by Kathryn Hoff
Count on Chubb to spy out people’s little secrets.
He cocked his head. “Don’t forget about the graffiti on the wall, just after you arrived.”
“That was nothin,” Reyna said. “One of those damn End-Timers musta got in.”
Chubb raised an eyebrow. “Not according to Stonehouse. He said nobody got through the fence. It must have been an inside job.”
I counted on my fingers. “The samples ruined. An office trashed. A fire. Graffiti. And now letting Molly out.”
Suddenly, I was worried about more than my reputation. I looked from Reyna to Chubb. “That can’t all be just a coincidence, can it? I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Suppose there’s somebody here who wants to mess things up?”
Deedee fussed and held her arms up to Reyna.
“What is it, sweetie?” Reyna said, picking up the baby. She sniffed. “Oh, hell, she needs a change again. That damn diarrhea comes back every month like clockwork. I don’t care about the rest of it, but if somebody’s making the babies sick, then they’re gonna have to deal with me!”
“Me, too,” Chubb said, picking up Gabe. “But maybe not right this minute. Talk about bad feelings…” He ran for the john, his hand on his stomach.
Great. Now on top of my bruises, I’d probably get a case of the trots.
After they left, I lay in bed and wondered—deliberate sabotage or malicious mischief?
I picked up the thesaurus.
Mischief: naughtiness, prank, devilment.
I couldn’t imagine anybody at the facility who was warped enough to let Molly escape as part of a prank.
Sabotage: subversion, deliberate interference, disruption, vandalism.
Maybe someone hated Molly enough to want to get her killed. Bert Rasmussen hated her, but he was afraid of her. He might be brave enough to poke her with the broom, but he wouldn’t open the door—he’d know she’d be as likely to attack him as to try to escape. Besides, he didn’t have to go in the primate lab at all anymore, so why would he bother?
Quinn and Rico were the only other people who dealt with Molly much, but Quinn had kept her from being shot. He’d certainly been more worried about Molly being hurt than about me. And Rico? I couldn’t believe he’d do something like that. He might think Molly was just a witless animal, but he didn’t hate her. And since I’d come, he didn’t have to do much with her anyway. One of the ECA soldiers? They had no reason.
Maybe it wasn’t somebody who hated Molly—maybe it was somebody who hated me. Who wanted me to be blamed and sent away. The only person who fit that was Bert, since I’d squealed about him mistreating Molly.
Or maybe it was somebody else for some other reason. After all, the End-Timers were often outside the gates. Maybe somebody made it inside and figured letting the lab animals go would…what? Convince us all to turn religious and repent?
None of that made any sense, and I closed my eyes to try to sleep. Besides, with all the guards and cameras, no one could sneak inside.
Cameras!
Of course. I was an idiot. There were cameras in the halls. Once Westerly checked the camera feeds, she would see who snuck into the primate lab last night. Then everyone would know I wasn’t witless enough to leave the key in the lock, and I wasn’t mean enough to let Molly out on purpose. I’d kept my head, called for help, and used my knowledge of Molly’s behavior to help get her under control.
I leafed through the thesaurus, smiling, thinking of toothpaste-smile Quinn, or big old Westerly, or even sick old Mendez standing up at supper and telling everyone I really was a hero.
Heroic: brave, courageous, bold, valiant.
When Paula stopped by after lunch, I told her to check the cameras.
She smiled, but it was a sad smile. “We thought of that. There aren’t any cameras in the labs themselves, just in the corridors and watching the entrances. According to the north hall camera, no one entered the primate lab from the time you left at six-thirty last night until you unlocked the door at seven-forty this morning.”
“That’s not possible. Paula, I didn’t. I didn’t do it!”
“Calm down, honey. It’s perfectly possible. Somebody could have used the back hall that goes to the incinerator. Anybody could have gone from the kitchen or the courtyard into that hallway, and from there into the primate lab. Even from the phage lab, if it was someone with access.”
“Are there cameras in the back hall?”
