Project Chimera

  A new, deeper understanding began to dawn on Charlie. “Wow. You’re right,” she said softly. “I can’t imagine how that feels. I’m . . . really sorry. I don’t know what I’m talking about at all.”

  Maria nodded. “Thanks,” she said. “That means a lot. Do you think I can spend extra time with you this week? Then at least if I change again . . . I’ll be with people who won’t freak out.”

  “Absolutely,” Charlie promised, feeling sure her mother would agree. “We’re going to do everything we can to help you.” But both of them felt like they weren’t any closer to a solution.

  They walked to first period together, uncharacteristically quiet, and met up with Mac and Kelly.

  Kelly seemed off that morning, too—in fact, she’d seemed a little off ever since Wednesday at Charlie’s house. Charlie figured today she was really moody about having to go to Cabo.

  “So,” Charlie asked brightly, “are you all packed for your trip?”

  Kelly shrugged and averted her eyes. “I guess.”

  Charlie glanced at Mac, who was making a “don’t talk about that” face. Charlie raised her eyebrows and fell silent. Maria remained glum and didn’t say anything, so Mac and Charlie eventually went to their seats at the back of the room before the bell even rang.

  “Tense,” muttered Charlie to him.

  “Yeah. Maria too—what’s up with her?”

  “She’s really upset about the monkey stuff,” said Charlie. “Worried, scared, all of that. She’s feeling pretty bad.”

  “But Dr. Sharma is working on fixing it.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t help for now, when she could change at any second. She’s scared.”

  “Maybe we need to help her get her mind off it,” said Mac.

  “Maybe,” said Charlie as the bell rang and their teacher walked in. But she doubted that would help. Their friend was in a really hard spot, and Charlie didn’t have time to explain just how bad it was at the moment.

  First period dragged, and so did second. In anticipation of spring break, kids were more rowdy than usual, but the four friends weren’t feeling it. They split up after second hour as usual, and Charlie walked to third period behind Kelly since it was so awkward walking next to her when she’d hardly speak. She took the opportunity to cram for her social studies test as she passed from one building to the next across the courtyard.

  During the test Charlie’s mind wandered. She couldn’t stop thinking about her father and how awful he’d looked tied up in that chair. But seeing him had given her some sense of relief, too. At least she knew that he was okay. Charlie didn’t ace the test, that was certain. She handed it in feeling a bit numb and just hoped she’d passed.

  In fourth period, when her teacher showed a film, Charlie’s mind traveled to her friend again. How awful it must be for Maria to walk around every second of the day hoping not to grow a tail and a beard of fur. And it must be nerve-racking for Maria to fear that it could happen in front of her parents and cause a huge amount of trouble. Not to mention in front of friends at school or even strangers—who knew how people would react to that? One accidental transformation in public could change Maria’s life forever . . . and not for the better. If Dr. Sharma couldn’t fix the problem, would Maria be forced to wear one of those suits like Dr. Gray’s soldiers in order to hide the truth?

  Granted, it wasn’t quite as bad as being one of those permanently altered soldiers. If Maria could stay calm, changing into a howler monkey wasn’t likely to happen. But Maria was not the kind of person who liked to be told to remain calm. That was impossible for a passionate person like her. It was only a matter of time before the power kicked in again. The only question was when.

  At lunch Mac tried to distract Maria by talking a lot about how cool the insect cameras were and how he hoped Dr. Sharma and Ms. Sabbith would let him have a chance at the controls. Maria remained subdued. She hadn’t changed into a weremonkey all morning, and it seemed she was determined to continue that streak by locking in all her feelings and emotions. She wasn’t herself at all.

  Charlie engaged with Mac halfheartedly, shooting sympathetic looks at Maria every now and then. She was beginning to feel helpless about making Maria feel better. Mac eventually quieted too, sensing the mood, and seemed a bit stumped about what to do.

  In theater class Mr. Anderson went over the passages that the actors needed to memorize for the auditions. The rest of the day crawled, including Charlie’s second test in language arts. Thankfully there were no soccer practices or games until school was back in session.

