Mercy hesitated, considered all options, and took a leap of faith. ‘I think I’ve seen one.’
Chase stared at her without reaction, which unnerved her.
She continued hurriedly, ‘It visited my apartment last night. I think it was a human-avian hybrid. It had wings, a beak and four large hooked claws instead of nails on her feet. But otherwise, she had a distinctly human skeleton.’ Mercy’s speech quickened; she tried to hold her voice down. ‘The child sang to me – well, whistling, like a bird, in response to questions.’
‘Impossible,’ Chase abruptly closed any possibility for consideration. ‘Look, I think I know what’s happening. When hybrids first entered society, no longer just an experiment in a lab, some people reported being stalked – hybrids trying to kill them. The claims were always proven to be false, even though they insisted the events and animals were real. The hallucinations are a psychosis born from a human prey instinct to protect oneself. It’s not uncommon in the beginning, when you first experience Chimeras, to have trouble making sense of them. You must have imagined the creature.’
Mercy felt a wave of relief hearing Chase’s logical explanation. Yes, of course. It was just a dream. And maybe she had misheard the hooded stranger as well. Danger? No, no danger, after all.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Mercy awoke excited, after a strong start to the research project, having a full day to explore the Green Belt. They would start the trip to the Belt by flying up to the Northern mountains, heading down the valley and have a late lunch in a wild grass prairie on the edge of a pine forest.
Punctually at nine o’clock, she arrived at the docking bay. Chase and Joan were waiting for her. They climbed into the ship and started at once.
Immediately outside the city’s northern wall, successive rows of vegetable and fruit crops stretched for miles. Large drone farming machines steadily moved up and down the patchwork of lush orchards and abundant crops while farmworkers in sterilized yellow uniforms watched over the constant harvest.
Within the hour they had passed over the Agricultural Zone and entered the high plains, an unending expanse of flat earth covered in prairie, steppe and grasslands. Herds of buffalo, deer and wild horses slowly migrated south, their well-worn trails like black tendrils stretching out and twining across the earth.
By noon the flat prairies had broken into undulating black hills covered in dense pine forests like a shadow cast over the land. Mountain rivers cut through the canopy, their white rapids raging down steep banked valleys, bubbling over rocky beds.
Less than an hour further north, after passing over a wildflower valley, they finally arrived at a glacial mountain range. A towering spine of snow-capped peaks pushed up from the horizon. Puff pastry white clouds glided along the sharp razor edge of black rock, creating a parade of nebulous shapes on a conveyor belt of wind. Mercy fell back into her chair in awe and delight at the majestic views.
Jane came to a hover beside a thundering waterfall, cut deep into the mountainside. Torrents of white water cascaded down the rocky gorge, so loud they could hardly hear their breathing. Drawing closer, they entered the clouds of vapour that hung over the swirling pool where the vertical river crashed into the ground. Water washed over their heads and down the sides of the ship like sitting under an invisible umbrella. At the edge of the pool, the ice-cold snowmelt narrowed into the start of a roaring river, carving down the foothills until disappearing into a forested valley.
Joan turned the ship back in the direction they had arrived and followed the river down to the forest’s edge. She landed near the river’s pebbled shoreline where they would have lunch.
Outside, the damp air of the mountain’s breath brushed against Mercy. Her face glowed with pleasure. The soft sounds of the burbling stream drew her in. She bent and put a hand in the freezing water and smiled. Spontaneously, she removed her shoes and walked ankle-deep into the shallows; pimpled flesh lined her cold legs as her bare feet pressed into the silky soft sand. Reaching down, she scooped the spring waters up and splashed her face, laughing at the pleasure of prickling needles along her cheeks.
To excited to eat, Mercy convinced Joan and Chase to start with a hike. Strolling along the riverbank Chase described the plants and creatures of the valley with great enthusiasm: grasses, wildflowers, insects, rodents, predators and prey.
