Project Chimera
Page 27
“What does she want?” muttered Dr. Goldstein. “Did they leave her behind? I thought they were all gone by now.”
“She’s been kind to us,” said Dr. Sharma. “Maybe she needs help.”
“She was nice to us, too,” Maria said. “In the end, anyway.”
Dr. Sharma furrowed her brow. “Maybe . . . maybe she stayed behind on purpose.”
“He’ll hunt her down,” murmured Mr. Wilde. “She’s one of his most valuable soldiers.”
“Do you trust her?” Mrs. Wilde asked them.
“All I know,” said Mr. Wilde, “is that she caught me working on the secret device and didn’t turn me in. And she’s protected us more than once. So I think . . . maybe . . . yes. We should at least see what she wants.”
“All right,” said Mrs. Wilde. “If she’s coming in peace, you can bring her up here. Mac and Maria, go with Charles to protect him, just in case. Charlie, don’t forget you’re not wearing a device at the moment, okay? Stay clear in case we have a problem, because there are a lot of soldiers who would love to take you out when you’re powerless, after what you did to them.”
“Yes, Mom,” said Charlie, feeling lost without her device now.
Mr. Wilde, Maria, and Mac went down to the entrance of the building, leaving Charlie and the others to wait anxiously for information. Several minutes later they returned with Zed. Mac had his protective suit on, but his claws weren’t out. They marched her into the room.
“She wants to talk to all of us,” said Mr. Wilde. They gathered around.
“Thank you for seeing me,” Zed said. And then slowly she pulled off her goggles and used her fingernail claws to lift the facial portion of her bodysuit. She pulled it off and shook like a cat. On her head was thick, black cat hair, shiny like a panther’s. Her ears came to a point and her nose was shaped like a cat’s. Unlike Prowl, her deep brown facial skin was free of any sort of fur, but she had a set of long whiskers that twitched. She was beautiful.
The woman looked straight at the biologists. “Do you recognize me?” she asked hesitantly. “It’s good to see you again.”
Dr. Sharma squinted at the soldier. “Nubia?” she cried. “What on earth?”
Jack stared. “Nubia,” he said. “I—I don’t know what to say. I didn’t realize . . . What has Gray done to you?”
From near the partition Charlie stared. It wasn’t too weird to see an animal-person hybrid anymore, especially since Maria had become one, but this was a bit of a shock. Apparently Zed was the missing Dr. Nubia Jakande.
Maria’s eye’s widened.
“Yes, that’s me,” said Nubia. “This is where I’ve been for some time.”
“Willingly?” asked Dr. Goldstein, his critical gaze nearly boring a hole in the soldier.
“Yes,” said Nubia again. “I believed in Dr. Gray’s plan in the beginning. I offered to be his first test subject.” She lifted her chin. “But I don’t support him anymore.”
Mr. Wilde pulled up a chair for their visitor, and she perched on the edge of it, seeming a bit uncomfortable now that everyone was staring at her.
“Why are you here?” Dr. Sharma asked.
“I want to join your side if you’ll have me. I understand if you won’t.”
“Why now?”
“I’ve wanted to escape for a while. This was the only time I could get away without Victor coming after me. With everyone scattered and the lab in chaos, I took my chance and hid while they were rounding up soldiers. All those eyes watching—there was never an opportunity before now.”
“Do you know where Dr. Gray is going?”
“No—not yet, anyway. I might have a way to find out. I can’t speak about that yet, though.”
Dr. Sharma narrowed her eyes. “How can we trust you?”
“You know me, Quinn. What Dr. Gray told the kids in the vault today—I was around the corner, listening. I didn’t know any of that! Changing everyone in the world to chimeras? Against their will? You know I wouldn’t want that. I didn’t realize what Gray had become. I guess . . . I guess I was too close to see it. When he asked me to join him, I had no idea what his grand goals were. I should have seen it, but I was tempted by the offer—since our original project was shut down before human trials began, I was excited to experience the results of all of our work.” She paused and said softer, “Once he changed my DNA, I couldn’t go back to my old life. I gave it all up for this.”
She hung her head. “Now that I’ve left him, I can’t return. I took the chance, anyway. My life,” she said, sweeping a hand over her suited body, “is possibly ruined forever. Will you let me help you stop him? May I join your side?”
The other biologists grilled the cat woman for a long time. She answered everything without hesitation, and finally the doctors conferred.
“We’d like to have you join us,” Dr. Wilde said finally. “We could certainly use your help.”
“Thank you,” said Nubia with a breath of relief. She turned and looked around. “And now I should apologize to the kids.” She spied Charlie standing back by the partition.
Charlie stepped forward and joined Maria and Mac, keeping her hands clasped behind her back to hide her bare wrist, just in case this scientist was bluffing and was about to attack. Charlie didn’t trust anybody anymore.
“I’m sorry for fighting against you,” said Dr. Jakande. “I hated doing that. I will never hurt any of you again. I promise you that.”
“I’m sorry for kicking your butt,” said Charlie. Mac snorted and Maria nodded.
