by Lynn Red
He had slept a beautiful, dreamless sleep for the rest of the morning. When he had woken up, Quent was gone, but Chloe was sitting at the small table working on her laptop with three books open beside her. She hadn't heard him as he slid out of bed and behind her, feeling her jump when he put his hands on her shoulders.
"Researching your brother's condition?" he asked. She laughed.
"No. Homework." She grinned up at him and his heart soared. Even in the horrible motel lighting, her hair shone and her eyes sparkled. He was still afraid he was going to hurt her, but it was impossible to feel anything but happiness when he was this close to her. He would worry about the wolf later.
"I'll let you study, then." Jackson paused for a moment, and then kissed her head. The simple token of affection felt strange and wonderful. He had never been really been emotionally close enough to a woman to want to be affectionate.
"Okay. I'll see you tonight? Maybe we could do dinner or something?" she asked. He smiled at her.
"You got it. I'll bring something back with me."
Jackson smiled at the memory. He handed his ID to the gate guard and headed off to his office, feeling more hopeful for the future than he had in months. He didn't even hassle the poor private standing guard at his building this time. He whistled softly to himself as he sauntered to his office. Stepping inside, he sniffed the air, making sure no one had been in to tamper with his things. Just because he was happier than he'd been in a long time didn't mean that his old habits were going to disappear.
Everything was exactly as he left it and he let himself relax for a moment. The old chair creaked as he sat down and opened up the locked drawer and got out his laptop. The fact that there were fake orders for the young sergeant concerned him. It was a lot of trouble to go to in order to make someone disappear.
Jackson worked on his laptop for a little over an hour, digging into the fake orders and searching for the men who had attacked Chloe. The more he dug, the less he liked what he was seeing. It was as if Blake Madison had fallen off the face of the earth and the Army was doing its best to keep him there. Other than the orders he had found the night before, Jackson couldn't pull up a single trace of him after his disappearance date.
As far as the men who had attacked them, they were still in the hospital. They were ex-military. Dishonorable discharge after the debacle with Colonel Bronn in the Middle East. It made Jackson nervous that Bronn might be involved, but at least the men wouldn't be coming after Chloe again until they got out of the hospital.
Jackson glanced at the small clock on the lower right hand of his screen. It was almost the end of the lunch hour, and he had been in his office long enough; it would make perfect sense to anyone watching him for him to take a break. He closed his laptop and carefully locked it away. He grabbed his field jacket and went to take a walk around the compound.
The sun was shining brightly, making the snow sparkle like billions of tiny diamonds. The world was crystalline and white. His feet crunched against the hardened snow as he tread a well-worn path toward the science building. Ice gilded the pine needles surrounding the building and giant icicles hung from the roof like jagged knives. The air burned his nose with the cold.
He flashed his ID to the guard on the science building, knowing his rank would gain him entrance. The heat inside was almost a shock to his system after the cold sunshine. Florescent light-bulbs buzzed overhead as he worked his way down the white hallway until it split. A bathroom was straight in front of him with the hallway to the Medical area on his left, and an unmarked doorway with a key-card access pad to his right.
Jackson frowned slightly, unsure of what to do next. Without a key-card, he would never gain access. He could hear someone washing their hands in the bathroom and he came up with an idea. He opened the door and ran directly into a man wearing a white lab coat. Since Jackson had been expecting him, Jackson was able to discreetly swipe the man's key card. With an apology, the man continued out as Jackson hurried into a stall.
He heard the man go to the doorway and curse. Then the dial of buttons.
"Hey, Brad... yeah, I left my card on my desk again. Will you come let me in?" The man's phone beeped as the call ended and then a moment later the door buzzed. Jackson waited until he heard it close solidly behind the scientist before exiting the stall.
Jackson walked confidently to the door, sliding the scientist's stolen badge through the reader as though it were his own. The door clicked open and he stepped inside. There was another long hallway, but the first door to the right was definitely a locker room. He stepped inside. Three rows of ugly tan lockers filled the room. Spare lab coats of various sizes hung along a rack on the wall. Jackson carefully put one on, hoping to blend in with the rest of the scientists.
He looked around the small locker room, until he saw an office door with a cork board beside it. He checked out the bulletin board of information; there were various pictures of new staff and a giant calendar with holidays and birthdays written in neat handwriting. The room was empty, so he carefully pressed down on the office door handle. It pushed inward to a dark, nondescript little office. The only thing in the room that was useful was two spare lab key-cards on lanyards by the door. Jackson put them in his pocket. He had a feeling they would could in useful later.
Closing the office door quietly behind him, he stepped back out into the empty locker room and then out into the hallway. He walked past a lab with beakers full of various colored liquids, and then another with a giant spectroscopy machine. Luckily, the labs seemed to be deserted for the lunch hour and he was able to explore without detection.
A low humming, something human ears wouldn't be able to detect, caught his attention. He followed the sound, finally ending in a darkened room with several computers and a large two way mirror. He was on the non-mirror side and could see out into a lab.
The humming was louder on the other side of the glass, and he stepped up to peer through it. Three large cylinders full of water bubbled in a row in the center of the room. Wires and tubes ran out and into a computer next to each tank. Jackson blinked twice. There were men in those tanks.
