Of course, that would be the one thing he’d heard. “Yes a
mother
meerkit broke a soldier’s wrist after the soldier struck at her baby in fear.
Any
animal is dangerous if you threaten its young.”
“Well, I’m not taking any chances. I’m reporting that thing to security. The sooner they get rid of it the better.” They both storm away before I can convince him otherwise.
I sit down and keep a silent vigil on my kidney bean rock. There’s no sign of Caper, but soon a soldier walks by. Apparently, the scared guy wasn’t all talk and no action. Twenty minutes later, another soldier passes by me. They’re definitely patrolling the area now. I just hope my rock is not a permanent addition to their nightly rounds.
In between the soldiers’ passes, love-struck couples appear. I can’t help but scowl at their intrusions. If they’d just leave my rock alone, Caper wouldn’t be in danger. From the couples’ looks of pity, they probably assume I’ve been stood up, but as long as they leave me alone, I don’t care what they think.
The later it gets, the colder I feel, and I don’t have a jacket. Soon, I’m shaking. My ears hurt, and my fingertips and nose go numb. Several soldiers suggest I return to the dorms, but I refuse. If Caper returns, I need to be the one to greet him, not one of the soldiers. I leave only after a soldier warns me about curfew and the penalties for breaking it.
As usual, I’m awake before anyone else is up. I shower, dress, and then hurry back to my rock. Caper’s happy chirps greet me as he leaps onto the fence.
“No, Caper, stop.” I don’t know if it’s my words or the tone of my voice, but he listens. He anxiously paces on top of the fence. Now that I found him, I need to figure out how to keep him safe. We can’t stay here in the open, so I lead him toward the base lab which provides a temporary fix. At least it will get him away from the soldiers.
Caper follows me by running along the top of the fence. When I call to him, he leaps down and jumps into my arms. I rush into the lab, hopefully before anyone sees us. Caper spends the next hour eagerly exploring every inch of the lab. I chase after him to make sure he doesn’t damage anything or hurt himself. Nothing is safe. He opens and paws through every cabinet and drawer he finds until he discovers a bag of marbles. I’m not sure where he found them because I was too busy turning off the Bunsen burners he’d turned on. But, I don’t care, the swirled colors of the marbles mesmerize him, and I finally get a chance to sit down as he carefully inspects each one.
Caper is so quiet that Ryan doesn’t seem to notice him when he first walks in. He does see me, and hesitates at the door. All the pain from last night rushes back into my heart.
“Ryan, I— ”
Caper coos and chirps as he runs across the room and leaps into Ryan’s arms, almost knocking him over. Caper’s enthusiastic greeting lasts several minutes. Eventually, I lift him off of Ryan and set him down in front of the marbles. He glances at Ryan and then happily continues to sort through his marble treasure. Like it or not, I think Ryan needs to stay, for Caper’s sake.
Ryan shakes his head and looks at me as if I’ve lost all sanity. “What on earth are you thinking, bringing him here? Are you trying to get him killed? Never mind the trouble you’ll get the rest of us in. Did you even think about it before you decided to bring him here just to play with him?”
I lean against the lab table and wait for Ryan to finish his rant. “No wonder you prefer Kelly,” I say. “You think so little of me. Apparently, you think I have the forethought of a toddler.”
“Morning.” Jake walks in, followed by Molly. They look from me to Ryan and quickly realize that they’ve disrupted something. Fortunately, Caper’s coos brake the heated tension of the room. “What’s he’s doing here?” Jakes asks as he crosses the room, patting Caper on the head. “Are those my marbles?”
“Sorry, Jake, but they’re the only thing that keeps him from tearing apart the lab. He jumped the fence last night looking for me and scared the hell out of a couple. They reported it to security, and ever since soldiers have been patrolling the perimeter.”
Both Molly and Jake look shocked. Ryan looks guilty, and I feel a smug sense of satisfaction. “I got up early and found Caper still hanging around. I had to do something to keep him safe until we could figure out a better solution.”
