Jack awoke around eight in the morning. He was somewhat surprised that he'd received a full, uninterrupted night's sleep, but not surprised that he was still very tired. His sleep was filled with strange dreams, none of which he could remember clearly. None of the events in his mind's nighttime episodes were familiar to him now, only a strange feeling of urgency, and of dread.
He stood and closed his eyes. His MASC hummed, and his holographic t-shirt and boxer shorts were instantly replaced with his daytime clothing. He smiled to himself, but his expression quickly changed as he looked down at the bed, unnerved by what he saw.
The sheets of the bed had several long tears in them. It was almost as if someone had taken knives to the fabric, or maybe something was forced through the sheets. The pillow also had a long gash, and the synthetic padding inside was forcing its way out.
Jack had experienced this once, years ago: he'd woken up to find tears like this in his sheets. He'd heard that some people toss and turn so violently sometimes that they damage their bedding, or even the mattress on which they were sleeping, so he thought nothing of it. Nothing more than a bit of surprise.
Jack stripped the bed of its tattered coverings; this was the day that the resident maid would be changing the mansion's bedding, anyway.
He piled the bedding by the door, and then went downstairs to the kitchen. He'd hoped to find his group of friends, April, Warren, and the twins, but only April was present.
"You look horrible," April stated, picking at the eggs on her plate.
"Thanks." Jack rummaged through the cabinets and refrigerator. He retrieved some cereal, milk, and appropriate dishes for the food, and then sat across the table from April.
"Out late, or trouble sleeping?"
"Neither. Trouble while sleeping, though."
"Huh?"
"Weird dreams."
"Oh."
"How'd you sleep?"
"Pretty good, I guess." April looked into Jack's eyes. "But I thought you might be out on some scary mission, so I was kinda worried."
Jack ate a spoonful of his breakfast. "Nope. No mission last night. Thank God." Another bite. "But you shouldn't worry about me. I can take care of myself."
"I know, but I don't wanna lose you. Other than Warren, Dera, and Izzy, you're my only friend. Everybody else here seems kinda creepy. You know, like they're up to something."
Jack understood completely, but reassured her, "Ah, don't worry about them. They're good people."
"So you trust them?"
Jack thought for a while. He didn't want to remember when he didn't trust them. He'd been through too much, and had done too much for Elias to just revert to feelings of suspicion and mistrust. "Yeah. And you should too."
"I guess you're right." April pushed her plate out of the way, and reached for the spoon in Jack's cereal bowl. She loaded it up with the sweet milk-covered food, and took a bite.
"Um, excuse me," Jack said somewhat angrily. "That's mine."
"I know." April smiled at him. "But these eggs are nasty."
"That's not the point. You're eating my food with my spoon."
April rolled her eyes. "You're not afraid of germs, are you? It's no different from kissing."
"But we've never kissed."
She smiled slyly. "Yes we have."
"What?"
"Yeah. A couple weeks ago. The night we stayed up watching movies in the rec room. You fell asleep. I kissed you."
Jack felt confused and somewhat irritated. He shook his head, asking, "Why?"
"Dunno. Just felt like it."
Jack didn't say anything for nearly half a minute. "Ok. You say that these people, who saved us, and are trying to save others, are creepy. But you made out with me while I was asleep. You are creepy."
"I did not make out with you! I just gave you a little kiss." She smiled. "And I'm not creepy. I was just curious."
"What?"
"I'd never kissed a guy. I never met a guy worth kissing until you came along." She placed a hand on his.
Jack just stared at her. He had no idea what to say, but somehow managed to mumble, "Uh, thanks." He didn't know what to do now. He bit his lip, and after nearly thirty seconds of silence, he stated, "Um, I think I'd better go. It's almost time to check in with Avery."
April sighed as Jack hurried out of the kitchen.
Jack's mind was in total chaos as he climbed the stairs leading to Elias Altman's third-floor office. Now, on top of all the other problems, mysteries, and questions floating about in his brain, he now knew that April, the girl he'd sworn to protect, thought she was in love with him.
Subconsciously, he'd known about this crush. He'd seen the way she admired him. How she watched him, and how she was constantly trying to get his attention. The tone of adulation in her voice. But consciously, he'd never really realized any of this.
As Jack neared Elias' office, he heard three voices. All male. Each had a tone of anguish, confusion, and anger in their voices. He stepped into the doorway of the office, and found the reason for their very emotional voices.
Altman's office was in pieces. Books were scattered across the floor. Paintings were torn to shreds, and deep scratches in groups of four and five were visible on almost every object in the room. Two bookcases were literally ripped out of the walls, and behind one, the once-hidden elevator door was horribly bent and battered.
"What happened here?" Jack asked.
"We're not entirely sure," answered Elias. "But it seems that we had a break-in."
Avery turned is head, as if listening to someone calling his name. In a strange way, someone was calling for him. Telepathically. "Sir," he said to Altman, "I believe Warren and the twins have found something."
"Where are they?" Altman inquired.
"In the security room." He looked at the elevator, which looked non-functional. "We'll have to take another way down."
Avery and Altman left the office, followed by Ray and Jack. They went downstairs and outside, and then went around to the side of the large house. Avery opened up a cellar door, and they went inside. Inside the cellar, they descended a rather long staircase, and after several computerized security checkpoints, they finally ended up in the secret facilities deep underground.
After a couple minutes of traveling through a labyrinthine series of hallways, they entered a room, where Warren, Izquierda, and Derecha were watching several video screens.
"Did you find our culprit?" asked Elias.
Warren turned to the older gentleman, and replied, "We think so. Watch."