“There’s one, but it’s pointed at the entrance, not at the lab doors. No one used that entrance last night, but that just proves no one got in from outside.”
“Nobody from outside,” I repeated. That was bad. That meant it had been someone who worked here. “But the cameras must show who was walking around during the night.”
Paula sighed. “Sorry, honey. We watched all the camera feeds. It doesn’t help much. Whoever unlocked the cage could have done it any time after you left it at six-thirty last night. Everyone came to supper, and afterwards people were walking around like normal. Avery, Rico, and I all went to the phage lab at various times in the evening. June went to the iso lab. Tilly and Bert spent time in the kitchen, and of course, the soldiers use that hallway every time they take waste to the incinerator. Even Chubb went to the kitchen during the night, to get a snack and something for the babies.”
“Chubb wouldn’t do something like that.”
Paula said softly, “Somebody did.”
“Quinn still thinks it was me, doesn’t he?”
“You’re the newest one here, the one he knows the least. I’m afraid he doesn’t relate to young people well.”
No kidding. “You like him, don’t you?”
Paula tried to look surprised I would ask. “Of course I do. He’s a talented scientist and completely dedicated to stopping Eclipse.”
“Humph.” I thought he was a lot more dedicated to becoming famous for saving the world.
“Jackie, can you think of anyone here who would have a reason to let Molly out?”
“Only Bert, because he hates Molly, or because he was trying to get me in trouble for squealing on him.”
She shook her head. “Bert wouldn’t do that. He knows if anything happened to Molly, it would be a terrible blow to our research.”
“All I know is, it wasn’t me. Poor Molly. I’ll give her a special treat tomorrow, an apple or something.”
Paula sighed. “I’m sorry, honey. While Molly was sedated, we moved her into the iso lab where we can be sure she’s safe. She’s in the red zone now.”
CHAPTER 17
Conspiracy theory
Molly the hero, locked up in the red zone.
My job caring for her, gone.
Delinquent: hoodlum, miscreant. That’s what Quinn thought of me.
Ambitious: determined, eager, zealous, avid. That’s what I thought of him.
The next morning, I was good and sore, but able to do my job if I didn’t move too quick.
My first job was to help Paula dress for the red zone—for real, this time.
As Paula selected her white suit from the wall hooks, Molly hooted plaintively from behind locked doors.
“Poor thing,” I said. “She must be lonely.” Maybe she thought she was being punished for wandering the halls.
“Ignore Molly and concentrate,” Paula said. “Take your time and follow the steps.”
“You sure you trust me to do this?” I slipped the helmet over her head.
“If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.” Her voice cackled through the air filter.
Once she was suited up, I checked all the seams twice, and then once more, just to be sure. “All set.”
Paula held up a gloved thumb. She used her badge—clipped to her left sleeve—to enter the decon room. I watched through the window as, a moment later, she entered the red zone, calling, “Good girl, nice Molly.”
The chimp’s screeches nearly drowned out Paula’s robot-voice. Was Molly angry at being locked up? Relieved at seeing a person,
even if that person was covered in a white suit? Afraid of whatever medical procedure might come next? Usually, I could understand Molly’s reactions, but this time I just didn’t know.
Feeling blue, I went to the primate lab. Barney was pathetically glad to see me. “Sorry, boy, are you missing your roommate? I miss Molly too.” Someone had cleared away the smashed computer, but the floor still showed traces of blood and crap and glimmers of broken glass. After taking Barney out to his run, I came back to give the place a proper clean. It felt strange to be there with no Molly and no reason for safety precautions.
I’d cleaned Molly’s—now Barney’s—cage and mopped the floor with disinfectant and was coiling the hose when Rico walked in.
“They should have fired you,” he said.
“Go to hell.” I was mighty sick of people thinking I was to blame. “The cage was locked when I left Christmas night. You’ve seen me, tugging on the locks to be sure they’re closed. And even if the key was left in the lock, Molly wouldn’t be able to open the cage by herself.”
“So you say.” He folded his arms, judging.
