The Sphinx Project (11 page)

I was falling asleep by the time I was finally cleaned up. Dressed in a pair of Sarah's yoga pants and an oversized shirt—to accommodate my cast—they lead me into what appeared to be the family room.

Julie had given me some painkillers and I fell asleep almost as soon as I sat down. They let me rest, waking me some time later so I could eat with them.

Apparently Sarah had taught the other girls to cook something called macaroni and cheese. I really wasn't hungry but I managed a few mouthfuls before the news came on.

The tsunami was, of course, the leading story. They showed a short clip of the water racing inland before the anchor started talking.

She started with the facts, explaining there had been a huge offshore earthquake and the tsunami was widespread, hitting the entire west coast of the continent, from Washington to Chile. The current death toll stood at just over twenty-seven thousand in the United States but figures for the other countries were not yet available.

She spoke about the tragedy for several more minutes, talking about missing people and the cost of damages, before introducing their reporter on the scene.

A moan slipped from my lips as the middle-aged man appeared. He stood with his back to the now-calm sea where the pier had previously sat. I had a bad feeling about this, which wasn't helped by the groans James and Nicole released. Of all possible locations, why were they there?

"This is Hermosa Beach, California. A little south of Venice Beach, it is a relaxed tourist destination best known for its beach and bars. But today, just after six-thirty p.m., a wall of water swept onto the beach. Behind me, you can see the remains of the pier." He paused momentarily for effect.

There was nothing left except for two of the sturdy wooden poles upon which the pier had previously sat; they'd obviously been snapped in half.

"And here—" he turned, and the camera circled him to display the destroyed street, lit by enormous flood lights "—here's where the rest of it is."

Julie and Sarah gasped as they saw the destruction for the first time. It was hard not to react, even though I'd already seen it.

"The bars were packed, dinner in full swing and the late crowd beginning to warm up. Moments ago, officials confirmed the death count in the local area had reached one thousand and thirty-seven, with many more people still being retrieved from the water and buildings. The exact number of injured are also unconfirmed.

"What we are about to show you was shot from that window." Once again he turned, gesturing to the window below the one in which we'd been staying. "The tourist responsible for this footage submitted it to us in hopes that someone out there may be able to identify a young woman who risked her own life to protect someone who could not take care of herself. Please note, the following video contains images that may be unsettling for some viewers."

My heart surged into my throat and my chest tightened. This couldn't be happening! I didn't blink, unable to tear my eyes from the screen for even a moment.

"No, no, no," Mouse was murmuring. She seemed to be in her own world where nothing existed except for her and the television.

Tearing my eyes away from the screen momentarily, I took in Nicole's tense fists, her lips pressed together in a harsh line.

I turned back as the reporter disappeared and an image of Hermosa Beach, just hours earlier, filled the screen. The image was shaky as the owner of the camera directed it at the street below.

He was talking from behind the lens, describing how nice the weather had been since he'd arrived. He recorded the bars and people milling around the street before sweeping along the coastline and out to what was, at that point, a still, quiet ocean.

He returned to the beach, showing the people playing volleyball in the sand and the small lifeguard's building. It seemed so serene, but moments later he yelled a swear word, which was beeped out by the censors, and pointed the camera out to sea. He yelled for his buddies to come and watch the churning wave rushing inland.

My stomach clenched, trying to force its contents out again. At the bottom corner of the screen, James, the girls, and I were clearly caught sprinting at full speed—much faster than possible for a regular human.

"No," Nicole said faintly to no one in particular. Mouse choked on her food, while Sarah and Julie instantly drew their breath

I suddenly became aware of the quiet sound of helicopter blades somewhere far overhead. The chance that they were tracking us already was miniscule, but I itched to go right now.

"What you are seeing here is one of the first moments the tsunami came into contact with the U.S. Coastline," the reporter narrated. "Take note of the figures on the pier."

The guy taping it yelled about how fast we were running, just beating the water. "Oh
beep
! Oh
beep,
dude! There's a baby!" he yelled from behind the camera, the moment I veered toward Kelly.

At the time, I hadn't realized quite how close the wave was to me when I'd scooped her into my arms. Watching the replay made me realize how near it had actually been. I set my good hand against my stomach, as if it would somehow convince its tumultuous contents to stay down. This was getting worse and worse.

The cameraman lost sight of me as the wave engulfed us, reverting to watching the debris and water smash through the road like a river in a canyon. Some buildings, the hostel included, managed to stay relatively intact, but most were significantly damaged.

Eventually someone alerted the cameraman to the fact that I'd surfaced on the tree with Kelly. Except for momentary sweeping shots of the street, they kept the camera on us until we managed to climb down from one of the ornamental palms lining the street.

He'd recorded my frantic attempts to resuscitate Kelly and her mom's hysterical sobs. Somehow he'd even managed to capture the sorrow etched into the man's face as he held the pregnant woman away from her own child.

"Such acts of heroism are rare." When he said
heroism,
my face heated. "But they leave a lasting effect on those who benefit from them." The reporter's face appeared again, this time in front of an ambulance. He talked and walked at the same time, using his hands to emphasize certain points. "We're sad to say that Melanie, the mother of the young girl featured in this video, lost her unborn child."

My eyes prickled as I thought about how the poor woman must be feeling. Somehow, the others seemed unmoved by the news.

"But due to one young woman, she will still be able to hold her daughter, watch her grow. Melanie is, of course, quite distraught. But she has issued a statement saying she wants to meet the young woman who saved her daughter so she can thank her in person and perhaps see if there is anything she could do in return.

"We don't know who this young woman is, only that she was staying at the beachfront youth hostel on a short holiday. She left the scene with the aid of an older man and some friends immediately after passing little Kelly back to her mother." The screen changed to a photo of us eating outside the bar, probably from a security camera. "If you or anyone you know has encountered this woman, please call us on the number below. We'd love to talk to her."

