by Roxie Noir
“That was sure something, though,” said Mustache. “I’d only ever seen the video.”
“I wish we’d seen it in a lab,” said Pete. “That would be a sight more useful.”
Mustache looked in the rear view mirror again.
“You sure he’ll follow us?” he asked.
“No,” said Pete. “But I’ve got a feeling he’s gonna come for Katrina.”
Please don’t, she thought. Zach, you have to know this is a trap.
Katrina frowned, looking out the window.
Wait, she thought. Does that mean I believe them now?
This is insane.
“I have parents, you know,” Katrina said. “People are going to be asking where I am.”
“We know,” Pete said. He sounded the calmest she’d ever heard him sound, and it alarmed her. “We don’t need you for long.”
He turned around in his seat and looked at her through his prescription sunglasses.
“Don’t worry,” he said, with a smile that didn’t make her feel better. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Chapter Thirteen
Zach
It was incredible how well he could see. Even though the black SUV was the size of a bug, he could almost make out the faces of the driver and Pete in their sideview mirrors. Every time something moved down below on the desert floor, he could see it.
The wind blasted past him, but he barely felt it. He was completely focused on the cars he was following — particularly on the one with Katrina in it.
Sinking his talons into that guy’s face had felt pretty good. He’d wanted to rip his head clean off his body, but Zach thought that he might need a little bit more flying practice before he could do that. Heads were pretty well attached, it turned out.
Down below, the thick black ribbon of Interstate 70 appeared. A few minutes later, the SUV carrying Katrina stopped, waited for a car to pass, and got onto an entry ramp, speeding up until it was going faster than every other car on the road.
Zach followed, high above, the wind whistling past.
* * *
He hadn’t expected them to take her back to MutiGen, but they did. Zach sat in a tree and watched.
There were three cars, all big black SUVs, and six men got out. Two were heavily bandaged, and Zach felt a sizzle of satisfaction zip through him. One was the driver of Pete’s car, and one was Pete.
After a moment, Katrina got out of the backseat of Pete’s SUV.
She looked pissed, and she glanced over her shoulder, as if seeing whether there was some way she could run.
There really wasn’t.
The men led her in through a side door, and then Zach couldn’t see them any more. He shifted from foot to foot for a long time, sitting in the tree. He knew two things:
One, he had to get Katrina out of there.
Two, they were expecting him.
As he sat there, trying to come up with a good enough plan, Zach heard a buzzing noise zip overhead and looked up in time to see a flash of something against the sky. Silently, he took off, making his way through the trees and then soaring up, the whole world spread below him.
It was a drone, hovering over the top of the forest, darting back and forth. Probably looking for him.
Zach flexed his talons and watched it for another moment.
Then he dove, plunging toward the forest as pure adrenaline screamed through his veins, the biggest rush he’d ever gotten.
This is fucking amazing, he thought.
He grabbed the drone in one talon and stopped his dive, spreading his wings and soaring again, this time hovering just above the forest, the drone’s blades whirring sadly. Finally he landed again and looked at the thing that he held in one claw.
It was pretty simple: a quadcopter with a camera on the bottom. Whoever was on the other end of the camera would never know what had gotten it.
Zach broke off each set of blades with his beak and then hurled it to the ground, far below.
Then he took off again and circled the building twice. He’d had an idea.
Chapter Fourteen
Katrina
Katrina sat in the robot hand lab, one of the few windowless rooms in the building, and fumed. She was terrified for Zach, of course, and a little less terrified for herself, but she was pissed that she couldn’t do anything, just sitting there like a princess in a tower, waiting to get rescued.
“He’s not coming,” she said to Pete, standing patiently by the door.
Pete just shrugged.
“He’s not an idiot,” she said, nudging a circuitboard with her finger. “He knows it’s a trap. He’s probably getting the police right now.”
“I’m sure,” Pete said.
She sighed, looking at the scattered electronics in front of her, trying to figure out how to engineer a way out.
If I could get a power source big enough, I could make a kind of stun gun, she thought. Maybe.
Or I could program one of these hands to squeeze the life out of someone. Or just grab their balls.
It was wishful thinking. The things took weeks of careful trial and error to program at all, and Katrina didn’t have weeks, she had hours, maybe.
Also, Pete wasn’t about to let her power up a computer. Whatever else was wrong with him, he was pretty smart.
Katrina got off her chair and started pacing around the room, and Pete snapped to attention, watching her carefully as she walked between tables, studying intricate pieces of machinery. She didn’t care.
There’s gotta be something here, she thought. Just think. There’s some way to be smarter than this situation, some way to think yourself out of it.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Pete said. “Sit down.”
“What if I say no?” Katrina asked.
Pete rolled his eyes.
“Then one of the guys from the hallway comes in and makes you sit down,” he said. “You know, you’re a good engineer, but you can be pretty dumb sometimes.”
