by R. D. Brady
“There’s even a Japanese fairy tale about a man who protects a turtle from some boys who were bothering it,” Laney added. “As a reward, the turtle takes the man to meet the King of the Ocean, and the man marries the king’s beautiful water sprite daughter.”
“Okay, I grant you that there a lot of legends about turtles,” Jake said. “But there has to be more than that. I mean just because their name is ‘children of the turtle’ or ‘turtle children’ isn’t exactly ironclad proof.”
Patrick nodded. “True. But then there is also the name of the island where they now live. They named it Malama Island. The word ‘malama’ is common in Hawaii. Malama pono means to be careful. Malama mālama ia Hawai’i means to take care of Hawaii. ‘Malama,’ in essence, means to care for. And the few reports that have come out of Honu Keiki suggest that caring is the group’s primary focus. Their days are spent in oneness with nature. There is no crime. Children are raised collectively. Each day begins and ends with a group meditation.”
“It sounds like paradise,” Henry said.
“Still, is there anything else about the cult that makes you think they could be descendants? I mean, no offense, but it could be any sort of cult,” Jake said.
Patrick nodded. “Their symbol is the lotus flower, which signifies an awakening. And their lifestyle seems to mirror what Mu would have been like. And there are one or two other factors about the group which suggest they could very well be the descendants.”
Laney frowned at his choice of words—one or two other factors. What was he holding back? But before she could question him, Henry spoke.
“How do you know all this? About Mu, that is.”
“When everything started to happen,” Patrick said, “I knew I would not have the physical abilities of the rest of you. So I thought the best way I could contribute was by learning everything I could about anything that might be related to the Fallen. And Mu, it seems, may be related.”
“Is there anything else we should know?” Jen asked.
“Mu doesn’t figure much into Cayce’s readings. He was asked once about its absence, and he said that the people of Mu had less karmic debt and, therefore, were less likely to be reborn,” Patrick said.
“But if they’re the good ones, we shouldn’t have much to worry about, right?” Jen asked. “I mean, we are taking this on the word of the world’s first murderer.”
Laney pictured Cain’s face when he spoke. He could be a very good liar, but there was no gain for him in lying to her. “Maybe. But honestly, do we have anything else to go on?”
No one said a word.
Jake sighed. “Great. So let’s go see what we can find about the turtle kids.”
CHAPTER 35
Rolly’s arms were crossed over his chest, and everything from his body language to his facial expression suggested he thought Dom had finally lost it. “Cleo has a human brain. Those are the words that just came out of your mouth, right?”
“You’re not serious,” Lou said.
Dom put up his hands. “I know it sounds crazy. But believe it or not, human-animal and animal-animal hybrids have been around for over a decade.”
Rolly looked around. “Is there a camera on us? Are we being punked?”
“Hold on.” Dom typed something on his tablet and then turned it around for them to see. “Look at this.”
On screen was a small white mouse with what was undeniably a human ear growing out of its back.
“What the hell is that?” Rolly asked.
“It’s the Vacanti mouse,” Dom said. “They added cow cartilage to its back to form a human ear. It was one of the first steps in demonstrating that animals could be used to provide tissues and organs for humans.”
Lou stared at the image in both horror and awe. “That’s amazingly creepy.”
“Actually,” Danny said quietly, “even more advanced experiments have been conducted. There are entire herds of cows that provide milk that’s almost identical to human breast milk. “
“How?” Rolly asked.
“Why seems like a better question,” Lou muttered.
“To aid humans,” Danny said. “As to how: a human gene was inserted into the cows’ genetic profile, causing the cows’ mammary glands to produce high amounts of lysozyme, the critical component of breast milk.”
“Um, yuck?” Rolly said.
But Lou couldn’t say anything—all she could picture was a field full of cows with giant breasts. “That’s just—” she shook her head, not even sure what that was.
“And that’s just one example,” Dom said. “Science has been creating animal-human hybrids since 2003. Human cells have been mixed with rabbits, pigs, cows. The Mayo Clinic even created pigs with human blood.”
“Okay, fine. But it’s still a pretty big leap from that to ‘Cleo has a human brain,’” Rolly said.
“Actually, Stanford already created a mouse with a basically human brain. The mouse was substantially smarter than the non-enhanced mice,” Danny said.
“Why would they do that?” Lou asked.
“For medical research,” Danny said. “If they can make the subject more ‘human,’ then any tests they perform on the subject will be more generalizable to humans. In drug research, that’s huge.”
“And don’t forget spare parts,” Dom said.
Lou stared. “Spare parts?”
“Sure,” Dom said. “There’s a herd of cows in Wisconsin that has partially human livers, hearts, brains, and other organs.”
“Why the hell have I never heard of this?” Rolly asked.
Dom shrugged. “It’s not publicized much.”
“What do they do with the animals after the research?” Lou asked.
“Kill them,” Dom said.
“But they’re creating whole new species. That’s got to be illegal,” Rolly said.
Danny shook his head. “They’re not breaking any laws. It’s legal. Horrible, but legal.”
