Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3)

by Christine Hart

  “If you weren’t a bit freaked out, I’d say you’re not paying attention. Speaking of risk, Josh, be sure you’re in the alley next to the Evonatura entrance. I’ll pop out and grab you if we need you.” Melissa mimicked Sage exactly in appearance and voice.

  “I guess there’s no point in dawdling any longer.” I stood up and stretched tall. The extra height was still weird.

  “We’ll be in and out as fast as we can. And I’ve still got my tranquilizer gun just in case.” Melissa stood and patted where the gun lay concealed under her coat.

  The two of us walked side-by-side down the street and I marveled at how we effortlessly mirrored each other. Ilya and I were twins, but different genders and features had left us feeling distinctly unique in spite of our connection. Today, I felt really close to Melissa although I hadn’t much liked her when we worked at Innoviro.

  At the Evonatura building, we approached smoothly, confidently. I felt proud of my acting ability even though I hadn’t yet said a word to anyone.

  I pressed the call button on the intercom and we waited. And waited. I pressed the button again with dread closing cold fingers around my heart. We waited, probing for some sign of life in the building. I peered through the glass door, eyeing the stairwell and surrounding lobby. I tried the door.

  “They must have already left,” said Melissa.

  “Or nobody’s here yet. Maybe we should just wait here a while.”

  “You can wait here, but now that I’ve seen the stairwell, I can get us into that lobby.” Melissa swooped her arm in front of her as discretely as she could and her silver oval appeared.

  I whipped around to see if we were being watched, by civilians more than anyone else. So far we hadn’t drawn any attention. I turned my focus back to the hallway and another oval hung in the air just ten feet ahead into the lobby.

  “Easy peasy,” said Melissa as she entered.

  I followed and she closed her portal. “What about the alarm? Will it go off if we move around?”

  “We’ll just have to find out the hard way.” Melissa set off up the stairs and I ran to catch her. We passed through the sitting room where I’d seen Ivan and the lab techs lounging. Nobody was in the room, but I felt tense anyway, waiting for someone to appear and attack at any moment. I relaxed as I remembered how easily Melissa could get us out of a tight spot. And our Rose and Sage disguises held perfectly.

  We entered the kitchen and found it empty too. I took off my trench coat and I saw wings unfold in both directions in my peripheral vision. The illusion tricked me to the point that I was surprised when no sensation accompanied my extra appendages.

  “I can’t feel my wings. Can you feel yours?” I asked Melissa.

  “Focus, Irina,” said Melissa in a hushed voice.

  “Focus on what. They’re obviously not here. We missed them.” My heart sank as I accepted that we were too late.

  Melissa continued down the hallway where Casey and the Evonatura administrator Helen had been. I sat down at the small dining table where Gemma had been sipping Tatiana’s hot chocolate. I blinked and blinked, fighting tears. I swallowed and took a deep breath. Gemma was just at Chatham Park, not lost to me forever. To get her back and to stop The Compendium from launching Terra Nova, I had to be stronger than this.

  “I’m going to bring Josh in for a second opinion. Sit tight.” Melissa opened a portal and popped through it.

  The gateway stayed open until a tall dark stranger in a black trench coat stepped out followed by Melissa.

  “You both stay here until I’ve done a full sweep of the entire office,” said Josh, dressed as though he’d just left The Matrix. His unchanged voice gave him away.

  Josh explored the far hallway as Melissa had done. I had no interest in their empty offices anyway. Only my sister and the virus mattered to me.

  “He’s not going to find anything, but he is the expert,” said Melissa.

  “I vote we stick to the plan and go straight to Chatham Park. We’ve still got plenty of darts for the tranquilizer guns. If we can’t convince them we’re Rose and Sage, we can zap Gemma, grab her, and fight our way out.” My fake wings flapped as my animated arms flailed.

  “Remember what I told you about putting Compendium defeat before recovering your sister?”

  “I know, I know. Just let me hope, will you?”

