CHAPTER 19

Monkey Business

Charlie yelped as she realized who she nearly ran into. She quickly looked away, trying to hide her face from the light. Maybe they wouldn’t realize it was her—the girl who’d slammed their heads together in the warehouse earlier that week. Charlie could only be so lucky.

“Excuse me,” she muttered, and tried to go back to the restaurant.

“It’s the girl!” said the bull soldier with a snort. “Grab her!”

The large woman grabbed Charlie’s arm in a strong, vise-like grip and yanked her back.

“Ouch! Watch it!” Charlie felt her device grow warm. She punched at the woman’s face, hoping for the strength ability and getting it—and felt her fist slam hard against the woman’s nose, which curved up and ended in a sharp point. The soldier’s head ricocheted back, but she didn’t let go of Charlie’s other wrist. In pain, Charlie shook out her stinging hand and tried to wrench herself away, but she was stuck.

“Get her, Braun!” The woman shoved Charlie at her companion.

Braun grabbed Charlie around the waist and lifted her high above his head. Her body was a toothpick in his hands, and he was pinching her tightly. She looked down and noticed he had strange, thick fingers on each hand, like cloven hooves that split open wide.

“Let me go!” Charlie said. She swiped at his head, but her arms were too short to reach him. She kicked blindly, trying to hit him in the face, and looked frantically toward the restaurant. There was no one in sight. Maria must have listened to Charlie’s mom.

“Maria!” Charlie shouted. Braun began to lumber slowly back toward the bank building with her in the air overhead.

A second later Maria appeared at the door. Her eyes opened wide. And then a furry beard sprouted from her chin. “Mrs. Dr. Wilde! Hurry!” she shouted, and dashed out the door.

Braun swung Charlie around and she lost sight of Maria for a moment until she came full circle. Maria grimaced and yanked her tail out of her jeans.

“Help me!” shouted Charlie. She reached for one of Braun’s cloven hands and tried prying the hoof-fingers apart using her strength ability. Braun started lowing in pain and he yanked that hand away. Charlie pounded his other forearm and twisted in his grip, managing to loosen herself. She fell hard to the ground as the soldiers turned around to face their new surprise monkey attacker.

“You leave her alooone!” howled Maria. She ran hard at the soldiers and sprang into the air . . . jumping right overtop of them and landing on the sidewalk. “Whoops,” she said, hopping back up. She turned around and charged again, slamming into the brutes like Charlie might have done. But they went nowhere. Maria bounced off the woman’s chest and landed on her back, the wind knocked out of her.

“Try doing monkey things!” Charlie said as she jumped on Braun’s back and covered his goggles so he couldn’t see. “Swing and use your feet! Remember?”

“Right on, right on,” muttered Maria, trying to get her breath back and focus on what she knew she could do.

Charlie’s mom came running outside. “Charlie! Look out!”

“I’m trying!” said Charlie as Braun pitched around wildly. “Stay back!”

“Are you sure?” Charlie’s mom looked on, horrified. She couldn’t help herself and ran up to Braun, kicking him in the leg as hard as she could and slamming her fist into his side.

“I mean it, Mom!” screamed Charlie. “If you don’t get back, Andy and I will have zero parents. Do you want that?”

“Okay, good point.” Mrs. Wilde retreated, flinching at every move.

“Mega!” cried Braun to his fellow soldier. “Where are you?”

Charlie ripped the soldier’s goggles off and threw them down. Then she pounded his ears, jumped to the ground, and scooted out of reach. She took a running start and slammed into the man, sending him flying into a lamppost alongside the street. He hit the ground hard. Charlie bounced backward from the impact and lost her balance.

Maria sprang up. Eyeing Braun warily, she took a few awkward hops, then cringed and leaped over him, reaching as high up the lamppost as she could. She grabbed it and stuck there, then began climbing up it hand over hand, slowly at first and then with a bit more ease. As Braun groaned and sat up below her, Maria swung around the pole, flung her feet out, and slammed them into his face. He wavered and fell to the sidewalk again.

“That’s it!” Charlie said encouragingly to Maria. “Now let’s get rhino face over here.”

Both girls turned to look at Mega, who began plodding toward them, head down as if to charge. She gained speed. Charlie held fast, pushing Maria behind her a little to protect her.

Mrs. Wilde was having a hard time watching. “Leave the children alone!” she shouted.

Mega ignored her.

