Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula (13 page)

Nine

We sat on opposite benches, our knees a foot apart. Emery watched me curiously while I considered how to start. I resorted to small talk.

“Uh, Emery, so where do you live?”

“We rent a condo near Wallingford,” he answered patiently, making no attempt to elaborate.

“Oh.” I touched my forehead. “Were you born in Seattle?”

“No, Washington, D.C.” Placing his forearms on his knees, he leaned forward. “How did you hurt your forehead?”

I dropped my hand. “Funny. That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

Intently looking at my face, he waited for me to continue.

I touched my nose. “Before yesterday, I had freckles. They were light, but they were there.”

Narrowing his eyes on my nose, he attempted to decipher.

Taking a deep breath, I continued, “Sorry, that didn’t make any sense. Let me put it this way—I had freckles when I went to your mom’s lab with my dad.”

His expression became so intense, frightening almost, that I hesitated. My feelings about him were conflicted. He made me uneasy. Everything about him was so foreign.

Emery’s voice took on a soothing tone. “I understand that you injured your head in my mom’s lab. Please, tell me how. You can trust me. I want to help you.”

I searched his eyes. It was difficult to penetrate through the blackness, adding to my unease. “I don’t think you can.”

Impulsively, or maybe intentionally, he grabbed my hand, holding it between his. “Please, tell me,” he repeated.

I took another deep, tortured breath. “Your mom had something cooking in beakers on that Bunsen burner near the coffeemaker. While Dad interviewed her, I sat on a stool next to them. The stool collapsed and I fell, knocking everything over onto the table. When the liquids ran together, they formed this white cloud, and I breathed it in. It’s difficult to explain exactly what happened. My whole body felt like it was on fire, melting from the inside, and then everything went black. I guess I passed out or something. Afterward, I was…changed.”

“What do you mean by ‘changed’?” he asked, slowly and calmly, squeezing my hand.

Pulling my hand from his grip, I lifted it to my forehead. “When I passed out, I hit my head on the edge of the counter. My forehead split, or at least, that’s what Dad and Ben said, and with all the blood, I don’t think they were wrong.” My fingers trembled against the gauze. “The doctor at the ER said it was only a surface wound. He thought Dad and Ben had been fooled by the blood, thinking it was worse than it really was. He put a bandage over it and this gauze.”

Emery’s gaze fixed on my unsteady fingers, watching as I pinched the surgical tape and hesitantly pulled the gauze away, exposing my forehead. His eyes filled with disbelief.

“How did this happen, Emery?”

Shaking his head, his gaze dropped to his hands in his lap.

Quiet minutes ticked by. With each passing one, I sank deeper into despair. When I couldn’t take the silence anymore, I pleaded, “Please, Emery, say something.”

“Be patient. I’m thinking.”

“Well, think out loud.”

Smiling slightly cock-eyed, he said, “Trust me, you don’t want me to do that.”

Does he think this is a joke?
Furious, I slapped the gauze on my forehead. “Trust you? Apparently that was a mistake.” Abruptly, I stood up, causing the swing to sway.

“Cassidy, sit down,” Emery commanded calmly.

Glaring, I sat. I had nowhere else to go.

“Trusting me is the right thing to do. Aside from my mom, I’m the only other person who understands anything of depth about Formula 10X.”

“Formula 10X?” I said with hope. “That’s what was in the beakers?”

“Yes, or at least, a variation of it. I don’t know for certain, because she kept her latest experimentation with the formula undisclosed.”

“Why would she keep it a secret from you?” I asked, truly interested.

He smiled to himself. “That’s the way she is. I assume she wanted to prove out her new theories before bringing me back in.”

Strange,
I thought.
He says this like he didn’t ask her about it. Why wouldn’t he ask?
“Well, she did it. It works. I’m living proof she succeeded.”

“No, I don’t think she did,” he disagreed, sounding regretful. “How the formula has affected you would not have been her intention.” Pausing, he looked thoughtful. “However, it’s premature for me to come to that conclusion until I know precisely how you’ve been affected, or changed, as you put it. Tell me everything.”

“Everything” poured out at once. I ended my twenty-seven-hour saga with this: “At the police station, I thought you’d figured it all out. The way you looked at me all intense, it seemed like you guessed everything that was going on.”

Shaking his head, Emery smiled. “Though I admit I did find your behavior odd, I wouldn’t have guessed this in a million years.”

Despite the situation, I laughed.
He found my behavior odd?
I also thought the “million years” was an exaggeration. I had a feeling Emery wasn’t in the dark about anything for long. “Okay, now you know everything. What do you think?”

Silence was his only response as he studied my face. His scrutiny reminded me of his mother’s—clinical, detached—like he observed me under a microscope. This was disturbing, to say the least.

My brow furrowed. “Stop staring at me like that. I know I’m a freak.”

“Cassidy, you are not a freak,” he contradicted, his expression softening. “Don’t ever say or think that. I certainly don’t view you that way. I’m only astounded by how you’ve been affected. From a scientific perspective, it’s impossible.”