Each man floated in a stream of bubbles, a mask over their mouths and eyes shut. Tubes of various sizes pressed into arms and legs. Jackson felt his stomach turn at the sight. One of them had a wolf tattoo on his shoulder; his brown hair waved gently in the water. Jackson felt sick. He knew that that was Blake Madison.
"Is everything ready for tonight?" Colonel Bronn asked, walking into the laboratory. A small, nervous looking scientist followed him. "I want them ready for the full moon tomorrow."
Jackson panicked for a moment before realizing he was behind the glass. Still, he went to the side of the room where he wouldn't be immediately seen.
"Yes, but, sir, I really must protest again. This isn't safe for the subjects." The scientist dry-washed his hands. Jackson could practically smell the fear and nervousness from the observation room. "They're basically full Weres on steroids at this point, but subjecting them to another round of the serum... I just don't think it's going to be safe."
The Colonel rounded on the smaller man. "Did I ask for your opinion, doctor? No." Colonel Bronn stood in front of Chloe's brother's cylinder, peering up into the water at the floating man. "I need these men to be more than just Weres. These boys are going to win us the War on Terror. One night in the 'stan and these boys will have everyone riding a camel begging for them not to come back."
The scientist frowned and brushed a lock of light brown hair out of his face. He was small and thin with a long nose and nervous eyes. "Colonel, this isn't what I signed up for. The whole point of my experiments was to help increase the Were population, not to create monsters."
Colonel Bronn turned slowly and stared down the scientist. It was only seconds before the man in the lab coat was sweating and looked like he was ready to roll on the floor to get away.
"Dr. Hulsey, I don't really care." Bronn said. The doctor was visibly shaking. Bro
nn looked back to the tank, his face hidden from Jackson. "These boys are soldiers. They are weapons. Weapons you created. This is the future of warfare."
Dr. Hulsey whimpered slightly and Bronn's attention returned to him. The colonel stepped up to the smaller man, Bronn's large finger directly under Hulsey's thin nose. Dr. Hulsey gulped audibly.
"You best take care, Dr. Hulsey." Colonel Bronn smiled coldly. "I'm the one who makes sure you get your funding and that no one questions where you got your cross-species DNA from. You best make sure it stays that way. You know what I do to people who cross me."
Dr. Hulsey looked ready to wet himself with fear. "Please don't send the Squad at me..."
Colonel Bronn patted him gently on the shoulder. "Now, get back to work. These boys are going to get me my general's star."
The scientist whimpered again as Colonel Bronn removed his hand and looked back up at the giant test tube. Dr. Hulsey scampered to one of the computers controlling the cylinders and began pressing buttons and reading the screens. "I'll have them ready for you, sir."
"Good." Colonel Bronn turned and walked from the room without another word to the shaking scientist. As soon as he had left the room, the poor scientist leaned against one of the machines as though he had lost all the strength in his legs.
"I'm so sorry. I tried, but..." Dr. Hulsey whispered, talking to the unconscious man in the nearest cylinder. "You'll be all right, though..."
Jackson had seen enough. He had found Chloe's brother and two other soldiers that needed rescuing. His instinctive dislike of Colonel Bronn had been correct. The man was only motivated by power. Jackson could see the allure of this project for him. A squad of super soldiers under Bronn's control would advance him up the ranks and give him status and power. It was a frightening thought.
Jackson waited until the scientist was busy and had his back to the mirror before exiting the small observation room and heading back down the hallway to the changing area. He neatly rehung his lab coat and found a locker with a matching name to the stolen key-card. He dropped it casually on the floor by the locker, hoping the man would return and simply think he had dropped it changing.
He listened at the locker room door for a moment to make sure no one was coming before slipping out and hurrying out to the first locked door. Once out, he walked casually back outside. The entire encounter had lasted less than fifteen minutes, but it was making Jackson's head spin. The genetic testing on soldiers had him concerned, but what really bothered him about the whole discovery was that he was going to have to tell Chloe. He could only imagine the danger she was going to put herself in to save her brother and that terrified him more than anything.
Chapter 20
Chloe stared at Jackson, her ears hearing the words but her brain struggling to comprehend. The man had found her brother and something bad was going to happen to him if she didn't rescue him that night.
"We're going to save him, right?" she asked, her voice much squeakier than she wanted it to be. Quent glanced over at Jackson and then back at her.
"Of course we are." Quent gave her a reassuring smile. She still felt like a tornado had ripped through her world. Ten minutes ago she had been trying to convince herself that Blake really was just in Afghanistan and that he didn't have a connection to the Weres. She knew it wasn't true, but it was better than the alternative of her brother being used as a guinea pig in some werewolf lab experiment.
Jackson put a hand on her shoulder. Just having him touch her made her feel calmer. She was still trembling though. "Are you okay?" Jackson asked.
She nodded, though his frown told her he didn't believe her. That was okay; she didn't believe her either. Chloe put her hand on top of Jackson's, making sure he couldn't pull away. His hand was so warm beneath hers as his fingers tightened gently in a reassuring squeeze. Chloe took a deep breath.
