Risk Be Damned

by Natalie Grey

  He swore, inventively.

  Filip was gone, and the door stood open.

  “No.” A sense of fear settled into his stomach. If Filip opened the elevator to get to his friends….

  Gerard ran out the door and pounded down the corridor toward the elevator, cursing himself.

  —

  Konul Abdulin hardly looked around when the cage door opened.

  Days at this facility had turned into weeks, weeks into months … and months into years. He had fought the experiments for a very long time, enduring punishment after punishment in his desire to keep his free will.

  He had dreamed of escape, of his home, of freedom to change or not at will. Day by day, however, his resistance waned.

  He could not stop himself from transforming. He had no choice in whether or not he killed. They had learned everything about him, they implanted a chip near the base of his skull to broadcast the frequencies that enraged him and pushed him to violence.

  He began to forget what the outside world looked like, and soon he realized that there was only one thing he could control: whether or not they hurt him. If he obeyed, they did not do so. But the cage was open, and no one was here to take him anywhere.

  He crawled out on his hands and knees, looking around at the other prisoners. And then came the command to shift. He did not think, just transformed. He did not want them to hurt him.

  There are enemies here. Kill them.

  There was no point in trying to resist. If he did, they would simply torture him until his resistance broke.

  Konul loped into the hallway and toward the sound of the fight.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Hsu pounded up the stairs, breath coming harsh in her lungs. Not for the first time, she envied the stamina and strength of the Wechselbalg.

  Even in human form, they far outstripped her.

  Still, she’d be damned if she let Gerard and Hugo get away because she was out of shape.

  Vowing to do more cardio if she somehow managed to survive this, she steeled herself and pushed her screaming muscles to go faster. She could hear voices upstairs, but she was too tired to realize what that meant until footsteps started descending. She was supposed to be here, Hsu reminded herself. She was a scientist. She had any of a dozen reasons to be going upstairs. She slowed to a walk and tried not to gasp for breath as she came around the corner to see a dark-haired woman. The woman stopped, narrowing her eyes. A sudden storm of yipping and snarling erupted upstairs and both women flinched.

  “I—have a good day.” Hsu let the random pleasantries fall out of her mouth as she made to get into the hallways.

  “Just a second.” The woman had a gun now. “Who are you, and where are you going?”

  She couldn’t go out this way. She hadn’t gotten to Gerard. Hsu’s hands clenched and she tried to steady herself. She let her eyes flick over the dark hair, the civilian clothes, looking for a clue. Then it occurred to her: the cages had been opened, the guards were somehow gone, and this was an unfamiliar person.

  There was a chance, of course, that the dark-haired woman was one of the ones loyal to Gerard, but Hsu knew what she had to do in that case.

  “Where’s Gerard?” Hsu asked her.

  “Why? And why should I know?” She spoke Bulgarian with the faintest trace of a Russian accent.

  She was trying to be badass, but Hsu had seen the flash of fear in her eyes at Gerard’s name. Hsu felt the corner of her mouth quirk. “Because I’m going to kill him. And because the cages got opened and I figured you might know something about that.”

  “Maybe.” The woman blinked at her. “But you … work here. Why would you want to kill Gerard?” She cast a worried glance up at the sound of the continuing fight.

  Hsu felt anger course through her. “I’m a prisoner, too. Most of the scientists are.”

  “Really?”

  “D’you think a whole bunch of people just woke up one morning and thought, ‘you know what would be fun? Abducting families, keeping them in cages, and making them kill one another’? No. We were abducted just like the prisoners were and they made it very clear what would happen to us if we didn’t do the research for them.” Now that Hsu had started, she couldn’t seem to stop. “I planned my escape for years. I dreamed of being brave enough to stand up to Gerard, but I wasn’t, and so I hurt people, and I am never going to be able to make up for that.”

  The other woman’s mouth was hanging open at this tirade, and Hsu pulled herself together with an effort. “Look, we don’t have time, and if you want me to die because I’m working here, you can be fairly sure I’ll die getting to Gerard. If I don’t, I’ll let you kill me after I kill him. Deal?”

  “Uh … deal?”

  “Arisha!” A voice called, from up the stairs. “Get into the main part of the building.”

  “This way.” The woman grabbed Hsu’s hand and yanked her out of the stairwell and into a hallway. “There are wolves that way, and they aren’t friendly.”

  “Then I’ll have to try the elevator.” Hsu pulled out her badge and stared at it, resigned. “And … hope I’m cleared for the 8th floor.”

  The woman grinned suddenly and pulled out another badge. “I bet the Guard Captain is.”

  Hsu stared in surprise, “Where did you get that?”

  “In his office, after I hit him with a chair and then opened the cages.” She said the words matter of factly, but Hsu could see traces of smugness in her smile.

