Mimics of Rune 02- Surrender (29 page)

“That’s great.” She jotted notes using a pen on a flat computer screen. “I assume this is your first visit?”

“Definitely.”

More writing.

“Well, we’ve got an excellent facility here. I’ll tell you more about it, but I know we’re running behind, so I’d like to get a few physical tests out of the way before lunch, if possible. To start, we need to run our standard blood work.”

A chill ran through Lily.

“Miss Crane, are you okay? Are you cold?”

Lily shook her head. “Just a little nervous, is all.”
Been down this road before, though the people weren’t … nice.

“That’s natural. All our residents are during this phase. I can assure you, though, once we get through today—” She picked up the papers from the table. “—it’ll all go as smooth as pudding.

Lily breathed a small laugh.

“Now, I need to draw some blood …”

The haze around Lily’s vision grew thick.

“… and we’ll take measurements and set some baselines as well as confirm your genetics—all for privacy protocols, of course.”

Lily swayed as the thought of being poked and prodded against her will brought back a rush of memories. Despite Herri’s calm tone, a gruff, forced, arms-clamped-to-the-tabletop scenario played out.

When Herri pulled out a needle, still in its packaging, Lily’s view blacked out along with all conscious thought.

• • •

James dropped a hand on Cael’s shoulder. “How about Maggie and I do the computer searches, and you go check out what’s really going on and find Lily, make sure she’s okay?”

Maggie-Matthew’s lips curved. “Marlie can give you the grand inner tour. She seems to be Mr. Boss here’s assistant, though I think there might be more there, too.” Maggie shivered as James winged up an eyebrow. “If you find Roy, let’s all have a nice chat with him.”

Cael grinned as he faced James. “That’ll be fun.”

“Chat, Cael. Don’t pound him dead yet,” Maggie said.

“Roy knows what you look like,” James said, “Maybe you should dress down.”

“Down?” Cael ran a hand over his head. “Like, how much down?”

• • •

After waking in the little room to a smiling Herri and a bandaged arm, Lily had simply thanked her for moving forward and walked into the vastness of what Herri called a training room.

Herri escorted Lily between two of the small buildings, no more than eight feet high and, by Lily’s estimate, eight feet wide, navigating her way through another set and a third until they’d reached a place in the middle with a small table and chairs.

There she sat, in a chair, at the side of a desk, in the middle of what she’d termed the
big lab
.

“I need to get my notes,” Herri said. “Would you like some water?”

“Yes, please.” Without Herri, Lily began her survey of the room, starting with the structure closest to her.

Four walls. One door. One center tube to the roof.

House with no windows?

The area in its entirety couldn’t have been any smaller than an airplane hangar for a 747. Even her floor—view, in the middle of it all, seemed overly large. Small, square buildings, like the first one she studied, filled the space—all of them white with big air vents snaking down from the ceiling and into the center.

What are the things coming down the center?

She did a three-sixty check in all directions. Above her, at least forty feet of empty space interrupted by wires crisscrossing as if held up by air. Around her, hallways and more small buildings, their whiteness giving the area an even larger feel despite the slight claustrophobia from so many walls.

Look above and I can see everything to the ceiling.

Look to the floor and it’s as if I’m stuck in a box of my own.

A movement caught in her peripheral vision. Above, but to the right, over yet another of the what she’d decided to call ‘boxes’, Leigh balanced on a rope, placing one foot carefully in front of the other.

Down the closest hall, a young boy exited one of the rooms in tears, blond curls bouncing all around his little head. A man took the little boy in his arms and rubbed up and down his back, soothing until the tears stopped.

No one had ever consoled Lily. She’d been told what to do, and if she cried, she’d been punished with starvation or some form of detention. Yet when they’d needed a little girl to infiltrate a safe house under the pretense of being kind and sweet, they’d picked Lily, buttered her up with her favorite foods and sweets, and off she’d been flown. Her job done, she found herself back in her jail cell of a clear glass room, smaller than the box she sat next to at that moment. No comforts of home. No people to talk to.

No Cael.

Just like now. No Cael.

