by C. D. Bell
Letting herself catch her breath, she returned to a trotting pace, feeling unnerved and vulnerable as a human, her feet heavy on the ground as if she’d just removed skates. She had to be careful, she knew—this was no time to get sloppy—but the sound of Nate protesting spurred her forward. What was happening to him in there?
As she rounded the corner to the building door, she saw the gray wolf waiting for her, just where she’d left him. She felt a leap of gratitude in her chest.
The gray wolf was large and regal, his coat glossy, his shoulders strong, his back straight, his snout proud and high. She took one second to crouch in front of him, to put a hand on his chest and rub the fur there. “Thank you,” she whispered, something she’d been wanting to tell him but had never had the words. “If you see someone coming, you’ll let me know, right?” The wolf did not speak, but she could tell from his eyes he would stay.
Then Nessa was off, opening the door to the facility (grateful it wasn’t locked), propping it open with a glove she found in the pocket of her jacket, and then following the sound of scratchy classical music up a flight of stairs.
They were playing the soundtrack of Fantasia. They had reached the part called “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” This song had driven Nate into a fit of anxiety when he was little. It was the sight of Mickey and the brooms that wouldn’t stop dividing and dancing that made Nate want to rip his hair out. Aunt Jane had once set it up for Nate to watch during Thanksgiving dinner, and the only way to stop Nate from screaming had been for the Kurlands to leave her house and drive four hours home.
Running to one of the rooms on the first floor, Nessa did not stop to make a plan. All she knew was she had to stop the music before Nate succumbed…to what, she didn’t even want to know. She had no trouble telling where the sound was coming from. She pushed open the third door on the right, stepped into an operating room like the ones she’d seen in the wolf house, saw Nate restrained by the straps of an exam chair, muttering “buddy, buddy, buddy” under his breath. She saw the boom box on the counter, only a few feet from his head and slapped her hand on its surface so that the music came to a stop.
In the quiet that followed, she took in the rest of the scene, her gaze moving from Nate’s wild eyes to a body of some sort, laid out on a table. Nessa could not tell who—or what—it was because it was covered entirely with a blue cloth, but she guessed it was another wolf, like the one Dr. Raab had been “operating” on earlier.
Nessa’s mind felt sluggish, but in reality it took less than a second for her to process the fact that the only other figures in the room were Mary Clovis and Pasty Pete. They were standing across the room as if they’d started to run.
“Oh,” said Pete, seeing Nessa, his eyes wide with surprise.
Mary’s soft face was unreadable. And then she broke into a smile. “Nessa Kurland,” she said. Then, to Nate. “It’s only your sister. I thought—”
“What are you doing to my brother?”
“Your brother?” Mary said. “I’ve been prepping him for his next appointment with Dr. Raab. Given what happened to Billy Lark, we thought it a wise precaution.”
“And you thought kidnapping a child was the best way to do that?” Nessa snapped. “I wonder why.”
Nessa looked back at Nate. What had Mary been telling him? What had he already witnessed in this place? If it had been anyone else, they would have been able to communicate with a significant look or a raised eyebrow. But of course Nate didn’t have the skills to give Nessa that kind of information, or to even know that the expression on her face meant that she was looking for it.
Forgetting that he was restrained, Nate tried to lift a hand when he saw his sister. “Help me, Ness,” he whimpered. “Buddy.”
As she rushed to Nate’s side to unbuckle the straps on his wrists and ankles, Nessa allowed her eyes to dart toward the other operating table, covered with medical sheets.
She turned to Mary, the anger boiling over.
“What are you doing with the wolves? And my brother? What sort of sick experiments are you running here?” Nessa knew her voice was rising. She sounded out of control. “You strapped him down? You played music you know he hates…on purpose? You are torturing him! What are you trying to do?”