For a split second, Katrina was pleased that he’d called her a good engineer.
Then she remembered what was happening, and she was pissed again.
“This is stupid,” she said. “Why couldn’t you just ask him if he can help you run some tests?”
“He’ll say no to the kinds of tests we want to run,” Pete said.
“You sound pretty sure,” Katrina said, suddenly feeling uncertain.
“We are pretty sure,” Pete said. “Would you let us break your bones to see how you heal?”
A shiver made its way down Katrina’s spine.
“I didn’t think so,” he said, and leaned against the wall. “You know, I spent our ride back coming up with a pretty good villain speech, but you haven’t even asked why we’re doing this.”
“You said yourself I wasn’t an idiot,” she said. “People who could turn into animals would make you billions of dollars, just from the Department of Defense contracts.”
Pete sighed and pushed his glasses up his face.
“Yeah, that was the gist,” he muttered. He looked at the floor. “There was something about pushing forward scientific inquiry, but that was the gist.”
Chapter Fifteen
Zach
Zach landed on the roof. Nothing happened. He tensed, ready to take off again at a moment’s notice, but everything was eerily calm and still.
The roof had two things on it: a door to a stairwell and a big air conditioning vent. Near the door was a single Smoker’s Outpost, stuffed with cigarette butts and surrounded by cups, bottles, and the other detritus of anywhere people tended to go.
The door itself was shut, but when Zach looked closely, he could see the lock had been taped over, leaving the door open.
You can have the world’s best security, but if people want to smoke on the roof, they’re gonna find a way, he thought smugly.
He looked from the door to the vent and back, then walked to the vent, grabbed it in his talons, and beat his wings as hard as he could until it
tore off with a sound of shrieking metal. He grabbed cans and bottles and tossed them down the vent, one by one, listening to them rattle down.
Then Zach pulled open the door to the stairs and headed down. When he reached the first floor he could hear the elevators rush upward, and he smiled.
Chapter Sixteen
Katrina
Men started shouting outside, and Katrina could tell that something was going on. Footsteps pounded past, and she got out of her chair and walked toward Pete, trying to figure out what was going on.
All she could hear was muffled voices and footsteps, then nothing. She couldn’t even tell what direction they were coming from or where they were going, and she balled her hands up in frustration.
Come on, Zach, she thought. Don’t be stupid, whatever you’re doing.
“Sit down,” Pete said.
She flipped him off.
How many guys ran away? she thought. There were only three guys left, besides the injured ones and Pete.
Did two of them leave?
Was it one, or was it two?
Katrina turned back to the desk in the lab, looking at all the electronics on it one more time, desperate to think of something.
“Sit,” Pete said.
This time his voice was more dangerous, more threatening.
He’ll hurt me, Katrina realized. If I’m between him and his billion dollars, he’ll hurt me.
Knowing that made it easier.
“No,” she said. She rested her hands on the tabletop and tried to keep her heart from beating quite so loudly.
“I’m in charge right now,” he said. He was closer, almost close enough. Adrenaline spiked through Katrina’s veins.
“And I said,” Pete said, taking another step. “Sit down.”
Katrina took a deep breath.
Then she grabbed the heavy steel stand displaying the robot hand, whirled around, and clocked Pete. The hand flew off to the ground and Pete stumbled back, looking baffled and confused. She hadn’t gotten him squarely — not enough to knock him out, just enough to confuse him.
Pete’s glasses fell off and Katrina felt them crunch under her feet. Then she swung again.
This time she connected, and Pete fell to the floor like a rag doll.
Everything went silent.
Katrina froze.
Oh my God I really just did that, she thought, and looked down at the display stand in her hands.
I guess sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
There was a knock at the door.
“Everything okay?” a deep male voice said.
Katrina ran to the door, weapon still in hand. She stood behind it, her heart thundering.
“Help!” she screamed. “He’s in here!”
The door opened, and a head with big ears and short hair came through.
He never even saw what knocked him out.
Chapter Seventeen
Zach
Zach crouched in the stairwell, naked and human, and pushed the door open slowly.
Nothing.
He crept out and peeked into the lobby, all sleek windows and angles, a single security desk in the middle.
Still nothing.
I wish shifting included pants, he thought, and then he made a run for the security desk, just as the door to to the rest of the building burst open.
Zach dove below the desk, praying that whoever it was couldn’t see him.
He held his breath as the footsteps got closer and closer, running now, and Zach frowned.
They were light and quick, not at all the footsteps he was expecting —
He peeked out of from under the desk as Katrina rounded it.
“Oh!” she yelped, practically jumping in the air and clapping one hand over her mouth.
“Shh!” said Zach. “It’s me!”
“Shit, Zach,” she said.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was just trying to find you, but I guess we can get out of here, then.”
Katrina shook her head.
