Adaptation

by Malinda Lo

  “Yeah.”

  “They showed them to me too. Agent Todd just had me talk to one of the people in the photos.” Quickly, she told him what Amber had said about Project Plato versus Blue Base. When she reached the part about the Imria, David raised his eyebrows but didn’t question her. It wasn’t until she explained the instructions to evacuate the next day that he spoke.

  “You trust this person?” he asked.

  She squeezed the back of her neck with her fingers, trying to loosen some of the tension. “Not entirely,” she admitted. “But if there’s a chance to get out of here, don’t you think we should take it?”

  “And run straight into the arms of the—what did you call them? Imria? That was in those reports on us, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah. What else are we going to do? I don’t want to wait here for who knows what. You read the reports too. They want to retain us for more tests. How long does ‘retain’ mean? And it’s not like they’ve been treating us that well.” She glanced around the locked interrogation room. “I don’t trust them, that’s for sure.”

  “You’d rather trust Dr. Brand and these Imria from Project Plato, even though they apparently did some crazy medical procedure on us that they still haven’t fully explained?”

  She sighed. “Well, when you put it that way…” Was she just being played by Amber again? Now that she wasn’t locked in the same room with her, Amber’s explanations did seem a little bizarre. More than a little.

  David shifted in his seat, the chair squeaking. “Who’s Amber?”

  She froze. She hadn’t mentioned Amber’s name. She had made sure to not mention it. David was watching her calmly, though she saw the dark vein in his temple that meant he wasn’t exactly having a Zen moment. “How do you—I didn’t say that name. Did I?”

  His face went pale. “You didn’t say that name out loud?”

  “No.” She got up. She had to move around. She couldn’t look at David. A thousand thoughts fluttered in her mind like a flock of birds beating their wings. And then she realized what had happened. “Could you hear me thinking about her? Can you hear my thoughts?”

  “No, it’s not like that,” David said, excitement rising in his voice. “Do you think that’s what’s happening when I hear those voices? Remember when I told you about that?”

  “You said it was random—that it was like changing channels on the TV or something.” She ran a hand through her hair nervously. “Is that what it’s like still?”

  “Yeah, it’s random. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. But that name—I heard it so clearly, and I swear I thought you said it out loud. It’s the first time that’s happened.”

  Reese paced back and forth. If he was developing the ability to hear thoughts, she wouldn’t be able to hide anything from him. Panic spread through her in cold waves.

  “Reese,” David said.

  She didn’t know what to tell him. She didn’t know how much she wanted to tell him.

  “All I heard was the name. Amber. And… you seemed kind of confused. I swear I can’t read your thoughts, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw him turning to follow her progress across the room, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze. He wasn’t Julian; she couldn’t just come out to him. What if he judged her? Straight guys could be weird about bisexual girls. He might think that she’d be up for threesomes or that she’d dump him for a girl. Not that they were together, but hypothetically… How much-did he really need to know? Maybe she could tell him that Amber was some random girl, so he wouldn’t think she was—

  And then she realized she was contemplating lying to him, and she was horrified at herself.

  “Reese?” he said. When she didn’t answer, he got up and came to her, reaching for her arm. She pulled away, bumping into the table. His hand caught hers, holding her fast, and she had to look at him. Snap. She felt his heartbeat, his breath.

  “What are you doing?” Her voice trembled.

  “It might help if… we’re touching,” he said, and a flush crept over his face.

  “It might help?” she said, and it came out with a half-choked laugh.

  “So you know that you can trust me.”

  The edge of the table pressed against the back of her thighs. Through the touch of his hand, with his skin against hers, she was inside him. This intimacy still frightened her, but David wouldn’t let go. And this time, his interior landscape was less foreign. She recognized the shape of him, and she realized that he was trying to show her something. It unrolled slowly at first and then more quickly as she instinctually grasped what was happening. She was seeing something inside his mind: a series of images, like an old-fashioned home movie but blurrier—more like the images she saw when she dreamed. David, looking down at her from the top of a wall. It was the memory of the obstacle course but from his perspective. His arm extended to her. There was no doubt in his mind. He would catch her.

  And she knew in her gut that he was right. She could trust him. She had known him since freshman year. He had never given her any reason to think he would laugh at her or make offensive assumptions. He was fine with Julian. He would be fine with this. She had to stop being afraid of it. She would tell him the truth.

  She took a deep breath. “Amber is the person that Agent Todd took me to see just now. Amber Gray. I met her in San Francisco after we got back from the accident, and we… we had a thing.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that they had a relationship. Did one week count as a relationship? But she knew that David understood what she meant, because she was holding his hand and she could sense his comprehension as clearly as she could sense her own anxiety about it. “I didn’t know she was a—an Imria,” Reese continued. “I thought she was just a girl. And now it’s over.” She felt as if she were bracing herself for a car crash.

  David’s fingers squeezed hers. “I’m sorry.”

  “Do you think I’m a freak?” she whispered. “I mean, she’s—” The truth of it struck her in the gut. “Oh my God, she’s an alien.” She had been making out with an alien. All the blood in her body seemed to rush to her head. A hysterical giggle rose to her mouth, and she pressed her free hand over her lips to stifle it.

