Experiment Zero

10. Sleepover

A minute later I'm awkwardly standing in Mrs. Clark's office, the woman herself sitting behind the desk in front of me and clicking a pen while she waits.

           "So what's so important that you had to pull me away from my job?" She asks, teeth flashing in a grimace a small grimace.

I can feel her internal eye-roll, as if I was nothing but an elementary school student who asked to sue the bathroom for the third time in the past ten minutes.

 "Zero tried to escape." I start off, which prompts her to roll her eyes for real this time and not just internally.

   "Yes, I'm aware of that." She replies, opening up a drawer and starting to pull out a few documents.

   "I want to know why he escaped. What are you doing to him when I'm gone?" I push on.

      "Tests."

     "More details please."

    She sighs, tapping her freshly manicured fingernails against her desk. "I'll tell you what. Zero hasn't been doing so good lately, and I'm almost one hundred percent positive it's because you haven't visited him until tonight. We need more information, because your dad is looking to shut this experiment down, and without any more progress, he'll have a viable excuse to ship Zero back to his land and have the island protected by law from anymore further examinations."

  I feel my mouth drop open, shocked. My dad, who is leader of this whole operation, wants to shut it down? 

Why would he do it? He just got promoted to head scientist, so why would he want to give it up? Not that shutting down  this experiment sounds bad, it actually is wonderful news, but my dad's given up everything to attain knowledge about the unknown in the Bermuda triangle. My mom even died for it. Now he wants to shut it down?

     "And we can't have that," Mrs. Clark continues. "So I'm prepared to offer you a deal. Tomorrow, I want you to spend the whole day and night with Zero. Try teaching him some things, or even just talking. He'll get to see you, and we might obtain very valuable information. Everyone wins."

     "I don't think that's a great idea. Every time I've been around Zero I've only provoked him." I say, thinking of a way to shut her down properly and refuse.

"You not being around him only provokes him more." She points out. "In a weird sense, we actually want him provoked. Riling him up is the perfect way to study his reactions and examine how his mind thinks."

I try not to grimace at her words, and instead take a breath.

"What's in it for me thought? Why would I put myself in danger to spend a whole night and day with a person capable to killing someone?"

 She smiles, staring me down. "I have a feeling you enjoy spending time with Zero. And he has never harmed you before, so why would he do it now?"

I open my mouth, ready to fire back that I was literally almost kidnapped and taken to Zero's home, wherever that is, but then I shut my mouth, deciding not to.

    I still can't place the uneasy feeling in my stomach. Something is wrong about Mrs. Clark, something that wasn't off about her before, when I first met her. She's changed. If she finds out Zero was planning to take me to his 'home', she may willingly send me off with a tracker and sue me as part of the experiment.

    "So do we have a deal?" She finally asks, her eyes glinting in the dim office room light.

      I pause, hesitating. I hate to admit it, but at the moment my hands are tied. A selfish part of me wants to see Zero again, and I want him to escape and get back to his home, but what about my dad?