Project Chimera

  “I don’t remember anybody saying it,” said Maria.

  With Miko in the elevator was the beefy, slow-moving man who had been in the warehouse with the beefy, not-quite-as-slow-moving woman and Prowl.

  “What animal is that woman supposed to be?” Dr. Sharma asked.

  “I’m not sure, but that guy is a cow,” said Charlie, wrinkling her nose.

  “Charlie,” reprimanded her mother.

  “No—literally, I mean,” said Charlie. “When I fought him before, he started lowing like a sick cow. Or a bull, I guess he must be. Right, Mac?”

  Mac sighed. “That would be my guess. I wish I could look it up. I just . . . I really miss my tablet and phone so much.”

  Mrs. Wilde grew concerned. “You don’t have a cell phone, Mac? What happened to it?”

  Mac glanced at Charlie, and Charlie quickly looked down. She hadn’t mentioned this part to her mom originally, and she’d sort of forgotten about it. “The soldiers—they stole his iPad and iPhone,” Charlie told her mother. “We all chipped in to help him get new ones, but he hasn’t dared to tell his mother yet because she was mad about the simulators.”

  “I’m not sure how to tell her they got stolen without her freaking out,” said Mac. “And I don’t think I can buy a cell phone without a grown-up there because of the monthly charges and junk—I don’t know how to do all that billing stuff.”

  Ms. Sabbith turned to Dr. Sharma. “I can hook him up with some new equipment before I head to Chicago, Quinn.”

  “Please do—that would be great.”

  “What’s your phone number, Mac?”

  Mac blinked. “What? What’s happening?”

  “We can’t have you without a cell phone in case something happens,” said Dr. Sharma. “And what if your mother tries to reach you and finds out what happened? You need to act normally, remember? Respond to text messages and phone calls. Be seen working on your iPad if that’s your thing.”

  “Whoa,” said Mac, his eyes growing wide. Maria actually broke out of her somber mood and exchanged a smile with Charlie.

  Mac told Ms. Sabbith his cell phone number. “I can bring money tomorrow,” he said, “but you’ll be gone by then. Do you want me to send it in the mail?”

  Ms. Sabbith smiled and headed for the door. “Don’t worry about it. I figure Talos Global owes you one after all you went through. Or two, in this case.” With a wink she headed to the exit. “Back in a bit. Then I’m off to the airport.”

  Somehow the promise of a new phone and iPad for Mac lightened everyone’s mood, even Maria’s. She almost seemed to forget she could turn into a monkey at any moment.

  Dr. Sharma stayed at the cameras to practice what she’d learned. She zoomed the spider cam in the elevator toward the side of one of the boxes, trying to focus, but the picture quality suffered. “One of the downsides to having a camera lens the size of a pinpoint, I suppose,” she muttered.

  Mac nodded sympathetically.

  Dr. Sharma leaned forward and squinted, trying to make out the word on the side of the box. “What does that say?”

  Maria glanced at the screen. “‘Titanium,’” she said.

  “Yep,” Mac agreed.

  “Ah, yes. I think you’re right, kids,” said the scientist. “No wonder it’s taking them so long to move those boxes. They should have used Cyke to drag them around.”

  “What are they going to do with so much titanium?” asked Charlie’s mom.

  Dr. Sharma glanced at her. “Make more devices, I imagine.” She switched her attention to the hallway roach cam, putting its view in the large center screen, and watched as the soldiers carried boxes down the corridor. She quickly checked the computer’s volume to make sure they could hear if the roach picked up any conversation, then maneuvered the vermin down the side of the hallway in the shadows, following them. They stopped at a door and knocked.

  “That’s the lab door,” Dr. Sharma whispered. She strained to listen.

  A moment later Cyke opened the door, eyed the soldiers, then let them inside the laboratory.

  “All that material headed into the lab—that’s not a good sign,” muttered Dr. Sharma. She tensed, looking for her chance to slip the roach inside, but there were too many feet shuffling around.

  “It’s not?” asked Charlie.

  “Nope.” The scientist moved the roach back to the doorway across the hall from the lab. “The only reason they’d need that much is if they have plans to make a lot of devices.”

