“Wait, Ms. Roberts, I didn’t know part of the plan was to hand over your research. Didn’t you say it’s dangerous?”
“Tony, they’re not going to trade Gary and Vintor for nothing. Head back to your grandma’s, collect the others and let’s get to Kennedy Space Center.”
Maya stared out the window at the passing buildings and cars. There were so many things that could go wrong with this plan.
Vintor quo Fortis
“My head’s going to explode,” Gary moaned from the chair he was strapped to.
“Shut up!” the general bellowed.
“He’s in pain. You should’ve expected this when you gave him the language implant,” Vintor growled in annoyance at Frank.
Gary’s head swiveled toward Vintor.
“What was that?” Gary asked.
“Oh good, it seems we’re getting somewhere.” Frank walked over to Gary. "Maybe you can be the incentive to get this big red bastard to talk." The general pointed his weapon at Gary.
“Tell them I need my handheld to open the cruiser. It’s the communicator they took off my wrist,” Vintor quickly relayed.
“He needs some cell phone thing you took of his wrist to open the ship,” Gary repeated in a panic.
“I’m not an idiot and I’m not about to give you the means to call in your cohorts. You have to the count of ten to figure out another way.” Frank jabbed his disrupter into the back of Gary's head.
Vintor snarled and tugged at his shackles. The ring connecting his chains to the wall groaned in protest as he pulled. The human warriors raised their electrified staffs. Vintor grit his teeth, waiting for the jolt when Emil threw open the door and stormed in, distracting the humans.
“I just had a little call from our friend Dr. Roberts. Apparently, your morons didn’t find all of her research,” Emil sniped at the general.
Vintor stilled at the mention of Maya. He grinned seeing the livid expression contorting the heinous medic’s face. The male was nearly as red as a Cadi warrior. Maya had duped them.
“Excuse me?” Frank lowered his weapon and approached Emil.
“The dim wits under your command fucked up and only located a fraction of her research. Dr. Roberts wants to exchange the missing pieces for these two,” Emil replied.
“There’s no way we’re exchanging the red one, he hasn’t cracked opened that ship yet,” Frank countered.
“Obviously, we’ll use doubles. Dr. Roberts said herself that she didn’t expect us to parade the alien out in public as he is.”
“I think I know of a few men we can use. We’ll dress them in their clothes.” Frank gestured to Vintor and Gary. “Add a baseball cap to the brother’s double and it’ll work.”
Gary cast him a worried glance. Vintor nodded grimly. He understood why Maya would strike this bargain, but the price was too dear.
“So, I’m assuming we’ll be collecting Ms. Roberts in this exchange, yes?” General Frank smiled sideways at Emil.
“Of course. But we don’t have much time to get our decoys and your men in place, so let’s get these two locked up. They can go into the room with my experiment,” Emil suggested.
“You’re not worried about your pet project?”
“This is clearly more important. Besides, this building is equipped for tech research, there’s not an abundance of cells.” Emil shrugged.
“Let’s get moving,” General Frank barked at the males under his command.
He couldn’t allow Maya to walk into a trap. The anger churning in the pit of his stomach built till it was searing through his veins. He was sick of all this shit. How dare they threaten his mate. Vintor stared blankly past the uniformed males as they unlocked his chains from the wall, carefully listening for the final click. The metallic sound echoed in his ears like a call to arms. Vintor bellowed in rage as he threw his head forward, striking the lead male. The human screamed as his nose broke.
Electricity lit up every nerve in his body as the human warriors attacked with their retched brands, but his fury burned hotter. Vintor shoved aside the pain. He struck the male on his right with his shoulder. As the human doubled over, Vintor wrapped the chain connecting his shackles around his neck. The electric surges grew in intensity. His muscles started spasming and his vision blurred from the repeated shocks. Vintor snarled through the agony, tightening his hold till there was an audible crunch and the gurgling human went limp. Stabbing pain struck the back of his neck.
