Kesari

 

Were first impressions ever wrong? I wondered sourly as I tramped outside, shivering and rubbing my arms.

His partner. The other one in charge.

I wasn’t even being treated like a second-in-command at this point, but a nuisance. As gamely as I tried to do my job and deal with it, it stung. I was good at this. People liked me.

But no, Roy Zima-Weslark was the king of all jackasses. I should get him a damn crown.

First, he couldn’t be bothered to call me Kesari. At first, I’d thought I was insane, but now I knew for certain. I’d kept track. He called me Doc, Iyer or you.

Doc might have been cute if it wasn’t so obvious he didn’t want to use my name.

Second, beyond his bad habit of leaving me out of things, he never told me anything. I couldn’t get him to talk about what we were doing or anything. It was infuriating. Like this wasn’t hard enough without having to play mind and guessing games.

Third, he was indifferent. I’d never met anyone who could care less. And I knew I shouldn’t care, but I did. I was a bleeding heart, always had been. So, it was on me to keep up team morale.

Lifting my chin, I smiled as I came up to the four of them. “Good morning.”

“Hello, Doctor Iyer,” Obi said with his perfect and handsome smile. I’d never realized how much I liked smiles until I lived with a man whose face never changed.

“Obi, it’s Kesari. Or Kes. Even Kessi will do,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“You ready for another day at this slog?” Dara asked, rolling her shoulders. “I tell you, I’m starting to lose my mind digging through all this stuff. I don’t know what the Director wants us to find.”

“I think that’s the point,” Finni said, his Irish brogue thicker than usual before he had coffee. “I’m not sure she knows what we’re going to find.”

“If there’s anything to find,” Dara muttered, sweeping back her long black hair.

“Oh, I think there is,” Obi said lightly.

“Let’s get a move on then,” Dara said, hopping up and down. “My butt cheeks are frozen.”

Finni, Obi and I laughed, but Roy was still frowning at his cell phone. "Yeah, let's go," he said absently, shutting it and heading over to the snowmobiles. Then he stopped. "We're missing one."

Sure enough, beyond him were only three snowmobiles. One smaller one and two bigger ones for two people.

Dara shrugged. "Mine broke. And I told you it was a waste of gas, anyway. Kesari can ride with you, boss.”

He let out a sigh and kept walking, while I trailed along in his wake. I could hear Dara and Finni chuckling behind us. As Finni hopped onto his smaller one, and Dara and Obi climbed onto the bigger one, Finni grinned over at us.

“Don’t look too excited, boss, she is your girlfriend after all.” Finni hooted and roared off, Obi and Dara following after him.

Looking over at Roy, I saw he was wincing and that ugly pinch went through my chest. When the team had found out about the undercover profiles, they’d all but fallen down laughing. It had become a source of endless entertainment for them and they easily teased me and Roy about it.

I hadn’t minded it at first, except it was one of the few times Roy’s face changed and he looked like he was in pain. God, I wasn’t that bad, was I? Folding my arms, I was tempted to tell him I’d walk. However, I’d done it once before and Roy had not been happy with me.

“Don’t ever do that again,” he’d ordered tersely when he found me at home, raking a hand through his hair. “I had people looking for you, you know that?”

Wishing I didn’t promise quite so earnestly, I waited for Roy to tell me what to do, but his phone rang and he stepped away to take it.

Overhead, the sky was a steely, heavy gray and there was the sense of a storm coming. Ahead, the trees were coated in thick, fluffy white powder – everything untouched except for one path through the woods. Our path to the TLO “Cantina” as Finni had sarcastically nicknamed it.

The Cantina was about a mile and half out from the rental house, below a place named Bloods Ridge. The ridge was part of the Bear Valley ski resort and we could see people winging down the mountain from the top floor of the building, bright jackets among the dark trees and white snow. It was ten or so minutes by snowmobile, or about forty-five minutes walking fast.

“Doc,” Roy was saying and I turned back. “Hop on.”

Sliding on behind him, my head didn’t even clear his shoulders and I reluctantly wrapped my arms around his torso. He was solid, even under the bulky layers of jackets and I pressed my cheek onto the center of his back. Was it my imagination or was he tensing up?

Before I could figure it out, we were flying across the snow, a little faster than I was used to with Dara or Obi. Several times my heart jumped into my throat as we took a curve or went airborne. But I smiled and hid my shaky knees as we got off.

Per usual, I was greeted by a smiling Talori Lafi, a rookie who'd been assigned to me as an assistant and someone I had no idea what to do with. The first day I'd made an offhand comment about wishing I had a cup of coffee at the door and the next day she was there with it.

