Running Bear (Wounded Warriors Book 1)

by Tunstall,Kit

  She was exhausted, but safe, when she left the room the next morning and joined El Jefe for breakfast, finding the room he had pointed out to her the evening before. After a bracing breakfast of huevos rancheros and several cups of strong Columbian coffee, he parted from her upon entrusting her to two of his men.

  They didn’t speak much to her, but they didn’t make her feel threatened either. Soon after they started the drive up the mountain, she realized why El Jefe had insisted she stay overnight and not start out until morning. The road was little more than a path through the jungle, jolting and jostling her along the way. Even in the bright light of day, she could see how it would be easy to wander from the small path, and how one could end up lost in the mountain area.

  Though it was a rough trip up the mountain, she was reassured by how difficult it was to reach Malcolm’s place. When they finally arrived late that afternoon, they stopped outside a set of imposing gates built into a stone wall at least twenty feet tall. Cameras focused on the car, and a crisp voice came over the intercom. “State your business.”

  “El Jefe sends his regards, along with a guest.” The driver spoke the words tersely, and his accent was heavy.

  Still speaking in English, the voice said, “Have her step out.”

  Her? Gillian questioned that as she slowly slid from the Jeep, closing the door behind her. He must have good cameras, or maybe his shifter-enhanced eyesight had identified her as female.

  She stood beside the vehicle as the camera focused in on her. “Malcolm?” she asked hesitantly.

  There was a crackle ecstatic before he answered. “Do I know you?”

  “It’s me.” She cleared her throat. “Gillian.”

  His next words made her heart drop into her stomach. “Where’s Wyatt?”

  She hung her head for a brief moment, blinking back tears. “I’d hoped he was with you. My guess is he did something stupid to protect me. I think he turned himself in to the government.”

  Malcolm let out a scoffing sound through the intercom system. His next words were addressed to the driver of the Jeep. “Send my regards to El Jefe, and note the package has been received. There might be a few other packages, and El Jefe knows what to do.”

  With a nod, the driver started up the Jeep and reversed. Gillian was glad she had grabbed the duffel bag when she slid out, because the Jeep was gone so quickly she wouldn’t have had time to flag down the driver to claim her possessions otherwise.

  The gate rumbled as it clanged open, shuddering slowly apart. He opened it just enough to allow her to slip through sideways before closing it again. Malcolm was clearly serious about security. After the experiences she’d had the last few days, she was glad for that.

  She walked along the cobblestone driveway, moving as quickly as she could. It was little more than a paved path through a jungle of landscape that likely provided excellent coverage. A canopy of trees overhead shielded her, giving the appearance of walking through a tunnel. It also blocked out the sunlight to a certain extent, further reinforcing the tunnel feeling.

  She screamed in surprise when a dark form suddenly materialized in front of her. Her hand went to the gun she had slipped into her waistband before setting out in the Jeep early that morning, but before she could even draw the weapon, the person stepped closer, and his features coalesced from the shadows. He had intense golden eyes, set in a rugged face that wasn’t exactly handsome, but was oddly appealing. If she hadn’t been one hundred percent Wyatt’s woman, she probably would have found this man attractive. “Malcolm?”

  He nodded. “Come with me, Gillian. Let’s see if we can unravel what’s happening and figure out where Wyatt is.”

  She nodded as she followed him, realizing they were slowly moving down an incline. When they reached the bottom, he pushed aside some vines and pressed a button that was obvious now that he showed it to her. A door slid open, and it looked like it was reinforced steel. He gestured for her to go first before following her inside and closing it behind them.

  They were in the dim interior, and it was cool and refreshing after the heat of the day outside. She could feel air blowing on her and guessed it had central air-conditioning. “What is this place?”

  “Sanctuary,” he said simply.

  She nodded. “That’s what Wyatt said, and that was the word that got me past El Jefe. But I mean what is this structure?”

