by Sarah Noffke
“I have experience tracking and with covert missions,” Zephyr chimed in.
“Yes, I figured as much,” Adelaide said, not missing a beat.
“Well, I was just thinking that I could be assigned to investigate Mika’s organizations and the man himself,” Zephyr said.
“Maybe,” Adelaide said, waving him off before opening a file in front of her. She handed a page to Zephyr and then one to Connor. “Do you recognize this guy?”
On the page was a black-and-white profile image of a guy around age eighteen. Fear coated his face, which made sense because at his feet was a slouched man on the ground. The slope of his nose and the roundness of his chin instantly reminded Connor of a kid from the labs. He’d seen him led to his cell multiple times, usually handcuffed with his head down from the drugs.
“I think… maybe…” Zephyr said, rubbing his temples, his voice unsure.
“Yeah,” Connor said with confidence. “He was held a few cells down from me.”
“Why are you so sure when the Captain has doubts?” Adelaide asked.
“I don’t know,” Connor said, but he did know. The drugs they had them on hadn’t worked as well on him. He had probably more of a vivid memory than most being held in the lab, which was a curse. This was one of many times he wished he hadn’t done so many drugs. The others were always sedated unless they changed. The beasts always broke through the drugs, which was probably how they were all able to escape, leaving Connor behind.
“We believe that to be Kaleb Magner,” Adelaide said, gesturing to the picture in Connor’s hand. “He went missing seven months ago, about the same time as you two. However, he’d gone on a walkabout or journey or whatever rich boys with few life experiences in the dumb United States do. His family hasn’t heard from him since and they are located in Salt Lake City, where this photo was taken. The store clerk he attacked said that the small guy had more power than he thought was humanly possible. Kaleb picked him up and tossed him through the air.”
“He must have been scared,” Zephyr said, his eyes on the photo before him.
“Why?” Adelaide said plainly.
“Well, we have heightened senses, speed, strength, and endurance in our human form, but also not really. Usually, I’ve noticed that adrenaline will trigger it. Or I have to intentionally turn on the skill,” he said.
Connor had spent the last month in a cage and wasn’t sure if this was true for him, but he expected he would soon learn once he’d recovered.
“And how is this different from when you’re in werewolf form?” Adelaide asked.
“The power is there. My senses and strength are automatic,” Zephyr said, then he looked to Connor. “Is that right?”
“Yeah,” Connor said, remembering being the beast and everything being effortless.
“Well, Kaleb is hanging out in Salt Lake City and we need to get to him before Mika does. I know for a fact that he’s trying to track down his dogs. He put a lot of effort into creating you all and will want you back,” Adelaide said.
“But why did he create us?” Zephyr said.
“That, I don’t know yet. We need to learn more about this man who hides behind his do-gooder company. Something tells me he isn’t the polished humanitarian he tries to portray,” Adelaide said.
“Salt Lake City isn’t small,” Connor said, remembering spending a night there after doing hallucinogens in the desert. “How are you going to find him?”
Adelaide tossed a file at him. “That’s where you come in. I have an idea, but I want you two to tell me how werewolves think. Tell me where he’s going after robbing a convenience store and how we can catch him. I’m pretty badass, but I don’t have super speed nor anyone on my current staff with that power. I’m going to rely on you two to help me bring in this werewolf from your litter.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“One of the main goals of Olento Research is to create technology related to time travel. This could revolutionize the world.”
- Olento Research Employee Manual
Kaleb slipped the bills into the metal drawer, keeping his eyes low. The ticketing agent on the other side of the glass typed on the keyboard, taking too long to process his requests.
“Do you want to upgrade to—”
“No,” he said in a hush, pulling his hood more on his head.
She swiveled her eyes up and regarded him for a moment. “There are a few stops between this station and Los Angeles—”
“That’s fine,” he said, cutting off the woman who wore a paisley scarf tied around her slender neck. An urge he’d never experienced before pulsed through his body. It was unnatural and yet coated in instinct. It told him he needed flesh, wanted hers. The change was going to happen soon, he feared. That was the reason for the unhealthy desires. He’d have to travel out of the city that night, a safe distance for the “attack” to happen.
“You’ll change buses—”
“Can I just get my ticket?” he said, scratching his cheek, then his eyebrow.
The printer chirped before a thick paper slipped out of the machine. With a pursed expression the woman tore it off, taking her time. Instead of handing it to Kaleb she folded it at the top along a line of chads. Then she pulled off the excess and tucked the ticket into an envelope. Her tongue ran across the flap where the glue sat and then she pressed it shut, handing it to Kaleb with a smile. He twitched with a new anxiety as he took the ticket. His sole thought was that he was grateful glass separated them or the woman might be dead or in a strange position right then. A primal urge he’d never felt before coursed through him. It was sexual and violent at the same time, two emotions that he thought were mutually exclusive before. Actually sex had been a taboo subject in his home and at the age of eighteen he was still a virgin, but he was certain that wouldn’t last long. Not with the beating of his pulse in his groin.
