by Terra Wolf
“I have a job for you, come on down.”
I followed him down the hallway toward the elevator that he had taken me down just a few days before. I wasn’t anxious to get back downstairs, except that I had to find the girl. And all that I knew about her was that she was somewhere down there.
“Yes, sir? What can I do for you?”
“Got a rowdy test subject downstairs. Don’t know what she thinks is going on, but they need you to go take care of her. I can’t believe they’re asking us to babysit test subjects now. But I think it’s just because we have the extra manpower. They want to make sure that you’re worth the money.”
Babysitting a test subject? “What do you want me to do?”
“I guess just sit with her. Make sure she isn’t going to try anything stupid. She’s going for some testing today, and they’re worried that she’s going to flip her lid and hurt somebody. They need someone to help restrain her, someone built like you.” He laughed, patting me on the back like we were old friends. He still had no idea. He still thought I was on their side. Or he was still playing me, I couldn’t be sure.
“Okay, so what’s the subject’s deal? What should I know about her?”
He shook his head. “It’s just some girl. I don’t know what they’re all freaked out about. Supposedly she turns into some sort of big cat. But they haven’t been able to observe that yet because she’s refused to do any of the progress reports with them. So I guess they just want to make sure that she’s even legit?”
I nodded like I understood, even though that didn’t make any sense to me. Unless she had been trying to convince them this whole time that she wasn’t really a shifter. Hoping that then they would leave her alone. Free her. But if that’s what she believed, then she was seriously mistaken. Just watching these guys for a couple days, I knew that if they weren’t going to keep her, they were going to kill her. Maybe she didn’t get that.
“I’ll take care of it, Frank. Anything else I can do for you?”
He smiled at me and put his arm around my shoulder.
“I can’t tell you how much I love hearing that, George. You know, I really think you can make something of yourself here. Just these past couple days, you’ve shown more progress than most of the guys do here after a month. Upper management’s going to notice. They’ll give you more responsibility if you let them. This could be a really good career move for you. Start a family, have enough money to retire early. That’s my plan, anyway.”
“Retire early?”
“Sure. Whatever else they want me to do. Wouldn’t you?”
“Definitely. But the company comes first, obviously. Once I’ve got a nice little nest egg to rest on, I can think about those things.”
He nodded knowingly and then swiped his badge at the elevator.” You won’t be able to get in and out without upper level security clearance. So when they’re done with you, one of the doctors down there will let you back up. Have a great rest of your shift. I’m off for the day.”
“You’re off?”
“Yep. Going fishing. Taking my son out on the water. Should be a good day. Just keep an eye on those animals down there. Jack’s up in the main office if you need anything. Hopefully, this will be easy enough for you.”
He had no idea. Without all the regular security, I could run this place. And I could get the goods and be out of here before anybody noticed. This was my opportunity, but I just didn’t expect it to come as quickly as this. Sometime in the future. I was very quickly seeing this as a “seize the opportunity” type of scenario. And I was damn good at that. But I also watched him walk away. Looking carefree. Was this too easy?
I took the elevator down the stairs and waited for directions from one of the lead doctors. It was a woman, and she freaked me out. She had such a stern look on her face all the time, like she wasn’t ever happy with anything. I tried to turn on the charm with her a little bit to see if that would open her up. I would need more information before I could move forward. All that I had was a name, there was no fucking way I was lucky enough that the girl that I needed to be keeping under control today was Marconi’s niece. But my luck apparently was about to change.
“Are you the security they sent down?”
“Yes ma’am,” I said confidently.
“Good, you look like you actually know what’s going on compared to the last one they sent me. And that led to an escape.”
“An escape?”
I thought they had their shit together enough to not let somebody out of here. But apparently I was wrong. I wondered if there were other test subjects that had escaped, people that we could use to further our investigation.
“Yes, a couple weeks ago. So frustrating. I had finally gotten what I needed from her. She was shifting back and forth at will, and we could do blood work at any time. And then suddenly she was gone. I couldn’t believe it. They had been so stupid as to let her go. If they would stop letting my subjects go, I wouldn’t need new ones. And then I wouldn’t have to deal with shit like this.”
“So where is the animal?” I said as I played my part.
“Follow me.” She turned on her heel and walked down the long, dark hallway past the cages. I tried to tell myself there were people inside. But I knew it was futile. I was lying to myself. Some of the creatures didn’t have people left inside of them. And I couldn’t blame them. They had been tortured, and perhaps some had been forced into their animal selves.
As I walked past, I nodded to them. I tried to give them some sort of hope. I tried to let them know that I was on their side. None of them spoke. Most of them didn’t even turn their heads in my direction. They had been so conditioned to only feel pain when people came to them that they hardly acted human anymore.
There was always a part of us deep inside that the caged bear. We hid it from the rest of the world, not necessarily because the outside world wouldn’t accept us, but because we felt the need to guard ourselves. Protect ourselves from harm. I had been raised that way. To keep quiet. Just in case. You never knew what was coming. Who was around the next corner. Who was out to get you even though they said that they were your friends. I wondered if that’s how they’d gotten people here, by lying to them. I couldn’t think of another way.
