with the play triangle imposed on top of it.

  The speakers voice had been digitized and warbled. It wasn’t until the last bit played out that it registered exactly what the message meant. Her heart froze in her chest and she blinked at it feeling a wave of nausea and dizziness wash over her.

  Cass clicked it again and it played again. She just sat there her mouth full of the taste of bile.

  "Did I just get a death threat? Over lichen?"

  With a hand she fought to not let shake, she set the phone down looking at it like it might explode on her.

  Cass forced her mind into order and started to create a plan. "First, call the cops and show them. File and get someone to talk to people at work. The police will help and know how to track this. Then I need to let corporate know. They will not be happy about having their research threatened." She reached for the phone, and then watched in disbelief as the video sitting on her screen, collapsed into pixels and disappeared from her phone, then the message header did the same. The strange similarity to this and the dream had chills running up and down her spine.

  Cass grabbed her phone and searched, but there was no evidence that anyone had ever sent her anything and with that gone the cops would never believe her. She sat in her car and just stared at the phone, unsure what to do.

  Finally, Cass shook herself, she wouldn't find any answers sitting in the car just staring at the phone. She slipped it into her purse, grabbed her overnight bag and headed to her apartment. Her locked door made her feel better until she unlocked and pushed it open and came to a halt just inside her doorway.

  Cass didn't regard herself as OCD, not quite. But she liked having everything just so, it made life easier to know where everything was, and everything in her place was just off. Nothing major, nothing most people would have noticed if she hadn't done a quick clean before she left. And the cologne? She closed her eyes and inhaled, yes there it was, a spicy male cologne, one she didn't remember smelling, and she knew she hadn't had anyone in her apartment for ages.

  Huh, so my ability to smell as a human has been enhanced too.

  Part of her mourned the fact she didn't have any baselines to do experiments against, but the bigger part of her tried very hard to not freak out at the idea of someone being in her place. Just to be sure she walked through the entire place quietly, and the scent followed everywhere.

  Think logically, someone was in here. Why would that happen? Logical, not a conspiracy theory.

  She pulled open her phone and called the front office. The property she lived in had a rental office open seven days a week, except holidays.

  After identifying herself, she asked the questions. "Hey, I was gone for a few days, do you know if anyone had to come into my place for a maintenance item?"

  "Let me check, Ms. Borden." Sound of pages being flipped in the background before the person came back on line. "Nope, nothing dispatched. Is something wrong? Do I need to schedule one?"

  "No, just double checking. Thanks." She hung up before any more questions could be asked and stood there biting her lip.

  You've eliminated one logical option. Any others?

  Helena was the only person with a key and she knew where she'd been for the last few days. There had been no mention of a break in, and her key ring had been what Cass used to drive the car to the amusement park. So that key hadn't been stolen.

  That leaves the conspiracy theories and gives credence to the idea that whoever was in here also sent me that video. But what were they looking for here? All my data is also at the lab and secure.

  That thought had her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She headed to her computer, looking carefully at her desk. Sure enough, all her stuff had just slightly been moved, including her wolverine journal. With quick keystrokes she pulled up her personal files, everything on the lichen experiments were gone. Deleted. Growling she pushed that to the side as she logged into the work system and pulled up her files.

  "Son of a bitch. I don't think–" she cut the words off and sank back in her chair. "I need to think about this." All her data she'd loaded had been removed, and it looked like it was just missing. The odds were if she put it back up Sunday, they would pull it tomorrow. There were ways around this process. Normall
y she'd have shrugged, sent an email with the data attached and moved on. But in this case that might not suffice.

  How badly do I want to push this? What can be so important to make them call and threaten me? I'm pretty sure they searched my apartment, hacked my computer, and removed my files.

  Cass stared at the wall, her mind spinning. It wasn’t the data she was worried about. Her computer backed up nightly to a secure cloud storage server that had a Remote Secure Access token to get into. You didn't mess around with experimental data, it could be worth millions sometimes. She also had another secure server that she uploaded her work data to which was also locked under another authenticating token. That one the company also had access to. The application to delay construction was public, so altering that wouldn't have been that hard.

  "It's a bloody construction project, dammit. Why should they care about a delay of months to a few years? Lichen is easily transplanted once you identify the environmental concerns. Ah, journal articles. They couldn't get those back. Wonder if I would have noticed they removed the information if not for that message."

  She paced around her living room as she thought, but the more she thought the madder she got. Finally, she threw herself back down in her office chair and grabbed her phone.

  Bring it assholes. No one messes with my data.

  It took her twenty minutes, but she reattached the files. Then she emailed the reviewing committee with the explanation of a technical glitch when attaching files, and here was the documentation if needed for any reason.

  She then sent another email to each of the journals she'd submitted to and provided the research. Because the patents were already filed, her Demeter, LTD would make the money on anything that came from her research but the bonuses were nice if anything made big money.

  Whatever, the die was cast and she'd stick to her guns. Looking around her house she sighed. It looked clean, but she could feel and smell, the presence of whomever had been in here all over her house. With a frustrated grunt, she started cleaning and removing the trace of who had been there even as the video replayed in the back of her mind.