Given: Project Xol

by Amabel Daniels

  Ready? Memories of every time I’d asked Cassidy that came forth. And her hesitant, unsure but honest answer, usually a whispered Fuck no. Only, she wasn’t that shy and nerve-wracked woman anymore. She’d adapted to the hell we’d been thrust into, rising as something even stronger. My badass woman. Whether or not she would have ever been ready for the events that followed Rosa’s first letter, she never failed to try. And she did. Despite her fears or flaws, she tried her damn best.

  Try a little longer, Cass. Just a little longer until I can help.

  “Let’s go,” Jonah said with a nod.

  I bobbed my head, too, reaching for the door handle. Apprehension of gearing up for a fight had me tense, but I leaned over to meet the reflection of Dale’s gaze in the mirror. I gripped his shoulder in a pat. “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Good luck.”

  Shit. We needed a lot more than luck. Besides, I’d probably depleted my lifetime’s worth of it by successfully escaping the cartel.

  No whining or wallowing. I exited the car on that hard advice and strode toward the warehouse with Jonah.

  Jonah tapped in the number Zero had provided for us, and with the green dot blinking bright on the lockpad, we were in. No one was inside the large garage space. To the right was a small office. Lights were off. Made sense. It was the evening and the typical office staff were long gone. They must scale down the operations for their nighttime pickups.

  In front of us was a fleet of large vans and trucks. Zero had the work order schedule of the Xol building’s pickup details, so we were prepared to find the large truck with specific plates.

  First, though, we went to the employee breakroom and found spare uniforms in a closet. Dressed in the company’s gear, we checked that our guns were within easy reach underneath the fabric.

  Disguised, we wove a path through the fleet of vehicles until we located the large truck that the pickup order stated.

  “That’s some big-ass wheels,” Jonah quipped.

  He’d always been the kind of guy to talk too much. As much as I knew he was probably using humor to reach me, I was too wired to reply and climbed up to the passenger seat. We’d already planned for Jonah to drive. Just in case security would check us at a gate. Just in case I might be recognized due to my association with Cassidy.

  So far, everything was going to plan. With each successful step we passed, I wanted to believe. I wanted to bask in the confidence that I’d be celebrating a reunion with Cassidy tonight. Merely thinking of her, as I had so many times since she’d been flown from me, burned me with an ember of rage. If anything happened to her…

  No. I fisted my hand and stared out the passenger window as Jonah pressed the garage door opener. Don’t go there. She’ll be alive. Fate couldn’t be so cruel to take her from me when we’d hardly had each other to begin with.

  The drive to the clinic was silent. Dread pooled heavy in the pit in my stomach and I concentrated on steady breaths to calm my too-fast heart rate. Anxiety could be good. Being revved up and alert would help keep me on my toes. Allowing my energy to morph into straight-out fear would spell disaster.

  Don’t think. No wallowing. Just do it and be done with it.

  My pep talk stayed with me during the drive and it wasn’t long before we pulled onto the drive to the facility. From a distance, there was nothing innocuous in its appearance. The professionally landscaped grounds and the clean, well-maintained exterior of the multistory building lacked any sense of foreboding. If I hadn’t known what this place housed, I could have very well passed it in any city and assumed it was a legitimate business.

  The lack of signage was the only clue that something might be fishy about this place. There was no address marker, no company title on a placard or illuminated marquee. Nada. We didn’t need directions since we’d studied the map beforehand, but I realized there weren’t any driving signs on the property either. That anonymity was too obvious.

  Oh, I know who you are in there.

  According to plan, Jonah drove the truck down the driveway, around to the southwest corner of the facility. That was the direct path to the double bay entrance where deliveries were brought and wastes were picked up.

  With a slight jolt, the truck rocked at Jonah’s braking and parking. I hadn’t spotted a single employee on the property in the drive up, and as we sat there in the high cab, I surveyed the double bay garage space. As though this specific parking area was a cave, we were hidden down there with the truck. The truck’s rear butted up to the raised platform where material could be carted into the cargo space. Concrete surrounded us on three sides, with the pavement sloping up.

