26

GRAVETT BIOTECH WAS A FORTRESS, A COMPOUND IN THE middle of the woods surrounded by eight-foot walls topped with razor wire.

“How are we going to get in?” I said, looking at the high wall.

“You’re a shapeshifter. Can’t you turn into a bird or something and fly over?”

“I could. But then I’d be stuck in bird form for several hours, which wouldn’t help get you in—or Maria out.” Besides, I didn’t want to shift on the day of the full moon, not after what had happened during the panther shift. No eating people today—not if I could avoid it. We’d have to find a norm way inside.

We ran alongside the wall, keeping low. Getting in would be the easy part. Gravett must be all in favor of welcoming me inside. It was getting out again that was going to be tough.

“Look!” I pointed to a place up ahead, where the trees stood close to the wall; the branches of one huge pine tree reached right across it. “I can climb up there, then drop to the other side.”

Daniel shook his head. “Won’t work,” he said. “The branches are too thin when they get close enough to the wall. They won’t hold your weight.”

“I’m going to try.” I ran to the base of the tree and put my arms around the trunk. It was sticky and smelled like pitch. I tried to shinny up it, but I couldn’t get a foothold. And when I gripped the trunk with my knees, I couldn’t figure out how to move upward.

Daniel caught up to me, panting. “Give me a boost,” I said.

“Vicky. It’s. Not—” he said between pants. But when he saw my expression he laced his fingers into a kind of step. I put my foot in his hands, and he boosted me up so that I could grab hold of one of the lower branches. From there, I pulled myself up until I was sitting on the branch where it met the trunk.

I was only about ten feet off the ground, but it felt higher. I could see far into the Gravett Biotech complex. Six brick buildings stood around a central courtyard. At the far side of the courtyard, almost directly across from my perch, was a barred gate. There was a gatehouse next to it, but from here I couldn’t see whether it was occupied by a guard. We had to assume it was. Everything was still—no patrols, no guard dogs, nothing. No people in lab coats bustling around with clipboards. The stillness worried me. It was like the place was holding its breath, waiting for me to make my move.

Surprised at how unsteady my legs felt, I grasped the trunk, inching upward along it, until I stood at my full height on the branch. The tree seemed to shake with my own trembling. At chest level, another branch grew parallel to the one I stood on. I clutched the branch with both hands and took one step, sideways, toward the wall. So far, so good. Another couple of steps, and my confidence grew. But the branch began to thin, and the farther I moved from the trunk, the more it bent. This branch would snap or dump me before I got past the wall. From where I stood, I could just about jump onto the wall—to be sliced up by razor wire.

Then I had an idea. Clutching the higher branch with one hand, I shrugged off my leather jacket and dropped it to Daniel on the ground. “Toss that up so it covers the wire on top of the wall.” He lined himself up with the branch and flung the jacket upward, hanging on to one sleeve. The first try, he missed, and the jacket slid down the wall.

On the second try, he got it. The jacket landed on a length of razor wire, flattening it. I’d have to jump carefully to make sure I hit the narrow strip protected by the jacket. I inched outward on the branch.

“Wait a minute,” Daniel called. He took off his own jacket and threw it onto the wall next to mine. “Okay,” he said, “I think you can do it.”

I wanted to close my eyes, but I didn’t. I kept them on my target, a four-foot-wide safety zone of leather. I took a deep breath, thought about Maria—and jumped.

FIVE MINUTES LATER, DANIEL HAD JOINED ME INSIDE THE wall. “She’s in Building Four,” he said. “That’s what the report we got from New Hampshire said.”

“Which one’s Building Four?”

“Let’s find out.”

As I’d seen from the tree, the complex held half a dozen buildings. We dashed from the shelter of the wall to the nearest one. The place was still deserted. It was Saturday, but it seemed like there’d be more activity, more excitement, after they’d stolen a possible Cerddorion child. The wide-open stillness of the place made me nervous. It couldn’t have felt more like a trap if they’d plunked down a big open cage in the middle of the lawn with a sign that read ENTER HERE.

Still, if there were no obstacles to getting in and finding Maria, at least they were making half of our job easy for us.

We edged along the side of the building until we got to the corner. Turning that corner would bring us into the courtyard, where we’d be in view of the other buildings. Daniel held up his hand, indicating I should wait. He pulled his pistol and held it pointing upward. Then he disappeared around the corner.