  “Right.” Hsu nodded. “Thank you. I promise to do what I can. And if you see a woman named Irina … keep her safe.”

  “Irina’s here?”

  Hsu gaped at the woman. “You know her?”

  “She was at the Sofia facility before this, right? I came with her cousin.”Arisha explained.

  “That must have been who she was with in the hallway.” Hsu felt something unknot in her chest.

  “Yes. Yes, keep her safe.”

  “And good luck to you.” Something flared in the other woman’s eyes and she clasped Hsu’s hand. “Be as sneaky as you can. Gerard thinks he’s smarter than everyone else—that’s his weakness.”

  Hsu nodded. She watched as the other woman disappeared down the hallway, and then she set off into the building. The elevator shaft stood deserted, without the usual complement of guards to glower at anyone approaching it. She swiped the Guard Captain’s badge with shaking fingers, pressed the button, and hesitated before pressing another button that read PRIORITY.

  “Request to stop on Floor 6,” the elevator informed her in a far-too-cheerful voice.

  She had no idea what to say to that, but she had no desire to meet whoever was on floor 6. She’d probably used up her luck with meeting Arisha. “Denied?”

  “Request will be denied.”

  “Thank you?”

  The elevator had no response to that. Hsu let out her breath in a whoosh, and as the elevator started to climb, she told herself to get a grip.

  She was not going to successfully kill Gerard if she was preoccupied with how much her legs hurt, or if she was overcome by adrenaline, or even if she was still thinking about Irina finding her family.

  She bounced slightly on her feet to try to clear the cocktail of chemicals out of her blood and circled her fingers around the pen in her pocket. It wasn’t a gun or a knife, but the human body was fragile, and Hsu knew more about its fragility than most.

  All she had to do, by whatever means, was get close enough to Gerard to use it.

  And she had the trump card, after all. Gerard would want to survive. She didn’t even hope for that.

  5 … 6 … 7 …

  Deep breaths, Hsu.

  8.

  The elevator dinged and Hsu flattened herself in the corner. She peeked out, footsteps were coming closer, and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to get out of the way in time. She pressed herself further into the corner and drew the pen.

  No hesitation. Only action.

  The echo of a gunshot made h
er jump, and there was a scream.

  “Did you really think you could get away?”

  Gerard’s voice. Hsu told herself that the sudden surge in her heartbeat was because she was lucky to be close to her target, not because she was terrified. Of course it wasn’t because she was terrified.

  “Hugo isn’t here to protect you anymore, Filip.”

  The man who must be Filip crawled into view. He was bruised and bloodied, sobbing with pain. From the amount of blood coming from the wound in his shoulder, he had to know he was going to die, but he was still trying to run away. He didn’t even look at Hsu as he hauled himself past the elevator.

  Watching him was her mistake, though, because a second later, Gerard was in the elevator, and the barrel of the gun was lodged under Hsu’s chin. His hand clamped down around her wrist and pressed until she dropped the pen with a scream of pain.

  I’m not afraid to die, I’m not afraid to die.

  Bullshit.

  “You look familiar.” Gerard’s eyes narrowed, and then he gave a low laugh. “The researcher who escaped from the Sofia facility. I knew that lost signal was too convenient.” He bashed the control panel with his elbow, never letting the gun waver. “And you’ve just saved me the trouble of going to the server room to get the data … because it’s your experiments we need to recreate.” He looked over his shoulder at the bleeding man. “It’s your lucky day, Filip. Thanks to Hsu, here, you get a much less painful death.”

  As the elevator doors slid closed, Gerard smiled down at Hsu. “So why did you come back?”

  It doesn’t matter what you have to do to get your shot. Just get it. And what would he want to hear? Hsu shook her head at him as if she were confused. “What do you mean, why did I come back? Didn’t the administrator tell you?”

  “Tell us what?”

  “I came here to help them. Those bastards ruined our progress at Sofia. Sir, please—I know we’ve failed Mr. Marcari here, too, but it wasn’t our fault, we were attacked. I was coming to warn him!”

  Gerard frowned down at her. He stepped back, still holding the gun aimed at Hsu. “What a nice story.”

  “It’s true!” Hsu held out her hands. “Look, you don’t have to believe me. Handcuff me, whatever you want. Just let me finish my work. Let me build this for Mr. Marcari. And I can tell him all about the people who attacked, I saw one of them.” With any luck, she could send them looking in all the wrong directions.

  The elevator dinged for the top floor.

  “Very well.” Gerard smiled, and gestured with the gun. “Out you go. And I warn you, if you think you’re clever, and you’re just lying to save your skin right now—we will get the information we want from you, one way or another. You won’t escape.”

