Verita (20 page)

I close the bathroom door and strip off my sweaty clothes. The water feels magic against my skin as I step into the shower.

“Okay, Jake, long enough,” Ryan says from what sounds like miles away. “Either you get out of that shower or I’m
gonna
wrestle you out of that shower while Molly watches.”

“Hey, leave me out of this. Why should I get punished because he can’t take a normal shower?” Molly protests.

I laugh and plunge my head into the shower, drowning out the sound. I’m glad no one is waiting for me to hurry up.

I linger in the lab, double-checking the new cameras, even though I know there won’t be anything caught yet. It’s only when Ryan finishes his shower that I realize how long I’ve been. Together we return to the base. I can’t help but notice that there’s a change in the atmosphere, something is up. When we pass people, I notice an excess of excited whispering, but the looks on their faces are somber, grim even. It gives me an ominous feeling. I look at Ryan and see my feeling mirrored in his expressions.

“Hey, you,” I call to a short blonde kid as he passes us. He points at his chest questioningly. “Yeah, you. We just got back to the base. What’s going on with everyone?”

“A girl died.” His voice is mournful, but I see creepy excitement flash in his eyes.

I swallow my disgust. Some things haven’t changed since high school. In high school, a girl died in a car accident with a drunk driver. Suddenly everyone knew her, everyone was her best friend, and everyone had a story to tell. They all acted like they were in mourning, but they really were no better than rubberneckers gawking at an accident with the sole purpose of gossiping about it afterward. It was downright sickening and disrespectful to everyone who had actually been her friend.

I let out a long exasperated sigh as he continues. “Yeah, apparently she was bitten by something out in the field, but didn’t realize it. She seemed fine when she first got back, but that afternoon she stayed late working in the lab, and late this morning her team found her dead.”

My eyes fly wide with horror. It was just too close to home. It could have happened to anyone of us.

“What was her name?” Ryan’s voice is panicked, and I realize Kelly’s been out in the field.

“Sue… Suzan… no wait, Suzie. Yeah that’s it. Her name was Suzie. Why? Do you know her or something?”

I’m disturbed at the kid’s lack of sympathy. He’s obviously more interested in adding to his gossip than the fact that he might have just delivered devastating news. He actually looks disappointed when Ryan lets out a sigh of relief and shakes his head no.

I feel a guilty wave of relief wash through me. I’m sad that someone died, but I’m glad it wasn’t anyone I actually knew.

Chapter 13

Two days later, I find out the real story from Dr. Brant, and I feel the full impact of what happened. I did know the girl, sort of. Suzie was the botanist I met on my first day here. She hadn’t been bitten or scratched. She had been working with a plant extract, trying to determine if it had any useful properties. No one’s exactly sure why, but instead of following testing protocols, she decided to test the extract on herself.

Every botanist available has been brought in to study the plant to determine exactly what happened. Apparently the plant has
anesthetic
qualities, and Suzie just happened to be allergic to
ketamine
. The plant extract caused her to go into anaphylactic shock while she was all alone in her lab with no one to help.

Dr. Brant now suspects it’s what was slipped into my drink, and I can vouch from firsthand experience that the extract is tasteless and odorless. Dr. Brant points out that now we know what the plant looks like. Unfortunately, it is a common weed found all around the perimeter of the base. Following her advice, I head over to the hospital and get myself an
EpiPen
. At least if I ever experience the plant’s effects again, I can prevent it from killing me.

Although I suspect it’s no longer necessary, I’ll be having a serious chat with my team about the seriousness of breaking protocol and self-experimenting. I feel a chill run along my spine as I realize how easily it could have been Ryan that had the reaction. At least Molly no longer has to worry about getting blamed for being the tattletale.

All morning work is canceled for the next day. A funeral is held on the far edge of the airfield. It’s not on the map, but that is where the cemetery will be. Everyone is cremated when they die to avoid future overcrowding. So Suzie’s final resting place is a silver canister buried in the ground, marked only by a small stone plaque. Attendance isn’t mandatory, but it seems like the entire base is there. I don’t know who knew her, but most of the faces I see are grief-stricken, and many of them are tear-streaked. And at least for today, I know the grief shown is heartfelt, and not simply an act on anyone’s part. Seeing the plaque somehow drives home the point that this is real: anyone of us could meet our end tomorrow. None of us are immortal, and I should be thankful to have my friends healthy and whole around me.

Suzie’s death makes me determined to do what I can to keep as many people safe as possible. Fortunately, I couldn’t have hoped for things to go better with the cameras. It only takes a few days to get better footage of the creature. It has the body of a panther, but the snout of a wolf. Jake dubs it a ‘pan-wolf’ and the name sticks. From what we can tell, there is only one pan-wolf. That encourages us to think that he is only passing through and not territorial. It also makes us realize we need to act fast.

Andi
has already finished the new tracker, so we make a quick trip into the field and place the remote control dart gun. We then secure an
enux
to a rope in the center of the field. It’s not happy about the restraint, but if everything goes according to plan, it will remain alive. We then take turns watching the monitors in pairs.

It’s approaching midnight when Ryan and I finally see what we are looking for. The pan-wolf has responded to the
enux’s
cries of distress, and is now stalking it. I move over to the dart gun controls and wait for it to enter my sights. Ryan hops up and starts waking everyone.

I don’t have to wait long for the pan-wolf. It creeps toward the edge of the grass and prepares to pounce. I take aim, hit the button, and a dart shoots right into its shoulder. It recoils from the pain. I hit the button a second time and hit it in the side. The creature starts to stagger.