  Ms. Sabbith returned from the store with a new iPhone and iPad and presented them to Mac. “All set up,” she said a bit mysteriously, but Mac wasn’t about to question his good luck. Then, unceremoniously, she packed up her duffel bag and said good-bye. “Good luck,” she said earnestly, turning to Dr. Sharma, Mrs. Wilde, and the children. “If all goes well, I’ll be back sometime next week with everything we need to make you better, Maria. Quinn, call me if you think of anything else you need. Are you good with the camera controls?”

  “I’m good,” said Dr. Sharma. “And Mac probably picked up more from the lesson than I did, so he can help.”

  Mac nodded confidently.

  “Thank you for all you’ve done to help us,” said Mrs. Wilde. The kids thanked her too.

  With a wave Erica Sabbith was gone, leaving a scientist, an ER doctor, and three twelve-year-olds to navigate the next steps of their rescue mission.

  A short while later Mac was happily jailbreaking his new phone. Dr. Sharma worked at the camera controls, going over all the commands Ms. Sabbith had taught her. Every now and then she’d mutter, “Now how do I . . . ?” and Mac would look up and remind her what to do.

  Dusk settled and they grew hungry. “Sooo, dinner, then?” said Mac.

  “I’ll go pick something up,” said Mrs. Wilde, tearing her eyes off the ladybug camera screen. “I could stand to do something useful.”

  “Thank you, Diana.” Dr. Sharma told her where to find the restaurant nearby, whose cooking Charlie had smelled a few days before.

  “I’ll go with you,” said Charlie, who was growing bored with looking at blueprints and watching the screens—not much was happening, and they couldn’t hear anything in the lab. And though it was nice to see her father moving around, it was also sort of hard watching him, knowing he didn’t have a clue they were right across the street.

  “I’ll stay here and help Dr. Sharma,” said Mac. He set his phone down and picked up his new iPad and looked at it lovingly, then turned it on for the first time. He was in heaven.

  Maria looked sidelong at Mac, then at Charlie. “I guess I’ll go with you, Charlie.”

  Charlie looked up the menu online and took sandwich orders from Mac and Dr. Sharma, then her mom placed the takeout order through the website. They got ready to go.

  “Stay aware of your surroundings,” Dr. Sharma said. “This part of town is quiet, and the soldiers don’t seem to venture out much on foot from what we’ve witnessed the past two days, but just in case they do, you don’t want them to catch sight of you.”

  “We’ll be careful,” Charlie promised.

  “I’ll make sure of it,” said Mrs. Wilde.

  Mrs. Wilde and the girls went out through the reception area and set off down the hallway to the stairwell, passing a business woman plodding up the stairs along the way, looking annoyed. “Elevator’s out again,” she complained.

  Mrs. Wilde nodded sympathetically. Soon they reached the main floor and exited the back door so they wouldn’t be seen by any of Dr. Gray’s people in the bank building. Under the cover of darkness Mrs. Wilde led them to a small restaurant, which had its door propped open to let in the natural air and perhaps attract a customer or two. The place was empty except for a single worker standing behind a cash wrap and some noise coming from the kitchen. Mrs. Wilde asked about their order, and they waited.

  Suddenly Maria cocked her head to one side as if she could hear something, then turned sharply and stared out the shop window. “Did you
hear that?” She ran to the open doorway and peered out to the right, then to the left.

  Charlie could faintly hear a sad, out-of-tune jingle. She joined Maria. Her mom came over too. “What is it?” she asked.

  Maria’s face fell as the sound disappeared. “It was an ice cream truck. And now it’s gone.”

  Charlie laughed and shook her head, then realized she hadn’t seen a single food truck since she’d left Chicago, so maybe they were a bigger deal out here. And Maria took ice cream very seriously. It made sense, living out here in the desert. She went to the door. “Are you sure it’s gone? Maybe it just stopped.” If an ice cream truck would cheer Maria up, Charlie was determined to find it. Impulsively she went out the door, checking her pocket to make sure she had money, and ignored her mother’s calls for her to return—if she didn’t see the truck, she’d come right back. Then she rounded the corner and nearly ran into somebody under the streetlamp.

  Two somebodies, actually.

