Going Wild

by Lisa McMann

  A flood of relief filled Charlie. “Are you sure you can live without them?” she asked. “I have twenty-four dollars saved up. You can have it for your new iPad.”

  Mac stared at her. “You serious?”

  “Sure—I’ll give you my next allowance money too. It’s my fault this happened.”

  “I’ll chip in too,” said Maria. “Abu always gives me money before she goes back to Puerto Rico—you can have it all.”

  Kelly stayed silent, and then she slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out some folded bills. She dropped back to run next to Mac. “Here,” she said, pressing the money into Mac’s hand. “If you end up needing more . . .” She trailed off and knit her brows, as if she was rethinking the offer, but then forged ahead. “If you need more, just let me know. My parents are getting divorced. So, yeah. They’ll pretty much give me anything I want right now.”

  Charlie glanced sidelong at Kelly as Maria gave her shoulder a quick squeeze of appreciation. Kelly’s expression was cold, but Charlie knew she had to be hurting inside as much as Charlie hurt on the outside. Only Kelly didn’t have any healing powers.

  Mac looked at the money and his eyes grew shiny. “Thanks,” he said, his voice gruff. He turned to cough into his sleeve. Then he urged them to go faster.

  Maria sped up.

  As they ran through the neighborhoods, Charlie retold the final events from the warehouse. Mac, preferring to breathe, didn’t speak, but he toyed with his device from time to time. At one point he tried unlatching it, and it came right off. He shrugged and put it back on again. “Maybe only . . . Charlie’s device . . . gets stuck,” he said.

  “Just don’t try taking it off when you’ve got the armor on,” warned Charlie. “Who knows what could happen.”

  When they got close to Maria’s, they stopped to let Mac catch his breath. Then they crept covertly toward the Torreses’ house in case any of the soldiers were out looking for them. Maria led them to the back door, where their backpacks still sat undisturbed. She and Charlie picked them up and quietly opened the door.

  Once inside, they heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Wanting to be sure there weren’t any more soldiers inside, they sneaked down the hallway. It didn’t take long for the dogs to detect them, though, and they bounded joyfully toward the children, which was a good sign. Soon the children spied Yolanda, who was putting the last of the groceries away and beginning to fix dinner. All was well.

  “We’re home, Abu,” Maria called out, trying to sound normal. “Where’s Mom?”

  Yolanda replied in Spanish, and soon relief was evident on Maria’s face. “Everybody’s fine,” she said. “My stepbrother’s team won the tee ball game.” She laughed at how trivial that seemed after everything they’d been through. “Now my mom and stepdad are bringing the boys to their mom’s and going out on a date.” She smirked.

  “Is that food she’s cooking for us?” asked Mac, eyeing the ingredients.

  “When isn’t it?” replied Maria. “Looks like empanadas.”

  “Crispy fried goodness,” murmured Mac.

  “I love those things,” agreed Kelly, who’d eaten at Maria’s house multiple times.

  “I’ve got family dinner at home tonight,” said Charlie. She’d almost forgotten, with everything that had happened. “I’ll have to try one next time.”

  They went down the hallway to Maria’s room, Maria straightening pictures on the wall and picking up a few of Mac’s papers from the floor along the way—the only sign of any disturbance so far. All grew serious as she opened the door and looked in.

  The desk chair was tipped over. Books were scattered on the floor. There were papers strewn about, and the bulletin board had been knocked off the wall. Two dresser drawers stood open, and Maria’s clothes were on the floor.

  “Whoa,” said Maria. She looked at the mess with dismay. “What did they want with my clothes? Sheesh.”

  “They didn’t exactly explain that as they were interrogating me, but I suppose they were looking for the bracelet,” said Mac. He set the chair upright and lifted the bulletin board, examining the back of it.

  “The first group of soldiers we fought saw me wearing it, so you’d think they’d communicate that to their friends,” said Charlie.

  “You say ‘we’ as if I actually did something,” said Maria.

  Charlie flashed her a smile.