“Thanks,” he said, reaching into the metal tray and jerking the ticket from the lady. Then he headed for the exit. Kaleb had to get to the woods on the far west side of the city where he could run. Feast. Be wild. He used to play in that forest as a child and knew it well. After the “attack,” he’d return to Salt Lake City one last time before his trip. He had one thing left to do before he traveled south.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Past-self interaction is also forbidden when time traveling since it can cause a schism in a person’s consciousness.”
- Lucidite Employee Manual
Mika sneered at the cage in the corner. Drake didn’t have good news, he knew that by the look on the old scientist’s face rather than by dipping into his thoughts. Drake had become practiced at sheltering his thoughts from Mika, which only meant that the German had something to hide. Mika had learned the practice of shielding from his mentor, who had disappeared a long time ago. He’d only spent one summer with Charles Knight and that was immediately after he’d gotten off the plane from Finland. It was Knight who had convinced him to take the trip, telling him over online chats that he could teach him, train him to use his Dream Traveler powers in a way that surpassed his parents’ knowledge. At age eighteen, he wasn’t naïve like most during that young adult stage. He’d made Knight verify himself, and their late-night conversations proved to be chock-full of a vast knowledge Mika had never heard of.
He knew at that young age that he wanted to be great, powerful. And he knew that wasn’t going to happen if he stayed inside the comfort of his family. They’d never understand his thirst for evolution, for success. But Knight understood it, which was how the two had found each other in a strange underground chat room. That’s why Mika took the large inheritance his grandparents had left him, which had been dispersed to him upon turning eighteen, and traveled to America. Knight met him when he disembarked from the plane and he almost couldn’t believe how strange the man he’d spoken to for weeks looked. He was at least seven feet tall, bald, and had eyes that looked made of knives. However, he delivered on his pr
omise and taught Mika things about his skills and Dream Traveler abilities that he never knew he didn’t know about. And when his training was complete, according to the hoarse-voiced Knight, he took the amount of money Mika had promised him and left. Mika hadn’t seen the strange man since, but he thought of him often. Thought of how even though he was only a few years older than Mika that he was so wise. With the powers he learned from his mentor and his grandparents’ remaining money, Mika went on to start Parantaa Research, his first company. He made his first million dollars later that year, by the time he was nineteen.
Mika realized he hadn’t been listening to his director of security in the last few minutes. His mind had trailed back to those bizarre three months when he had learned everything Knight had promised to teach him. He didn’t trust Knight. This wasn’t a man who inspired trust. However, he respected him more than anyone he ever met. Wherever Knight was now, he was doing great things.
“Our best guess is that he’s going to try and flee the city,” Grant said, his hands pinned behind his back. Mika could hear, using his super hearing, the man’s fingers rub together, a result of nervous tension. If he was better at his job then he wouldn’t be so nervous, Mika thought.
“I actually think for once in a long time that you’re right and maybe using your brain,” Mika said, pausing and turning to the uniformed man. “Put surveillance on all train and bus stations. I want eyes on all hitchhikers. Put every single man you have in Salt Lake City. We have to catch Kaleb Magner before he gets away, otherwise he might be gone for good. And if that happens then you’re out of a job. Do I make myself clear?”
“Absolutely, sir,” Grant said, his throat hesitating to swallow.
“And send Morgan to the Magner family residence. He still might return there one last time,” Mika said, and then he turned, dismissing Grant without a word. Morgan was his best chance of catching the werewolf. He wasn’t as strong as any of the twelve men he had converted, but he had an advantage on them.
Mika strolled forward, his eyes on the contents of the cage at Drake’s side. “So what went wrong?”
“Don’t you mean, what went right?” Drake said, a sneaky grin hiding under his brushy mustache.
“Don’t patronize me with ridiculous questions,” Mika said. In front of him two lemurs lay lifeless in their cages, blood dripping from their wide eyes and out of their gaping mouths. However, in the corner of the steel cage, a single lemur sat hunched over, its clawed paws clapped to his head.
“Watch,” Drake said, pointing a pencil in the direction of the only living lemur.
“The others are dead. That one looks close,” Mika said, realizing he was that much further from achieving teleportation. This experiment had failed more than any others.
“Oh, he’s going to die for sure, just like the others. But guess what they did right before they died?” Drake said.
“I don’t guess,” Mika said, his words sharp. “Tell me what happened before they died.”
“Well, they teleported, naturally,” Drake said, looking proud, his old eyes lighting up, bringing more wrinkles into view as they did.
“Fantastic. I can achieve teleportation, but it will kill me,” Mika said dryly.
“This is a step in the right direction. We’ll perfect the process,” Drake said, his eyes focused on the lemur.
“Didn’t you say you were going to put them in a room with clear dividers to test teleportation? Why are they in the cage for assessment?” Mika said.
“Because they started teleporting before I had a chance to finalize the assessment area. I didn’t expect it to take so fast because it never did in the prior experiments. Apparently they wanted out of the cage and that’s when the first one teleported,” Drake said, watching the lemur who was now trembling.
