The Shadow Project

by Cecilia Dominic

  The edges of the not-so-false back lined up so flush I almost broke a nail trying to find and pry them apart. There had to be a lock somewhere, but where?

  Finally, I found a tiny hole in the side, and with the help of a paperclip and another unlock spell, I got the front to pop off. A small compartment held handwritten notes and messages to Lawrence. The first didn't seem that bad…

  Lawrence,

  The deadline is getting closer, and I haven't seen the files. How is your end of the project going?

  — G

  What in the world made that a secret document? And who was G? I kept reading.

  Lawrence, I've told you that the protocol you're suggesting will never fly with C. Stop insisting, or he'll discover what you and I have been planning.

  All right, but what protocol? Where were his notes?

  Then, something more sinister.

  Lawrence, I've become aware of the missing item and attempted to report it as per protocol, but the system was down. Do you know anything about it? I thought we weren't supposed to deliver until a week from Thursday. Please clarify.

  Could the missing item be the CLS viral vector sample? And could G be John Graves? The handwriting looked masculine. Were Lawrence and John the ones who had stolen the vector and delivered it to Cabal Laboratories? Why would Lawrence have kept the notes, though? Was he intending on double-crossing John?

  That would make sense for a gargoyle. But to what end? He'd be implicated, too. Or was he planning to cut a deal?

  I took pictures of the messages, replaced them and the door, and then closed the drawer and locked it back up. He'd never know we were there.

  My stomach rumbled, but I knew I didn't need to eat. Sir Raleigh had gotten restless and hungry, so we returned to the laboratory part of the office, where I found some kitten kibble for him. He ate daintily in spite of his gnawing hunger pangs. Again, what sort of creature was he? What type of cat could disappear and reappear? A troublesome one, to be sure, but I felt like I missed something big and obvious.

  Thinking of the mystery surrounding Sir Raleigh brought my thoughts back to Lawrence and John. What had they been conspiring to do? And were they working against Cimex? Disappointment made a surprising and heavy weight in my chest. I should be thrilled to find out Lawrence would end up being yet another traitorous gargoyle, but I found myself less happy than I expected. And what about John, with his sweet wife and daughter? He must be putting his family at risk.

  After Sir Raleigh finished his kibble and drank some water, I decided to go back to the hotel. No cell signals got through to the clinic, so we took the elevator to the top floor and walked through the glass doors into the night. To my dismay, I found a familiar vehicle parked in front of the building.

  Lawrence leaned against his car, arms crossed, and an unhappy expression on his face.

  "And just what do you think you’re doing?"

  11

  "N-nothing," I lied and gave him what I hoped was a winning smile.

  "Then perhaps you'd like to explain how the cat is on your shoulder and not in the incubator or hooked up to the monitor." He held up his phone. "I had just gotten home when all the alarms went off." He looked every inch the grumpy gargoyle.

  So he wasn't upset over me snooping… Phew. Not that I felt badly about my actions. I'd never had a guilty conscience and didn't plan to start now.

  And…maybe I could work this to my advantage. I couldn't confront him with what I'd found without revealing my guilt, but perhaps I could earn his trust and charm it out of him. That would, of course, mean having to put aside my aversion to gargoyles, but I could deal if it meant I'd get answers.

  "Do you have anything to say?" he asked. "I told you to call me if something changed."

  "No," I said and drew out the vowel as seductively as I could. "You told me to call if something went wrong. There's a difference. Sir Raleigh made a miraculous recovery thanks to your quick thinking and care."

  He gave me a look full of suspicion and no charm, but he didn't argue. "Then you wouldn't mind me taking a look at him."

  "You'll have to ask him. By the way, he teleported from the incubator, I didn't unhook him."

  Sir Raleigh peeked out from underneath my hair and gave one of his kitty chirps. He sounded quite proud of himself.

  We followed Lawrence back into the clinic, and he looked Sir Raleigh over, then pronounced him to be fit.

  "No sign of any trauma," he said. "I suppose he's good to go with you." Then the ghost of a smile. "Not that I could stop him."