A glance down at the Band-Aid she wouldn’t even need in another hour reminded her yet again of those years of unfulfilled aspirations. The smells of antiseptic still made her blood pressure rise, and her ability to simply walk into a hospital required she be in the company of a friend. Herri just going ahead and taking the samples brought a measure of relief, and with it, no memories of the event. That, Lily loved the most. Before, she’d have been strapped down and simply forced.

She never had any idea why they had to be so angry with her all the time. After so many years of asking as a child, she’d given up wanting to know. She’d just ached to be free.

Leigh wobbled up on the rope as she passed over one of the boxes. Though the girl never once looked down, Lily had the sense that Leigh knew she watched.

Herri returned with a cup of water in hand. “Here you go.”

Lily sipped at it, unsure of her next task. She eyed the doctor over her cup. “Are you one of us?” That the question even formed and made it past her lips had Lily scooting back in her seat.
Maybe there’s a little Charley influence in you after all.

“No, Lily, I’m not. I’m one of a few people who know because I need to know. I’m sure you’re aware of our privacy policy and strict adherence to it. No one who leaves this facility is allowed to speak about it or its residents.
Ever.
We’re under court orders. Beyond Top Secret clearance.” Herri held her hand above Lily’s before dropping it on top. “It also goes without saying, but I promise … anything you say to me stays in confidence.”

“Okay.”

Herri tapped her pen against the edge of the tablet. “We’ll run you through a battery of simple tests. I need to see what you can do.”

“I can’t do much, as it is.”

“Nonsense. All Mimics are fantastic shape-shifters. In fact, they’re the most amazing I’ve ever seen of all the supernatural races.”

Huh? Other races?
Lily’s curiosity zapped as Leigh fumbled but caught herself. “Not me. I’m not very … good at it.” She sipped more water as a man entered through the center doorway with Marlie.

Short and squat, his large glasses hung halfway down his nose.

An inner worry sent butterflies aflutter again. Every new person did.

“Now, Lily,” Herri said, “give yourself credit. You’re almost sixty-one, and you’re still able to shift, right?”

Marlie directed the man with finger pointing until they started their way around the outer perimeter in Lily’s direction.

“Have you taken any steps to blend?”

Lily shook her head.

“And no pregnancies before?”

Lily bit at her lip and shook her head.

“So, tell me how
you
use your ability.”

“Um … I don’t really.” In her peripheral vision, the man continued his journey through the room.

“I’ll bet you do … more than you even know.” She tapped on the screen. “Here …” She leaned the tablet in Lily’s direction and pointed. “It says here you’ve been an active member of the FBI. You use …”

Lily shook her head. “I don’t work for the FBI. A few of my … friends … work for it, and I help them, but usually with the visual stuff, like making sure someone has the right clothes for the part. I’m … the props department.”

Herri frowned. “Okay, let’s skip that and go straight to the activities. This is the more fun stuff, anyway.”

A shiver raced through Lily. Fun and tests in the same sentence did not elicit happy thoughts.

The man walking with Marlie approached, both their forms filling Lily’s view.

She met his gaze, though he meandered on.

Herri scribbled something on her pad.

The man kept walking, though he turned toward Lily as he moved and blinked three times. Each reopening of his lids offered Lily a change of eye color: Blue-Purple-Green-Blue
.

Cael.

“Okay, in this first building …” Herri said.

Lily tuned her out as Cael and Marlie came to stand at their side, and she had to cough through the snort even as the pressure on her psyche relaxed.

Cael and James often vied for the good-boy-bad-boy role, and Cael often won the choice spot. He must have lost to have added the plastic glasses, pocket protector, stained shirt and full comb-over.

“Sir,” Marlie said, “this is Doctor Ontawabe. She’s at the core of our energy manipulation studies.”

Herri stood and shook Cael’s hand with a smile. “I’m sure you’ll excuse us, but we’re right in the middle of some work right now.”

“Absolutely.” Cael winked at Lily.

Has he come alone?
Where’s Maggie? James? Charley? Where’s Wyatt?

“Mind if I inquire as to what these buildings are?” Cael asked.

Herri leaned to Lily. “You okay with a very brief interruption?”