  “I can’t say that I know how you feel. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. But I can empathize all the same.” Melissa’s head snapped to the side as footsteps came down the hall.

  “I’ll clear the rest of the space, but I’m pretty sure you’re right,” said Josh. He took a step toward the sitting room and froze as we all heard a chime and a door close in the distance. A metal on metal sound followed. I couldn’t place what it was.

  “Was that the front door?” Melissa clamped her hand over her mouth.

  “Hide!” I blurted to Josh.

  He darted back around the corner of the hallway past the kitchen.

  Footsteps thudded along the floor and as we stood frozen to the ground in fear, Ralph and Adelaide appeared in the kitchen doorway. A huge green humanoid reptile and half supermodel-half octopus woman glowered at me. I had forgotten how intimidating they were as a pair.

  “What are you two doing here?” Instinctively, Adelaide lifted several tentacles in surprise. She used a tentacle to push a glossy ringlet of hair out of her beautiful brown face.

  “We . . . uh . . .,” I said desperately trying to think of an explanation, or something, anything, that would convince Adelaide I was Rose.

  “We thought there was more clean-up to do today,” said Melissa, doing her best to act natural as Sage.

  “Tatiana is ready to tear you both in half.” Ralph’s words dripped with irritation, but his reptile face remained expressionless. A crisp new Union Jack shirt and dark denim pants would have screamed tourist on anyone other than Ralph.

  “Doesn’t that tell you what kind of a woman she is?” I blurted angrily, still sizing up the reptile man formerly my ally.

  Adelaide’s eyes narrowed and she shuffled forward to examine me.

  “Does it matter what kind of person she is, as long as she gets the job done?” Ralph came closer.

  “Since when did you start caring about Tatiana’s personality?” Adelaide cocked her head to the side.

  “I don’t care. I just want this all to go smoothly, with Terra Nova I mean.” I heard the anxiety rippling through my voice.

  “Well then, you better not pull stunts like not showing up for work. You know you’re supposed to be at Chatham already. You were there at the last staff meeting.” Adelaide didn’t take her eyes off either of us.

  “Nobody knew where you both were. It signified bad news for a while there. I’ll text Casey and let him know we found you and that you didn’t make the trip last night,” said Ralph.

  I watched with wonder as Ralph operated his smart phone with clawed fingers. I hadn’t known that he was capable of the dexterity required. His fingertips, such as they were, moved deftly on the surface of the small glass device.

  “Just think, after Terra Nova is released, you won’t even have to wait for the successful completion of The Compendium to start flying during the day, out in the open. And my days of wheeling around town will be over.” Adelaide poured herself into a loveseat at the side of the room.

  “We’re all anticipating a great deal more freedom.” Ralph put his phone back in his pocket.

  “Well, I guess we should get going.” I clamped my hands together as though the useless gesture might spur us onward.

  “Where to? You got someplace better to be?” Adelaide moved over to the kitchenette fridge, opened the door, and browsed with two tentacles while a third held the door handle.

  “Rose and I were jus
t going to grab some lunch.” Melissa’s words were much more believable than mine.

  “Would you mind bringing it back here? We’d like some of whatever you’re getting. Ivan hooked me up with a new van so we could do the door-to-door thing. Ralph can get me out of the van and into a building, but that’s about all we can manage without making a scene. I never thought I’d say this, but I miss American drive through windows. It made life so much easier.” Adelaide closed the fridge, obviously dejected.

  We all perked up as the alarm’s door chime sounded again.

  “Did you leave the door unlocked?” Adelaide asked Ralph.

  “No, of course not,” said Ralph.

  Adelaide rolled her lovely eyes.

  Footsteps filled the hall again. It was far too much noise for one or even two people. Ilya, Faith, Cole, and Jonah spilled into the kitchen completely undisguised. Ilya looked positively ill. They all stopped short as they saw the four of us, fake Rose, fake Sage, Ralph, and Adelaide.

