Runaway Heart

THIRTY-FIVE

Pan is outside the pool house. He sees the Geegas. They are in the lighted room behind the sheet of hard air.

He leaps, hitting it, putting his head through, but feeling no pain as pieces crash onto the floor around him. Green, savage memories overtake him-shadow thoughts he can never identify. Violence! Rage! Killing for his tribe! Now Pan is inside the room and the Geegas are standing still, frightened, so easy to slaughter.

The male Geega, standing next to the light pad on the wall, does something Pan doesn't understand… he turns and pushes a button. "Run!" he yells at the female Geega, who lunges toward the door. But Pan blocks her path. He knows to kill the male Geega first. This is the rule.

Pan charges.

The male Geega swings a heavy canvas bag, hitting him in the chest, catching Pan by surprise. Pan falls backward, squealing.

"The pool!" the female yells. Pan knows he can't rip them apart. He must use the knife. He knows that disobeying a direct order from the Alpha is worse than death.

Pan brings his gloved hand up, flashing the knife. Pan spends hours practicing with the killing knives. He prefers to use his hands-the glorious shredding ripping, but the Alpha Geega has said no. So, Pan now approaches slowly, just as he is taught. Creeping toward the male Geega on three extenders, his gloved hand in front of him, the five-inch blade flashing. He can hear his breath coming in rasps, snarling in the back of his throat.

Pan is happy.

Herman saw the beast seconds after it crashed through the window. It was far more terrifying than he had imagined… an almost-human face twisted in animal rage, a body covered completely with brown fur. He hit the emergency panic button, sending a silent alarm directly to the Malibu Sheriff's substation a few miles away, then turned to face the beast. The animal reeked like an unwashed hound. It wore a white headband, soaked red with blood from glass cuts.

"My God," Herman said, as the chimera brandished a vicious-looking, five-inch blade in its gloved hand. The beast was wearing a vest that contained some kind of complicated computer. The stench coming off the animal was growing worse by the second, clogging Herman's nostrils.

Then the chimera charged.

Herman swung his heavy canvas bag full of law books, catching the beast in the chest and rolling it backward onto the floor. He grabbed Sandy 's hand and started for the back door.

"No!" Sandy yelled. "The pool!" She ran right through the broken sliding glass door, pulling Herman after her, as the chimera rolled to its feet and with amazing speed leaped forward, running on all fours, quickly closing the distance between them.

Herman could hear the strange sound of the leather gloves scraping against the concrete pavement behind them. Sandy yanked him hard and suddenly they were both in the pool. As they landed in the deep end the chimera skidded to a halt inches from the water. It screamed, then ran around the edge, jumping and grunting, looking for a way to get at them.

"My God, what is it?" Herman said. "I think it's one of your new clients," Sandy gasped as they treaded water. "A chimera. They can't swim."

"How do you know?" Herman yelled as he watched the frightening animal growling at them, its eyes filled with murderous rage.

"It looks mostly chimp. They're too heavy to swim. Too much muscle. No body fat. Chimps are afraid of the water." Sandy treaded water and stared at the angry beast. She obviously knew what she was talking about, because it was now clear that this thing had no intention of going in after them.

As the hybrid ran back and forth around the pool, it finally noticed the steps in the shallow end. Screeching angrily, it waded in up to its waist-but now the electronic vest was getting wet. Herman could hear circuits popping. After a moment of indecision, the chimera waded out of the pool, then scurried around to the diving board. It ran out to the end and clung to the edge, reaching toward Herman and making a loud, plaintive scream.

"It wants us to help him." Herman started to swim toward it.

"Get back… are you nuts?" Sandy yelled, then grabbed him, pulling him further out of range.

The chimera jumped up and down on the diving board, regret on its hairless face.

Suddenly they heard police sirens winding down outside the house. A pair of car doors slammed and a moment later the first of the Malibu sheriffs jumped up to look over the wall into the pool area.

"Help!" Sandy called. "We need help!"

The deputy climbed to the top of the wall, then jumped down, landing twenty feet from the enraged chimera.

"What the fuck?" the deputy sheriff said when he saw the beast.

Pan sees the Geega female turn and drag the male out through the broken place. Out to the wet place where water shimmers.

Pan knows he must stop the Geegas before they get there. If Geegas get to the wet place he will not be able to follow. He will fail.

Pan is almost on them, reaching out with the knife, slashing, but getting nothing but Geega clothing. Pan screams in fear and anger, almost falls, teetering on the edge of the wet, but finally regains his balance. The Alpha Geega Dave is yelling in Pan's earpiece.

"Kill them! Get them!" Pan wants to do what Dave commands. He can imagine the Geega bodies in his grip, ripping, shredding. Pan wants to use the PB-99, but the Alpha Geega says no, not unless he is being captured.

Pan runs around the pool, stopping at some steps where the water looks shallow. He runs down, feeling the warm wet against his fur. He goes deeper, almost to his waist.

"Pan! No! Don't get the vest wet!" Dave is yelling at him. "You'll short it out."

Pan hears the vest popping, but he ignores it. He is a warrior. He has come from a faraway place to shred and kill. He will not fail.

Pan backs out of the water and runs to the wood plank hanging out over the other side. He creeps out to the end and can now almost reach the male Geega. He grabs the underside of the wood that is hanging over the water and stretches out as far as he can, reaching for the big Geega, but he is still too far away. The Geega begins moving toward him… maybe close enough to grab.

Pan hears something behind him, turns, and sees another Geega jumping up on the wall. This Geega wears a cap and has silver on his shirt. The Geega jumps down off the wall.

"What the fuck?" the Geega says. Pan screams his warrior scream. He runs at the new Geega standing by the gate. He grabs him and jerks him forward. Using the knife, Pan rips him open. Blood spews. Pan keeps jabbing and cutting. The Geega's screams are gurgles now as he chokes on his own blood. Pan has no mercy.

The Geega falls forward. Blood spills from the huge wound in his neck. Pan jumps up and down on the ground, then snarls at his dead enemy.

Maybe this will make Dave happy. Pan knows he must go. He turns and easily leaps over the wall, landing on the other side, then runs toward the van. But as he does he hears two loud bangs. He knows that these are from a Geega fire-stick. Then a third bang. Something hits him hard in the back. Pan flies forward, feeling nothing but the impact that turns him in the air as he falls. Pan lands on his back and sees a second Geega wearing the same uniform with silver pinned on his shirt. He is standing off the walkway pointing his fire-stick. The man shoots again.

"No!" Dave Silver said, watching on the monitor as his chimera lay bleeding in the street.

"Abort destruct," Norm Pettis ordered, but Silver's face was twisted with indecision. Pettis reached out and pushed a radio detonator. The vest Pan was wearing would react to the radio command by injecting the chimera with an explosive chemical that would travel quickly to five areas in Pan's body, drawn by electromagnets located in the vest. Pettis pushed a second button, which sent a radio wave to the DARPA satellite in space, then bounced it back to the detonator on Pan's body computer.

Nothing happened. The vest had shorted out.

Dave Silver knew Pan was mortally wounded. Pettis grabbed the mike. "Pan! You must go. You must hide!"

They watched on the monitor as the deputy approached Pan, gazing down in wonder.

"Pan, run! Run!" Pettis ordered angrily.

Surprisingly, Pan rolled to his feet and shoved the deputy aside.

"Son of a bitch," Pettis said softly. "These little fuckers are tough."

As Dave Silver watched in awe, Pan started to run. Leaking blood, the chimera limped up the beach road, crossed into the brush by the hillside, then disappeared.