Finally, we got to the second to last cage on the left, and in the corner, there was a girl in a hospital gown looking disheveled. Her hair was sticking out in every direction, and when she looked up at me, her eyes were sallow, like she hadn’t been eating. She was terrified. My bear paced back and forth beneath my skin as I tried to remain calm. I couldn’t let her or the doctor know what my plan was. Both for my safety and for hers.
“This is her. I know she doesn’t look like much, but she’s anything but harmless. You need to keep a close eye on her. I’ll be giving her a shot in about an hour. Maybe you could talk to her? Calm her down beforehand.” She waved her hand at the girl in the cage. “I’m just so tired of dealing with her. Maybe if you try, you’ll get somewhere.”
She changed her voice to make it sound like she was speaking to a child. “Tasha? Tasha, I know you can hear me. This is George. He’s going to sit with you for a while. Isn’t that nice? I really think you’re going to like him. Now just behave for George. Don’t cause him any trouble, or I’ll have to come back. But we don’t want that. Be a good girl.”
She talked to her like she was a toddler. But she was at least twenty, if not older. The only reason she looked as young as she did now was because she looked so afraid. Fear always made people look small.
“So I have an hour with her?”
The doctor looked at me harshly. “If you want to see it that way, then I guess. But really, you have an hour to get her under control.”
I looked at the girl shivering in the corner of the cell. She seemed totally harmless. The doctor walked in the opposite direction, and I realized I had an hour to complete my mission. Get the girl out, and don’t get found out. Lucky for me, while the doctor was talking, she didn
’t notice me grab her badge. She talked a big talk, but she couldn’t keep up. All brains and book smarts on that one, I laughed to myself, as I thought that she probably got mugged pretty often and didn’t even notice. Served her right. I waited until I was sure that she was out of earshot to start talking to Tasha. I needed to explain my plan.
I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Tasha? Tasha, I know your uncle. I’m here to get you out.”
She didn’t move. I don’t know what I expected; I guessed she’d spring forward and be grateful about her rescue, but instead she was just a shell of a person at this point. There wasn’t much left to her.
“Tasha, I need you to listen to me. We’re going to get out of here, but you’re going to have to follow me. If you don’t, then I can’t help you. So please just listen to me, let me help you.”
I saw a flash of yellow cross her eyes. What type of animal had they said she was? Some type of cat? I wondered how much of her power she had truly shown them.
“Tasha, listen to me. I’m here to help. I promise. But I need you to follow along. If you just sit in this cell, then we’re not going anywhere. And you know your uncle, and I know your uncle, and he’s not going to like either of us if we don’t get you the hell out of here. Am I clear?”
Suddenly she sprang into action, moving swiftly across the cage. The way she prowled back and forth at the edge made me immediately recognize that stance. It was the same one I had seen Sarge do. She was a tiger.
“You’re a tiger? Shit.” I had learned to deal with tigers because of Sarge. They were the hardest shifter to get along with. They were reclusive, and they only wanted to do things their way. This made things a lot more difficult. Her eyes narrowed at me and finally she spoke. Her voice was gravelly, like she hadn’t used it in a while. I felt for her.
“They sent you for me? I’m surprised.”
“Are you? You’re related to a mob family. Did you really just think they would leave you here to die?”
She looked like she considered it for a moment.
“I bet you have a family,” she said. “That you have people who would miss you if you were gone. Do you know why my family wants me back? It has nothing to do with loyalty. I’m one-of-a-kind. A rarity. And when they marry me off, I’ll be worth a lot of money to them. That’s the only reason they want me back. It has nothing to do with family.”
She spat on the ground. This was going to be more difficult than I’d anticipated. She had clearly become hardened in here, thanks to self-preservation. I didn’t blame her.
“Listen, I don’t know what drama you have with your family. But I’m here to do a job. And if I successfully complete this job, your uncle is going to help me if I need a favor. And that’s something that I’m interested in. So let’s do this.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “The only reason I’m doing this is because I want to get the hell out of this place and away from that crazy lady. She’s such a fucking bitch. Always sticking me with needles, talking to me like a child. She really treats us like animals, you know.” She lifted her nose up into the air and looked at me with astonishment. “Wait, you do know. You’re one of us?”
I shushed her, putting my hand out in front of her cage. “Don’t say that any louder.”
“Why? Because you know the others in here will kill you if they find out what a traitor you are? What the hell are you thinking working here?”
I shook my head. She didn’t trust me. I couldn’t blame her. But if we were going to get out of here alive and with my cover intact, she was going to have to start. I had to give her a reason to.
“I’m an undercover cop. I’m here to find out as much as I can about this place. That way we can take it out.”
She looked at me carefully, like she was studying me. She wasn’t sure whether to believe me or not, and I didn’t blame her. But we didn’t have time to discuss this. We needed to move before the doctor figured out I’d taken her badge.
“Undercover?” she asked.
“Yes, undercover. And we have to go now.”