“Paula says so, too, and she told Westerly.”
“And Westerly believed it?”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?” I hung the hose on its hook and stowed the bucket. “Besides, Molly’s escape isn’t the only suspicious thing that’s happened around here. Think about it—Quinn’s samples messed up, a fire in the men’s room, someone broke into Westerly’s office, graffiti painted on the wall. And the babies being sick all the time? And some of those things happened before I even got here. It makes a pattern, doesn’t it? Like someone’s out to screw with the lab.”
“A pattern?”
“That’s right.” I dropped my voice. “Sabotage.”
“Sabotage?” Rico just stared at me for a moment, like he’d never really seen me before. “Are you sure you didn’t leave the key in the lock?”
“Absolutely.”
“And they’re still letting you work with Bardo?”
“That’s right, in the iso lab.” A place he wasn’t even allowed to go. I wasn’t doing lab work exactly, but Rico didn’t need to know that. “She trusts me.”
Rico stared at the nearly empty supply shelves, rubbing his upper lip as if he was growing a mustache. “You know, you might have something. I hadn’t thought about all those little things together. Of course, any one of them might be just an accident, but when you think about them together, there might be a pattern. A conspiracy.”
Relief washed over me. Rico believed me. That was maybe the nicest thing he’d done since I’d moved in.
“You know, Kennedy,” he said, “we didn’t start off on the best of terms but, really, we’re on the same side. If somebody’s got a campaign to mess with the lab’s work, we have to do everything we can to stop it, don’t we? Maybe if we work together, pool our knowledge, we can figure out what’s going on.”
“Sure,” I said eagerly. Finally, I had an ally in this place. “What about Bert? Do you think he could have let Molly out? To get back at me, or just because he hates Molly?”
“Bert?” Rico glanced toward the phage lab, stroking imaginary whiskers. “I don’t like to say it, but Bert has been acting strange. Quinn says it’s because his daughter was Eclipsed. But you caught him abusing Molly, and he can’t afford to lose his job. Maybe he let Molly loose to discredit you. And what about Tilly?”
I hadn’t even considered Tilly. “What about her? She’s never had anything to do with me or Molly.”
“But she restocks the kitchen all the time, right? She could be doctoring the food, putting laxatives in the pudding or something.”
“Why would she do something like that?” I’d have been scratching my head if my hands weren’t full of bottles of disinfectant.
“Oh, she’s got lots of strange ideas. She listens to the preacher from that End-Timer church. She thinks Quinn’s the devil, claims he seduces girls. She wants Bert to quit, but where would they go? They only have each other now, so Bert puts up with Tilly.”
Good. Another suspect. “She was in and out of the kitchen the night someone let Molly out. She could have used the back passage to get to the primate lab from there.”
Rico brightened. “That’s right! And she could have taken Bert’s badge to open the lab door.”
“But almost anybody else could have done the same. How do we narrow down the suspects?” I asked.
“Like I said, pool our knowledge. I’ll keep my eyes open and let you know if I see anything suspicious, and you do the same. If anybody’s up to no good, maybe we can figure it out together.”
Quinn called from the phage lab, “Rico? Where’s that sample?”
Rico paused long enough to punch my shoulder before hustling out. I took it for a sign of friendship. At last I had someone on my side.
Leaving the primate lab in a better mood, I ran into Private Koh again. She always seemed to be passing through the hall in front of the old locker rooms or patrolling the passageway near the courtyard.
She paused long enough to say, “I’m glad you’re all right. That monkey scared the shit out of Jerry. I had no idea it was so big.”
“Listen, you’re here all the time. Did you see anyone hanging around Christmas night? Somebody who might have let the chimp out?”
“Besides you, you mean? Sorry, I can’t help you. Talk to Sergeant Stonehouse.”
She put a hand on her stomach and grimaced. “I gotta go.” She hustled to the bathroom. That damn virus must have spread to the squadron already.
