Mimic

Chapter 11

Beau

I meet Emily, Liz, and Sean in the Guiding Room to work with Emily again. Sean and I get there right on time, as per usual, but by a quarter after our meet time, she still hasn't shown. I don't know what's going on with her and I still don't trust her, but I'd rather have her in my sight where I can watch her than somewhere else doing who knows what. I tell the girls to stay put while Sean and I figure out what's going on. We walk down a few flights of stairs and find the nearest security desk. I ask the angry-looking woman there to find Rose as I flash my all access card.

"Last name?" she asks in a bored tone, waiting to type the information into the computer.

"Her last name?" I repeat.

She nods.

I blank. "Uh." I turn to Sean for answers.

He shrugs.

"I don't actually know," I tell her, turning around and trying to play it off.

She rolls her eyes at me and proceeds to type in other information into the computer instead. After a few seconds, she looks back up at me, "Okay, there are about fourteen different 'Rose's in the school at the moment. Half of them are just Rose; the others are Rosita, Roseanne, Rosemarie, Rosa, Rosie, Rosalinda, Rosalie, and Melrose."

"Um," I turn to Sean again for some help.

"She's a Sensor. Does that narrow it down any?" he asks.

"That narrows it down to just Rosemarie Frost and Rosalie Steinem," she informs him. "Rosemarie's in the hospital at the moment, and Rosalie's in class."

"Can you show me a picture of Rosemarie?" I ask, hoping it doesn't confirm my suspicion. She pulls up the picture that all of Dr. Young's staff members are required to take; it's Rose.

"She's in the hospital?" I confirm as I dig for more information.

"Yes, thirteenth floor," she replies. She clicks her mouse a few more times then adds, "Room twelve."

"Thank you," Sean tells her, and we speed off to the Guiding Room to get the girls.

The lady calls after us, "Hey, you're going the wrong way!"

"We know," Sean and I chorus.

Apparently, the worry is showing on my face because when we reach the Guiding Room, Emily freezes as she puts her full Telepathic focus on me and reads me like a book. She rushes in my direction as she tells Liz, "Rose," as a brief explanation.

We all hurry to the hospital floor to see what happened to Rose, trying to keep ourselves from running on the way. When we reach room twelve, we open the door and are met by Dr. Young. I freeze for a split second with shock but quickly continue to file into the room with him. It's too late to leave, not that I'd leave Rose alone with Dr. Young. I can't tell Emily and Liz to leave without being suspicious either. I just have to go with it and act like nothing's wrong.

I signal to Emily to cover her eyes so that Dr. Young doesn't see them. The spots of color may be too small for most people to notice, but Dr. Young knows better, being the one who created the serum.

"What happened to Rose, sir?" I question, searching for a reason why she's not conscious.

"She was in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. We never found the other body, but we have a search team out looking for it right now. We assume the other driver bled out in the woods somewhere close to the crash site," he answers, seemingly untouched by the impact of his words. He proceeds to sit down in the only chair in the room that looks as if it was pulled in here for him.