The Icarus Project (28 page)

Just then Jake strolled into the infirmary and gave me a nod. Right behind him was Karen, who came over to my bedside. Stroking my hair, she said, “You don’t need to worry about him now. Take care of yourself.”

“Katsu has him locked up in the lab,” Kyle said.

My pulse quickened. We were right back where we had started. “What’s Randal going to do? He won’t let Katsu take him away, will he? He’ll do awful things to him. You all know that Katsu is going to experiment on him. He wants to clone Charlie. He told me.”

“Don’t get excited,” Karen said.

“You didn’t see Randal’s Icarus Project,” Jake said from the doorway. “Look, I’m no Benedict Arnold. I love my uncle. But he’s in deep with these guys. He’s going ahead
with his plan. Katsu gets all the samples he needs, and then Randal goes public with Charlie and gets all the recognition for the discovery. No choice.”

“What are we going to do?” I said.

“We can’t do anything,” Karen said. “We’re dependent on Randal. This is his station and he controls what happens here. Remember, it’s his helicopter and these are his employees.”

“I’m sorry,” Justice said. “But Doctor Gardner is right. I have to do what Randal wants. This is my job, and he’s the boss.” He stood to leave. “Get some sleep.”

“I don’t like it any more than you do, but we all knew coming into this project that whatever was found in the ice belonged to Randal,” Karen said.

I felt tears well up, but I swallowed hard and brushed them away. “There has to be
something
we can do.”

West had returned and was leaning in the doorway. “Get some rest and get better. You’re lucky we found you. Today was a big win for us. A good day. We got our special girl back safe and sound, and that’s enough for me. Justice and I need to make sure the chopper is ready. Katsu is leaving in the morning, and the rest of you will leave in the afternoon.”

“The morning!” I blurted out. “So soon?” I couldn’t believe it. Charlie was slipping away. It was all ending so fast.

Karen tucked in the comforter around me. “How about I go check on getting something to eat for all of us?”

Once everyone else had left, Jake, Kyle, and I stared at one another in silence for a few minutes. No one knew what to say. It was Jake who spoke up first. “Are we just going to sit around and do nothing, or are we going to plan a little jailbreak?” He smiled wide.

“I’m up for a jailbreak,” Kyle said.

“Me too.” We had to at least try to rescue Charlie. The others might work for Randal, but we didn’t.

“Now we just need a plan,” Jake said.

“How do we know we can trust you?” I asked. “No offense, but it’s not like we’re best friends. And you
are
Randal’s nephew.”

“Yeah, why do want to help us?” Kyle asked. “Your uncle is going to be pretty steamed at you.”

Jake shoved his hands in his pockets. “Look, I’m not a PhD kind of guy. I don’t claim to be a scientist. Heck, I don’t know much of anything but filmmaking. I watch stuff. I’m like a witness to what goes on. And I don’t like what I’ve been seeing around here.”

“Really?” I wondered if he hadn’t also taken a good look in the mirror. “You take after your uncle.”

Jake glanced at the floor. “I don’t like how I’ve acted, either.”

“You can be kind of rude with that camera,” Kyle said.

“I know it. I’m an opportunist. I step on toes to get what I want. Just like my uncle and now Katsu. And that’s not right.”

“This sounds good, but how do we know that you’ve really changed?” I asked.

“Yeah, what’s the catch?” Kyle asked.

“I can’t prove that I’ve changed.” He shrugged. “I still want to get Charlie on film. Maybe I could get an interview before we help him escape?” He looked sheepishly at us, and both Kyle and I shook our heads. At least Jake was being honest. He wanted to document Charlie for his film.
That
I could believe.

“We have to figure out how to break Charlie out of the observation room and then what to do with him once he’s free,” Kyle said.

“I’ve been thinking about that. And something keeps going through my head,” I said, then turned to Jake. “Remember the night I went outside and found your camera equipment set up under the tarp?”

“You mean when you heard voices and wandered out in the snow, thinking that the big tarp was Randal?” Kyle laughed.

“Yes, dork.” I play-kicked him with my fuzzy slipper.

“How could I forget?” Jake asked. “I thought you had messed up a whole night of filming. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“It has everything to do with
what
you were filming.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

“We all saw the Icarus Project. The creature had wings.
She was real,” I said. “You and Randal have been tracking her.”

“So what does this mean?” Kyle asked. “How will that help us rescue Charlie?”

“She’s still out there,” I said. “What if Charlie and the snow ghost are related? What if they’re connected? Somehow the same species?”

Kyle’s eyes lit up. “Charlie’s a snow ghost … I see where this is going.”

“What if the reason she appeared the same time that we brought Charlie to the station was that she was looking for him? That she came back for him?”

Kyle nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“When Charlie and I were at the dome, I’m pretty sure he referred to himself as a snow ghost. He said he wanted to go home. I thought he was just mimicking me, but now I think he was talking about himself.”

Both Jake and Kyle stared at me.

“Look, I’m up for anything,” Jake said. “If you can get him out of the lab, I’ll help you.”

“We just have to figure out how to break Charlie out of the lab,” Kyle said.

But I already had an idea.

After what happened with Ivan, Katsu con
vinced Randal that Charlie would be safe and secure only at his lab in Japan. Randal had no choice. He agreed to let Katsu take Charlie. That meant we only had one night to free Charlie. The next day, he would be leaving the station with Katsu to be ushered off to some lab in Japan. Randal had a debt to Katsu, and Charlie was the payment. A contract was a contract.