  “They were communicating,” said Mac, “so maybe they figured that out. They stopped tearing things apart, anyway.”

  Kelly started picking up the books.

  Charlie gathered the strewn papers, while Maria went to the drawers and started folding her clothes and putting them back inside.

  “You sure put up a good fight, though, Mac,” said Charlie, admiration in her voice.

  “Not good enough,” said Mac. “Too bad the dogs were outside, or maybe they could’ve helped me.”

  Kelly scratched her head. “What actually happened here?” she asked, still trying to piece everything together.

  “Yeah,” said Charlie. With all the horrifying events of the day, she realized she was the only one to get a short version of Mac’s kidnapping story, and she wanted to know more. “Why would they come here?”

  “Start from the beginning,” Maria said.

  “Okay,” said Mac. “Well, I walked in and read the note that Maytée left on the counter telling us where everybody was,” explained Mac, “and went to Maria’s room like usual. A few minutes later three soldiers burst in. They swiped my stuff, read all my messages, and went through my backpack. Then they interrogated me about Googling Chimera Mark Five. I think they must have found us by IP address.”

  He paused and went on. “One of them started talking on some device built into his suit, saying that I’d been texting with Charles Wilde, as if he knew a guy named that. And I said, ‘Her name’s not Charles, it’s Charlie.’”

  “What?” Charlie’s eyes grew wide. “Charles is my dad,” she said. She glanced at the Talos Global envelope. Did the soldiers she’d fought actually know him?

  “I’m pretty sure those soldiers know a lot about you by now,” Mac said quietly. “They got everything from my phone. Your contact info and all my notes we took about the bathroom . . .” He looked at the floor. “I’m . . . I’m sorry. I messed up.”

  Kelly’s eyes widened at the mention of the bathroom, but she remained quiet.

  Charlie stared at Mac, barely comprehending as her mind began to replay the incidents of the afternoon. “You didn’t mess up,” she said faintly, but her thoughts whirred beyond her control, forcing her to return to the last moments at the warehouse and pounding her with questions. Was that soldier’s face really covered in leopard fur, or had her mind just been playing tricks on her after all the trauma? And if it was, how could those strange, animal-like thugs know her father? Why would they have a file on Talos Global? And how were the bracelets connected to all this? She desperately wanted to push those memories of the envelope and the leopard man away and pretend like all that hadn’t happened, because both things made her feel like throwing up. But she had to tell her friends, because they were in danger too. And the truth was, her father was somehow involved with these guys. Though everything she imagined seemed preposterous.

  “What’s wrong, Charlie?” asked Maria softly.

  They were all staring at her.

  “I saw something,” Charlie heard herself saying. “It was weird. Like, really weird. Remember that soldier named Prowl? You know which one he was?”

  They all nodded.

  “After Mac knocked him out, I noticed he had a tear in his mask. And . . . and fur was poking out.”

  Mac’s jaw slacked. Maria and Kelly just kept staring.

  “And?” prompted Mac. He leaned forward.

  “And I pulled the mask off, and . . .” Charlie swallowed hard. “His face—it was covered with it. With fur. Gold and black, like . . . like a leopard. And whiskers, too, and his ears . . .” She cringed, reliving th
e nightmarish moment. “But his face was shaped like a man’s. I think. I mean, it was so scary and strange that I’m not quite sure I believe it. But I saw it. I did—I saw it. I’m sure of it.”

  The other three remained in shocked silence until Mac closed his mouth and sat up. “That’s crazy.”

  “I know.”

  “So,” Maria said, “you’re saying Prowl is like a human leopard?”

  “Yes, like that,” said Charlie.

  Kelly looked like she didn’t believe her.

  “And that’s not all,” Charlie said, cringing. She held out the envelope and pointed to the logo that was on all their bracelets. “My father used to work for this company. Talos Global. That’s what the TG in the logo stands for.”

  The room remained silent as Maria, Mac, and Kelly took in this next bit of shocking information. “Your father?” asked Maria softly.

  Charlie nodded.

  “What did he do there?” asked Mac.