I squinched my eyes tight shut, waiting for the pop of gunshots. All was quiet—that eternal, unrelenting silence. In a moment, Daniel reappeared. “This is Building Three,” he whispered. “Four is the next one over.”

I nodded, and we backtracked until we stood behind Building Four. Again, Daniel went around the corner to check out the front of the building. I waited for him to motion me to join him, but when he returned, he took my arm and pulled me back. “This one’s guarded,” he said.

“How many?”

“Just one that I saw. A guy in a lab coat. I can’t tell if he’s armed.”

Someone was in the building—good. I’d make the bastard take us to Maria. And we could use him as a hostage if we had to.

“Let’s get him,” I said.

We went for speed, bursting around the corner and through the front door. Daniel pointed his gun, but I’d jumped the guy and had him pinned to the floor before Daniel could yell freeze.

“Nice tackle.”

“Thanks.” I twisted Mr. Lab Coat’s arm behind his back. “Where’s Maria Santini?” I asked, twisting it harder.

“I don’t—Ouch! There’s no need for violence. No one named Santini works here.”

“You know who I mean, damn you. Where’s the little girl?”

“Oh, you mean—” He grunted. “There’s no little girl here.”

I grabbed a fistful of brown hair, yanked his head back, and slammed his face into the floor. “Are you sure?”

He groaned and tried to turn his head to look at me. Blood streamed from his broken nose. His glasses were crooked, and one lens had cracked, making it look like he had two eyes in one socket. “There’s no little girl here,” he repeated. “This is a research facility.”

He was stalling—not good. It probably meant reinforcements were on the way. I smashed his face against the floor again, then climbed off his back. He half rolled onto his side and squinted up at me in surprise.

“Okay, Daniel,” I said. “Shoot him.”

It was impossible to say who looked more shocked—Daniel or the guy on the floor. I knew that Daniel would never shoot anyone in cold blood, but it took him a second to realize that I didknow that. The guy in the lab coat, though, suddenly looked uncertain.

Daniel took two steps so his feet were planted in front of the guy’s face. Mr. Lab Coat, wheezing in fear, curled into a fetal position and covered his head with his arms. His cracked lens glinted between them. Daniel aimed the gun and clicked off the safety. The sound of that click echoed off the walls.

“No, don’t!” Lab Coat’s voice came out in a high-pitched, half-strangled whine. “Don’t! I’ll take you to her.”

I pulled the norm up onto his feet. He shook so hard his knees buckled, and I caught him before he hit the ground a second time. “Which way?” I asked. I’d twisted his arm behind his back again.

Daniel pressed the pistol against the guy’s head, behind his right ear. He’d put the safety back on, but Lab Coat didn’t know that.

He motioned with his chin toward the elevator. “Third floor.”

“We’ll take the stairs.” I dragged him to the stairwell.

Daniel went ahead of us. “It’s clear,” he called down.

By the time I’d hauled Lab Coat up two flights of stairs, he’d recovered somewhat. When we emerged on the third floor, he led us quickly down a long corridor—or as quickly as he could, given the grip I had on him. The walls were gleaming white; so was the tile floor. The place smelled like a cross between a hospital and a zoo, strong antiseptic over musky animal odors. Every few feet there was a door with a small, square window about five feet above the ground. Wires crisscrossed the reinforced glass. I glanced inside one; the narrow room held a cot but was otherwise empty. In the next one, a wolf, mangy and thin, huddled in a corner, its back toward the door.

Next to each door were a magnetic card reader and a metal frame that held a printed card. SUBJECT 1375B, read one card. SUBJECT 1722A, read another.

We stopped in front of a door about midway down the corridor. The card here read SUBJECT 3564C. I looked through the tiny window and saw Maria, sitting on the cot and hugging herself tightly. She looked so small, so terrified and alone. I grabbed Dr. Lab Coat and pressed his face against the window until the glass cracked. I put my lips to his ear. “That, you asshole, is a little girl.”

I picked him up with both hands and threw him, as hard as I could, down the hall. He grunted when he hit the wall and again when he hit the floor.

Maria had looked up at the movement at the window. When she saw me, her eyes went wide, and she jumped off the cot. I smiled at her, reaching for the doorknob. It was locked. And Lab Coat was crumpled in a heap against the far wall, out cold.

I pointed to the card reader by the door, turning to Daniel. “See if that jerk has an ID card. Something with a magnetic strip.” I put my fingers against the glass and said, “We’re coming, sweetheart. We’ll get you out of here.”