"Okay. What do we do now?" She glanced back and forth between Quent and Jackson.
"Whatever we do has to be tonight. Bronn said he wanted the changes to be in place by the time of the full moon," Jackson answered. Quent nodded.
"If they are enhancing the genetic structure of the Were gene, it would have to be done before the full moon transformation. The gene is at its most volatile right before the change." Quent's eyes went distant. "It may be our only chance to save them."
There was a moment of quiet as the three of them contemplated the results of a super werewolf under military control.
"So, I've only broken onto a military base once, but I've never tried to get a person out of one. How are we going to do this?" Chloe asked, sitting delicately on the bed. She still kept Jackson's hand on her shoulder though.
Quent's eyes narrowed. "Well, I have an old military uniform and I have a buddy who has..."
"How about we just use these?" Jackson interrupted, pulling the two ID badge from his pocket. "These identify you as scientists on the base, so if you're wearing them, you can get on base."
Quent blushed slightly. "That is certainly a much easier option."
Chloe took one of the cards in her hands and played with the plastic. "Then what? We find my brother, get him and the other two out of that tube thing; that much I know. But then how do we get them off base? I don't think the Colonel or that scientist doctor person is going to be very happy about us just taking their science projects."
"We'll go tonight when most of the science staff has gone home. We can use my truck to get them off base." Jackson crossed the small motel room and handed Quent the remaining ID badge.
"What would happen to you if we get caught?" Chloe asked, her voice quiet. She looked up at Jackson with big green eyes.
"Probably a court-martial. No big deal," he said, shrugging as if it were nothing. Chloe frowned.
"If you don't want to be a part of this, I would completely understand." she said, holding up the ID badge. "You got us these. That's more than anything I could have asked for. I don't want you losing your career for some girl you just met.
"You're hardly 'just some girl,'" Jackson said without hesitation. He looked at her with serious brown eyes. She could see a world in those eyes that she wanted to be a part of. They were warm and caring and made her feel alive.
Quent cleared his throat after a moment and Chloe felt her cheeks heat. She wondered just how long she had gotten lost in Jackson's eyes.
"Then it sounds like we have a plan. A flimsy one, but it's the best we got. Chloe and I arrive with you and pretend to be scientists. We break her brother and two other soldiers out of a dangerous lab experiment and bring them home, all while trying not to get you court-martialed." Quent shrugged. "Sounds easy enough."
Chloe giggled nervously. When phrased like that, it sounded ridiculous, but she knew she was going to do it anyway. Her brother needed her and she had never let him down. She wasn't about to start now.
"We can't bring them back here, though," Jackson said, glancing around the small motel room. "Three grown Weres in need of a full moon change are not going to fit in this room."
Quent nodded. "You are absolutely right. We'll have to take them to the Changing Grounds. I'll tell the Alpha to expect company."
Jackson growled. "I don't think it's a good idea to be broadcasting our intentions. I'm not comfortable with anyone knowing, even your Alpha."
Quent waved a hand dismissively. "I won't tell him exactly who is coming. Just to expect three new wolves about to change." Jackson's still glared at him so he added, "if we don't tell him, we won't have access to the Changing Grounds. If you have a safer place than 65 acres of uninhabited woodland, then I'm all ears."
"Fine. But no more details than necessary. This is dangerous enough as it is," Jackson grumbled.
Chloe cleared her throat, the tension in the room higher than what she was comfortable with. "Why is General Bronn so invested in this project? Shouldn't he be busy with base operations or something?"
"It's Colonel Bronn, and that's why he's so interested in this project. The man in power hung
ry. He's young for Colonel, but from what I know of him, he rose up the ranks quickly because he was ruthless. He's made it very clear that he wants to be a General someday," Jackson explained.
Chloe cocked her head. "So why not just wait for a promotion like everybody else? If he rose up this quickly, it should only be a matter of time."
"The only way to become a General is to be nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. It's very political and the spots are only available when a vacancy occurs, either through retirement or death. Can you think of a better way to distinguish himself and get that General’s star than to provide the Army with a squad of super soldiers?"
"But why this particular avenue? It seems a bit extreme. Why not just be a hero in a war zone or something?" Chloe asked.
Jackson made a pained face as though her lack of military understanding was causing physical discomfort. "It's not quite that easy. He got into some trouble overseas. Screwed up big time. An entire battalion under his command got too violent. They started playing fast and loose with the rules, especially those concerning the treatment of the locals. That's why he's now in charge of a base in the middle of nowhere. He probably sees this as his last chance to earn that star."
"So what you're saying is, he's desperate. Which makes him dangerous," Quent spoke up quietly.
"Very." Jackson nodded and Chloe felt herself shiver. She had to get her brother out of there.
The small motel room went quiet. Chloe thought about her brother and the thought of losing him. They were going to do something to him tonight. Jackson said the scientist had called him a Were, and she was actually okay with that. It was the fact that they were about to do something more that frightened her.
Quent picked up his car keys and went to the door. "You two get things ready on your end. I'll go make sure the Changing Grounds are prepped."
"We'll meet at seven sharp. I'll tell the motel we're checking out," Jackson responded.