  “What the hell is this now?” Adelaide slammed the fridge door shut.

  “Sorry . . . I—” Ilya dropped to his knees clutching his stomach. He retched, and then threw up the disgusting remains of his breakfast.

  “He ate a chocolate bar that had nuts in it or something,” Cole explained to me, ignoring Ralph and Adelaide.

  “He’s allergic to cashews!” shouted Faith, glaring at her brother.

  “He dropped our disguises to keep yours going.” Jonah regarded me apologetically. His eyes darted to Ralph and Adelaide, watching them as they glowered at us.

  “So why are you here?” Melissa took a step backwards, preparing for the obvious.

  “We couldn’t be sure Ilya was holding your illusions in place.” Jonah stepped between me and Ralph.

  Ilya groaned and I felt the familiar mist of his illusion fading away.

  “I knew it!” Adelaide glared at me, then Melissa.

  “You brats are a day late and a dollar short,” said Ralph.

  “I think you’d better turn around and go back to wherever you came from. You made a go of saving all those stupid grubby humans. And you failed. You’ll live,” said Adelaide.

  “And nobody else will.” Pipes in the wall groaned as Jonah’s temper rose.

  “You’re such a self-centered bitch!” Faith’s words oozed with hatred.

  “Watch it, punkette. I’m in a good mood today, but you’re changing that.” Adelaide smoothed her hair back with a tentacle.

  “That beak in your throat isn’t enough to save you now,” Faith took a wider stance to brace herself.

  Adelaide’s face lit with shock as Josh jumped out from the back hallway knocking Ralph to the floor. She reared up and opened her mouth wide. Her hooked throat tendril shot out toward Josh, but I was ready. I held my arm out, willing a hard grip on Adelaide’s hook. Josh and Ralph wrestled on the ground.

  Adelaide gave a confused grunt and I lifted my other hand, holding her steady remotely. I could feel her strength while she struggled to break free. “I can’t hold her for long. Somebody better do something!”

  Faith reached out and shot a stream of fire at Adelaide’s hooked tendril which floated in mid-air, held by my sheer willpower. The fire connected with the tendril and ignited with a bright flare. Fire slid along the tendril and down Adelaide’s throat where it whooshed to life, engulfing Adelaide in a flash. Faith watched with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

  “Nooooooooooo!” Ralph broke free from Josh. Cole stepped forward and landed a right hook on Ralph’s jaw.

  Ralph flew high in the air and hit the ceiling with a loud SLAP before he crashed back down to the floor. His long forked tongue slid out of his mouth while his broken body lay motionless. Blood flowed from behind his cracked skull and I knew he was dead.

  Adelaide’s charred body lay in a sprawl of black tentacles. The smoke detector overhead beeped shrilly in our ears.

  “I didn’t mean to kill her. I just tried to burn her beak thing off!” shouted Faith over the alarm.

  “Yeah, well I meant kill Ralph. It was us or them,” Cole grabbed his sister’s arm. I stared at the bodies, my feet glued to the floor.

  “It’s time to go.” Jonah closed the distance between us and grabbed my hand, pulling me back out of the kitchen.

  “Walk, don’t run!” Josh called, while we fled from the building. “We don’t want anyone to notice us.”

  Chapter 8

  We hailed a large black passenger cab on the street outside Evonatura. Melissa slipped into the alley to open a portal to the hostel. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as the others rambled. Should we hide nearby? When would Ilya be well enough for more disguises? Could the police connect anything at that office to any of us? What would happen to Rose and Sage when the hostel staff discovered them? The cab pulled over and everyone shut up. Melissa reappeared loaded up with our luggage. Cole and the driver transferred the bags into the cab.

  “Euston Station, please.” Melissa shut the cab’s front passenger door.

  The air in the cab filled with tension as the vehicle wove through traffic.

  “How much of a lead do we figure Ivan’s got?” Cole sat across from me in the back of the cab, his warm complexion undisturbed.