  Charlie shook her head. “I don’t know. He said it was . . . top secret.” A chill went down her spine. Top secret enough to not be found on the internet? she wondered. She felt guilty, somehow, on his behalf, though she couldn’t imagine him being a part of this. Still, because of him, her friends now had reason to be worried for their lives.

  “Well,” Maria said slowly, “do you think the bracelet was really being sent . . . to him?”

  Charlie shrugged, feeling helpless. “He’s always gone by Charles since I was born,” she said. “Charlie is me. But he used to be, I guess.” She shook her head. “How was I supposed to know?”

  As Maria and Mac talked softly about this new development, trying to piece things together, a sudden wave of fear washed over Charlie. Her father. She reached for her phone and pulled it out, quickly checking her messages. He hadn’t texted her back after school. He’d said he was going to be home all day from work—where was he? It was almost dinnertime. Quickly Charlie called her father’s cell phone. It rang five times and went to voice mail.

  “Crap,” she muttered, and hung up. She started a text message, then thought the better of it and looked up her previous texts to him from earlier that day. They were delivered but unread. Impossible. He never left his phone for that long. Charlie’s stomach twisted. She grew frantic, knowing instinctively that something was horribly wrong. “I have to go home,” she whispered.

  The others stopped talking and looked up.

  “I have to go,” Charlie said again. She dropped the stolen envelope in Maria’s lap, grabbed her backpack, and before anyone could stop her, she ran from the room.

  “Wait!” Maria cried. She darted out after her. “Be careful,” she called down the hallway after her. “Do you want us to go with you?”

  Charlie stopped at the end of the hallway and looked back. “Just take care of yourselves!” she hissed over her shoulder. “And those files.” She fled through the kitchen past a startled Yolanda, and burst out of the house.

  “She can protect herself,” Mac reminded Maria after she’d gone.

  “And so can we, now,” said Maria. She pulled her bracelet from her pocket, hesitated, and clipped it onto her wrist. She and Mac held their banded arms out to look at them. “I wonder what mine does,” Maria murmured.

  “Want to find out?” asked Mac.

  Maria shook her head. “I’m scared,” she said, with a nervous hitch in her voice.

  Kelly raised an eyebrow, watching them, then shrugged and put hers on too. She held her arm out next to theirs, admiring her bracelet’s sleekness and wondering what powers it held. She looked at the screen, but didn’t dare try the buttons—she’d do that later in the privacy of her own room, in case her power was something strange like Mac’s was.

  They finished cleaning the mess and collapsed on Maria’s bed, exhausted from the day, and in those quiet moments before dinner, Kelly lifted her head and regarded the other two, a venomous smile playing at her lips. “Sooo . . . ,” she whispered conspiratorially, “is Charlie really the one who destroyed the bathroom at school?”

  Mac and Maria sat up. Mac’s icy glare bored a hole through the girl. “Part of the bathroom,” he said.

  “And no,” said Maria, eyes flashing. “She didn’t.”

  Once outside, Charlie ran at cheetah speed toward her neighborhood, not caring if anyone saw her. Her phone was in her hand when it began to ring.

  It was Andy.

  Charlie’s stomach dropped, and she slowed down. Andy never called her—he hated talking on the phone. They’d only ever communicated by texting. With shaky fingers, she swiped her phone to answer it.

  “Hi, Andy, what’s up?” Charlie asked, trying to mask the anxiety in her voice.

  “Do you know where Dad is? He was supposed to pick me up. He’s not answering his phone. Did he lose it or something?”

  “He’s picking you up?” Charlie was confused. “From school, you mean?”

  “Duh.”

  “It’s, like, almost six thirty.”

  “Battle of the Books went long. He was supposed to be here at six. Can you just tell him to come and get me?”

  “I’m . . . I’m almost home,” said Charlie, and she started running again. “Listen, I’ll call you right back, okay?”

  “Yeah. Hurry up though. I hate sitting here like a loser.”

  “Just sit there and . . . and do your homework. I’ll call you right back.”