Nessa didn’t know exactly what she’d expected Mary to say in reply, but a sigh and a shrug was not it. She looked only vaguely guilty. “I know, I know,” she said. “It’s hard to understand the study sometimes. Dr. Raab is a renowned scientist. He won a Nobel Prize, although we’re supposed to keep that quiet if we can.”
“I don’t care if he won the Super Bowl,” Nessa said. “Come on, Nate, let’s get you out of here.” She put a hand on her brother’s shoulder to let him know it was time to leave. Nate slid off the exam chair and they began walking toward the door. She wished she could take the wolf too, but he would be too heavy to carry.
“You’re just going to let her go?” Pete demanded of Mary.
Nessa looked daggers at Pete.
“You can’t stop me. People know I came here. You can’t keep Nate, or me, against our will. You’ll become an accessory to felony kidnapping of two minors.”
Nessa’s certainty was shattered when Mary touched a button under the counter she was leaning against, and Nessa heard the mechanical click and thunk that indicated the door to the room was being locked. Nessa confirmed this, rattling the handle after it would not move.
Nessa reached into her pocket for her phone.
Mary shook her head regretfully. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” she said. “Your phone’s not going to work in here. Paravida keeps a blocker on in the research rooms.”
“You can’t do this,” Nessa said. She could hear panic in her voice. She reminded herself to take a breath. She couldn’t lose control of herself.
“I’m going to have to,” Mary said. She glanced at Nessa. “Orders from the top. You see, Billy was really valuable to the study. Our only way to continue the work that we were doing is to continue it with Nate. Which is actually a kind of beautiful opportunity—one of Dr. Raab’s experiments with stem cell transfer might allow him to put some of Billy’s material into Nate’s body. He’ll be able to test on both boys’ genetic material at the same time, using Nate’s body as a petri dish for Billy’s stem cells. Not only will Nate be our new Patient Zero—this could cure his autism.”
Mary walked over to a table and picked up a loaded syringe. She turned back to face Nate and Nessa.
“Don’t you see the beauty in it? We are using these stem cells to grow human organs in the wolves. We are creating life here—from stem cells, from nothing. The wild wolves? They are just one of the creations. And Nate will be the first human we…improve. The possibilities are limitless.”
Nessa wasn’t following. Was Mary Clovis truly nuts? Nessa had the urge to cover Nate’s ears with her hands. She didn’t want him to hear this.
“You are disgusting, you know that?” she said. “Both of you. And you won’t get away with this.”
“Is that so, Nessa?” Mary said, maintaining the tone of a concerned adult even as she turned to a computer terminal, and with a few keystrokes called up a video. “Are you going to do this?” she asked, pressing play. Pete gave a cackling laugh, knowing what was coming.
From the grainy quality of the video filling the screen, Nessa guessed it was filmed by a security camera. With a sinking heart, she recognized what part of the Paravida campus it showed—the patch of rye grass. A wolf entered from the right side of the screen, sprinting for the field. Nessa knew that it was her. Ten minutes earlier.
As horrified as she was, it was fascinating to watch her own transformation. There she was, running two steps as a wolf, then three, then a blurring fourth as her body shifted, her head emerging as if from a covering of fur, her hands pushing forward as if emerging from fur sleeves. Her tail disappeared in the single motion of rising from all fours; her elbows seemed to pull her body erect, as if the force of the running were causing he
r to rise.
Mary paused the video. “You’re something of a creation too, aren’t you, Nessa Kurland? An astounding skill that I would never have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Given Dr. Raab’s research with wolves, I think he will be very interested to include you in his study.”
“I don’t think so,” Nessa said. “I’ve seen his so-called research. It looks more like torture and animal abuse to me.”
“You can’t think of them as living creatures. Those are the rules of pure science. You have to think of them as nothing but a collection of cells,” Mary started to intone, trying to sound wise.
“Or monsters!” Pete jumped in. “When they were puppies, they were cute, but now they give me the creeps. You lose your overtime pay if you kill one, though.”
