imperfect (39 page)

Troop slammed the heavy toolbox into Jack’s
temple. Jack crumpled to the floor like a piece of paper. A thin
line of blood oozed on the side of his head.

Subject twenty-three sniffed the air and let
out a growl.

Troop nudged Jack with his foot. The
scientist remained unconscious. Then he walked over to the single
window of the room and slid up the panel. Next, he returned to the
crate of chickens.

“
Lucky day for you. I’m
saving you guys from becoming tiger food.”

Troop caught and released each chicken out
through the window. Subject twenty-three mournfully looked at its
lunch escaping before its eyes.

Chicken-freeing task completed, Troop heaved
Jack into the now-empty crate. The man’s lanky frame barely fit in
the box; he had to bend Jack’s legs to ensure he was completely
within the crate.

Jack let out a soft moan. Troop didn’t
hesitate to give him another bash to the head. Then Troop opened up
his toolbox and removed the bottle of window glue. He applied a
thin layer of the adhesive around the rim of the crate and slid the
crate’s cover back in place; someone was bound to find Jack when
they came to kill the tiger. In the meantime, Jack wouldn’t be able
to alert Troop’s presence to others.

Troop cracked open the
door and slid into the East Wing hallway.
Time to find Kristi and Chelsa.

chapter
forty-two

[ Kristi ]

Kristi chewed on her
bottom lip. Troop still hadn’t shown up
after ten minutes.

“
We really ought to go,”
Chelsa said.

“
Two more minutes. Give
him two more minutes. If he still isn’t here, then we’ll
leave.”

Chelsa sighed, but complied with her
wishes.

“
Come on, where are you?”
Kristi muttered.

“
I’m here,” Troop’s voice
said over her shoulders.

“
Jeepers! Don’t creep up
behind people like that,” Kristi said. “It’s rude to surprise
people by sneaking up on them.”

“
Well, that wasn’t the
greeting I was hoping to get. Are you two finished checking out
this room?”

“
Yeah. Let’s move onto the
next room.”

She finished drying the window (which was
thoroughly cleaned after being cleaned a total of three times by
Chelsa and her). They left Lab E and proceeded to investigate the
next room down the hall, which happened to be Report Room D. Kristi
wondered what the heck was a Report Room. Her question was quickly
answered when they peeked inside.

Rows upon rows of smart-glass desks lined
Report Room D in an orderly fashion. Staff feverishly typed away
documents at their desks. Kristi silently backed out of the room,
not wanting to disturb the peace.

“
We’ve been here for two
hours already,” she said when they returned to the main hall. “We
should hurry up and finish our business here.”

“
Then let’s skip the rest
of the rooms in the East Wing and go straight to the South Wing,”
Troop said.

“
We are not splitting
apart this time though,” Kristi said.

She feared being alone after seeing the
woman that gave her the disturbing smile. Goosebumps still covered
her arms, even though at least fifteen minutes had passed.

“
We’ll probably have to
split up to get into the South Wing, though,” said Chelsa. “Chances
are that security is the tightest in the South Wing compared to the
West, North and East Wing.”

They walked onwards, each person lost in
their own thoughts. Kristi rubbed the itch on her nose. Then she
stopped dead in her tracks.

Saying the security to the South Wing was
strict would be the understatement of the century. Kristi watched a
scientist pass through a blood test, three finger scans, two retina
scans, a metal detector, an ID check, and a pat down followed by a
series of security question all the while being accompanied by two
armed guards. She didn’t even want to think about the security
level inside the South Wing and what would happened if it was
discovered that they were imposters.

“
Crap,” she muttered.
“Finn, if you’re watching this, we could really use some
help.”

“
You just stole the words
from my mouth,” Troop said.

Unfortunately, Finn didn’t send them help
and Kristi didn’t possess the ability to teleport the three of them
past the security.

“
You people cleaning the
windows in the South Wing?” a guard barked out at them.

“
Uh—” Kristi froze, unsure
of how to reply.

“
Yes, we are,” Troop cut
in.

Chelsa and Kristi
exchanged looks.
What is Troop thinking? A
simple check to the front desk of New Genes Lab and the guards will
realize we aren’t supposed to be here,
Kristi thought.

She resisted the urge to rub her nose again.
For some reason, her nose was really starting to itch and her eyes
felt raw and watery.

“
I need your ID cards.” A
guard sauntered over to them and ran their cards through a handheld
scanner.

Next, he had each of them scan their
fingerprints. However, the scanner refused to recognize any of
their prints; an error message kept popping up when the guard
attempted to scan their fingerprints.

“
Stupid scanner,” the
guard said. “I keep on filing a request for a new scanner but it
keeps on getting turned down.”

“
Let me try,” another
guard said. “It worked just fine a minute ago.”

Once again, the scanner couldn’t read their
fingerprints.

“
Whatever,” said first
guard. “It’s not like some window cleaners are going to be
terrorists. They barely look like they’ve just graduated from
college.”

The patronizing tone in his voice ticked
Kristi off just the tiniest bit.

“
Okay, we need to perform
a retina scan and blood test on each of you,” said the second
guard.

Likewise with the fingerprint scan though,
none of the devices functioned properly. The retina scanner
wouldn’t turn on and the blood tester kept on announcing their
blood type to be unidentifiable. It was as if the three of them
didn’t exist, according to the government database.

Kristi began to suspect it was Finn’s doing
that everything was malfunctioning except for the metal detector,
which they went through without a hitch.

“
You guys can pass.” The
first guard lazily motioned for them to go through the entrance to
the South Wing.

The other guard fidgeted with his stun gun
nervously. “I don’t think we should allow them entry into the South
Wing. Technically, they didn’t pass the blood, retina and
fingerprint test.”