The group watched the video playing over and over. All they saw was a dark hallway, the hallway outside of Altman's office. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Just what are we supposed to be seeing here?" asked Avery. He seemed rather annoyed.
"Nothing," Warren said. "That's the point." He pressed a button on the panel in front of him, and the image on the screen changed to one comprised of shades of blue. "Now...watch it on infra-red."
Again, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No source of heat showed up on the screen.
"Again, nothing." Warren seemed entranced by the video screen. He typed a long sequence of keystrokes into the keyboard. "But look at this. Last month we installed new laser- and sonar-motivated scanning devices. They are able to accurately detect and render any three-dimensional object within their scanning field. This is what they found."
As the screen changed to shades of gray, everyone saw something making its way down the hall. Everyone could tell that it wasn't a human; it seemed to walk on four legs. It was some sort of creature. A creature that no one could recognize. A creature whose appearance possessed both unearthly unattractiveness, and perfect natural beauty.
The strange animal came closer to the camera, and everyone could see its form clearly. Its body looked almost like a strange combination of canine, feline, reptilian, and human forms. It was a mass of pure, powerful, crude muscle, somehow blended with gentile grace. Except for a long, flowing, coarse mane, and long quills on the end of its feline-like tail, it seemed almost hairless.
"What is it?" asked Avery.
Warren quickly looked away from the monitor. He looked as if he'd been broken from some strange hypnotic trance. "I don't know." He looked at Elias and Jack, softly saying, "But I think I do know how it evaded the regular camera and the IR filter."
"How?" Avery wanted answers. He was in charge of keeping the mansion secure, and this creature had made a mockery of his job.
"I think it can change color. Watch this." He punched a few keys on the panel in front of him, and the screen changed to the original repeating image. He punched a few more, and the image's contrast and brightness changed.
"Okay. Watch this area," he said, pointing to the area where moonlight was streaming in through a window. "Here he comes."
All eyes were on the previously established point. Everyone waited breathlessly, and then sighed silently as they saw a bit of darkness move into the lighted area. As soon as it appeared, it was gone. It was brief, and virtually unnoticeable, but it was still there, captured on video.
"Now," Warren murmured as he punched a few keys on the keyboard, "I'll put the image from the sonar and laser sensors next to it."
The screen split, and two virtually identical images appeared side-by-side. On the right was the original video, and on the left was the sensor image. The videos ran slowly, and as the creature on the left side of the screen entered a certain area, the glitch of darkness showed up in the moonlit portion of the right image.
"See? The little irregularity shows up there right as the creature passes through that area. Its skin, or fur, or whatever, changes to a perfect camouflage. It isn't instant, but very close."
Altman cleared his throat, and then asked, "But why didn't it show up on the IR scope?"
"Simple. It can match its body temperature with its surroundings. Pretty cool trick, huh?"
"Hmm," Jack sounded. "It looks to me that it's a predator."
"How can you tell?" asked Ray.
"Well, many predators rely on camouflage, usually more heavily than their prey. That's why a tiger has stripes. Why a lion is light brown. They blend in with their surroundings.
"Their intended prey is also camouflaged, but not as well. Sure, lots of insects, reptiles, and fish can perfectly match their surroundings, but that's not the case with 'higher' animals. I mean, a gazelle's camouflage is no match for a lion's sense of sight. And zebras' camouflage only prevents a predator from telling where one zebra ends and another begins. More of a confusion tactic than a defensive one.
"But predators rely much more heavily on camouflage than most prey. They need it in order to sneak up on prey. Silence and stalking from downwind only go so far if the predator contrasts with the environment.
"This thing can match its surroundings perfectly. Barely visible, no discernable heat signature. I bet it doesn't even have a noticeable scent. No animal with camo this good is meant to be prey. This is an offensive tool, not a defensive one."
Ray nodded, "The perfect predator."
Warren nodded too. "And what's the perfect predator without a sentient mind? Look at this."
The screen changed to a different image, now showing Altman's office. Everyone watched as the creature entered the room. After coming through the door, it turned and closed it.
"It knew what it was doing," Warren said. "It closed the door to keep anyone from hearing as it searched the room."
"How would that keep anyone from hearing?" asked Izquierda, stealing the question from her sister's mind.
Avery turned to her, answering, "Mister Altman's office was designed to be sound-proof while the door is closed. I was just explaining that to Mister McGregor and Mister Chase a few days ago."
The beast on the screen headed to Altman's desk, immediately rummaging through the wooden piece of office furniture. It seemed to be looking for something. But whatever it was that the creature was looking for, it wasn't there.
The animal's attention turned toward the bookshelves. It began pulling books off of the shelves with its hand-like front paws, looking at the cover of each manuscript before tossing it aside. It spent the next several minutes doing this, until every single book was in the floor.
The creature turned its head toward a shelf near Altman's ravaged desk, and almost appeared to smile. It tore its paws into the seam between two shelves, and effortlessly ripped them out of the wall, revealing the large metal door behind one of them. Then, just as it had torn the shelves out of the way, it ripped the door open. It then entered the elevator, pressed a button, and disappeared into the bowels of the earth.
"That's where the trail ends," Warren stated. "There's no more really useful footage. The cameras down here aren't hidden like the ones up in the mansion. He easily found them and took them out before setting to work."
"What did he do down here?" asked Ray.
"The same thing he did up in the office. It ripped one room apart, looking for...something. Then it accessed several computers. Somehow got into the boss' personal files. This thing is smart."
Altman nodded, saying, "Yes. Too smart to be just an animal. I believe this is a human, or at least it used to be a human." He paused. "Before its mutation took effect."
