Evolver: Apex Predator (2 page)

"I'll try," he said though none too sure.

She sprinted ahead of him, dodging the pools of light as the sirens got louder and the flashing red and blue lights were coming from everywhere. He trailed a little behind her around the huge EnviroTech building to a parking lot and Laurie's car.

*

"No one's supposed to leave, Miss Langley," Dave said at the gate that Jackson had come through earlier. "We're in lockdown."

"Dave," Laurie said, leaning out her window and turning on the charm. "Come on, it's me." She smiled at him. Blushing, he told her to have a good night and opened the gate to let her car through. She drove off slow and calm, passing more arriving police cruisers.

Taking a left down one block, a right two blocks later and the next left she was sure that the car was out of sight of the EnviroTech campus and its cameras, Laurie pulled over, got out and popped her trunk open. Jackson slid out and stretched. "That was close," he said.

"Not really. Dave's a good guy. I didn't like doing that." She went to the driver's door and said, "Get in."

"Maybe I should go back,” Jackson said, looking over his shoulder. "My dad's dead; he injected me with --- with…“ He began pacing on the passenger side of the car, not looking at Laurie. She didn’t say anything. ”I don't know what -- there's a monster that looks like an armadillo on two legs. Then YOU show up."

"Get in," she said with an edge to her voice.

"No. Something's not right. I don't know what it is, I don't know who you really are, but," Jackson stopped.

"Get," she said and paused, "in. NOW."

"Or what?" Jackson threw out his hands, laughing nervously and shook his head.

"Or you won't get the answers you want," Laurie said and sat down in the driver's seat. She turned the key and revved the engine. Jackson looked around, bit the inside of his cheek and bounced on the balls of his feet. He clawed at the door handle of the little car and tore it open as she shifted into first gear and let down the parking brake.

"Tell me everything you can remember," Laurie said as she pulled away from the curb.

He went over events in the lab while she drove through the city streets, heading east then taking a quick right at Iowa Street without really stopping at a red light. Jackson put his hands on the dash, then quickly buckled his seat belt. The four-lane street was not too busy but she zipped between cars like a formula one driver at Monaco.

"Wait," Laurie said. "You were thrown out a fourth story window?"

Jackson nodded. "The strangest part," he said slowly, "was that I thought I had scales when I came to. I dunno."

Laurie nodded and stepped on the accelerator as the light ahead of her turned from green to yellow. It was solid red as she barreled through the intersection and raced past the metroplex on one side and a mall on the other. She shifted into fifth gear and Jackson could see the speedometer was flirting with 60. He put his hand on the dashboard again and pushed his feet hard against an imaginary brake pedal.

"EnviroTech is a global company. Your dad and Dr. Thorn were consulting with all kinds of planners and thinkers and scientists from around the world working on ways to save the environment from further degradation," Laurie said. "More efficient transmission lines for wind farms, new kinds of batteries, underwater turbines, the kind of stuff that makes good press and actually does some small good. They had a lot of good people doing these good works for them. Over a hundred and fifty just in the building here in town."

They passed the city limits and Laurie flipped the headlights to high beam. There was no one else ahead or behind them on the highway.

"But their real project was developing a way for humans to work uninhibited in harsh environments. Dr. Savage and I were working on a series of genetic enhancements, engineering a plasmid that would insert traits into the host DNA. The modified DNA would change a human being so that he can work in the ocean, or the desert or above the tree lines on mountains without any kind of protection," Laurie said, spinning the wheel left so that the car crossed the two lanes going north with a squeal of rubber and onto a gravel road with a crushing bump that bounced Jackson's head against the roof. "Your dad had it all worked out. He'd done animal to animal synthesis."

"But he's a biologist, not a geneticist," Jackson said. "Was, I mean."

"Your dad was a lot more than either of those things, Jackson." She turned the wheel left again and the car went down a long gravel drive and she brought it to a stop, skidding on the gravel then turned the engine off. " Come inside and let me show you."

"What? Here?" He looked out at the dark ranch house. "This your place?"

"Not exactly," she said and pulled the key out of the ignition. "Come on."

Jackson didn't move. "You sure it's safe?"

"We weren't followed, if that's what you mean," Laurie said.

Jackson looked around at the trees, the rising moon, the lights of the city about ten miles away. He shook his head.

"You’re safe here," Laurie said. She put her hand on his shoulder, this time squeezing it a little, feeling him tremble. "It's okay."

He nodded slowly.

*

Inside, the house was normal as far as Jackson could see. She poured him a glass of water, took one for herself and they sat at the kitchen table. Jackson noticed that the house looked relatively un-lived in, as though it were really just for show. With a second glass of water in hand, and his body back under his control, Laurie guided him down the stairs to the basement.

Where, as the lights snapped on, Jackson saw an almost exact replica of his father's lab. "He was a little paranoid," Laurie said. "He built this about ten years ago; or so he said. He never told me why."

She didn't look at him as she went to the back of the lab. He stayed near the stairs and watched her walk down the line of tables and equipment toward the back of the lab, touching a beaker here, a table top there. She hadn't really given him any answers yet.

"As far as I know, now you're the only other person who knows about this place," she said, still not looking at him. "The only real difference between this lab and the one at EnviroTech is this chamber here." She pointed to a round, glassed-in column that was probably fifteen feet in diameter and maybe ten feet tall. There was a small bank of computers that also had what Jackson thought to be a centrifuge and a padded slab that moved up and down so that the person strapped to it could look anyone standing next to him in the eye.

"What's this?"

"This," Laurie said, "is where we planned to inject your father with the plasmids that would confirm his theories." She watched his reaction.

