“Sayer Strom from Alpha team was thoughtful enough to strip two of the stunned M.P.s of their armor and identification last night. We’re going in covertly this time. Two of you will pose as Military Police escorting in a group of prisoners. With these ID tags, you will have access to even the most secure levels of Stonehead. Olivia will be in maximum security lockup and will be the hardest to get to. Luckily, one of these guys is an officer and his credentials will get you two in.”
“Wait a minute?” I ask, my mind racing as I try to wrap my mind around Jenica’s plan. “Those officers were stunned, not killed. Surely by now they’ve reported back and had their old IDs voided.”
A hint of a smile pulls at Jenica’s lips. “Strom took care of that for us by chaining the officers together and dropping them down into a ditch. If we’re lucky they won’t be found for days and by then it won’t matter. If the credentials are rejected, the prisoners that you’re bringing in will trump all else. Or I should say, the main prisoner. They won’t be able to resist letting you in with this guy as bait.”
“Who’s the bait?” Gage asks. I can tell he’s as intrigued by this plan as I am.
The Professor stands and speaks for the first time since the meeting began. He removes his glasses and I can see that tears have pooled in his eyes. He is afraid, not for us but for Olivia. I know he sees her like a daughter. We are all like his children.
“I am.”
Gage Bronson and Dax Janner
Restoration Resistance Headquarters Science and Medical Building
August 18, 4010
9:00 pm
I am afraid.
It is not something I would admit to a lot of people and if anyone asks I’d rather die than let them know the truth: I’ve been afraid since the day I arrived at Restoration Resistance Headquarters. I am afraid that the secrets I’ve kept will get me in hot water with the people I think are beginning to trust and accept me. I am afraid for Agata and I worry that she will someday come to resent me for the decisions I’ve had to make for her. Will she ever understand that I am only acting in my sister’s stead; doing the things for her that Trista could never do?
More than anything, I am afraid of being exposed for hiding the truth about my past to the only person whose trust I care about keeping. She’s watching me as I pull the M.P.s armor on over a black flight suit provided by Jenica. The armor is a perfect fit and all that is left to put on is the helmet. Blythe approaches from where she’s been leaning against the wall, the helmet clutched between her slender fingers. Her eyes are filled with fear, the same fear that I feel. I am grateful for her presence. It calms me, but also reminds me that it’s okay to be afraid. We have every reason to be.
“I don’t like this,” she says as I take the helmet from her and drop it on the cot beside me. The pristine, white exam room where I was escorted for changing is right up the hall from my final stop before boarding a craft headed for Washington D.C. “You could be killed, you and Dax, if they find out who you really are.”
“If the Professor is willing to risk his life to save those people at Stonehead, then I'm willing to risk mine too,” I answer, realizing that it’s the truth. I have never felt right about the way our government treats the people that were saved from the results of the nuclear fallout by their own inventions. “I kind of wish you would listen to me and just stay behind on this one,” I add as I step forward to cup her face in my hands. Her skin is so incredibly smooth at my fingertips and all I want to do is trail my hands lower to explore more of the same. “I don’t want what’s happened to Olivia to happen to you.”
“I’m going,” she says firmly, and I know there’s no arguing with her. Fortunately, Jenica put Blythe’s assertion that she pose as one of the M.P.s to rest. Even with the DNA altering serum that will be injected into my and Dax’s blood in a few moments, Blythe cannot be transformed into a male and we need two men to pose as officers. We were able to talk Blythe into posing as a prisoner along with Jenica, Professor Hinkley, Laura Rosenberg and Sayer Strom. While the Professor and Jenica are the big prizes, Blythe and Sayer are an added treat for the enemy.
“Then we’ll just have to promise to look out for each other, won’t we?” I tease, tweaking her nose playfully. “I won’t let anything happen to you, as long as I live. Do you understand?”
Through the glass behind her I can see Dax walking by, suited up in the same armor I am wearing. I can feel his dark eyes boring through me with intense dislike, but I ignore him. This moment is about me and Blythe, and I won’t allow it to be cut short because of some prick’s jealous tendencies. Blythe submits to my kiss and for a few seconds I experience heaven. Her lips are soft and she tastes like vanilla and cinnamon … or perhaps it’s her scent invading my senses and influencing my sense of taste. Surely, no woman could taste this sweet. Somehow, Blythe does, and her pliant lips urge me to take more. She doesn’t resist when I wrap my arms around her and hold her close, savoring the moment for as long as she’ll let me. When it’s over, I find confusion in her eyes—the same confusion I know she feels over Dax.
“I’m sorry,” I say, a lie. I am not the least bit sorry for stealing a kiss with the girl who’s slowly stealing my heart.
