Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3)

by Christine Hart

  We reached the London Zoo’s entrance gate. Josh was already inside and gave a quick wave from his seat on a cement barrier.

  “Two please,” Ilya said politely to the grandmotherly ticket agent. She glowered at us as she passed our tickets back to us.

  “Thank you!” I said cheerfully as I turned my back on her.

  “Have you seen what you need of their uniforms?” said Josh.

  I stole a glance back and saw Cole and Jonah at a ticket window.

  “Oh yeah. We just need a quiet corner to ‘change’ and we’re good to go,” said Ilya.

  Josh stole glances at the people around us. “I’m more concerned about finding the ‘equipment’ we need and making sure we’re undisturbed.”

  “You’re just changing our clothes, right? We could say we’re new and that we got lost.” I rolled back on my heels. Being disguised liberated my typically dormant adventurous side.

  “That won’t buy us any time alone in their vet wing,” said Josh.

  “I’ll hit on someone.” I flipped my hair playfully.

  Jonah lifted his eyebrows. “Really?”

  “What? It could work!” I said.

  “No, it won’t. Have you met yourself? You’ve got the charm of a postal clerk. Let Josh handle it. First thing, we need uniforms. That alcove with the washrooms. Follow me.” Ilya beckoned us heatedly.

  We followed Ilya into the men’s side and found the room empty. He wasted no time and I felt the misty fog around me once more. In the washroom’s mirror, I saw my blonde self upgraded to a uniform. My hair was tied back much more neatly. Impressive, I thought. If that messy baggy shirt girl were to clean up and come into work, this reflection was what I expected to see.

  “Let’s go find a map,” said the middle-aged tradesman-turned-naturalist Josh.

  We followed him single file out of the bathroom and toward an illustrated map poster in a nearby metal stand.

  “Look for a building that says hospital. Or something unmarked altogether. They don’t want people in the vet space, so it’s going to be labeled discreetly or not at all,” said Josh.

  We scanned the poster as a group.

  “Hey, they’re building a lion exhibit,” Ilya said conversationally.

  “Focus!” blurted Josh.

  “Just trying to lighten the mood.” Ilya lifted the air in front of him.

  “What about this? An education center.” Cole put his finger on the map.

  “These buildings down here are unmarked.” Jonah peered more closely.

  “No, it’s this one. Like a church, but there’s a plus sign on it. Doesn’t that mean medicine?” I said.

  “It’s a place to start,” said Josh.

  “And it’s just over there,” said Cole, pointing ahead.

  We followed his line of sight across the courtyard to where a steeple peeked out over a bank of palm trees. Josh set off and we followed him.

  Sure enough, a sign over the door read, ZSL Resident Care in large red letters. Another placard hung from plastic chain across the entrance. ‘No Entry. Sick animals are healing. Please don’t disturb them.’

  “Let’s hope they’ve got more than meds in here,” said Jonah as he unhooked and lifted the plastic chain so we could all pass. Josh ran ahead to the glass window down the hall.

  “Excuse me, hello?” he called out.

  Adrenaline surged inside me, but I trusted Josh and kept silent. I peered into the room on the other side of the glass. The white room had a counter bordering the wall everywhere I could see with closed cabinet doors. In the middle of the room a stainless steel island displayed a monkey-like animal tied down with an IV in its back.

  “Yes, how may I help you?” said an acne-ridden man with large yellow rubber gloves.

  “We’re part of the American exchange program and we’re completing our orientation. I was told we would have a guide for the hospital,” said Josh confidently.

  “I’m sorry. I have no idea what you mean. What exchange program?” The man’s eyebrows formed a confused V shape.

  “We’re due in the aviary in half an hour. Do you mind taking some time now?” said Josh.

  “Listen mate, I’m in the middle of hydration therapy for a lemur. I don’t have time to show you ‘round the vet’s quarters.”

  “Not a problem, we’ll take a quick peek and get out of your hair.” Josh didn’t wait for the man to respond, but marched ahead toward the rooms at the back.

