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That's what a cryptic Parker had indicated.
John made up the mind for the group. "Did anyone notice anything about the dome that didn't belong?"
"Like Sesame Street?" Alex asked.
"Listen, Sims. . . Sesame Street. . . you mean that lame-ass puppet show from a million years ago?" Jonesy asked.
Alex scowled. "They had a game on there and the thing that doesn't fit means it needs to go. "
"I don't know why you keep referencing pulsevision shows but whatever. Listen," John's eyes held the group's, "the dome is supposed to be self-contained, right?"
They nodded but Tiff snapped her gum (she had an endless supply) saying, "If you say so, Terran. "
"I do. " He drilled her with his eyes and she rolled hers. "It is the function of that structure to keep those inside of it separate from the elements outside its boundaries. "
Realization dawned on me and I snapped my fingers. "I gotcha, the holes. . . "
John was grinning like I was his prize pupil when Alex said, "They don't belong. "
"Bingo," John said, pointing a finger at Alex.
Alex grinned, giving the piss off look to Jonesy who huffed and folded his arms across his chest.
"So we go back," I said to John, the distinct feeling of unfinished business driving my decision.
He nodded. "If we want answers, if we want to stop the Graysheets. . . we need to find out where all of this came from. "
"All of what, John?" Jade asked.
"Us," John said cryptically.
"What do ya mean?" Tiff asked.
"Do you think all this is coincidence? Our abilities, what we've been told about their origins?" John asked rhetorically.
I answered anyway, "My dad mapped the genome. But the spiel about the paranormal markers and their inception. . . those precepts came straight from a Graysheet. "
"So, it could be anything. We could be more guinea pig than we know," Archer said.
"Yeah, I've never been so happy that I'm a mundane. They probably spliced all you guys with monkey DNA!" Bry said, laughing.
Nobody else laughed.
Maybe they had. . . or something else.
My wheels turned as we made plans to return to the other world.
Clara's world.
*
"Come on, Archer," Jonesy said looking around, his eyes two points of light in the darkness of one of the highest security buildings ever conceived of.
Graysheet territory. My chest squeezed painfully with the knowledge of what we were doing.
Archer looked at Jonesy. "Mark, this is a controlled environment, I can't rush things because of your anxiety. "
"Oh for eff's sake, can it and get us in there!"
Archer smiled, turning away and palmed the pulse-pad.
"Parker said the material would be here for us," I said, wishing Clyde was here to offer. . . back up or something. It was one of the first times I could remember wanting a zombie around before they magically appeared at the worst times (or the best, depends on how ya look at it).
The door slid open with a whisper, the circular metal pegs sliding out of the holes they'd been fitted into moments before. Archer turned, his perfect face in profile. "We're in boys, let's get what we came for and leave. "
"Good plan, Lewis," John said, striding forward and entering the narrow opening, the door having slid open just wide enough to allow a single person through.
"Don't like this creepy-ass place," Jonesy muttered, sliding through the opening sideways, the door at least a foot thick of brushed stainless steel, glowing softly from the interior LED pulse-fueled lights, which back lit the work spaces.
My eyes roamed the interior of the room. Then I spotted a file cabinet. It was built into the wall and of the same material as the door. In fact, the whole damn place was stainless.
"These guys dig their metal," Alex said from the back. I turned to see him struggling through the door. He got stuck.
"Nice, muscle-head," Jonesy said and Alex gave him a look. He laced his fingers together and flat-palmed the door, pushing slightly and it gave under his manual manipulation, moving another foot. "Who the hell can fit through that!" he huffed and John scowled. "Quiet. Just because Parker gave an engraved invitation to bring down the Graysheets doesn't mean we should ring the dinner bell. "
Right.
He nodded. "Let's get that file and get outta here. "
Archer went to the file cabinet and pressed his thumb into the pad. Apprehension washed his features. "They're going to know I was here," he said, staring at his hand.
"Nah," John said and approached Archer. "Here, let me," and he put his thumb over the top of Lewis'. They had their thumbs stacked on the pulse-lock when everyone heard the internal tumblers move, sliding against each other and releasing their hold.
The file cabinet popped open.
Archer looked at John. "What. . . did you?"
"Yes," John sighed. "It's my first illegal act. " He looked into my eyes. "It better be worth it. "
I nodded. "Listen, pal, we get the goods on the Graysheets, save the dome world and find out whether we've got donkey DNA. . . "
"Monkey, dipshit," Jonesy said without a trace of humor.
I smiled. "Yeah, whatever; genes we shouldn't have. "
"Too late now," Alex said, flexing the huge muscles of his arm, preternaturally strong from his genes. Minus the cool gills.
"But it's time we do something other that reacting to these morons. We don't want them perpetuating their bullshit on any more kids. "
"Biggish word for you Hart," Archer noted.
I winked. "I have my moments. Besides, I've worked really hard to distract everyone from the fact I'm the genome scientist's kid. "
The Js rolled their eyes. "You can't hide brains, Hart," Jonesy said.
"And you can't fix stupid," Alex added.
"But people keep trying," John said, puzzled.
"There is that," Archer said, reaching into the file cabinet to extract the file, its credit-card size perfect for our purposes.
It read: Genetic Integration Project- Zondorae.
I jerked the fake out of my pocket, handing it to Archer. He grasped it smoothly and slid it into the glass slotting marked with a G.
Another advantage to being a scientist's kid. The Graysheets needed to study Einstein's Theory of Relativity (about one thousand times-in a row). Dad happened to have that file languishing under a layer of beggar's dust.
