Project Chimera

by Lisa McMann

  After a few minutes, with the boxes distributed to the various workstations, most of the soldiers dispersed, leaving Cyke to stand guard at the lab door and Zed unpacking things at the station next to Charles. After a while she carried a box of instruments over to Charles and set it down in front of him, facing away from Cyke. “Your daughter is fine,” she said under her breath.

  Charles’s eyes widened, but he said nothing. Zed turned and went away, leaving Charles wondering why the soldier had taken pity on him. But very grateful that she had.

  CHAPTER 13

  Relocating

  “They turned left on Ellsworth Ave,” whispered Charlie into the microphone as she peered from behind the cactus. Once the white van disappeared, she ran to the corner and turned left to follow it. She sped up her pace, not wanting them to be out of sight for long so she wouldn’t lose track of them. Within a minute or two she’d caught up again. She strained to see their license plate and managed to get part of it. “License plate starts with CX4,” she said.

  “I’m in the car,” said Ms. Sabbith. “Be careful!”

  “I’m being careful,” said Charlie, her voice jiggling as she sprinted down a four-lane road, hoping the few drivers in the area didn’t notice how oddly fast she was going. “Did you hear me? Left on Ellsworth. Then right on Brown, heading toward the freeway.”

  “I heard you and we’re on the way. You could’ve told Dr. Sharma what you were doing, you know.”

  “Sorry. I forgot she wouldn’t be able to hear me through the mike. They’re going halfway around the traffic circle. Straight, I mean—you know? Not taking the freeway exit.”

  “You mean they’re staying on Brown Road?”

  “Yes.”

  “So they’re not leaving town—that’s surprising.”

  Charlie moved stealthily as the van slowed to navigate the curves, then darted after them once more, continuing to try to stay hidden from ordinary traffic as well so other drivers wouldn’t be suspicious of her speed. Being a superhero came with a whole host of problems, no doubt about that. “Heading past the high school toward Red Mountain,” Charlie said.

  “We’re not far behind you now,” said Ms. Sabbith. “You’re doing great.”

  “Rest of the license plate is R701. CX4R701. Got it?”

  “Got it,” said Ms. Sabbith. Charlie could hear Dr. Sharma in the background now, sounding pleased with her. Ms. Sabbith went on. “Okay, I see you. We’re going to come up alongside you and pull over. You jump in and we’ll keep going. You’ve gotta be quick so we don’t lose sight of the van. Okay?”

  “I can definitely be quick,” said Charlie. “There’s a stoplight coming up.” She glanced back, searching the traffic for Dr. Sharma’s car. She spotted it but then began running again when the light changed and the van sped off.

  Finally Dr. Sharma’s car caught up and rode alongside her. But Charlie didn’t want to waste time waiting for them to stop. Feeling her fingers tingling, she leaped at the moving car, sticking to the side. Ms. Sabbith recoiled, surprised, then realized what had just happened. She quickly threw open the door and yanked Charlie into the vehicle. Dr. Sharma sped up again.

  “Wow!” said Ms. Sabbith. “That was incredible.”

  “Fantastic!” agreed Dr. Sharma as she glided through traffic to catch up to the van. “Your father would be so pleased—not just with how the bracelet works, but with how well you are using it.”

  Charlie caught her breath and put her seat belt on, her eyes stinging a little with the kind words. “Thanks. I like the gecko power because I can tell when it activates.” She explained the tingling sensation.

  “You’ve done well, Charlie,” said Dr. Sharma, glancing quickly over her shoulder. “I have to admit, I didn’t expect you to be so responsible with the device. You used good instincts in taking the mike, too. Though I would have preferred to know what you were up to. I almost went after you, but once I saw you running like that, I figured it out.”

  “Sorry about that,” said Charlie, “but we couldn’t let them out of our sight. And besides, I wanted to show you what I can do.” She lifted her chin. “I really want you to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

  Ms. Sabbith laughed. “Hey, don’t look at me—I trust you. I think you’ve done an excellent job so far.”

  “I hear you, Charlie,” said Dr. Sharma. “And you’re proving yourself. But it’s not that simple. You’re a minor using an untested device that isn’t even supposed to exist. This is tricky.”