Molly scratches Caper behind the ear. “Well, for starters we need to keep him out of Elliot’s sight. That guy is dissection happy.” Jake nods in agreement. As unlikely as a visit from Elliot is, we decide to relocate Caper from Elliot’s base lab to our old base lab. Caper’s not happy about being closed up a plastic storage bin, but at least the walk between labs isn’t very far. Plus, the noise from the marbles we placed in the bin distract him. Once we’re inside, I remove the cover and deposit Caper on the floor. Caper promptly resettles himself and plays with both the bin and the marbles. I sit down, feeling a little woozy.
“You don’t look so hot.” Jake rests a hand on my forehead. “You’re not getting sick are you?”
I close my eyes and rest my head on the table. “I don’t know. I feel lousy.”
Ryan stands up and heads toward the door. “I’ll get you something from the dining hall. I was planning to get something for Caper anyway.”
Jake shakes his head at Ryan. “Food might not be the best idea if she’s sick.”
“She’s not sick. She hasn’t eaten since lunch yesterday,” he says and looks at me. “Have you?” He leaves without waiting for a confirmation. Great, apparently he saw me flee from the dining hall last night. His pity is the last thing I want.
“Wait up. I’ll help.” Molly calls after him and disappears out the door.
I laugh weakly and pretend I’m not as upset as I feel. “He’s right about lunch. You’d think I’d be able to figure that out on my own.”
“You have a lot on your mind. I know it’s hard being banned from the field and stuck working with Ryan all day. You never explained why you broke up with him. You might feel better if you talked about it.”
“Maybe.” I lay my head on the table. I really don’t want to talk about it, ever. “So how are things between you and Molly, now that Alex is out of the picture?”Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jake’s face fall. When I turn to him, he has a decidedly somber look.
“I don’t feel
that
way about Molly.”
I lift my head and look at Jake, surprised by his unexpectedly serious tone. “I thought you liked Molly.”
There’s a note of hesitation in his voice when he responds. “She’s like a sister to me.”
I carefully observe his face. “But then why did you want to get rid of Alex?”
An awkward silence passes before he answers. “I guess I feel protective of her. Alex was a jerk, and she deserves better.”
I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something he isn’t saying. “You and Molly seem perfectly matched. Are you
sure
there are no romantic feelings between the two of you?”
He looks as though he’s bracing himself for something unpleasant. His eyes squeeze shut, his jaw sets with determination, and a bead of sweat forms on his brow. When he speaks, his voice is low and strained. “Brett, there’s a reason the pods haven’t had an effect on me. I don’t have a match here. I’m gay.” He says the word gay as if it’s something to be feared or loathed, the same way my mom used to whisper that someone had cancer or spent time in jail.
“That’s not funny,” I say, shocked by his uncharacteristically disparaging humor.
“I’m not laughing.” His stare is intense but guarded, as if he expects me to reject him.
I instantly regret my reaction. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were serious. I had no idea. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“I never told anyone besides Molly. Actually, I didn’t even tell her. She figured it out. It’s not a problem for you, is it?” His voice cracks, and the question ends as a soft squeak.
Guilt and shame run through my veins because Jake felt he needed to hide who he really is from me. “A problem? No. How could it be a problem? You’re my family. I’m just surprised and a little sad that you never said anything.”
“I didn’t want to make everyone uncomfortable.”
I see that Jake’s the uncomfortable one. “Why would we be uncomfortable… unless… you don’t like Ryan do you?”
Jake laughs. “Nah, he’s not my type.”
“So then why did you think we’d be uncomfortable? Did we ever
say
or
do
anything that made you think we’d be?”
Jake’s expression hardens. When he speaks, his voice is thick with emotion. “Don’t take it personally. I grew up in an extremely religious family. I knew they’d never approve, so I hid it from them and everyone else I knew. I thought I had everyone fooled, but one day I came home to my parents’ own personal intervention. They gave me an ultimatum: leave the house or enter some religious program that promised to turn me straight. So I left.”
“So that’s how you ended up here?”
Jake blinks back tears. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“Thank you for telling me now.” I hug Jake as Molly and Ryan return with the food. They frown looking confused, but don’t ask any questions.
I eat in silence as I contemplate the significance of another discarded teen being recruited by the Center for Technological Advancement. Was it just to avoid notice by the general population or were there other reasons behind their selections?
