Mimic

Chapter 2

Beau

I use the fourteen hour drive back to Altore to think.

Everything was supposed to go differently. I was supposed to talk to them. They were an easy assignment. I could've given her the drink after talking to her parents, and none of this would've happened. The sugar—maybe it won't have any effect. Maybe nothing happened. I shouldn't have let myself get distracted. I should've put it aside while I was working.

It's all just a shock. I can't believe that our president is so cold-blooded. I knew that occasionally, someone would suddenly stop coming to work because of a reassignment to one of the Doctor's projects, but I never imagined that he was killing them. And the fact that he keeps files on these things... It's made me question everything.

I wasn't even supposed to know about the file. I was given the wrong one because the old man in charge of file distribution misheard me, and I didn't realize that he'd given me the wrong one. I was shocked when I started looking through it, and as I kept reading, I started questioning the Doctor. Then one afternoon I accidentally left it on my desk while I ran an errand, and when I came back, it was gone. I went to the file room to ask if the file had been returned, but the man in charge of them said he didn't even know the file existed. Someone didn't want me to know something.

I finally make it back to UIT. I throw the keys to a valet who parks my car with the others that the school has reserved for recruitment trips.

"Running low on gas," I tell him. He uses his super speed to run to the car.

"I'll let the boss know," he assures me.

Gas has become a luxury since the Omega virus wiped out most of the population. It spread quickly, and no cure was ever found. One day it just sort of went away. Everyone chalked it up to our bodies building up an immunity to it: Nothing else made any sense.

I walk through the glass front doors into the huge lobby, and across the room I hear a voice calling for me.

"Beau!" it purrs. "How are you?" Amber, the school tramp starts a conversation that I'm too tired for.

"Amber," I say. I walk toward the elevator without really looking at her, "As much as I'd love to talk to you right now, I'm tired, and I need to go to the office before I can get any sleep."

"Okay! I'll keep it short."

I push the up button on the elevator panel and wait.

"My friends and I are having a party this weekend at Rocky's. You want to come have a few drinks with us?" she asks.

"I'm working this weekend," I dodge her invitation. I stare at the elevator as a full one opens, and no one gets out.

"Well, there are always ways around that," she suggests in a honeyed voice. "I bet if—"

"I signed up for the extra shift. I'm not calling in sick."

I check my watch: 12:14. Of course all the elevators are full. Everyone's either going to or coming back from lunch on the floor above me. I'm not going to get anywhere waiting on an elevator.

"Well, what about next weekend?" she pushes.

"Amber, I'm busy. I'm not going out with you," I tell her bluntly. If I don't, she'll find some other loophole to exploit, and I'm not in the mood.

I start toward the stairs as her expression morphs to fury.

"Beau. Beau Easley!"

I turn around. "What?"