Brandi

by Donna McDonald

  They had gone to the boat where Fallon retrieved a black bag. In it were a variety of things, but unfortunately only a small supply of what they needed most.

  “What else you got in there?” Brandi asked.

  Fallon looked among the contents. “Two flares, a rope, some standard tear gas, and night fighting gear. We didn’t bring boomers because Dr. Crane said the labs are full of volatile chemicals.”

  Brandi nodded and sighed. “True—but I sure wish I had some more of that freeze gas. Well, okay… if we have to do it with half… we do it with half. Talk to Lars lately? How’s he doing?”

  “Still tired. But better. Thank you for asking,” Fallon said.

  Sighing once more, Brandi paced in front of the trees next to the shoreline. When she stopped, she looked at Gareth who was leaning against a tree and almost looking bored.

  “We don’t want the two armed guards at the front entrance to alert the others in case they have security that might auto shut down. The ones on the inside probably have guns too since they’re dealing with both humans and animals. There was one guard on duty at Feldspar, but plenty others on call. Guards without real weapons will probably have tranquilizer guns, which could be worse for us if we get tagged.”

  “So you’re the full frontal charge-and-damn-the-consequences type,” Gareth commented. “Now why am I not surprised.”

  Brandi snorted. “I guess. What do you guys usually do to bust up one of these places?”

  Gareth shrugged. “Same thing. Places like this put their money into their equipment and science people. They rarely think about security because most people respect research facilities. Out here, I bet they’re not too concerned with wandering tourists. I’m sure when one crosses their path they have ways of making them forget about it.”

  Their heads turned when they heard someone running towards them. Jon braked hard, but it took a moment to stop his large body from moving forward.

  “Two guards came out to smoke. They were talking about an upcoming autopsy. Alarm bells went off inside me as I listened. Hurry. We need to stop them now.”

  The four of them dodged the trees in a run back to the facility. When they arrived, Brandi looked at each of them to make sure she had their full attention. “One of us needs to go in as a decoy to give the others time to deploy the gas.”

  “I should go,” Jon declared. “They’re looking for me anyway. Maybe they’ll stop their autopsy plans when I show up. The scientist is still mad about my results. I’m sure I will be a distraction.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Brandi asked.

  Jon nodded. “Yes. I want Susan to see me. I want to give her a reason to keep fighting.”

  “Seeing you should do it then,” Brandi agreed. She looked at Gareth and Fallon. “Put the gas where Jon said to put it. According to Lars, full effectiveness is going to take about twenty minutes. People inside should get tired and just start passing out—if we’re lucky. Jon, we’ll be in to get you in about twenty minutes. Stay alive until then.”

  “Deal. I’ll be watching for you, Agent Jenkins,” Jon said as he started forward.

  They crouched behind their shelter of tightly grown trees and peeked through openings as Jon stepped from behind them and walked to the facility’s door. The two armed men greeted Jon in surprise. She saw Jon holding onto the door as one of the men grabbed onto him, trying to drag him through it. Hopefully, Jon had been able to disengage any lock in the tussle.

  “I guess that’s our cue to get busy.” Brandi turned and bumped into Gareth’s chest. Wearing her boots, she still had to look up at him. Why had she never noticed how tall he was before? “What now?”

  Her answer was to be lifted to her toes and kissed thoroughly. When Gareth finally turned loose and set her back down, her legs were trembling. The instant desire she felt was distracting, but it was the clutching in her gut that worried her more. She couldn’t afford to think about what any of it meant until she had more time.

  “Be careful today and don’t take any chances you don’t have to,” Gareth ordered gruffly, shifting before his order had faded on the air.

  “Take care of yourself too. Don’t make me have to save your ass. I don’t have time,” she replied, unable to let him run off without some word from her.

  Fallon grinned and winked before following Gareth’s running wolf form through the woods. Brandi stared until they disappeared from her view. Then she moved her gun from the back of her pants to her hands before squatting to keep watch.

  ***

  Ten minutes later, she heard a ruckus as the door to the facility got flung open. Two guards rushed out and ran in a different direction around the side of the building. She could take out one, but Gareth and Fallon would have to deal with the other.

  She chose and ran, not bothering to shift. Her side tackle caught the man off-guard and sent his weapon flying. She used the butt of her gun handle to make sure he wasn’t going to give her any problems. Climbing off his now unconscious and possibly dead form, she ran lightly to the building and slid quietly along the side until she’d reached the door.

  Opening it cautiously, Brandi peered inside. When no more guards came rushing out, she slipped in. Not enough time had passed for the gas to dissipate, but it couldn’t be helped. She needed to know what was happening and how the facility was dealing with the cold.

  “Think warm thoughts,” she ordered herself. What came to mind was the Florida humidity and being sticky with sweat every moment of the day. Beyond that was the desert and its incessant, unrelenting sunshine. She snickered about her unpleasant memories as she crept along. “Maybe Alaska was more of a vacation than I realized.”

