Going Wild #3 Read online

  The guard took off sprinting toward them, arms outstretched and palms out, demanding them to stop. Prowl lithely jumped into the air and used the guard’s shoulder to spring over him. He landed on the ground and darted sideways, then sprang again over some kids who were screaming and running for safety. Cyke plowed through anyone in his way, knocking down some bystanders.

  “Oh my,” muttered Charlie. “This could be bad.”

  Maria gripped her arm. “Remember the parents—we have to keep a low profile.”

  Charlie nodded, her eyes glued to the action.

  “Here come the guards!” whispered Mac.

  The two security guards rounded the corner chasing after the soldiers. “Stop!” cried the male guard. The woman officer flung herself forward, diving at Prowl and catching him by the ankle. Prowl lost his balance and thudded face-first to the pavement. The woman jumped on top of him, trying to pin him with her knee in his back. Onlookers skittered away. Prowl twisted violently and knocked the woman off balance, then swiped his claws across her cheek, drawing a shriek and a long line of blood. But she flattened and managed to keep Prowl down while shouting for her fellow guard to help her.

  Cyke galloped back around and yanked the guard off Prowl as the second guard stepped into the fray. And as Cyke tossed the woman aside, the male guard punched Prowl in the jaw.

  “Should we do something?” Mac whispered. “I’m afraid if I activate my pangolin suit, people will freak even more. Plus, look at all the phone cameras coming out.”

  Charlie looked around wildly. A few civilians were screaming and others were filming the scene. Things were out of control. She wanted to help but didn’t want people to get a look—or photo—of her face. “I’ll go in really quickly to mess up the soldiers and give the guards a chance to nab them. Then I’ll take off running and disappear.”

  “We’re coming too,” said Mac.

  Maria looked panicked. “I can’t fight without my ability.”

  “I won’t use my device either,” said Mac. “We’ll just be there to help if we can.”

  “Okay,” said Maria. “Let’s grab hats or something for a disguise. I saw some right there at the souvenir cart.”

  Charlie saw that it sold giant orca hats and octopus masks with dangly legs, among other items. The employee working there had already run for cover. Charlie snatched one of the masks and pulled it down over her face. Eight plush legs dangled over her chest and back. Maria and Mac grabbed orca hats and smashed them low on their foreheads. Half-blinded by the stretchy mesh, Charlie charged through the onlookers with octopus legs flapping. She checked her device to make sure her elephant ability was still activated, then sprinted toward Prowl and Cyke, dodging and weaving around trash receptacles, vendors, and people, trying to stay safe. Mac and Maria followed but fell quickly behind.

  Charlie rammed into the horse hybrid, knocking him hard into Prowl and sending them sliding across the ground. Prowl’s claws sprang out and he swiped the air, slicing Charlie’s shirt but thankfully not her skin. Cyke flipped around and stumbled to his feet, looking bewildered—he hadn’t seen Charlie coming, and he didn’t recognize her now with the octopus mask covering her face. Charlie darted around a tree while Mac and Maria sneaked closer and took cover behind the trash and recycling receptacles. Then Prowl leaped to his feet and pounced on Charlie. She fought him off, slamming her fist into his face and knocking him senseless. He slumped to the ground as Cyke ran at her. Feeling her fingers tingling, Charlie lunged up and stuck to the tree trunk, hoping nobody was noticing her but not having much of a choice. Cyke grabbed her by the leg to yank her down, but she hung on to the trunk and smashed her other foot into his chin, leaving him stumbling backward and howling.

  Quickly Maria and Mac sprang out from behind the trash receptacles. Mac tripped the stumbling soldier and Maria shoved him. Cyke slammed into a light pole and landed hard on his stomach.

  “Security!” Maria yelled as she and Mac grabbed Cyke by the wrists and stood on his forearms, pinning him to the ground. Mac shoved his orca hat over Cyke’s face while Maria whipped off her sweatshirt and used the arms to tie one of Cyke’s wrists to a light pole.