“It’s okay, I think,” she says, her eyes lowered. “I’m sorry, Gage, I just—”
“Hey,” I interject, raising her chin so that she’ll look at me. “I understand. There’s so much going on right now and you and I barely know each other. Then there’s Dax …”
I trail off and Blythe rolls her eyes. “He can be such a jerk sometimes.”
I laugh. “Yeah, but he’s your jerk. If I were him, I would be protective of you too. I wouldn’t be too fond of the new guy making eyes at you from across the cafeteria or kissing you in the middle of the night in your bedroom. He has every reason not to like me. Can’t say I’m all that fond of him either.”
Blythe laughs too, a sound she hardly makes but when she does, it’s musical. “Thank you … for understanding.”
How could I not understand? She’s just as mixed up as I am, as everyone else is here. These are pivotal times, for both our lives and the history of our country, and tensions are high. Nothing is simple and nothing is cut and dry. How can I, in good conscience, ask Blythe to give me her heart, when I can’t even tell her the truth about myself? The last thing I want is to see those dark, velvety eyes of hers filled with disgust and disappointment. Both are probably inevitable and that hurts me more than the thought of possibly dying tonight.
At some point, I vow to tell her the truth, but now is not that time.
The room is silent, accept for the beeping of the heart monitors attached to both Dax and I. We are lying on cold slabs of steel, strapped down and slightly elevated as nurses in white scrubs and lab coats move about the room, preparing things for our departure. Our disguises will go much deeper than what we’re wearing on the outside, Jenica explained to us earlier. The DNA Cloaking serum that Professor Neville invented just a few months ago, has never been used, making me and Dax the test dummies.
“Explain to me how this works again?” Dax asks the nurse as she removes the armor on his left arm and peels back the sleeve of his flight suit. He sounds nervous, as nervous as I am.
The nurse smiles at him and patiently explains. “Professor Hinkley found hair and skin fibers in the suits you are wearing and was able to extract the DNA of the officers wearing them. These syringes here contain the DNA of Captain Jack Knightly and Sergeant Grayson Barnes, along with the serum that will connect their DNA to yours temporarily. The bond lasts for twenty-four hours. Once you are injected, their DNA will latch onto yours, temporarily changing your appearance to match theirs. Should the guards at Stonehead decide to do a DNA swab, your blood or saliva will pass for theirs. No one will have any way of knowing your true identities.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Dax says with a shrug. “Does it hurt?”
The nurse’s smile gets a bit tight, but she keeps it plastered to h
er face in that way nurses do when they want to reassure a patient.
“We are not sure, but the Professor’s research indicates that the transformation could be a bit … jarring.”
Dax nods grimly. “Great. Sounds like fun, let’s do it.”
The nurse visibly relaxes. “Wonderful. I will just step out of the room for a moment, and return shortly with another nurse to assist me.”
Her steps are noiseless as she leaves the room, the sliding door swishing shut behind her. A few moments of tense silence pass before I finally turn to Dax.
“Look,” I say, deciding to get right down to business. “I know you don’t really like me, and I’m okay with that. To tell you to truth, I’m not fond of you either for reasons that have nothing to do with Blythe, and some that do. But you and I made a pretty good team out there today and in the end, we both want the same outcome for the Resistance. Can we just agree to put that aside and work together without it getting weird?”
Dax seems to consider this for a moment, watching me through narrowed eyes as if he’s trying to figure me out. “You’re right,” he says slowly. “I don’t like you.”
Silence follows and I roll my eyes, scoffing out loud at the idea that I could try to make nice with this jerk. It was a dumbass thing to do.
Dax’s laughter is unexpected and my head whips around at the sound. I find him looking at me, his shoulders and chest shaking with humor. The tension melts from my limbs and I laugh as well.
“Now that we got that out of the way,” Dax says, once the laughter has passed. “I don’t trust you and I’m not shy about admitting that. I think there are things you aren’t telling us, things that could affect us all in the long run. You have to understand that the Professor is like the father I never had, and these people here, the Bionics, are like his children. I won’t let anyone, not even you, fuck with that. You don’t like me, I can tell. But like each other or not, we do make a pretty good team. You’re a quick thinker and you’ve got big balls of steel. That, I do like about you. So I agree, let’s do what we have to do without letting the other stuff get in the way. This is about the Resistance. It’s bigger than us, you know?”
“Yeah,” I say with a slow nod, deciding that I might not dislike Dax as much as I thought.
The nurse comes back in with her assistant and each of them takes a place beside us. The other nurse quickly removes the armor from my left arm and rolls up my sleeve like the other nurse did Dax. Moving as one, the two nurses clean us with alcohol swabs and tie off our arms with a tourniquet, each searching for a good vein. Again, as one, they lift their syringes from the silver tray between them, careful to ensure that they each have the right one. My nurse pauses, needle poised inches above my skin.
