Chuck parked in front of Kristy’s house and sighed deeply. He genuinely didn’t want to socialize with this woman anymore. Sure, there was an off chance encounter with experiment CX21, since he was spotted here once before and likely would return, but he could search for CX21 in the late hours when there was no need for pleasantries and pretending.
That said, there was an FBI agent sniffing around and if he suddenly cut off contact with Kristy after her daughter went missing, there would be one too many coincidences pointing to him as a suspect. So to keep up appearances, Chuck walked to the door and knocked.
Kristy’s little girl was amazing. After only two days, she had surpassed all expectations even further than CX21 had. At this rate, she may be able to help him with the next stage in mere days.
Chuck thought of how close he was to achieving his goals and plastered a small smile on his face as Kristy opened the door.
“Oh Chuck, nice to see you,” Kristy said with a little surprise as she looked into the house behind her and then back to him, “What can I do for you?”
“Good afternoon, Kristy,” Chuck said, mixing a small amount of regret in his tone, “I felt awful having to cut our coffee short the other day and had the free time, so I decided to pay you a visit. It’s just embarrassing for people to see me like that, you know? Is now an okay time for you?”
Kristy seemed apprehensive until he played the pity card, then she caved and said, “Oh sure thing, Chuck. Come in. How are you feeling, by the way?”
“Much better,” Chuck said, following her to the kitchen. There was trash all over the k “I swear, I need to tape my medicine to my forehead so I won’t forget it.”
Kristy laughed and made to pour coffee for the two of them while Chuck sat down.
A glint of silver and green caught Chuck’s eye and there, on the corner of the kitchen counter, directly in front of him, was Experiment CX21 in its chrysalis form.
Chuck did his best to keep the surprise off of his face and looked away quickly. He didn’t want Kristy to notice him staring. The fact that CX21 was on her counter meant she placed it there. No other potential scenarios made any sense.
That meant she knew about CX21. But did that mean she also knew about who he was? How much did CX21 know? Not enough to lead back to anything significant, right? There was no way she would leave the chrysalis out if she knew Chuck would recognize it. She obviously knew something, but he needed to know how much.
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“I think I found something that could help lead us to our loved ones,” Chuck said as Kristy said down at the table with him.
“Really?” Kristy said as her eyes darted to the counter for a brief moment.
“That’s right. I talked to a chemist that has been studying water samples in the area. He told me there was an unknown substance in the water around here.” Chuck said, hoping the shared information would get her to open up. “He said the substance isn’t a naturally occurring phenomenon, so it must have been added to the water by a person. He said it almost seemed like an experiment since samples from different areas had higher and lower concentrations of the substance.”
“What do you think that has to do with Colin?” Kristy said, leaning forward in interest.
Chuck shrugged and said, “I don’t know, but our loved ones disappeared for some mysterious experiment, so maybe the water stuff is that experiment in some way. I’m still trying to piece it together, but that’s all I have so far. Have you found anything?”
Kristy hesitated then shook her head, “No, I’m sorry. I’ll be honest, Jenny is missing and that’s all I can think about.”
So she was hiding CX21 from him. Interesting. Chuck wiped the smile from his face and tried to look concerned, “I’m so sorry, Kristy. Are you sure she’s gone?”
Kristy nodded, “She wouldn’t run away from home and she didn’t show up to school yesterday. She would have come home by now if she could.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Chuck offered. All he could really think about was finding out what Kristy knew and taking that chrysalis, but he needed to be patient.
Kristy shook her head, “No, but thank you. What kind of sick bastard takes a child?”
Chuck bristled at the insult and before thinking replied, “What kind of parent lets her kid wander the woods at night?”
Kristy froze and her eyes went wide as saucers as she stared at Chuck like prey spotting a predator stalking them, “What did you just say?”
“I, only meant, uh..” Chuck tried to salvage the situation, but the look in Kristy’s eyes let him know he had no hope of winning her over again. He thought about what to do before hanging his head and sighing, “Fuck it.”
Chuck shoved the table forward into Kristy before she could react and leaped to his feet.
Kristy shoved back at the table and in her panic knocked herself backwards.
Chuck leaped on the opportunity and caught Kristy in a headlock before she could recover. He squeezed hard and in moments, she stopped struggling. He dragged her out to the car where he dosed her with chloroform for safe measure and then layed her onto the back seat.
While catching his breath, Chuck took Kristy’s phone and sent a text to Officer Higgins saying Jenny came back and that she was going on a small trip to celebrate and would be back in a week. He ended the message by asking Officer Higgins to let her know if they found any information about Colin to make it seem more real.
That done, Chuck walked into the house, Grabbed the chrysalis of CX21 from the counter and then got back into his car.
He ground his teeth at his stupidity, then looked in the rearview mirror at Kristy in the back seat.
Chuck took a deep breath, to calm himself and tried to look on the bright side. He may have lost his cool, but the situation turned out in his favor. He had CX21 back and the daughter was making splendid progress. Now that he had Kristy too, he may as well try experimenting on the entire family.