  Mac saw the guards approaching and glanced at Charlie. “Go! Hurry!” he said in a harsh whisper as the security guards came running up. With Prowl knocked out and three guards coming for Cyke, Charlie jumped out of the tree. She slipped away into the crowd, keeping her mask on to avoid being caught by any cameras.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Maria muttered. They hopped off Cyke, leaving the three guards to handle him. But as they sneaked away, Cyke ripped the sweatshirt tether off his wrist and tore the hat from his face. He got to his feet, leaving the guards with a challenge they couldn’t win. Prowl came to and together they knocked the guards flat and sprinted toward the park exit.

  As Charlie ran past the cart she flung the mask at it, then continued at high speed so she could get far away from the attraction. She zigzagged through the park so no one could possibly follow her. When she got to a section where it seemed nobody had a clue that anything was going on, Charlie slowed down. She texted Mac and Maria to let them know where she’d ended up so they could find her.

  Twenty minutes later, Maria and Mac came walking swiftly toward her. They were hatless but wearing wide grins.

  “Nice job, Chuck,” Maria said when they reached her.

  “You too,” said Charlie. She grinned back, relieved that they were all together again. “Did the soldiers recognize you?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Maria. “We tried to keep our faces hidden. Mac thinks they might wonder about us but bets they’d expect us to use our abilities if it really was us. So that’ll help them believe it wasn’t.” She paused. “Does that make sense?”

  “Sort of,” Charlie said with a laugh.

  “Nobody followed you?” Mac asked, looking around and breathing hard. He wheezed, then pulled out his inhaler and used it.

  “Not at cheetah speed,” said Charlie. “You?”

  “We slipped out through the chaos,” said Maria.

  “What happened?” asked Charlie. “Did the guards arrest them?”

  “Nope,” said Mac. “They got away. At least we stopped them from really hurting those guards. Maria and I tailed them to the passenger pickup area, and we got there just in time to see the white van speeding off with them inside.”

  “Darn,” said Charlie. “I hope they didn’t get away with any new DNA samples.”

  “I doubt they did,” said Mac. “After the van took off, we went back to the park entrance and hung out there for a couple minutes to eavesdrop. From what the guards said, it didn’t sound like they got away with any animals.”

  “Yeah,” said Maria, “and they won’t be getting back into the park anytime soon. Those bodysuits are a dead giveaway. Plus, somebody got a good photo of them and turned it in.”

  “I hope they didn’t get you guys in it,” Charlie muttered.

  “If they did,” said Maria, “we won’t be recognizable with those big manatees on our heads.”

  “Orcas,” said Mac patiently. “They’re not even similar.”

  “Whatever.” Maria smoothed her hair.

  Charlie glanced at Mac, waiting for him to scold them as usual about how animal facts matter, but he was distracted by his cell phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the display, which read Malik Barnes. He quickly answered. “Hi, Dad,” he said. “What’s up?”

  Mac listened and the girls could overhear concern in the muffled voice on the other end. After a moment Mac said, “Wow! Nope, we’re nowhere near there. We’re just getting in line for Orca Encounter. No crazy masked men out here that we can see.” He flashed a grin at Maria and Charlie, and then they started walking toward the ride. “Everything is super normal.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Being a Kid Again

  Once they’d combed the park, ridden the rides, and chatted more about potential animal abilities, Mac suggest
ed they go back to Ocean Explorer to try to figure out why Dr. Gray’s soldiers had been after a jellyfish. Maybe that would give them a clue into what he was doing.

  But when they got there, they realized there were lots of species of jellyfish in the tank, and nobody had seen which one Cyke was trying to catch—in fact, he’d been so clumsy with the net that he seemed to be going after anything that would miraculously fall into it.

  Maria took photos of the description placards in the exhibition area so that they could look up the various names and try to figure out if there was anything great about a jellyfish besides its sting. Then they went to the shark attraction and tried to make friends with one of the workers over there, asking questions about what had happened the previous day.

