by Terra Wolf
18
Harrison
I couldn't wait to tell Penelope the good news. We were in the process of catching the bad guys. I wouldn't have to work undercover anymore, and I could come home to her every night. It would be awesome putting Camden to sleep tonight. We could live like a real family.
I parked my truck around back just for safety. The new car that I had grabbed her from the impound lot was sitting out front, the car seat in the back. It looked like it had been in the same spot all day. I guessed that she hadn’t left the house, which meant she was listening to me. It was just too dangerous for her out in regular society right now. At any moment, they could just grab her or Camden. It wasn't worth the risk.
I opened the door. “Penelope, I can't wait to tell you how my day was.” But as soon as I said the words, my mouth dropped open. The house was a disaster. Everything was turned upside down. I reached for my gun, not realizing I had left it here purposefully.
I searched everywhere through the house, screaming their names. I checked the crib, under the bed, even out in the backyard. But they were nowhere to be found.
“Penny!” I screamed. I could hardly breathe. Where were they? What had happened to them?
Purest.
They had taken my mate.
My son.
Those bastards had figured me out. In just a few days, they had caught on to me and grabbed my family. I should have known better. It had been too easy.
I cracked my knuckles as I thought about the hell that they would have to pay.
19
Penelope
My eyes fluttered open and I squinted immediately into the darkness around me. I had to figure out where I was. Where they had taken us.
“Camden!” I shrieked, calling out into the darkness. But I didn't hear his cry. I couldn't hear anything. I was tied to a metal chair. It was so cold underneath my fingertips. The straps that were holding me down were medical grade, buckles and everything. No matter how hard I struggled, I was trapped. A light flickered on above me and as my eyes adjusted, I realized I was in an area with almost plastic walls. I could see through them, and on the other side were a couple of men in suits and woman in a lab coat. I looked behind me and saw a metal tray full of medical instruments. I didn't know what to say to them. The only thing I could think of was Camden.
“Where is my baby? Where is my son?”
There was no point in trying to convince me that they didn't have him. I could recall hearing him scream as they picked him up right before they had injected me with some type of drug in the neck. It had obviously put me out. But for how long? And what had they done with Camden in the meantime?
For a moment, I hoped that Harrison would come and find us, but he was undercover somewhere. He was doing his job, and he wouldn’t be home for a few more days. He wouldn't even know that we were missing. I cringed at the thought.
“Where the hell is my baby? What have you done with him? I know what you're doing here is illegal!”
I watched one of the men in suits. His head snapped up like he heard me for the first time. He parted the plastic and walked in.
“I don't think she needs to be kept in quarantine, do you?”
The doctor walked in behind him, not even looking up from her notes. It was like she didn't even realize that a person was sitting here, strapped to a chair like a prisoner. “We can't be sure. Until we get the blood test results back, we won't know if the child is a full shifter or half. It doesn't matter what she says. I already sent her blood upstairs to the lab as well, so it should be more than another fifteen or twenty minutes until we have the results.”
They took blood from Camden? “If you hurt him in any way… I will kill you. Shifter or not, I will end your life, and rip you limb from limb.”
The doctor rolled her eyes at me. She was pretty, as much as I didn't want her to be. And only a couple years older than myself. “We didn't hurt him. That would be counterproductive. He'll be fine, and all of this will be over very soon. Now we need to talk about who the baby’s father is. Only to bring him in for testing as well. Though hopefully, he'll come easier than you did. I still can't believe they had to physically bring you in here.” She clucked her tongue at me like I had done something wrong. She was completely insane.
“I'm sorry? You took me prisoner!”
The second man came through the plastic and looked at me. It was the same man from the diner. A little bit over forty and already beginning to go bald. He had piercing gray eyes that immediately made me uncomfortable, just as they had in the diner. His sinister glare was the reason that I'd run in the first place. How had he found me so quickly?
“Now, we offered you a nice sum of money to come here, and you declined. Which was your right, but I think Camden will be very happy to go to a nice college when he gets older, and for his mother to not really have to work that much the rest of his life. So don't worry, the money will be forwarded to your bank account and when you leave here, you'll be all the richer for it.”
“You're going to let me leave? You really think I'm stupid enough to believe you?”
He smiled at me, but it dripped with venom. He knew I had caught onto this little act. He knew I was smarter than he had given me credit for. “Yes, you will be able to leave. Besides, if you’re human, you're not who we really want. Now tell the doctor who the father is so we can get to work.”
I chewed on my lower lip, attempting to look nervous, when in reality, I was just so angry that I could've killed all three of them. “I don't know. It was a one night stand. I have no idea who his father is.”
The doctor rolled her eyes again. “Well, whose house are you staying at? Just a friend?”