"That seems too easy," John said, palming his chin.
"Yeah," I agreed.
"That's okay, some chaotic shit will spring up and take out our gonads, guys. It's inevitable. "
"So cheery, Mark," Archer said dryly.
Jonesy scowled at him. "You haven't been part of the group long enough to know how things go, Archer. "
"I'm getting that. "
Alex clapped Archer on the back and he took two involuntary steps forward. "There's time. "
The group smiled as we left the facility, glad we'd been stealthy and not brought the chicks.
I took a last look over my shoulder, noting the building was a big square block of reflective glass, no sign, incognito.
No one would know it housed government secrets and that a bunch of teens were trying to save them from themselves.
From their experiments based on greed and exploit.
The Graysheets were consistent as hell.
But so were we.
*
Jade put the pulse-pad on her knees, the group loaded up behind her. John held up the stolen file and gave it to her. Jade inserted it into the integrated pulse reader and it requested a pass code.
John whistled. "Dammit, it's thought-driven. I was afraid of this. We'll never crack this nut. "
Alex laughed and John gave him a long-suffering glare. Properly chastised, he sobered up in hu
rry.
Jade frowned, thinking. "Maybe one of you guys could work your magic on it and it'll open?" she quizzed the group.
John grinned. "Nice Jade. " He swung his gaze to Archer and I gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Think you could give it a shot?"
Archer nodded. "I haven't tried to crack a government super-secret file through a pulse thread but I can give it a try. " He winked.
Tiff popped a bubble. "Stop yammering and nail that turkey so we can save the world and all that happy crap. "
Bry gave his sister the Sibling Stare. "What?" she asked, all innocent, snapping her bubble about fifty times like firecrackers. Sophie winced. "Can ya not. . . with the damn gum. "
Tiff thought about it. "No. "
Sophie threw up her hands. "God, whatever!"
Tiff smiled. "Calms my nerves, animal lover. "
Sophie's eyes narrowed on Tiff. "I dig animal print clothes, that doesn't mean I'm like the PETA wackos. "
I was silently happier than hell Mom wasn't around to hear the slam against PETA.
"Aren't those the yahoos that capture boats and shit?" Jonesy asked.
"Nah, that's dumbass Greenpeace," Tiff said, popping another bubble.
Jonesy nodded, satisfied they'd quantified the protestor categories.
"Okay, this is so amusing but. . . " Archer pointed at Jade's pulse-pad.
Right, back to The Plan. "I say go for it and we'll exhaust other crap if it doesn't work. "
"Wouldn't the Graysheets have contingency up the ass for a hack as simple as a Lock-Manipulator getting his groove on with their top secret shit?" Alex asked reasonably.
Yeah. . . maybe. I gave a nod to Archer. "Do your mojo. Let's not borrow the stress. "
"Gramps?" Jonesy asked.
"Yeah, he says, 'don't borrow the worry'. "
"Whatever," Tiff said impatiently, moving her hand in the classic get a move on motion.
Archer touched the screen on the pulse-pad and the password inquiry flickered. He looked at Caleb and the Js, shaking his head slightly.
"Crap!" Jonesy said, flinging his arms up in the air and lacing his hands together as he brought them to rest on the crown of his head. He began pacing, his folded arms standing out from his head like wings. "This isn't gonna work! Why would lame-ass Parker give us access to a file that we couldn't open?"
I thought about it. The skills they possessed should be enough to work through it. . . maybe. . . I was on the epiphany of resolution when John snapped his fingers.
Our gazes swung to an agitated Jonesy. He stopped pacing, his arms dropping to his sides loosely. "What is it, braniacs?"
John said, "I think, since pulse tech is electronic in its basest level, that foundation should give you the control to manipulate that file wide open. And with that, Archer can assert his skill. Together, you can unlock it. "
"What?" Jonesy asked, frustration in his tone, his eyes going from me to John.
John opened his mouth and I put a hand on his chest. "I got this, Terran. "
His mouth snapped closed and I said. "We need you to kinda fry the pulse file to break its signal so Archer can go in there and unlock it. "
"Well hell! Why didn't ya say so? Doofuses!"
"They did, ya dumbass," Tiff said, spitting her gum into the separator.
"Guys!" Jade said, waving her palm at the pulse-pad.
Jonesy glowered at the group, striding over to the pad he reached out to touch it and Archer jogged over to intercept and threw his hand out, their fingers collided as they touched the pad.
A bright light burst from the pulse-pad and Jade just about dumped the thing on the floor, but managed to keep it still.
John and the others rushed over to where they stood looking down at the pulse-pad.
The screen lit up, the traditional luminescent green characters coming together to read:
Welcome back, Zondorae Brothers
John smiled in triumph and pressed his thumb to the pad of Jade's pulse-reader. He stood silently, assimilating the information.
We shifted our weight; wiggling, scratching, mumbling. Finally, after five minutes of silence, John slowly removed his thumb.
He looked as grave as I'd ever seen him.
Tiff, usually the most obnoxious of the group, put her hand on his arm almost tenderly. "What is it, John?" She looked up at him, her hazel eyes dark with worry.
"I don't think it's just the dome world that's in trouble," he stated flatly.
"Come on, Terran, spill it," Jonesy said, his hands pegged on his hips.
"It's our world too. The dome world is nothing but a big experiment. They were playing God with them. " John turned to me. "Your dad may have mapped the human genome, but these guys that 'found' the markers?" He waited on our expressions.
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