Nubia laughed softly. “Yes, you did do that. Very competently, I might add.” She paused, looking at the kids. “All right. Is all forgiven? Can you work with me?”
Charlie and the others nodded. She found herself smiling and thinking she was going to like the new member of their team. “Just one more thing,” she said, glancing at Maria, who’d remained wide-eyed and hopeful since Dr. Jakande’s identity had been revealed.
“What is it?”
“Since you made the Mark Two, do you know of a way to reverse the effects and fix my friend, Maria, so she stops turning into a weremonkey? It’s wrecking her social life pretty badly.”
This time Nubia let out a hearty laugh. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been secretly working on something similar for myself for months to see if I can undo what Dr. Gray’s Mark One did to me.” She opened a pouch on her suit and pulled out some components. “With a little help from my colleagues, it won’t take long to finish.”
Maria grinned. “That’s fantastic!”
Dr. Jakande placed a hand gently on Maria’s shoulder, her clawed fingernails retracted. “And maybe we can alter your device to make it so you can turn it on and off, like with the Mark Three. That way you can still use it to fight Dr. Gray, because you’ve become really skilled with it. Sound good?”
Maria’s face flooded with relief. “That would be amazing.”
CHAPTER 44
A Disappearing Act
Reality returned to Charlie and her friends. They packed up everything that night and went home. Nubia and the other scientists started their search for a new location to set up a lab, and the other kids went to their respective homes, feeling relief for the first time in nearly two weeks. The next day, Sunday, the three hung out in Maria’s shed in her backyard and speculated about Kelly.
“She hasn’t responded to any of my text messages since yesterday,” Maria said.
“Mine either,” said Mac.
“I told her that Andy was okay and that I didn’t hate her,” said Charlie. “She didn’t answer that one either.”
Despite that, Maria seemed certain Kelly would come to her senses and go home. “I’ll bet you five bucks we’ll see her in school tomorrow,” Maria said. “With soccer practice and auditions for The Sound of Music, there’s no way she’ll miss it. Her fans will demand it. Trust me.”
“I think she has new fans now,” said Charlie, feeling a bit glum. Somehow she knew that they might never see Kelly again.
“Do you see that?” Charlie said, looking closely at her. “Are my eyes going crazy or is she, like, pulsating with weird colors?”
“I see it,” said Mac. “Is her camouflage acting up or something? That doesn’t seem right.”
“I have no idea,” said Charlie. They watched for a moment, and then Kelly stopped pulsating and started heading down the footpath away from school. She broke into a jog, her bright blond hair bouncing against her back.
“Why is she running in that direction?” asked Mac.
“Maybe she forgot something,” said Maria.
“If she did, she’s going to be late,” said Mac.
Kelly didn’t make it back in time for first period.
She didn’t show up for second period either. Or third. Or fourth.
She wasn’t at lunch. And not one teacher mentioned her.
By the time theater class rolled around, Charlie approached Mr. Anderson before the bell rang. He was looking over a script as the students filed in.
“Hi there, Mr. A.,” she said.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Wilde,” he said. “Did you find that thing you were looking for before the break?”
“Uh, yeah, thanks. I was just wondering if you’ve seen Kelly or if you know why she’s not here today.”
Mr. Anderson didn’t look up from the script. “What’s that? Who?”
“Kelly. You know—Kelly Parker. Have you seen her?”
Mr. Anderson glanced up at Charlie, confused. His eyes had a glazed look that Charlie had never seen before. “We don’t have a student here by that name, do we?”
The bell rang. Mr. Anderson put down the script and stood up, clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention.
Charlie stared at him, dumbfounded. It was like he’d been hypnotized. He’d forgotten who Kelly Parker was—his favorite student—and he’d just talked to her earlier that day. Either he’d lost his memory or all of that pulsating with weird colors meant Kelly had a fourth ability that nobody else knew about—not even Dr. Sharma. An ability to make him forget. And if Kelly could use it on Mr. A, she could use it on anybody. Had she done it to her parents to keep them from searching for her? Her other teachers and friends?
What if she could make people forget other things—like the fact that Dr. Gray was going to turn everyone into chimeras?
It was the most frightening thing Charlie could imagine.
She whirled around and clutched her throat, trying not to freak out. Then she ran full speed out of the theater to find her friends and family—she had to make sure Kelly hadn’t found them first.
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About the Author
Photo credit Ryan Nicholson Photography
LISA MCMANN is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books for kids and teens, including the middle grade dystopian fantasy series The Unwanteds. She lives with her family in Phoenix, Arizona. You can follow Lisa on Twitter and Facebook or visit her at www.lisamcmann.com.
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Books by Lisa McMann
Going Wild
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Cover art by Brandon Dorman
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PREDATOR VS. PREY: A GOING WILD NOVEL. Text copyright © 2017 by HarperCollins Publishers. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Brandon Dorman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949434
ISBN 978-0-06-233717-7 (trade bdg.)
EPub Edition © September 2017 ISBN 9780062337191
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FIRST EDITION
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