  Wastes were held in the basement, and the opening we’d driven through to get down here showed that the ground level was more like the first floor.

  “I see four so far,” Jonah said quietly.

  “How old are you?” I scoffed. “You’ve got bad eyes already?” I’d counted seven surveillance cameras. Still, we’d expected them. Zero had shown detailed satellite images of the entire exterior. There should be a total of nine in this semi-underground parking space. Even though I’d been informed ahead of time that we’d be watched by their security team, I feared someone seeing me and making a connection to Cassidy, since they’d known we were together. Or, worse, that someone was watching the feed and would nitpick and notice we Dixon brothers weren’t the waste disposal workers they usually saw.

  Sitting in the truck’s cab any longer would only make someone even more suspicious of our presence. So together, like planned, we exited the truck simultaneously and went to the closed garage door Jonah had backed up to.

  I tapped in the passcode to the lock—numbers Zero had found by hacking the waste disposal’s records and securing the specified sequence used for entrance.

  With a soft hiss, the garage door opened. Creaks sounded as the slab was lifting on the chain.

  I stood still, muscles bunched as if an attack would spring out at us. Nothing. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and peered inside. Rolling laundry containers filled with white fabrics lined the wall to the right. To my left, there were HVAC units, tall blocks humming away. All I cared about was the absence of people who might immediately notice us. Jonah and I hadn’t come up with much more of a plan to this phase of the breach except to pretend to collect the medical waste containers that would likely be labeled down here somewhere.

  With no one watching us on this utility floor, there was no need to perfect our covers.

  “Here we go,” I mumbled to Jonah.

  And so we began our rescue mission.

  Chapter Eight

  Cassidy

  Tami stared at me after finally telling me why she’d brought me here. Why she’d likely ordered her “recruits” to never kill me in the pursuit but to sedate me for transport here.

  Me. Apparently the vessel to her DNA that she’d claimed possession to.

  “You’re not getting anything from me,” I seethed.

  I wasn’t sure about having kids. I was too young. I had years to figure that out. Even with the full force of realizing and accepting my love for Luke, I hadn’t dipped a toe in those particular waters. Did I love him? Hell yeah, I did. Did I want a future with him? Yes, however he could adjust to one with me. Did I want to have little Lukes and little Cassies running around? Maybe? I’d hardly had time to let this budding love stabilize while we’d been on the run.

  My potential desire for a family aside, there was no way I’d want Tami to use me for any of her damn biogenetic goals.

  “Says who?” she asked.

  “Me.” I knew she was taunting me to realize I was powerless here, but I wouldn’t hesitate to stand up and at least vocally assert my will.

  “Do you think that all the common patients who sacrificed their lives during our testing trials had any say?”

  You evil, twisted piece of shit. “Sacrifices?” I spat.

  She’d taken refuges, babies, criminals—all people who’d had no voice. Sh
e was nothing more than an organized mass murderer.

  Ignoring me, she asked, “Do you think I’d have any problem holding you down and collecting what’s rightfully mine?”

  “I’m not yours.”

  “I will be the one to determine what belongs to me.” She leaned against the counter where the computer equipment sat. “Once that vial is delivered, we’ll prepare for the procedure.”

  “Good luck.”

  “I’ve never needed luck.”

  “But you need that vial,” I said, my bravado increasing the more I thought about an inanimate item like the objective thing it was—unlike my very being.

  “My security team will secure it.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe, but the time’s running out. I’m no genius like you, but I bet the longer the vial is exposed to warmth, that DNA inside will start to unravel.”

  She slammed her lips into a thin line. “And if that happens, we’ll have Scott’s code to identify the axolotls to get more of the beta DNA.”

  I grinned, showing her my teeth. Stretching my lips so far reopened the cut from her slapping me and I let the blood drip. “Nope.”

  “You’ll give us his code, just like Rosa gave us hers. She wasn’t strong enough and caved quite quickly.”