  Two very big, beefy somebodies.

  CHAPTER 19

  Monkey Business

  Charlie yelped as she realized who she nearly ran into. She quickly looked away, trying to hide her face from the light. Maybe they wouldn’t realize it was her—the girl who’d slammed their heads together in the warehouse earlier that week. Charlie could only be so lucky.

  “Excuse me,” she muttered, and tried to go back to the restaurant.

  “It’s the girl!” said the bull soldier with a snort. “Grab her!”

  The large woman grabbed Charlie’s arm in a strong, vise-like grip and yanked her back.

  “Ouch! Watch it!” Charlie felt her device grow warm. She punched at the woman’s face, hoping for the strength ability and getting it—and felt her fist slam hard against the woman’s nose, which curved up and ended in a sharp point. The soldier’s head ricocheted back, but she didn’t let go of Charlie’s other wrist. In pain, Charlie shook out her stinging hand and tried to wrench herself away, but she was stuck.

  “Get her, Braun!” The woman shoved Charlie at her companion.

  Braun grabbed Charlie around the waist and lifted her high above his head. Her body was a toothpick in his hands, and he was pinching her tightly. She looked down and noticed he had strange, thick fingers on each hand, like cloven hooves that split open wide.

  “Let me go!” Charlie said. She swiped at his head, but her arms were too short to reach him. She kicked blindly, trying to hit him in the face, and looked frantically toward the restaurant. There was no one in sight. Maria must have listened to Charlie’s mom.

  “Maria!” Charlie shouted. Braun began to lumber slowly back toward the bank building with her in the air overhead.

  A second later Maria appeared at the door. Her eyes opened wide. And then a furry beard sprouted from her chin. “Mrs. Dr. Wilde! Hurry!” she shouted, and dashed out the door.

  Braun swung Charlie around and she lost sight of Maria for a moment until she came full circle. Maria grimaced and yanked her tail out of her jeans.

  “Help me!” shouted Charlie. She reached for one of Braun’s cloven hands and tried prying the hoof-fingers apart using her strength ability. Braun started lowing in pain and he yanked that hand away. Charlie pounded his other forearm and twisted in his grip, managing to loosen herself. She fell hard to the ground as the soldiers turned around to face their new surprise monkey attacker.

  “You leave her alooone!” howled Maria. She ran hard at the soldiers and sprang into the air . . . jumping right overtop of them and landing on the sidewalk. “Whoops,” she said, hopping back up. She turned around and charged again, slamming into the brutes like Charlie might have done. But they went nowhere. Maria bounced off the woman’s chest and landed on her back, the wind knocked out of her.

  “Try doing monkey things!” Charlie said as she jumped on Braun’s back and covered his goggles so he couldn’t see. “Swing and use your feet! Remember?”

  “Right on, right on,” muttered Maria, trying to get her breath back and focus on what she knew she could do.

  Charlie’s mom came running outside. “Charlie! Look out!”

  “I’m trying!” said Charlie as Braun pitched around wildly. “Stay back!”

  “Are you sure?” Charlie’s mom looked on, horrified. She couldn’t help herself and ran up to Braun, kicking him in the leg as hard as she could and slamming her fist into his side.

  “I mean it, Mom!” screamed Charlie. “If you don’t get back, Andy and I will have zero parents. Do you want that?”

  “Okay, good point.” Mrs. Wilde retreated, flinching at every move.

  “Mega!” cried Braun to his fellow soldier. “Where are you?”

  Charlie ripped the soldier’s goggles off and threw them down. Then she pounded his ears, jumped to the ground, and scooted out of reach. She took a running start and slammed into the man, sending him flying into a lamppost alongside the street. He hit the ground hard. Charlie bounced backward from the impact and lost her balance.

  Maria sprang up. Eyeing Braun warily, she took a few awkward hops, then cringed and leaped over him, reaching as high up the lamppost as she could. She grabbed it and stuck there, then began climbing up it hand over hand, slowly at first and then with a bit more ease. As Braun groaned and sat up below her, Maria swung around the pole, flung her feet out, and slammed them into his face. He wavered and fell to the sidewalk again.

  “That’s it!” Charlie said encouragingly to Maria. “Now let’s get rhino face over here.”

