Imperfect

by Tina Chan

  “Testing Room A seems like a good place to start,” Kristi read the room name off the map.

  Even though it was still early in the morning, the building hustled with activity. Men and women rushed from room to room; some carried stacks of electro-slate and others pushed carts filled with tiny vials. None of the staff gave any of them a second look; after all, what could be so interesting about three window cleaners? Everyone was too occupied with their work to spare even a few seconds to wonder why three teenagers were wandering around the lab.

  Testing Room A proved not to be of much interest. The room was kept at a chilly temperature, but other than that, nothing inside seemed relevant with helping them solve the Disappearance Case.

  “Let’s try the next room down the hall,” Troop said.

  The next room turned out to be a storage room full of empty containers. They made their way down the entire hallway. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary; everything was exactly what Kristi would expect to see in a lab.

  “Do you think the answer to solving the case is actually here?” Chelsa asked fifteen rooms later.

  “I’m positive,” Kristi said.

  “Perhaps we’re looking at the wrong section of the building.” Troop swiveled his head around, searching for other rooms they might’ve missed. “This lab is a decent size and we’ve only explored the West Wing. Let’s move onto the North Wing of the building.”

  Accessing the rooms in the North Wing proved to be harder than accessing the rooms in the West Wing. An ID card scan was required before entering all of the rooms in the North Wing. However, they simply trailed behind distracted workers and slipped into the rooms after them.

  “Let’s follow the man with the bushy mustache,” Kristi whispered to Troop and Chelsa.

  They stuck at a distance of about twenty-feet behind the guy until he paused to retrieve his ID card to enter a locked room. The three of them subtly closed the distance.

  As soon as the man pushed open the door into Lab D, Kristi stuck her foot in front of the door to prevent it from shutting. She waited until the man was occupied with sorting pictures on his electro-slate then pushed the door further open. Troop and Chelsa slithered into Lab D after her and took a look around.

  Along one wall of the lab was a line of cages. Within each cage was a rabbit, cat or mouse. The room currently held thirty people; some people were examining slides underneath a microscope, some recorded data and others conversed with each other.

  “Leave or stay?” Chelsa asked.

  “Let’s stay for another minute,” Troop said.

  Two women discussing something walked in their general direction. Kristi scooted out of the way and eavesdropped on their words.

  The woman wearing a string of pearls in her hair spoke to her colleague, “The results were all promising when tested on the cats and rabbits. The specimen grew significantly thicker hair after DNA patterns on chromosome 19 were altered to increase the division of cells in the follicles.”

  “This sounds good,” replied the other woman. “Have you forwarded the report to the level three testers?”

  “Yes. In fact, I’m going to the level three section in the East Wing right now to check on their progress with DNA modifications for thicker hair.”

  The two of them swept out of the room.

  “From the sound of it, I think the lab is divided into levels or sections,” Kristi said. “If the West Wing was level one and the North Wing—which is where we are right now—is level two, chances are the East Wing is level three.”

  “Seems logical to me.” Chelsa nodded her head in agreement. “Want to move onto the East Wing then?”

  “Sure.”

  Kristi briefly consulted another map conveniently framed on the hallway walls and readjusted their course towards the East Wing. Two guards guarded the doors leading into the East Wing. In order to even enter the East Wing itself, a fingerprint scan to confirm one’s identity was required. Only staff members with a high enough clearance were allowed into the East Wing.

  “Do you think we should bluff our way through?” Kristi asked. “We could say we’re supposed to clean the windows in the East Wing.”

  “Nah. That’s too risky. The guards might verify that with the front desk and our covers will be blown,” Troop said.

  They backtracked their steps, trying to come up with a solution. Kristi spotted a scientist wheeling a cart headed for the East Wing. On the cart were several large cages. One cage contained a sleeping monkey. Three other cages were empty.

  Troop followed her gaze and shook his head.

  “No way. You must be crazy if you think we can enter the East Wing by taking a ride in a monkey cage. The guy will notice us in a heartbeat.” He grabbed onto her arm as if afraid Kristi would bolt off any second.

  The cart-pusher passed. Troop released her arm. Kristi rubbed her arm painfully.

  “You didn’t have to cut off my blood supply to my arm,” she said under her breath.

  “Sorry. Any ideas, Chelsa—ah, Dakota?” Troop hastily remembered to use the name on Chelsa’s Cleandows ID card.

  Chelsa shook her head.

  “It might be easier for us to individually sneak into the East Wing,” Kristi suggested.

  “That’s true,” Chelsa said. “But I’m worried about us splitting up in an unfamiliar building. We’ll be running the risk of not being able to find each other again.”

  “Well, we’re running out of time and options. Distract this guy for me, will you?”

  “Wait, what?”

  Kristi gave Chelsa a small shove into the path of the scientist, hissing, “Just do it.”

  Another man wheeling a cart came their way. There were two dog carriers stacked on his cart. One was empty and the other had a blanket thrown over it, preventing Kristi from seeing the inside of the crate.

  “Sir,” Chelsa called out to the man. “Can you please direct me to the right direction of the West Wing? And also, can you come over here for a minute please? I have a problem with my electro-slate.”

