Tina Chan - imperfect

Troop confidently signed the name Kennedy Shief onto the smart-glass and passed the pen to Chelsa. Kristi nudged him and shot him an “I need help” expression when he glanced her way.

He mouthed back, “Why?”

Kristi patted the pocket that held her Cleandows worker ID card, and then jerked her head towards the agreement of confidentiality she needed to sign.

“Name?” Troop asked her in a quiet voice. If Kristi doesn’t know her cover name, what is she supposed to sign her name as? If someone notices her signature doesn’t match the name on her ID card, they’re going to suspect something is wrong.

Kristi nodded. Chelsa finished signing the contract and gave the pen to Kristi.

“Do you need our ID cards to be scanned?” Troop asked the secretary.

He flaunted his ID card dramatically, successfully securing the secretary’s attention onto him, thus allowing Kristi to have the chance to take a quick peek at her card.

“Yes, I will need to scan your cards,” the secretary answered Troop. “Has everyone signed the confidentiality agreement?”

“Not me,” Kristi said. She quickly scrawled Helen Jes onto the last signature line.

Troop took a moment to read Chelsa’s fake name; it was Dakota Collins. He thanked his lucky stars that Dakota was a unisex name. It would’ve been awkward if someone noticed Kristi and him calling Chelsa by a guy’s name, like Harry, for example.

The three of them scanned their ID cards and the secretary pointed the group in the general direction of the windows they were supposed to clean and/or fix.

“Don’t be shocked by some of the things you see,” the secretary advised them just before they headed off. “As long as you remember to only do what you’re supposed to do and nothing else while you’re in New Genes Lab, you’ll be fine. Don’t go looking for trouble by entering parts of the building you’re not supposed to be in. If you do get lost, locate the nearest staff to direct you to the correct place.”

“Alright. Thanks,” Troop said.

He walked down the hallway until the secretary was out of sight. He studied a map depicting the layout of the lab posted on the wall, then nonchalantly asked, “Which room do you want to hit first?”

“Testing Room A seems like a good place to start,” Kristi read the room name off the map.

Even though it was still early in the morning, the building hustled with activity. Men and women rushed from room to room; some carried stacks of electro-slate and others pushed carts filled with tiny vials. None of the staff gave any of them a second look; after all, what could be so interesting about three window cleaners? Everyone was too occupied with their work to spare even a few seconds to wonder why three teenagers were wandering around the lab.

Testing Room A proved not to be of much interest. The room was kept at a chilly temperature, but other than that, nothing inside seemed relevant with helping them solve the Disappearance Case.

“Let’s try the next room down the hall,” Troop said.

The next room turned out to be a storage room full of empty containers. They made their way down the entire hallway. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary; everything was exactly what Kristi would expect to see in a lab.

“Do you think the answer to solving the case is actually here?” Chelsa asked fifteen rooms later.

“I’m positive,” Kristi said.

“Perhaps we’re looking at the wrong section of the building.” Troop swiveled his head around, searching for other rooms they might’ve missed. “This lab is a decent size and we’ve only explored the West Wing. Let’s move onto the North Wing of the building.”

Accessing the rooms in the North Wing proved to be harder than accessing the rooms in the West Wing. An ID card scan was required before entering all of the rooms in the North Wing. However, they simply trailed behind distracted workers and slipped into the rooms after them.

“Let’s follow the man with the bushy mustache,” Kristi whispered to Troop and Chelsa.

They stuck at a distance of about twenty-feet behind the guy until he paused to retrieve his ID card to enter a locked room. The three of them subtly closed the distance.

As soon as the man pushed open the door into Lab D, Kristi stuck her foot in front of the door to prevent it from shutting. She waited until the man was occupied with sorting pictures on his electro-slate then pushed the door further open. Troop and Chelsa slithered into Lab D after her and took a look around.

Along one wall of the lab was a line of cages. Within each cage was a rabbit, cat or mouse. The room currently held thirty people; some people were examining slides underneath a microscope, some recorded data and others conversed with each other.

“Leave or stay?” Chelsa asked.

“Let’s stay for another minute,” Troop said.

Two women discussing something walked in their general direction. Kristi scooted out of the way and eavesdropped on their words.

The woman wearing a string of pearls in her hair spoke to her colleague, “The results were all promising when tested on the cats and rabbits. The specimen grew significantly thicker hair after DNA patterns on chromosome 19 were altered to increase the division of cells in the follicles.”

“This sounds good,” replied the other woman. “Have you forwarded the report to the level three testers?”

“Yes. In fact, I’m going to the level three section in the East Wing right now to check on their progress with DNA modifications for thicker hair.”

The two of them swept out of the room.

“From the sound of it, I think the lab is divided into levels or sections,” Kristi said. “If the West Wing was level one and the North Wing—which is where we are right now—is level two, chances are the East Wing is level three.”

“Seems logical to me.” Chelsa nodded her head in agreement. “Want to move onto the East Wing then?”

“Sure.”

Kristi briefly consulted another map conveniently framed on the hallway walls and readjusted their course towards the East Wing. Two guards guarded the doors leading into the East Wing. In order to even enter the East Wing itself, a fingerprint scan to confirm one’s identity was required. Only staff members with a high enough clearance were allowed into the East Wing.

“Do you think we should bluff our way through?” Kristi asked. “We could say we’re supposed to clean the windows in the East Wing.”

“Nah. That’s too risky. The guards might verify that with the front desk and our covers will be blown,” Troop said.

They backtracked their steps, trying to come up with a solution. Kristi spotted a scientist wheeling a cart headed for the East Wing. On the cart were several large cages. One cage contained a sleeping monkey. Three other cages were empty.

Troop followed her gaze and shook his head.

“No way. You must be crazy if you think we can enter the East Wing by taking a ride in a monkey cage. The guy will notice us in a heartbeat.” He grabbed onto her arm as if afraid Kristi would bolt off any second.

The cart-pusher passed. Troop released her arm. Kristi rubbed her arm painfully.

“You didn’t have to cut off my blood supply to my arm,” she said under her breath.

“Sorry. Any ideas, Chelsa—ah, Dakota?” Troop hastily remembered to use the name on Chelsa’s Cleandows ID card.

Chelsa shook her head.

“It might be easier for us to individually sneak into the East Wing,” Kristi suggested.

“That’s true,” Chelsa said. “But I’m worried about us splitting up in an unfamiliar building. We’ll be running the risk of not being able to find each other again.”