  “But it’s stuck on me, so what else am I supposed to do? Besides, I’m actually getting better at using it, so there’s no reason to worry. I’m stronger, faster, and probably better at fighting and defending myself and my friends than any of you. And you’re going to need me to rescue my dad. Unless you have a better idea.”

  “I know you’re faster, for sure,” Dr. Sharma said carefully, moving through traffic, “and I don’t have a problem with you defending yourself or others. But I am not your mother, and I’m not so sure she’s keen on the idea of putting you in danger.” She hesitated, then said, “We don’t even know if we’ll need to do any fighting. Maybe we’ll be able to go in and get your dad without any altercations.”

  Charlie raised an eyebrow. “You don’t watch many superhero movies, do you?” But at least Dr. Sharma seemed open to Charlie using the device. So there was that.

  They trailed behind the white van several more minutes to the outskirts of Navarro Junction. Eventually they found themselves in a quiet, tired-looking business park where a few eight- to ten-story-tall office buildings made up the entirety of the skyline. The van pulled into an alley behind an old abandoned bank building. A rusty gate opened mechanically and the van pulled through. Dr. Sharma glided her car past the alley and went around the block, passing a few smaller buildings and a restaurant. Then she turned down the alley from the opposite direction and came to another mechanical gate but didn’t attempt to go through it. Instead, she guided the vehicle into the shadows next to some Dumpsters and a pile of office-type junk, about fifty paces from the soldiers.

  This section of Navarro Junction felt like it had been forgotten. There was no one else around at the moment. Dr. Sharma kept the windows rolled up but opened the sunroof, and Ms. Sabbith propped a larger microphone on top of the car, hoping to pick up bits of conversation. She programmed the earpieces to connect with the new mike.

  They watched, peering between pieces of junk and the trash receptacles. Three soldiers got out of the van and cautiously looked around, then opened the back of the vehicle and began to unload it. Ms. Sabbith took photos of the soldiers whenever she had an unobstructed shot.

  Charlie could hear wisps of their conversation through her earpiece.

  “Equipment goes to the ninth floor,” the smallest soldier of the three called out to the others. “The elevator’s halfway down the hall. Don’t worry about being seen—the whole building is vacant.”

  One of the others grunted and they continued unloading the van in silence.

  “Have you seen these particular soldiers before?” Dr. Sharma asked.

  Charlie studied them. “That’s Prowl, the leopard man,” she said, pointing to the smallest one. He was slinking around, not carrying much but moving lithely in and out of the building. He had a new face mask on today, or at least the tear in the old one had been fixed.

  The other two were slow and bumbling, but they could carry a lot more. “That man and woman were in the warehouse too. At least one of them is some type of cattle—he’s superbeefy and was making lowing sounds when I was fighting him. I’m not sure about the other one. They almost took me out, but I was too fast for them. I don’t know their names.”

  The soldiers emptied the van over the next quarter of an hour and brought the items inside. Dr. Sharma scanned the side of the building, looking through windows for signs of activity. “Ninth floor is the top,” she noted.

  Most of the old bank’s window shades were pulled, making the bui
lding seem even more unfriendly. Charlie looked at the other structures in the area, trying to be like Dr. Sharma and make closer observations of her surroundings. It seemed like a good thing for a superhero to do. Charlie counted four cars in the parking lot across the street, with dozens of open spaces. There weren’t any people walking around, even though it was the middle of a weekday. She could smell food cooking—perhaps from the restaurant nearby—so the business park wasn’t completely abandoned. The Dumpster lids were lying flat, so either the businesses didn’t have much trash or the receptacles had been emptied recently. It was amazing the things she noticed just by looking around instead of at her phone, like she usually did when she was in a car.

  At last the van was empty. Prowl returned alone to lock it up, then went back inside the building.

  Dr. Sharma started the vehicle and backed out of the alley. She drove slowly around the block, scanning the building from all sides, and then she looked at the neighboring buildings. Spying something across the street that pleased her, she smiled. “Aha,” she said. She stopped the car. “There’s an office for lease in the building across from the one Gray is in,” she said, pointing to the sign in a window on the sixth floor. Erica, can you take care of securing that as our home base?”

