"What have you found?" I leaned against on of the ling tables of the lab, watching as Max picked up her notes. She'd been put in charge with trying to find out how marina mutant was made.
Picking up her clipboard, Max turned toward me, "Well I can tell you he wasn't created in a test tube. At least, not technically. He was human once. Worked at the docks."
She handed me an I.D. card. The card was caked in dried up mud, the lamination cracking, as if thd card had been subjected to extreme heat.
The words on the card were to faded to be legable, but I could still make out yhe picture of a man with brown hair.
"I did some digging after finding that. His name is Mark Kelly. He's thirty-three and worked as a fisherman. He went missing two months ago." Max informed me.
"Only to turn up like this." I mumble softly. If this was accurate, then that ment Stone had been in town longer then we thought. Long enough to make himself comfortable.
"Found anything else?" I asked.
Max looked at her clipboard, reading off the rest of her findings, "His DNA was siced with that of a shark's. A great white, to be exact."
Setting the I.D. card aside, I shook my head, "Spliced? What do you mean by that?"
Setting the clipboard down, she looked at me, "To put it simply, his DNA was mixed that of a great white shark. He has shark DNA flowing through his veins."
That..wasn't possble. Our bodies were designed to reject what didn't belong, and shark DNA definitely didn't belong.
"Do you know how this was done?"
Max shook her head, "No, but I intend to keep looking." Her lips pressed into a thin line, determination sparking in her blue eyes. She didn't like not knowing the answer to something, and wouldn't stop until she pieced the puzzle together.
Thanking her, I left the lab feeling i had more questions then answers. How long had Stone actually been here? How many more unfortunate souls were we going to cross paths with before this all came to an end?
"Ah, Natasha, I assume you've already been to see Max?" Dare said as soon as I joined in his office.
"Yeah, and from what she's told me, Stone's been here awhile. " I replied, taking a seat, "Now I can't but wonder just how long has he been in town, and how many more will we run into like this?"
Dare shook his head, "I don't know. Let's just assume Stone's been here a few months. Maybe even a year."
"If thats that's the case, then there will ve more victims like our shark friend."
Not just those victims either. My mind went back to the attack in my apartment. To a ghost from my past. The only way to get the answers I sought was to find Stone.
"Whew! Sorry I'm late. My bike was having engine trouble." Marisa said as she hurried in.
Dare looked at her, "Well you haven't missed much. We were just getting started. "
Once she was seated, I spoke up, "We believe Stone has been here for two months, possibly longer. The mutant frim the docks. That was Mark Kelly. He went missing two months ago."
"Shit." Marisa mumbled, "If that's the case, then we'll probably run into more of those creatures of his."
"That's a safe bet." Dare commented, "Grab Damian and fill him in on this. Then I want all three of you to go over any missing persons case you find. See if there's a connection. Maybe we can find some leads that way."
"So where is the newbie, anyway?" Marisa asked as we left Dare's offce.
"He got held up at his day job. He let Dare know he wouldn't be able to get away." I replied.
"Can't we just leave him there and just do this on our own?"
I roll my eyes, "As tempting as that may be, we can't. I hate to admit it, but we need him for this mission. Especially after the attack on me."
Marisa stopped and looked at me, "Tasha, what aren't you telling me?"
I was quiet for a moment, before taking a deep breath and telling her what I hadn't told her regarding my attacker.
Marisa was quiet for a moment, before slowly shaking her head, "Shit, Tasha. I mean I guess it's not impossible, but... alright. Let's go. We shouldn't be surprised if he went all Dr. Frankenstein on us; But that won't stop us. It won't stop you. We'll get him."
She was right. I knew she was right. Stone was crazy enough to start world war Z if he wanted to. So why was it so hard for me to accept this? I knew why of course. I just didn't want to accept it. Yet, if I was going to do my job properly, I had to.
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly before looking at Marisa, "Let's go get Damian and fill him in."