  He smiled at her as he led her through the hallway, which was far better lit than the tree tunnel they had used to reach it. “Essentially, it’s a bunker built into the mountain. It’s almost undetectable to satellite, and the only structure that shows is the wall outside. That can’t be helped, but it’s our main weakness.”

  She looked around her as they left the long tunnel-like entrance and entered a main antechamber. This looked like a residence, complete with a sofa, armchairs, and a big-screen television. There were two people seated in the area. Though they wore civilian clothes, they both had the look of a soldier from their straight posture and close attention. They were clearly tense until Malcolm nodded just once. Then they both relaxed in sync, as though he had issued a silent command to be at-ease.

  With his hand on her upper back, he drew her forward, taking her first to the woman who had sprawled on the couch in an easy manner now that she was no longer at attention. She was both beautiful and exotic, with tanned golden skin, deep black hair, and slightly almond-shaped dark eyes. When she smiled, it transformed her from aloof to friendly, and she held out a hand.

  “Gillian, this is Alexandria, or Lex, as we call her.”

  She took the other woman’s hand and shook it, smiling in return.

  Malcolm then led her to the other man, who sat in an armchair. He was more watchful and less relaxed, but his expression wasn’t terribly closed-off. He clearly wasn’t as friendly as Lex, but he didn’t make her feel unwelcome or frightened. He didn’t bother holding out his hand, but he did nod in her direction when Malcolm introduced them. “And this is Devon.”

  “Where’s Wyatt?” asked Lex, and even her voice was exotic, a blend of sultry and innocent.

  “I don’t know,” said Gillian. “I think he turned himself in to protect me.”

  Devon snorted. “That’s crazy.”

  “She’s his mate,” said Malcolm softly. “Who knows what we’d do for our mates?” There was a hint of longing in his tone.

  “I know what I’d do,” said Gillian, straightening her shoulders. “I’d do anything, and that means I’ll do anything to get him back safely. So how are we going to do that?” Devon seemed mildly amused by her words, but Lex was nodding eagerly.

  Malcolm appeared utterly serious as well. “First we have to find out where he is, and then we’re going to break him out.”

  “Fort Glacier,” said Devon.

  Gillian turned to look at him with a frown of confusion. “What’s Fort Glacier?”

  “It’s a secret base in Montana,” said Lex. “Lots of black-ops type things, the sort of experiments and groups that aren’t recorded on any official government rolls.”

  “And home to Project Shift,” said Malcolm.

  “Is that where they did what they did to Wyatt?” asked Gillian.

  “And to the rest of us,” said Devon in a voice utterly devoid of emotion.

  “It’s where they are most likely to take him if they didn’t execute him on sight,” said Malcolm. “It’s our only shot at getting him back. If he’s not there, I don’t know where he is. Our computer specialist is gone.”

  “Who was that?”

  “Joanna,” said Lex, her brow furrowing. “She was good at all this stuff.”

  “She was our encryption specialist, among other things,” said Malcolm. His pain was visible for a moment as well.

  A pang shot through Gillian as she recognized their grief, realizing they were still mourning the lost people in their group. Her focus had been, and still was, solely on Wyatt, but they had lost more than Wyatt. They had three confirmed dead, and
a number of teammates missing. She wondered briefly if they were up to the task of rescuing Wyatt. “It sounds like a difficult mission,” she said delicately, intending to probe carefully into their emotional statuses.

  “It is. Fort Glacier’s hell to get in and out of, but we’re going to do it. We aren’t going to leave Wyatt there to rot, or allow them to subject him to more experiments before disposing of him like garbage.”

  The resolve Malcolm clearly felt was reflected in Devon and Lex’s face too, and most of her worries melted away. They were clearly all scarred from the events that had happened to them, along with what was still happening, and though they were hampered by grief, they weren’t crippled by it. In fact, she suspected it would strengthen them in the mission ahead, as they were clearly resolute about not losing anyone else.

  For the first time since stepping out of the Jeep and receiving confirmation that Wyatt wasn’t waiting for her, she felt a renewed sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, she would see her mate again, whole and alive, if not completely healed. That could come later. First, she just needed to get him back.

