We didn’t have to wait long. Within a few minutes, two more guys slipped into Alyx’s room wearing head to toe hazmat suits and carrying soft-sided bags. We knew immediately what they were—professional cleaners. They swept the room, then proceeded to remove any and all traces that Alyx had ever been there. We had done the same thing ourselves dozens of times, yet now it sent a chill down my spine. Any doubts that our bait had been taken were now officially laid to rest.
We separated the pair of lackeys, taking one in their van and the other in ours. Divide and conquer was an effective way to get information. It was a proven fact that low-level men like these tended to crack quicker when isolated from their friends.
Psych was a master at getting inside their heads, filling them with fear and paranoia until they talked. This time was no exception. Within the hour, both men were trembling and spilling their guts.
Unfortunately, they didn’t know much above their level. Chamberlain was smart; he kept his people in neat little boxes, ensuring they didn’t know much beyond their station. All these guys knew was they had gotten a call with an address, they did their thing, and money showed up in their bank accounts.
It was disappointing, but expected. I was confident the others had Alyx’s back until I could get there.
As much as I hadn’t liked it, Cap had been right in keeping me on this side of things. I had a hard time being rational when it came to Alyx, and until I learned how to control the mated part of myself better, I would be a danger to her and everyone else. It was something I was going to have to get a handle on, because I wanted to be the one on her six.
Chapter Eighteen
Alyx
The dark sedan wove through the empty streets, taking us farther and farther away from CBRF and the research park. I wasn’t sure where we were going, and the driver hadn’t answered me when I had asked. Coldly polite but quiet, I could tell he was used to carrying out orders, and his duties did not include idle chit-chat.
I wasn’t really in the mood for conversation, anyway. I sat in the back, mentally recording our route, though it was unnecessary. Thanks to the tiny, undetectable microchip I now carried in my left hip, Dex had me covered.
I probably should have been nervous, but I wasn’t. If anything, I felt anticipation. Despite not being with the team long, those few weeks had instilled me with a sense of confidence. Sure, this was still risky and nothing was guaranteed, but after dealing with Roger Chamberlain’s crap for so long on my own, it felt amazing to have these guys at my back.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins, along with this new energy I seemed to have since Reid and I had become fully mated. I suspected it had something to do with our bond and the fact that, even now, part of his essence remained deep inside me.
Memories of this afternoon’s lovemaking warmed me from the inside out. Reid wasn’t exactly a gentle lover, but I didn’t mind. I loved the fact that I could make him lose control. Adding a hint of danger to the mix made the sex even better. If this afternoon’s meeting had made him that wild, then I could probably look forward to a sextastic orgasm-athon by the time this was over.
My nipples began to tighten just thinking about it. My leg bounced up and down while my fingers tapped my knee, not in anxiety, but impatience. I wanted to wrap this up and be done with Roger Chamberlain once and for all.
I caught the driver looking back in the rearview a few times and forced myself to stop.
The car finally slowed a few hours later and eased up to an impressive set of closed metal gates. My driver lowered the window and spoke quietly into a speaker. A man in a guard uniform stepped out of the shadows and approached the vehicle, shining a flashlight through the window and right into my face. I squinted and blinked, but must have passed muster because the gates opened and we were moving forward again.
We drove past a stately mansion-esque building, turning instead into an access way that took us down the side and toward the back. It didn’t look anything like an illicit research facility, but I guessed that was the point.
The car had barely stopped when my door was opened, and then I was being escorted into an unmarked doorway.
The TSA had nothing on these guys. I had to hand over my small bag and take off my shoes. Then I was ushered through a metal detector and a body scanner. The dour-faced guard scowled when she pulled me roughly aside and ran the hand wand repeatedly over my left hip.
“Pin,” I told her, sounding bored. “I was hit by a car when I was sixteen.”
I was told to sit down while she made a call, presumably to check my story and access my medical records which, thanks to Dex, completely backed up my story.
Finally, a man dressed in a tailored suit and looking like a Secret Service agent came in and gave the all-clear.
“My apologies,” he said with a faint British accent. “Can’t be too careful.”
“I understand,” I responded. Irritation laced my words, making my performance more believable.
He led me to an elevator which, judging by the direction my stomach lurched, went downward. When the doors opened, bright lights and lots of glass revealed a state of the art laboratory to the left and several plush conference rooms to the right. It was to one of those we went first.
I still didn’t know who Chamberlain’s inside guy was, but I had a feeling I was going to find out soon. I wasn’t wrong.
Gunther Dietz joined us, looking just as unpleasant as ever. I was almost disappointed. He seemed just a little too cliché for the role of evil mad scientist, but I guessed sometimes the most obvious answer was also the right one.
Judging by the scowl on his face, he was not happy to see me, either.
“You don’t like me much, do you, Dr. Dietz?”
I received a glare in response, along with an impressive lip curl. If I had to guess, I would say either he resented the fact that I had done something he hadn’t been able to do, or he suspected I was more than just a gifted scientist and had a real prejudice against those with special abilities. Maybe both. He seemed like a multi-dimensional kind of hater. Either way, I wouldn’t let him intimidate me. I would stick to the plan and leave the drama to him and his evil villain cosplay.
