Lyla: Her Shanghai Mutation: Leopard Shifter Paranormal Fantasy

By Louise Kriek and D. G. America

What happens when you're changed -- emotionally and physically --- in a big city thousands of miles from home? Can a young American woman named Lyla hide in plain sight in China, and still live a normal life? Even if she's surrounded by shifters? READ THIS DARK FANTASY TODAY!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terra Forma
• Release date: Mar 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386278337

Book preview

Preface

What happens when you're changed -- emotionally and physically --- thousands of miles from home? Can a person hide in plain sight in an city with millions of residents and still live a normal life? Here’s the story of Lyla, an American working in a lab in China and infected. The mutations that follow transform her into a shifter and introduce her to a world of others that have the same abilities… or curse.

1

Lyla Meyers knew that an urgent phone call was made about her from Fairfax County, Virginia to a satellite phone in Shanghai, China. It was right at the beginning of her new abilities, but then she lost consciousness.

The secure line opened with two packet data bursts of the latest digital ‘handshake’ technology. The master digital authentication passcode, a series of automated noise and pitch questions, were answered and authenticated by the other line with its top secret frequencies, waveforms, and amplitudes. The exchanges were fast. Only a matter of two seconds for at least five separate rounds of authentication.

If any response fell outside of the pitch parameters, the call would instantly terminated either as a hacked intercept or a sonically insecure network. Bad reception was not tolerated.

Director Cooper waited for his operative Mr. Oliver to speak.

Did you hear about the developing… situation in Shanghai? the man on the other end of the phone said slowly. His intensity hung over their conversation like a storm cloud.

Yes, said Cooper. "What do you need?’

Authorization only.

Do we know the conduit?

Still researching that. We have assets on the ground ready to handle this, but I’m curious what level you want? Do want us to hold on until we have more answers?

No. Clean it all up. Total scrub, he said as the man in charge. I knew something like this would happen eventually. He paused for a moment and their secure sat-phone line went silent except for the faintest amount of digital static. "But we have protocols for containment. So let’s use them. Just make sure that you recover… the item. Beyond that, if everything else goes away, we’ll be solid."

Understood said Mr. Oliver.

With that the line clicked off and both men were gone.

The next morning a news report that was only covered in the United States and Europe for its stock market implications gave Cooper his confirmation.

As his wife made breakfast for the kids, Cooper lifted his tablet and slowly swiped through a few headlines while he sipped his green tea. He always sat in the connected living room while they ate breakfast at the kitchen table, something once odd, but now an established family routine. Within a few minutes, he found what he was looking for. It was there in the overnight financial news feed coming out of Asia. He read the brief, emotionless.

Biotechnology Market News: Asia Desk

Forty-Nine Dead, Seventeen Injured in Shanghai Explosion

Asia Updates (29 December 2036)

— Shanghai, China: ViHumaRel, Inc., a biotech research company owned by HXR Technologies reported an accident in one of its Chinese subsidiaries. An estimated eighteen (18) scientists, researchers, laboratory assistants, and facilities staff were killed in an explosion caused by an underground natural gas leak that destroyed the entire city block in the city of Shanghai, China. It is believed as many as thirty-one (31) local Chinese residents were also killed in the utility blast, including some students from the nearby Shanghai Jiao Tong University. At least seventeen others were injured, including six still being treated at area hospitals. HXR Tech, Inc., headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, confirmed that both Chinese and American authorities are investigating the incident. The company offered a public statement expressing condolences to the families of those employees and Shanghai citizens lost or injured in this tragic accident. HXR Tech stock (ticker symbol: HXRT, $83.35, $-3.04, -3.52%) was down 3.52% today on heavy trading.

Cooper clicked the side of his tablet, powering it off and casually returned to his sipping his tea, lost in thought.

Can I put a bagel in for you, hon? his wife asked.

No, thank you, he said with a gentle smile, drifting back to family life, and the Christmas vacation he was spending with the kids.

2

Mu•tate (verb) change or cause to change in form or nature

You’re the only one I can trust, said Lyla, sipping an iced tea.

I know.

I’m not afraid of these strange transformations anymore, she said in a hushed tone. I guess all this shit was supposed to happen, and I am dealing with it as best I can.

What can I do? Mr. Oliver’s stare was piercing, but occasionally moved around the café to give her senses a break.

I need more money, she said squinting her eyes a bit. I think I need to move again. Too many curious people around my neighborhood.

Okay, but… are we going to have any more problems?

Nope, I have accepted the changes in my life and I’m planning to make the most of it, Lyla said, desperately trying to convince herself. Maybe it could have happened anywhere in the world, but it happened here — in China — so this is where I live now. This is my home.

It’s okay. Shanghai’s not so bad, right.

Well… she thought about their last conversation. I doubt I will ever see Connecticut again, but I’ve made my peace with that.

It’s way too risky. The length of travel, the shifting… we talked about this, he said. Even now, around your sunglasses, I see some indications that your eyes and the bridge of your nose did not shift back 100%, he exhaled slowly. You’d never pass customs, even if we leapfrogged back through India and Egypt, as we had discussed.

Yeah, I feel different all over. My neck is different. My wrists. For some reason my elbows are sore all the time. I think maybe my arms are a smidge longer, but I have no proof of that. She sipped her drink.