imperfect (40 page)

A movement in the corner of her eyes snapped
Kristi back to reality. She looked up in time to see the woman in
the white lab coat who had given her the disturbing smile earlier.
Her stomach clenched in response and she swallowed nervously.

“
Are you even listening?”
Chelsa asked.

“
Sorry. What did
you—
ah–choo!
”
Kristi let out a huge sneeze.

The sound reverberated around the room.
Everyone became absolutely still and silent; it was as if a
magician had thrown a freeze over the South Wing. Kristi fidgeted
beneath five hundred pairs of eyes.

“
Ha-ha,” Troop said
loudly, diverting some of the attention off her and onto him. “That
was a funny joke, Helen, pretending you were allergic to me. I
didn’t know you could sneeze so loud. Maybe you should save your
pranks for a more appropriate time though.”

Some of the tension melted away in the room
and gradually people returned to their work.

“
Good save,” Chelsa
whispered to Troop.

But creepy-smile-lady was still staring at
them. Chelsa lifted her head up and looked in the direction Kristi
was looking.

“
What is
she
doing here?” Chelsa
asked more to herself than to Kristi.

“
Who is she? I feel like
she’s been following us for a while,” Kristi said.

“
She’s Zala’s assistant.
Her name’s Rosa.”

Rosa saw the three of them looking at her
and marched over. Following behind her was Officer Zala and a guy
Kristi didn’t recognized. He looked to be a few years older than
her.

Troop met the guy’s eyes.
“What is
he
doing
here?”

chapter
forty-three

[ Troop ]

He looked different since
the last time Troop saw him—he had
obviously gotten a haircut—but the guy behind Officer Zala
was, without a doubt, Mason.

What in the world is going
on?
Troop thought.

Mason stopped a few paces behind Officer
Zala.

“
Fancy meeting you here,
Chelsa,” Zala said. She braced her feet shoulder width apart and
crossed her arms. Rosa and Mason copied her posture.

“
I’ll prefer if you call
me Dakota for now,” Chelsa replied.

“
Chelsa, Dakota,
whatever.” Officer Zala waved her hand diminishingly. “It seems to
me you have only upheld part of our bargain. Where is the fourth
Accident?”

“
He refused to come,”
Chelsa said.

“
Very well. At least you
have brought me two of the three. I will reward you once the last
Accident is in my hands.” Zala turned to face Mason.

Troop debated whether they should make a
break for it or not; he settled on a “no” since armed
reinforcements had materialized all around them.

“
Deputy Mason,” Zala said
in a flat tone that somehow made those two words sound
ominous.

Mason snapped to attention. “Yes,
Officer.”

“
I am disappointed in
you.”

Rosa smirked behind Zala’s back and Mason
shot her daggers. “Yes, Officer,” Mason said.

“
You know what happens to
people who disappoint me,” Zala continued on.

An expression of panic crossed Mason’s face
for a second, but his face quickly became an emotionless mask.
Rosa’s smirk widened a few inches.

Zala spoke again, “You informed me Troop and
Kristi were killed two nights ago in the explosion at Solomon’s
Sandwich Shop.”

“
Yes, Officer. I believed
the grade A bomb I placed in the shop killed them. It was foolish
of me not to return to the site of the detonation to confirm their
deaths,” Mason said.

“
You
placed the bomb in the sandwich shop?” Troop
asked.

Mason looked nothing like the
forty-something year old diner he saw at Solomon’s Sandwich.

“
Yes.” Mason sounded smug.
“I have been complimented on my extraordinary skills in the art of
disguises. You didn’t recognize me on the air-train
either.”

“
Who are you?” Kristi
burst in. “How do you know Troop?”

Mason didn’t try to hold back the scorn
spreading across his face. “Don’t speak unless you’re asked to,
Freak.”

Troop bristled at his words.

“
That’s enough talk,
Deputy,” Zala snapped. “You can flatter yourself later.”

Mason fell silent. Zala’s gaze fell upon
Chelsa. “You were starting to worry me, Chelsa. After not receiving
any updates from you for a long time, I began to fear you might’ve
gotten distracted from your task.”

Kristi tensed up beside Troop in
anticipation for Chelsa’s answer. Troop gave her right hand a
squeeze of reassurance. Would Chelsa betray them once more?

“
No, I haven’t gotten
distracted from my task,” Chelsa said.

Troop’s stomach dropped a
hundred feet.
Is she seriously
double-crossing us again?

“
Good,” Zala
replied.

But Chelsa wasn’t done speaking yet. “I’ve
decided I never want to have anything to do with you again.” The
enmity in her tone was acidic enough to dissolve diamonds. “You
knew what was going on with the Accidents, with all of this.” She
gestured to the room around them. “And you don’t seem to find
anything wrong with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you stabbed me
in the back the second I gave you what you wanted. You—”

“
Watch your tongue, young
lady.” Officer Zala’s lip curled up whether in contempt or disgust,
Troop couldn’t tell. “I offered to bring your boyfriend back from
the dead, which is an offer you clearly don’t deserve having. You
accepted my bargain; I never forced you into it. I gave you
protection when you traveled. I made sure bandits didn’t bother
you. I made sure you had enough points to get by on. I’ve wasted
much of my time ensuring an
Accident
was as safe as possible
within my power.”

“
You’re a murderer,”
Chelsa spat.

“
Ooh, them is fighting
words,” Rosa whistled.

“
Shut
up,
” Zala snarled.

Rosa and Mason both took a few steps back
and lowered their heads in submission.

Zala bared her teeth in anger. “You’re
treading on dangerous grounds, Chelsa. If I were you, I wouldn’t be
so rude to my superior.”