  I soured at remembering Rosa’s confession. That they tortured her, bluffed that they were killing me before her eyes and left her locked in a room with the corpse.

  “Nope.”

  Tami cocked her head to the side. “I’ll kill her.”

  “That’d actually be the only merciful thing you’re capable of.”

  “You’d let her die?”

  No. I swallowed hard. “She’d want it that way.” The truth. I spoke it as my own bluff, but it wasn’t a lie. Rosa told me not to risk saving her. It was the dangerous leverage I didn’t want to consider.

  “I’ll bring her in here right now, then.” She lowered her crossed arms and unhooked her ankles. Snapping from her cool posture, she held too much energy. “I’ll wheel her in and get that part out of the way.”

  I tensed at her moving toward the door. “I won’t give it to you.” My voice only went shaky on the last word, but I couldn’t stomach her leaving my sight. She’d as good as promised she’d kill Rosa. I had to keep her with me, away from my real mother.

  “You can cut me up and take my eggs. I can’t stop you. I’m not stupid. You can drug me up and I’ll be defenseless.”

  “Of course.”

  “But you can’t crack open my head and extract my mind.”

  “There are other ways to break one’s mind.”

  Torture. How could I be related to this monster? Did even a shard of a conscience exist in her anymore? Or had her quest of immortality and a new form of humans destroy her completely?

  I wasn’t all that familiar with torture techniques, and I didn’t want to discover the gory details about them.

  Faced with such wicked intent, I zoned out, staring at Tami. I blanked out and thought of Luke. The cocooning comfort he offered in his arms. That soul-deep show of trust and compassion in every hold of his hands. Please. Help me be strong.

  “I will not break. Not for you.”

  Tami’s laugh grated at my nerves. “You won’t defeat me in this.” She came close, her flat heels smacking hard on the linoleum floor, her doctor outfit a costume over the stalking predator she was. Gripping my chin, she wrenched my face toward her. Between clenched teeth, she gritted out more promises. “I will take what I want.”

  “What good are my eggs when you don’t have the beta DNA?”

  She snarled. “I will take that however I need to. I’ll scour the entire damn lake and take everything alive until I find what I need. I will—”

  A bestial roar cut her off and her fingers dug into my flesh harder, like a reflexive reaction to being surprised.

  The roar weaved into a scream and Tami released me. She stepped back from me, heading for the door. Elena. She’d woken in such a rage, she burst free of the bindings that had kept her down to her hospital bed.

  “Ohmigod.” It came out on a pant of air. I stared as she rose from the bed, no—launched from the reclined surface. Where she’d been out, silent and asleep, she was now shoving to her feet. One arm was thicker, fatter and swollen than the other, but as she hauled herself to stand, the limb receded to normal size again. She heaved an animalistic whine and grunted. Her face pulled on her features, thinning her lips as she bared her clenched teeth and her wrinkles creasing deep as she narrowed her eyes.

  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Holy hell. I trembled, trapped and helpless with a monster in the making.

  “Jolene!” Tami swore as she jabbed at a button on the door handle. “Unlock this now.” She fumbled for a walkie-talkie device in her pocket and rushed to order, “I need you to unlock the door.”

  “But you said you wanted privacy—” The radio button clicked off.

  Elena lunged at Tami. Her arms snaked around her chest, sending the walkie-talkie clattering to the floor. Wheezing hard, high-pitched breaths, Elena growled as she tackled the woman who wanted pieces of me. Together, they fell to the floor.

  “Elena!”

  Forget the horrific images of a demonic possession. Elena fought Tami without mercy, punching her and reaching to strangle her. She already was a demon. A she-Hulk.

  “Elena!” I tried again.

  As frightening as her one-eighty in strength and prowess was, at least she was firmly on my side now.

  Strapped to my chair, I couldn’t help her. She didn’t flinch from my yells, unrelenting in her assault on Tami.

  “You…you…goddamn…” Elena wailed a cry of pure agony. “Goddamn…puta!”

  Tami’s eyes glittered with anger as she stared up at Elena.

