Mirrored Man: The Rob Tyler Chronicles Book 1 (7 page)

June frowned slightly as the candy smacked
against the computer screen before her and then fell to the desk
below, landing behind the hot pink keyboard that she had insisted
upon bringing with her against the wishes of the professor. Picking
up the candy, she said, “I don't like the green ones.” But she
popped it into her mouth anyway.

By most standards, June was a very
attractive woman. At thirty-two, she stood five foot seven with a
perfectly proportioned hour-glass figure, as her lab mate spared
few occasions to point out. Shimmering light brown hair hung to her
shoulder blades and nicely framed a fair complexion. She was
restricted from wearing makeup of any kind, which she rarely did
anyway. Her most striking feature was her sapphire blue eyes. With
those eyes she had been known to stab men outright or simply melt
their hearts, depending on the circumstances.

Her looks had been an obstacle when she was
younger. As a result, she had learned to develop her relationships
cautiously. She had seen colleagues build walls around themselves
as a defense mechanism and as a way to gain the respect of their
peers, both male and female, thereby losing themselves in a black
hole of sterile personality and any hope of real friendships. Some
of them became so wrapped up in their work that they actually lost
interest in any kind of human interaction at all, other than
professionally.

On the other hand, she had seen those whom
she considered talented settle for lives of mediocrity in their
pursuits of personal relationships when, in her opinion, it was far
too early in their careers for them to do so. Or worse, throw their
livelihoods away by making the mistake of starting families before
they were ready in foolish attempts to satisfy meaningless urges
resulting in life-altering consequences.

June was the purpose-driven daughter of
Baptist missionaries serving in Africa. She was born in the city of
Arba Minch at the base of the western side of the Great Rift Valley
in southwestern Ethiopia, where her parents were assisting the
locals in building a school. Her mother Mae, a gynecologist, and
father Jonah, a dentist, also provided free services to the
indigenous people as the other professionals in their group did.
They traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East.
June became fluent in English, French, German, Amharic, and Arabic
by the age of ten. It was then that her parents, following their
meticulous plan for her upbringing, had enrolled her in Moffat's
School located in Shropshire, England, where she would receive a
formal education as well as have an opportunity to spend time with
children her own age.

In the beginning, the change had traumatized
young June. She had been accustomed to an environment where she had
the opportunity to form relationships with wild animals of all
sorts as they were encountered in her various journeys. Her parents
had given her the news while visiting the Comoros Islands off
Madagascar, where she had befriended a ring-tailed lemur that she
named Bobo. She’d insisted that he be allowed to sleep with her.
However, Bobo had the annoying habit of sleeping all day and
keeping June awake at night, which had dulled the pain of
separation a bit.

Eventually, she had adjusted to her new
environment at Moffat’s. It soon became obvious that June was quite
a gifted child. She had excelled academically far beyond the other
students in attendance. While she interacted well socially, she had
formed no deep friendships. Her first love was always animals. Her
spare time had been spent roaming the nearby forests in search of
new friends and trying to teach the other kids how to interact with
them. But she found that it was not something that could be taught.
This connection to animals was her special gift, and hers
alone.

Her potential had eventually become obvious,
even to the most skeptical of instructors. Upon their
recommendation, she was accepted to Sanford-Brown University in
Ohio at the age of thirteen. There she had been allowed to
participate in special projects such as private encounters at the
Cincinnati zoo, as well as other hands-on activities in places such
as the San Diego Zoo and the Woods Hole Science Aquarium. By the
age of sixteen, she had experienced animals, both wild and
domesticated, in a way few do in a lifetime.

She had quickly earned her bachelor’s degree
in animal psychology and later, at Penn State, earned her master’s
in philosophy. For the next five years, she had studied primates
at many of the zoos in North America. During breaks in her
studies, she had sometimes traveled with her parents as they
continued their missionary work abroad, all the while never passing
up the opportunity to find new animal friends. By the time she had
reached her twenties, her interests expanded to include human
friends as well. Even the occasional
male
human, though
there had been nothing long-term or serious.

