BlindHeat (24 page)

“You need to be more patient with yourself.”

“Would you take the test, Jake? And do it honestly. Don’t
flub it for my sake.”

“I don’t know your famous people.”

“There are other versions that don’t rely on recognizing
celebrities.”

He didn’t have time for this. With a sinking feeling he knew
he’d make time. He let her drag him back to the computer and was about to shoo
Oliver from his perch at the keyboard when the image on the screen froze
him—the lab where Marcus had stolen Hella. Jake looked from screen to rabbit,
watched stunned when Oliver nudged the mouse with his nose then paused and gave
a click with his paw to bring up a view from a different camera. Oliver had
hacked into the research facility’s online files for their IP security cameras
and was clicking through the most recent images stored. This was a view of the
loading dock and Jake recognized a naked Marcus fleeing toward the woods with a
wrapped bundle in his arms.

Marie gasped, “Where is he? Are those shots from Marcus’
last raid?”

“According to the time stamp, that’s from fifteen minutes
ago. I know where he is though. I’ll get him.”

“I’ll tell Adam.”

“No, call Ben. I need backup. We don’t want any of this to
lead researchers to you and the girls. If Adam and Ean get involved it could
bring cops right to your door and when they start digging into who we all are
and where we came from…” Marie was fair skinned already, but her skin turned a
new shade of colorless. He squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll make sure that doesn’t
happen. Just call Ben. I have to go.”

He scribbled some instructions on a pad beside the keyboard.
“They use IP cameras to store still images in an internet account. Stay logged
in and remove any pictures of Marcus. Make copies of some from before he got
there and rename the files with the proper timestamps. Here’s the username and
password that worked for me last time I did it, just in case you get
disconnected.”

“I’ve got it. You go.”

“Give that lab name to Ben. And keep Oliver away from the
computer.”

She’d already scooped the bunny up and held him cuddled in
her lap while she typed. “Go, Jake. As much as you might like to think you’re
the only digital wizard around here, I could code circles around you.”

He turned back. “Is that right?”

“Will you go? I have this.”

He went.

* * * * *

Allie’s brain was crunching facts triple time. The alcohol
daze receded and a strong sense of déjà vu took hold. Winter, early morning,
imagining the blend of white and shadow had shaped itself into a cat that
disappeared when she’d reached to touch it.

And then she’d heard a cat, a soft but tortured cry and that
led her to a bush, to finding the poor mother cat, sides heaving, ready to give
birth. Marcus. Marcus must have been behind that. Something drove him,
something more than just the need to save them. What had he said before? That
he had a sense of kinship with them? That he understood what it was to be too
different to ever be acceptable.

She’d been too mad at the time to hear what he was saying.
But now a suspicion took hold. She’d probably laugh at the idea when she was
completely sober, but right now she couldn’t shake the growing belief that
Marcus was like them. That he had a secret difference, that it was something he
couldn’t make peace with. If it were something to do with test tube
fertilization or cloning, it could explain his fixation on the hybrid
experiments. If they could put human neurons in animal brains, maybe someone
had put animal parts in his.

Allie didn’t see any tracks, but she found a trail that
followed the stream and her need to follow it was a compulsion she couldn’t
ignore. She was only a little surprised when she saw Marcus running toward her,
carrying something bundled in a ragged army blanket. The fact that he was
dripping wet and naked seemed less important than the squirming blanket.

“What are you doing, Marcus? What have you done?”

He peeled back a corner of the blanket and Allie could just
make out the head of a small pig. It oinked, more a moany oink punctuated by
heavy panting.

“She doesn’t look so good,” Allie said.

“She’s in labor,” Marcus said, his breath as labored as the
pig’s.

“She doesn’t look any bigger than a baby herself.”

“Potbellies don’t get very big. She’s probably too big for
you to carry though.”

“Why would I want to carry her?” Suspicion crept in. “Where
are you going?”

“To draw them away from you. Here, the brush is dense here.”
He ducked under a branch and stepped over a log, put the pig down in a heap of
leaves. “If they get too close, cover her with leaves and get away.”

“Marcus, I am not helping you steal that pig.”

“She’s human, Allie. Or her brain is. We can’t abandon her.”

Male voices, shouting to each other and moving in their
direction, brought his head up. His nostrils flared and he wrinkled his nose as
if he smelled something bad.

The pig huffed and panted.

“There’s not much time. I can’t let them take her, Allie. Do
you know what that will do to her, to have come so close to the freedom she
longs for, to safety for her babies, and then lose? Help me.”

