Saturday, three weeks after the trip to the mall, Collin was pushing his way through the brush behind the cathedral again. Shelby had called his cell phone a few days before. They had made arrangements to meet inside the woods near the dormitory. Shelby was worried about her friend Ellen. She had asked permission to go on a date with her boyfriend Jason and had not returned to the dormitory. Plus Doctor Phelps who was the director of the Gene Search project had a meeting with the girls and told them it was almost time to start the second phase of the project. He implied that the girls would be moving from their dorm rooms. In fact they would be moving to a tropical island. Collin was surprised that the girls were being taken out of the country but it made sense. In a foreign country the girls would be easier to control and the laws about genetically altering human embryos might not be so stringent or at least not vigorously enforced against an American company.
Collin had gotten through the thickest part of the brush and was hurrying to make his rendezvous before Shelby got caught outside the dormitory again. As he approached the edge of the woods he saw a guard walking slowly past on the inside of the compound near the tree line. Collin continued to watch the guard from his hiding spot inside the trees. As the figure of the guard retreated away from him and the dormitory, Collin saw Shelby come out from the side of the dormitory and run toward the woods. He watched her and looked around to see if she we being observed by anyone else. She entered the woods and ducked down behind a fallen tree stump. She was looking back to see if she were being followed. It did not appear that she had been.
Shelby looked around the area of the woods near the tree stump where she was hiding. As she looked in Collin’s direction he gave a slow wave. She was visibly startled then she moved toward him keeping low and walking carefully to be as quiet as possible. Collin joined her and they carefully walked side by side further into the woods and away from the dorm. When they were what they hoped was a safe distance Collin found an area with a large fallen tree where they both sat (after Collin checked for snakes). Hoping their voices wouldn’t carry through the trees Collin quietly asked Shelby if she were indeed Shelby Radcliff.
Shelby said, “Yes. How do you know my name?”
Collin answered, “Your aunt and uncle, the Maxwells, hired me to find out if you were all right.”
“Marvin and Maggie Maxwell?”
“Yes.”
“They aren’t actually my aunt and uncle, though they might describe themselves that way. They are members of my Mom’s church and they share the holidays with us as I haven’t got a father and they haven’t any children.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. My dad died when I was little. Do you mind if I ask what happened to yours?”
“I don’t know. My Mom won’t talk about him and I don’t know of any other relatives to ask.”
“Well. They hired me, as I said, to find out if you were all right. They said you ran away from home but your mother wouldn’t agree to have someone look for you.”
“That’s silly! I call my Mom all the time. She and I discussed my joining Gene Search before I did so. She doesn’t have the money to give me for a good college so this would be a way to achieve that goal.”
“Maybe she didn’t tell them all of that. In any case I guess they were worried. By the way did your friend Ellen come back?”
“No. Doctor Phelps says she is already at the island where we all are going soon.”
“Look, I’m a little concerned for you girls. Do you know what the second phase of the project entails?”
Shelby blushed. Then she replied, “We all get pregnant.”
“Pregnant?”
“Yeah, the whole idea is to help out these families that have genetic defects that run in their families and so their children would have the defects if they got pregnant the real way. The babies aren’t really ours either. They take the parent’s DNA and fix it so the defect is gone. Then we get, you know, implanted and when the baby is born they get the baby and we get the million bucks and go back to our normal lives. It will require that I give up over a year of my life to the project but then I’ll have enough money to go to college and get my life started.”
Collin could see the appeal of the project as Shelby described it. He asked her, “So you are willing to go through with the project?”
“Yes.”
“Could I get you to keep me informed of where you are going and what is happening, just in case?”
“Well, I don’t want to get in trouble and risk getting bumped from the project and besides, I don’t know where we are going.”
“Could I get you to carry this little device with you? It is a Global Positioning Device that will let me track your whereabouts by satellite uplink.”
“I guess, as long as nobody knows about it.”
“Nobody will know but me. I would just like to know where you all go, just in case. You’ll also have my phone number if you get a chance to call me, right?”
“Okay, but please don’t tell the Maxwells that I’ve left the country. Just tell them you found me and I’m all right.”
“Yes. I can do that.”
“I better get back now. It will be time for aerobics. We all want to stay in good shape for the duration.”
“I’ll walk with you back to the edge of the woods.”
Collin and Shelby quietly walked back to the edge of the woods. No guards were in sight as Shelby walked quickly to the dormitory.
As Shelby described the Gene Search project it didn’t sound so horrible. Not like when he read the proposal about the genetically altered embryos and carrier females. It was the same idea, it just sounded better when she said it. Collin pondered all of this as he walked back to his car parked at the cathedral.
In the three weeks since the trip to the mall Lily had been very busy at work. Collin had wanted to have her look at the Gene Search proposal but she had not been in a good mood so he had not shown it to her. Now he figured he probably wouldn’t. With the project moving out of the country and Shelby’s description of her involvement Collin figured his assignment was coming to an end. He would write up a conclusion for the Maxwells leaving out the details of the Gene Search project and that Shelby was taking a trip out of the USA. Then he’d get paid for the second time in less than two months!
Chapter Fourteen
Gene Search: A Collin Carter Mystery Page 13