Then realization struck. The phone call. The Black Dragons…
“You were the one who called me, pretending to be a social worker named Jane.”
She nodded. “Tony wasn’t supposed to get away. He outsmarted the Black Dragons.” She paused, eyeing me shrewdly. “Here. I thought you might be thirsty.” She tossed a bottle of water through the bars. The bottle smacked onto the concrete floor and rolled toward me, coming to a stop against my shoe. I ignored the water and kept my gaze focused on her.
Darcy stared back for a long moment. “Ron thinks you might be helpful. You should be grateful for that. Otherwise, he would have already killed you. I convinced him to let you live, since you helped me, and I feel like I owe you. As long as you cooperate, he won’t kill you.” She sighed. “But Tony hasn’t been cooperative at all. We’ve had to take extreme precautions with him because he’s The Smuggler. He has the ability to escape from just about any type of confinement. The only position he can’t escape from is when his arms are spread wide and tight so that he can’t wiggle lose. Any other position he can pretty much get out of. The man’s a magician, an escape artist. Locked doors can’t kept him in or out. These skills are very useful for a soldier. He was a valuable member of our program until his discharge.”
I had witnessed Tony in action and had been suitably impressed, though he still hadn’t told me much about himself. I was eager to learn more.
Locked doors can’t kept him in or out.
That was why he’d gotten inside my locked apartment. But what did that mean? How did he do it?
He’d already told me he was a magician and an escape artist. I’d also witnessed his invisibility. I thought back to when I’d handcuffed him to my bed. I’d spread his arms wide, attaching his hands to the bedposts. That was why he hadn’t been able to escape. But once I’d freed one hand, he’d easily gotten away. When the Black Dragons had captured him the other night, he’d escaped the zip ties on his own. What else could he do?
A plan began to take shape in my mind. Tony was an escape artist. Maybe we could find a way to get out of here. Maybe I could somehow help him escape. If I convinced Darcy to take me to him, then maybe I could find a chance to free one of his hands, and let him do the rest.
Footfalls sounded down the corridor. Two soldiers stopped outside of my cell.
“Bring her to the lab,” Darcy said as she turned away. “We’ll let The Smuggler see that we’ve taken his lover hostage. Hopefully that will make him more cooperative.”
Bring her to the lab.
A chill crept down my spine.
What kind of lab? What had they done to Tony? What was going on here?
This is deeper than you ever imagined, Grace.
As they lead me down the corridor moments later, my mind filled with all kinds of terrible imaginations of a “lab” and what they might do to Tony there. I felt like we were in a science fiction movie. Or a horror film.
Then they shoved open the door to the lab and ushered me inside.
This was no movie.
It was real.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Tony
When we’d escaped our execution, the dregs had all sworn we’d never come back to this building ever again. But we’d had to come back the night we’d freed Tracker and killed The General. The Company had closed the facility down shortly thereafter. We’d been under the impression that The Company had dismantled, and that Darcy was in a war with the other shareholders, who, according to her, had tried to kill her.
Now, I was beginning to doubt all of that.
As much as I despised this place and all it represented, as much as I hated all the terrible things I’d had to endure here, I now found myself back at the facility once again. Against my will. A prisoner.
The Company was obviously back in operation. With Aikens at its head.
I wasn’t sure why they wanted me alive when they’d tried to kill me just weeks before.
The first thing they did—not surprisingly—was take me to the lab. I didn’t go willingly. No, fuck no. I fought like a beast, taking out several soldiers in my struggles and knocking out one of the scientists before they finally managed to subdue me and drug me with some kind of sedative.
When I woke, I was splayed out on one of the facility’s hospital beds, my limbs spread wide, strapped down so tightly I couldn’t move, let alone use my ability to escape. There were all kinds of tubes and things attached to me. I had no idea what the hell they’d done to me, but what caught my attention the most was a canister of some kind that was attached to a tube that entered my left arm through an intravenous line. It appeared to be collecting blood from me.
I glared at the canister.
The nightmare had returned.
I tried not to panic. Tried not to let fear take hold.
Don’t let them beat you. You’ll find a way out of here. You have to.
I breathed in deeply, then out, trying to push the fear back.
A blonde-haired scientist turned to face me, lifting a syringe.
Darcy?
I sputtered, glaring as she stopped beside my bed. “This is the thanks I get for freeing you?” I choked out. “I should have left you there. I should have let you die.”
She lifted her chin. Then she hooked the syringe up to another IV line that was attached to my thigh. She pressed the syringe, filling my veins with whatever was in the syringe. “I’m the reason you’re not dead right now, Tony. So instead of being an asshole, you can thank me for convincing Ron not to kill you.”
I hissed out in disbelief. Bitch. “Thank you for strapping me back to a bed in the lab so you can conduct your disgusting experiments on me? What the fuck are you doing to me down there?” I titled my chin towards the canister near my arm. “What is that?”
“We are harvesting your DNA.”
Ice pumped through my veins as my blood chilled. Harvesting my DNA? What the fuck?
“Why?” I ground out, not sure I wanted to know the answer to that.
“I found something important in your file, something my father somehow missed. Didn’t you read your file?” she demanded.