  David smiled slightly. “I don’t think you’re a freak.”

  “I am a freak,” she insisted, feeling dizzy. An alien.

  “If you are, then so am I, because I’m kind of jealous.”

  She gaped at him. “You’re what?”

  “Jealous. Of Amber.” He still had that half smile on his face, and it made her insides quiver. “You must have pretty strong feelings about her for her name to come through so clearly.”

  “You’re jealous?” A tingle ran down her spine.

  He reached for her other hand, lacing his fingers through hers. “Can’t you feel it?”

  She could feel it. It was like a hot, hungry little tug, as if he had crooked his finger around a cord attached to her belly and pulled at her. She was grateful that the edge of the table was pressed against the back of her legs, because it gave her something to lean against. Her heart was beating way too fast. So was his.

  “Reese,” he said, his voice low.

  “What?” she whispered.

  He didn’t answer, but he ran his hands up her arms, making her shiver. He cupped her head, his fingers buried in her hair as his thumbs stroked along her temples. He’s going to kiss me. The knowledge came to her with such certainty that it was almost as if it had already happened, and heat flared through her whole body. Her breath hitched into her lungs as his mouth skimmed over hers.

  The door opened. “Your time’s up,” Agent Todd said.

  They sprang apart guiltily, and Reese was sure that she was beet red as she spun around to see the amused expression on Agent Todd’s normally blank face.

  “Did you come to any conclusions?” Todd asked. He was clearly enjoying their embarrassment.

  All Reese could hear was the pound
ing of her heart. She pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose, trying to breathe. They hadn’t decided what to do. They had gotten distracted.

  “We did,” David said, sounding remarkably calm.

  She shot him a puzzled look.

  “There’s no good reason for us to stay down here if the whole place is going to self-destruct,” David said. “We’re getting out of here. But whether or not we go with the Imria…” He trailed off and glanced at Reese as if he were tossing her a ball he expected her to catch.

  Just like debate, she thought, and all at once she knew exactly what to say. “We’ll make that decision tomorrow.” She looked at Agent Todd. “You’ve given us no proof that what Amber said is the truth. She hasn’t exactly been honest with me in the past. So tomorrow we’ll see what happens, and we’ll decide then. If it turns out she’s telling the truth, then we’ll consider her offer. Otherwise, no deal.”

  Agent Todd regarded the two of them for a long moment, his eyes traveling from David to Reese and back again. Finally he said, “All right. That seems fair. Tomorrow when the evacuation begins, I’ll come and get you. For now, Miss Holloway, you’ll need to return to the other interrogation room.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Reese’s least favorite activity in the world was waiting. It was even worse, she discovered, when locked in an empty interrogation room with nothing to do except think.

  She hadn’t slept much after she and David finished talking. She couldn’t get comfortable on the hard chairs, and every time her head nodded off, she jerked awake, certain she was about to fall onto the floor. Eventually she lay down directly on the cold tiles, pillowing her head on her arms, and attempted to sleep that way. But her thoughts kept spiraling back to David in the room next door, and the look on Amber’s face when she left, and…

  When the door opened, she bounded up, adrenaline racing through her, only to see Agent Todd carrying in a breakfast tray. “I know you didn’t eat last night,” he said, sounding apologetic.

  Her stomach growled, but she had other needs too. “I have to use the bathroom.”

  He put the tray on the table and then held open the door. “After you.”

  Afterward she ate the rapidly cooling oatmeal, shoveling it down even though it was as flavorless as it was yesterday. As soon as she got out of here, she was eating a burger, medium-rare with tons of onions and mushrooms and melted sharp cheddar. And fries. Lots of fries, from that diner on Twenty-Fourth, salty and crispy and dipped in their special extra-vinegary ketchup. The overhead lights buzzed, flickering as her spoon scraped against the bottom of the bowl. The oatmeal wasn’t nearly as good as that burger would be, but at least it was filling. She pushed it away and began to think through what she knew of the layout of the bunker, mentally sketching it out in case she and David had to find their way to the surface without Agent Todd. She wished she had a pen and a piece of paper. The lights buzzed again, as if an insect had burrowed its way through the wiring and was trapped against its will.

  She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the floor plan of the area near the interrogation rooms. The elevator was to the left. There must be stairs somewhere nearby. The buzzing sound overhead sharpened, and something snapped. Startled, Reese sat up.

  The lights went out.

  For several breathless seconds, the room was pitch-dark.

  A blue light hummed on over the door. Sirens began to wail, softly at first, but then increasing in volume. Reese ran to the door and twisted the handle. It was still locked. She put all her weight behind it, trying to yank the door open, but it didn’t budge.

  Glancing around the room she looked for something she could use to hammer the door open, but there was nothing. She heard footsteps running past the door and voices shouting, but nobody came to let her out. She grabbed one of the chairs and slammed it against the handle. It bounced off, leaving only a scuff mark on the metal surface. She slammed the chair against the door again and again until sweat stuck to her T-shirt, but the door remained locked.