She nodded. “Fine by me. Swipe the doctor’s badge on my keypad down at the bottom of the hall. It opens my cage and two others. One of them is with the doctor now so he’s out, but the other one is the guy three down from me. So he’ll have to come with us. Or he’ll blow it for us. And you might want to know, the guy’s got some serious anger problems. He is really pissed about being stuck here.”
“Great, another one of you to save. Fine, where is he?”
“Three down. Also one more problem, he really doesn’t like to be a human anymore. I blame these jackasses for that, but I don’t know that he’ll shift back.”
“If he doesn’t shift, he doesn’t come. It’s that simple. I cannot walk out of here with one of you in animal form. You have to walk on two legs.”
She shrugged. “Tell him that.”
I walked down the hall at a brisk pace, but I didn’t want to alert the security cameras. When I arrived at two cages down from her, I saw what she meant. There was no one in the cage. Because it wasn’t just a cage, it was a window to an aquarium. The other shifter? He was a fucking shark.
Chapter Seventeen
Harrison
“We’re not taking him with us. I’m sorry.”
I swiped the badge and pulled her out of her cage, holding her upper arm tightly. I could feel her leaning on me for support. She was weak. I didn’t know what they had done to her, but it was enough. I wondered if she’d even be able to shift and follow through with the plan. I hoped so.
Her eyes grew wide as we passed by his open cell. Clearly, she hadn’t expected to see the aquarium behind the gate, just as I hadn’t. “I guess not.” She gave a feeble wave to the shark as we passed.
“I didn’t know he was underwater like that. I mean, I assumed that that was his natural environment or whatever, but none of us had our environment, so I figured he didn’t either. I guess I really didn’t think that through. So what’s the plan? How do you break us out of here?”
“That’s the thing. There’s no us. I’ve got to keep going with my mission or they’ll figure out who I really am. And if they do that, I compromise my whole team. So this is how this is going to happen. We’re going to go upstairs and I’m going to tell them I’m taking you to one of the labs for testing. You wait for my signal and when I give it, shift. We’re going to fight, and you’re going to have to make it look like you overpowered me. Then break out. That’s the best I can do.”
“Overpower you? You’re huge! No one is going to believe that my tiger overpowered you. Not to mention I’m not even sure I can shift. All the drugs they’ve been pumping me with mess with my mind. Sometimes I feel only like the cat, other times I don’t feel her at all.”
“Well, I hope you feel her now. Because this is our only option. Another thing,” I said as we reached the elevator, “when you leave here you don’t go home yet. Go straight to my precinct, the one-twenty-six. They need to have a witness. They’ve been listening,” I tapped my ear, “but they need a real person. With you they’ll be able to get a warrant and break everybody else out. They staged a kidnapping of a very well-known family member, so they’re going to assume that they took you for ransom. No one ever has to know the truth about what you are if you don’t want. But if you say that there are other people here, of other highly affluent families, the judge will be forced to give my team a warrant to come in and take them down. Just make sure you give them enough. I understand wanting to keep the tiger side of you a secret. More than you know.”
“But what about when I get out the doors? I can run all I want but they have guns, dart guns. I saw the last girl that tried to escape. She came back in worse shape than when she left.” We rode up the elevator, which gave her just one more moment of panic before I opened the doors.
“Tasha, listen to me. Nothing is going to happen to you as long as you do exactly what I tell you. They won’t find you out. Either of us. And your friends? They’ll
be safe in just a couple days. And until then, I’ll be here to protect them. You wait for my signal, are we clear?”
She simply nodded. I opened the doors on the upper level and was met with an empty hallway. It was exactly as I expected, so I began walking right away. I knew some guys were watching from the security tower, so I made a good show for the video cameras, shoving her this way and that. She wasn’t a bad actress either. She attempted to pull away at one point and then try to turn and bite me.
This could work. I just had to get her to the other end of this hallway. There was a back exit near the dumpsters. We were about halfway down the hallway before we saw anyone: a lab tech walked out of his area, looking at a notepad, and hardly noticed us until he almost walked right into us. He looked up and fixed his glasses, which were perched on his nose. “Who’s she?”
“I don’t know. I’m just following orders. They said they want her in test area C? I’m so new I don’t even know where that is yet. I’ve been walking around here forever. Anyway, can you point me in the right direction?”
The tech flipped some papers on his clipboard. “Yeah, C. Says here it’s down the hall and to the left. I’ve seen her before. You better get her there quickly. She’s a mess. Always makes the job harder than it has to be.” He shook his head as he walked past us, continuing to whatever his original destination was. I breathed a sigh of relief as we kept going down the hallway. But he turned around to check on us.
“I said to go in the other direction!” he called to us.
“Now!” I whispered to her. She turned around and shot the lab tech an ugly glare. And then her body began to twitch. I tried to seem surprised, even though I had done the same to change myself a hundred times. Her fingers began to twitch first and her head rolled around her body. The shift was going to hurt her later, and she was having a rough time forcing her body into it. I wondered if she was right about the drugs that they were giving her, trying to keep her calm. But also trying to keep her tiger from taking over completely. I looked back at the lab tech, pretending to be terrified.