“If I’m here, it means you’ve already seen the results of the tests.”
“How?” he asked, leaning his wiry frame forward. “Tell me how.”
I smiled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
He smiled back, and I suddenly wished he wouldn’t have. Somehow, his grin was more menacing than his scowl.
“Try me.”
I sat back in my comfortable chair. “I don’t think so. Not until we have an agreement, one that I’m happy with.”
He hissed, actually hissed, and I wondered if there were such things as snake-shifters. I made a mental note to ask Reid about that later.
“What do you want?”
“I want in,” I said easily.
“You’re here, aren’t you?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “No. I mean, the real facility. The one Mr. Chamberlain alluded to when we last spoke.”
Dietz sniffed. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I hadn’t expected him to hand over the keys with a cheery wave.
“I see. Clearly, I’ve made a mistake. Looks like we’ve both wasted our time.”
I stood up to leave, but Secret Agent Guy held up his hand while pulling a phone out of his pocket with the other. He listened intently before responding with a terse, “Yes, sir.” He pulled the smartphone away from his ear and set it into a gadget-looking cradle at the head of the conference table. Roger Chamberlain’s voice came through the speaker loud and clear.
“Alyxandra, I do hope your trip was a pleasant one.”
“It was, Mr. Chamberlain, thank you. Although, it appears it has been all for naught.” I gave Dr. Dietz the stink eye.
“I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding,” the disembodied voice said smoothly. “Dietz, give her a
n introductory tour.”
“Sir, she doesn’t have the proper clearance.”
Roger’s voice was quiet, yet laced with steel. “Are you questioning my judgment, Doctor?”
I wondered once again about Dexter’s skills. Once this was done, I was going to buy him a big steak dinner, maybe two ... after Reid and I had epic post-mission sex, that was.
Dietz’s face mottled with red splotches. “No, sir, of course not. But—”
“Then do it. I’ll be there myself in the morning.”
Dietz looked as though he had swallowed something particularly nasty. In a way, I guessed he had. However, he was smart enough to know which side his bread was buttered on.
“Fine. Come with me.”
With two security guards bringing up the rear, we entered the laboratory I had seen earlier. We donned protective gear and slipped on disposable paper booties, masks, caps, and gloves.
I took in the equipment and banks of machines with awe. These were at least as impressive as the ones at CBRF, if not more so. It was a biochemical engineer’s wet dream! The part of me that had once naively dreamed of making a difference imagined all the things I could do with a facility like this at my disposal. Those days were gone. I had seen enough to know that my gift was not best suited to this kind of clinical, detached environment. I was definitely more of a hands-on type of girl.
A few workers glanced up as we passed by, but no one said anything and Dietz didn’t bother to introduce us. We breezed through a couple rooms before we entered what looked like an examination room. He nodded at the two guards, one of whom disappeared through a side door.
“I want to be clear. I do this against my better judgment. However,” he said with thinning lips, “I understand that we must each demonstrate a show of good faith.” He glanced to one of the guards. “Get the subject.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I nodded once.
Moments later, one of the guards returned, pushing in a man in a wheelchair. I willed myself not to react, but it was hard.
Wearing a hospital gown, the man was shackled at the ankles, wrists, waist, and neck by titanium bands. His hair was long, and days, if not weeks, of growth covered his jaw. The minute his feral golden eyes narrowed at me, I knew I was looking at a shifter.
“What is this?” I asked, walking closer.
The man in the chair growled and curled his upper lip, then jumped as if shocked. The sharp twang of burnt hair assaulted my nostrils. In my peripheral vision, I saw the guard with his finger on a remote control and a smirk on his lips.
“A volunteer,” Dietz said calmly, as if the guy hadn’t just been electrocuted right in front of us.
My blood boiled, but I had to keep my cool. Dietz had just confirmed they were indeed experimenting on shifters, but this was only one guy in one place. I would help him, but I needed information on other captives and other facilities first.
“Volunteer for what?” I asked, certain that nothing this poor man had endured had been voluntary.
“To test potential treatments for incurable afflictions.”
“Such as?”
Dietz gave me that creepy smile again. “Cancer, AIDS, Ebola, various plagues.”
I sucked in a breath. “No human could withstand all that.”
Dietz’s smile grew, and I let my eyes widen, hoping to look suitably impressed.
I nodded and shored up my courage. This was why I was here—to ensure this kind of thing never happened again.
“Fair enough. I suppose this is where I show you mine, huh?”
I stepped over to the counter, trying to ignore the hateful glare the shifter was aiming my way. I had no doubt that, if he hadn’t been drugged and subdued, pieces of me would be decorating the pristine white walls. Somehow, I had to let him know I was on his side.
I prepared a syringe and looked at the security guys. “A little help, please?”
“You’re fine,” one of them answered. “He can’t do anything.”
Maybe not now, but he would be able to after I did my thing ... hopefully.