At twenty-seven, she had returned to
Sanford-Brown to complete her PhD in ethology. At thirty, she had
been approached by a representative of the United States Department
of the Interior and offered an opportunity to “get the record
straight” concerning the ethical treatment of test animals in the
country's various programs. She was promised full authority to
supervise the treatment of animals used for experimentation at
McMaster. Initially she declined, thinking it too horrific to
consider. But shortly thereafter, she was inundated with requests
from PETA members who had heard of the offer urging her to accept
the position. Succumbing to the pressure of friends, she accepted
the government’s invitation and began her work with the others
involved with Project Pine Tree eighteen months ago.

She had only minor difficulties in her
dealings with the test animal’s needs. The biggest problem was the
fact that they were in captivity at all. A situation that, she
conceded, she couldn't change. Though she had to admit, compared
with the stories she had heard, the subjects involved here were
treated extremely well, and the administrators had assured her that
upon completion of the testing the animals would be retired to live
out long and happy lives on protected reserves.

“Don't change the subject,” Don complained.
“And that's a myth, anyway.”

“What's a myth?”

“About the green Gummy Bears.”

“That's M&M's, you goob! Not Gummy
Bears.”

“What?” Don exaggerated a frown.

“That green M&M's make you … you
know.”

“Make you what?” He grinned.

Rolling her eyes, she wondered how he could
draw others into conversations that were, at best, nonsense.
“You're right, it's a myth.”

“What's a myth?”

June turned to face him just as a Gummy Bear
struck her on the cheek, sticking momentarily and then falling into
her lap. “What are you, twelve?” She absently tossed the candy
missile into her mouth. “But I do like the yellow ones.”

“Yeah. Twice now. And I'm workin' on a third
time.” Don beamed his best Cheshire Cat grin.

“Ugh! You, my friend, are incorrigible,” she
moaned, turning back to her computer.

“I know you are, but what am I?” He lined up
another shot.

Doctor Donald Cook leaned back in his chair.
Despite his prosthetic right leg, he had the build of an athlete.
His dark brown eyes, curly shoulder-length black locks, and olive
skin hinted at his Mediterranean ancestry. A geneticist already
involved with the project when June came on board, the thirty-five
year old was born and raised in Alpena, Michigan on the shores of
Lake Huron. The son, grandson, and great-grandson of loggers, he
graduated from Alpena High School where he was on the Wildcat
football team. A talented corner back and average student, his
athleticism got him accepted to Michigan State University. It was
there that he came alive, academically speaking. But not at
first.

During the second semester of his freshman
year, Don had suffered the tragedy of a deadly car accident. He was
the sole survivor. As the designated driver, he had been
chauffeuring three friends back to the dorm after an evening of
drinking when a deer crossed the road, causing him to swerve and
hit a tree. He had suffered a concussion and multiple broken bones.
The most severe injury was to his right femur. Due to
complications, his leg had been amputated at mid-thigh.

Investigators had found no evidence that a
deer had been involved. The authorities questioned his story for
several months. There had even been talk of a trial, but no charges
were ever filed. His football career was over, and he was suffering
from survivor’s guilt. He retreated from family and friends, and
had come dangerously close to being expelled due to declining
grades and the questionable circumstances of the crash.

It was then that his biology professor,
Martin Sisk, took a special interest in him. The professor had an
uncanny ability to sense the best attributes of his students, and
he had seen great potential in Don even before the unfortunate
incident. He began tutoring Don with all of his studies. In return,
Don had promised to be diligent and make something of himself to
honor the three who had died in the crash. With Sisk's influence,
his interest had turned to the sciences and, ultimately, genetics.
He excelled in the field and had quickly earned a reputation as an
out-of-the-box problem solver.