  Neither will you. Hsu smiled at him. “I don’t want to escape,” she said sweetly. “This is my life’s work. I want to finish it.”

  —

  Filip watched, horrified, as the elevator door closed. He pressed a hand over the wound in his shoulder. He was going to die. He’d already lost too much blood, and his vision was growing spotty. With the last of his energy, he hauled himself to the elevator and slammed his hand down on the button.

  —

  Stephen pounded on the elevator button with increasing frustration.

  ADAM?

  >>My apologies, someone inside the elevator overrode your request to stop it here. They’re going to floor 8. Stopped. Still stopped.<<

  Well, get it back!

  >>Working on it. In the meantime, it looks as if a second set of experiments has been released. Be cautious.<<

  Stephen swore and let his head bang against the closed elevator doors. At his side, Jennifer changed back and laid a hand on his arm. She took a set of clothing from the pack he carried and put it on quickly.

  “We got the data,” she reminded him. “Getting Hugo today is a bonus. If we don’t? We’ll track that motherfucker down tomorrow and the day after that, and every day until we make him die for all of this bullshit he has done.”

  Stephen grinned at her, all of his tension melting away. “I love you so goddamned much. And I kind of like the idea of him knowing he’s being hunted, huh? In fact—wait, you’re shivering.” He picked up an abandoned lab coat from the floor and draped it around her shoulders. “There. ADAM, any progress?”

  >>One moment, the elevator stopped on 8 on the way back down. It looks like you’ve picked up a passenger.<<

  “Who—” Stephen began, but the next moment, the elevator dinged and the door opened to show a man bleeding out in the corner.

  “Have to stop them.” His lips were barely moving. “He took … a scientist. Said her research was what they needed. Oh, god.” His eyes squeezed shut in pain.

  “You’re Filip,” Stephen guessed.

  The man looked up at him desperately. “I can help, if you—”

  Jennifer looked to Stephen who pursed his lips, then quickly nodded his head.

  A knife took him in the throat. Stone-faced, Jennifer walked into the elevator and pulled the knife free of his body. She wiped it clean on the lab coat before returning it to its sheath. She gave only one last look at the body. “Filip, you have been judged.” She turned to look at Stephen who had stepped into the elevator and had turned around.

  —

  Hugo settled into his seat in the helicopter and placed the headphones over his ears as the blades began to beat.

  On his lap, a computer hooked into the heart of the facility showed red across the board. Hugo’s mouth twisted and he began to bring up each directory. Where was Gerard to do this sort of work when he was needed? A quick glance at the server room showed that the man wasn’t there yet. Perhaps Gerard was outliving his usefulness. Hugo tapped his fingers as he considered. There were, at least, a few measures he could implement on his own.

  —

  Nathan roared as he dispatched the last of the wolves. He snarled at Stoyan and Irina, and they followed him toward the elevator. When they saw Jennifer and Stephen waiting there, they changed back, shivering in the chilly corridor.

  Nathan frowned at Stephen, “Didn’t you get to the roof?”

  Stephen moved to block his view into the elevator. “Someone shut down—”

  >>The helicopter is spinning up, and it looks like someone is trying to get the defensive systems back online. You should get out, not go up.<<

  “ADAM says the defenses may be coming back,” Stephen said out loud, for the benefit of those without an ADAM link. “Since we aren’t sure what all of those are, we need to get out.”

  “Hsu is still here somewhere,” Irina protested. “I have to get to her. She said she was going for Gerard.”

  Stephen and Jennifer exchanged a glance. The scientist Gerard had taken?

  “Please.” Irina knew her voice was shaking. “People always say they’re going to change and make things right, and they never really do—but she did. She tried to help. She threw her life away for a chance to kill Hugo and Gerard, and she helped me get in here to get these people out.”

  “I’ll go,” Jennifer offered.

  Stephen nodded, “We both will. Between ADAM and our upgrades, our chances of getting out of here are way better than yours. Will you let us do this for you?”

  Irina bit her lip and nodded.

  Nathan turned to Stoyan. “I’m going to go with Stephen and Jennifer. You go now, and get the prisoners away from here.”

  Stoyan’s jaw hung open. “Me?”

  “Listen to me.” Nathan stepped close to him. “You left your last pack because the alpha wanted to leave his pack mates to die in a place like this. If you believe in what you stand for, now is the time when you have to lead. Be the leader you wished your alpha was. Get the prisoners to safety.”

  Stoyan pulled himself up and nodded. He had allowed fear to cloud his judgment, fear of allowing harm to come to his pack. Now he accepted the truth: Irina and the rest of his pack members that were here had accepted the dangers. They were here
for justice, to fight for the powerless. What they could not accept was to stand back and allow the prisoners to suffer any longer.