  “You…play with…” Elena shook and strained, seemingly ripping from a hell inside out as she struggled to overcome her body’s rapid changes. “You play with life and death. And now it’s your turn to…suffer! You want to…” Another growl. “Talk about a last time? You’ll get yours now!”

  “I’m the boss here,” Tami got out between pants. Then she bucked, trying to throw Elena off of her. No longer pinned between her latest patient, the women stood and fought for a chokehold.

  Jesus. Christ! I tried to catch my breath, watching the violence and wishing I could help instead of sitting here like a pointless spectator. Confrontations weren’t my thing, but dammit, I’d lost my passive nature sometime during my life on the run. However, it didn’t matter how much I wriggled and squirmed, my arms and legs were not going to slide out of these straps.

  “I will end you!” Elena bellowed. She reared back to kick her bare foot at Tami’s head.

  I blinked, stunned by the violence and…damn. I didn’t think a person could be that flexible to deliver such a kick in that proximity. With the Last Time treatment, Elena had adopted some Bruce Lee-worthy moves. Or the fire within her body fueled her to such rage and strength.

  Tami stumbled back and Elena dove on top of her. They landed just at my feet and I craned down to see, wishing I could crawl back and be further away from this fight. Both women stuck their arms out, trying to choke out the other.

  Heaving hard breaths, Elena sounded like a wounded animal battling its adversary. Her curly black hair was sweaty and matted to her face where it wasn’t flying about. A strand tickled against my calf.

  “I will end you!” she repeated.

  Tami trembled under Elena’s grasp on her neck. Both of them were Xols, but I hoped that since Elena was on top, she might possess superior inhuman power with that Last Time dose they’d given her. She was unpredictably strong, but I feared she’d crash again, like she had not long ago.

  She needed to take Tami out. Disable her for at least a moment—long enough for me to get the hell out of this chair so I could do something. Choking her didn’t seem to be working, but what else could she do? All she had were her bare hands and unimaginable rage.

  Tami’s elbow flun
g out and knocked into the toe of my shoe. I curled my toes, trying to avoid any touch with her. But—

  What the hell?

  I wriggled my toes again, sliding the sole of my foot against the cushion of my shoe. Something hard was…

  Oh my God! My foot was rubbing along the slim switchblade Tramer had given me in Mexico. It was so thin and short, I’d forgotten it was even there, snug in my shoe.

  “Elena!”

  Her reply was a grunt.

  “Elena! In my shoe!”

  My legs were tied to the chair but I could rotate my ankle a little. I jerked it side to side, trying to free my footwear. It got her attention, at least.

  “Take it. In my shoe.”

  She made eye contact for one halting moment. Her pupils were dilated and huge. Bloodshot and crazed. Still, she looked to my feet. I kept wriggling.

  On a loud growl, Elena headbutted Tami and kept her hand on her throat.

  Tami wasn’t knocked out, but she wasn’t able to stop Elena from moving her other hand to my shoe. Her fingers shook with too much force, but she yanked off my shoe. The slim knife dropped to the floor and she grabbed it.

  Tami groaned at the sight of the switchblade flicking open in Elena’s hand. “Don’t—”

  Elena roared as she slammed the knife to Tami’s heart.

  I winced at the blood staining the white lab coat. I looked away for a moment, the only sounds in the room Elena’s harsh, heaving wheezes and my rushed pants for air. I swallowed hard and looked back down, avoiding the knife wound entirely.

  “It won’t…stop her.” Elena eased off of Tami, who’d dropped her arms.

  “Not for long.” I didn’t know what timeframe could be expected for her to regenerate, but I wasn’t going to waste a second of it.

  “Need to end her,” Elena said, reaching toward Tami. She swiped the switchblade on her filthy jungle outfit and then pushed to stand. Her whole body shuddered as she stood and walked to me, like she was still experiencing the aftershocks of an electrocution. She slid the knife under my forearm, her shaking so bad she sliced my skin. “I…” Squeezing her eyes shut tight, she took a deep breath. “I won’t last…”