They obviously followed me, so they already knew who I was staying with. Maybe I could play this up to my benefit. “Yes, just a friend. James Harrison, a high-ranking detective with the Seattle Police Department. He and I went to high school together. After your offer, I had no one else to turn to. I knew he would take me in without question, as our families go a long way back.”
My plan had worked, but just slightly. The first man that had entered looked nervous.
“Actually, he's going to notice my absence pretty quickly. We had dinner plans tonight. And by the look on your face—” I looked pointedly at the man on the right, “—it's already evening. So as soon as he tracks you down, you'll have the entire police department swarming your building. So this time, I'm going to make you an offer. You let Camden and I leave, and I will never talk about this again. They won't press charges and take down your business, and we’ll all forget this ever happened. Does that sound like a fair compromise?”
The second man spoke again, flinching at the words. “You’re lying.”
I cocked my head at him. “Am I? Are you really willing to take the risk and find out? I wouldn't.”
The doctor finally looked up from her notes. “Even if what you say is true, they will never find you. This is a secret testing facility, not on our main hub. Even if they were there, you and Camden will still be here. And then you’ll never leave, I'll make sure of it. Gentlemen, I have work to do, if you’ll leave us.”
The men nodded to her and walked out of the plastic cage. It was just her and me. She snapped on some latex gloves and held a syringe in front of her.
“What's that for? You and I both know you know I'm human.”
“Yes, in fact I do already know that you’re human. But it's a lot more fun to play these games when it seems like I'm not sure yet. I don't get in as much trouble that way.”
“Why are you doing this? Why are you testing on shifters anyway? What have they were done to you?”
“They don't have to do anything to any of us. Don't you see? They limit us. Their abilities are far superior to ours and as a result, they hinder our ability to be as perfect as we once were. People think that we’re not as fast or as strong as the shifters are, that humans are suddenly less than them. All that it would take is one shifter to get i
nto the mindset that shifters are the superior race. They would take us off the planet. So instead, we’re fighting back before they've begun the war. Shifters won't even know what's happened to them by the time that we’ve either gained new abilities, or eradicated their species. It's a win-win, really.”
“That's disgusting. My son does not limit me. He makes me better.”
“Of course he does. That's what all mothers say about their children. But if he wasn’t your child? How would you feel about him then?”
She plunged the needle into my arm and I winced. “I would feel the same way. Shifters are still people. And I don't believe that doing any kind of testing on people should be allowed.”
She removed the needle from my arm and held a cotton swab over it. “They're not people. They are savages. Just like that buffoon boyfriend of yours. Thinking he could come into my lab and not get found out? Please.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected. Some of us did. But others only believe what they want.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it. The rest of the world will soon enough.”
“What does that mean?”
“Before we go public, we need there to be a war. A reason for change.”
She went back to writing her notes. As she began to walk out of the plastic walls, I realized what she meant. “You're going to make the shifters do something to you? You're going to make them look like they're evil.”
She didn't turn around to acknowledge me. And within seconds of her walking through the plastic, I was plunged into darkness once again. All I could think about was Camden, and for a moment I let my thoughts settle on Harrison. I had to hope that his operation had gone smoothly, and that someone was coming to check up on us. I just needed everyone to be safe. The first chance I got I was going to make my escape, and if I died trying, I needed Camden to have a good, solid family left. I would do anything to save him.
20
Harrison
“Sarge!” I said, exasperated. “I need to talk to the girl!”
“Why? We sent her home. What’s going on?”
I hardly had time to explain. I was screaming into my phone. “They took her! They took Penny and Camden. I thought I got away with it today, but apparently they found me out. I have to find them!”
I heard Sarge sucking in a breath. “Of course. Anything you need.”
He gave me the address for Tasha and her phone number.
“We’ll get back up together and meet you there,” he said as I ran to my truck and typed it in my phone. She only lived about twenty minutes from me. I immediately drove there while dialing her number over and over again. She didn’t answer. Finally, I reached her house and rang the doorbell. Holding my badge up to the keyhole, I knew someone would answer. They owed me.
Tasha was the one to open it. “Aren’t you the cop? What the hell are you doing here? I mean, come in! You saved my ass and my secret is still safe. The family is pretty happy too.”
“Tasha, I need your help.”
She looked at me, concerned, her dark eyes still so tainted from being in that place. “What's wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“They took my mate. They took my mate and my son and I need to find out where else they held people. They’re not dumb enough to take her to the same place where you were at. Not since they found me out.”
“How did they find you out? I played my part. Even when I got to the police station, I still wouldn't tell them that you helped me. I did exactly what you said to do.”
“I know that, Tasha. I don't blame you at all. When I need to do now is find my family. So just think, is there any other place that they said that they kept people? Maybe before they sent them to another facility, anything.”
She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, “Yeah, there's a warehouse. It's down at the docks. They said that they took some of the kids there once. That they didn't want them mingling with other shifters. You said you have a son, right? I’d bet anything that’s where he is. I don't know which warehouse, though.”