  “Got it,” Ms. Sabbith said, taking down the phone number and website address on the sign. “I’ll see if we can take possession of it immediately.”

  “Great. We’ll need your surveillance equipment set up ASAP.” She gave one last look at the bank building, then reentered traffic and began driving back toward Charlie’s house. “We’re lucky they didn’t venture too far from the warehouse,” she said.

  “I wonder why,” said Ms. Sabbith. “They could have gone anywhere.”

  “It’s not easy to travel with an entire lab. And they’ve already moved the lab once and probably don’t want to do it again.”

  “Makes sense.”

  When they arrived at Charlie’s house, Dr. Sharma went in with her. “Thank you, Charlie. You did great work today. Tomorrow I want you to have an extremely normal Thursday.”

  Charlie frowned. “But we haven’t found my father yet.”

  “We very nearly have, I suspect. He’s in that building.”

  “Are you sure?” Charlie’s heart surged. “How do you know?”

  “I’m not positive, but it makes sense. We’ll be spying on them in no time, don’t worry.” She glanced sidelong at Charlie. “I’ll let you come if your mom says it’s okay.”

  Charlie wanted that more than anything. “Can’t you tell her you need me or something? She’ll trust you.”

  Dr. Sharma’s mouth twitched. As she followed Charlie to update Mrs. Wilde on what they’d found, she said, “We’ll see.”

  That evening, only the three Wildes remained in their house. Everyone still felt on edge—it had been more than twenty-four hours and Charlie’s father hadn’t been found yet. But they were comforted by how sure Dr. Sharma was of his whereabouts. And what she’d said made sense.

  Charlie and Andy did the homework they hadn’t gotten to the previous night and prepared to go to school as usual the next day. Once in bed Charlie tried reading the comic book that Maria had let her borrow, now that Andy was done with it. But she couldn’t concentrate. The drawings blurred and a tear slipped down Charlie’s cheek. She missed her dad. What if he wasn’t okay? She hoped Dr. Sharma and Ms. Sabbith were busy finding him right now.

  After a while she turned out her light. She had to appear normal at school tomorrow. Go to classes, make up the soccer game that had been canceled due to rain the other day. Pretend like her world wasn’t all torn up. If she could pull it off, it might be an Oscar-worthy performance. At least she’d have help from her friends.

  CHAPTER 14

  Just a Normal Day

  Charlie’s mom insisted on driving the kids to school on Thursday. Once there Charlie went straight to her first-hour class and waited outside the door for her friends to show up. Maria and Mac arrived first. When they saw Charlie, they ran to greet her.

  “Did they find your dad?” asked Maria.

  “Not yet.”

  Mac pulled the Talos Global envelope from inside his Windbreaker and shoved it at Charlie. “Here’s this for Dr. Sharma.”

  “Did you find out anything more?” asked Charlie.

  “Not really,” said Mac. “I didn’t want my parents to catch me looking through it after what happened yesterday. And since we don’t have the bracelets anymore, it’s not much use. I don’t want to get in trouble again.”

  “I still have stuff to figure out with my bracelet,” Charlie reminded them. “And there might be clues about how we can stop Dr. Gray. Maybe we can read more at lunchtime.”

  “Sure,” said Mac, and Maria agreed.

  Charlie clutched the envelope to her chest as Kelly came up.

  “What are you doing?” asked Kelly. She eyed the envelope.

  “Mac was just giving that back to Charlie,” said Maria. “How are your parents reacting? Did you get in trouble?”

  “My dad exploded once we got into the car. He . . . yells. A lot.” She dropped her gaze. “My mom’s in Cabo. She couldn’t care less.”

  “What’s Cabo?” asked Charlie.

  “Cabo San Lucas,” said Maria. “It’s in Mexico. Resort city for the western US.”

  “Cool.” Charlie adjusted her grip on the envelope. “Sorry about your dad, Kelly.”