“
All those deaths just to
make people feel secure about themselves,” Chelsa said. “You know
what? The government’s brainwashing people into thinking they are
the best, the greatest, the most flawless
if
they have perfected DNA. Well,
guess what, they’re wrong. There’s nothing wrong with the
non-Perfects. Do you want to know what’s the greatest weakness in
all you so-called ‘Perfects’?” Chelsa didn’t wait for a reply and
kept on rolling on, either oblivious or ignoring the guns being
aimed at them. “You guys are afraid of being imperfect. But let’s
face it: none of you are perfect. And yes, Zala, I mean you too.
You’re. Not. Perfect.”

Silence.

Then Officer Zala slowly broke into an
exaggerated applause. “Thank you for your speech,” she said,
sarcasm dripping like honey. “Just what we needed; an Accident
giving advice to a Perfect. Obviously you didn’t inherit much
intelligence from your parents.”

“
Don’t insult Chelsa,”
Kristi said.

A hand slapped across her cheek. Kristi
clasped her hands over her skin, smothering a gasp of pain.

“
Don’t touch her!” Troop
snapped.

“
I don’t think you’re in
the position to be making demands,” Mason said.

“
You vile scumbag. I can’t
believe we used—”

“
Shut your mouth.” Mason
dared Troop to go against his orders.

But Troop wasn’t stupid; he knew he was no
match against armed guards.

Officer Zala directed a curt nod towards
Rosa and said, “Round them up. Keep them in the underground cells.
I want a full interrogation done with each of the Accidents. I am
sure they know some useful information about the Revealers.”

“
Yes, Officer.” Rosa
dipped her head in acknowledgement.

Zala started for the exit of the South Wing.
Before she left, she turned to address the shocked scientists.
Troop supposed it wasn’t every day a break-in happens at one of the
most guarded labs in the country.

When Zala spoke, her words rang out with
authority. “What you see today in this room stays in this room. Do
I make that very clear? Good.”

“
Finn,” Troop mumbled,
“some help would be great.”

“
Keep your hands raised
above your head and do not move,” a male soldier commanded. “Any
effort to resist arrest will not be taken lightly.”

They obeyed his instructions. Two of the
guards lined them up in single file with soldiers on either side.
Kristi let out a loud sneeze, surprising at least three of the
guards around them. The guard to her right glared at Kristi while
dealing another stinging slap.

“
She didn’t do anything,”
Troop said to the guard.

The guard held up a small dart near Troop’s
face and breathed in his face, “Cause one more disturbance and you
will find a tranquilizer in you or your girlfriend.”

“
You guys alright?” asked
Chelsa from the front of the line.

The guard gave Troop a look daring him to
answer Chelsa, languidly tossing the tranquilizer from one hand to
the other. Troop kept quiet.

They approached the entrance and began leave
the South Wing when a loud rumble vibrated across the floor.
Everyone stopped walking.

“
Keep on moving,” Rosa
ordered.

They resumed walking. Another rumble
vibrated through the air, followed by a sharp bark. Then a howl
sliced through the space and the sound of sharp nails clicking
against the marble floor could be heard loud and clear.

“
You don’t think it’s the
devil-dogs, do you?” a nervous sounding scientist called
out.

Deputy Rosa smiled a tight smile. “Of course
not. The devil-dogs are kept in the lab’s basement in a triple
locked cage in a triple locked room. There’s no way they can escape
or—” Deputy Rosa never got to finish her sentence because a very
large and very present devil-dog pounced onto her chest, knocking
her onto the hard floor.

Troop cringed at the sound of Rosa’s spine
snapping when she slammed into the ground. The devil-dog crouched
over Rosa, its poisonous saliva dripping over her. Her flesh melted
off her skull in random patches. Troop turned his eyes away from
the gruesome sight.

A devil-dog let out
another howl and was answered with an assortment of howls, barks
and snarls. Judging by the sound, there were at least thirty other
devil-dogs that were
not
in a triple locked cage in a triple locked
room.

Understandably, the South Wing broke into
chaos.

chapter
forty-four

[ Kristi ]

“
Will all unarmed persons
take cover under a desk,” a soldier
bellowed through his portable speakers.

A stream of devil-dogs flooded the room. The
guards surrounding Kristi, Troop and Chelsa dropped onto their
knees and began firing at the creatures. The bullets seemed to do
little, other than to annoy the devil-dogs though. Kristi watched a
bullet lodge itself firmly into the shoulder of a devil-dog, yet
the devil-dog only gave a yip and nothing more.

“
Let’s run for the
emergency exit,” she said to Troop and Chelsa.

A devil-dog landed between the three of
them, causing Kristi to jump sideways. The guard to her right
immediately shot the devil-dog, which caused it to stumble for a
second, giving her the chance to dodge out of the circle of
soldiers guarding them.

“
Meet you outside,” Chelsa
said and dashed away amidst the commotion.

Kristi rapidly lost sight
of Chelsa and Troop in the turmoil.
It’s
every woman for herself
, she thought.
Although the scientists were instructed to stay beneath their
desks, several were attempting to escape the building through the
emergency exits as well.

“
The Accidents! Don’t let
them escape!” someone hollered. “Vincent, the boy’s behind
you!”

Kristi caught a glimpse of Troop
sidestepping a guard trying to grab him; then he disappeared from
her view once more. She threaded her way towards the exit, trying
her best to avoid attention.

“
Hey, where do you think
you’re going?” asked the soldier who had slapped her for sneezing
earlier. He moved in to block her way.

Kristi didn’t waste her breath with an
answer and side-stepped to the left. He side-stepped along with her
and lunged forwards. Luckily, Kristi accidently tripped over a
briefcase and stumbled backwards, out of the man’s reach. She leapt
to her right, recovering from his swipe for her.