“It can’t be.” My eyes welled. “Look at me.”

Alert to the coming despair, Emery placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t find a solution. I promise you, we will.”

Emery spoke with such earnest confidence that I couldn’t help but believe him. Nodding agreement, I dabbed my wet eyes with my sleeve.

Dropping his hand from my shoulder, he said in a formal tone, “Allow me to tell you about Formula 10X. It’s a type of gene therapy containing a variety of animal DNA, among many other components. My mom’s goal is to find a way to manipulate these DNAs to benefit a human recipient by choosing genes that represent different strengths of the nonhuman and infusing those genes into the weakened cells and tissues of the human. For example, a human who is crippled would perhaps be infused with puma genes, since they are known for their agility and strength. The goal is not to make the human like the puma, but to restore the human’s function and health within a normal range.”

“Well, why am I like a puma, then?”

“I don’t know exactly. Obviously, by your intense physical reaction when initially exposed, something in the formula overloaded your nervous system. Maybe 10X affected you so extremely because you’re a young, healthy girl who received the formula in its entirety. What I mean is, you would have never been a 10X candidate, since you suffer none of the disabilities and ailments an appropriate candidate would. Also, the recipient would have been administered the formula in small doses, tailored to their needs. Your exposure was radical, and now you’re experiencing the full potent affects of 10X. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “I think so. It’s like a glass half filled with water, slowly having more added until it reaches the rim. I was already a full glass, and 10X was an entire pitcher poured into me at once.” Dread brewed inside me as I continued. “And now that the water has spilled, there’s no way to tell where it will go or what will happen to it.”

“That’s one way to look at it,” Emery said, dismally looking at the woods. For several seconds he didn’t speak, lost in thought.

During those quiet seconds, I stared at the ground, not thinking, only waiting. When I felt his eyes on my face, I looked up. His expression was determined.

“None of this makes sense, but obviously, it
isn’t
impossible. As you pointed out, you’re living proof. Since it isn’t impossible, there is an answer and solution. Tell me again, in detail, what you experienced when the liquids converged.”

Quickly, I explained again. Finishing the account, I held my breath expectantly.

Smiling slightly, he shrugged. “I have nothing.”

My breath rushed out in an offended gust. “What? Do you think this is a game or something?”

“No,” he quickly clarified. “I’m sorry, Cassidy, that came across as glib. I truly have nothing, and it frustrates me. I understand the compounds turned to a gas, but I have no idea why. And I have no idea what they formed or why your nervous system reacted so violently when you inhaled the gas. There has to be an unknown, a catalyst that pushed everything over the edge. What that catalyst is, again, I haven’t a clue…Cassidy, are you listening to me?”

Actually, I wasn’t. A black cat near the path leading to the woods had caught my eye. Low to the ground, it focused intensely on something in the tall grass. I recognized what it was doing because I had done it myself. The cat was hunting, stalking its prey. After commando-crawling toward its victim, it sank low in the grass, anticipating the kill. Opportunity arrived. Black fur gracefully glided through the air. The cat easily landed on the unfortunate victim: a brown field mouse.

I watched the cat excitedly toss the mouse in the air, remorselessly tormenting its victim. Dread slid through my stomach. “Emery, you mentioned pumas. Do you think there was cat DNA in that stuff I sucked in?”

Turning back to him, I saw that he had been watching the cat, too. He replied, “She experimented with feline DNA.”

I took this as a yes.
Oh, geez.

“There is another thing I’ve noticed different about me,” I began hesitantly. Emery looked back at me, and I could feel my cheeks warm under his gaze. I really didn’t want to bring this up, but thought I should after what he witnessed at the sports field. “I don’t usually have meltdowns. I’m not one of those emotional girls…at least, I wasn’t…I have no idea why I started bawling like that.”

His response wasn’t hesitant at all. “The changes you’ve experienced are not only physical, but chemical, so it stands to reason you will be more prone to mood swings and extreme reactions. And it will be more difficult—how should I say it?—to shove feelings down.”

I stared at him in surprise. He had pegged me. I was the queen of shoving down unwanted feelings. “If you’re right, Emery, poor me—poor everyone.”

To this, he
only smiled, and then said, “It’s about time you showed me what you can do.” Glancing across the sprawling lawn, his eyes settled on a couple lying together on the grass. They were far enough away that their facial features were indistinguishable. “Tell me about them.”

Rising to the challenge, I adjusted the couple until they appeared a few feet away. On their stomachs, they turned their heads in so they were nose to nose.

“Okay, the guy has shoulder-length, brown—”

Emery interrupted, squinting his eyes. “You’ll have to do better than that. Even I can see his hair.”

“Well, can you see he has a silver hoop through the right side of his bushy, black unibrow? And there’s a mole smack in the middle of his left cheek.” I grimaced. “Geez, he should have that removed. Okay, his girlfriend has multiple piercings. She looks like a pin cushion. There are three small hoops through her left eyebrow. One. Two. Three. No, four diamond studs on the left side of her nose. Gross. A gold hoop hanging between her nostrils—”