  “It’s fine. Whatever. I finally convinced him I never took a simulator in the first place and it was all a big misunderstanding. Still, I’ve never been in trouble like that before. And my dad says he doesn’t trust your parents because he thinks they’re irresponsible, leaving weird science junk sitting around your house for us to get into. So he doesn’t want me hanging out with you anymore.”

  Charlie recoiled. “Oh.”

  “And now he’s sending me to Cabo tomorrow night to be with my mother for spring break.” She sounded angry about it.

  “Why is that a bad thing?” asked Mac. “I thought it was really swanky there.”

  “I hate the ocean.” Kelly crossed her arms and scowled. “All those jellyfish stinging and seaweed grabbing your ankles. It’s smelly and the salt water makes my hair gross. I’ll be stuck in the condo the whole week while my mother goes out with her obnoxious friends and ignores me as usual.”

  Mac raised an eyebrow, and Maria seemed to be rendered speechless.

  Charlie was still stinging from Kelly’s comment. No one had ever been forbidden to hang out with her before. It felt awful. All she wanted was to change the subject. “I keep forgetting it’s spring break already next week,” she murmured. “It comes so early here.”

  “So does the end of the school year,” said Maria. “We get out in the middle of May. My cousins in Ohio don’t get out until, like, the middle of June or something. Crazy.”

  “Yeah, but we start in August,” lamented Mac.

  “That’s early,” said Charlie. “Back home . . . .” She trailed off. Navarro Junction was home now. And while of course she still loved Amari dearly, her new best friends were here. Her new secret life with the bracelet was here too. She turned abruptly to Kelly. “Did you find your device?”

  “What? Me? No. I’m not looking through disgusting garbage for a dud bracelet.”

  Charlie frowned, remembering how Dr. Sharma had been so sure at first that her device wasn’t a dud, and how crestfallen she’d been to admit maybe it was after all. She at least deserved to have it back. “But it wasn’t yours to throw away. It belongs to Dr. Sharma.”

  “She can search through the dump, then, because the trash was picked up yesterday.”

  “Ooo-kay,” said Charlie as the first bell rang. The four of them went inside the classroom. Mac and Charlie headed to the back, where their desks were next to each other. “I hope they find your dad soon,” whispered Mac, crouching in the aisle next to Charlie’s seat.

  Charlie looked around warily as others began
to float into the room. “They think they know where he is,” she whispered back. “In that big old bank building at the edge of town. But they haven’t actually seen him there. The warehouse is totally cleared out and abandoned. We caught the white van leaving and followed it.”

  “Wow. That’s crazy.”

  “Yeah.”

  Mac went to his seat and sat down.

  Charlie slid the Talos Global envelope into her backpack, then looked at Mac. “Did you get a new phone yet?”

  “Not yet. I’ve got to lie low for a bit until the whole thing from yesterday dies down. I figured I’d better hold off on telling my mom about my stolen iPad and phone.”

  “Good plan. But what if she texts or calls you?”

  Mac shrugged. “I hope she doesn’t need an answer.”

  The rest of the students came pouring into the seats surrounding them. Charlie faced forward and tried to concentrate on math, all the while willing her phone to vibrate in her pocket with news of her father. But it didn’t come.

  At lunch Charlie, Maria, and Mac ate quickly. Charlie filled them in on what she hadn’t had time to tell them before school. Maria and Mac asked a lot of questions Charlie didn’t know the answers to, like what exactly Dr. Gray wanted her dad to do for him.

  “We don’t really know yet,” she told them. “But we hope to find out soon. Dr. Sharma and Ms. Sabbith are setting up a home base across from the bank building where they think Dr. Gray is keeping my dad. We’re going to spy on them. Do a little recon.” Charlie sniffed, feeling pretty savvy using that word.

  “I hope you hear good news soon,” said Maria. “I don’t know how you can even concentrate.”

  “It helps a lot hanging out with you,” Charlie admitted. “For a minute or two I almost forgot he was abducted.”

  After they finished lunch, they went outside and found a secluded spot in the courtyard to study the contents of the envelope, this time to search for information about the Mark Five. Each of them took a section of pages to flip through. A few minutes into it Charlie came across a page that had “Mark Five: In-Process Notes” written at the top. She scoured it.