  “We need to move quickly now. Ilya, once we find a gun, you’re going to have to think fast to turn it into something else as we leave.” Josh spoke just loudly enough for us to hear.

  He opened the first door he found. The room was full of empty wire frame cages. The next room was a broom closet. The last door opened on a small room full of closed white cabinets. We filed inside and each of us started opening cupboard doors.

  “It’s this one.” Josh rattled the handle on a door locked with a small deadbolt.

  “I’ll get that.” Cole stepped between Josh and the cabinet, bending down to grab the door from a lip at the bottom. Cole gave a sharp tug on the door. A loud snap startled everyone but him.

  The door swung open and a rack of rifles stared back at us. On a shelf above the rifles rested a stand with two handgun-style weapons alongside several trays of darts.

  “Find a bag,” said Josh.

  I ran back to the room of cages and grabbed a canvas tote bag I’d seen crumpled on a stack of crates.

  “Here,” I thrust the bag at Josh. He transferred the handguns to the bag and emptied the trays of darts.

  “Anyone want take out?” said Ilya as the bag blurred and resolved as a brown paper bag stamped with Salty’s Fish and Chips over the Union Jack flag.

  “We go straight back to the bathroom. New disguises, and then directly back to the train station. Everyone clear?” said Josh.

  “Yup.” Ilya led the way back through the animal hospital.

  I glanced over at the genuine zoo employee as we passed. He intently prodded the lemur’s back.

  Back in the zoo bathroom, Ilya transformed us again. I became a curvy redhead in a white dress with blue flowers and a lavender cardigan. I’d impersonated a girl from the Little House on the Prairie.

  Josh had become a grizzly middle-aged man with silver beard stubble and a leather jacket. Cole, Jonah, and Ilya all became plaid-clad fedora-topped hipsters in front of my eyes. The hipsters left first, then Josh nodded at me and I fell in a few paces behind him.

  We marched back to the train station without breaking stride, keeping our formation until we reunited in the stairwell of the Berwick Hostel. Relief washed over me as Ilya lifted his disguises.

  “Knock, knock,” said Ilya as he opened the door to the double room where Faith and Melissa had been trying to crack The Compendium files.

  “Any luck so far?” said Cole.

  Melissa glanced up, steel blue eyes intent. “The drive I downloaded contained exactly what I’d thought. The folders are meticulously organized into work sites, research projects, and personnel files.”

  “We found a floor plan, project summary and physiological projections for Terra Nova. It’s not happening here in London. Soho is just an office, a glorified filing cabinet. The real work is being done at a large lab under a lavish estate called Chatham Park,” said Faith.

  “The estate’s administrator is a variant aligned with Claude Mueller. If these docs are up-to-date, Chatham Park is where the biological oil is being manufactured. This place has the supply Ivan needs to start a global pandemic. There’s still no way of knowing if Chatham is the only location,” said Melissa.

  “Are you sure about this? An old world estate isn’t the kind of place you’d expect to find a lab,” said Cole.


  “If the original owner was an eccentric cult member, you’d be surprised what kind of underground levels the place could have.” Melissa re-clipped her glossy dark hair into her signature twist.

  “What now?” I said.

  “She’s not kidding. I saw the floor plan. There’s a memo here from Tatiana to Ivan that says, and I quote, ‘The proprietor assures me the main house’s underground levels are intact and suitable for our purposes. Access can be gained from the property of a church in the nearby town to ensure we are not discovered. We may encounter fumes due to additional excavation attempted by the original owner. We should pursue extensive site testing before we commit to manufacturing Terra Nova at this location,’” read Faith.

  “We don’t really need to break into the Soho office at all then,” said Cole.

  “We still need Gemma back!” I rubbed my face after I noticed the volume in my voice.

  “Sorry, yes, of course we do.” Cole put his hand on my shoulder and took it away again quickly.

  “I’ll go by myself if necessary. I’m not leaving her.” I swallowed hard, feeling hot tears welling in my eyes.

  “No, we’ll stick to the plan. We still need to corner Rose and Sage alone. Why don’t you try for that vision now?” said Jonah.

