Catnip by J.S. Frankel Page B

and inserted it into the machine. The onboard
computer started blinking which meant it was analyzing the data.
“How long is this going to take?” Farrell asked.
    “About ninety minutes,” Harry answered. “We
have to wait.”
    They sat down and the agent went out twice to
get coffee. When he returned the second time, he drummed his
fingers restlessly and then the results flashed on the screen which
made the teen gasp in amazement. “What is it?” Farrell wanted to
know.
    Harry pointed at the screen. Three separate
matrices had appeared. “The DNA on the left is from a person,” he
said, and indicated the helix with his index finger. “The one on
the right is the DNA of a cat. The one in the center is her DNA.
They’ve been combined.” He stopped talking, and realized his own
ideas had been brought to reality by someone else.
    Farrell looked at the screen more closely.
“So she’s a product of genetic engineering, a transgenic?”
    A soft moan disturbed the proceedings before
Harry could answer. The girl had woken up and was sitting with her
back against the wall, shaking her head. She muttered something
that sounded like nstasia. She turned her eyes on him and
regarded him with an air of curiosity.
    The agent moved in to get a closer look, only
to be greeted by a yowl of rage. A fine spray of spit sifted
between the metal bars followed by another vicious yowl and a swipe
of her arm. He barely evaded her claws. Wiping the spit off his
suit, Farrell went to the door. “She seems to like you better,” he
remarked amiably.
    Harry recalled the Taser incident and
couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “Gee, I wonder
why.”
    Farrell’s expression turned to stone. “Stick
to doing what you do best, kid. I’m going to get some more coffee
and check on our sources.” He disappeared out the door before Harry
could say anything.
    Harry turned back to face the cat-girl. He
tried to separate the human from the animal. She had a cat’s ears,
whiskers and eyes, but the mouth was human, as was the body. The
prisoner stared at him and he figured since she wasn’t going to
volunteer information, he might as well get in some DNA research
time. He quickly downloaded the information to his computer and
began working. The way to translocate cells had always been done by
use of a protein compound. He’d managed to synthesize one, and
maybe that would be…
    “I’m sorry I hit you.”
    The voice—feminine—came from behind him. He
spun around on his chair, amazed beyond amazed. His own curiosity
aroused, he got up and went over to the cage. “You can talk ?”
    “Yeah, I can talk,” she answered. She leaned
over briefly to sniff him as if getting his scent, and drew back.
Her voice sounded high, girlish, and also flat, without emotion or
inflection. “I just didn’t feel like it around that FBI agent. He’s
not my kind of person.” She paused for a moment, and when she spoke
again, her voice came out in a low, guttural growl. “I hate being called Miss Kitty. ”
    Harry’s mouth opened and closed spasmodically
for a few seconds. Okay, she could talk…and maybe she knew a lot
more than she let on. “Um, my name’s—”
    “You told me,” she interrupted. “Your name’s
Harry Goldman. I’m…”
    Her face twisted in a sudden spasm. It seemed
as if she wanted to say something and something else was blocking
it. Had she been hypnotized? He’d always thought hypnosis was total
crap, but this seemed real enough…and then he remembered she’d had
traces of truth serum in her blood. It seemed someone didn’t want
her to talk about anything. It didn’t make sense, though. Truth
serum was designed to make a person spill their secrets, not hide
them.
    The cat-girl closed her eyes and her body
shook. “My name’s Anastasia,” she said with difficulty. After a
series of rapid breaths, her body relaxed. “I’m Anastasia.” She
smiled as if she’d surmounted some formerly and heretofore
unreachable