Mercy had an insatiable desire to touch and smell everything. She felt they were moving too quickly. She asked if she could continue as they prepared lunch. Joan reluctantly agreed.
Mercy walked for some way into the forest, eager to stand below the treetops. Joan and Chase’s voices faded, replaced by the trills and tweets of mountain birds. Dappled sunlight danced on the forest floor, and the world around her grew thick with woods, bushes and ferns.
The sudden solitude excited her senses and sent her mind racing with imaginings. She felt savage. A brisk movement behind a low-lying tree could be a wolf. The crack of a dry branch could be a bear hunting. Each imagined threat raised the drumbeat of her heart so loud she almost missed the warning hum of a coming Solar Wave.
Her ears tickled. Suddenly hidden animals from every direction broke out in concert, hooting, thrumming, chirping and buzzing in anticipation. The forest animals sang for the sunshine, and it was delivered in a flash of white light raining down on the canopy, combing through the pine trees, brushing over the ferns and fungi, and chasing the shadows of the forest floor aside for a brief moment. Closing her eyes, Mercy breathed in the intoxicating release of fresh oxygen.
Snap – something light and small broke overhead, falling on her. Without warning, branches and leaves started raining down on her. She looked up towards a loud flapping noise coming from the trees and gasped. She was not alone. Perched on a branch high above her sat the avian child from her dreams.
The girl let out a shrill cry and pointed her wing-arm to Mercy’s left.
Mercy heard the predator before she saw it. Branches on the ground were breaking, moving in her direction. A bone-vibrating roar and the thump of heavy feet slapping the earth announced a colossal black bear.
Two steps backwards, a stumble, and she was on her backside. Quickly scurrying, she tried to upright herself and escape, but it was too late. Standing on his hind legs, the bear let out a thunderous roar, before surging forward.
Mercy quickly felt the ground for something to protect herself and found a large stone, fingers gripping automatically.
His was the first contact, slicing her chest with razor-sharp claws. Mercy shrieked; the pain of torn flesh burned.
Hers was the next strike. Stone in hand, she swiped with all her strength at his exposed skull. Crack! Something broke, something important. The bear reeled backwards, disoriented. But her victory was short. He found his footing and turned back on her. Loose skin undulated under his belly as he lunged into the air and landed on her.
The last thing Mercy saw was the mad stare of a killer’s eyes. The last thing Mercy heard was the growl of another animal from behind. Her world went black.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘Mercy? It’s Chase. Can you hear me?’
He held her hand as the ship sped back to Sanctuary City with Joan at the helm. Mercy opened her eyes and blinked. A fog started clearing from her mind.
‘What…happened?’ her words were slow and staggered. She tried to sit up, which caused her head to go fizzy.
‘Woah,’ coached a worried Chase, gently pressing her shoulders backwards, leaving her prone on the levitating emergency gurney. ‘You need to stay down. That bear seriously injured you.’
Mercy touched the gauze wrapped tightly around her chest.
‘We’ve treated your cut. It’s healed now, but you will feel bruised for a while.’
Her thoughts and words became more lucid. ‘I remember hitting the bear on the head, and then he jumped at me. I was certain I was going to die.’ Her voic
e drifted off as she noticed the bandage wrapped around Chase’s right shoulder. ‘Chase, what happened to your arm?’
Chase ignored the question. ‘You’ll be fine now. I’ve given you a mild sedative. The doctor is waiting for you in your apartment.’ His words dragged out, getting longer and slower until his face faded away.
The next morning, Mercy could move more freely. Her injuries had turned from crippling soreness to mild discomfort overnight.
Joan had stopped by Mercy’s apartment. There was a new casualness to their relationship since the trip to the Belt. Not old friends, but friendlier than acquaintances. Mercy welcomed the company.
‘Everyone has taken a great interest in your recovery. The Prime, the Senators, and your Agent Basil,’ shared Joan, placing a full cup of hot coffee on the table near Mercy.