“Not just yet,” she said, and a focused, determined look came into her blue eyes. She pointed at the bank of monitors on the desk.
“Can you get the hard drive out of there?” she asked.
Zach glanced at the computer set up. Not complicated at all.
“Sure,” he said.
“Do that,” Katrina said. “Give me five minutes.”
“I don’t know if—”
She was already through the door.
Zach sighed and looked at the computer, hoping the guys upstairs searching the air conditioning ducts didn’t hurry up too much.
Chapter Eighteen
Katrina
Of course Chuck had his password on a post-it note in his desk. He’d kept a backup badge there, so why not just compromise all possible security measures at once?
Katrina rooted through his desk until she found a USB drive and plugged it in. It didn’t take her long at all to copy over the HTML files of ever email he’d sent or received for the past two years, then pull it out of the computer and switch the monitor off.
As she did, two things happened at once.
The door from the lobby opened and footsteps pounded through, heading in the direction of the labs.
And there was a thump on the office window. Katrina looked outside to see a giant bird holding a hard drive, wires hanging off of it. Moments later, she had the window open and a naked man was helping her to wrench it free of the frame, then helping her climb out and onto the grass.
Once more, Katrina reached into her bra and pulled out keys.
“This feels familiar,” Zach said.
“Don’t fucking quip, just run,” Katrina said.
When she reached the parking lot, she hit the unlock button frantically. The SUV in the middle flashed, and she pointed at it, glancing back at the building.
Two men barreled around the corner, shouting. Katrina yanked the door open and threw herself into the giant car, hands shaking as she scrabbled with the keys.
“It’s that one,” Zach said, already sitting in the passenger side.
Katrina grabbed a key.
“No, that one!” Zach shouted.
“You’re not helping!” Katrina screamed, jamming a key into the ignition and twisting it.
The men closed in.
The engine turned over.
Katrina shoved the SUV into drive and slammed on the gas pedal. In the rear view mirror, one man grabbed a gun and aimed, but the other man slapped it out of his hand. Then she squealed around the corner, two tires coming off the pavement, and they were gone.
“Head for the interstate,” Zach said.
“I am,” Katrina said. Her whole body was shaking, and she looked in the rear view mirror.
Nothing.
At a stoplight she finally buckled her seatbelt and adjusted the seat. Surrounded by other cars on the road, she felt better. They probably wouldn’t try anything with witnesses around.
As far as she could tell, they hadn’t even bothered following her.
“Police?” Zach asked.
Katrina looked over, then burst out laughing, even though her nerves were totally shot.
He’d found a stash of fast food napkins in the glove box and had covered his lap with them.
“I don’t have a lot of options,” Zach pointed out.
“We’re going to my place first,” Katrina said, still giggling. “Then the police. You can borrow some sweatpants.”
* * *
Katrina made copies of the USB drive with the emails, but ended up having to turn the whole hard drive over to the police. They were at the station until nearly two in the morning, telling the same story in separate rooms.
At Katrina’s apartment, they’d decided on what to say: the truth, without the parts where Zach turned into an eagle. Katrina painted Pete as a good boss who’d had some kind of break with reality, thinking that a video of someone turning into an eagle was real.
Zach played the innoc
ent guy who just wanted a summer job. It worked beautifully.
Afterward, they went to Katrina’s apartment in Salt Lake and fell asleep the moment they hit her bed.
The next morning, the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., and Katrina hit the snooze button.
Then warm arms draped themselves over her, and she smiled.
“Shit,” muttered a voice in her ear. “I have class today. I never finished my homework.”
“I bet the police can write you a note,” she said, snuggling back into him. “If you leave now, you could make an eight a.m. class.”
Zach just squeezed her tighter, the entire length of his body pressing against her.
“I’ve got perfect attendance so far this semester,” he said. “And I can think of something better to do right now.”
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
“This is it,” Zach said.
Katrina put on her blinker and turned right onto the long gravel driveway. To her left, a massive red sandstone formation hulked, high over the town of Obsidian.
“That’s Copper Mesa?” she asked, pointing.
“That’s it,” Zach said.
He reached over and put his hand on the back of her neck, leaning so he could see out her window.
“And it belongs to you guys?” she asked.
“Not for long,” he admitted. “A lot of the land around here is going to be declared a National Monument, and we agreed that Copper Mesa should be protected. So the Bureau of Land Management is going to own it pretty soon.”
“It’s probably for the best,” Katrina teased. “It sounds like the two of you already proved you can’t be trusted to keep it safe.”
“Hey,” Zach said, grinning at her. “It’s still there, right?”
She pulled her car next to a big, ugly truck that had to be older than she was, and she and Zach got out, stretching. Miraculously, she’d gotten her car back — it had been impounded in Coyote County, where they’d left it, but all Katrina had had to do was go pay the impound fee.
