Hybrid Zone Recognition

by C. E. Glines

  “We know the Consortium had access to the Organization via this route,” I said.

  At the top of the board, I wrote my name and connected it to the Consortium with another arrow. “We also know they were after me.”

  To the right of center, I wrote nanobots and tied it to the Consortium. “By their attack on the Colony, we know they wanted the nanobots the Organization created. Did Julia want me in the Organization?”

  Adam left his seat and sat partially on the edge of his desk. “No. She was against it from the start.”

  “The Consortium wanted the Organization’s nanobots. Julia had possession of the nanobots, but kept them from the Consortium. The Consortium also wanted me and she didn’t.”

  I stared quietly at the board. Then I drew an arrow arching from Julia to me with a question mark in the middle. “Some piece of information is missing here. It would appear that the Consortium and Julia were working at cross purposes.”

  Adam didn’t comment, only continued to watch me work. I focused my attention on the nanobots.

  “Oh,” I turned to Adam. “I forgot to tell you, that, according to overheard conversations of drug laden Consortium operatives, the Consortium has developed nanobots capable of maturing a fetus to adult in less than a year.”

  Adam’s eyes widened in disbelief.

  “You don’t think it’s true?” I asked him.

  “I’d find it really hard to believe. Nanobot design is an extremely difficult and complicated task. It incorporates both bio and electrochemical elements. Not to mention, the programming itself is a beast. The best they’ve come up with is the Furries, and they’re loaded with flaws. You’ll learn about it at some point.”

  “Has the Organization developed maturation nanobots, and could the Consortium have gotten their hands on them?”

  “To my knowledge, we’ve not ventured down that road. I haven’t yet examined Renard’s or Julia’s office. I plan on doing that shortly. Juarez may find something there.” He shrugged. “There is also the fact that every nanobot is keyed into the individual biochemistry of the recipient. It’s not as simple as transferring from one host to another.”

  I shot him a look. “You did it with me.”

  “You were dying. I thought it worth the risk. The actual way you were dying, the blood loss, is what saved you. It allowed the nanobots to proliferate quickly enough to takeover and repair any damage clashing biochemistries would have created. You were like a clean slate they could write on.”

  Well, if I was dying…

  Turning from Adam, I refocused on the nanobots. “Whether it will work or not, they believe they have these super growth nanobots.” I drew an arrow upwards from nanobots and wrote super growth.

  “They also may be in possession of Organization nanobots retrieved from Colony abductees.” I added that to the board. “How long can the nanobots exist outside of their hosts?” I asked him.

  “Indefinitely. Right now, they are programmed to hibernate outside of the host.”

  That needed to change immediately. “Whose bright idea was that?” I asked.

  “Not mine, I assure you.”

  I studied the board and the connections I’d made. “They’ve developed quite a plan.”

  I drew a plus sign between super growth nanobots and Organization nanobots and added what I thought it might equal. Adam summed it up.

  “Super growth nanobots plus Organization nanobots equals hybrid army.” He stood and began to pace the room. “It doesn’t make sense. Assuming they could form a hybrid with our nanobots, what would they use the super growth nanobot for?”

  “They are not looking to integrate the nanobots into adults,” I said, stopping Adam cold. “They are looking for embryos, fetuses as a last resort. Remember, Millsap only wanted a part of my DNA from which to create babies?”

  “They’ve found a way to splice DNA strands from separate individuals together to form a whole being, along with incorporating animal DNA? Again, that seems way outside of their reach.”

  “Is it outside of Julia’s?” I asked softly.

  He swallowed whatever he was about to say and placed both hands on his hips. I walked over and placed my hand on his back.

  “You’ve got to start considering the fact that Julia was obviously up to something outside of the Organization’s operations.”

  I felt his back shudder as he drew a shaky breath. “I never would have suspected her of such treachery. She had, or at least I thought she had, integrity, loyalty. She was supposed to be working against this sort of thing,” he snapped and walked a few paces away.

  “I’m not saying she is working with the Consortium, but she’s up to something she didn’t want the Organization to know about.”

  He hung his head in acknowledgment of the facts. “I hear you, Macy. You’re right.” He chuckled softly at the irony. “Just one correction to your theory. If they cannot get their hands on enough embryos, I don’t think they would view fetuses as a last resort.”

  It was definitely going to be difficult to get ahold of embryos. Ever since Congress passed the Medical Research Act, embryos were not allowed to be stored for longer than ninety days, and that was only if they met the criteria for being stored at all. Then the security measures required for storage were enormous. But, fetuses?

  “Where would they get the fetuses?” I asked. “I can’t see mothers lining up to volunteer for this.”

  “Did they strike you as the kind of people to care about collateral damage?”

  I recalled Kenny’s report about Crystal. Didn’t they butcher her just to get her nanobots? “You’re saying the mothers won’t have a choice, that they’ll just rip the babies from the mother’s womb?” I asked in horror. “The baby couldn’t exist without the mother.”

  Adam looked at my stricken face. “You said they had conducted trials already? The baby couldn’t have grown to full size adult within the mother. They’ve found some way to sustain the fetus outside of the womb.”