“There’s something wrong with those wolves,” Nessa said. “You’ve tampered with them. They’re too aggressive to survive. They don’t cooperate. They shouldn’t be like that.”
Mary shrugged. “I wouldn’t be so sure, young lady. The world’s an aggressive place. We’re just keeping up with it and trying to build something more perfect and that helps others.”
“But you’re helping them? Paravida. Whoever they are. You grew up here, Mary. You’re from Tether. Like us.”
“Yes,” Mary said. “But what does that even mean anymore? Dutch Chem used this town. Paravida, the white knight that came to Tether’s rescue? No. The only reason Paravida set up shop here was access to a whole generation of kids carrying a fascinating range of mutations. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. The stupid town of Tether was so desperate for any kind of stable employment, they handed over their schools, their health records, and their kids. This place is worthless. It’s a pit. Something I’ve learned from Dr. Raab. Hope is a drug. Your brain…it thrives on it. Too much, and the rest of the world starts to look gray and depleted. Too little? You start to die inside. People know this. You know this. Anyone who is smart is getting out before Tether becomes a town that time forgot. Someplace FEMA has to come in and shut down.”
“I don’t know that,” said Nessa, realizing that just a few months before she might have agreed with Mary. “Have some pride in what you are and where you come from.”
“Pride is for the rich,” Mary said. “And I am not rich. I am not particularly lucky either.”
“Is that why all your retirement accounts are drained?”
Mary jerked when Nessa said those words. She looked genuinely surprised for a moment, giving Nessa a chance to take a step closer to the window. Nessa had had a thought.
“What happened to your money anyway?” Nessa asked, stalling for time.
“So you were the person who broke into the Paravida rooms at the clinic. Naughty girl. I told you, I’m not lucky. In fact, I have a problem with luck.”
What was she talking about? Nessa was starting to sense how crazy Mary Clovis really was. Her goofy-smiled sidekick seemed not to notice.
Mary recognized Nessa’s confusion.
“Gambling, sweetheart,” she said. “I have what’s known as a little gambling…problem.”
“So on top of being mean, vicious, and missing a conscience, you’re an addict too?” said Nessa, disguising another step toward the window by leaning against the counter. She could see Nate looking at her. Please don’t say anything, she begged him silently.
“How long has that been going on?” Nessa said, trying to sound nonthreatening. She hoisted herself up onto the counter.
“You don’t know what it’s like to live in a place where you have no hope. You’re a kid still. At your age, all you have is hope. Walking through Tether High, you can smell it. No one knows yet that they will end up in a dead-end job, that there’s nothing for them in this town. The ones who think they’ll get out? They might. But most of them don’t have the talent or the guts or just the extra cash to get started somewhere else.”
Nessa slid a hand along the counter behind her. Mary kept talking. “That’s how I got started. I wanted to be a teacher. I was out with my girlfriends one night, and I made a hundred dollars on a ten-dollar roulette bet. Hope waved its hand at me. This was how I could pay for grad school. And for a while I was doing pretty well. But then I started to fall just a little bit behind.”
Nessa rested her hand on the neck of a microscope like it was a dog sidling up next to her.
“The next bet was the one that I could always count on to pull me out of the hole,” Mary went on. “A job at Dutch Chem. For a long time I kept things under control. But then…I didn’t. Dr. Raab found out. We made an exchange. I help him implement his research, and he helps me with my debts. I’m finally building my career. This is pioneering work, and he’s asked for very little.”
“Kidnapping?” Nessa said. “Torturing and helping to kill children? That’s very little?”
“This was my idea,” Mary confessed, pointing to Nate. “Dr. Raab doesn’t know. But after Billy died, I knew that he’d be mad at me. He’s paranoid about people in this town finding out what’s happening before he has his precious results.” Mary gave a short little laugh.
“And what about you?” Nessa asked Pete, sidling closer to the microscope.