“Ready?” she asks as the other nurse asks Dax the same.
“Just get it over with; I hate needles,” Dax says, his voice a bit edgy.
“Oh, come on, you can do this,” I encourage him. “We’re doing this for the Resistance.”
“For the Resistance,” Dax agrees as he turns back to his nurse. “Do it.”
The prick of the needle is nothing compared to what follows. Tiny pinpoints of light flood my vision before melting into swirls of color as pain explodes like fire in my veins. My entire body goes tense and spasms uncontrollably as if I’m having a seizure. I writhe and grit my teeth to keep from screaming. Even if I did scream I doubt anyone would hear me over Dax’s enraged bellows as the transformation grips him. I am soon to follow and the pop and snap of bones realigning in my face is unlike anything I’ve ever felt. What feels like hours is really only a few minutes by the time the pain ceases. The burning in my veins slowly subsides into a slow tingle, a side effect we were warned would occur but would only last for a little while.
The tingle feels good, like a flood of extra adrenaline in my veins, rushing from my head to my toes. As the nurse releases me from the table by unbuckling the straps holding me down, I leap to the floor, energized and ready to go. Dax does the same. When I look at him, I am stunned by what I am seeing. He has been transformed into a Caucasian man in his mid-thirties. Green eyes stare at me from beneath brown eyebrows, and much thinner lips curl into a smile.
“Sergeant Grayson Barnes, at your service, Captain,” he says with a laugh. Even his voice sounds different, its pitch higher. The Dax I know is gone. “Dude, you look like you’re going to be sick.”
“It’s just so weird,” I say, tilting my head and staring into the unfamiliar eyes. “I know it’s you, but my mind is telling me you’re someone else. This is crazy.”
“Me?” Dax laughs and points at the mirror behind me on the wall. “Take a look at yourself, bro.”
I turn slowly, my shoulders stiff with tension. I know that I will not see my own reflection but I am unprepared for what meets me in the mirror. The face staring back at me is not my own.
Ever since she first read books like Chronicles of Narnia or Goosebumps, Alicia has been a lover of mind-bending fiction. Wherever imagination takes her, she is more than happy to call that place her home. The mother of two and wife to an Army sergeant loves chocolate, coffee, and of course good books. When not writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, shopping for shoes and fabulous jewelry, or spending time with her loving family.
Alicia can be found on the web at any of the following links:
www.fantasybyalicia.com
www.facebook.com/fantasybyalicia
www.goodreads.com/alicia_michaels
Follow her at Twitter: @fantasybyalicia
Titanium
The Bionics Series Part #2
Daughter of the Red Dawn
The Lost Kingdom of Fallada Book #1
Child of the Sacred Earth
The Lost Kingdom of Fallada Book #2
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Burden of Sisyphus (Book #1)
Between the alien Alliance and the Terran Empire, a neutral zone stretches between the galaxies, a demilitarized zone that was established 150 years previous, following the Great War. The peace accord granted a semblance of peace to the universe. The peace, however, is a facade, and it is the responsibility of Michael Vance and his covert operations team to maintain that illusion.
Recently, the Alliance lost contact with one of their outposts near the neutral zone. Surveillance scans show an abandoned city and no signs of life. The Alliance does what it always does: send in the best. But an unexpected betrayal leaves Vance and his team stranded. Worse, the city that was supposed to be dead is quite alive. And the monsters that now roam its streets are slaughtering his team, one at a time.
Fall of Icarus (Book #2)
Between the alien Alliance and the Terran Empire, a neutral zone stretches between th
e galaxies, a demilitarized zone that was established 150 years previous, following the Great War. The peace accord granted a semblance of peace to the universe. The peace, however, is a facade, and it is the responsibility of Michael Vance and his covert operations team to maintain that illusion.
Recently, the Alliance lost contact with one of their outposts near the neutral zone. Surveillance scans show an abandoned city and no signs of life. The Alliance does what it always does: send in the best. But an unexpected betrayal leaves Vance and his team stranded. Worse, the city that was supposed to be dead is quite alive. And the monsters that now roam its streets are slaughtering his team, one at a time.
Purge of Prometheus (Book #3)
One-by-one, the brilliant suns of Alliance space are disappearing, left cold and lifeless after exposure to the Terran biological epidemic. Trapped on one of the sunless worlds, Keryn Riddell, the ruthless Wyndgaart warrior, fights against both a frozen landscape and her Terran captors.
As Keryn fights for her life, the psychic Yen Xiao leads the Alliance fleet in pursuit of the Terran Destroyers threatening the Alliance homeworlds. Yearning for leadership of the fleet, Yen begins to wonder
Titanium (Bionics) Page 9