  But the worker seemed suspicious and told the kids to move along. Then she followed them when they went near the shark viewing area, like she thought they might also try to sneak in or something. Eventually the three left. As evening fell, they stopped at a stand for something to eat and to talk more about what had happened earlier.

  “Do you think we should be trying to gather DNA too?” Maria asked. “I mean, since we’re here anyway?”

  Charlie tilted her head thoughtfully. “We don’t know what animals the scientists will choose for us. And we have no idea how to actually collect a sample. Besides, Ms. Sabbith will take care of getting that stuff from the Talos lab in Chicago when we’re ready.”

  “But … what if we see something cool that could offer a really great ability?” Maria replied.

  Mac frowned. “I wouldn’t want to stress out any animals just for the heck of it. I already feel bad for that poor shark and those jellyfish that Kelly and the soldiers traumatized.”

  “Good point,” said Charlie. “If we see something that could work well for a new ability, we can just text Ms. Sabbith and ask if she has access to it. Then see if the scientists think it would be a good fit for one of us.”

  “Okay, I like that idea better than trying to collect it ourselves,” Maria said. “We should stay away from anything that could mess up what we’re trying to do. That includes touching the animals and fighting bad guys—that was a close call. Let’s just, you know, not worry about it for once.”

  “You mean act like normal kids on vacation?” asked Mac, dipping a dolphin-shaped fish nugget into some tartar sauce and shoving it into his mouth.

  Maria wrinkled up her nose at him. “Is it horrible that they have fish nuggets on the menu at SeaWorld, or is it just me?”

  The Barnes family and Maria and Charlie stayed at SeaWorld until closing with no further incidents. Then they dragged their tired bodies back to the SUV. By the time they got to their hotel, they were almost too exhausted to eat the warm chocolate chip cookies that the front desk offered them.

  Claudia and Malik Barnes had booked them a suite with a kitchenette. Charlie zonked out quickly, and before she knew it, Mac’s parents were rustling about making breakfast for everyone.

  After a hearty meal, they set out again for another long, exciting day, this time to the zoo.

  Unlike at SeaWorld, Mr. and Mrs. Barnes stayed with the kids this time, because the zoo was such a huge, sprawling place. There wasn’t much of a chance for the kids to talk privately. Whenever they did, they tried to make it sound like they were talking about their new made-up game. It was fun for a while because it felt like they were talking in code. But eventually that got boring and they stopped.

  Mostly they focused on the animals. And Charlie, Maria, and Mac were looking at animals in a different way, as research instead of purely entertainment. They took the time to read all the placards, and whenever one of them found an animal with an interesting feature, Maria took a photo of it and its plaque so they could look up more information and bring their findings back to the scientists.

  When they got to the reptile area, Mac pushed his way through the crowd to see the various lizards. Charlie and Maria followed him, with Mac’s parents trailing behind.

  “Is there a pangolin in there or something?” Maria asked, curious as to why Mac was so interested in the reptiles. The metallic suit from Mac’s bracelet had been designed to mimic a pangolin’s features—scales that protected him and claws tough enough to dig through cement.

  “A pangolin is a mammal,” said Mac. “Not a reptile.”

  “Oh yeah, right on,” said Maria. “I knew that. I was just testing you.” She rolled her eyes at Charlie, who grinned. They looked over Mac’s shoulders through the glass and saw a couple of lizards with thornlike skin.

  “Whoa,” said Charlie. She looked around for its description. “We don’t have those in Navarro Junction, do we?”

  “What are they?” asked Maria.

  “They’re called thorny dragons,” said Mac. “And they’re natives of Australia. We definitely don’t have them where we live. Aren’t they awesome?”

  The lizards were small, but their skin looked like it was sprouting fin-shaped thorns like the ones that grew on rosebushes. “I wouldn’t want to touch that thing,” said Charlie.

  Mac glanced over his shoulder to see where his parents were, and spied them a dozen feet away looking at something else. “It could be a great feature to go with my suit,” he said. “Can you get a photo of it, Maria?”

  “On it,” said Maria, snapping a picture and making notes. “But you already have really great defensive scales.”