  Once the final bell rang, the kids were done. Charlie, Mac, and Maria met up outside the main entrance before heading home. Excited students ran past them. Then they spied Kelly walking out of the building with her head lowered.

  “Have a safe trip, Kel,” said Maria, going up to her. “Try to have some fun. Maybe the ocean won’t be so bad.”

  Kelly stopped walking. “Maybe,” she said with a sigh. “At least I’m getting away from my dad’s yelling for a while. I suppose that’s something.”

  Charlie’s heart twinged. Kelly didn’t seem to like either of her parents at all. And her parents obviously didn’t like each other either or they wouldn’t be getting divorced. It would be really hard to live like that. “I’m sorry,” she said impulsively.

  Kelly shrugged like it didn’t matter, but she still wouldn’t look Charlie in the eye. “See you,” she said stiffly. “My plane leaves in a few hours, so . . . bye.” She started walking home, leaving the three friends standing there watching her go.

  Charlie turned to the others. “Don’t forget you can spend as much time as you want this week with me and my mom,” she reminded Maria. “You too, Mac, if you want to.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” said Mac. “The insect cams are practically calling out to me. Learning how they work is my new purpose in life now that I don’t have a device anymore.”

  “And we want to help rescue your dad, of course,” said Maria.

  “Cool,” said Charlie with a smile. “We’ll pick you up from Maria’s after we drop off Andy.”

  They both nodded. Charlie left them, heading home, and Mac and Maria went toward Maria’s house. The best friends knew exactly how they’d be spending their spring break. Hanging out with Charlie and Dr. Sharma, working to free two captured biologists from a mad scientist. And trying to keep Maria from turning into a weremonkey in front of her parents. You know, normal stuff.

  CHAPTER 18

  Trying to Be Patient

  With everything Andy had witnessed over the past few days, Mrs. Wilde seemed relieved to have him spend time with Juan’s family for a while. When Charlie got home from school, she and her mom helped him pack. Then they grabbed his sleeping bag and pillow and threw everything into the car. Charlie and her mom waited while Andy gave extended hugs to Fat Princess and Jessie and a short hug to Big Kitty, who didn’t care for the extended kind. Finally he declared he was ready to go to Juan’s house. He climbed into their Subaru.

  Charlie got in, too, since she and her mom were going to pick up Maria and Mac and head straight to home base after they dropped Andy off.

  “Just remember not to talk about any of this,” Mrs. Wilde told him as they neared Juan’s house.

  “I know,” said Andy. “I haven’t told anybody. Text me if anything happens with Dad.”

  “I will,” Mrs. Wilde promised. “And if you get worried and need to talk about it, you can tell Juan you want some private time and you can FaceTime me or Charlie. But just try to have fun.”

  Andy smiled. “Okay, Mom.”

  Mrs. Wilde pulled up to the curb in front of Juan’s house. She leaned over to kiss Andy good-bye in the privacy of the car, then she and Charlie got out and helped bring his gear over to the camper in the driveway. Juan’s mom, Alejandra, was loading groceries from her car into the camper, and Juan was climbing inside carrying a stack of board games. As they greeted Alejandra, Juan set his pile down and came bouncing
out to help Andy carry his stuff inside.

  “Thank you so much for inviting Andy,” said Mrs. Wilde.

  “Juan is so excited Andy could come after all,” said Alejandra, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear and grinning as the boys disappeared into the camper, talking a mile a minute. “I’ll text you our campsite location once we get to Sedona. We’re not quite sure when we’re coming back. If the weather is good and the boys are having fun, we won’t return until next weekend sometime.”

  “Plan on that!” called Juan from the camper. The moms laughed.

  “Anything works for us,” said Mrs. Wilde. “Just text me when you roll back into town. I’ll come pick him up.”

  “Sounds great. I’ll keep you posted.” Alejandra turned as the boys came tripping out again.

  Andy wore an impish grin that Charlie hadn’t seen in a while. It made her feel even better about him getting away from the seriousness. “Text us some cool photos,” she said. She gave her brother a side hug, and then he hugged their mom too.

  “Bye!” he called as he and Juan went back inside the camper. Charlie and Mrs. Wilde waved and headed back to the car.