  I blinked up at him to find his jet-black hair and bright blue eyes as handsome as ever. “I’ll get my cards.”

  I went straight back to mine and Jonah’s room. I found my cards and sat down on the bed to shuffle them. I peeked out our tiny window at the fire escape outside and the brick wall across the alley. Were Rose and Sage in a room just like this one? Somewhere nearby? Or the fancy hotel where I’d seen the Krylovs?

  I concentrated on their faces as I shuffled the cards. The glasses and the hotplate on the side table started to rattle as I focused harder.

  The room around me grew dim and my eyes fluttered. When I could focus again, I wasn’t in my hotel room. I was in the rafters of a building with huge stained glass flower windows, like a church. I willed my perspective down to the wood plank floor of the room and squinted back up to see Rose and Sage hanging down, their wings wrapped around them like cloak-cocoons as they slept.

  I nudged my viewpoint out through one of the glass flowers and looked back to the building. It was a huge gothic cathedral with two rectangular towers shooting up into the sky. I closed my eyes and pictured my hotel room. When I opened my eyes, I was sitting on my bed again. I took a deep breath. It wouldn’t take long to find out how many large gothic cathedrals were in the London core.

  Jonah opened the door and shut it carefully. “Did you see anything?”

  “They’re in a cathedral. I think we can assume it’s nearby. I’ll recognize the building when I see it.”

  Jonah sat next to me on the bed and his scent caught me. The dirt of our trip still lingered without access to laundry. But his well-groomed body smelled luscious. I leaned toward him instinctively. He needed no other encouragement to meet my lips with his. The magnetic draw of his new energized aura drew me against his body.

  “Irina!” yelled Ilya from outside our door. “Knock it off! Faith needs you to browse photos of cathedrals.”

  Embarrassment flooded my chest and I stood up abruptly, blushing.

  Jonah smirked at me. “Is he going to listen at the door every night?”

  “Not if I levitate him onto a nearby roof.” I rolled my eyes, pushed my humiliation away, and reached for the door.

  Chapter 5

  Unfortunately for Rose and Sage, they had chosen to squat in the single most popular gothic cathedral in London, Westminster Abbey. Faith found photos of the building from my vision in less than a minute online.

  Two of the cathedral’s galleries had been opened up for renovations and conversion to museum space. The rafters of the galleries made for a perfect hiding space at night—if you were the sort of person who could get comfortable there.

  “So who’s going to go?” Cole massaged his palms again, still ready for action.

  “I’m the best shot, so I’ll take one gun. Who else can shoot? We’ve got two targets and two guns, so we should try to hit them at the same time.” Josh surveyed each of us carefully. His dark eyes told us he’d know if we lied.

  “I can shoot,” said Melissa. We all gaped at her in amazement. “What? I can,” she added bluntly.

  “I’ll come. I can pinpoint their location, even if they’re asleep.” Ilya tapped his temple as though we needed a reminder of his abilities.

  “Irina should come too. She’s seen the inside of the cathedral.” Josh observed me for confirmation.

  Heat flooded my face all over again. I pushed the feeling aside. “And if Rose and Sage wake up, I can try to hold them telekinetically. But how do we get into the cathedral? I’m sure it’ll be locked and armed by the time Rose and Sage are sleeping up in the rafters.” I mimed a hanging gesture in a feeble attempt to communicate what I’d seen.

  “I’ll short the alarm. Nellie would have done a better job, but I can manage.” Faith glowered at the ground, remembering her fallen friend.

  “I can probably pull the doors open, but Cole is stronger than I am, so he should come too.” Josh nodded at Cole with new respect.

  “I’m not staying here by myself. I’m as strong as the rest of you now.” Jonah stood tall next to me.

  “So we’re all going?” Faith pulled out her dreadlock hair tie and fixed it in place.

  “We’ll leave at midnight.” Cole glanced at his watch.

  Ilya disguised us once more before we exited the stairwell of the Berwick Hostel. London was quiet and dark by the middle of the night, excepting clubs like The Incinerator. We hailed a cab on the street.