Well, I hadn’t given my word to anyone, and I had a plan to break Charlie out of the lab and set him free. The plan was simple, as all good plans are. It was also crazy and probably not going to work, but I was pinched for time and had to move.

My hair flowed around my shoulders and billowed down my back like a silky white cape. Mom had read me fairy tales where the witch would grow her hair really long because it gave her power. I could use a little power.

I entered the lab to face my opponent, Dr. Victory. In my possession were a handful of weapons—a few tiny plastic mammoths, a stuffed polar bear, and a feather. I
didn’t believe in curses, but I did believe in dreams. Dad had a dream of unearthing a frozen mammoth, Katsu had a dream of duplicating DNA and making an exact replica, and Jake had a dream of telling stories with a lens. Dreams gave a person purpose and drive.

My goal was to get Charlie out of this cold, sterile lab. Get him back outside and set him free. I knew what I was digging for. I didn’t care about the dead. I was looking for living people. Maybe that was why I knew that Charlie had been alive under the ice all along. My dream now was to save my friend.

Dr. Victory was in my way.

“What are you doing here?” Katsu stood motionless behind his computer as I entered the lab. “This area is off limits.” He glided toward me like a crocodile on the Nile.

“I want to see Charlie.” I strode purposefully toward the door to the observation room where Charlie was being kept.

Katsu blocked my way. “No.”

I clutched the stuffed polar bear to my chest. “I just want to say good-bye and give him a present.” I motioned to the bear. I was hoping that the ploy would soften Katsu’s clinical heart.

But Dr. Victory’s cool demeanor never wavered. “No. No one goes in to see the specimen.”

“Come on, Katsu.” Jake, my unlikely ally, walked
behind me with his camera in hand. “Give the kid a break. She just wants to say good-bye to her friend. I don’t think my uncle would object to that.”

“She is tricky.” Katsu pointed his finger at me. “No tricks,” he warned as he grudgingly stepped aside.

“No tricks. Just good-bye,” I said.

Hurdle number one had just been jumped.

Katsu unlocked the door, and I hurried into the cool observation room. He glided back to the computer but watched me from the corner of his eye. I plopped down on the bed next to Charlie.

“Here, I brought this for you. I thought you might like it.” I passed the stuffed toy to him.

“Strength,” he said, smiling. “Polar bears are stronger than people.” He was wearing a pair of Kyle’s pants and a sweatshirt, Karen’s hat, and my scarf. The room was freezing. I was surprised that Katsu hadn’t tried to freeze Charlie solid again in a block of ice.

Through the glass, I saw that the outside door to the lab was open, and, as I watched, Kyle wandered in. My reinforcement had arrived. He carried two huge plastic cups, each filled to the brim with root beer, and there was a bag of cheese puffs clenched in his teeth. Our eyes met, and he smiled, as much as a person with a plastic bag in his mouth could smile. Katsu moved to intercept Kyle and forgot about me. He did not shut and lock the door to the observation room. Hurdle number two, jumped.

“No, no, no.” Katsu held his arms up, blocking Kyle from entering the lab. “You can’t come in here with snacks. No snacks! I forbid sticky, cheesy snacks in the lab.”

Kyle kept walking to a desk at the back of the lab, diverting Katsu’s attention from me.

I took a deep breath and faced Charlie and hurdle number three. This was the crazy part of my plan. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small herd of plastic mammoths. Kyle and I had confiscated them from Randal’s mammoth park diorama. We didn’t think the billionaire would need the plastic toys anymore. I lined the mammoths up in a row on the comforter.

“Mammoths,” I said. I held up the first animal and showed it to Charlie. “This one is you.”

“Me.” Charlie looked startled. “No, I’m Charlie. I’m not a mammoth.” Charlie’s English skills were getting much better.

I continued. “Right—you are Charlie. This mammoth just
represents
you.” I sighed. This was going to be harder to explain than I thought. “This one is you.” Charlie opened his mouth to speak, and I held up my hand. “Just wait.”

I put the mammoth back in line with the others. “See, this one is you. It is real. The real one. The real you.” I held up the second mammoth. “This is another mammoth. It isn’t real. It is a copy of the first one.” I watched his expression, hoping he understood.

“Copy,” he said. He leaned over and studied the row of tiny models. He fingered each one.

“A copy looks like the real one,” I said. “Like in dreams. Remember the dream visions you made? My dad saw a snowy world filled with mammoths. Kyle flew with wings like the ones you once had. And I saw you alive in the ice. You made us see and feel all those things like they were real.”

Charlie nodded. I wasn’t sure what he could do—I wasn’t sure if he knew his full potential—but the one thing I knew he could do was build dreamscapes. If I was right about his abilities, Charlie could make Katsu believe he was still in the lab, and make him believe he would get on a plane with Katsu.

“I need you to make a dreamscape of yourself sitting here in the lab.”

“A vision.” He said the word so clearly that I smiled. I knew it was a long shot. But if he could sprout wings and change into a polar bear at will, maybe he could create a dreamscape for Katsu.

“Yes! A vision of you here in the lab.” My heart raced. Charlie understood. Maybe this would work out after all.

“A dream of me for pretend.” He tilted his head.

“You get it. I need you to make a dreamscape of you to stay here in the lab, while the real you leaves with me.
Can you do that?” I searched his face, not sure if he was following. “We want to make Katsu believe you are in the lab and then traveling home with him.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No more.”