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CHAPTER THREE
“Have you seen Varina?” Chase asked, stepping
through Eric’s open door. As usual, Eric was hunched over his computer,
his fingers moving at lightning speed over the keyboard.
“Just a sec,” Eric muttered without looking up.
“I finally reached Level Thirteen, and I have to key how to steal the beanblossom
from King Bucktooth then weave a spell so I can enter the Quartenbush Empire-”
“Huh?” Chase blinked. Computer games seemed a
waste of time. He’d rather be outside, hiking or working with animals
like the ones at WARR, Wild Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation. He’d been
cooped up inside so long he felt antsy; caged. Staying with his clone
friends and Professor Fergus was great, but he knew he’d have to leave soon.
Then the big question would be “Where?” Should he return to his ranch
job with Titus or accept the offer to work at WARR?
But the most important question now didn’t involve
animals or jobs. “Eric, would you listen to me?” Chase insisted,
moving so he faced his friend. “Have you seen Varina?”
“Varina?” Eric spun around in his chair and
shrugged. “Nope. Why?”
“It’s almost seven and we had plans to go out-”
“Plans? Like as in a date?” Eric interrupted,
his dark skin lighting up with a teasing grin. “It’s about time! Starr
and I were wondering when you two would get a clue and hook up. Are you
and Varina finally going on a real date?”
“Dinner. That’s all.” He pressed his
lips together, and glanced down at his scuffed work boots. “We had some
stuff to talk about, then were gonna grab a bite at this place on the delta. But
we needed to leave around four and it's not like Varina to be late.”
“Last I saw Varina was this morning.
She was heading out the door, and when I asked where she was going, she told me
on a picnic.”
“A picnic? She didn’t mention that to me.”
“No shock, Sherlock.” Eric gave him an
accusing stare. “Not after the way you and her uncle blew her off.
She was just trying to help Kitty.”
“Her help was getting in the way,” Chase said,
feeling a twinge of guilt despite his indifferent tone. “She tried to
stop us from giving the saber-tooth a mild sedative. She acted like we
were hurting Kitty, when all we wanted was to examine the animal.”
“But ordering her out of the lab was harsh.”
“Her uncle told her to leave, not me.” Still,
Chase thought, I didn’t argue with Professor Fergus. I took his side
against Varina’s. “Did Varina say where she was having a picnic
and who she was going with?”
“Not to me. Ask Sandee, she might know.”
When Eric turned back to his game, Chase sighed
and left the room. Fatigue hit him, and he knew he should rest. His
energy hadn’t fully returned. It had only been a few days since he’d
gotten out of the hospital after a harrowing experience in a cave that nearly
took his life. Varina had been there for him when he’d needed help;
that’s when he’d realized his deep emotions for her. He’d been
surprised, reluctant to fall for anyone.
But Varina was special.
And now she was late, maybe avoiding him. Could
she still be angry because of their disagreement over the saber-toothed tiger?
While Starr and Varina thought Kitty was cute and cuddly, Chase knew the cub
meant trouble.
Professor Fergus agreed, which is why they spent all morning
in the Professor’s lab, studying Kitty, trying to understand how a prehistoric
beast had been created. Kitty had somehow been cloned from prehistoric
DNA, probably a fragment of hair frozen in the Ice Age, but not as expertly as
Chase, Varina, Eric, Allison and Sandee. The teen clones each had an
enhanced skill; improved copies of their DNA donors. Chase had acute
hearing, Varina’s memory was incredible, Eric had Superman-type vision,
Allison was incredibly strong, and Sandee could stay underwater like a fish.
But the small saber-toothed tiger had no obvious
enhancements. Kitty wasn’t an exact copy, either, at least not from what
the Professor could determine. Her ears were too long, her fangs
underformed, and instead of growling like a tiger, she purred and loved having
her ears scratched.
It had been Varina who’d spotted the small prick mark
on Kitty’s neck -- their first clue to finding out where Kitty came from.
Eric had used his enhanced clone vision to zone in on the mark and he’d seen a
metal tag of some sort implanted under Kitty’s skin. The tag was coded:
MGPARK S555 99 12.
Professor Fergus thought it was someone’s name,
mentioning an associate he once worked with named Meridith Park. Chase
guessed the numbers might be a phone number. Varina hadn’t said
anything, but Chase noticed a look on her face, the kind she got when she was
trying hard to remember something. With her enhanced memory, there was
little she forgot.
Yet she forgot about our dinner plans, Chase thought
sadly.
A sense of worry nagged him. He went downstairs and
found Sandee curled in a chair, wearing headphones and writing in a notebook.
She looked good, in a green tank top, acid-washed jeans, and star-shaped
earrings that dangled near her cheeks. She was absorbed in her writing and
didn’t glance up until Chase stood in front of her.
“Hey, Chase.” She smiled. “I didn’t
hear you come in.”
“You writing a new song?” He gestured to her note
book.
“Yeah. Only I’m stuck on the word ‘blue.’
What’s up?”
“You know where Varina went?”
“Like she’d tell me. We aren’t exactly
close.” Sandee’s earrings jangled as she shifted in the chair.
“But we did talk earlier. I had the munchies, and when I went to the
kitchen, she was there making sandwiches. Said she was going on a
picnic.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. But Starr was driving her.
Check with Starr’s family, someone there might know.”
“Varina is with Starr?” Chase raised his
brows. “How come Eric didn’t know? I thought he and Starr did
everything together.”