“But why then wouldn’t there be more creatures out there like Cleo?” Lou asked.
“Well, that’s an ethical question, not a legal one,” Danny said. “Most people view the creation of a whole new species as wrong. But not everyone.”
“There’s a professor at Harvard who wants to cross Neanderthal DNA with a human fetus to create a hybrid,” Dom said with a frown. “He’s having some trouble finding a female volunteer though.”
“Gee, you think?” Rolly muttered.
“It’s still a giant leap from mice to leopards,” Lou argued.
“It is a leap,” Dom agreed. “But it’s not a scientific one—it’s an ethical one. The ability to create animals with human brains has been around for years. I mean, the things we can do now are astounding. They’ve even started working on regenerating limbs. They’ve taken monkeys limbs down to their cells and managed to grow them back using monkey or human DNA.”
“That’s—that’s just wrong,” Rolly said.
Dom shook his head. “No—it’s just different. Humans have always looked to animals to provide for them. We domesticated dogs so they’d provide us security and companionship. We corralled farm animals so they’d provide us with food. And Amar wanted a challenge—a beast that would be worthy of his abilities. Creating Cleo and her littermates was what fit that bill.”
All Lou could think about was the behaviors Cleo had demonstrated—behaviors that didn’t fit with a wild animal, but did fit with a human.
“Think about it,” Dom said, his eyes bright. “Cleo thinks like a human, but she’s not. So what is she? She’s not a leopard. She’s not a human. She’s a brand new species.”
Lou sat back, dumbfounded.
“Science has reached a point where they can create new species with relative ease. But the question is, should they? In Cleo’s case, no one asked that question. They just did it.”
Everyone stared at Dom. Lou felt sick. Amar had created a new species just to kill it.
“It’s got to be lonely for her,” Lou said sof
tly. “Being the only of her kind left.”
The other boys nodded back at her, looking as dumbstruck by Dom’s revelation as she was.
But Dom shook his head. “Oh, she’s not the only one of her kind.”
Jaws dropped around the table.
“What do you mean?” Rolly asked.
Dom looked surprised by their response. “Well, Amar had no intention of being killed, which means he probably arranged for future litters.”
Lou stared in disbelief. “There are more leopards out there like Cleo?”
“Well, I assume. I mean, there’s a chance that they were destroyed after Amar was killed, but I doubt it.”
“So where are they?” Rolly asked.
Dom shrugged, but his eyes were troubled. “I don’t know.”
Lou looked around the table. “I think we should find out.”
CHAPTER 36
Lou and Rolly waited outside Henry’s office. Danny had had to rush off to a meeting, but he’d made them promise to ask Henry about Cleo before they returned to the school. Cleo had headed off to stretch her legs.
They had been waiting outside Henry’s office for about a half hour, and were just about to leave when Henry finally stepped onto the landing. “Hey, Danny said you guys were looking for me.”
“Um, yeah, but we know you’re busy with the investigation and all, so…”
“It’s fine. Come on in.” Henry walked past them and into his office.
With a resigned sigh, Lou and Rolly stepped into the office. Their preference was to go ahead and conduct the research and then talk to Laney and Henry about what they’d found, but Danny had insisted they make sure Laney and Henry were okay with it before they even started.
When they stepped into the office, Henry was already seated at his desk, staring at his computer screen, a frown on his face.
Rolly leaned down to whisper in Lou’s ear. “Maybe this isn’t a good time. We should come back.”
“Yeah,” Lou said, and started to turn.
“You two,” Henry called, “what’s going on?”
Lou walked over slowly. “Um, nothing. You look busy. We can come back.”
Henry gave her a tight smile. “I’m usually busy, but I can always make time for you guys. So tell me what’s going on. Everything okay at the school?”
“Yeah,” Rolly said. “It’s good. I mean, I still think my room service idea requires further examination, but besides that…”
Henry laughed. “Keep dreaming, Rolly. But seriously, what’s up?”
Lou took a seat. “Um, we know Laney was planning on looking into Cleo’s background.”
Henry narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that?”
“We sort of ran into the analyst that was looking into it for her,” Rolly said.
Henry raised his eyebrows. “Really? What a coincidence that was.”
“Yeah. And we looked at the file,” Lou said, rushing on before Henry could ask how they looked at the file. “But we were just concerned about Cleo.”
Henry shrugged. “It wasn’t really a secret.”
“Well, are you guys going to keep looking?” Lou asked.
Henry sighed. “I know Laney had planned to, but then all this came up.”
Lou nodded, trying not to look at the whiteboard with the information on the murders. She thought about Jimmy, Sheila’s son. He was a nice kid. The whole family had been nice. She couldn’t imagine what they were going through now. “Yeah, we know.”
“But when things calm down, Cleo’s background will become a priority,” Henry said.
“We were thinking maybe we could help you with that,” Rolly said.
Henry narrowed his eyes. “How?”
Rolly put up his hands. “Nothing dangerous. We just thought we could maybe look into the doctor and his research. That’s all.”
Lou’s words came out in a rush. “It’s just—we’re worried about Cleo.”