“Allie? Where the hell did you get to?” It was Franny and
she wasn’t far away.

Allie knew she should turn around and walk away. The pig
licked Allie’s fingers and oinked softly. Allie sighed. “Go,” she said. “I’ll
try to find a way to get her to my apartment. But you come get her as soon as
you can.”

He nodded and the men’s shouts approached at a faster clip
as if they were running.

“I have tracks,” one called.

“Sorry, Allie,” Marcus said. “I didn’t want you to discover
what I am this way, but it’s the only way to keep them from you.”

The air around her vibrated. A rising tension as Marcus went
transparent and vanished. Then the vibration changed, went back down the scale
and a leopard reappeared in his place, a familiar leopard. Allie’s heart did a
somersault in her chest. She dropped to her knees, struggling to draw breath
through a panic-sealed throat.

Marcus the leopard leapt through the bushes, headed in the
direction of the searchers.

Allie wanted to believe it was a trick, an illusion, but
whatever it was, she still had a laboring animal beside her. With the vivid
memory of a leopard appearing in the snow only to vanish, and her subsequent
discovery of a laboring cat, there were too many coincidences piling up for
Allie to believe it was all illusions any longer.

She gathered the blanket around the pig. “You don’t know me
very well,” Allie told her, “but I’m just trying to help.” She patted the
animal’s head before she covered her face. She tried maneuvering the plump
bundle so that she could lift the animal in her arms. She only succeeded in
making her squeal in pain.

“Allie?” Franny shouted no more than two feet away. “Girl,
you better answer me right now.”

Chapter Twelve

“Here, over here,” Allie called as loudly as she dared, “and
keep your voices down.”

Her warning was followed by what sounded like a woman’s
scream.

Allie hoped that was Marcus. Didn’t leopards sound like
women screaming?

Franny and Lila dove into the bushes beside her.

“What the fuck is going on out here?” Lila whispered through
chattering teeth. Lila was back in her dress, but still minus hose and heels.
Allie didn’t want to think about the damage to her own stockings and dress.

“Most of this has something to do with Marcus. I could use
your help but I have to warn you I’m helping him break the law.” The pig
squirmed and made another moany sound.

Franny lifted a corner of the blanket from the pig’s face,
and pressed the palm of her left hand over her chest. “Oh thank god. I was
afraid you had a child here for a minute.”

Allie said, “I can’t lift her. I need to get her to my
apartment.”

“Sugar, if they wouldn’t let you keep that cat you found out
here, I doubt the no-pets policy will be waived for a pig.”

“I’m just keeping her a few hours but she doesn’t look so
good. We really need to move fast.”

“Why are you helping him steal a pig?”

“He insists she’s some sort of genetic experiment, that they
put a human brain in her.”

“Oh poor thing,” Lila said. “If we each grab a corner of the
blanket and work together we can carry her.” She scratched behind the pig’s
right ear and was thanked with a string of oinking. “Yes, sweetheart,” Lila
cooed. “Tell me all about it.”

“What if he’s lying?” Franny asked.

“What if he’s not?” Lila countered.

Another loud pop, like a gun going off, and a reciprocal
scream broke the impasse. “Grab an end of this blanket, Lila,” Franny said.
“Where is Marcus now?” she asked Allie.

“He’s trying to lead the guys who want her back away from
us.”

“Figures Marcus would be in the middle of a mess like this.”

“Let’s get this pig someplace warm and dry,” Lila said, “and
then we can grill Allie. If Marcus is alive, I’ll take my wrath out on him
later.”

Franny got on one end of the blanket and Lila had the other.
“Baby, you get my flashlight and lead the way,” Franny said.

“I just need to check Marcus is okay and I’ll catch up with
you. Don’t let anyone take her away from you. She’s been horribly tortured and
Marcus was trying to rescue her from that. Details later.”

Allie ran before they could argue and she hoped they would
listen, but her priority was Marcus. She had the sickest feeling that she was
too late.

A flurry of activity and the bright beams of flashlights
crossing and moving through a wooded patch near the business park confirmed her
intuition. The shouting had stopped.

Cautiously, she moved toward the light and the low-pitched
exchange of male conversation. This was simply a problem to be solved. She
couldn’t let emotions creep into it right now. But she couldn’t block the
electric jolt slicing through her middle when she recognized the spotted fur
coat of the animal they gathered around.

