Not to mention we had two members of the Mars rebellion on board. Sure Serenity was out in the midrim but that didn’t mean both governments didn’t have a presence there. I wouldn’t take a bet on our two castaways not being wanted for questioning. So while we were in a much better place than we were on our last visit, we still hadn’t made it out of the black yet.
Walking into the common area, I approached Wolf and Dozer. They stopped talking when I approached, which was never really a good sign. “I’m going to ask this question once, and I need the truth.” I hit both of them with a glare that I hoped said don’t fuck with me. “Is it going to be a problem if someone from the station’s law enforcement unit sees you?” They shared a quick look that said all I needed to know.
Wolf met my eyes. “It won’t be a problem.”
“From the looks on your faces, I already know that isn’t true. I’m not going to ask you tell me why it’s a problem. I don’t fucking care. What I do care about is you putting my crew at risk. When you lie to me, it puts all of us at risk, and guess who I’d give up to the authorities first?” If they were wanted, I needed to know if a simple ident scan would give them away, and if they were traced back to the Talon, who knew what kind of trouble we would be in? McKrey didn’t send them off world to make friends. He had a plan and these two were part of it.
Dozer started to stand, and Wolf reached out putting a hand on his arm. He met her eye and sat back down. I wasn’t sure if the hand was because she knew that I had a plan to get them there safely or if she had noticed Gabe moving up behind them with his pistol drawn. Either way it showed a little more intelligence than I had given them credit for so far.
“So I take it you have a plan,” Wolf said. The look in her eyes was pleading even though not a note of that uncertainty hit her voice.
“I do, but I almost hate telling you what it is.” She wasn’t going to like it, but I thought it was going to be hilarious. It was all I could do to keep the smile that was twitching at the corners of my mouth from becoming a full on grin.
“Just get us on the station, and you’ll never see us again.” This time a hint of her emotions did reach her voice.
She wasn’t looking for a fight, something I appreciated greatly in a passenger on my vessel. I pulled the table by the couch forward so I could sit on it facing them. “Don’t worry, we aren’t planning on shooting you or handing you off to the authorities. I’m a man of my word, I’ll get you there. It’s just that before you can leave the ship, there will be a slight delay.”
Dozer’s deep voice rumbled with anger. “Why?”
“There was an attack on the station during our last visit. One of the magistrates wants to speak with us before allowing us to enter the station.” They shared a look that told me if he saw their faces, this might have been a bigger problem than I originally expected.
Wolf patted Dozer's leg again calming the big man, and then she spoke, “So what’s the plan?”
I started to laugh. Neither of them thought it was funny. I could see it written all over their faces. “I’m going to put you two in one of our hidey holes until the magistrate leaves.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Wolf said, obviously feeling relieved.
“I guess that depends on what he’s been eating.” I pointed towards Dozer and stood up moving the table back to where it was. I turned to go but not before seeing Wolf’s nose wrinkle at the thought of being confined in a small space with him again. “We’ve got about an hour before we dock. Gabe will take you to your position when we are ready.”
I turned and left them to think about what was coming. It wasn’t so bad being stuck in a room with a little gas if it kept you alive. I’m just glad it wasn’t me stuck in there with them.
CHAPTER 21
SAMANTHA RIPLEY
It wasn’t like the last time I was in the crate. This time my body went rigid from the stasis process, but my mind stayed active. I could also still feel the bond between myself and Drake. There were a few times where my mind tried to rebel against my body, but it just wouldn’t work. Whatever the crate did, it kept me immobile no matter how hard I fought against it. It was probably for the best. It seemed like weeks since they had put me in here, but now I felt Drake's sense of relief. That could only mean he had completed the handoff. The rest was up to me.
His plan was absurd in its simplicity. Drop me off with weapons and clothes. Let me fight my way free, killing everyone in my path and then escape to meet up with them on Serenity. Ok, he didn’t tell me to kill everyone, but I had a bone to pick with the men that had kidnapped me and continued to imprison me. Sure, most of the original people responsible for my imprisonment had died from old age, but those that continued to work with them and anyone associated with those monsters were just as guilty. It was time to make a statement to let them know I would not slip away quietly into the night. They needed to know I was coming for them and I wouldn’t stop until they had been wiped from the face of the verse. I was their plaything no longer.
It felt like I had stopped moving, but it was hard to be sure. The damn hover lifters made it almost impossible to tell. When they opened the lid, I was going to have to play it cool. I needed to wake up slowly, and I had to come up with some kind of plan so I wouldn’t be trapped in whatever room they brought me back in. Every room probably had failsafes, and it wouldn’t take them long to figure out that their biggest weapon against me wouldn’t work. Just the thought of the brain bomb not being in my head sent a smile to my lips. That wouldn’t do when they opened the crate either.
Light started to filter in, and my body grew warmer. I made sure to keep my eyes closed despite wanting to see what was happening around me. I lay there waiting until I heard them talking and then I started to stir.
“Well, she survived the process,” someone said.