He resisted the encroaching dark, roaring his outrage as he struck out blindly, his fists and the flailing chain meeting flesh with satisfying thuds and screams. Still a dozen blows and jolts rained down on him, finding their mark. Try as he might, the world went black, and the last thing he knew was heart-wrenching fear for his goddess.
12 The Plan
Maya
Maya glanced down at the time. It was a quarter till.
“I still don’t understand why you didn’t come with the rest of us,” Tony said through the phone.
Maya looked at the minivan full of girls up ahead with Tony in the driver’s seat. He was right to question her, she hadn’t shared everything.
“You know if I was with you I’d just block your game,” she snickered then grew serious. “Maybe you should turn around. There’s still time to back out.”
“You know I can’t do that. It’s very important I get this extra credit,” the teen said solemnly.
Maya smiled at Tony’s cryptic response, understanding what he meant. As far as all the teenagers in the van knew they were going to Kennedy Space Center to help Tony with a school project. She should’ve cut the boy out of all this insanity as well, it was dangerous. But he was involved from the moment he saw Vintor. She put herself in his shoes. If she saw an alien and then it was gone, there’d be a void left behind, a million unanswered questions. Hopefully letting Tony help would make him feel a part of something bigger and ease some of that.
“I get it, Tony.”
“Gotta go. Later.”
The van turned into the entrance to Kennedy Space Center and she continued over the causeway. Maya took a deep breath then pasted on a convincing smile as she slowed at the entrance gate for Cape Canaveral.
“Identification, please.”
“Oh yes, of course. It’s my off day, thought I’d check out the lighthouse since it’s so lovely out. Where did I put that badge?” Maya looked around the car. “Dammit, I knew I’d need it.” She noted the guard’s perturbed expression as she rummaged through her bag. “Oh, here it is.” Maya finally located Laney’s badge, although she’d known where it was the whole time, and held it up for the guard.
“Yeah, just go on,” the guard impatiently waved her on instead of studying the badge too closely.
Thank goodness for digital cameras and home printers. ‘Cause no amount of disguise was going to turn her into a blonde white woman.
The butterflies in her stomach eased as she pulled forward and drove toward the lighthouse amidst all the launch sites. She didn’t have to wait long before the phone pinged. She glanced at the message from Tony.
“We got our tickets.”
That meant Tony had left the envelope with the thumb drives at the ticket desk as planned. His message was accompanied by a picture. Maya studied it and smiled. Emil and Frank stood by the large NASA logo in front of the visitor center. They looked so smug. Her grin widened at the cast on the general’s arm, courtesy of Vintor. To their left, sporting a large pair of sunglasses and a baseball cap, was her brother. And on the right, she recognized the sweatshirt Vintor had been wearing.
Frank and Emil had done a good job. If she didn’t know how duplicitous they were, she might actually think that was her brother and Vintor. But she didn’t believe for one minute when Emil agreed to the exchange that they’d honestly release them. They needed Vintor too much. And yet the bastards also wanted her research, so they took the bait.
“Delete everything. Tour the space center then casually leave. Thank you f
or everything.” She sent Tony the reply.
Maya quickly drove to the tech building. Emil had given away the fact Vintor and Gary were being held there when he mentioned the spaceship. She pulled up to the parking garage and passed Laney’s badge over the scanner. It was a nerve-wracking few moments waiting for the gate to rise. Her shoulders eased when the mechanical sound whirred to life and the gate lumbered up.
“Well, they haven’t blocked Laney’s access yet,” she commented to herself as she located an empty parking spot.
It was the end of dinner and several employees were returning. Maya put on her lab coat and joined the group. The guards at the front desk didn’t give her a second look when she swiped her borrowed badge and headed inside. She bypassed the bank of elevators. The place she needed was down a level, but these wouldn’t take her there.
Once she was alone, Maya dialed her phone. Although she wanted to delay Emil and Frank’s return, she couldn’t wait too long, or they’d assume she’d gotten spooked.