  Talking to herself was her way of coping with nerves. But at the moment it only served to spook her… as did the fact that not a creature seemed to be stirring in the building. She wasn’t hearing any sounds. The endless hallway finally ended in another where she had to choose whether to go right or left. Dipping her head, she tuned in to her wolf.

  “Talk to me,” she ordered softly. She looked left and her wolf growled in anger. She looked right and her wolf whined in sympathy. “Guess that tells me which way the bears are.”

  Without stopping to give it more thought, she turned right and ran to find the captives. It wasn’t long before she was passing several large rooms with cages. Peeking in, she could see some contained people. Others contained bears of all sizes. Without exception, the occupants—human or animal—were hunkered down into corners.

  Seeing them all behind bars, her wolf threatened to peel off her skin if she didn’t shift. It was the most volatile that side of herself had ever been. “Down girl. Let’s do this in human form. I’ll need my hands to unlock the cages,” Brandi whispered.

  Slipping into the opening of the last of the giant rooms, she looked around. A roar from one of the occupants lifted the hair on the back of her neck, but was effective in getting her attention. A set of blinking human eyes stared out of a large bear body. Brandi slowly crept closer, holding eye contact as she lowered her weapon. “If you can understand me, I’m here to help you. Can you change back to human?”

  Another roar split the air. The sound was alarming. Frustration radiated off the bear in waves. Brandi nodded. She didn’t speak bear, but she sure as hell understood feeling trapped.

  “I won’t lie to you. Shifting hurts like hell. But you do get used to the pain. And sometimes… like now… you really do need to be human to help yourself. I need to talk to you—person to person. I don’t read minds. Think of yourself as a human and eventually you will be.”

  Brandi heard snorting. The bear started pawing the floor of its cell. Then it stood on two legs and screamed in rage. When the screaming faded, a large naked woman stared at her while other bears in cages started rumbling and pacing in alarm.

  “Hi,” Brandi said. “I’m Agent Brandi Jenkins and I’m here to rescue you. Tell me everything you can.”

  “My name is Susan Clark. Never mind
me though… you have to save Jon. They took him to the lab. Dr. Crane is very angry about his escape. I’m afraid of what she’ll do.”

  Brandi clenched her teeth until they ached. “Okay. Where are the keys to your cage?”

  Susan wrapped her arms around her body and shivered. “Keys are on the guards. They never leave them anywhere. It’s cold in here without fur, but I’ll be fine. Please… go help Jon.”

  Brandi nodded. It was cold, but not as cold as it was supposed to be. She hoped the other part of the building was being more affected.

  “I will go check on him—then I’ll come back. Try to stay in human form if you can.” She looked around and saw a jacket hung on the back of a desk chair. She grabbed it and handed it through the bars.

  “Thanks,” Susan said, shrugging into it. “Hurry. Labs are at the other end of the hall.”

  Nodding, Brandi took off. Along the corridor, cold restless animals were starting to make a bunch of noise.

  She stopped and crept past the hallway leading to the entrance, glancing down it to check for guards. Slowing from a run to a fast walk, she tried to be as stealthy as possible as she moved forward. Her wolf had started a low growl of warning in her gut, but it was overkill because she was on edge anyway. All her senses were shouting danger as loudly as possible and she was well trained in listening to them.

  It wasn’t long before she came to a room with an all too familiar scene. The lab she viewed wasn’t as large as Sheldon’s, but it looked nearly identical in some parts. Maybe all labs did. She couldn’t help being creeped out by it.

  Strapped to a table was a part human, part bear individual. A male from what she could tell... and no longer among the living. His naked form was marked with red dotted lines. Her wolf snapped and snarled at her discovery. Brandi didn’t blame her. There was a pool of blood under one of his half-shifted legs and some missing flesh. Was this the autopsy victim Jon had overheard the guards speaking about?

  Brandi shivered, noticing the temperature was at least thirty degrees colder than where the bear hybrids were being held. Unfortunately, it wasn’t cold enough to stop activity. So much for her plan. It was annoying cold, not the debilitating kind. Which meant the guards would still be awake and moving about.

  She lifted her weapon and disengaged the safety. Yes, she’d promised Sheldon she wouldn’t kill his sister. No mention had been made about wounding the scientist. Maybe she’d just shoot off her scalpel-wielding hand.

  A tortured bellow filled the air. It was coming from another room.

  A strong sense of dread washed through her as she returned to the hallway. Another bellow had her quickening her pace. Brandi smelled chemicals, none she could identify, but two rooms ahead a woman’s sharp voice was chastising whoever she was torturing.

  Heading in that direction, Brandi heard the click of a gun’s safety being disengaged behind her. Spinning around, she immediately confronted two automatic rifles. At the trigger end were two very pissed off males. One had a bleeding head wound. He was the one she’d run into outside. She made a mental note that extreme cold killed her sense of smell.

  Eyes wide, she clicked on her safety as she lifted her weapon above her head. The one without the head wound snatched it from her hand and spun her forward.

  Saying nothing, they poked her in the back and motioned her to move further into the lab. The smell of chemicals became overwhelming as she complied. And then she saw the source.