  Charlie hung up and sped toward her house. But when she ran up the street to her driveway, her heart almost stopped. The front door stood open. Jessie was racing around the yard barking her head off, and Big Kitty was outside cowering under a bush.

  Charlie darted over to Big Kitty and picked her up, commanding Jessie to follow behind her. She brought them in the house and hoped that Fat Princess was lying on a bed as usual.

  Inside the house, dining chairs were overturned and cupboard doors stood open. Loose paper and file folders were spread out over the table. “Mom? Dad?” she cried. “Where are you?”

  The door to her father’s study was open, and she ran inside. Papers and books were strewn everywhere. His desktop computer was gone, and so was his laptop and briefcase. The tower of Talos Global boxes was dismantled, and only a few remaining files were falling out of a tipped-over box. On the floor at Charlie’s feet was her father’s smashed cell phone.

  Charlie’s world crumbled around her. What was happening? Where was her father? Why were these soldiers doing this to her and her friends and family? She stared at the bracelet, realizing that whatever was going on, it was much bigger—and way more dangerous—than she could have ever imagined. And now at least one thing was becoming clear: the soldiers who wanted this bracelet were willing to do just about anything to get it.

  A slew of questions raced through Charlie’s mind. Who was behind all this? Who had sent the bracelet? Where had they taken her father, and what did they want with him?

  But the scariest thing was wondering what else they had done that Charlie hadn’t discovered yet. Was her mother okay? And what about Andy, waiting at school?

  She had to get to him before they did. As Charlie dashed out of her house at full throttle toward Andy’s school, she called her mom’s cell phone, hoping she was done with her shift and on her way home like she was supposed to be. The phone rang. Three times. Four. Please pick up. Please pick up, Charlie begged.

  Just when she thought it was going to voice mail, she heard her mom’s voice.

  “Hi, sweetie! Great timing. You caught me on the way out.”

  “Mom! Thank goodness.” Charlie felt a rush of relief as she neared Andy’s school and saw him standing there, unharmed. “Mom,” she said again, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s bad.”

  “What is it?” Charlie’s mom asked, her voice flooding with concern. “Is someone hurt?”

  Charlie reached Andy, flung her arms around him despite his squirming, and said quietly into the phone, “It’s Dad. He’s missing, and the house is all torn a
part. Somebody broke in, and . . . and I think he’s been kidnapped. His phone is . . . is smashed. . . .” A hint of a sob came through her voice, but she choked it back. “You need to come and get Andy and me. We’re at his school.”

  There was a muffled sound, then a clunk, then a moment of silence on the phone. For a second Charlie thought she’d lost the connection.

  “Mom?” Charlie’s voice was ragged. She bit her lip and glanced at Andy, who stared at her with wide eyes that betrayed his fear.

  “What’s happening?” he mouthed.

  Charlie took a deep breath. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered to him “You’re safe with me.” Pretty safe, anyway. She knew that much by now. But if the strange animal soldiers could take her dad . . . couldn’t they take just about anybody?

  “Mom!” Charlie barked again. “Are you there?”

  Finally Charlie heard a muffled sound on the phone and her mother’s voice again. “Keep your brother safe, Charlie,” she said, her voice jiggling like she was sprinting for the car. “I’m on my way.”

  CHAPTER 43

  Just Getting Started

  Dr. Charles Wilde sat in a large walnut chair near a window. The city below was lit up, offering an incredible view, and the smell of dinner on the nearby table was intoxicating. A bevy of animal-human hybrids roamed about. They shed their masks to eat, revealing fur, feathers, hides, and scales where their normal human skin would be. Urging them to enjoy the well-deserved meal was Dr. Gray, who was eating as well.

  But Charles wasn’t enjoying any of it. He was gagged and tied to the chair in which he sat. Another man in a much weaker state was fastened to the chair beside him—his old friend from Talos Global, Dr. Jack Goldstein. The man was ragged and half-starved. It had been a shock to see him . . . though maybe not as much once their fellow coworker Victor Gray appeared in the room and declared himself responsible for the less-than-ideal reunion.