“We kept up with our end of the bargain,” Emil answered tersely.
“Yes, I can see that. Your envelope is at the ticket desk. Now let them go.” She quickly hung up, hearing people coming around the corner.
Maya smiled at the passing people and put up her phone. She wasn’t worried they’d overhear her conversation, she just didn’t want Emil to hear them talking shop.
Despite the desire to forget her last visit to Emil’s temporary lab and the way he butchered that poor man, she remembered the way to the secure area of the building. Maya swiped her borrowed badge and went through the door. She nodded at the staff going about their business and confidently headed for the elevator straight ahead. The elevator went down one floor and she got off then stopped and surveyed the long corridor. This was the right place. The doors on one side of the hallway were spaced much farther apart than the other. The rooms they led to had to be considerably larger than the ones on the other side of the hall. She hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but now it made sense.
Vintor’s ship must be in there somewhere.
Maya shook it off and headed left till she reached an intersection then took another left. That was where it got confusing. There were so many non-descript doors.
Is it the fifth one or the seventh? Maybe it’s the eighth. Shit!
“Can I help you?”
Maya nearly jumped out of her skin hearing the man’s voice directly behind her. She turned to find a uniformed guard looking down at her.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “You startled me. I have the worst sense of direction and memory for this sort of thing. All these doors look the same. I was looking for Dr. Hayden’s lab.” Maya nervously fiddled with her necklace.
“No doubt. Who can tell the difference with these bland letters and numbers? It’d be easier if they used names and symbols like they do at the amusement parks. Right down here.” The man led the way down the hall.
“That’s the military for you,” she forced a laugh. “Thank you, I feel like such a fool.”
She followed a pace behind him, hoping this didn’t go bad right here and now. The guard opened the door, revealing an empty room.
No! She looked around and frowned. Stupid, stupid girl. Of course, Emil wouldn’t lock them up in here while he’s out. But where are they?
“Are you here to sedate Dr. Hayden’s subject since he’s out?”
Maya tried to keep the excitement off her face at the opening he provided. Just maybe God and her mother in heaven were watching over her.
“Yes. What I need should be here somewhere.” She headed to the supply cabinets on the wall and opened several doors till she found the syringes.
“Good. That girl’s been screaming her head off since they put the freaky red bastard in there. I can’t blame her. If you’ve got enough drugs for the alien, bring them, he won’t stay knocked out for long and then the other two really will have a problem. He nearly broke his chains trying to escape. Managed to kill two guards before we subdued him.”
Maya paused. She felt horrible people died and that Vintor had been forced into that position. She wanted the death to stop. No, that’s a lie. She wouldn’t mind seeing one or two more people stopped permanently.
“Here we are.” She grabbed the sedative along with a vial of benign sodium chloride.
“I image you’ll have a hard time finding the holding cell. Let me show you,” the guard offered.
“Thank you.”
Vintor quo Fortis
Vintor bolted awake as the hysterical screams reached him. His gaze darted to the petite brunette and grimaced at the strident sounds of terror she made. Her large eyes widened further seeing his canines. He quickly closed his mouth but it was too late. She shrieked louder, the deafening sound echoing off the walls of the small room.
“Shhh, shhh, shhh. Please stop. I promise he won’t hurt you,” Gary tried to console the traumatized female, but she refused to acknowledge Gary, her eyes remained glued to Vintor in horror.
He looked around the room trying to find its weaknesses but concentrating was difficult with the female making so much noise. Vintor debated working his shackle out of the wall but that would only traumatize the female further and add to their symphony of misery.
Surely she’ll grow hoarse soon.