Sandee raised her dark brows. “Obviously
you’re not in the gossip loop around here. Starr is gonna break up with
Eric.”
“She is? And he doesn’t know yet?
That’s cold.”
“You run hot and cold yourself,” Sandee said with a
bitter twist of her crimson lips. “I hear you and Varina are
together?”
Chase frowned, ignoring the question. For a while
he and Sandee talked about hooking up. But it wasn’t going to happen
now, and they both knew it. “You sure she didn’t say anything about
where she was going?”
“No clue. Although she did say something
weird.”
“What?”
“I told her to tell Star ‘hi’ for me. And
she said like a joke, ‘Sure. I’ll tell the monkeys hi, too.’
Then she laughed and left. But I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”
“Yeah.” But he felt uneasy. His
uneasiness grew after he called Starr’s house and found out Starr had come
home hours ago -- without Varina.
CHAPTER THREE
“Moon Grove Park,” Starr told Chase.
“That’s where Varina and I went. It’s a cool park by a lake, with
kiddie rides and-”
“A zoo!” Chase interrupted, clasping the phone
tightly. “With monkeys.”
“Well, duh,” Starr said and Chase could imagine her
black eyes rolling in exaggeration. Everything about Starr was
exaggerated, from her glittery make-up to the flashing light she wore in her
bellybutton. She never fit with serious, computer-crazed, Eric, but Eric
was wild about her. Eric would be crushed to lose her.
And I don’t want to lose Varina, Chase thought
with purpose.
He talked a bit more to Starr, then hung up the phone.
“I’m going to Moon Grove Park,” Chase said more
to himself than Sandee. But Sandee heard and offered to go along.
Eric wanted to go, too. If Allison hadn’t been in Seattle celebrating
her mother’s birthday, she probably would have wanted to go also.
Minutes later they were driving away in Chase’s
truck.
“Why did Starr leave Varina at the park?” Eric
asked as Chase turned onto the freeway.
“Varina insisted.” Chase glanced in the
rearview mirror, then gave Eric a solemn look. “She told Starr I was
going to meet her there.”
“But she didn’t tell you,” Sandee put in.
“Exactly. That’s why we’re going to look
for her.”
“You think she’s in trouble?” Eric asked.
Chase shrugged, focusing on the road instead of the
churning fear in his gut. Being cloned meant always being on guard,
watching out for enemies. Varina had had close calls before. One of
the doctors who’d created the teen clones, Dr. Victor, had twisted ambitions
that nearly cost Varina her life. His conniving wife, Geneva, wasn’t any
better. But the couple had seemed to give up their pursuit of cloning
secrets when the cassette for the Enhance 25-X formula was destroyed.
“Maybe this has something to do with the saber-toothed
tiger,” Eric was saying.
“Kitty?” Sandee looked surprised. “I
thought the beast was the Professor’s project. What’s Varina got to do
with it?”
“Nothing.” Chase frowned, but he remembered
how angry Varina had been when her uncle ordered her out of the lab.
“I’m not leaving you alone with Kitty!” Varina
had cried, her fists balled as if ready for a fight. “You’ll hurt
her.”
“I won’t,” Professor Jim assured her. “I
only need blood and skin samples and to remove the metal tag.”
“I’ll stay to make sure,” Varina said
protectively. “Kitty will be scared when she wakes up and need
comforting.”
“I’d rather you leave this to Chase and me,” her
uncle insisted. “You’re too emotionally involved.”
“And you’re too scientifically detached.”
Instead of getting mad, the Professor smiled.
“You sound just like Jessica when we worked together on the cloning project.
She was a staunch champion for you children. When Dr. Victor wanted to try
some unethical experiments, Jessica went after him like she was your real
mother, rather than a scientist.”
”She is my real mother,” Varina had insisted, which
wasn’t technically true since Varina had been cloned from Jessica’s DNA.
So that actually made them more like twins or sisters. “If she was here,
she wouldn’t let you hurt Kitty either.”
Chase had listened to this argument quietly, siding
with the Professor, yet sympathetic to Varina. She cared too much, her
cloned intuition enhancing her natural empathy. When Professor Jim forced
Varina to leave the lab, Chase felt torn.
“I won’t go!” Varina had raged. She stood
protectively in front of the unconscious orange-tan tiger cub. “You only
want me out of the way so I won’t stop you from experimenting on Kitty.
You don’t care about her -- she’s just a specimen to you!”
“The Professor isn’t like that,” Chase argued.
“You’re not being fair.”
“How can you defend him?” Varina demanded.
“I’m not. You’re blowing this all out of proportion.”
“Is that what you think?” Varina’s stared
at Chase, her gaze going deep as if she could read his mind. She looked at
her uncle, then back at Chase, hurt flaring in her expression. She said
nothing else. She turned and strode out of the room, which left Chase
feeling guilty, knowing he’d let her down.
Now he felt worse. Hours had passed since Varina slammed the door behind her, but the echo of guilt still rang in Chase’s
heart. And he had a nagging sense of missing something. Starr had
told him Varina acted strange this morning, more interested in looking around
the park than having a picnic.
“Moon Grove Park,” Chase murmured, tensing his grip on
the steering wheel. “That’s it!”
“What?” both Eric and Sandee asked.
“MGPARK...Moon Grove Park. Varina figured out
what the saber-tooth’s tag meant.”
“Why didn’t she tell us?” Eric puzzled.
“She was angry and stormed out of the lab.”
Chase frowned. “She probably figured she’d find out about Kitty
herself. Only she hasn’t come back.”
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