Mika pursed his lips at this. The dumb creatures wanted out of their cage, not realizing that they were helping science to achieve greatness. One day he’d engineer a way to talk to animals and then they wouldn’t be so resistant to his efforts to use them for advancements.
The lemur in front of him flickered, like an image on a computer screen. Mika blinked at the scene and then the animal was gone. In his peripheral the lemur appeared. He turned to find the lemur on the ground just before him. Just as he went to reach for the animal, it disappeared again. And then an explosion rocked the cage in front of him. A spray of liquid and debris assaulted his face, but he shielded himself in time to avoid the major blast of it. However, looking at Drake, he realized that the old scientist, who didn’t share his super senses and reflexes, hadn’t been so fortunate. Blood and bits of the lemur covered his face and were caught in his hair and beard.
Mika yanked the white silk handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped it across his face. “That’s what you wanted me to see,” Mika said, realizing nothing recognizable of the lemur was in the cage.
“Well, each time it was different, but that subject made it farther than the other two. That’s probably the reason for the explosive result,” Drake said, reaching for the paper towel dispenser on the wall and wiping his face at once. The animal’s blood smeared on his skin before wiping away. “This is progress, I promise.”
“Perfect the protocol. I want three more subjects ready for testing by next week,” Mika said, eyeing the cage that was a disgusting mess of dead animals and blood and guts. Science wasn’t a pretty business, but it was lucrative and worth the momentary failures.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Taking sick days is discouraged. Employees displaying symptoms are expected to go to a representative at Parantaa Research and pay for a medicinal remedy so they can return to work as soon as possible.”
- Olento Research Employee Manual
“He’s going home,” Zephyr said, tapping the pencil riddled with teeth marks on the file in front of him. It was a new habit he’d just acquired.
“Is he talking to himself?” Rox asked Adelaide, from her place perched on top of the table.
Adelaide pursed her lips freshly covered in balm at the other girl, not looking impressed. “You mean Kaleb?” she said in Zephyr’s direction.
The discharged captain flipped through the file. “Yeah,” he said, absentmindedly, his eyes scanning the words on the page.
Adelaide let out an impatient sigh. “You want to elaborate?”
Zephyr thumbed quickly through the file. “First there was the disturbance reported at the ‘Free Meat Festival,’” he said.
“Which wasn’t on the city’s event calendar. It looked like the event sprung up out of nowhere,” Adelaide said.
“Mika’s doing,” Rox said, popping up slightly with enthusiasm.
“Duh, Nail Polish,” Adelaide said, not looking at Rox.
“That was in downtown, which is roughly…” Zephyr pulled the map of Salt Lake City from the file, “twenty miles east of where the shop owner supposedly spotted Kaleb in the alley.” He then slid the pencil from the downtown area to a spot a half inch to the right. “The altercation with the store clerk happened on the west side of town.” With a look covered in an epiphany Zephyr pulled his chin up. “He’s working his way home,” he said and then circled a district on the far side of the city, right next to Wasatch-Cache National Forest.
“That’s exactly what you did as well,” Rox said.
“No, I visited my parents every morning. I lived on the other side of town, but watched them every day. Kaleb’s activity suggests he’s been trying to stay as far from them as possible, but his inhibitions are waning,” Zephyr said.
“Why return to his hometown at all then?” Connor said. He’d been quiet during the brainstorming session, exhaustion heavy in his eyes. He was still recovering and would need much more rest before he was strong enough for regular activity.
“Because it’s what he knows. My guess is that most of the werewolves are going to travel to their hometowns, just as I did. It’s in the wolf’s instinct to return to their original p
ack,” Zephyr said, his voice calm and not a hint of condescension in it.
“Well, it looks like we were right to pick you as the alpha dog,” Rox said, sliding off the table and standing.
“Why was he elected the alpha?” Connor said, a crease placing itself between his green eyes.
“Because he’s got great hair,” Rox said, pointing at Zephyr and then circling it like cutting out a picture of his head.
“Don’t do things that make me throw up,” Adelaide said and Zephyr just caught a hint of power in her voice, something suddenly different about it.
“Don’t try and use mind control on me. And really, what a broad request. I fear everything I do will make you queasy because I’m not a prude,” Rox said to the girl.
Adelaide narrowed her eyes at Rox, a new anger boiling in her expression.
“Did you just say ‘mind control’?” Zephyr said, looking at Rox and then Adelaide. “Is that your gift?”
“My gift is tolerating wankers like you all,” Adelaide said.
“You are a saint among us demons,” Rox said. “Well, come on, Zeppy. Looks like you and me need to go to Salt Lake City.” She waved Zephyr forward.
“Hold on a second. Who do you think you are? I call the shots on this case,” Adelaide said, bolting to a standing position.
Rox gave a tired sigh. “Cool. Go ahead and order us to go to Salt Lake City so we can be on our way. And I want to take that GAD-C transport you mentioned because flying sucks.”