  “Westminster Abbey please.” I took the front seat. My friends filed into the two facing bench seats behind me.

  “Abbey’ll be closed for the night, Miss,” said the driver.

  “We’re just meeting some friends on the lawn. Hard to mistake Westminster Abbey for somewhere else, right?” I said in my perkiest voice.

  “Too true, Miss. The Abbey it shall be.” The driver pulled out onto the street.

  Twenty minutes later, I tipped him generously—or what I hoped was generous after the currency conversion—and we scanned the lawn in front of the Abbey.

  Rose and Sage could be awake, peering out the window directly at us and they wouldn’t know who stood in front of them because of our disguises. We clustered around a tree in the adjacent yard and watched the Abbey for a few minutes.

  “The harpy twins are definitely up in the rafters. I’m pretty sure they’re asleep. That, or they’re meditating.” Ilya stepped out from under the cover of leaves for a better line of sight.

  “What about security? Can you hear anyone?” said Josh.

  “One guard for sure,” said Ilya. “Wait, hang on … It is just one. He’s grouchy about being on his own since peak season isn’t quite finished.”

  We stood in silence until a man in a white shirt and black pants sauntered up to the Abbey’s front door and stopped.

  “Can you hit him with the dart from here?” I asked.

  “Give me a uniform like his,” Josh said to Ilya.

  Josh’s clothes blurred and resolved again into a uniform exactly like the guard’s across the street.

  “Make sure you guys look like you’re hanging out or waiting for someone. Don’t stare at the guard. Once I catch his attention, he’ll be on alert,” said Josh.

  The older tradesman version of Josh crossed the street and greeted the guard with a handshake. Josh had the tranquilizer gun tucked into the back of his pants. We could see it, but the guard couldn’t. Josh said something as he shook the guard’s hand, distracting the man as he pulled the loaded tranquilizer gun from his back and fired.

  The gua
rd frowned with confusion and then his face melted into sleep as he dropped. Josh caught him and placed him gently in a seated position. He beckoned at us to come to him. “Faith, find the alarm first. Hurry! We can’t risk someone finding us with an unconscious guard.”

  Faith lifted her hand to the door and hovered around the edge until she found something. Her hand followed an unseen line and then she slapped the wall and concentrated. A loud POP exploded inside the wall. “Should be good now.”

  Cole reached out to the huge oak French doors. He pushed them open with ease. Josh lifted the guard by his arms and dragged him. When the doors were shut again and my eyes adjusted, I saw the towering ornate beauty of the dark cathedral. But like the park, there wasn’t time to linger.

  “Head to the left.” Ilya led the way and we followed down a corridor to a stairwell which wound upward.

  “Is this the right room?” said Josh as we emerged in an oversized attic. I squinted up into the rafters praying I would see two hanging humanoid bat shapes. It was too dark. I couldn’t see. I glanced over at the flower windows. They were the same as my vision.

  “Yes, but I can’t see them. They’re not here,” I said desperately.

  “I can’t see them either,” said Melissa. Her voice sounded tense.

  “Ilya, are you sure this is the tower?” said Josh.

  SCREEEEEEE pierced our ears as the whooshing sound of flapping wings exploded over our heads.

  Josh fired a dart into the flurry of leathery cloaks beating above us.

  “NOOOOoooooo!” screamed one sister as the other fell.

  Melissa whipped her head up and made eye contact with the harpy still in the air. She raised her gun and fired, hitting the winged woman squarely in the chest. She went limp and fell to the ground a few feet from her twin.

  We stood in shock for a moment, each catching our breath. Cole snapped out of it first and picked up a sleeping harpy, carefully folding up one wing after the other, tucking her leather appendages up against her back. With his left arm around the girl, Cole plucked a long copper pipe off a nearby pile. He wound the pipe around the winged woman forming a spiral around her body. Cole dropped her to the ground, asleep and trapped. Josh lifted and presented the other sister to Cole, who wrapped another pipe into a matching coil.