Untouched The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,7
by the door to the chopper.
The last guy off surprised me. I’m not going to mince words: he was fat. Not the size of a house or anything, but he was a big boy. The others were muscular, but his belly hung out under his fatigues. He was laughing about something as his feet hit the ground, but none of his teammates were laughing with him. His grin was not a happy one; for some reason I got a little dash of an unsettling feeling from looking at him.
He reached into the chopper and pulled something out, slinging it over his shoulder to carry. It was a tube, about six feet long, a couple feet wide and a foot deep. It reminded me of an oversized coffin at first glance.
Actually, it reminded me of the box my mother used to put me in, but smaller and more compact.
The big guy joined his comrades and the four of them walked across the helipad as the Black Hawk spun up the rotors and lifted back into the air. I turned my attention to Old Man Winter, who had finished his conversation with Zack.
Zack moved to talk to Kurt. The two of them were partners the day they came to collect me from my house. I didn’t know if they still worked together, because they’d had something of a falling out after Kurt tried to hit me at one point. I wasn’t sure if Zack knew what had happened since then, but I doubt he’d be excited to know that his partner had driven me to an encounter with Wolfe.
I caught a subtle look as he was talking to Kurt. He held eye contact for just a second longer than he had to, and I saw a smile.
Ariadne broke away from the crowd and walked over to me. “You should be sleeping,” she said, resting a careful, gloved hand on my shoulder.
“Am I not allowed to be here?” My words came out more bitter than I had intended. I thought that was because of Wolfe’s influence, but given my past history with Ariadne, there was a strong possibility that it was all me.
“No,” she said, remaining cool in spite of my acrid tone, “I just meant that I assumed you would be resting.”
“I heal fast.” I looked past her, trying to catch Zack’s eye again. “I’ve rested enough, anyway.” That was more defensive.
“I heard you broke into the cafeteria after it closed and took some food.” She watched for my reaction.
I froze, trying to keep my eyes from widening. Had I done that? I managed to speak after a short pause that I hoped she attributed to my guilt at being found out. “It’s better for all involved if I don’t have to go to the cafeteria when I don’t want to. Safer, really. It’s like a public service.” With the flight of the Black Hawk, things had gotten quieter on the helipad. “I’m surprised you don’t have a helipad on the roof of Headquarters.” I was desperate to change the subject by that point.
“We do.” Ariadne crossed her arms and looked back at M-Squad. “But it’ll be easier for Clary to carry his...cargo...” She nodded to the burden that the fat guy was carrying over his shoulder, “...to the science labs without having to navigate an elevator or stairwell.”
“Big guy like that?” I inclined my head toward the coffin. “He looks like he can carry a lead casket for a ways.” I stared at the object, but he had it inclined so that I couldn’t see anything but the bottom and sides. I was beyond curious about what it contained; I wondered if it was the mysterious reason why M-Squad had been in South America for so long.
“I’m sure he can. But it’s delicate, and it would be best if it were undamaged.” She smiled, a tight, insincere one that told me worlds about how much of my question she was avoiding answering.
“Hey.” Zack appeared in front of me, Kurt a few steps behind him.
“Hey,” I said, feeling like the single greatest idiot in the world for repeating his greeting back to him. Genius level IQ, and I was still reduced to this by a boy. FML. (Yes, I know what it means.)
“I heard you broke your promise.” He didn’t come off as accusatory, which surprised me, and yet, didn’t. If he was spying on me, getting into an argument seemed counterproductive. “But I also heard you killed Wolfe, so...good job.” On