“I’d have watched you and waited,” I said with absolute certainty. It’d been what I’d done anyway. “I’d have looked for some sort of confirmation in your actions that all your talk wasn’t bullshit.”
His smile was bright, his nod thoughtful, and for a moment, he just stared at me.
“That I can work with. Will you watch me, Shan? Watch me try to make it clear to you, that we’re…”
His words died away as he just stared at me, until he moved forward, slowly enough that I could pull away, tipping my chin his way and leaning in close. He blotted out the moon and replaced it with him, a dark golden sun, one who stung my lips as his landed on mine, his teeth nipping, and my hand snaked out to tug him close, to taste more of him.
“Let me show you,” he said, pulling away all too soon, leaving me blinking and running my tongue across my lips to capture the sour taste of beer, the meat he’d been eating, and Jai before it evaporated. “Sleep well, love.”
Chapter 8
“Are you OK?” Janey asked when we pulled up outside the old prison. No, not that anymore. The ragged barbed wire fence, broken glass, and graffiti had all been removed. Now there was a sleekly designed automatic gate, complete with a high fence topped by razor wire. Those same men in black waved us through when the gate slid back, pointing to an expansive carpark. “You were kinda quiet on the way over.”
“A bit nervous about this new job,” I lied, wiping my sweating palms on my jeans.
“Yeah, me too. Like…what do they want us to do here? How would you work your mojo on lions or tigers or whatever they have in there?”
I went to answer, when a long muffled howl came from inside the building, our eyes flicking to each other. It wasn’t the boys, I was sure of that. Theirs sounded different, but my eyes flicked around at the impenetrable fence line. How the hell had the pack got in here, anyway? The place looked like it was locked up as tight as Fort Knox.
“Not just big cats then,” Janey said.
“Only one way to find out,” I said, nodding to where Stuart and Nick stood, talking to Hollingsworth.
“Ah, ladies, thank you for joining us. Now that we’re all here, shall we begin?”
Hollingsworth had that smooth plastic face that seemed to be the default for politicians and CEOs anywhere. Like none of them could ever show their true face, for fear of terrifying everyone around them. His polite smile didn’t shift as we walked through the large sliding doors, the dark glass hiding everything.
Which was a massive atrium, complete with skylight, that had been wrought from what was left of the prison. I recognised the exposed concrete walls. Us kids came up here to play and drink when we were teens, much to the alphas disgust. You’d cop a hiding if they found out, but we’d come here with spray cans and crowbars, feeling a weird sense of empowerment as we slowly eroded the remains of a place that had kept captive so many people.
I let out a long breath, objectively impressed by what they’d manage to create here, while wondering why.
“The Capricorn Institute strives to revolutionise the protection of rare apex predators,” Hollingsworth said as we looked about us. “Zoos are constantly stretched for resources and facing increasing pressure to contain exhibits of smaller animals better suited to captivity. While reputable zoos have always been a crucial part of animal conservation, maintaining captive populations of rare and threatened animals, keeping accurate breeding records, and working together to maintain genetically disparate populations, the institute will be going one step forward. We will be establishing our own sperm banks from a much wider selection, liaising with private owners as well as zoos, irrespective of country of origin, and then using the best of current technologies to try to eradicate the issues created by inbreeding, especially when all we have are small wild populations.”
“So…you’re going to artificially engineer genetic diversity?” Stuart asked.
“Do you understand any of this?” Janey whispered to me as the two of them talked. They were tossing around five-dollar science words like it was no big thing.
“I aced year twelve biology, but I got nothing. What the hell do they want us here for?”
He couldn’t have heard us, but Hollingsworth brought the theoretical discussion he and Stuart were having to an end, noticing us again.
“But we mustn’t get bogged down talking shop. We are yet to hire a receptionist.” He walked on over to a beautifully designed black glass front desk. “We were waiting to see what Stuart’s response was to our offer, but this could be your work station, Ms Matheson.”
I watched Janey’s eyes go wide, stepping closer as if lured by the fancy fit out. She stroked the glass like it was a living thing.
“There wouldn’t be a lot of work initially. It may be that Stuart would split your hours between the practise and here, but I’m sure we can come to a solution that works for everyone.”
She shot me an excited grin, something I returned without really feeling it. This was a cold, impersonal place. Beautiful, but I wouldn’t want to hang out in here all day. The old prison, even with its piss-soaked decay, was somehow better than this. More honest at least. But I wasn’t going to be expected to sit in this cavernous lobby.
“Now, if you’d like to come through here.”
Guards stood by the metal doors that led into the rest of the institute, Hollingsworth moving to swipe his card through the reader by the door. It opened with a beep, and we walked farther into the belly of the beast.
The belly of many beasts, I soon found out. Stuart and Nick came to stand beside me as we looked out into the freaking massive space in shock. Huge glass walled habitats, looking for all the world like a slickly designed private zoo, filled what had once been the prison block. The old Harvest Grove Prison used to house most of the prisoners in the state. Built back in the 1950s, people hadn’t liked the idea of prisoners being near the major metropolitan areas, so they’d shipped them out here, supplementing the ring-ins with our own people. Then the state got sick of footing the transport bills and built a new one closer to the big smoke.
“That’s…” Nick said, pointing to the nearest habitat, where a very unhappy looking snow leopard was curled up. I recognised what it was because I’d seen it in books but… Both of us were drawn closer as if pulled on strings, only stopping when we hit the glass.
It was a strange thing to see an animal you’d only ever seen in books or documentaries in real life. The glass between us helped maintain that feeling of unreality, as if I was watching footage played out on a massive TV screen.
It curled up into a tighter ball inside the faux den it had been given in its evidently climate-controlled habitat, if the frost on the ground was real. Go away…go away…go away… was all I got from the animal. Not the words, just the feeling, pulsing against my brain. Its comparatively smaller ears flattened against its skull, and it hissed at us, causing the two of us to jerk back.
We looked at each other and then burst out laughing, more due to surprise than anything else. But our eyes strayed, searching the other habitats.
“So, if you’d like to come with me…”