  Chapter Eight

  Wyatt paced in his cell, continuously looking over at the one beside him. His new pseudo-roommate had joined him last night, dragged in unconscious by three M.P.s and heaved into the cell. They’d just left the man lying on the cold floor, and at his age, that could be dangerous if he hadn’t been in such good health.

  Wyatt waited for him to wake up, and he had been unconscious all night. At this point in time, Wyatt wasn’t convinced it wasn’t some kind of game they were playing, so he was wary and watchful.

  When the older man finally stirred, slowly returning to consciousness, Wyatt approached the cell wall separating them, which was simply a system of bars. He grasped two of them in his hand and pressed his face forward as close as he could as the other man blinked and looked up at him, seeming a little confused. “Hello, Colonel Wallace. You’re the last asshole I expected to see in here.”

  The colonel clutched his head, seeming to be battling a pounding skull. It took him a moment to speak. “Damn, I thought you had gotten away from them, Wyatt.”

  Wyatt eyed him skeptically. “I have a hard time believing that since you’re the one who dragged me into this mess, Colonel.”

  Wallace shrugged. “I did what I thought was right at the time. I bought the line of crap they were selling just the same as you, Wyatt. They enhanced me as well. You and the rest of the team didn’t go through anything I didn’t experience myself.”

  Wyatt’s eyes widened at that bit of knowledge, though he wasn’t entirely certain he could believe the older man. “You’re telling me you went through the regimen of drugs and programming, just like us? Are you really claiming you had no idea they were going to throw us away at the end after they’d used us for all they could, and then hunt us down one by one to remove all evidence?”

  The colonel sighed heavily. “I don’t expect you to believe it, but it’s the truth. I was in hiding, same as you, when they found me. The only reason I warranted staying alive was because they thought they could use me to convince the rest of you to come in of your own volition.” He snorted. “As if I’d betray you guys any further for them. I had no idea what they planned either, and that’s the truth. Take it or leave it, Sergeant Stone.”

  Wyatt grimaced. “I’m not a sergeant anymore, Colonel.”

  He nodded. “I’m not technically a colonel either since I went AWOL. When I found out what they were doing, I tried to warn all of you. I almost made contact with Malcolm one time, but I couldn’t quite nail down the frequency you were using. I knew you had to have a specific one, since it just made sense, but the most I ever got was a little bit of static and a few words of his transmission about sanctuary. I didn’t have the key for the code though.”

  “You would have had to hear the whole message to get the code anyway.” Wyatt crossed his arms over his chest as he propped his shoulder against the bar. “What do you know about what’s happening to us?” He wasn’t ready to trust the older man yet, but he wanted some explanation for what was happening and hoped Wallace could provide it.

  “They didn’t tell me everything once they figured out I wasn’t on board with their plan. What I’ve pieced together is that they’ve decided full shifters were too unpredictable. We’re too prone to reassert our intellect over our animal at a crucial moment. Essentially, no matter how many drugs they pumped into us, or how they conditioned us, our conscience was more likely to overcome that programming. We all did atrocities under their control, but every single one of us apparently refused to do the worst of the worst type of tasks. I didn’t get to see all the files, but I was able to snoop through enough to discover that for myself. We’re too human to be fully controlled, even when they regress us to our animal state.”

  “So what the hell are those things they sent after us? They were like some weird hybrid of a human and a shifter, but with something else.”

  “That’s the newest science project, Wyatt. They’ve taken our DNA and manipulated it, so-called enhancing regular human soldiers through altering their DNA via epigenetics. If that weren’t enough, they also included a dose of artificial intelligence via chips in their brain that allow for instant control and reduce or eliminate the need for mental conditioning and programming.”

  Wyatt shuddered. “I guess they haven’t figured out how to fully shift back and forth yet, have they?”