Ryan was right about the food. I feel better after I eat. Caper inspects the food and even tastes some of it, but doesn’t eat it. Keeping him here is definitely not an option. Not that any of us really want to do that to him. He needs to be outside, and we need to figure out a way to keep him away from the base.
Lunchtime has arrived, and still, no one has come up with a good idea. “I may need to tell Dr. Brant,” I finally admit.
“No.” Jake bangs his fist on the table. “If you do that you’d never get back into the field. I didn’t want to say anything, but I overheard Dr. Brant talking with Troy the other day. It doesn’t make sense, but she’s just waiting for the two of you to screw up. She’ll find a way to blame you for Caper’s presence on the base and who knows what she’ll do with him.”
I pause to control the tremble I feel. I suspected as much, but it still doesn’t make it any easier to hear that Dr. Brant has it in for us. “What else can we do? We have nowhere to keep him, and if we release him, he’ll keep coming back until a soldier finds him.”
Molly clears her throat to get our attention. “Every time you’ve seen Caper, he’s been at the rock, right?”
I nod.
“When we worked in the field he used to meet us at the field lab,” she explains, “and when you were in the woods he’d meet you at the igloo or come find you later. Maybe he always starts at the last spot he saw you and tries tracking you from there.”
I watch Caper twirl a marble between his fingers. “That’s a good point, but how does that help us?”
Molly picks up a marble and starts a game of catch with Caper. “Maybe we can release him near our old field lab. No one is using it right now. We’ll visit him there every morning. Once he knows the time and location to find us, then he won’t come searching for us.”
The plan isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we have. So, we keep Caper with us the rest of the day and release him after it gets dark. From that point on, we take turns visiting him by the field lab in the morning. The only problem is he wants more than just a quick visit. At least he does until the morning Jake gives him a marble. He takes one look at the marble and disappears into the woods, perhaps to hide his precious treasure. The next morning Caper returns with a handful of opal berries, but he refuses to hand them over until Ryan thinks to run to the base lab and return with another marble. From that point on, we make sure we bring a marble to our morning visits. In return, Caper seems happy with a quick hello from us and unknowingly provides Sapphire with the berries she so desperately needs. Her strength and color slowly return, but not nearly as fast as I would like.
Chapter 10
I arrive at the zoo one morning to find Noah standing outside, nervously wringing his hands, and periodically peering through the door window. “Hey, Noah,” I pleasantly greet him and wait for an explanation, but his eyes dart everywhere except directly at me. I peek around his shoulder into the entrance window. At first, everything looks normal, but then something white and etched with pink veins slaps against the door and makes a loud crackling noise. I shield my eyes from the sudden sunlight that reflects off the window.
“That’s new. What is it?” I calmly ask as I watch what’s shaped like a stingray minus the tail, flap away from the window.
“It doesn’t have a name yet.” Even with my nonchalant approach, he already has a defensive undertone.
“What can you tell me about it?”
“I took the black fabric cover off the trap and they started going crazy. Then when I opened the trap’s door I got zapped, so I dropped the cage.” He turned his hands palm up to display their crisscross pattern burn.
“That explains the escape. What did the quarantine report say about it?”
Noah shifts his weight, and when he answers, his eye twitches. “I didn’t read it yet.”
I close my eyes and take a second to rein in my annoyance. A scared, possibly injured animal is hard enough to capture, and the needless lack of information won’t make capturing it any easier. “Did the other scientists mention where they found it, how they trapped it, or what it eats?”
The creature smashes into the window again, and we both jump. Noah drops his defensive tone. “They caught it in some cave, but they didn’t say how and they didn’t say what it eats.”
There’s another zapping noise as the creature flies away from the glass. I realize that what I saw earlier was not the glare of the sun but light from the electrical current that runs along the creature’s wings. The marks on Noah’s hands are electrical burns.
Great. Just great
. How am I supposed to catch this thing without it hurting me, any of the other animals, or itself?
I need to think. What do I know? They found it in a cave. Caves are dark, possibly damp and cold. Photosensitivity would explain why a fabric cover was needed and its reaction when it was removed.