  "Right." I didn't have to fake my smile or my pride in Sir Raleigh's ability, which had started to grow on me. I had to respect a creature determined to make his own destiny.

  "All right, then, I'll give you a ride back to the hotel," Lawrence said.

  "Thank you."

  "But he'll have to ride in a carrier. I'm not going to risk him."

  So Lawrence was a rule follower. Noted, although that didn't make sense with him conspiring with John Graves to double-cross their lab. At least he spotted me a litter box, bowls, and enough food and litter for a few days. I'd have to not allow housekeeping in, but I was fine with that.

  Sir Raleigh deigned to be put in a carrier, and I attempted to engage Lawrence in conversation on the way back to the hotel, but he kept putting me off. I declined to be upset—I could tell how tired he was. When he dropped me off, he didn't say much, only that he'd pick me and Selene up at nine. I used a slight glamour—all I could manage so far away from home—to keep the front desk people from noticing the cat and supplies and made it to my room with no trouble.

  Huh, so I'd have to figure out how to get past that stony exterior. Luckily no gargoyle could ever resist a Fae.

  I caught a few hours of sleep with a warm cat nestled in the crook of my neck. While I didn't know what I'd do with him during the day, I relished the comfort he gave me. The whispers of the trees outside the room sounded unfamiliar, and the noise of the nearby interstate hummed constantly like the buzzing of angry insects. Finally, with Sir Raleigh's purr in my ears, I fell asleep.

  Of course I rose with the sun, and I listened for Selene in the next room. The outer door opened and closed, and then the shower ran. What had she been doing? Had she gone out to meet someone without telling me? What would Gabriel think?

  The sleep fog cleared in an instant. As soon as I heard the shower stop, I moved to the door between our rooms to knock on it and see if she had time for a chat or wanted breakfast. Not that I needed her approval, but I wanted to tell her about my investigations from the night before and the results. The bathroom door opened and closed, and I heard her talking to someone. It took me a second to realize she was on the phone.

  "I just got back from the gym," she was saying. "Jet lag is a bitch." Then a laugh. "Yeah, she's been a handful. Max didn't tell me about her airsickness thing." Another pause. "Right, Fae get airsick. Who knew? It looks like narcolepsy."

  At that point, any honorable human or Fae would have stopped listening, but I wanted to know what she was saying about me. And I had not been a handful.

  "No, she stalked out of dinner in a huff. Over dessert." A soft chuckle, although it didn't sound friendly or comforting since it was aimed at me. "No, I don't know what she's going to do. Are you sure it's safe for me to be here alone with her?'

  Not safe? I hadn't put her at risk. I'd only had enough of the insufferable Lawrence Gordon. Who I was now going to have to pretend to like to get information from him.

  I'd intended to share what I'd found and plan with Selene, but there was no way now. Not if she thought me to be a useless drama queen, as the humans liked to say. And if she thought I wasn't safe, it meant she didn't trust me.

  "When are you guys going to be able to come?" she was asking. I wanted to know the same. Let them see that I'd been doing the useful work and she'd not accomplished anything. Then we'd see who was a handful.

  I wouldn't be able to hear the answer, so I moved away from t
he door before I gave myself away, either with a noise or a Fae energy spike. I understood she had some sensitivity. Instead, I sat cross-legged on the bed and tried to calm myself. Sir Raleigh crawled into my lap, and I pet him instead of focusing on my breath, which worked just as well. Why did everything have to be so complicated?

  When Selene knocked on my door about twenty minutes later, I'd regained my composure and my unruffled Fae demeanor. I hoped. She didn't seem to act any differently or notice anything amiss when I opened the door. Instead, her eyes widened, and she put her hands over her mouth before exclaiming, "Oh! Is that the kitten?"

  Sir Raleigh, the little traitor, trotted right up to her and sniffed her hand. Soon, he purred under her caresses, and she, in turn, cooed over him, telling him what a handsome kitty he was and oh, how soft, and…

  And it took every bit of willpower for me to not roll my eyes. Sure, she could be sweet to the cat, and to my face, but I know what I'd heard. Well, if she thought I was a handful before, just wait.