No, I hadn’t read my file. All I’d cared about was the part about my family, so I’d flipped through everything else. “No. What was I supposed to have read?”
She tsked. “Your DNA is rare, Tony. It’s different from all the other recruits. We conducted some studies and discovered it comes from your mother’s side. Your Mexican heritage. It has special qualities in it. We aren’t sure exactly what it is in your DNA that’s so special. That’s why we need to conduct more tests. I need to isolate the gene once I identify it. Then we can use that particular gene in future studies. It might take some time to identify the gene. That’s why you’re going to be here for a while. We are going to be conducting some more tests on you over the next few weeks, and also harvesting your DNA for use in creating more perfect soldiers.”
My stomach roiled. She was serious. “So you can…what? Clone me?”
“Yes, it is possible to create new individuals by harvesting your DNA and injecting it into an egg and fertilizing it. But we aren’t doing that just yet. As you are right now, you’re not worth cloning. But by mixing your DNA with certain animal DNA, we might have the solution The General was seeking all along. And if I can isolate the exact gene, then we will be able to create, and then clone, the perfect soldier.”
“If I’m so important, then why did Aikens try to kill me a few weeks ago?”
Darcy shrugged a slender shoulder. “Because he didn’t know about your rare DNA at the time. Somehow, no one noticed it in your test results. I pointed it out to him the other day. He’d been trying to kill me for months, and I was tired of hiding. I realized I couldn’t fight The Company on my own. I knew I had to give Ron a reason to keep me alive. So I went over all the dregs’ files, trying to find something that would convince Ron that I was useful to him. I came across a test result in your file and realized it was what I
needed. I offered to come to work for him if he didn’t kill me. I showed him how valuable your DNA is and what it can mean.”
Aikens walked into the room at that moment, flanked by two soldiers. “She’s right, Tony. I was planning on having you executed when I discovered you were still alive, but Darcy talked me out of it. She helped me see how useful you are to the program. You could be the break we’ve been waiting for.”
I let out a huff of disgust. “Who the fuck are you, anyway?”
Aikens smiled. “I’m The General’s firstborn son. But I was born with a deformity. A cripple.” He lifted his pant leg to show me a lower limb twisted and misshapen. “So he never recruited me into the program. Instead, he abandoned me, left me with my mother. I hated him for that. For years I let that hatred fester inside me. I hated him so much that I took my mother’s last name, not wanting to have anything to do with him. I had no idea who my father was until my mother told me on my eighteenth birthday. Then I became curious about the man who had abandoned me, written me off for dead. I sought him out, and he showed me the facility and all the work he’d been doing. I was fascinated and wanted to be a part of it. He told me to go to college first so I would be useful to him, so I did. I got my degree in animal sciences, and later went on to purchase the zoo. After that, I became a partner with The General in the soldier making business.” He smiled.
Which made this man my half-brother, too. God, how many of us were there?
My stomach roiled again. “You guys are all sick. Every last one of you. Why don’t you just collect my DNA and let me go? I don’t want any part of this.”
Aikens chuckled. “We need a continuous supply of your DNA. We still have many tests to conduct. We’re going to need you for at least the immediate future. Once Darcy is able to isolate the ‘super’ gene from your DNA, then we will be moving forward much faster. But things will go much better for you if you just cooperate with us.” He turned to Darcy. “Go get her.”
With a nod, Darcy turned and left the room, the two soldiers following after her.
Go get who? What was going on?
“Did Darcy tell you that when your DNA is mixed with certain animal DNA, we might have the solution? We have high hopes of creating an extremely fast-growing superhuman with strength, stamina, extreme athletic abilities, and absolutely no conscience. With your rare DNA, this might actually be possible. Humans are such slow-growing creatures, and brainwashing takes time. But your DNA is unique. If Darcy can isolate this ‘super’ gene and find a way to mix the genes into an embryo, then the embryos will be implanted into human females. If this works out, we will be well on our way to creating super, fast-developing soldiers. Instead of waiting fifteen or twenty years for a boy to develop into a man, we can produce soldiers much quicker. Can you imagine how helpful this will be to our country in times of war? A fast-growing, super soldier without a conscience! It will be perfect!”
I glowered at him. This is what I got for being different?
Darcy returned, a smug look on her face. Two soldiers followed her, leading Grace into the room.
My heart slammed into my ribs. Grace. How had she gotten here? Had they gone back and captured her?
“Let her go!” I growled out. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Tony!” Grace’s eyes were wide, but she managed to maintain her composure. She tried to rush to my side, but the soldiers held her back. “What did you do to him?” She cast an accusatory glare at Darcy. “Let him go, you crazy, psycho bitch!”
Darcy rolled her eyes. “He’s not hurt. At least, not yet. We’re collecting his DNA.”
Aikens smirked. “Calm down, everyone. As long as you cooperate, Tony, then no harm will come to her. She was dumb enough to follow us here, so it’s her own fault that she was caught. I decided to keep her as collateral to help convince you to cooperate with us. It will be just like old times with The Company. You’ll have your own cell. You’ll have daily necessities. All you have to do is continue to provide us with your DNA on a regular basis and allow yourself to undergo various experiments from time to time.”