We head out on our first night field visit. The tension we felt placing the cameras doesn’t compare to what we feel now. We can’t see past what our handheld floodlights illuminate, and we know we’re walking toward danger. Molly stays back at the field lab and monitors the pan-wolf for us. She would never have admitted it, but earlier I could tell she was scared – really scared. The relief that filled her face over my suggestion that she remain behind only confirmed my suspicion. It’s her job to notify us if the animal begins to stir. If it does, she has to hit it with another tranquilizer.

We don’t want to risk losing our chance, so we run as fast as the floodlights will allow. There are twelve soldiers with us this time. It’s a bit of overkill, but Dr. Brant insisted. I have given them all tranquilizer guns and clearly explained that their real bullets can only be used as a last resort. I hate having to trust that none of them will get trigger-happy at the sight of the animal.

We quickly reach the pan-wolf and are relieved to see it is still out cold, but breathing. Ryan quickly grabs what looks like a large spiked horseshoe out of his bag – another one of
Andi’s
inventions – depresses a button on it, and jams it into the ground around the animal’s neck. He then grabs a few larger ones and jams them into the ground around its torso, then repeats the same steps around the legs. Feeling the animal is secure enough, Ryan steps aside so I can attach the tracker.

Jake and a soldier walk over and release the
enux
. It quickly flees into the woods.

Ryan and I quickly busy ourselves with taking pictures, measurements and blood samples. After we have collected everything possible, Ryan and Jake remove the restraints and we all back away from the pan-wolf. Once we can no longer see it, we confirm with Molly it is still out cold, and we run. No one speaks again until we are back in the lab.

“He’s a lot bigger than the cameras indicated,” Ryan points out.

“And he’s still quite young. Based on his proportions, I’d guess he still has another hundred pounds before he’s fully grown,” I add.

“Knowing all this, can someone please explain to me why we didn’t just kill it?” one of the soldiers huffs in an annoyed tone.

I turn and face the soldier who had spoken. My eyes narrow on his him. “Jason, is it?” He nods. “In training, aren’t you told to know your enemy?” I give him a questioning glare.

“Yeah, but this isn’t an enemy, it’s an animal. It can’t think.” He puffs his chest out and puts his hands on his hips, but I’m not about to give into his intimidation.

“I’m not going to debate the animal’s intelligence. Instead, think about this: how much good would it do us to kill the animal if he’s part of a pride? We’d never find out we assumed wrong until someone came face to face with the next pan-wolf, and by then it will be too late. Instead, we’ve placed a tracker on the animal. We can easily keep our distance, as well as watch where the animal travels. If and when the animal becomes a problem, we’ll use the tracker to locate it and euthanize it. Now can you see why we didn’t just kill it?” The tone of my voice is defiant, challenging him to retort.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” He drops his head to the ground, embarrassed by his public scolding.

In a much lighter tone, I address the entire group, “Well everyone must be tired after tonight’s activities and the lack of comfortable pods. So, thank you to everyone for your help tonight. Because of your help, the entire base is safer. Please feel free to go home to your pods and get a good night’s sleep. Don’t forget to reactivate your watches. They should now alert you if the pan-wolf is within a mile radius.”

The soldiers nod back at me and head out the door.

“Brett, he’s waking,” Molly warns.

I walk over to the monitor, and the four of us watch as the pan-wolf shakes his head and stumbles to his feet. It looks around, dazed and confused, then disappears back into the woods.

“All the samples have been properly stored; let’s get some sleep,” Ryan advises as he stretches and yawns.

We all follow his advice and drag ourselves to bed.

We spend the rest of the week cataloging and testing our samples. I urge everyone to take the weekend off, but they refuse, and keep working right beside me. I should feel guilty about ignoring my friends, but they don’t seem to notice. It appears that everyone in our group is dating now, and seriously dating at that. It’s an effort to get everyone together for dinner. However,
Andi
, being the social butterfly that she is, makes everyone promise to keep every Thursday night dinner available. Unless we’re away in the field, we’re expected to join everyone else in dining hall B.

I breathe a sigh of relief in the middle of the week: the tracker shows the pan-wolf move out of our territory.

The next day, Dr. Brant pays us a visit and informs us that her lawn is the envy of the other field managers – and it isn’t even fully in yet.

“As soon as it goes to seed you can start the next patch,” she informs Ryan.

“Actually I already have some seed harvested from the test patch. It’s not much, but it will do for the area I had in mind,” Ryan says hopefully.

She nods her approval. “Great; you and your team can start on it tomorrow.”

“Actually, I can take care of it today while everyone else finishes up with the pan-wolf samples.” He quickly adds, “We’re almost done, anyway.”

“Even better. But, once Ryan finishes with the seed and everyone else finishes with the pan-wolf work, I want you all to take a few days off. I appreciate all your hard work, but I don’t want you to burn out either.”

“We will. Brett’s been asking us to take a day off too, but we all wanted to finish the pan-wolf samples first,” Molly explains. I smile, touched by her defense.

“Well enjoy your days off. I’ll see everyone again on Monday and not a moment before.”

She smiles and walks out the door. I notice Ryan follow after her. He must have some more questions about the grass.

“Thanks, Molly,” I whisper, and turn to finish up the samples. I’m more than ready for a few days off.

It’s Thursday night, so I meet everyone for dinner. I’m surprised by how large the group has grown now that everyone’s dating. Jeremy is finally smiling again because he’s now dating Jennifer. Molly somehow met Alex in the last week. I wonder when she found the time and how it managed to get serious enough to bring him to dinner with us. I’m happy that everyone has met someone, but selfishly I’m also a bit disappointed. I liked our little circle of friends just the way it was, and I didn’t want it to change.

But there’s nothing I can do about it, so I smile and act as happy as I can while hoping that, eventually, our group will get back to normal, more or less.