“Why?” Henry asked.
“When Laney’s away, she’s so depressed. And she has to be locked up. She just, I don’t know, she seems lonely.”
Henry sighed. “I know. Laney’s worried about her too. I know she hates leaving her.” Henry studied the two of them. “Okay. You two—no, I’m guessing there are three of you. Unless you’ve roped Zach in as well?”
“Um, sort of.”
“Of course you have. All right, you four can look into Cleo. But research only, okay?”
Lou grinned. “Of course.”
“Seriously guys, nothing dangerous, just boring data collection.”
Rolly stood. “Of course. We’d never think of doing anything dangerous.”
CHAPTER 37
Everyone else had headed back to the main building, but Laney decided to stay at the cottage and work outside. Jake was reaching out to different law enforcement groups to have them send over anything they had on the cult. Henry was going to attempt to reach Honu Keiki directly through some contacts that had had dealings with the cult. It was a long shot, but right now they really didn’t have any other avenues to take. Patrick was gathering more data on Honu Keiki, and Jen was seeing what else she could dig up on Mu.
Which left Laney with the murders. She reviewed all the victims’ files, trying to find something that connected them. The victims were all unknown to one another. They lived in different states and even different countries. They were different ages, races, genders, and occupations. If there was a link, it wasn’t showing up.
After an hour, Laney needed to grab a shower. The conversation, the prison, the murders—it all left her feeling dirty.
Walking downstairs after a ridiculously scalding shower, she finally felt clean and refreshed. It was amazing what a really long shower could do for a person’s mood. She stepped into the kitchen, checked her computer, and frowned. She’d missed six Skype calls today, the last one while she was showering. Each was from a different number. That was odd.
She turned to grab a glass of water when her computer beeped to let her know that yet another Skype call was coming in. Taking a seat at the island, she hit connect.
Laney let out a gasp as a familiar face appeared on her screen. “Gerard.”
Gerard Thompson inclined his head toward her. He was tanned, and his blond hair was a little longer than she remembered, lending some warmth to his cool Scandinavian look. “Ring bearer.”
I really need to figure out a way for the Fallen to quit calling me at home. She surreptitiously pulled out her phone and typed a message to Jake out of sight of her computer’s camera:Gerard on my computer. Trace call.
“So, are you calling to turn yourself in? Or better yet, turn Elisabeta in?” Laney asked.
“Elisabeta and I have parted ways for the moment.”
Laney raised an eyebrow. So the rumors were true. Victoria had told her that Gerard had protected Max the best he could while they were kidnapped. And she had heard rumors that Elisabeta had been searching for Gerard. Interesting.
“Then I guess you’re calling just to catch up,” Laney said.
Gerard laughed. “Not exactly. It seems you and I may have a similar purpose at the moment.”
“Really? Do tell.”
“I recently avoided an attempt to abduct me at my new home.”
“Abduct? Not kill?”
“No—abduct.” He grimaced. “They would have been able to kill me if that had been their goal.”
“Getting a little rusty, are we?”
Gerard glared back at her.
“So I guess Elisabeta is really not happy with you.”
“It was not Elisabeta. The entire force was humans.”
Laney shrugged. “She could have used humans to avoid you detecting them.”
“True, but this group moved differently, worked differently.” He shook his head. “I know how Elisabeta operates and how her people operate. She did not send them.”
“I’m not sure I see how this is relevant to me. Unless of course, you wanted to turn yourself ov
er for protective custody? I’m sure the SIA has a lovely cell that would keep you nice and safe.”
Gerard smiled. “Tempting, but no. And the reason this is of interest to you is that I believe this attempt was made by the people responsible for the killings you’re looking into.”
Laney narrowed her eyes. “How do you know about that?”
“I have been at this game a long time, ring bearer. And I still have my sources. I believe you’re calling them ‘the companion killings.’ Cute name by the way.”
“What do you know about the killings?”
“I know they happen every couple of weeks. I know they’re going after people affiliated with the Fallen.”
Laney hesitated. Gerard was being awfully forthcoming. Of course, if they were in fact after him, it would be in his best interest to be cooperative. The enemy of my enemy and all that. But why would he think it was the same people? “Yes, we think they’re selecting these particular targets because they interact with the Fallen. But beyond that, we don’t really know why, or more importantly, how they’re choosing them. We’ve found no connection. And I fail to see how you’ve found a connection to your attack.”
“Oh, it’s not just my attack. I’m sure if you look, you’ll see I’m not the only Fallen who has been targeted. Although, if history is repeating itself, I’m sure not all of the others were as successful at avoiding their pursuers.”
Laney paused. Cain had mentioned that Fallen were also being targeted, but Laney had actually forgotten about that until just now. She figured she could be forgiven for the oversight, seeing as she was busy dealing with the whole “there’s another ancient civilization that is going to wreak havoc with people’s lives” angle that Cain had also mentioned.
“Again, I don’t see how this is connected to the companion murders,” Laney said.
“Well, ring bearer, after spending time with your mother, let’s just say that I can now see a lot more than I used to.”