“We’re getting married,” Pete said happily, and put an arm around Mary’s shoulders. “We’re getting married in the spring when this is all over, and Dr. Raab gives Mary her final payout. Then we’re never coming back to this awful place!”
Nessa tightened her hand around the neck of the microscope and, hoping this would work, she swung her arm up and over her head and lobbed the microscope through the window. She didn’t wait for the sound of a crash before she took a second microscope and did the same thing, aiming slightly to the left.
The windows were high up on the wall, rectangular, meant to let in light but not be seen through from out or in. She could only hope the microscope hurtling through the window was enough of a call for help that the gray wolf would be able to figure out something to do to save them.
It was a long shot, she knew.
Pete’s reaction was swift. One second, he was staring up at the broken window in disbelief, and the next he had Nessa by the wrist and was dragging her to a corner of the lab. He was stronger than he looked and strapped her and her brother into chairs like the one Nate had been sitting in.
“What did you have to go and do that for?” Pete yelled, leaning his face in close to hers. “I didn’t want to have to scare your little brother like that.” Nate’s eyes were closed, and his face was scrunched up, like he used to do when he was younger and heard balloons popping.
“There are people on their way here right now,” Nessa yelled, more to Mary than to Pete. “This is your last chance to turn back. Let us go, and I am sure you can plea-bargain about the work in the study.”
“Oh, I’m not worried,” Mary said. “Dr. Raab and the people that run this place have connections. I’m sure you and Nate will be held here at his disposal. Everyone can be bought, Vivian Kurland most of all.” At this, Mary Clovis let out a mean and bitter laugh. “I’ve been in Tether long enough to learn that much at least. Maybe the doctor can invent another doping scare—one that this time will show up in your blood?” Mary said.
“So that was you?” Nessa said. But what did Mary mean with that comment about her mother? Vivian was one of the most honest people she knew.
“You thought it was Cynthia Sinise, didn’t you?” Pete said. “I saw her in the locker room, and I told Mary about how she was gloating over you. Mary hoped you’d be so dumb to think someone on your own team would plant steroids. We had a good laugh over that one, didn’t we, sweetheart?”
Nessa flushed. She had thought that. She felt a second of shame.
“Teenagers,” Mary spat out. “You all think you’ll live forever. You think you can figure it all out. You can’t. Life will chew you up and spit you out. And in your case, the clock will be running on an accelerated timeline. Taking steroids can be quite dangerous, you know. Perhap
s you’ll end up having some kind of reaction to the dangerous medications you’re taking. Something requiring that you spend a great deal of time in a hospital. Where of course Dr. Raab will have the kind of unfettered access to you he was so desperate to get from the clinic study kids. He’ll fry your brain like bacon and you won’t be able to tell your mom apart from the big stuffed teddy bear I’m sure all your friends from school will send to cheer you up.
“Meanwhile, once I deliver the two of you—especially you with your special talent—I’m going to be spending the rest of my life on some beach in the Cayman Islands, relaxing in the shade of Paravida’s giant payout.”
Mary’s lengthy speech masked the low rumble of growling.
Or maybe it was one of those sounds only Nessa could hear. But as Mary went on and on, Nessa noticed there was more of it. A lot of growling, actually. Coming from just outside the window.
It was the gray wolf. He was growling. And then he was barking. He was sounding outraged and desperate, and Nessa started to worry. She needed him to be calm and smart and strategic. This was not the time for an emotional response.
But there he was, crying in a way that was not just sad but made him sound like he’d been pushed to the very edge of understanding. He sounded like a wolf unhinged.
“What the—?” Mary said. She ran to the computer monitor and toggled back and forth among the grainy video feed coming in from the security cameras. Craning her neck, Nessa could see what Mary saw, and she watched what was happening with just about the same level of horror and amazement as Mary and Pete did.
Just outside the window, the gray wolf was pacing and barking like a maniac. He ran in circles like a puppy being teased with a bone, and then he stopped, and then he barked some more.