“I guess that question has been answered. Now we just have to figure out how much of her is intact.”
I could feel someone leaning over the edge of the box, and I started to flutter my eyes like I was coming out of a deep sleep. I started to stretch, letting my limbs push against the crate, and then I popped my eyes wide open and stood up. Panic was the look I was going for. As far as these men knew, the last time I had been awake I was sitting in a room. This had to be a shock for me waking up here.
It wasn’t hard to fake the panic, it had been exactly what I had felt when the crate had opened up for the first time. Again, I thanked whatever god was still alive that I had ended up with Drake instead of here. If I had awakened here who knows what would have happened to me. One thing was for sure, I wouldn’t be free to make my own choices like I was now.
“Damn, get a look at her.” The first man said to the second.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I jumped to the top of the room in an instant and turned and hissed down at them. It had to be what they expected. A third man came into the room and stared up at me. He didn’t have the same glint in his eyes that the other men did. They were fixated on my body. This man could care less, he just wanted to be in control. His eyes hardened, and I already couldn’t wait to end him.
“You two jokers get some blood warming and get out.”
“Yes, Dr. Smith,” they said almost simultaneously.
God this guy was a prick, but I guess you had to be in his line of work. Experimenting on unwilling humans wasn’t something every scientist was cut out for. I pretended to not be in control of myself. I hissed and spat at them, basically doing anything to give them the impression that I wasn’t paying attention to everything that was going on around me. It made the other two men nervous but not Dr. Smith. I watched them heat the blood, but more importantly, I saw how they opened the door. Making it out of this first room was the key to my survival.
“Get down from there and control yourself,” Dr. Smith said holding up a device in his hand.
I made sure to stare at the item in his hand and let a little fear flicker across my face
. I hated doing it. The dread that little item filled me with for years had no control over me now. The man holding the device to threaten me only made me feel one emotion: rage. I dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of the man. His eyes never moved from mine as I stared into them with a hatred that burned me up from the inside. He was one of the men that had taken everything from me, and from so many others. Now was my chance to show him what that felt like.
“You’re an impertinent little bitch, aren’t you?” He hit the button in his hand.
I let a scream tear from my lips, and I fell to my knees. Little did he know it was a scream of frustration. Every single part of me wanted to rip this man’s head from his shoulders, but if I acted too quickly I might not survive. I had to wait, had to let him think he had the upper hand.
“Now that you understand your place here, we can get started. Stand and don’t move. I need to give you a physical examination.”
I stood back up and stared into his eyes. I still felt that hatred, but now I had added something to it, a sense of loathing. He was enjoying this too much. The control that he had over me, and if he pushed it too far I wouldn’t let it stand.
He reached up and moved his hands over my face. He lifted my arms and checked them for mobility and looked over my skin to make sure it wasn’t damaged in any way. He put my arms down and then started to move his hands over my stomach.
“Turn around.”
I did as he asked, and he moved his hands over my back. Everything up until then had felt mostly like any doctor I had ever visited before my change. The hands moved quickly and were brusk and direct with their touch. That changed when he reached for my ass. I spun around to face him, and he held up the control in his hand. He gave the button a little push, and I faked the pain again.
He stared down at my breasts and then gave one of them a quick squeeze. He tweaked my nipple, and I almost lost it. The anger was building up inside of me, and if I didn’t let it out soon, it would consume me. I was still hoping to get some answers, but there was only so much I was willing to take to get them. Somehow I managed to keep control. He turned me around roughly and then pushed me over the edge of the crate.
“Now that we understand each other, I need you to stay still.”
That was it for me. Despite the risk, I wasn’t going to let this man fucking touch me again, let alone rape me. I heard his zipper go down, and I called on my vampire energy. I spun around as he was pulling himself free from his pants. I took his key card before he even registered I had moved. With my free hand, I reached down and ripped the offending limb from his body. One of his fingers came away with it. I couldn’t tell which was bigger.
Before the shock could set in, I grabbed the crate and opened the door. Once I was in the hallway, I didn’t slow down. Dressing and pulling free the weapons Drake had left for me, I cracked open a bag of blood that had been stored along with my clothing. Dropping from vampire speed, I smiled as Dr. Smith turned around. The look of shock on his face was priceless, he couldn’t quite figure out how I had gotten out of the room with the crate, let alone dressed. The best part for me was when he looked down, and the pain and shock registered on his face. He started to scream then. It must have been a shock to turn around and find out your cock was missing. He knew that he was dead, but that didn’t stop him from trying to take me with him. He raised the controller that had been the bane of my existence since the change and pushed the button. When nothing happened, the malicious smile he had on his face slipped away. Moments later he hit the floor as blood loss overwhelmed him. Now it was my turn to smile. Seeing that vile man face down in a puddle of his own blood chipped a little shard of ice off of my heart. Now it was time to show these assholes what a real vampire could do.