‘And Doctor Chase?’
Joan tilted her head quizzically, ‘Yes, Doctor Chase as well.’
‘No, I mean, I’m grateful he’s concerned, but how is he doing? What happened to his shoulder?’
‘He found you in the woods after we heard your scream. I couldn’t keep up. By the time I arrived, he was carrying you back to the ship. Both of you were injured.’
Hope interrupted, ‘Doctor Mercy, you have a visitor. Doctor Chase is outside.’
Joan got up from the table. ‘Busy morning,’ she smiled. ‘Your schedule has been updated with Hope. You have as much time as you need to recover. I’ll let the Prime and Agent Basil know you’re doing well.’
‘You can let her know I’ll be back in the lab today,’ Mercy directed, not waiting for a response. ‘I’m fine now.’
‘As you wish.’ Joan paused before leaving, ‘If you’re up for it, there’s an Aurora Carnival tonight. Two times a year, we let enough sun into the upper atmosphere to create a firework display of colours across the Shade. It might be a nice break for you. I’ve left the invitation on your schedule.’
‘Thank you, Joan,’ Mercy said in a sincere and personal tone as Joan turned to leave. ‘Hope, let Doctor Chase in.’
The door slid open. Joan and Chase acknowledged each other as they passed. Mercy crept off her chair, painfully standing to welcome Chase.
‘No, you need to stay down,’ he insisted, finger waving in the air as if commanding a child.
‘I’m fine now,’ insisted Mercy as she took her seat. Her gaze went to his shoulder. The bandage, if on, was covered by his uniform. ‘How’s your arm?’
‘All good,’ he smiled. An awkward moment of silence revealed he had not thought through his visit.
Mercy rescued him. ‘Chase, I think I owe you a large debt of gratitude. What happened after I blacked out?’
His eyes shuffled, trying to avoid something. ‘I found you just as the bear had pinned you down. We wrestled, and it ran off.’
‘I can’t thank you enough.’
‘Please don’t. Besides,’ Chase smiled again, ‘I think you pretty much took care of it yourself. That injury to his head took the fight out of him. Impressive right.’
Mercy blushed. Now the awkward silence was hers. She glanced away nervously, wondering if she should tell him everything that had happened. Surely she could trust a man who had saved her life. ‘Chase, I saw it again. The avian hybrid. She was up in a tree, trying to warn me about the bear.’
‘Mercy, you were scared. A wild animal was stalking you. It’s not unreasonable that you imagined her.’
‘Why do you insist on doubting me?’ She was getting more and more frustrated.
Chase gently held her wrist. ‘Calm down. I do not doubt that you saw something. But an avian hybrid is just not possible. If one did exist, it would be terminated. That’s the law. And Mercy, you need to stop talking about this.’
Chase walked over to the sink, turned on the faucet and waved for her to join him. He placed her wrist with the band under the running water.
His voice changed low and secretive. ‘Even if this creature did exist, you must not get involved. The Purists would have it destroyed, and if you helped in any way, they would charge you. Non-mammalian hybridisation is a serious matter. Do you understand me?’
Mercy’s heart sped up. ‘What are you saying? Am I in danger?’
‘No. That’s what I’m trying to avoid,’ he pleaded. Chase’s eyes followed hers. ‘Let’s just get back to work, and you can soon return home safely.’
His hand held her thin, bald wrist, as the warm water rushed over their pressed flesh. Something moved through them, broke Chase, and he couldn’t hold back.
‘I was so worried,’ he confessed, almost in tears, ‘when I saw you under that bear. I thought you were already gone. And it was my fault.’
‘Your fault? I went into the woods alone.’
‘But I let you go…’ Chase’s voice drifted. His expression suddenly changed. Cheeks flushed with desire, pupils wide and imploring, and ears tucked back, he leaned in with lips parted.
Mercy quickly pulled back, startled.