“
They didn’t fail it
either,” replied the first guard. “And they’ve already signed the
oath of secrecy when they entered this building, so they can’t
speak of what they see in the South Wing. If it makes you feel
better, we can check with the secretary to confirm that they are
supposed to be here.”

This is where everything
starts to spiral down to hell,
Kristi
thought to herself. The guards were going to find out the three
Cleandows weren’t supposed to be in the South Wing and they’ll end
up getting asked questions they couldn’t answer without giving away
the truth.

“
Hello? This is Hilton,” a
guard spoke into his walkie-talkie.

“
This is Julia,” the
secretary replied. The sound quality of the walkie-talkie was so
faultless Kristi would’ve sworn Julia was standing in the room next
to them if she was blindfolded.

“
I would like to verify
three Cleandows workers with the names of Dakota, Kennedy and Helen
are authorized to enter the South Wing for window cleaning,” Hilton
said.

“
I don’t remember any of
the South Wing windows needing a repair or wash job. Hold on a
second while I check on my electro-slate.” There was a pause, then
Julia spoke again. “Never mind—I was wrong. It seems like ten of
the windows in the South Wing need to have their panels
cleaned.”

“
Thanks,
Julia.”

“
No problem.”

“
See, what did I tell
you?” the first guard said to the second. “We’re not breaching any
security measures by letting them into the South Wing.”

They stepped aside and allowed Kristi, Troop
and Chelsa to file between them and into the South Wing. Kristi was
expecting to step into a long hallway like she did in the West,
North and East Wings. Instead, the South Wing was really just one
huge, open room. The ceiling was a minimum of three stories high,
even though the South Wing only had one level. The entire learning
center could’ve fit into the room with space to spare.

Out of the blue, Kristi felt the urge to
sneeze build up inside her; she pinched the bridge of her nose and
eventually the urge faded away. On the other hand, her eyes were as
irritated as ever.

“
I think I’m allergic to
something in the lab,” she said in a low enough voice so that only
Troop and Chelsa could hear; Perfects didn’t have allergies and she
would immediately stand out if she had an allergic
reaction.

“
Don’t rub your eyes,”
Troop said when she raised her hand to her face. “It’ll only make
it worse.”

That was when Kristi noticed parts of
Troop’s clothing were covered with feathers. “Troop, why does it
look like a bird decided to molt on you?”

“
I snuck into the East
Wing in crate shared with chickens,” he said.

“
Crap.”

“
What?”

“
I’m allergic to
birds.”

“
Crap,” Troop echoed her
words.

“
Don’t sneeze,” Chelsa
advised.

“
I’m trying not to,”
Kristi said. “Come on, let’s wrap up our business here before snot
starts dripping down my face.”

Chelsa made a face. “Lovely thought. Thank
you for the imagery.”

“
Anytime.”

They nonchalantly wandered throughout the
room. Documents covered several smart-glass desks.

“
Think of those poor trees
that were killed to make all these papers. What a waste of
resources,” Troop said.

Most of the desks had a person seated over
it, so they couldn’t read what was written on those papers. But, by
pure chance, a scientist a few desks away from them stood up from
his desk and let out a huge stretch. Then he walked away,
presumably to stretch his legs or answer the call of nature.

Kristi hurried over to the unguarded report
left lying on the desk. She skimmed over the contents:

Name: Dr. Leemers

Experiment: DNA Alterations for Stronger
Teeth

Test Subject #: 216

Results: Doubling the
genetic material on section K of chromosome 23 does indeed result
in stronger teeth on subject 216. However, subject 216’s teeth grew
continuously and constantly needed to be filed down. Subject 261
also experienced loss of appetite after the DNA alteration. Subject
216 was injected with the final sleep shot on November
17
^th
.

Conclusion: Doubling the genetic material
found on section K of chromosome 23 is not a viable option for
usage among citizens.

The rest of the report was a thorough
account the entire experiment. The procedures for the experiment
were well documented with pictures and descriptions. Subject 216 an
Accident who had died at a young age of two months. Reading the
report made venom towards Dr. Leemers boil up within Kristi.

“
This is sick,” she said.
“How can they kill an infant?”

“
Oh, my god,” Chelsa
said.

“
My thoughts exactly,”
Kristi said.

“
No, you don’t understand
what I mean.”

Kristi realized Chelsa wasn’t even looking
at the report anymore. “What is it?” she asked.

“
Look.”

Kristi followed her gaze. On the far side of
the room were rows of cribs. A number was pinned onto each crib and
a tranquilized baby slept in each one. Further to the right of the
cribs were toddlers kept in pens; most were fast asleep. The few
that were awake seemed pretty groggy, so she suspected their
sedatives were just beginning to wear off. There weren’t many
toddlers—thirty at most compared to at least a hundred infants.

Some of the Accidents looked normal while
others did not. A small, freckled toddler no older than three was
babbling a string of meaningless words. Another Accident was fast
asleep in her pen; her hair was a turquoise color. The girl woke up
and looked at Kristi straight in the eyes, as if it was she who had
woken her up from a nap. When the girl grinned at Kristi, she
recoiled back in surprise; the blue-haired toddler’s teeth were
fang-like and carnivorous.

Troop cast his eyes around the room. “This
is so freaky.”

Kristi nodded in
agreement. She shuddered to think how close she had been to being
experimented upon.
All these lives
sacrificed to satisfy the indulgences of a perfect
society
, Kristi grimly thought.

Without the Accidents to test on, there
would be no progress in DNA perfectionism. The government depended
on a society where everyone was a Perfect to run seamlessly.