I started to run away from her and toward my truck. “That's all the information I needed.”
I knew I could give the rest to Sarge and the team, and they would be able to help me find her. They had to.
I called Sarge on the way, and he told me he was sending a team of squad cars to go with me. Some detectives had looked up some information for me on the computers at the central lab, as they were investigating currently. They found some financial records that said which warehouses they had been renting. There were three of them now.
I sent one of the squad cars to one down the far east end, and then I took the other squad car with me to the two closer to our location. Once I saw medical vans outside between the two of them, I knew she was in one of them. I took my gun out of the holster and I instructed the uniforms to fan out behind me. I didn't even put on my bulletproof vest because I didn't care. There was no living without Penelope and Camden. There was just no point.
The uniforms all followed my signals without even speaking. Four of them went into the one warehouse while one other came with me into the second. We cleared the first floor when I heard shots fired from the other warehouse. I ran to see Sarge standing outside of the warehouse in front of his undercover vehicle. He had a vest on and a megaphone. This had quickly become a hostage situation.
“What's going on in there?” I yelled at him.
Another pop of the gun. Sarge went to answer me but I couldn't wait for his response. I sprinted past him into the warehouse and saw one of my guys laying on the ground. He waved to me letting me know that he wasn't fatally wounded, just a slug to the vest. I signaled for another uniform to help him up and get him out of there. I didn't want him to be a liability.
This was my fight.
I crept past some cargo units and saw several plastic quarantine areas set up. There were children and babies in all of them. These bastards were sicker than I thought. There were a couple areas off to the right that were darker. The lights had been turned off. I was hopeful that the people there were just sleeping, that they weren't built to hold their dead. Experiments gone wrong. I saw two men in suits and the same doctor that had been at the lab. The woman who had assigned me to Tasha. So it was a test. She had already known about me before she would have given me the assignment. The hour she gave me with Tasha was her way out. To not be implicated with the others. I wondered if Frank was in on it too. How had I not seen that?
“We have you surrounded. We're sending a team in. There will be no negotiations. Release the prisoners, and nobody dies today.” I heard Sarge's voice boom out of the megaphone. The doctor and two other men looked up. I saw another uniform at the other end of the lab. He nodded to me and I knew that it was go time.
“Hands up! Everybody put your hands up!”
The men immediately sank to their knees and put their hands behind their heads. One was blubbering about how he didn't know what was going on, and he was just an investor. Liar.
The doctor didn't move right away. She just folded her arms across her chest looking arrogant and defiant.
“That was fast. Thought it would take you a little bit longer to figure this out, Harrison. So I guess you know your girlfriend is here, and your child. I'm so glad you took the bait to come work for us. It left her unprotected just long enough for us to set her up. Though, as we told her, she’ll be compensated fully. I don't see why you felt the need to involve the police. Though I guess you are police after all, but that do-gooder mentality really won't get you anywhere.”
“Shut the hell up and get on your knees,” I said as I continued to point my gun at her head. “And tell me where my family is.”
The uniform behind me had both men in cuffs and I knew he was ready to escort them out, but without the doctor in custody, we couldn’t move any further.
“Why should I? You know you can’t win this. It’s bigger than you. It’s bigger than all of
us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We’ve got people inside the government. We’ve got people everywhere.”
“You don’t have any friends in here anymore.”
“These two? Really, they’re nothing. Acquisitions and investments. Nobodies compared to Sable and Frank.”
“Frank?”
“Oh, you didn’t know. He was playing you! He’s actually playing everyone. You just wait and see how invested he really is in the cause.”
“The cause? You’re a nut job.”
“I believe that you things are animals, everyone will see soon enough.”
“I am done playing your games. Make a choice, lady. Go out alive, or not. I’ve got a family to find.”
“Not,” was all she said before she took a syringe and shoved it into her throat. Whatever she injected herself with worked immediately, and she fell to the floor with a thud. It made me hate her even more, that I couldn't have taken her out myself. The men in suits were horrified, but I just stepped over her body and walked through the plastic quarantine units, desperately searching until I found Camden crying in a plastic crib. All that he was in was a diaper, with a scratchy sheet wrapped around him. I picked him up and shushed him, walking through the plastic, calling for Penelope.
“Penny? Penny, where the hell are you?”
I heard a yell in the distance. I continued to rock Camden as I walked toward the calling. I stepped into one of the dark rooms and flicked on the light. A single luminescent bulb hung above her. She was strapped to a chair and looked tired, but for the most part, okay.
“You’re not hurt, are you?” I said as I attempted to remove her straps with one arm while the other still rocked Camden back and forth.
“No! They just wanted blood samples. I'm so glad you're okay!”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I squeezed her tightly. She leaned down to kiss Camden again and again. “I love you so much. Mommy will never let anything happen to you. Mommy and Daddy love you, Camden.”