After earning his PhD at the age of
twenty-seven, he spent some time wandering from project to project
in search of a place to call home. Eventually, with no small
assistance from Sisk, Don was hired as Professor Yeoum Chi’s
research assistant. For nearly three years, he had worked
under the tutelage of the project manager at McMaster. In that time
he had proven himself, time and again, to be a brilliant scientist.
It was whispered in the halls that the program would never have
been remotely successful if it had not been for Don's
participation. In addition, it was Professor Sisk's recommendation
that had caused the Department of Defense to become involved,
allowing the team access to some much-needed materials not readily
available under the Department of the Interior. This brought the
project to its current state of viability. June had joined the team
two years after Don became involved, so she had missed out on most
of the breakthroughs. She had also missed out on the questionable
practices that had been necessary to bring them about. A fact that,
given her convictions, Don was more than a little thankful for.

“Anyway, it's unethical for you to fall in
love with one of your patients.”

“I didn't say that she was
in love
with me. I only said that she loves me.” A red Gummy Bear sailed
over June’s head and onto the floor, where it joined dozens of
others that lay strewn about.

“Well then, you’re leading her on.”

“Am not.”

“Are too, and Angelina can be mean.”

“Angelina is not mean.”

“She is so. She bites.”

“Angelina did not bite you.”

“I didn't say she bit me.”

“Then why did you say she bites?”

“She bit Juan.”

“She did not!”

“Yes she did. Ask him.”

She started to turn and continue the
argument, but conceded that Don was probably telling the truth.
“Well, it's only because he's always poking and prodding her, poor
baby.”

“Be careful how you say that and in what
company,” Don said, painting on a serious face.

“Walked right into that one,” she sighed.
“Did she break the skin?”

“No, but there's a welt.”

“Where?” She immediately regretted the
inquiry, fearing a lewd response.

“His left forearm.”

Dodged a bullet there
. “What was he
doing to her?” She asked with mild concern, but quickly realized
she already knew the answer.

“Taking a sample,” they said it in
unison.

“Why does he need so many samples now,
anyway?” June whined as she laid her forehead on the desk. “We
haven't seen anything new since the testing was put on hold before
the move! And everything was normal then!”

“Calm down. You're makin' dogs howl
somewhere.”

“Poor baby,” June reiterated.

The conversation was inane and silly, but it
was necessary to relieve the monotony of the everyday routine.
Since the DOD had gotten involved and moved the project to Georgia,
they hadn't been allowed to leave the facility. Other than
monitored phone calls, they had no outside contact except for
military and government personnel. They had all manner of game
consoles and a well-stocked game library. June had never in her
life picked up a game controller, until week five. Now, serious
injury would be risked by interfering when she was doing well on
Tetris. There was a Blu-ray collection with more than three
thousand titles and every satellite channel in existence, though
June had blocked a few using parental controls, causing quite a
protest from Don. They had a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator,
and a cook at their disposal. But the longer they were there, the
more cooking they opted to do themselves. There was a pool, hot
tub, sauna, and the services of a masseuse upon request. All the
comforts of home and then some, just no one else to interact with.
In fact, the original team of nine scientists at McMasters had been
reduced to five: June and Don, Professor Yeoum Chi, Dr. Juan Tiong,
the team’s veterinarian, and Jimmy Bennett.

Jimmy held a master’s degree in computer
science and electronic technology, and was responsible for
maintaining all of the project’s equipment. He had also written
many of the specialized programs needed for the project, making him
irreplaceable, though the “powers that be” attempted to do just
that on several occasions. Jimmy was a solid team player and
co-worker, but he was also good at what he called “sticking it to
the man.” As a Canadian, he wasn’t thrilled about working for the
U.S. Government, even when it was the Department of the Interior.
So when the DOD took over, he considered sabotaging the project
outright. June had even been willing to go along with that idea,
but in the end Don and the professor talked them out of it. After
all, they had all invested too much time and effort not to go
forward, regardless of who was paying the bills. That, and an
obscene pay increase, had changed Jimmy’s mind. But in the eight
weeks since the move he had ruffled more than his share of feathers
among the “storm troopers” he had to work for.