The alarm sounded, and two doors started to descend from the roof. I slid the crate that had been my home for the last twenty years forward, and it stopped one of the doors from closing. The crate started to crush under the pressure from the door. I kicked it into high speed and started running. I slid under the door just as the crate broke. The crate shattered into pieces behind me with a deafening explosion. Metal shards littered the floor, and a few had embedded themselves into the concrete walls. Somehow I had avoided the worst of it and came out with nothing more than a few scratches on my coat. God this life was hard on my clothes.
I could only imagine what was happening on the other side of the door right now, but in the past the containment protocol had been to burn everything to ash. I guess good old Dr. Smith wouldn’t be getting a funeral anytime soon. Not that the company would have been able to return his body to the family anyways. How would you explain his missing penis and finger? A horrible masturbation accident? A laugh escaped me at the thought of someone trying to say that with a straight face. The sound of rushing footsteps broke me out of reverie.
At least four men were rushing towards my position. There wasn’t a lot of room to move in the corridor so I went up. Clinging to the roof, I pulled the two pistols free and waited. The men cleared the corner rifles point towards the door. None of them looked up. Typical security, they weren’t worth the credits they were paid with. I thought about sparing them, these were just men being paid for a job, but after what the doctor thought he could do to me I was still feeling a little salty. How many other of my kind had been subjected to these men’s sadistic whims?
The pistols roared to life, and all four men were down before any of them fired a shot. A plasma bolt through the face wasn’t a pretty injury. This would be a closed casket affair if any of their bodies ever made it out of the facility. Until I was back outside, there was no time to waste. Dropping from the roof, I hopped over the bodies and continued deeper into the facility. I wanted to make a point here, my actions needed to scream DON’T FUCK WITH ME!
More men were approaching, and if they had cameras in the corridors then the same trick wouldn’t work twice. Funnily enough, it still sounded like normal human security. Where were the beasts? Did they even make them anymore or were they so confident in their brain bombs, that they stopped worrying about backup plans? It didn’t really matter to me, humans died faster, but just killing the scientist security teams wasn’t enough. I wanted to get more of the people in charge. They were the ones that had to pay.
Three more turns brought me to my first door. I used the same keycard, and to my surprise it still worked. The door hissed open, and I looked into a lab. The men and women there looked up as the noise of the hallway’s alarm filtered into the room for the first time. They had several people strapped to tables. There was no way for me to know what they were doing to them. I really didn’t want to know.
The guns in my hands seemed to rise and fire on their own. The men and women scattered but none of them were fast enough to escape my aim. One of them managed to dive just as I fired and only took the plasma bolt through the leg. I marched forward, and she started to scoot away on her butt. She pushed herself back using her hands and feet while staring up into my eyes with terror.
There was no way that I had any blood on my clothes, and I was pretty sure my face didn’t register all of my anger. Maybe it was scarier because I wasn’t screaming. I just silently followed her matching each of her scoots with a step of my own. She was mumbling something that sounded like a prayer. As I got closer, she pulled a cross from around her neck and held it up. It didn’t seem to have any effect on me and why should it? I wasn’t a demon, I wasn’t evil. All I was doing was dispensing retribution.
When she screamed, I holstered my guns. I picked her up holding her out at arm’s length in front of me. I waited for the screams to stop, and she turned into a sobbing mess. There wasn’t an ounce of pity left in my soul. I lowered her and sank my fangs into her neck. The fresh blood was delicious. Something about the bagged stuff just didn’t even come close. I closed my eyes and let her thoughts wash over me.
When I was done, I tossed her body to the side and scanned the rest of the room. No one else was moving, and n
ow I had a map of the facility outlined in my mind. There were three more labs down here, and then nothing until I reached the main floor. At least that was what she thought. It was too bad I didn’t have a bomb to level the entire building. Then again, that would draw a lot of attention. Almost anything I did here now would be covered up by the company that owned this place. The one thing that would be truly helpful was finding any information leading to who was in charge.
I moved out of the lab and down the hall. After everything that happened, I was surprised that I never asked Drake who hired him. I knew he was afraid of someone, and the N.E.A. had been around when I was alive, but this didn’t strike me as a military operation. That and I doubted Drake would be afraid of just the military. Although staying inside N.E.A. space with a target on your back wouldn’t have been easy.
The next two labs went down the same as the first. I was full to the brim with power, but I was down to my last two power packs for my pistols. The guns would be useless after the next lab leaving me with just my knife. There was something to be said for the up close and personal kill. A kill when you were face to face with someone felt different somehow. It was a more personal experience, a moment you shared together before one of you wouldn’t have any more moments to share with anyone. When you felt the life rush out of someone while you held them in your arms, it was almost intimate.
I tried to shake myself free from the thought. There was still a part of me that hated violence and struggled against what I was doing now. It was the small shred of my humanity that refused to die. The part of me that wanted to love and be loved. My humanity wanted to just put this all behind me, it demanded I let it go and move on. Violence wasn’t the answer, it never solved a thing. And yet it felt good dealing out this long coming retribution, so I cut off that internal voice and decided that I should revel in the destruction if only for today.
Genetic Purge (The Galactic Outlaws Book 2) Page 15