CHAPTER 43

A Stronger Team

“A Mark Six?” cried Charlie. “For me?” She high-fived Mac and then glanced guiltily at Maria, who was struggling to smile. Little loose beard hairs still stuck to her shirt. Her prognosis was good according to Ms. Sabbith, but Charlie would still feel uneasy until she heard a definite solution from the scientists. Charlie looked earnestly at her father. “Dr. Sharma said you all might be able to do something about Maria’s physical changes. Can you?”

Mr. Wilde opened his mouth to answer, but then he closed it, narrowed his eyes, and pointed at the cardinal cam. A soldier was slipping across the street toward their building.

“Miko?” asked Mrs. Wilde, her face worried.

“No, it’s Zed,” said Charlie, detecting her smooth, catlike gait.

“What does she want?” muttered Dr. Goldstein. “Did they leave her behind? I thought they were all gone by now.”

“She’s been kind to us,” said Dr. Sharma. “Maybe she needs help.”

“She was nice to us, too,” Maria said. “In the end, anyway.”

Dr. Sharma furrowed her brow. “Maybe . . . maybe she stayed behind on purpose.”

“He’ll hunt her down,” murmured Mr. Wilde. “She’s one of his most valuable soldiers.”

“Do you trust her?” Mrs. Wilde asked them.

“All I know,” said Mr. Wilde, “is that she caught me working on the secret device and didn’t turn me in. And she’s protected us more than once. So I think . . . maybe . . . yes. We should at least see what she wants.”

“All right,” said Mrs. Wilde. “If she’s coming in peace, you can bring her up here. Mac and Maria, go with Charles to protect him, just in case. Charlie, don’t forget you’re not wearing a device at the moment, okay? Stay clear in case we have a problem, because there are a lot of soldiers who would love to take you out when you’re powerless, after what you did to them.”

“Yes, Mom,” said Charlie, feeling lost without her device now.

Mr. Wilde, Maria, and Mac went down to the entrance of the building, leaving Charlie and the others to wait anxiously for information. Several minutes later they returned with Zed. Mac had his protective suit on, but his claws weren’t out. They marched her into the room.

“She wants to talk to all of us,” said Mr. Wilde. They gathered around.

“Thank you for seeing me,” Zed said. And then slowly she pulled off her goggles and used her fingernail claws to lift the facial portion of her bodysuit. She pulled it off and shook like a cat. On her head was thick, black cat hair, shiny like a panther’s. Her ears came to a point and her nose was shaped like a cat’s. Unlike Prowl, her deep brown facial skin was free of any sort of fur, but she had a set of long whiskers that twitched. She was beautiful.

The woman looked straight at the biologists. “Do you recognize me?” she asked hesitantly. “It’s good to see you again.”

Dr. Sharma squinted at the soldier. “Nubia?” she cried. “What on earth?”

Jack stared. “Nubia,” he said. “I—I don’t know what to say. I didn’t realize . . . What has Gray done to you?”

From near the partition Charlie stared. It wasn’t too weird to see an animal-person hybrid anymore, especially since Maria had become one, but this was a bit of a shock. Apparently Zed was the missing Dr. Nubia Jakande.

Maria’s eye’s widened.

“Yes, that’s me,” said Nubia. “This is where I’ve been for some time.”

“Willingly?” asked Dr. Goldstein, his critical gaze nearly boring a hole in the soldier.

“Yes,” said Nubia again. “I believed in Dr. Gray’s plan in the beginning. I offered to be his first test subject.” She lifted her chin. “But I don’t support him anymore.”

Mr. Wilde pulled up a chair for their visitor, and she perched on the edge of it, seeming a bit uncomfortable now that everyone was staring at her.

“Why are you here?” Dr. Sharma asked.

“I want to join your side if you’ll have me. I understand if you won’t.”

“Why now?”

“I’ve wanted to escape for a while. This was the only time I could get away without Victor coming after me. With everyone scattered and the lab in chaos, I took my chance and hid while they were rounding up soldiers. All those eyes watching—there was never an opportunity before now.”

“Do you know where Dr. Gray is going?”

“No—not yet, anyway. I might have a way to find out. I can’t speak about that yet, though.”

Dr. Sharma narrowed her eyes. “How can we trust you?”

“You know me, Quinn. What Dr. Gray told the kids in the vault today—I was around the corner, listening. I didn’t know any of that! Changing everyone in the world to chimeras? Against their will? You know I wouldn’t want that. I didn’t realize what Gray had become. I guess . . . I guess I was too close to see it. When he asked me to join him, I had no idea what his grand goals were. I should have seen it, but I was tempted by the offer—since our original project was shut down before human trials began, I was excited to experience the results of all of our work.” She paused and said softer, “Once he changed my DNA, I couldn’t go back to my old life. I gave it all up for this.”

She hung her head. “Now that I’ve left him, I can’t return. I took the chance, anyway. My life,” she said, sweeping a hand over her suited body, “is possibly ruined forever. Will you let me help you stop him? May I join your side?”

The other biologists grilled the cat woman for a long time. She answered everything without hesitation, and finally the doctors conferred.

“We’d like to have you join us,” Dr. Wilde said finally. “We could certainly use your help.”

“Thank you,” said Nubia with a breath of relief. She turned and looked around. “And now I should apologize to the kids.” She spied Charlie standing back by the partition.

Charlie stepped forward and joined Maria and Mac, keeping her hands clasped behind her back to hide her bare wrist, just in case this scientist was bluffing and was about to attack. Charlie didn’t trust anybody anymore.

“I’m sorry for fighting against you,” said Dr. Jakande. “I hated doing that. I will never hurt any of you again. I promise you that.”

“I’m sorry for kicking your butt,” said Charlie. Mac snorted and Maria nodded.

Nubia laughed softly. “Yes, you did do that. Very competently, I might add.” She paused, looking at the kids. “All right. Is all forgiven? Can you work with me?”

Charlie and the others nodded. She found herself smiling and thinking she was going to like the new member of their team. “Just one more thing,” she said, glancing at Maria, who’d remained wide-eyed and hopeful since Dr. Jakande’s identity had been revealed.

“What is it?”

“Since you made the Mark Two, do you know of a way to reverse the effects and fix my friend, Maria, so she stops turning into a weremonkey? It’s wrecking her social life pretty badly.”

This time Nubia let out a hearty laugh. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been secretly working on something similar for myself for months to see if I can undo what Dr. Gray’s Mark One did to me.” She opened a pouch on her suit and pulled out some components. “With a little help from my colleagues, it won’t take long to finish.”

Maria grinned. “That’s fantastic!”

Dr. Jakande placed a hand gently on Maria’s shoulder, her clawed fingernails retracted. “And maybe we can alter your device to make it so you can turn it on and off, like with the Mark Three. That way you can still use it to fight Dr. Gray, because you’ve become really skilled with it. Sound good?”

Maria’s face flooded with relief. “That would be amazing.”