She moved softly, aware of each twig and stone under bare
feet—slowly testing the surface and easing her weight soundlessly into each
step, as if she were an animal stalking prey. But the behaviors were
instinctual, a second nature she’d only vaguely been aware of until Marcus’
lessons brought them to awareness. She felt, almost tasted the air on her skin,
her senses so aroused and tuned to trouble. Her ears picked up the conversation
even though the voices were soft and several yards away.

“I think the tranq has a good hold now.”

“How long will it hold on a cat this size?”

“I gave him a dose big enough to drop a buffalo. I never
used this on a leopard but we should get at least an hour.”

“If he wakes up at all, you mean. Do you know how much an
animal like this costs? It’s like finding gold.”

“Only gold if the owner doesn’t show up to stake a claim
before we’ve got him stashed.”

“Next question, where are we going put him?”

“We have some empty canine pens in the basement.”

“That’s hardly room for him to turn around. And will it hold
an animal this strong?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t planning to work with any big cats.
We’ll keep him sedated until we can make other arrangements.”

“And what of the pig?”

“I called in some extra help to go look in the park. Some of
those animal rights fanatics must have broken in and taken her. This fella is a
bigger prize than a potbelly. We can pick pigs up from pet stores. Not that it
doesn’t hurt knowing we’ll have to start that pig research at the beginning. We
still have some frozen embryos we can implant in another host female.”

“But she wouldn’t be a hybrid.”

“Like I said, we’ll do what we can about her later. It
doesn’t matter if the host isn’t a hybrid. The hybrid’s genes are in the extra
frozen embryos.”

At the rumble of a motor approaching, Allie crouched.
Headlights illuminated the woods and Allie dropped to her belly. Peering
through a break in the brush, she watched a forklift approach. They hauled
Marcus onto a pallet. Each bump and scrape registering like the slice of a
knife, splitting her skin, gouging her stomach. One of them planted a boot
against Marcus’ belly and shoved him farther back on the skid. It was as if the
wind had been knocked out of her. If they were so careless over his suffering
here, what would happen when he was in the lab? She could imagine the cutting,
sawing, electric probes that might make up experiments.

It was easy enough to follow the group. If it weren’t near
midnight on a Friday night there might be some cops around to notice the
activity and ask questions. But they would have their hands full monitoring
bars and drunk drivers over by the college. Hopefully Lila and Franny would
make it safely through the park to her apartment.

The journey proved short. The building sat in an isolated
spot at the back of the business park that bordered the town park. Allie
watched the forklift disappear into the dark cavern on the other side of a
garage-type door.

It had been a few years since she’d survived on stealing and
she’d sworn off ever breaking another law as soon as she landed that first job
with Franny. Marcus was like a cyclone ripping through the carefully planned,
proper life she was trying to build. The trouble was that while Marcus was on
the wrong side of the law, every inch of her being agreed with what he was
doing. Maybe if she had grown up some other way, hadn’t grown up with people
who crossed every line drawn, she might have done something different. But
Allie was starting to understand that one man’s broken law was another man’s
attempt to survive and in this particular instance Marcus was more important to
her than laws.

She crept soundlessly along a wall, through the shadows. The
door had started down and Allie couldn’t see anyone lingering to watch it
close, so she dove, rolling under just before it connected to the concrete,
sealing her into this foreign world with a bang and the echo rattling up
through its steel frame. She put her palm to the concrete, her fingers met with
a greasy patch as she pushed herself up. Lila’s dress was going to be beyond
salvageable.

She lay still a moment longer, willing her breath to slow,
drawing silence into her mind and letting it spread like a shield around her.
Eddie used to tell her, “I swear sometimes you get so still it’s like you’re
invisible.” And it was true that Allie played an invisibility game with herself
as a child, imagining that she could make herself slowly fade away by staying
still as a shadow, blending into her surroundings like so much furniture,
unnoticed by the deadly men who came to visit.

Around her the warehouse was like a silent cave, but voices
in an area beyond the walls clued her in to where she’d find Marcus. She
crawled across the floor and behind a stack of boxes and waited, listening to
the bang and clatter of gates. Images of chain and wire cage forming in her
mind, a foggy view, a sense of bafflement before it all faded in a blaze of
pain. Marcus. He was immobile but somewhat aware. She pressed fingers to the
spot on her temple, the source, realizing these sporadic bouts of drilling pain
must always have come from him, his thoughts trying to burrow into hers.

Go. Get out.
The command from him came sharp and
bold, but the effort sent him under into blackness. The force of his thoughts
folded her, she bent, locking her head between her knees until the pain
receded.

Down the corridor men conversed.