  Jon was strapped to a gurney. Beside him a woman was depressing plunger after plunger into his neck. With each injection, his yelling out in pain pierced the air. He was pleading with her and being ignored.

  Brandi stopped walking, her body filling with rage at her own memories, but there was little she could do. Not even her wolf could move fast enough to escape spraying bullets. Just one of them would incapacitate her. And God only knew what might blow up if a bullet hit the wrong fucking beaker.

  “Hold tight, Agent Jenkins. I’m almost finished here. Then we’ll have ourselves a bit of a chat.”

  Brandi glared as Diane Crane picked up a fifth needle, testing the exit of the liquid before shoving the needle roughly into Jon’s neck.

  “That mad scientist shit didn’t work out so well for your brother Randall. You should have chosen Sheldon’s path, Diane.”

  Brandi heard Diane Crane laugh as she picked up the last syringe.

  “I’m making bears, Agent Jenkins. Human bears. Humans who can become bears. And then I’m going to figure out how to change them back to humans again. Can you imagine space travel where an astronaut shifts form to deal with the environment? Those of us on earth may all die one day, but a human bear hybrid might just manage to survive our planet’s end. Hopefully I’ll perfect this before I get too old to go through conversion myself.”

  Unconscious at last, Jon didn’t call out when the last syringe was inserted into his neck, depressed, and withdrawn. Brandi swallowed her urge to swear when Diane Crane tossed the empty torture device down on the tray beside the comatose man. She narrowed her gaze as the scientist peeled off her protective silicone gloves. Right-handed. Danger Brain Diane was right-handed. She focused on that to calm herself.

  “Your brothers have both failed, Diane. What makes you so sure you’re going to succeed?”

  The weapon in her back nudged her again. Brandi walked until she was inches away from Diane Crane. It crossed her mind to take out the woman even if it meant her own certain death. But hesitating seemed to be her new middle name. She’d also promised Gareth not to take any chances she didn’t absolutely have to take.

  “What makes me think I’m going to succeed? Because I have already succeeded,” Diane declared. “I’ve turned every one of my captives into something more than human. Oh, a few have died in the process and not really become bears. Take Jon for instance. He is the last one to not try to change even though I’m sure the Kodiak cocktail worked to some degree. It certainly did on his wife. His reluctance to embrace his animal is why I gave him the mega dose of Russian Brown Bear serum just now. I bet he’ll grow a lot more than just hair when those hormones hit his system.”

  Brandi shook her head and sighed. “Unbelievable. Insanity must run rampant in your family. You’re every bit as fucked up mentally as Randall was.”

  “Actually, I’m nothing like Randall at all. I don’t give a rat’s ass about money. I get all I need being a brilliant, risk-taking scientist. The funniest thing is I never wanted to be a fucking scientist. I wanted to be an astronaut, but my parents were determined that I use my skills to better mankind’s fate. I caved to parental pressure… I admit it. I did some other things for a while to keep the boredom away. Those got me contacts and now I’m making bear hybrids. I’m going to save the whole damn world by making sure a few lucky humans one day get to escape this space rock. How about you, Agent Jenkins? Did your parents want you to grow up and go to work for my goody-two-shoes brother? From what I heard, you’re Sheldon’s latest recruit.”

  But instead of waiting for an answer from her, Diane Crane turned to her guards. “I read her dossier. Keep a weapon trained on her at all times. If she moves, shoot her. One of you pass me your tranquilizer gun and take our new Russian Big Brown to his cage before he starts to wake up.”

  Brandi fought the grin that threatened when Diane dispatched one of the guards. Now there was one less for her to take out.

  “So as I understand it, my brother Randall tried to turn you into a wolf and failed. Didn’t you get any special traits from all his efforts? I knew Randall was greedy, but I find it shocking that he was so inept.”

  Brandi was amazed when the small guard hoisted Jon’s large, sleeping body over his shoulder. “Damn. What kind of mad scientist serum did he get? He doesn’t look that strong.”

  “It’s a special testosterone cocktail—my own invention. I admit it makes him an uncontrollably horny bastard for a day or so after he gets his weekly dose. He has to visit the mainland until he’s sated. The other
effects are more useful though, especially in dealing with very strong bears.”

  “Custom thugs and kidnapped victims. You certainly are a real piece of work, aren’t you?” Surprising her, Diane Crane laughed instead of becoming annoyed by the insult.

  “Now I know why Lane wanted to keep you in his department so badly. Your droll sense of humor is vastly entertaining. For a long time I thought he might still have feelings for you. He’s been terribly afraid Sheldon wanted to finish what Randall started.”

  Brandi frowned at the comment. Now she knew the leak. Damn it. “Lane Nelson? You know my handler?”

  “Intimately,” Diane purred. “He was once my handler too. At the risk of being crude, I will say I’m sure Lane handled you as well as he still does me. The man is good at his work.”

  Brandi snorted. “Man… Lane must need fucking glasses or something. He obviously doesn’t recognize a bitch when he sees one these days.”