I couldn’t get her to stop either. Only in the last few days had I gotten her to call me Kesari instead of Ma’am or Doctor.

The facility was a huge, imposing building, all white and concrete, made to keep out the cold. Or at least that’s what I was told. I hadn’t felt properly warm since I’d arrived here. My nose was pink all the time and my hands were chapped. Oh, it was exceedingly attractive.

Beyond Roy and I, then the "Dream Team" as I called Obi, Dara, and Finni, were our two assistants, five young scientists fresh out of school, and twenty field agents. From what I could tell, at least ten were on patrol at all times, both inside and outside the building.

Within, Talori, my five science kids, Dara, Obi and myself were in charge of going through the building and sorting it out. Roy, Finni and a few others were also looking through it, but they also had other and more mysterious tasks.

As of now, we’d gone through almost the entirety of the biggest lab. It was the size of a basketball gymnasium in an American high school, or so Talori told me. I and the two other biochemists were trying to ascertain what the hell the formulas were that were left over. A lot of them had denigrated – the chemicals were clearly not stable and had exponentially fast half-lives.

Thinking about that last corner I had to tackle, I jumped a little when Talori plucked my elbow. “Agent Seng is waving at you.”

Turning, I saw Dara frowning at me and waving me over. Hurrying to do so, I gripped my coffee harder as I saw the expressions on the faces of Regan Caffrey and Siyu Key.

“…It was by luck that one of the rookies overhead him this morning, Sir. She said the hunter was claiming he found a deer that had been torn apart not even a mile north of here. Deep woods, no one around. And he seemed honest, old school. Not one to tell tales.”

I glanced at Talori, but she was paying attention to Regan, who blew out a sigh.

Siyu picked up, his dark eyes intense. “He said it looked like a giant bird got a hold of it. And the footprints around it where anisodactyl.”

“Three toes in front, one behind,” I said out loud, picturing the talons of an osprey in my head. “There are no birds big enough around here to do that kind of damage, never mind their migration patterns would put them somewhere in South America this time of year.”

“I knew this quiet was too good to last,” Dara said, taking a swig of coffee. “Damn.”

“Do you want me to check it out, boss?” Finni asked. “I’ve got an eye for tracks.”

“Yes,” Roy said tersely. “But don’t go alone. Take at least two agents with you and do not follow for more than two miles. If it’s a present from the TLO, we don’t want to open it too early.”

I let out a chuckle in spite of myself and Dara hid a smile. Roy, however, was already walking away and consulting with Obi about tightening up the perimeter.

Dara looked at me. “You can’t keep letting him do that, Kesari.”

“Do what?” I asked, glaring at the back of Roy’s head.

“You know damn well,” she hissed. “Calling all the shots, elbowing you out. You’re lead scientist and since we’re dealing with a bunch of whack-job science fair dropouts, I know Piper wants you in on this. That’s why you’re here, Kesari. I heard about what you did in Greece. You’re good, you’re smart and you work fast. Make Roy see that.”

With that, Dara walked away and my head fell.

“Um, Doc-Kesari?” Talori asked.

“Yes, Talori?” I responded wearily.

“Agent Seng is more bark than bite, at least that’s what my cousin says. She means well.”

“I know she does,” I said, walking towards the double-doors that led to the place where I’d spent the vast majority of the last two weeks. “And she’s not wrong, either.”

Talori gave me a sympathetic look. “Roy’s always been like this.”

“Right,” I said, glancing at her. “You knew him as a kid.”

“Well,” Talori said, kicking at the ground. “I’m a bit younger than all of them, so I don’t remember much. His visits became more and more infrequent. But sometimes… I don’t know.”

“What?” I asked, agog for more information.

“Well, it was hard to grow up as the baby sister of Soraya and Enele, you know? Soraya draws every eye and Enele is debonair. They're both charming, big-hearted and gregarious." She shrugged. "I'm a little quieter. But then you have my cousins. Piper, an unstoppable badass, and genius. Kai, off the walls and loveable. Balt’s not one to take up space if he can help it, but he’s also the peacemaker and the best friend.” She let out a small sigh. “If you’re quiet, it’s hard to fit in.”

Something tugged at my heart. “You mean you? Or…?”

“Not really me, no,” she said with a laugh. “I’m the baby. In a lot of ways, I was spoiled by them. But sometimes, yeah, I felt left out. I know I always had a place, though.” Talori bit her lip and leaned in. “Sometimes it seemed like Roy never did. He was quiet and shy, not around often. Preferred to read than surf. They didn’t know what to make of him, so they didn’t try.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Piper and Balt I know.”