I leaned over the captive “volunteer,” then made a show of adjusting my collar. His wild eyes followed the movement, locking on to the claiming mark visible only to shifters.
“Stay still. I don’t want to hurt you. This will only take a moment.” I hoped he could detect Reid’s scent on me and understood what I was trying to tell him.
He didn’t flinch when I extracted some of his blood into the vial, but he must have felt me pushing some of my healing energy into him, hoping to ease some of his pain.
Dietz followed my every move like a hawk.
I extracted a second, similar vial. Then I created a slide from the first vial and set it aside. Next, I pulled the locket from around my neck and poured a few drops into the second vial. It was only tap water, but they didn’t have to know that.
I had “cleaned” the shifter’s blood as I had extracted it. I wished I could do more, but that would have to wait. A few drops of blood were easy, but healing him totally would take a lot of energy and several sessions, and I couldn’t give myself away just yet.
I swished the liquid around for a few seconds, then created a second slide.
“Here,” I said to Dietz, giving him both slides. I waited while he checked them out under the high-powered microscope, knowing what he would see. The second slide, the one I had zapped, would show the diseased cells morphing back to healthy ones.
“Satisfied?” I asked.
Dietz stared at me for several long heartbeats before he gave me a jerky nod.
“Good. Then let’s start with this guy. Pull up his file so I know what I’m dealing with.” I gave him my best grin as I laced my fingers and cracked my knuckles. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
* * *
Reid
We met up with the rest of the team around dawn. Not knowing what was happening inside the walls was driving me crazy. When Dex had told me he hadn’t wired Alyx, I punched a hole in the Humvee, breaking and bloodying my knuckles in the process. I knew that sending her in there clean was the smartest and safest course of action for her, but my mated wolf wanted assurances.
We weren’t completely blind, though. Dex had some high-tech toys that captured heat signatures and picked up sounds from within. Unfortunately, most of those we saw and heard were on the ground and upper levels. Alyx’s sudden vanishing act lead the team to believe she had gone underground.
That did nothing to appease me. The last place we had hit had been underground, too, with lead-lined walls and a maze of chambers and tunnels. I did not want to think of Alyx down there, trapped between deranged scientists and shifters who had been subjected to their warped experimentation.
We kept tuned in to the conversations we could hear. Hawkeye was up high somewhere, scope at the ready, also listening. Boomer was doing his thing, discreetly setting explosives that would provide both distractions and destruction around the building, vehicles, and property. Ghost had disappeared hours earlier. I would bet dollars to doughnuts he was inside, keeping a silent eye on my girl. In the meantime, we filled Cap in on the little bit of information we had extracted from the cleaners and tried to sit tight.
“Holy shit. She did it.”
My head snapped up, catching the look of joy on Dex’s face.
“What’s going on?”
He pointed at the screen, grinning. “Alyx managed to get the thumb drive into one of the private lab computers.” The thumb drive was one of Dex’s favorite toys and held a coded satellite uplink. “The files are encrypted,” he added, “but they should be easy enough to break once we have them.”
Cap’s voice sounded in my earpiece. “Reap, Bear, Psych, haul ass. Shift change in five.”
Six minutes later, I stared down at the pair of prone guards and tightened their restraints. “He should’ve hired better security.”
“Can’t find good help these days,” Psych murmured.
Bear huffed in ag
reement, then pulled their key cards.
Psych did his thing, gray-eyeing them into sharing their access codes with us.
So far, things were going exactly according to plan. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, as they always did when this happened.
“Does this seem too easy to you?” I asked quietly as we made our way through the corridors. I would like to think we were just that good, but overconfidence got guys like us killed.
The words were no sooner out of my mouth when I heard the first explosion. That was our signal.
Vibrations shook the floor beneath our feet as we double-timed it toward the stairwell. Bear used his formidable size and strength to lead the way, knocking out any obstacles in our path. When we reached the lower level, he ripped the door from its hinges, revealing a chaotic scene.
Alarms were blaring and lights were flashing. In one of the conference rooms to the left, panicked scientists were trying to extinguish what appeared to be a multitude of electrical fires around the lab. There was no sign of Alyx, but I had no doubt this had been her doing.
“Evacuate the premises now,” I commanded, my voice strong and authoritative.
They took one look at us in our tactical gear and didn’t hesitate. Geeks grabbed their laptops and tablets before moving quickly toward the door, nearly tripping over themselves in the process.
I snagged one of them by the arm, jerking him to a halt. “Is anyone else down here?” I barked.
He nodded, looking terrified. “In the back. But that area’s already been sealed off.”
“How do I open it?”
“C-c-can’t,” he stammered. “It can only be opened from the other side.”
* * *
Alyx
“Well, shit.” I looked at the sealed door, then at the twitching form of Gunther Dietz. I had put more juice than necessary into zapping the bastard, but he had really pissed me off when he had shoved that handgun into my side.
Apparently, the thumb drive I had slipped into the laptop had tripped a virtual data wire somewhere, tipping him and everyone else off in the process. I hoped Dex had been able to grab something useful because Dietz wasn’t going to be telling us anything.
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