  The colonel lifted a shoulder. “I think it’s deliberate. They don’t want them to fully shift. They want to control every aspect of the supersoldiers, and they want them to be damn intimidating too. Anyone is going to be frightened if they see a bear running at them, but they might be paralyzed with terror at the sight of a half-man, half-bear beast pursuing them. They want maximum efficiency in their drones, which is essentially what these poor bastards are.”

  He scoffed. “Poor bastards, my ass. They’ve already killed at least three of us, and they would have killed me and my mate if we hadn’t fought them off.”

  With a nod, the colonel said, “That’s true, but they were once volunteers just like us, conned into thinking they were doing something good for their country and for their fellow teammates. I don’t think these people can be saved. There’s nothing left, at least not much left, of the people they were, but I have sympathy for the fact that they were once human. They didn’t expect to be a damn freak show any more than we did.”

  Chastened, Wyatt slowly sank to the floor of the cell, leaning his shoulders against the bars and turning his back mostly to George. “Yeah, I guess you have a point. It doesn’t help much though. It’s easier to see them as tools of a military experiment gone mad than former people.”

  “Sure as fuck is,” said the colonel as he assumed a similar position in his cell, cupping his head in his hands.

  “What did they do to you?”

  The colonel shifted slightly. “They tried to convince me to cooperate with their idea of luring you all in. When I refused, they tried motivating me. Even when they forced out my hyena, I still didn’t let them control me enough to do something I’d regret later. They’ve decided shifters are too darned stubborn.”

  Wyatt let out a combination snort/laugh. “I can’t really argue with that. I’ve spent the last eighteen months holed up in a cabin, trying to deny my nature and escape the bear, all while depriving myself of my mate. She tried to get me to change my mind, but I was too set on my course of action to listen to her. I could have spent the last eighteen months of my life with the woman I love, before they did away with me.”

  The colonel let out a bitter laugh. “I know how you feel. Joanna was my mate.”

  Wyatt jerked in surprise. “What?”

  With a bitter chuckle, the older man said, “Bears aren’t the only shifters who can recognize their mates. It doesn’t always happen for hyenas, but when it does, we just know. I tried to forget about it, and to forget about her, since I was twenty years older than she
was. I never did anything about it, and now she’s gone. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and it’s hard to say whether recruiting all of you for the enhancement project or letting my mate slip away was the worst one.” His voice cracked on the last two words, and he fell silent for a moment, clearly needing to gather his composure.

  Wyatt closed his eyes, summoning an image of Gillian to comfort himself. The silence they shared this time was companionable as they dwelt on their regrets. Finally, he managed to speak again. “So why did they go after us?”

  “It’s just like Mal said. They were never going to let us continue being loose ends, my boy. This is the government, and the deepest, darkest arm of it. They don’t want their secrets getting out. They let us go until they were assured of their newest project’s success, and then they set about quietly removing us. They wanted to hide what was happening so the public wouldn’t ask questions, and so we wouldn’t catch on in time to protect ourselves.”

  “Do you have a plan for getting out of here yet, George?” It felt a little strange to call his former commanding officer by his first name, but something had shifted between them, and aside from the formality removed by the fact Wyatt was no longer an active-duty soldier, they had shared a connection that made it seem ridiculous to keep calling the older man Colonel or just plain Wallace.

  George snorted. “Not yet, but once my skull stops pounding, maybe inspiration will strike me.” He cursed softly when he heard the sound of the hydraulic door rumbling open in the next room. “You’d better hope inspiration strikes quickly, or we’re both screwed.”

  He was racking his brain in his own right, looking for a way out, or a logical means of escape. He knew they’d just have to play it by ear and look for an opening if there was one.

  Suddenly, the idea of sitting here allowing them to execute him seemed foolish. Had he really bought Gillian safety with his act, or had he been deluding himself with his act of nobility, bordering on stupidity? She knew about him, the program, and shifters. If the government ever discovered Spring Hills, where shifters tended to live openly among each other, the entire town would be destroyed, along with Gillian.