“That dog pen won’t hold him long.” A rattle of keys. “I’ll
keep the door locked as well, and of course we’ll keep him sedated. If he
proves too much trouble we’ll sacrifice him. I’d like to keep him alive and
observe him, but if he’s too unruly we’ll harvest semen and organs.”

“We should decide what we’re going to do tonight. Someone
will be looking for him. Probably an illegal pet, but surely they’ll report that
he escaped so the local citizens can protect themselves.”

“Would you report an escape like that?”

The other man didn’t answer.

“The team is trickling in now. The first order of business
is to assess the situation and make a practical plan.”

“But—”

“I’m still the team leader and I say plan first and act
second. I’m inclined to agree sacrificing is the best thing and if we decide to
take that route sooner, as in tonight, it’s probably better.”

A new voice joined the conversation. “Excuse me, Dr. Rogers,
do you want a guard down here?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Even if he managed to get
out of the pen, the room will contain him. We have time yet before he’ll be a
problem. We may just decide to put him down before he wakes up. Let’s get to
the meeting.”

* * * * *

Jake tuned in telepathically to Seth as soon as he stepped
through the portal into his apartment above the computer shop.

Seth’s response was instant,
What’s up, bro?

The same thing that is always up.

Marcus stirring up trouble again?

I suspect he’s in it deeper than ever.

Jake raced through his apartment and ran down the stairs to
the computer shop. He turned around at the bottom and ran back up, annoyed that
humans insisted on everyone wearing clothing in public.

I just swapped thoughts with him a couple of hours ago.
Where is he now?
Seth wanted to know.

More important, where is Allie? Is she somewhere she’ll
be safe without watching over for a little while?

I wish I could say yes, Jake. They had a birthday party
for her tonight. Luckily I was invited. I heard her say to a fellow who offered
her a ride that she was catching one with Lila. So I went over to her place to
wait, just be sure she got in safe. She’s not here and it’s been a good
forty-five minutes. Diner is a two-minute drive.

Jake grabbed a t-shirt and sweats, yanking the shirt on as
he went, pausing at the door to hop on one leg then the other as he put on the
pants.

Why do I get the bad feeling that a missing Allie and a
missing Marcus are somehow connected? Getting his truck and I’m headed your
way, Seth. ETA about five minutes.

Jake found Seth leaning against a tree across the street
from Allie’s apartment. There wasn’t much moon. Jake would be grateful for that
before the night was over.

“They were drinking,” Seth said as they ran through possible
explanations for where Allie was. “It could be none of them was up to driving
and they decided to walk.”

“I’ll bet they took the shortcut through the park. But they
should be here by now.”

“Is there a zoo in the park?” Seth asked.

“No.”

“I think I’m getting something from Lila. She is drunk.
She’s agitated. I may only be getting every tenth word.
‘Fucking…leopard…fucking…pig…fucking freezing my ass off because of an ass’?”

“Let’s go see what we can find out from Lila. Marcus has me
locked out tight, but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t right there in the middle
of it.”

They ran together, eating up the ground with their
long-legged strides. They came to a footbridge and purses abandoned under a
tree. Seth pointed the way down a trail into thicker woods.

Jake followed. In a spot where a creak spread out into a
small pool, Seth plucked a wet bra from a branch. Jake found a pair of panties
in the grass at the water’s edge. Three pairs of high heels were scattered
across the clearing.

“Looks like the magus’ evening has been a whole lot more
interesting than mine,” Jake grumbled.

Seth sniffed the air and pointed toward a trail leading
deeper into the woods.

“Allie, get your ass back here now.” Lila’s voice, Jake
noted. Her tone commanding rather than hysterical reassured him that things
hadn’t gotten too far out of control.

They came upon Lila and Franny struggling back up the path
with a pig between them.

Franny had opened her mouth to scream. Jake dove to cover
her mouth. Seth had the forethought to dive low, catching Lila and the pig.

Franny was clawing at Jake’s arm. Lila opened her mouth as
if she were going to scream. Again Seth came through, wrapping Lila in a
one-armed hug and slapping a hand over her mouth all while never losing the
pig. That annoyed Jake. Just once he’d like to see his cousin screw up.

“Let’s everyone calm down,” Seth murmured. “We’re here to
help but if you scream now, you’ll bring a whole lot more trouble down on
yourselves than you can imagine.”

Jake eased his hand from Franny’s mouth and she stopped
flailing. She straightened her dress while shredding him with her stare. “What
kind of trouble?”

“The owners of that stolen property you’re making off with
for one.”