Desperate to help, Mrs. Wilde reached into her takeout bag. She pulled out a roast beef sandwich and sent it sailing like a torpedo at the woman. It struck her in the back of the head.

Mega turned around, confused at first. Then she saw what it was and gasped. “You’re sick!” she said.

“Now, Maria!” cried Charlie. She charged at the soldier while Maria leapfrogged off Charlie’s back and kangaroo-kicked the woman in the face. Charlie slammed into her and tipped her flat on her side. Mega struggled, her arms and legs flailing, but she couldn’t get up.

“Let’s go!” said Maria. “Back to, uh, Phoenix!”

Charlie and her mom gave Maria puzzled looks, but all three of them ran for the corner. They turned it sharply and kept going a good distance out of their way, taking a few extra unnecessary turns in case anyone was tracking them.

“Are you both okay?” asked Mrs. Wilde, sounding worried.

“I’m fine,” said Charlie. “Even if I weren’t, I’d heal pretty quickly.”

“I’m okay too,” said Maria. “No worse off than a tough soccer match, to be honest. Well . . . except for looking like a freak again.”

“You know what, Maria?” said Charlie, looking earnestly at her friend.

“What?”

“You look like a superhero to me.”

Maria kept hold of Charlie’s gaze, studying her. “You mean it?” she said quietly.

“I sure do.”

“Thanks.” Maria looked back at her tail, springing about as they went, and ran a hand over her beard. She made a face, but she didn’t argue with Charlie. And she didn’t start crying.

A moment later Charlie asked her, “Why did you say we should go back to Phoenix? That’s an hour away.”

“I don’t know. I was trying to throw them off, I guess. I mean, they’re going to report back to Dr. Gray that they saw us near their lab, so now we’ve got a big mess on our hands. I figured if I gave them some false information, they might be dumb enough to believe that we were just in the neighborhood by accident.”

“That was quick thinking,” said Mrs. Wilde.

Charlie agreed, but she was still unsettled by the soldiers having seen them. They’d been to her house and Maria’s already, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t come after them if they wanted to. Still, she didn’t want Gray to feel threatened or to suspect just how closely they were watching them.

Her mom drew up to a corner of a building near home base and peered around it to see if the coast was clear. Coming quickly toward them was Dr. Sharma. Mrs. Wilde stepped out and waved her down.

“Are you all right?” asked Dr. Sharma. “The cardinal camera showed two big soldiers leave the bank building. Once I realized they were heading in the same direction you went, I started to worry. When you didn’t return, I decided I’d better check on you.”

“We’re fine,” said Charlie. “Just a little banged up. No big deal.” The others nodded. “Where’s Mac?”

“I left him to monitor the cameras,” said Dr. Sharma. “So they fought you? They recognized you?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” said Charlie. “I made a mistake going out of the restaurant alone. I’m really sorry.”

Maria comforted Charlie. “It’s my fault, actually,” she said.

Dr. Sharma’s brow furrowed. “No need to blame anyone. It happened. It just puts a bit of a wrench into things.” She grew thoughtful as they hurried down the alley toward their building, everyone feeling a little tense in the darkness.

Charlie was thoughtful too, suddenly struck by one of those surreal moments where you look at yourself and think, How did I get here? Is this my life? “So many weird things are happening,” she mused. “It’s like we suddenly entered a totally different world that I never believed could exist, but here we are, in the middle of it. It’s like finding out aliens live among us. Or—”

“Or human-animal hybrids are just the beginning of your problems?” said someone with a strange purring voice from behind a Dumpster. The voice was familiar—a little too familiar.

Everyone froze. Soon a pair of glowing green eyes shone like reflectors in the moonlight. Prowl, his goggles atop his head, moved into the alley, staying near the shadows of the building. Charlie’s bracelet pulsed with heat.

“What do you want?” Charlie demanded.

“Hello again, Charlie Wilde,” purred the leopard man. “It’s so nice to see you. And you’ve brought me just the person I’ve been hoping for. How convenient.”

Who? What did he mean? “Get behind me!” Charlie whispered to the others. She glanced at Maria, who was still in monkey mode, then Charlie sidestepped in front of her to shield her. But Maria wasn’t having it. She moved forward and joined Charlie in staring down the soldier. Prowl slunk toward them into the light of a streetlamp and rolled his clawed fingers in the air. They glinted. Before Charlie could react, he leaped over her head and pounced . . . on Dr. Quinn Sharma.