  I absorbed his words, drawing the obvious conclusion. “Millsap wouldn’t hesitate to take what he wanted. It wouldn’t matter to him if he had to kill the mothers to do it. With what Kenny said about Crystal’s death…” I let my words trail off.

  “It would be a bloodbath,” he nodded. “Over the last few years, the Consortium’s actions have become more desperate. Each offensive more bold and daring than the one that preceded it. The reports that the extremist groups have been creating, who do you think has been the source of their material?”

  The dawning realization of the possible future before us was staggering. I sat down in Adam’s chair. Adam knelt in front of me, putting a hand on each of my knees.

  “You need to accept that the people we are dealing with have no qualms about killing or worse to get what they want.”

  I looked up in shock at Adam. Even when they had held me captive, and I knew they were torturing Olivia and Juarez, it had still seemed like a farfetched occurrence. Like I was living in some kind of altered reality.

  “I know this is not what you are used to dealing with,” he said gently. “It is, however, your new reality.”

  I swallowed and nodded my head once. This time, he was right. “They can’t hope to continue without being discovered.”

  “I’m not sure remaining hidden is a top priority for them anymore,” Adam said.

  I squeezed both my eyes shut tight as I processed that. Right, not hiding.

  “If they succeed in enacting this plan, they will reveal the existence of hybrids to the world in a way that presents them as the monsters the extremist groups claim them to be,” Adam said.

  “The GL’s membership would swell overnight,” I concluded.

  We stared silently at each other as we considered the ramifications that would cause.

  “We have to stop this from being the unmitigated disaster it seems to be turning into,” I said.

  He nodded helplessly at me with a look that said, what do you think I’m trying
to do.

  I was tired of the bad guys winning. “The bad guys don’t get to win this one,” I said definitively.

  Adam smiled at me. “We’ve figured out their plan, and we’ve got you. We’ll find a way to stop them.”

  “Somebody need me?”

  We both looked up as Juarez walked into the room. Adam stood up, and I rounded the desk, heading for Juarez. He scooped me up in a bear hug.

  “I just left you a few hours ago, and now you’re up and walking around. How are you doing?”

  “Ready to fight,” he said, setting me back on my feet and releasing me.

  “I guess that means you’re doing great. And, Olivia?”

  “She’s better too. I can’t thank you enough, MacyKat. What you said…it really helped.”

  I patted the side of Juarez’s arm. “I’m glad,” I said quietly.

  Adam’s face wore a puzzled expression. Relationship advice? he asked.

  Something like that. I’m just glad it didn’t backfire on me.

  That would have been the more likely scenario, Adam sagely agreed.

  I stuck my tongue out at him while I walked to stand next to Juarez who was studying the white board.

  “What’s all this?” he asked, indicating the board with a wave of his hand.

  “That’s mine,” I said. “It’s what I think the Consortium’s up to.”

  “Super growth nanobot plus Organization nanobot?” Juarez read aloud.

  Adam joined us at the white board. “Macy thinks the Consortium intends to merge the two inside of embryos or fetuses. She also thinks they may have found a way to splice DNA from two separate human individuals.”

  “Whew,” Juarez blew out as he studied the board.

  “Is that possible?” I asked him.

  He scratched his chin as if deep in thought. “It would take some doing.”

  “But it’s possible,” I pressed.

  He blew out another breath and then tucked both of his hands in his front pockets. “Assuming they could actually integrate DNA from two separate individuals, and assuming they could then add animal DNA, and then top it all off by maturing the embryo at an accelerated rate?” He shook his head in disbelief.

  “The information I overheard while we were being held captive indicated they had achieved a maturation rate of one year from fetus to adult.”

  “The programming required for that, and the sheer quantity of details that would need to be addressed…that would take years to develop.”

  “Could Julia do it?” Adam asked.

  As they regarded each other, I watched their changing expressions. Disbelief, betrayal and hurt colored Juarez’s face before it settled into a stern expression of acceptance.

  “She might,” he nodded slowly. “She could definitely think up the idea, but I think she would not have addressed a lot of details. Do you remember the Keeno Trials?” Juarez asked Adam. “That was Julia’s doing.”

  A look of disgust passed across Adam’s face, and he swiped his hand across it in an effort to clear the memory.

  “What happened in the Keeno Trials?” I asked, looking back and forth between them.

  “Julia wanted to create hybrids from the womb,” Adam explained. “She wanted the abilities to develop as the child grew. To have what we have in Kenny, but created in the lab.”

  “I take it that didn’t go so well?”

  Juarez huffed. “You could say that. Like I said before, she left out a lot of details. Particularly in regards to the positional information within the embryo.”

  I grimaced as I understood what he meant.

  He nodded. “It was bad. Limbs in wrong places, entire pieces missing. I warned her, but she wouldn’t slow the project down to let me thoroughly review it.”

  “That is horrible. This whole thing is horrible,” I moaned, covering my face with my hands. Those poor little babies. I was starting to have an intense dislike for this Julia. Genius or not, anyone that could subject an innocent life to such cruelty did not rate high in my book.

  “What’s horrible?”

  We all turned to watch as Miranda and Cedars walked in.

