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Now I swung onto that ladder and climbed. Hiding behind the roof peak, I peered out to see the helicopter lift from the pad. I could make out figures inside. At least three heads, plus the pilot.
Someone with dark hair was sitting beside the rear window.
The figure turned. It was Rafe. He shielded his eyes and he seemed to be looking straight at me. I raised my hand. He raised his.
His lips moved, but there was no way I could tell what he was saying. Then another figure leaped across his lap, lon
g black hair swinging.
Annie. She waved frantically, grinning, then disappeared, pulled away by Rafe, quieting her.
I pushed to my feet as the helicopter rose. Rafe reappeared. He flashed four fingers, then a thumbs-up, and I knew that meant everything was all right, or as all right as it could be, that he was okay and Annie was okay, and so were Sam and Kenjii.
Then, with one last lurch, the helicopter lifted off.
We took Mrs. Tillson's car. We didn't dare use the van, in case it had a GPS. Maybe the car did, too. Not much we could do about it.
We still had our money, but our bags were lost. Again, nothing we could do.
Daniel headed for Nanaimo. I stared out the window, lost in thought.
"What did he give you?" Daniel asked.
I glanced over at him. "Hmmm?"
"Rafe. He put a paper in your pocket before he left. Was it anything important?"
I'd forgotten all about it. I jammed my hand into both my pockets, certain the note had fallen out. It hadn't--the paper was just folded into a small square and shoved deep.
It was actually printouts. Two pages. Watermarked CONFIDENTIAL.
"Rafe must have grabbed them when he was taken captive the first time," I said. Daniel had told Corey about this earlier on the drive. "They're memos about an escape."
Corey leaned over to read them. "Not our escape, though. Does that say Buffalo?"
Daniel looked over sharply. "Buffalo?"
I nodded. "It's about the experiment that went wrong. Project Genesis. Details of what happened."
"And what happened?" Corey said.
I had to finish reading the first page before I could answer. Then I explained. As we'd guessed, Project Genesis was another experiment with genetically modified supernaturals. Only these ones seemed to be normal types. Well, "normal" in the sense that we'd heard about them before. Witches, sorcerers, half-demons, werewolves, and something called necromancers.
"I've seen them in video games," Corey said. "They control the dead."
"Zombies?" I said.
"Right."
As supernatural types went, that seemed weird, and I suspected there was more to it. According to the notes, some of the kids had problems. So they locked them up in a group home. The kids figured out why they were there and escaped. And apparently came back and destroyed the laboratory, killing Dr. Davidoff and several others.
"Why can't we do that?" Corey said.
"Because we don't know where to find anyone," I said. "Even if we did, we aren't ready for that. They had help. A father and an aunt who'd been in on the experiments."
"So what happened?" Corey asked. "And what does this have to do with us?"
I read the second page. Then I told him.