“Yes.” Lily shifted her attention to Leigh up on the wire, giving herself something else to do rather than listen about the testing she’d undergo as soon as Cael left her again. Leigh had made the pass on the rope at least ten times. Why she persisted in going back and forth, Lily didn’t know, but it fascinated her that Leigh could concentrate for so long on it.

“This room is one we use just for basic work,” Herri said. “It’s where we measure the amount of energy needed to transpose something. Take a glob of play dough and stretch it. How much energy does that take? How much energy does a person need to stretch it?” Herri motioned toward the brick box. “That one tests strength. Well, that one and two others. There are certain malleable compounds in which we need to know how they react to other materials in the hands of a person. Nothing dangerous, mind you. All natural. Man-made. Porous, non-porous. Things like that. How it affects the draw of energy, the pull of it, and how it might sap energy. Like a wakeful sleep study.”

Despite herself, Lily had listened. None of the rooms sounded dangerous or even scary. That Herri’s answers never made mention of Mimics in the testing brought Lily a new level of respect for the doctor. She hadn’t given up any secrets. For all Cael knew, as a supposed outsider, they tested energy sources and their effect on humans.

Cael hitched his pants, nudged his glasses up his nose. Lily eyed Leigh, stared back at Cael and gave him a little shrug. He tilted up and raised a brow. Lily gave him a single nod, wiping at her nose in the process.

“What’s that girl doing?” he asked.

Thank you for picking up my signals.

Herri smiled. “Ah … well, she walks along there when she thinks.”

“Along a tightrope?” Cael asked. “A little kid like that walks back and forth twenty feet off the ground to think?”

The smile didn’t even break on Herri’s face. “We all find ways to cope with our lots in life, don’t we? I’m sorry, but I really do need to keep going.”

Cael dipped an invisible hat at Herri. “Ma’am,” he said to Lily. “I’ll be seein’ ya.” With that, he started again with Marlie.

“Now …” Herri said. “Where were we?”

“You were going to confirm what I can and can’t do.”

“Well, let’s just see. Shall we?” Herri opened the door to the little room.

“Wh—why in there?” A need to stay in the open tugged at Lily and rooted her to her seat.

Herri cocked her head to the side. “Each room is equipped with high-speed video cameras and sensors. If we did anything inside this big lab, we’d have no control over the results. This room is our control. It’s made of the same materials as the building and allows us to test what you can do naturally.”

“What about all the other rooms? I see at least a dozen little boxes.”

“We call them testing pods, and they’re all the same.” Herri pursed her lips, the first sign of frustration Lily received from her. “Each room is equipped the same way. But each has different properties. Some metals prevent some Mimics from transforming. Some natural substances do, too. We’ve learned, over the years, about a few, and have these set up to both test and allow you to learn yourself what you can and can’t do. And if it’s something on the can’t side, we’ll work with you and, perhaps, find a way to alter that.”

“So, like a school for Mimics?”

Herri’s smile bloomed. “Sure. And others … “

School for Mimics. How cool is that?

“… You don’t have to do these tests, Lily. But it’s the only way I can gauge—”

A sense of control came over Lily. She breathed in deep. “I’m ready.”

Herri’s smile bloomed. “Excellent! We’ll run the same steps in here and in the other eleven rooms. From there, we’ll have some answers on what you’re capable of.”

For the first time, despite her misgivings, Lily wanted to know.

24

Cael followed Marlie around the lab. She explained very little, letting lab-coated people talk instead. From what he gathered, the rooms gave the scientists a picture into the abilities and capabilities of a Mimic, though they never once said the name. Cael had even considered, at one point, suggesting he and James go through the testing themselves to see what the government thought of their own talents.

Had James been with Cael, he’d have growled a firm ‘no’, citing his advanced age and complete lack of interest. If they hadn’t been on a mission, Cael might have volunteered himself, anyway.

His vibe-o-meter hadn’t gone through the roof in talking with the good doctor or Marlie, even when she’d come to get him for his tour and hadn’t commented on his change of appearance. Maggie taking control of the administrative side left him some measure of calm with the project, too.