  “Whew,” said Mrs. Wilde when they were on their way again. “I’m glad for him.”

  “Me too,” said Charlie. “One less person to worry about.”

  “That’s exactly how it feels.”

  They picked up Mac and Maria and finally the four of them were heading to the business park.

  As they pulled into the lot behind home base, they spotted two black-suited soldiers in the shadows of the deserted alleyway next to the bank building, sneaking cautiously out of the white van and carrying in a few boxes. Everyone stayed in the car until the coast was clear. Then they hurried inside. They took the elevator up to the sixth floor and went down the hall to the home base office. “We did a lot of work in here today while you were in school,” Mrs. Wilde told Charlie.

  The reception area looked the same as before, but the surveillance area had been transformed. One part of it had been partitioned off as a sleeping room with two cots. In the remainder of the space all the tables, chairs, equipment, and supplies were set up and organized. The monitors hung on the wall between the windows, with the large one in the center, each screen displaying a different drone’s view. Instead of the temporary shade that Ms. Sabbith had put up the previous day, all the windows now had some sort of shaded film on them. There was a table for the bank building’s blueprints, and Dr. Sharma’s desk was covered in research papers and files. The woman sat there organizing things, the drawer standing open. And there was the surveillance control table, where Ms. Sabbith had set up the laptop computer that was tied to the drones.

  “Welcome back,” said Dr. Sharma, standing up. As she closed the desk drawer, Charlie caught sight of the two devices inside. Dr. Sharma locked the drawer and put the key into her pocket. She went over to the surveillance area. “Erica’s been teaching me how to control the drones. She’ll be flying back to Chicago this afternoon to start gathering up the supplies we need.”

  That seemed to cheer Maria a bit. The three kids and Mrs. Wilde went over to the control table to watch. Mac was instantly glued to the lesson and Maria looked on eagerly as well. After a while Charlie grew bored and discovered the pile of blueprints on the table nearby. She went to check them out.

  Mrs. Wilde studied the monitors for a moment. “Anything new happening over there?”

  “A lot since you left,” said Dr. Sharma. “We were right about our hunch. Charles and Jack are working on something along with Victor. Look.” She hesitated, looking at the keyboard, then typed a few commands as Ms. Sabbith pointed them out to her. The large center screen switched to give them the ladybug’s view through the lab window. It was extra grainy because of the dust powdered on the window—an Arizona desert staple—but the scene was easy enough to make out. Dr. Goldstein sat in a chair at a low workstation, hunched over it and looking terribly weak. Charlie’s dad was standing at a lab table next to him, working on something very small with a tweezers-like instrument. Dr. Gray stood across the table from him, examining something. A female soldier was working with them as well. Occasionally they appeared to be chatting. Scattered around the room were a few more soldiers.

  “Kids, do you recognize this brute guarding the door?” asked Dr. Sharma, pointing to the lab’s entrance on the wall opposite the windows.

  “That’s Cyke,” said Charlie and Maria in unison. Cyke was unmistakable. He stood several inches taller than most people, and his shoulders were huge and broad and muscular. His mouth and nose protruded slightly more than an average person’s. Watching him up close on the monitor, they could see he had an occasional nervous tic in the form of a full body shudder that sent his muscles rippling under the fabric. Every now and then he moved side to side a bit restlessly.

  “Tell me about him.”

  Ms. Sabbith showed Dr. Sharma how to zoom in on the soldier and take electronic measurements and screenshots of the man.

  “He’s huge,” said Charlie.

  “Yeah, and really strong,” said Maria.

  Charlie nodded. “He can run pretty fast but not like, you know, a cheetah.”

  “But the dude cannot climb trees,” said Maria, shaking her head.

  “Right,” said Charlie. “Not at all! Thank goodness.” She recalled Tuesday after school when she’d had Maria on her back, climbing the palm trees by the church near Maria’s house, with Cyke chasing them. They’d thought for sure they were goners, but Charlie had scrambled up and out of reach, and Cyke had failed to shimmy up the tree even a short distance. He’d stayed on the ground and resorted to shaking the trunk instead.