Sergeant Stonehouse. He’d said not to try to handle things myself. I didn’t have much faith in the ECA, but if there really was a conspiracy to sabotage the lab, Stonehouse would be the person to tell.
In the old principal’s office, Sergeant Stonehouse motioned me to a chair.
“I’m right glad to see you up and around,” he drawled. “You fixing to cause trouble again today?”
“You said to tell you if I saw something that needed doing something about.”
“I’m listening.”
“First, about yesterday. The cage was locked when I left on Christmas night. Molly couldn’t have got free by herself.”
“So you’ve said.”
“What about the other incidents? Quinn’s samples. A fire in the men’s room, graffiti painted on the wall, and someone messed up Dr. Westerly’s office. Don’t you think it all adds up?”
He tugged his ear. “It all adds up to normal carelessness that happens when you got too few people working too hard against a deadline.”
“It’s a conspiracy,” I whispered. “Sabotage.”
Stonehouse leaned forward, fixing me with his stare. “Now listen, Miss Jackie. I know all about them so-called ‘incidents.’ Caught the midnight graffiti painter—culprit identified and confessed, sent to counseling. Doctor’s office, ditto, soldier transferred out. Cigarette butt in the can? Easy to narrow that down, word to the likely suspects to be more careful. Quinn’s samples? Probably just a mistake. Mistakes happen. No reason to think there’s any connection between any of them ‘incidents’ and yesterday’s problem at the primate lab.”
“You’re sure?” It had seemed so convincing. “What about Bert Rasmussen? He was here during all those times, and he has a grievance against Molly and against me.”
“As it happens, I have good reason to know that Rasmussen was nowhere near the primate lab at the time in question. He’s another one I keep my eye on. Your buddy Private Koh could tell you—he spent all evening in the kitchen.”
Oh. So, I wasn’t the only one Private Koh was watching. “What about everyone getting the runs so often?”
“Huh. What do you expect? Bunch of people living so close, and animals too. It’s like a cruise ship—once one gets it, everyone gets it. Leave that to Doc Westerly.”
I slouched grumpily. “You know, if you had more cameras around, like in the labs, we’d know who did it.”
Stonehouse scr
atched an ear. “Well, now. I’m all for more cameras, but Dr. Mendez feels different. Seems the science types don’t like being spied on. ‘Mustn’t create a chilling effect on research.’ But don’t you worry. I got other ways of knowing what goes on here.”
He drummed his fingers on the scarred desk. “Now, Miss Jackie, you’ve done what I asked and come to me with your problems. That’s good. So far, I’m keeping an open mind about yesterday’s monkey business. But if you go spreading rumors or making accusations or trying to make it sound like a big conspiracy, it’s going to sound like you’re making excuses. Savvy?”
“I’m not making excuses! I haven’t done anything wrong. Except…except that one time, losing my temper with Bert.” I felt myself blushing.
He nodded. “That’s right. You make mistakes too. Try not to make any more and stay out of Dr. Quinn’s way. He still thinks you’re to blame for the monkey getting out.”
The graffiti artist had been identified and the soldier that trashed Westerly’s office had been transferred out—my big conspiracy was dwindling into nothing. But one thing I was sure of: somebody had deliberately let Molly out of her cage. And maybe the stomach bug was just an ordinary virus, but was it normal for it to keep coming back?
Chubb and Reyna were fully in the throes of the latest bout of sickness, so I volunteered to bring lunch for all of us from the cafeteria. The selections were a depressing array of easy-to-digest food: chicken and rice soup and green jello for the adults and bananas and rice pudding for the babies.
I packed a tray full and headed for the stairway. As I passed the iso lab, Molly’s sad hoots made me pause long enough to peek in the window.
I couldn’t see Molly from the hallway, but in the prep room, Quinn chatted with Paula as she put away the hazmat gear.
Paula picked up the helmet to place on the shelf, but Quinn stopped her. He leaned over and kissed her on the lips for several long seconds.
Quinn, who maybe seduced young girls. Who maybe already had a couple of kids he didn’t pay attention to.