I snorted. “It’s not as if you’re giving me a choice here.”
Aikens shook his head. “True, but it will go much more smoothly if you cooperate, don’t you think? And if you do as we say, we’ll even let you two spend some time together later.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s getting late. I need to get home to my family.”
I let out a furious snarl. “Yeah, just be grateful for that family, you bastard, or I would have killed you that night.”
Aikens eyed me with contemplation. “You’re not as heartless as some of my father’s soldiers. I read your file, Tony. You were discharged because of severe PTSD and incidences of psychosis. I understand that the human mind can focus inward to escape violence and horrible situations. Your body appears to be stronger than your mind. But in order to be a good soldier, you must have your mind and your body under control. It’s too bad, really. Because you were a great soldier. Now we can use your DNA to create an even better soldier.” He turned, paused, and glanced back at me. “I appreciate that you didn’t kill me in front of my boy.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. But nothing would stop me from killing him when I escaped this place. Nothing. I was heartless. As soon as I found a way to escape, he was going to die.
“I will kill you,” I vowed. “And this time I won’t let a small boy stop me.”
I didn’t like Grace seeing me like this. Weak. Helpless. Unable to defend myself. Unable to defend her. I was a soldier. A dreg. A powerful warrior. Yet I was imprisoned here like a criminal. Like a beast. Was that how Grace would view me after this?
“I’ll gladly help you,” Grace vowed, glaring at Aikens. I jerked my gaze back to her, my chest expanding at her words.
Aikens gave a fake smile and patted my leg. “That’s wishful thinking, you two. You know you won’t leave here alive. To ensure your complete cooperation, we’re going to give you another sedative to make you less combative while we conduct some more tests on you. The sedative is for everyone’s safety. It will make you sluggish and unable to fight much.”
Ice crept down my spine. No. I didn’t want a sedative. I wanted the power to be able to fight back. So I could kill all these motherfuckers.
Darcy stepped forward with another syringe.
“No!” Grace shouted, squirming against the soldiers who held her back. “Please don’t drug him, Darcy. Please don’t do this!” She broke free from the soldiers and rushed forward, clutching my hand. Her fingers tightened around mine as she leaned over me.
Darcy glanced at Aikens. “Just let them have a moment. It can’t hurt.”
Aikens hesitated, then nodded.
Darcy stepped back and waited while Grace looked into my eyes. There was no horror or disgust in her eyes. Just determination. She continued to clutch my hand, her fingers feeling along the leather straps that bound me to the bed. Then I felt it, a gentle pull, then relax, pull, then relax.
My heart nearly stopped. She was freeing my hand, loosening the buckle. Giving me a chance.
Gratitude swept through me. All I needed was one hand free in this situation, and I could escape.
“Okay, that’s enough. You can see him later.”
The soldiers stepped forward, hauling Grace back.
“Please,” Grace pleaded to Darcy. “Don’t do this.” Grace didn’t beg. So either she was playing on Darcy’s sympathy, or she was so desperate to help me that she’d resorted to begging.
Darcy impatiently waved Grace away, and stepped back up to the bed. “I’m sorry. This has to be done. It’s for his own good and for the safety of everyone else. He’s dangerous, Grace. He can easily kill all of us if we don’t sedate him. This is the only way.” Then she hooked the needle up to the IV in my thigh and pressed the plunger.
I squeezed my eyes shut as a coldness spread into my veins. I felt it. It was like ice creeping along, freezing my blood as it
went. I could only pray they didn’t notice Grace had loosened two of the buckles on my left wrist, the hand with the missing pinkie finger. Because if they found out, they would likely kill her.
But with the sedative slowly pumping through my veins, it would only be a matter of moments before I was out cold and unable to move, let alone escape. Would they notice the loose buckles before I woke?
“Bastards!” I snarled. “I will kill all of you. Every last one. And that is a promise.”
Aikens headed for the door. “Enough with the threats, Tony. You’re not getting free until we let you go, and that’s assuming you survive what we have planned for you.”
If looks could kill, the one I sent him would have turned him to stone. He walked out, limping slightly on his crippled leg, two of the soldiers flanking him.
A sob reached my ears. I glanced up, seeing Grace staring at me with tears streaming down her face. She reached out to me one last time, her fingers grazing my hand before the soldiers roughly yanked her back.
Dizziness swam in my head.
Grace’s tear-streaked face began to fade.
“Grace,” I slurred.
Grace.
Then the sedative dragged me under, and everything went black.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Grace
I paced my cell.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
How would I ever get Tony out of here? I didn’t know who these people were or what they wanted with him, but when I’d walked into that lab and seen Tony strapped down with all those tubes and things attached to him, I’d wanted to kill them all. Whatever they were doing to him had to be illegal. I’d overheard the man saying something about a super soldier, but I didn’t know what that meant or why they’d taken Tony captive.
These people wouldn’t let me leave here alive. So I had to find a way to escape. A way to free Tony.
I paced my cell. Back and forth.
The drug had pulled Tony under before he could take advantage of the loosened strap. I prayed no one noticed what I’d done. If they did, it would be all for naught.
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