Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [23]
Liam sighed. ‘Back in that ol’ bathtub for me.’
CHAPTER 13
2001, New York
Sal stared at the curled-up form in the growth tube in stunned silence for a good minute before she finally gasped. ‘Oh no.’
By the dim red light of the back room and the peach-coloured glow of the tube’s interior up-light she could see they’d really messed up with growing Bob’s body. Well, actually … it looked like she alone had messed things up.
They’re going to be mad at me.
Maddy’s voice echoed through the open door into the back room. ‘How’s he looking?’
Sal didn’t know what to say. So she said nothing.
‘Everything OK in there?’
They’ve got to find out sometime.
‘Uhh … no. Not really,’ she replied.
‘What’s the matter?’ Maddy’s head appeared in the doorway, squinting into the gloom of the hatchery. ‘Sal? What’s up?’
‘It’s uh … it’s Bob …’ she said.
‘Oh God, what now? It’s not a mis-growth, is it? We can’t afford to start off another one.’
Sal had caught a glimpse of the few mis-growths that had been floating in the tubes back here not long after Foster had recruited them; they’d looked like awful freakshow specimens in some carnival tent, contorted, with faces like gargoyles and demons and limbs twisted into impossible claw-like stumps. She thanked God it wasn’t something like that.
‘No, it’s grown just fine … it’s just …’
Maddy took a cautious step into the hatchery, her eyes yet to adjust to the dim red lighting. ‘Well, it looks OK from here. Two arms, two legs … nothing weird and gross sticking out,’ she said.
Sal studied the adult-sized form floating in the murky pink soup. ‘I think I must have put the wrong foetus in or something,’ she uttered.
Maddy took a few steps across the floor, careful not to hook her foot in a power cable and pull over one of the other tubes holding the other tiny foetuses in stasis.
‘Come on, Sal, what’s the prob–’ Maddy’s voice tailed away as she stood beside her. ‘Oh,’ she whispered. ‘I see now.’
Sal bit her lip. ‘I … I must have … I’m sorry. I didn’t check it first. I … just didn’t see.’
Maddy looked at her. ‘You didn’t see?’
‘They all looked the same!’ Sal replied, her voice rising in pitch. ‘Look, I’m sorry!’
‘Oh, that’s just great, Sal. Just great! Now what are we going to do!’
‘I’m sorry, OK? Sorry. I didn’t see. I just –’
‘Sorry … is that it? Sorry doesn’t help us. There’s no time to grow another one!’
Liam stepped into the back room. ‘Hey! Ladies, ladies! Whatever is the matter?’
‘Well, why don’t you come and look for yourself,’ snapped Maddy irritably.
Liam made his way cautiously forward until he was standing between them.
‘Meet your new support unit,’ she added sarcastically.
Liam frowned at the dim outline in the tube, then suddenly his eyebrows shot up into twin arches. ‘It’s a … it’s a … it’s a …’
‘Girl,’ said Sal helpfully.
‘Oh Jay-zus-’n’-Mother-Mary … I never knew we got baby boys and girls.’
Maddy reached down to the floor and picked up one of the empty glass containers the foetuses had come in. She held it close to the growth tube to take advantage of some of the softly glowing light coming from within.
‘There,’ she said after a while, her finger pointing at a small marking at the bottom of the glass.
Sal leaned closer, screwing her eyes up to see it better in the dim light.
‘It says XX … that’s all. What’s that supposed to mean?’
Maddy tutted and shook her head. ‘You don’t know?’
‘No.’
Liam shrugged. ‘Me neither,’ he said, his eyes still locked on the naked female form inside the tube.
‘It means female. And XY means male. You guys can be real morons! It’s to do with the chromosomes.’
Liam managed to drag his eyes away. ‘Cromer-what-a-ma-jinxie?’
Frustrated, Maddy banged the perspex tube with the palm of her hand. ‘Doesn’t matter. I’ll explain another time. The point is what are we gonna do?’
‘If we start another one off, it’ll be at least another thirty-six hours before we can send someone to