Child Z

CHAPTER 7 - LEONIE

Leonie found herself once again staring blankly at her phone, praying for it to ring. Three weeks had passed since the kidnapping, and each day since, she'd waited desperately for Simia to call with good news—any news. Lately, she was going catatonic for long stretches of time, a blank brain without thoughts, until the sound of a bird or a car horn or someone's voice snapped her back to reality, a place she would rather not be.

She'd spent the first week after the kidnapping cooped up in her room, feverishly refreshing news apps on her phone with the hope of seeing the headline KIDNAPPED CHIMPS FOUND. Now, her days were starting to bleed together despite being bookended by long sleepless nights. Her baby was missing. Stolen. Trapped inside the humanized womb of a kidnapped chimpanzee whose whereabouts were unknown. All because nature had robbed her of the ability to carry her own baby. So she was forcing another creature to do it for her. And now that creature and her baby were missing.

It was a Russian doll of nightmares within nightmares.

Habab had been the one to tell her. The news came through a phone call, no small talk or pleasantries. The liaison had cut right to the chase. We regret to inform you your surrogate has been kidnapped. An investigation is underway.

Kidnapped? It made no sense. Leonie hadn't been able to process what she was hearing.

From this moment forward, I will no longer be your Simia liaison. Your case has been transferred to higher management. Habab's deadpan, unsympathetic tone made the situation all the more bizarre. It sounded like she was reading from a script.

During their call, Leonie blasted Habab with questions—her words punctuated with sobs—but Habab refused to answer. Our legal department forbids me from discussing this with you any further. That was all Habab would say. Leonie could feel their call being recorded. She pictured someone listening in, a company lawyer sitting next to Habab in her office with that beautiful view of the mountains and the cracked family portrait on the desk.

A day after the initial call from Habab, Leonie was invited by HR to go in to Simia for a meeting. The company sent a fancy black car to pick her up at Pearl's house and escort her downtown, and Zane joined via video call. To their surprise, Simia General Manager Adrian Cooley—the world's sixth-richest man—had shown up for the meeting in person. Wearing one of his flashy gray suits, Cooley said Akna and another pregnant surrogate had been taken from the premises—kidnapped—and that the company had reason to suspect it was the work of disaffected employees. Cooley apologized on behalf of the company and promised a thorough investigation. He also said if Akna was unable to be found or if the pregnancy was compromised, Simia would provide a full refund. In the meantime, Leonie and Zane were welcome to start again by implanting another of their remaining embryos in a new surrogate at no cost, and Cooley promised their case would be prioritized over other clients on the waiting list.

At the time of the offer, which was quite generous, Leonie had no room in her heart to be thankful. The presence of a world-famous billionaire doing damage control just wasn't enough. Leonie didn't want a refund, nor did she want to start over. She wanted the baby growing inside Akna. She wanted that baby from that surrogate.

Simia asked her and Zane to sign documents promising not to speak to the press, and the company promised to keep their identity as affected parents confidential. Leonie and Zane were happy to comply, eager to stay out of the limelight. News of the stolen surrogates had gone viral around the world, and they had no interest in being anyone's hero—or worse—anyone's villain. There was no telling what people were capable of.

For now, the public only knew that two of Simia's surrogate chimps—one named Lada, the other named Akna—had gone missing. News networks were calling the human fetuses inside the surrogates Child Y and Child Z.