Free The Sphinx Project by Kate Hawkings Page B

now hanging over the side of the bunk, talking to the other girl in rapid German. I made myself seem disinterested so they wouldn't know I could understand them moaning about the 'rude American girls.'
    With a wave goodbye, I skipped down the stairs into the sunshine. I walked along the buildings, away from the hostel, passing the backs of the shops and restaurants that lined the boulevard. I rounded the end of the building to find a convenience store we'd passed earlier.
    Most of the shelves were filled with alcohol, but I was sure there'd been a display freezer with signs for ice cream. I was right.
    I pushed open the glass door. A chime rang above my head, causing the cashier to look up from his magazine. I pawed through the flavors on display—banoffee pie, cookie dough, blueberry delight…why would they put such weird flavors into something so good? I'd never even heard of banoffee pie.
    Digging deeper, I finally found what I was searching for. "Jackpot," I murmured, shaking the triple-chocolaty goodness free from the ice, which had built up while the container had been hidden in the bottom corner.
    "Got any spoons?" I passed over a handful of coins I'd dug from my jacket pocket.
    He grunted. Barely lifting his eyes from the magazine he shoved the plastic wrapped utensil across the counter. He was reading about the man in the mechanical suit too.
    Wandering out of the store, I pulled off the plastic cap and peeled back the foil. My mouth literally watered at the sight of the ice cream. I tossed the trash into the garbage can as I passed, digging into the frozen confection. There was no point keeping the lid, I had every intention of eating the whole tub right now.
    Now that I could eat what I wanted, ice cream was definitely going to be on the menu more often, and I was never going to eat the horrible half-cooked pink fish again.
    The first mouthful was heaven. I actually stopped in my tracks. Closing my eyes I enjoyed the sensation of the creamy chocolate melting over my tongue. I'd always had a thing about closing my eyes, shutting off my sense of sight to concentrate more fully on other sensations, like the taste of the chocolate right now.
    I guess it went back to early times with Mom. Every time she gave us a gift, we had to close our eyes and try to guess what it was by how it felt or what noise the box made when we shook it. She only introduced new tastes if she knew we wouldn't judge it on appearance first.
    I walked lightly down the street, bouncing on my toes with every step. I was in my own little world as I made my way in the direction of the sand, until I was jolted back to reality.
    I suddenly became aware of the feeling I was being watched. I paused, peering around me. A man in the bar to my left busied himself, pushing his food around his plate.
    I turned back to the beach, sneaking a peek at him out of the corner of my eye. He was still playing with his food.
    A hint of suspicion nagged at me, but I started walking again. When I reached a bronze statue of a surfer at the end of the pier, I turned again to see him chatting to one of the waitresses. Nothing strange there.
    I slipped back into my own thoughts as I pushed off my shoes and stepped onto the sand. Sitting down on the ramp of a small white building I stared out to sea. The water was mostly flat. Occasionally tiny waves danced toward the shore on an angle, pushed off-course by the breeze. Not many people were on the beach, even fewer actually in the water.
    Taking a deep breath, I could taste the salt in the air. I let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall of the hut. There was no way I was ever going to go back to those labs.
    I let myself relax for a moment, enjoying the ice cream, before my thoughts returned to the creatures.
    What were we going to do about them?

Chapter Ten
    "You know, after trying some of the stuff that passes as food in the real world, I'm starting the think the cooks at the labs had a little something going for