  Both girls turned to look at Mega, who began plodding toward them, head down as if to charge. She gained speed. Charlie held fast, pushing Maria behind her a little to protect her.

  Mrs. Wilde was having a hard time watching. “Leave the children alone!” she shouted.

  Mega ignored her.

  Desperate to help, Mrs. Wilde reached into her takeout bag. She pulled out a roast beef sandwich and sent it sailing like a torpedo at the woman. It struck her in the back of the head.

  Mega turned around, confused at first. Then she saw what it was and gasped. “You’re sick!” she said.

  “Now, Maria!” cried Charlie. She charged at the soldier while Maria leapfrogged off Charlie’s back and kangaroo-kicked the woman in the face. Charlie slammed into her and tipped her flat on her side. Mega struggled, her arms and legs flailing, but she couldn’t get up.

  “Let’s go!” said Maria. “Back to, uh, Phoenix!”

  Charlie and her mom gave Maria puzzled looks, but all three of them ran for the corner. They turned it sharply and kept going a good distance out of their way, taking a few extra unnecessary turns in case anyone was tracking them.

  “Are you both okay?” asked Mrs. Wilde, sounding worried.

  “I’m fine,” said Charlie. “Even if I weren’t, I’d heal pretty quickly.”

  “I’m okay too,” said Maria. “No worse off than a tough soccer match, to be honest. Well . . . except for looking like a freak again.”

  “You know what, Maria?” said Charlie, looking earnestly at her friend.

  “What?”

  “You look like a superhero to me.”

  Maria kept hold of Charlie’s gaze, studying her. “You mean it?” she said quietly.

  “I sure do.”

  “Thanks.” Maria looked back at her tail, springing about as they went, and ran a hand over her beard. She made a face, but she didn’t argue with Charlie. And she didn’t start crying.

  A moment later Charlie asked her, “Why did you say we should go back to Phoenix? That’s an hour away.”

  “I don’t know. I was trying to throw them off, I guess. I mean, they’re going to report back to Dr. Gray that they saw us near their lab, so now we’ve got a big mess on our hands. I figured if I gave them some false information, they might be dumb enough to believe that we were just in the neighborhood by accident.”

  “That was quick thinking,” said Mrs. Wilde.

  Charlie agreed, but she was still unsettled by the soldiers having seen them.
They’d been to her house and Maria’s already, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t come after them if they wanted to. Still, she didn’t want Gray to feel threatened or to suspect just how closely they were watching them.

  Her mom drew up to a corner of a building near home base and peered around it to see if the coast was clear. Coming quickly toward them was Dr. Sharma. Mrs. Wilde stepped out and waved her down.

  “Are you all right?” asked Dr. Sharma. “The cardinal camera showed two big soldiers leave the bank building. Once I realized they were heading in the same direction you went, I started to worry. When you didn’t return, I decided I’d better check on you.”

  “We’re fine,” said Charlie. “Just a little banged up. No big deal.” The others nodded. “Where’s Mac?”

  “I left him to monitor the cameras,” said Dr. Sharma. “So they fought you? They recognized you?”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” said Charlie. “I made a mistake going out of the restaurant alone. I’m really sorry.”

  Maria comforted Charlie. “It’s my fault, actually,” she said.

  Dr. Sharma’s brow furrowed. “No need to blame anyone. It happened. It just puts a bit of a wrench into things.” She grew thoughtful as they hurried down the alley toward their building, everyone feeling a little tense in the darkness.

  Charlie was thoughtful too, suddenly struck by one of those surreal moments where you look at yourself and think, How did I get here? Is this my life? “So many weird things are happening,” she mused. “It’s like we suddenly entered a totally different world that I never believed could exist, but here we are, in the middle of it. It’s like finding out aliens live among us. Or—”

  “Or human-animal hybrids are just the beginning of your problems?” said someone with a strange purring voice from behind a Dumpster. The voice was familiar—a little too familiar.

  Everyone froze. Soon a pair of glowing green eyes shone like reflectors in the moonlight. Prowl, his goggles atop his head, moved into the alley, staying near the shadows of the building. Charlie’s bracelet pulsed with heat.