A dark shadow transformed Chase’s nature. He looked down on her, hurt, and humiliated. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a voice so profoundly ashamed, that Mercy felt sad for him. Chase turned and quickly ran out of the room.
She stood alone, dumbstruck, holding her quivering wrist. She could still feel the pleasure of Chase’s touch against her skin.
But he’s not human!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Mercy was trapped. After the terrifying experience in the forest, and now Chase’s confession of his personal feelings, she didn’t know which way to turn.
The words of the stranger in the hall began to haunt her once again, ‘You’re in danger.’ She thought about leaving the Sanctuary but quickly dismissed the idea as childish. No, she was much stronger than that. At the very least she should send Agent Basil a message to water her tree, she thought. But what would she tell him? Other than a stranger’s threat, there were no signs of danger. And the bear attack was her fault. If she were going to contact Agent Basil, she would need something more substantive.
‘Hope, pull up the report on MUTATION FFv1 ANTI-SPARG3. Have lab PVA run a full analysis of the viral mutation post antidote testing. I’m looking for anomalies that may have surfaced but were not pertinent to results. I want to see everything.’
The morning quickly passed as Mercy filed through reams of data, looking for anything unusual, and updating the search criteria in real-time. It was like looking for a snowflake in an avalanche, but this is what she excelled at: finding what others couldn’t.
By late afternoon, ready to give up for the day, Hope announced a breakthrough. ‘Doctor Mercy, the lab PVA, has run the current analysis. There is a change of nucleotide bases in the viral genome which match your criteria. The results indicate there is a forty-two percent probability of genetic modification using biotechnologies.’
Mercy sat back in her chair; eyes worried. Genetic engineering was only a hunch, one of several theories. But this was the one theory she desperately hoped was not true.
Why would someone engineer the mutation and who? She asked herself. Mercy needed absolute certainty before going to the Prime, and that meant getting into the lab and running tests on the live virus. But only a few scientists had access.
Mercy took a deep breath. ‘Hope, please call Doctor Chase.’
The holographic display lit up in Mercy’s apartment, and an image of Chase sitting at his desk appeared.
‘Doctor Mercy, how can I help?’ His tone was distant.
Mercy expected awkwardness but calling her by her professional title after everything they had been through together hurt. An air of something ending hung between them in a moment of silence, a door closing before fully opened.
‘Hello, Chase.’ Her voice was friendly. ‘I’d like to ask for permission to run some tests on the live virus.’
Chase offered a blan
k stare. ‘Why?’
‘I have an idea about a possible antigen,’ she lied.
‘We run all theories through simulation first, before live testing. I’m sure you can appreciate the extreme safety protocols around the virus. We are under strict orders to limit all unnecessary access.’
‘I understand,’ Mercy plotted quickly, ‘But I’m only here for a limited time. If I spend all my time in simulations, it will delay any real progress.’
Chase thought silently before answering. ‘Okay, I’ll set it up for tomorrow morning. There are protocols. But it shouldn’t be a problem. Can you submit your theory by the end of the day?’
‘I’ll have Hope send through the details of the tests right now.’
‘That should be enough. I’ll set up the lab time.’ His response rushed, ready to end the conversation.
‘Thank you,’ said Mercy, wanting to say more, wanting to fix the mornings uncomfortable events.
The illumination of Chase disappeared.
Mercy anxiously tapped her finger on the table, unable to relax. She desperately needed to get her mind off of Chase and the virus. ‘Hope, let Ambassador Joan know I’ll be joining her for the celebration tonight.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
An enormous and grand garden grew on the rooftop of the White Tower.
Tall grasses, stem roses framed in boxed shrubs, and giant palm trees quilted five imposing boulevards stretching the length of the Sky Park. At the centre of the rooftop garden, cascading sheets of water fell from a thin metal disk levitating two stories high and landed in a palatial pond. Four troughs, in the form of a cross, ushered the water to the park’s boundaryless edges, where the silver rivers disappeared into the skyline.
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