  The scientist walked over to Chelsa. Kristi made sure he was engaged with a conversation with Chelsa then scurried over to the blanket-covered dog crate and unlatched the door. A sleeping Labrador occupied the crate. The dog must’ve been doped up because it didn’t give the slightest hint of activity when Kristi nudged him.

  “Can you re-cover the blanket over the entrance of this dog carrier after I get in?” she asked Troop.

  Troop looked like he was about to argue with her, but she was already sliding herself into the cramped space. Kristi held the door closed and signaled for Troop to hurry up and reposition the blanket back to its original position. She heard Troop step away just as she felt the cart start to move.

  At first, Kristi pressed herself far away from the snoozing dog in case it suddenly awoke. After a few minutes though, she gradually relaxed her guard around the animal; the dog was so out of it she wouldn’t have guessed it was alive except for the fact it was breathing shallow breaths. Good thing I’m not allergic to dogs else I’m screwed.

  Kristi bit her bottom lip and tried to figure out how she was going to get out the dog crate without being detected. Now that she thought about it, her actions had been impulsive and rash. You got yourself into this, she told herself. Now you have to get yourself out of it.

  The movement of the cart came to a stop and she heard a voice demand the man pushing the cart for a fingerprint scan and ID verification. A few seconds later, the cart jolted forward once more.

  “What do you have there, Kenny?” a woman’s voice asked.

  “Just subject 76,” the guy named Kenny replied. “Marilyn requested a dog to be tested for the hair thickener genetic tweaks. Research data suggests doubling the amount of thymine in section F of chromosome 19 increases the rate follicles reproduce their cells. As you know, thick hair is all the rage right now, so this new discovery could lead to some serious profits.”

  “Did
n’t Marilyn just try decreasing the amount of cytosine in section F of chromosome 19 a week ago in order to produce thicker hair in subject 56?” the woman asked.

  “Yes. However, the hair grew too uncontrollably and took up most of the nutrients subject 56 was consuming in order to grow and maintain. As a result, subject 56 became extremely malnourished and died three days ago.”

  “Do you have time for me to show you the latest results in Lab H?”

  “Yeah,” Kenny said. “I just have to transfer subject 76 into Holding Room 3. I’ll meet you in Lab H in a few minutes, alright?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Kenny pushed the cart once more. Then the movement eventually halted and Kristi heard Kenny walk away. She felt her stomach unclench from tension; she had been afraid Kenny would check on subject 76 (the dog) and discover her hitchhiking.

  Kristi listened to her surroundings. It was deathly quiet. However, the air smelled of animals. She pushed open the gate of the dog crate and crawled outside; then she latched the entrance of subject 76’s carrier shut and absorbed the details of her environment.

  Holding Room 3 was filled with cages with blankets draped over them. Aside from her and the sedated animals snoozing in their prisons, the room was empty.

  Kristi patted her pockets and located the micro-fiber sponges stashed in there. She slunk out of Holding Room 3 and pretended to clean a tinted window in the hallway while she waited for Chelsa and Troop to arrive. After several minutes, Kristi tucked the micro-fiber cloth back into her pocket and set off to explore the East Wing for a bit.

  Her first room to check out was Lab E. Lab E was by far the biggest lab Kristi had ever been in. The lab could’ve easily held five hundred people; as of right then, roughly fifty people milled about in it. What really grabbed her attention, though, was the abnormality of the animals being housed in the room.

  As with several of the other rooms Kristi had visited in New Genes Lab, animal cages took up a good portion of the lab. The majority of the animals housed in Lab E were primates with a few canines, horses and colorful, tropical birds sprinkled here and there; they all either looked wrong or acted wrong.

  The chimpanzee to the far right of the room had gold fur. The pony fast asleep beside the golden chimpanzee stood on unnaturally long legs. An orangutan across the room curled its lips at Kristi and her eyes snapped wide open when she realized the eyes of the orangutan were a shocking violet color; she was pretty sure normal orangutans didn’t have purple eyes.

  “Ah-hem.”

  Kristi jumped at the noise coming from behind her. An intelligent looking man with a slightly drooping mustache towered over her. He crossed his arms and a disapproving expression etched into his face.

  “Are you lost?” he asked.

  “No—no I know where I am. I just got lost in my thoughts for a second. I’ll be off to clean the windows now.” She held up her micro-fiber sponges to show that she was here to clean the lab windows.

  Kristi ambled over to a window beside a cage holding a bird whistling a simple tune. She wiped the sponge left-to-right on the glass. A few moments passed and she couldn’t shake off the feeling that eyes were boring into her back. She threw a quick glance over her shoulder.

  A woman in a white lab coat observed her work; at the same time, she was listening half-heartedly to the man who had just spoken to Kristi. The woman caught Kristi staring back at her and gave a smile. The smile the woman flashed her sent shivers running down her spine; although the smile seemed friendly on the surface, there was something sinister about it. Kristi desperately wished Chelsa and Troop were beside her.

  chapter thirty-nine

  [ Troop ]