The door opened and a recognizable sweet perfume cut through the acrid scent the frightened female exuded. A spike of fear shot through him as the uniformed human escorted Maya into the room. Vintor paused when he noticed the calm smile on her face. She wasn’t afraid—cautious, anxious, but not afraid. Maya wasn’t their prisoner. It was hard keeping a straight face when it dawned on him his wily mate had again fooled the general and the vile medic. Vintor swiftly relaxed against the wall and closed his eyes before the human warrior turned toward him.
“Good, the demon still sleeps. So, can you get her to quiet down?” the male loudly asked, trying to be heard over the crying female.
Vintor cracked his eyelids and watched Maya.
“Yes. Hush now. I’m just going to give you something to relax,” she spoke sweetly to the female huddled in the corner.
“Don’t bother explaining, the girl’s deaf. I can understand giving this other fellow the alien language implant,” the male waved toward Gary. “But not a deaf girl. Doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s not our place to question Dr. Hayden’s experiments,” Maya commented as she injected the distraught brunette. The female sobbed a few times before going limp.
“Drug the alien too before he wakes up. He’ll be harder to deal with if he does.”
Maya approached Vintor and knelt. While turned away from the human warrior she slyly switched the vial for a different one concealed in the pocket of her white jacket then filled another syringe.
“Get us to the cruiser,” Vintor murmured as he feigned rousing for a moment when she injected him, then let his head loll to one side.
“What did the subject just say?” Maya asked Gary, playing her part.
“I have no clue. Whatever you people put it my head doesn’t make me hear any better,” Gary snapped at his sister.
Vintor repressed an amused snort.
“Well let’s hope you understand him better when he comes around. You’re no use otherwise. Let’s get them all to the ship, so everything is ready for when the subject rouses and my superiors return,” Maya instructed the human.
“Those weren’t my instructions,” the male replied.
Vintor held his breath.
“And you’re told everything, are you? Do you think General Offutt and Dr. Hayden planned to keep them in this room in perpetuity? Seriously,” she countered with an authoritative bite to her tone.
“Yes, ma’am. Some help in here,” the warrior called to the others in the hall.
“Hand me the key,” Maya demanded. “I’m going to disconnect these chains. It’ll be impossible for the two of you to carry him with his ankles and wrists cinched together
like this.”
Vintor knew his mate was intelligent, but she was proving cunning as well. He was eager to be free of the manacles, given their tenuous situation, yet when Maya got close, his mind was elsewhere. He breathed in her soothing scent as she leaned over him to unlock the shackles. He couldn’t help himself from brushing his cheek against her breast. The brief touch calmed the beast raging within. From the moment he awoke to find her missing he’d been frantic, fearing he wouldn’t reach her in time. Now here she was saving his sorry tail. Maya cast him a reproving look. He grinned then closed his eyes again as she backed away.
“Someone grab the girl. You, you’re capable of walking,” Maya said to Gary as they lifted Vintor off the floor.
Remaining limp as they carried him through the corridors was difficult when someone kept treading on his tail. Surely, they had to be getting close to the hangar by now. As they rounded the corner, Vintor caught a whiff of something that made his hair stand on end.
“What is going on here?” Emil bellowed.
“Shit!” Gary cursed.
Torment! He should’ve expected a hiccup; things were going too smoothly.
Vintor kicked out and splayed his arms wide, forcing the humans to lose their grip, as his shackles clattered to the floor. He twisted as he fell and landed on his feet. Before the males could figure out what was going on and grab for their weapons, Vintor gripped them by the backs of their necks. They struggled till he gripped tighter, making it nearly impossible for them to do anything but breathe.
“Get behind me,” Vintor growled as he used the two human warriors as a shield.
The warrior holding the sleeping female appeared confused about what to do with her. Maya grabbed the male’s disrupter before he dropped the female and reached for it himself.
“You will hold her and get in line with your companions,” she instructed while aiming past the male toward Emil and the general.
“Good idea. I’ll take these.” Gary liberated the weapons from the two males Vintor was holding. “So, what’s the plan now, sis?”
Warrior's Plight (Cadi Warriors Book 6) Page 14