"Whoa," Jackson said, slowly reaching out to touch the glass.

Laurie went to a computer behind him. " Take off your shirt and get up on the slab, will you?"

"What’s the rush?” He took a step backward.

She faced him, exasperated. "The modified DNA needs to be 'set' and the only way to do that is for you to get into the chamber and let me do what needs to be done."

"Or?"

"Or you'll be dead in a matter of hours," Laurie said. "And what good are you then? Your mom will have lost your father and her son in the span of one evening so you have a choice, but decide quickly."

*

"Will it hurt?" Jackson was strapped onto the table and Laurie looked at him and smiled.

"Probably, I don't know. It didn't seem to make much difference to the rats or the dog," she said. She turned to leave the chamber, stopped and faced Jackson. "Look -- this was a contingency plan. If something went wrong, your dad thought you'd be able to handle the injection. I knew you were coming to the lab tonight and your dad had me waiting in the parking lot. When I heard the alarms go off, I came looking for you."

"He was that paranoid?"

"Yeah," she said and left the chamber, sealing the door behind her. He looked down at the electrodes stuck to his chest, at the IV in his arm and flexed his fingers. He could see a monitor that was counting down to zero. He got nervous and started talking to himself.

"It's all gonna be okay," he said. "It's gonna be okay. Breathe. It's like running for distance: just breathe. Relax. Relax. Relax." He kept talking to himself, varying the inflections but it didn't seem to help. He couldn’t stop himself from trembling.

The lights dimmed and the countdown finished as a flurry of beeps, whirrs and dings sounded. Jackson closed his eyes and remembered the smell of his mother's curry, heard his father's voice tell him that this was important despite the risks, saw his high school coach yelling to "kick it" and waving his arms as the runners made the last quarter mile. When he opened his eyes again, he was determined, resolute. The noise in the chamber was louder, deafening. The IV tube filled with a yellow liquid.

The serum hit his bloodstream like acid racing through his veins. He screamed and tried to break the straps keeping him on the table and screamed again, this time with rage at being held down. Laurie watched everything, impassive, uncaring. Jackson slammed his head back against the vinyl headrest and did it again, shouting incoherently. His heart rate shot up and his fist clenched and unclenched, his toes grabbed at the edge of the table. He struggled, whipping his body back and forth as much as he could, but he was held tight.

He began to panic when a klaxon sounded its ARRO-GAH warning and gas entered the chamber. His breathing quickened, he could feel his heart pounding out of his chest. He turned his head and saw Laurie watching him with grim determination. "I won't pass out, I won't pass out," he said to himself over and over. The gas filled the room.

He thought he could see Laurie moving from one computer station to another though she was only a dim shadow through the gas. Another alarm went off, loud and repetitive, jabbing through his ears and into his brain. He closed his eyes and screamed again.

When he opened them again, the gas was clearing and he could see Laurie watching him, giving him a thumbs-up. She didn't see the huge thing looming behind her, or its enormous mandibles opening and closing as its red eyes watched her.

CHAPTER THREE

"Laurie!"

Jackson strained against the straps that held him again, to no avail. The gas continued to clear and he could see the monster that she couldn't: it towered over her, its eyes glowed red over sharp-looking mandibles. It stood on four legs and had a long abdomen, like some kind of mantis shaped creature. The thing swung one of its heavy claws at Laurie, knocking her aside like a rag doll.

"NO!" Jackson pulled as hard as he could, still held to the slab. Like a wet noodle, she hit the far wall and slid to the floor. She looked dead.

Jackson heaved and struggled; his heart thudded against his ribs, muscles tensed in his shoulders and forearms and veins popped out on his hands, his neck. He felt the strap across his chest begin to give way on the right side and he kept working back and forth.

The alarms were still going off when the creature's claw smashed hard against the glass chamber, an awful crunching sound that cut through the din. Cracks like spider-webs appeared but the glass held. Mandibles clacked, the gas was gone, yellow and red lights were spinning around the chamber and a strap broke.

Shouting in triumph, Jackson pulled his right hand free and began working at the buckles at his waist and then his ankles. A second blow from the creature heaved the glass inward as it reared back for a final blow. Jackson pulled free and fell to the floor when the chamber exploded over him in a hail of jagged shards.

Something was happening. Pain shot through him as bones lengthened and skin stretched. He watched with horror as coarse fur sprouted with alarming speed and screamed with agony while his shoulders and chest widened, his nose morphed into a snout. In seconds he wasn't Jackson anymore, he was different: more powerful, more aware. His yell turned into a roar.

He could smell Laurie's perfume, her hairspray as though she were next to him. He was overwhelmed by the countless scents that he took in with every breath but he had to focus. He could smell the chemical signature of the monster, its bristly legs clicking on the floor as it came at him.

A huge claw came around in a long, slow arc as Jackson rose to full height, roaring. He ducked and raked five-inch long razor sharp claws across the creature's neck. A dark, viscous liquid leaked from the wound and it fell back through the glass, hissing but still standing.

Jackson followed the thing with an ear-shattering roar tearing his claws into the monster's soft underbelly. The creature lurched and fell away from Jackson. He stood over the fallen creature and sniffed as he flexed his paws. There was something different, something human. He sniffed again.

"Jackson?"

Laurie's voice was weak and he lumbered over to where she lay. "Oh my..." she said when she looked at him. He cocked his head and looked at her. Her scent had turned from fear to excitement.

Laurie sat upright, pulling her knees to her chest. She looked past the furry beast in front of her, at the shattered glass chamber, then met his gaze and smiled. "It worked,” she said, “It worked!"