  “The revelation of mutant, disfigured hybrids in such a fashion as to explode the ranks of the GL,” I answered her.

  The smile left her face, and her pace momentarily slowed. “It’s always something with you, isn’t it? Can’t we just have a normal get together? Go shopping or something. That’s what normal people do, right?”

  It was the first time I’d seen her since we’d separated the morning after I became a hybrid. She looked thinner.

  “We’re not normal,” I quipped as I walked towards her.

  She hugged me tightly and then pulled back quickly. “Yeah, we were never normal even before we were hybrids.”

  That was true and not the least bit comforting.

  “Seems we have always been destined for uniqueness,” I said.

  “One of a kind,” she agreed as she watched Cedars walk past her. “Designer originals.”

  As I stood there, watching her watch Cedars, I wasn’t sure she was talking about us anymore.

  “You’ve lost weight,” I told her.

  She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I’ve been busy.”

  “I heard,” I said pointedly with a tilt of my head.

  That was enough to briefly regain her attention. “You heard?” she asked, her eyes widening in understanding.

  I leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “Apparently, the walls around here are not soundproofed.”

  She frowned while biting her bottom lip, then with an ease that belonged only to Miranda, shrugged off the embarrassment. “They should really fix that. I wouldn’t want our capabilities causing a disruption in the harmony of the team. Inspiring feelings of intimidation,” her eyes were now trained on Cedars again, “or inadequacy and whatnot in the face of Cedars most profound capabilities.”

  Uugh, she had to go there. “Excuse me, but haven’t you just recently eaten of that particular delicacy? And, we have things to do.”

  “Things,” she said distractedly, gazing at Cedars.

  Cedars was talking with Adam and Juarez, but I noticed the smile that played at his lips and the frequent glances he cast in her direction.

  Macy, I need Cedars attention focused on me.

  I’m trying, I said.

  I glanced behind me at the sound of a cart being pushed into the room. Rotundo—I had to learn her name—entered, pushing a cart of food in front of her.

  “Miranda, look. Lunch is here.” I spun her around to face the cart.

  “I am hungry,” she said, eyeing the covers that protected the food.

  “Of course you are.”

  I pulled the first cover off. The smell of smothered steak with gravy wafted through the air. Miranda and I looked at each other. The next moment found us rapidly ridding the trays of their covers. Did they have Granny stashed in the kitchen? It was a truly southern feast.

  “What’s your name?” I asked Rotundo without taking my eyes off of the food before me.

  “Margaret,” she said jovially.

  “Margaret,” I said with my hand extended. “We’re going to need plates.”

  She whipped out one for me and one for Miranda. We wasted no time filling them. The men were smart enough to let us finish before venturing near the cart. With plates in hand, we sat on a large golden sectional couch that had a large coffee table in the center. By the time the boys sat down, we were going for seconds. Complete silence enveloped the room as we ate.

  As soon as I’d eaten my last bite, Adam stood. “Everyone ready?”

  It really wasn’t stated as a question, and plates were set down all around. Except for Miranda. She picked up the plate Cedars had set down and began to work on it. A twinge of worry gripped me as I watched her. Something seemed off with her. The fact that she was currently licking the gravy off the plate might have had something to do with it.

  Adam left our grouping and J
uarez and Cedars followed. I stayed back and waited for Miranda while she finished off Cedars’ plate.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her after she set the plate back down.

  “Yeah,” she said, confused that I had asked.

  “You licked the plate clean,” I told her, pointing at the now shiny plate. Even though we didn’t hold manners in high regard, licking the plate was a little extreme.

  “It was good,” she said defensively.

  I couldn’t argue that. So, I didn’t. But I did watch her closely as she went to stand by Cedars.

  Adam had walked behind his desk and slid aside a panel in the wall to reveal an elevator. When the door opened, we all got in. The elevator went down a few floors and then sideways. The glass sides allowed me to see the interior of the mountain, where the shaft had been carved out, race by as we moved. It was kind of nauseating.

  When the doors opened, we stepped out into a large cavernous foyer. My attention was immediately drawn to the floor where the Organization’s full name and emblem were etched. It formed a circle around a roving DNA double helix with images of various animals incorporated into the strand.

  The most prominent animals displayed were wolf, leopard, and Komodo dragon, but there were various other predators veiled in smaller pockets of DNA. And, a human that looked surprisingly like Einstein. The last seemed oddly out of place, and I frowned down at it.

  Crouching down for a closer inspection, I verified that it was definitely Einstein. Maybe he had somehow been involved in hybrid development. I couldn’t think of another reason for him to be incorporated into such a prominent symbol of the Organization.

  Rising from the floor, I noted that opposite the elevator was a gigantic archway that led out into the complex. I walked to the archway and placed my hand on the edge. It went on as far as I could see.

  I turned around and saw that the men had gathered around one of two doors behind the receptionist’s desk. Miranda had taken a seat at the desk. I read the nameplate on the door as I walked towards them. They were going into Julia’s office first.

  Juarez was intently focused on the door’s security panel. It didn’t take him long to turn the light from red to green. A loud clicking noise signaled the door unlocking. Adam opened the door and went in. Juarez and Cedars followed.