"I'm talking about them as kids and teenagers. They went through a lot of upheavals and it kind of made this impenetrable bond. It can be hard to join their club. Not that they mean to be cliquey or anything," Talori hastened to say. “I love them, they are good people. But Roy kind of gets shunted to the side in the Weslark family. And I don’t think it’s any better with the Zimas.”

I glanced around, suddenly realizing Roy could have come around the corner at any moment and overheard this. “We shouldn’t be talking about this here, but thank you. I don’t hate Roy or anything. I just don’t know how to work with him. Or get him to like me.”

“Piper said she had no choice when it came to you,” Talori said with a smile. “You marched right in and became her friend. Maybe you need to do the same with him.”

“Talori, I’ve never had an assistant, but you are the best one in the world,” I said fervently.

 

As I double-checked the final element list for the last vial on this particular table, I pulled off my goggles, logged into the computer and glanced at the window. It was black. Jumping, I checked the clock and was dismayed to see it was well past six. Looking up, I saw the rest of my team was either hunched at their desks or staring into space with a thousand-yard stare.

“Guys!” I exclaimed. “What did I tell you about working late? Go home!”

“But you’re still here, Dr. Iyer,” argued one of the girls, Lindsey Norr.

“Science Team, please leave. I need you guys to not burn out after the second week,” I said, standing up and having to grab the edge of the table because my leg was asleep. My neck was burning with stiffness, which was a new one. “Go home. Eat. Relax. Drink wine. Watch TV. Turn your brains off. That is an order, SK!”

SK, science kids working for SOA aka Shifters of Anubis. Made me laugh every time.

At that, they slowly began to pack up and file out. Most of them were staying in chalets or hotels in the surrounding area. I hated that they had to drive on these icy roads at night and each of them was required to check in with me, as well as Talori every night.

Speaking of whom.

I spotted her lurking beyond the desk I was set up at. “Talori!” I said with a laugh. “You too!”

“Ma’am, I’m not supposed to leave until you do,” she argued. “How about this – once the others get home, I’ll leave. And you will, too.”

Knowing I couldn't argue with her, I took a lap around the room to wake up my legs. Most of the tables and desks had been cleared at this point. It was heartening to see how much we'd done. Closets cleaned out, mixtures analyzed and logged. Most of it seemed nonsensical at this point, but I was starting to sense a pattern. But my tired brain couldn’t piece it together, not yet.

The room was mostly dismantled, but it still had the air of a mad scientist’s lair. Bunsen burners, convoluted tubing, and rows upon rows of equipment. 

They’d been trying to concoct something in here, but what?

According to Lilian Frost, the madwoman scientist of the TLO, she had her perfected sacrosanctum elixir, the one that triggered dormant shifting genes and created shifters. So, now what? Enhancing their abilities? Or did this have to do with the hybridization…?

A shiver raced along my spine and I glanced around the room, rubbing my elbows. It was cold and the shadows suddenly seemed too long. Shaking my head, I got back to work.

When I lifted it again, three more hours had gone by and Talori was nodding off next to me.

“Talori, go home, I mean it,” I said, marching over and dragging her to her feet. She didn’t protest, much. Outside my door, two agents were stationed, dead on their feet and yawning. “Oh my God, when is the last time you took a break?”

“There was supposed to be a shift change, but there was an issue that had to be addressed, Doctor Iyer,” one of them, Bobby Fortune said, before stifling another yawn.

“Well, go get coffee and food. Now,” I said, hands on my hips.

“Ma’am–” the other guard, Lina Wrexler protested.

“That’s an order!” I said sternly, lifting my chin and remembering what Dara had said. “I’ll be right here and I’ll be fine. I’m packing up and then heading home. Go.”

The three of them slowly walked down the hallway together, the two guards dragging their feet and I went back inside the room. With a sigh, I rubbed at my eyes and a streak of mascara came off. Damn, I’d forgotten I’d even put any on.

Walking over, I shut off my computer and the room dimmed. As I was packing up my bag, a sudden shudder ran across my shoulders again and I paused. I had the strangest feeling I was being watched. Swallowing, I told myself I was tired and to stop being crazy.

Looking up, my skin prickled and a gasp escaped me.

Two eyes stared straight back at me.

Glowing in the pale smudge of an inhuman face. I stumbled back and hit the counter behind me, mind blank and a scream rising. There was someone outside the window.

No, something. Watching me. Waiting.

Biting down, I slid my hand behind me and picked up the first thing I found. A lone metal pipe that had been taken from the gas line. Feeling slightly braver, I edged along the counter, calculating the distance to the door. It was about halfway across the room. And that’s when I saw it, the slightest narrowing, the intelligence there.

It was trying to place me.

It recognized me.

And as the glass shattered, that’s when I screamed.