As our picture faded, we remained quiet, staring solemnly at the screen. The anchor appeared and James moved to switch off the screen. "You're not calling them."

"Wait!" I urged, ignoring his statement completely. I had no interest in even picking up the phone so it wasn't an issue.

James froze.

A picture illuminated the screen beside the anchor—a dead body covered in a black plastic sheet except for a single chalk-colored arm hanging over the edge of the silver tray on which it had been laid.

The others remained silent. I could hear breathing and hearts beating. I stared at the screen, not willing to blink in case I missed something.

The anchor began speaking as the image expanded to fill the screen.
"Sightings of the mysterious humanoid creatures have been reported from as far away as Iowa and Kansas, spreading incredibly quickly since their initial sightings in South Carolina. The story has taken a turn for the strange."

Their decapitated bodies have begun appearing too. Scientists are analyzing tissue samples and suspect they're the result of a viral illness. If you or anyone you know comes into contact with the creatures, report immediately to your local hospital. Authorities are advising everyone to stay inside during the hours of darkness, they appear to be more active during the night, and to lock doors and barricade windows and all other entrances. They have not been sighted on the west coast yet, but residents are urged to follow these precautions too."

This time I didn't stop James when he leaned forward to turn off the television.

"Did you know anything about them?" Nicole asked, turning to Sarah.

"No." She shook her head. "I didn't have clearance for the lower levels. I never had a clue what they were keeping down there."

Mouse, who had been silently thoughtful, turned to James. "So you are one of us, right?"

I hadn't even thought about that until she'd questioned him, but now it made sense. He'd heard the wave and he'd been able to keep up with us.

"Sort of." His hands sat clasped in his lap and he stared at the blank screen, as though he were looking right through it. "I was part of an earlier
batch
," he spat out the word, disgust lacing the single syllable, "before they got enough of an operating budget to iron out all the kinks. A lot of my generation was born with defects, inequalities in the genes they manipulated. They kept testing different variations without proper controls and some of them didn't work out. I was one of the lucky ones."

"What sort of defects?" Mouse asked, her natural curiosity raising its head.

"One girl was born with retractable claws; another had a strange striped pattern across her skin like a tiger. There were lots of things, psychological issues too. They made more of us back then, with less funds. They narrowed their scope when they had extra money to play around with, spent more developing each of you. They were able to blend a larger array of genetic strains more effectively."

"Did they let you go?"

"Ha." His laughter held no humor. "What they do is illegal. Do you think they'd really let us go? No, we escaped too, a long time ago. They caught some of us, killed others, but those of us who made it out have been moving around ever since."

A high-pitched beep sounded. James reached to his watch and silenced it with the push of a button. He reached into his back pocket and extracted a foil package, popping two pills from it. He swallowed one and tossed the other to Sarah. Julie didn't pay any attention; it appeared to be routine.

"Have you taken yours today?" James asked, gesturing to the packet.

I shook my head in confusion. The others did the same. Our blank faces conveyed our lack of understanding.

"Did they fix those problems?" he queried.

Worry flooded through me. Was there something else that we didn't know about yet?

"What problems are you talking about?" Nicole asked cautiously.

"The seizures—we were kept on constant meds for them."

"No, they didn't fix them," she replied stiffly.

"Have you had problems with them?" Sarah asked, worry evident on her face.

"Mouse had one the other day," Briana chimed in.

Sarah turned to Mouse. "Are you okay?"

Mouse nodded.

"I've had tinglings and shivers in my muscles. Would that be caused by the same thing?" I asked.

"Yes, that's one of the common symptoms."

"Do the pills keep it completely under control?" Mouse asked, fear tingeing her voice.

"Yes, just as long as you remember to take them."

Her words were an immediate relief. The seizures weren't a symptom of something worse to come or a warning sign. If we took the right medicine, we could keep them from happening again.

"Here." James handed the tablets out to us and I inspected mine briefly before swallowing it. The pill was the same pinkish-purple as the ones we'd been given at the labs.

A thought from earlier reared its head. I tried to push the cobwebs away so I could figure it out.

"Did you say Sarah was your daughter? Your real, biological daughter?"

"Yeah," James said.

The others seemed to have skimmed over that fact earlier too, judging by the varying degrees of surprise on their faces.

"Oh, wow! So are you…do you have any abilities?" Mouse asked in awe.

None of us had ever really thought of the idea of having children with regular humans. There was no point because none of us could ever have babies. According to the scientists, that was one of the adjustments they'd made when they were fiddling around with our DNA, to ensure we always operated at peak performance.

It was their way of saying they couldn't be bothered dealing with monthly 'lady problems' and maternity leave. It also meant they'd never have to worry about genetically modified offspring running wild if we ever escaped. They'd learned something after James' generation, it seemed.

This time, Sarah responded with a nod. "Yeah. Nothing compared to you, though." Her voice was quiet and rather husky for a woman.

"Sarah's inherited muted copies of my advanced traits. She's strong and she very rarely gets sick, but neither to the same level as me."

Sarah made a face at this.

"You forgot one thing, Dad," she murmured resentfully, then turned to us. "They spliced his genes with that of a gorilla. My hair grows down my neck and along my spine like a zebra if I don't remove it, but it's nothing compared to Dad with his shirt off."

Involuntarily I groaned along with the others. James actually smirked at our reaction. He seemed to enjoy our discomfort, like the dad from a television show Mom had shown us years ago. Julie laughed.

"We need to figure out what you're going to do," James declared. "It's getting late. I want to be gone before sunrise."

"What do you mean?" Nicole asked.