  “Interesting,” mused Dr. Sharma, straining her eyes at the screen. Then, with Ms. Sabbith’s guidance, she tapped a few keys on the computer to try to get a clearer closeup shot. “It looks like his face is unusually shaped. Any idea what hybrid he is? I’d like to start figuring out all the soldiers so we know what abilities they might have.”

  “I don’t know,” said Charlie, “but he snorts.”

  Mac looked at her. “He snorts?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hmm.” Dr. Sharma reviewed her notes and then, looking at the screenshots she’d taken, pausing on one where they could see Cyke’s profile. She zoomed in on his face, and they could see the outline of huge nostrils and teeth. “What has nostrils like this?” Dr. Sharma asked to herself more than to the children.

  But Mac was totally on it. “Seems like a horse to me,” he said. “Look at him when he does that shuddering thing. It’s like when a fly lands on a horse and he can’t swipe it away with his tail.”

  “I think you might be right, Mac,” said Maria, thinking it through. “He’s very horselike. Running at a gallop, the strength . . .”

  “And not being able to climb a tree,” said Charlie.

  “Good call,” said Dr. Sharma. She began putting the screenshots and measurements into a desktop folder and labeled it “Cyke: Horse-Human Hybrid.” “I wonder why he picked a horse? Seems like an odd choice.”

  “Easy access to DNA?” guessed Ms. Sabbith. No one else had an answer.

  “Which insect cams have microphones again?” asked Mac.

  “The roach,” said Ms. Sabbith, “which is currently stationed in the hallway, and the dragonfly, which we have positioned in Dr. Gray’s office. That’s where Charles and Jack sleep at night. I’m hoping we’ll catch some of their conversations now that Jack seems to be conscious and moving around. Gray isn’t gagging them anymore, but he still ties them up at night.” She paused. “I think we’ve got eyes on everything, though I’m not sure where the soldiers sleep or eat. Maybe on the other floors. But I don’t care about those rooms. We’re focusing on the places where the doctors spend time. At the moment I’m waiting for an opportunity to get the roach into the lab so we can hear what’s going on in there. But because it’s big, and because it’s a roach and everybody hates them, I have to be very careful to kee
p it hidden. We don’t want anybody freaking out and stomping on it, trying to kill it.”

  “Can’t you sneak it under the door like you did in that other room off the hallway?” asked Charlie.

  “I tried last night after you left. But the lab door is sealed too tightly and the roach doesn’t fit underneath. So I’ve got to go in when the door is open.”

  Mac frowned. “Can you take the roach in through the air ducts like you did with the dragonfly?”

  “Not really. It’s a little heavy because of the microphone, and I don’t trust it to climb walls or walk on ceilings or balance on vents. It does better on the floor.”

  “I know you’re still working out a few problems,” said Mac, “but this is seriously so cool I can’t stand it.” His eyes gleamed as he watched everything Ms. Sabbith was showing Dr. Sharma.

  “Did you happen to see the soldiers bringing in boxes?” Mrs. Wilde asked Dr. Sharma. “We saw them when we got here.”

  The scientist pointed to the spider’s camera view, which was from the rear upper corner of the elevator. “Yes, I was watching them pile things up at the door on the cardinal cam. They’ll be calling the elevator down soon. Let’s see if Spidey here can get a look at what’s in the boxes.” She adjusted the spider cam slightly and waited.

  Soon they saw the elevator door open. The two soldiers started piling boxes inside. One was a small female soldier who was bouncing around a little from one foot to the other. She was definitely familiar. Now that Charlie wasn’t under attack, she could study her a bit better and noticed that her arms were especially long for a woman her size. Charlie leaned forward. “That’s Miko,” she said. “She’s the chimp who was with Cyke and the catlike soldier.”

  “Catlike—are you talking about Prowl?” asked Dr. Sharma. “The leopard man you told us about from the warehouse?”

  “No, there was another kind of cat in the first fight Maria and I had. Smaller but her claws were really sharp. I think she’s that woman by the lab table with my dad and the others. I don’t know her name. Do you, Maria?”