  “Based on the fact that they didn’t have much more than paper files and computers to clear out here in London, he could have taken off for Chatham not long after we arrived in London,” said Josh.

  “We shouldn’t have wasted time at that club. We should have been scouting Evonatura from the moment we arrived.” I balled my fists and drove them into my thighs, cursing my weakness.

  “Can we finish this conversation later?” Ilya flicked his eyes to the cab driver and gave me a wide-eyed ‘shut-up-and-don’t-incriminate-us’ frown.

  The cab pulled over at the train station and my tension melted into relief.

  “That’ll be ten pounds fifty please, Miss.”

  Melissa paid as we filed out of the cab. She led us to a ticket window where she again paid our way. She doled out six tickets keeping the seventh. “We need platform eighteen. The next train leaves in ten minutes, so we should keep moving.”

  “That’s great timing.” Ilya seemed back to his old self, a small mercy in our mess.

  “Yes, we timed our disastrous encounter with our deadly former friends just perfectly,” said Jonah sarcastically.

  “We’ve been lucky so far, but that won’t last.” Cole shouldered his way through the crowd. His wide frame easily carved a path for the rest of us.

  “I heard Ivan and Tatiana talking about population tests. We should expect a few small incidents before they launch Terra Nova on a widespread scale.” Melissa stopped under a sign for Platform 18. “This is our train. Everyone on board.”

  “Too bad you’ve never been to Chester,” said Ilya as he passed Melissa.

  “You should make us a list of places you’ve been so we know where we can hop to via portal,” said Josh.

  “Yeah, just think of the travel possibilities!” said Faith.

  “Once Terra Nova is neutralized, we’ll have to chase down the rest of The Compendium projects anyway and who knows where that will take us,” I said.

  We made our way through the train car to a pair of empty tables on either side of the car. Two pairs of facing booths were more than enough seating for us. We each stuffed our bags into the net-enclosed overhead shelf and wedged into a booth.

  “I’ll help you get around to Compendium sites as much as I can. The more time passes since I left Ivan and Tatiana, the more I realize I’d been working for the devil.” Melissa sat down next to Josh and re-applied her lip balm. Josh sat a bit taller.

  The train’s electronic bell chimed and we began to move.

  Leaning across the table toward Melissa and
Josh, Cole whispered, “Do you know anything about how contagious Terra Nova is?”

  “I think I saw test results in Compendium docs that compared contagion rates for rabbits and rats. All were between five to ten minutes of exposure to the same air. They haven’t tested extensively on humans yet, at least I don’t think they have.” Melissa knitted her fingers together resting her hands on the table.

  “So it is airborne. We were pretty close to a coyote that contracted and died within minutes of being stung.” Cole rubbed the back of his neck as he fixated on a point outside the window.

  “If even one of us had become a carrier after that exposure, we would know by now. But we have to assume that the bee sting is only how they’ll introduce the virus to a population quickly. It wouldn’t be an effective way to infect masses if that was the only method of contracting the virus.” Jonah spoke as hushed as the rest of us, but still skimmed our surroundings to ensure we hadn’t alarmed anyone.

  I locked my arm in Jonah’s for comfort as I felt a chill shiver through my body. Across from us, Ilya and Faith were cuddled as well. I felt a moment of longing for the European couples’ trip Ilya had promised me.

  Envy roiled in my gut for every other blissfully ignorant group of friends backpacking around Europe. I perused the city as the train plowed through it. I pictured streets full of people dying from Terra Nova and I shuddered again.

  We had four hours to kill before we would arrive in Chester. I didn’t want to spend the whole trip wringing my hands and speculating on just how bloody the end of the world might be. I stood up and fished my tarot cards from my backpack.

  I sat back down and began to shuffle. I tried to picture what might wait for us in Chester and the face of Ivan’s pet snake popped into my mind. Had the snake been named for the town? If so, why? Was the site important?