  She heard a deep, loud boom. It was just like an earthquake she had experienced a couple of years ago, when nothing shook at all, but she had looked up in class and wondered whether something had exploded. For a few seconds she stood frozen, wondering if the bunker was about to go up in flames with her trapped in this room. Impulsively she tried the door again. This time, the handle turned.

  All the lights in the short corridor were blue, and there was no one there. Had they forgotten about David and her? She ran to the other interrogation room and turned the handle. David had a chair raised over his head, ready to strike. He lowered it when he recognized her and asked, “Where’s Agent Todd?”

  “I don’t know. There’s nobody out there.”

  He brushed past her into the empty hall. “Should we wait for him?”

  Over the blaring sirens, a computerized voice announced through the intercom system: “Emergency shutdown procedures initiated. All personnel must proceed to exit stations.”

  “I don’t want to wait,” Reese said.

  “I agree.”

  Together they sprinted toward the door that opened into the main corridor, also bathed in blue light. “Let’s head for the elevator,” Reese said, turning left.

  But they had gone only a few feet before soldiers burst into the hall through a side door. They were dressed in fatigues and wore helmets outfitted with what looked like night-vision goggles. They also carried weapons that were aimed directly at Reese and David.

  She froze in her tracks. David grabbed her arm and tugged her in the opposite direction before she had time to think. “Where are you going?” she shouted.

  “Away from them,” he called over his shoulder.

  She glanced back; the soldiers were about fifty feet behind but were rapidly closing the distance. David ducked down a hallway on their left, sprinting past unmarked doors. “We have to find a way up!” she cried.

  “I know!” He was throwing open doors left and right but only discovering empty offices with no way out.

  “This one!” Reese had started opening doors too, and through one of them was a long room that looked like a science lab. Black-topped counters ran down the center and were covered with collections of test tubes, as if they had been abandoned mid-experiment. She ran inside the lab and ducked beneath one of the counters. David squeezed in next to her, reaching out to pull a wheeled stool in front of their hiding space. There wasn’t much room under the lab bench. The entire right side of Reese’s body was pressed up against David, and after a moment of uncomfortable maneuvering, he freed his left arm from where it was trapped between them and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was both more comfortable and more unnerving, because now she felt surrounded by him, and she could feel his panic—an acidic rush in his gut—as much as her own.

  Footsteps pounded into the lab. A light swept across the floor. Reese saw it bobbing over the stool in front of them, and she knew it was only a matter of seconds before the soldiers found them. What had made her think this would be a good hiding place? David’s hand tightened on her shoulder, and she tried to calm down.

  “There’s motion all over this room,” said one of the soldiers over the sirens.

  “Is that machine working properly?” said another.

  “Yeah, look—the motion detector is picking up tons of activity.”

  The lights swept over the room again, and suddenly there was a burst of noise, like a flock of birds screeching in unison.

  “Shit! What the fuck is that?”

  A new voice came into the room. “It’s the avian lab. That’s why there’s so much motion. They’re not in here—let’s go.” Reese could swear it was Agent Todd.

  She held her breath as the soldiers left. They waited until the birds stopped calling, and finally she whispered, “I think they’re gone.”

  David pushed the stool away, and they crawled out, peering carefully around the bench to the door. It was wide open, but no one was there. Reese scra
mbled to her feet, glancing around the room. Along the walls, glass-fronted shelves reflected the blue overhead lights.

  “We should go,” David said.

  Something moved behind the glass.

  “Wait a minute,” Reese said. She approached the shelves slowly. In the dim light she saw that the glass was punctured with air holes, and that what she had thought were shelves were actually rows of cages made of Plexiglas.

  “Reese, what are you doing?”

  “Just a second.” The soldiers’ words had sparked her interest, and she couldn’t help but think of the birds she had seen plummeting to the tarmac at Phoenix Airport. Another memory flashed in her mind: eyes glowing in the high beams before the car accident on the empty desert road. Was this where that bird had come from? It was hard to see inside the cages; the blue light made everything murky. She paused less than a foot from one of them, peering into the dark space. She stepped a few inches closer.

  A bird slammed itself against the Plexiglas, its beak pecking at one of the air holes as if it were a bird feeder.

  Reese jumped back as the bird began to beat its wings. “Oh my God.”

  It was as if one bird set off a chain reaction all down the wall of cages, and other birds began to throw themselves at the Plexiglas as well, their beaks banging out a frantic, staccato drumbeat.

  “What are they doing with all these birds?” she asked.

  David began to pull out drawers from the lab benches, riffling through papers and lab equipment. “Look,” he said.

  She ran to his side as he flipped through a stack of reports. She grabbed one of them and squinted in the dim light at the first page. Again she cursed herself for not paying more attention in bio class, but judging from what she was reading, even bio wouldn’t have prepared her to fully understand these reports. “It’s like Project Blue Base, but with birds,” she said.

  David was skimming through another one. “They’re altering the birds genetically.”

  “With Imria DNA,” Reese said, reading through the summary of the report she had picked up. “Why would they do that?” The overhead lights turned red, and she glanced up in alarm. “I don’t think that’s a good sign.”