As she approached, Claire saw a small furryface appear at the door of a small pet carrier—a plastic shell witha small caged door—sitting on the corner of the desk. A cat? But,no. Little hands wrapped around the bars as it looked out at herwith huge blue eyes that blinked at her calmly, almost as if thecreature were studying her as she approached. “Well, aren’t you afunny-looking thing?” Claire cooed at the animal, which looked tobe some sort of monkey, though it was no bigger than a kitten. Ithad a long tail and long fingers, like a primate, but large, oddlyshaped ears reminiscent a bat and long, shaggy fur. Claire hadnever seen anything like it and had to wonder if it was perhapssome newly discovered species from Madagascar, where theyidentified new sorts of primates and small lemurs all the time.
Given that Dr. Fielding was anastrophysicist, the bigger question was what the animal was doingon his desk. “What a funky little mammal you are,” Clairewhispered, bending to get a closer look. The little monkey leanedforward as well and waggled its fingers, much as she did.
“Oh, how cute you are! Smart, aren’tyou?”
“Ssss ba-boo,” the monkey-thing sounded out,reaching through the bars toward her, its little fist opened andclosed as if it wanted her to give it something.
“Do you want something to eat?” Claireasked, charmed by the bright-eyed creature. “I wish I had …”
A high-pitched cry broke the near silence ofthe room, making Claire almost jump out of her skin as the finehairs stood up on the back of her neck as the monkey squealed inturn. The sudden noise was followed by other muffled noises, someanimalistic and some almost human. All of them close. Claire jerkedaround to door set at the far end of the lab that was standing justan inch ajar.
Curious, she inched closer to the door andpeeked in, only to find a darkened lab space. Shiny metal machineryreflected the meager light from the office and outlined ghostlyshapes around the white room. Off to one side was another door thathad also been left ajar, and from it a ray of light streaked acrossthe floor almost to her feet, creating a path inviting the curiousto take a look. And Claire was undeniably curious about the soundsthat continued to echo through the room.
Just a peek, she told herself as she slippedacross the room. Just one little … but what she saw through thedoor startled her so much that Claire couldn’t help but stop andstare. Flanking each side of the room was a long row of … well,they looked like prison cells.
Prison cells that were mostly full ofanimals.
Her company, Mark-DavisLaboratories, had often been equated to a real-life version of thefictional conglomeration Global Dynamics from the Syfy televisionseries Eureka.The company’s mission was to be on the cutting edge of technologyin many different areas. Though they had their fingers in a lot ofpies, as it were, Mark-Davis dealt; first and foremost, in weaponsdevelopment under contract with the federal government and, forthat reason, unlike pharmaceutical companies or even cosmeticcompanies, they didn’t have much need for animal experimentation.In fact, in her two years with Mark-Davis, Claire had never seen ananimal on company grounds before.
So, what was Dr. Fielding up to, Clairewondered curiously as she pushed open the door and stepped insidefor a better look at the animals in the first few cages. For whatreason could an astrophysicist possibly need animals? And theseweren’t your standard lab animals, either. There were deer andother small forest animals as well as a kangaroo. An oddly shaggybear slept on its side in one cage, while another cell held afierce-looking wildcat that paced its confines restlessly. Therewere also several species that she didn’t recognize, like themonkey in the office.
A shudder passed through her, promptingClaire to inch back towards the door. Curiosity had not only killedthe cat but also cut short a few careers as well. This—whatever itwas—was not something she or anyone else was meant to see.Regretting her impulse, Claire knew she should leave and pretendshe had never been there, and she meant to, but at that momentmovement stirred farther down the line of cages. A figure rose fromthe floor to stand at the bars.
It was a man, Claire realized with a gasp ofsurprise. Or, to be more precise, an Indian. Not an Indian as anationality, but a good, old, straight from the Wild West, feathersand all American Indian.
Moments ago, Claire had thought that monkeyto be the craziest thing she had ever seen, but she had been wrong.This guy looked so authentic! He was dressed in a leatherbreechcloth. His bare chest was darkly bronzed and covered withscars as well as filth and … was that the dull shine of oil orgrease? There was a primitive nobility about him but also a primalsavagery that inspired instant fear.
Claire nearly jumped out of her skin whenthat horrid cry sounded again. From him.
God, it sounded like a war cry, Clairethought. Just like in the old westerns her dad watched on theweekends.
He fixed his gaze on her then with eyes asblack and hard as obsidian, piercing her with a shiver of fear. Heshouted at her, guttural sounds in a language Claire couldn’tunderstand, but his curt hand motions told her what he undoubtedlywanted.
He wanted out.
Claire’s eyes widened as she inched back,shaking her head in automatic denial. There was no way that she wasgoing to be the one to release that angry man. And it wasn’t basedon prejudice against his race or anything at all like that. No,only a madwoman would unlock the door and release someone wholooked that pissed off.
He read her shaking head correctly and hisscowl deepened even further. He barked at her again, motioninginsistently to the door.
A faint terror took ahold of Claire and sheedged back another step toward the door. This was all too crazy forwords. A thousand questions were crowding her mind, begging foranswers. Who? Why?
How?
But Claire knew they were questions shecouldn’t ask of anyone she met. Her natural curiosity had gottenthe better of her this time and she had stepped into something thatwas way bigger than a few