  I ordered Sir Raleigh to stay in the room while I went to eat. I almost referred to myself as his Mommy but stopped. While I wanted to bring him with me into Faerie, it wasn't guaranteed he'd be welcomed, and I didn't know how his strange talents would manifest there. If anything, the overheard conversation reminded me not to allow anyone to get too close.

  The ache in my heart at the thought of leaving him permanently steeled into annoyance at what I'd heard on the phone. How should I act? I vacillated between deliberately trying to not be overly dramatic and deciding, Fae it, I should be myself, and she could deal with it. At breakfast, I sent back my order for them to remake it because the waffles weren’t crispy enough, and I sulkily settled for coffee because they didn't have my favorite tea. Selene didn't say anything, and she maintained a politely neutral expression, which further annoyed me. Right, she was a psychologist—they were trained to do that. The only sign of tension was the slight dimpling of the corners of her mouth, and her inability to look me straight in the face said she definitely was cataloging my actions for a report to Gabriel later. Speaking of which…

  "Have you talked to Gabriel?" I asked. I had to remember not to show I knew she had.

  "Yes, he called this morning after I messaged him that I was up." She stirred cream into her coffee, and her gaze flicked to the bar to our right. I pretended to find something in my hair on that side and took the opportunity to see where she'd looked. Right at a large bottle of Bailey's. Excellent—both the taste in alcohol with coffee and her desire, whether conscious or unconscious—to self-medicate when dealing with me.

  "Did he say when he and Max are joining us?"

  "No, he said they're still dealing with a thorny issue at the Institute. He didn't want to say over the phone what it is." She sighed. "It's tough…"

  "What is?" I added another half-packet of raw sugar to my coffee, regretting my snobbishness. It wasn't bad, but the tea had been better.

  "Him not being here. I'm not the investigator. I'm not sure what to do."

  I studied her from under my lashes, which had thankfully remained dark through my entire life and had not faded when my hair went from blonde to ice. Selene wore makeup, but I could tell she hadn't slept well from the matching bags under her eyes, a complete set of two. Regret for giving her a hard time flickered in my core, but I sternly reminded it that she'd been mocking me to Gabriel over the telephone. If she wanted my sympathy, she'd have to be nice to my face and behind my back.

  "Well," I said brightly, "we'll just have to do the best we can. Maybe we'll discover something today." Like how Lawrence and John were behind all of it. Perhaps there would be some clue to confirm what I'd read and how to bring it into the open without revealing I'd snooped. I did recall from a medical forensics class that going into someone's personal things could bias a jury against you or even cause the evidence to not be allowed at the trial. And I wanted the case to be open and shut so there would be no reason to keep me here, no ambiguity to cloud my case for re-entering Faerie.

  After a delicious breakfast, we reconvened in the lobby, this time with Sir Raleigh hidden in my hair.

  "What do you think of Lawrence Gordon?" I asked.

  Selene shrugged. "I don't blame you for walking out last night. It's infuriating when someone thinks they know you better than they do." She slid me a glance.

  "Thanks for acknowledging that." But not for playing up the drama with your fiancé. "I guess we'll have to deal with him. Maybe he was feeling insecure. What do you think, Doctor Rial?"

  "Well, Doctor River, I guess we'll just have to see."

  When Lawrence picked us up, he pointed to the carrier in the back seat, and I coaxed a reluctant Sir Raleigh into it. Selene took the front, and I sat behind her with Sir Raleigh in his carrier belted beside me.

  "How did you sleep?" Lawrence asked. In spite of his short night, he looked completely rested and cheerful. Selene and I gave polite affirmative answers, and off we went.

  As soon as the car started to move, Sir Raleigh began a pitiful chorus. He and I locked, eyes, and then he disappeared, reappearing a half second later on my shoulder with a satisfied purr.

  “All right,” I told him in my secret conversation voice, but quietly in case by some weird chance Lawrence could hear me. “You can stay there, but pop back into the carrier when we arrive okay?”