  “That’s true.” Mac looked at the lizard again. “It would be cool to collect different kinds of scales, though.”

  “I don’t know,” Maria said, noncommittal. “Seems too much the same. Wouldn’t you want something different from the pangolin?” She moved to another section of the reptile house that had a pond in it, and beckoned the other two to come. “Look at that one with the weird feet,” she said, pointing to a smooth green lizard about two feet long from nose to tail. Its back feet were large and the center toes were unusually long. She found the information about it. “Basilisk lizard,” she said. “Get this—it runs on water!”

  “Are you serious?” said Mac. “I’ve always wanted to see one in real life!” He slid up to Maria and peered into the habitat. “When I was little I had a book with one of these in it—it was my favorite! Their feet make upside-down cups. That’s how they stay up.” He studied one. “They can also run fast.”

  “You could use a little help in that department,” said Charlie, then cringed—she hoped she didn’t hurt Mac’s feelings. But it was true. He wasn’t much of a runner to begin with because of his asthma, but Charlie was talking about his pangolin suit, which slowed him down even more. It left him unable to keep up with the girls. “I mean … speed is always good, for all of us,” she began to explain, but Mac didn’t seem offended.

  Maria studied the placard. “It can go five feet per second across the water. It has extra skin by its back legs that creates air pockets so it doesn’t sink.” She looked up. “That’s pretty cool.”

  “You kids are really taking these animals seriously,” said Mr. Barnes, who had appeared behind them without them noticing. “Are you having fun?”

  Mac nodded and looked up at his parents. “I really can’t think of anything better than animals,” he said. “Remember the basilisk lizard from my zoo book when I was a little kid?” He pointed to it.

  “I do,” said his mom. “You loved any animal book, but especially that one. You knew all their features by heart and were always spouting off animal facts. I’m glad you’ve got friends who love them too.”

  Maria and Charlie grinned. They’d both liked animals for a long time, mostly in a pet kind of way. But the more they learned about them since they’d found the devices, the more they realized just how little they knew about the animal kingdom. “They’re fascinating,” said Maria. “They have so many cool abilities most people don’t even know about.”

  Charlie nodded. “We could go on all day about them,” she warned Mac’s parents.

  “Oh, trust me, Charlie,” said Mrs. Bar
nes with a laugh and a shake of her head, “I know better than to get you all started.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Shark Training

  In the days that followed the trips to SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo, Dr. Gray worked tirelessly in the makeshift lab in their rented house. On the table along the side of the room were containers that stored the formulas for all the various animals he’d worked on to this point: leopard, chimpanzee, horse, bull, rhinoceros, rattlesnake, wolf, chameleon, crab, panther. On the other table were the new DNA samples that would give wings to Miko and quills to Braun. It was painstaking work making the formulas. Victor’s eyes weren’t as good as they used to be. And things went much slower without Zed to help him. Why would she leave without so much as a note of explanation? And why now? Just when he was closing in on his endgame. Her timing was severely inconvenient.

  Maybe she’d just gotten tired of being treated like another one of the soldiers. He should have continued to call her Dr. Jakande, perhaps, rather than the code name she’d adopted to fit in better with the others. He should have elevated her somehow to let her know she was more important to him than them. Her abilities and her intellect far exceeded those of anyone else he’d kept close to over the years.

  Victor had been angry when she first left, and very hurt. Now he mostly felt regret. Maybe he should have shared with her his secret plan to change everyone in the world into chimeras. Surely, she would have stayed around to be part of that if only she’d known. She was a scientist after all. And he would have given her some credit, too, if that was what she needed.

  “She probably knows by now, though,” he muttered under his breath. “And she didn’t come back.” He’d made the arrogant mistake of revealing his plans to Dr. Wilde’s daughter and her friends before he’d shut them into the bank vault. He’d assumed they’d never make it out of there, but somehow they had. Now Zed was probably with Charles and Jack and Quinn. And those little monsters most certainly would have told her what he’d said.