  A meow in my head told me he'd heard and agreed. Indeed, what sort of cat could hear and understand secret conversation?

  On the way to the CPDC, Lawrence informed Selene of Sir Raleigh's surprise appearance and how he'd saved him. I refrained from rolling my eyes and instead gratefully acknowledged his help. Then Selene looked back at me in the rearview mirror with an arched eyebrow. Oh, well, let her wonder.

  In the light of day, I could see the abundance of trees, all wearing their early spring gowns of peridot and light emerald. Now awake, they whispered hello to me, and I to them. But the more joy that filled me with my communicating with them, the more Lawrence scowled.

  "Do you have to do that?" he asked.

  "What?" I looked at him, all innocence.

  "Talk to the trees." He shook his head. "Sorry, their whispers remind me of nightmares I had as a child."

  "What sort of nightmares?" Selene asked.

  This could be interesting. I sat back and let her do her therapist thing.

  "Of being lost in the forest, and the trees would try to help me, but then I'd get more lost, and eventually, I'd fall down a deep, black hole I couldn't escape from."

  "That sounds terrible," Selene agreed. I pulled myself back from the delightful thought of him being stuck in a pit and returned my attention to the conversation.

  "It was."

  Now I stifled a snicker at her frustration that he wouldn't open up more.

  "How old were you when you were having them?"

  His lips moved, perhaps a sign of him doing the math internally. It occurred to me that I didn't know how old he was. Elementals aged slowly, especially when around their pet elements, and Atlanta certainly had enough granite, iron, other minerals, and water to keep a gargoyle happy. I'd heard they thrived in cities, where stone tended to be as much aboveground as below with the buildings, but sometimes the water pollution got to them.

  "I suppose it was from ages five to fifteen," he said. "Can't think of why, though. Sorry, Doctor Rial. Doctor River, do you ever have nightmares?"

  I bristled internally at such a direct personal question, but I forced my expression into a thoughtful one. "No, not that I can recall. I don't sleep much, so maybe I don't have the chance."

  "That's what I thought," Lawrence said, practically crowing with satisfaction. I wanted to hit him, but I didn't want to injure myself, the cat, or Selene in a car crash. "We've just started a paranormal sleep lab, and we're attempting to see how our sleep differs from the humans. Doctors, if you wouldn't mind, you'd likely be a great matched sample set with your similarities in intellect and perceived age."

  P
erceived age? What in Hades was that supposed to mean? Selene looked out the window to her right, but her shoulder shook, and I knew she was chuckling.

  "I couldn't stand having the electrodes stuck to me," I said with a shudder at the thought. "Nor could I sleep with someone watching me."

  "Ah, right, I'd forgotten—Fae and some metals," Lawrence replied. "I'll have to check into materials. It's possible we have ones you could tolerate."

  "No, thank you. I am still not interested." Hopefully I wouldn't have to be around that long.

  "Ah, well, here we are."

  I swore that if he said one more "ah," I'd give him something to "ow" about.

  Be charming, be charming, be charming…

  He turned into the campus and slowed the car, and Sir Raleigh disappeared from my shoulder and reappeared in the carrier, where he curled up and pretended to sleep.

  No, if Lawrence was indeed guilty of industrial espionage, the last thing I wanted was for him to experiment on me.

  12

  Instead of going to the elevators, we stayed on the main level of the humble brick building and went through two keycard-guarded doors to the main CPDC lab. Of course Dr. Cimex had everyone lined up like we were visiting nobility to Downton Abbey. The scientists and techs didn't look too happy about it. Americans never liked it when Brits came over and tried to tell them what to do, but as soon as Selene opened her mouth and turned up her "bless your heart" accent, they relaxed.

  I didn't pay that much attention to introductions. Why should I? I knew that Lawrence and John were guilty. But I might need an ally on the inside, so I told myself to tune in.

  "…and this is Leah," Cimex was telling Selene. "She's our newest tech, and she's already showing great promise. John couldn't get along without her."