“Then we have no idea who set this in motion?” Cruz had never been so frustrated in his life.
“We have two important clues,” Tayla reminded him. “The human you captured, and whatever is in his silver case.”
Emily nodded. “You take the human; I’ll take the case?”
“You’re on.”
* * * * *
“It’s not a toxin.” Director Jack Darman told Emily a couple of hours later. He moved out of the way and motioned her toward the microscope.
It felt wonderfully familiar to be working at his side again. She just wished something pleasant had brought about their reunion. Focusing through the lenses, she felt her heart miss a beat. “Oh Gods. Why would anyone revive this?” She straightened and shook her head, feeling nauseous and shaken. “Father worked so hard to purge every sample, every record that even mentioned this atrocity.”
“What atrocity?” Cruz asked from the doorway. After realizing he would have nothing to do in the lab, he’d decided to visit some old acquaintances in the feline village.
“DOMA calls it the failsafe,” Darman told Cruz. “Every morph was engineered with a genetic message that can be activated at will. This message has been inherited by your children. If the morph population becomes too large, or too unruly, they can be terminated at any time.”
“Terminated?” Cruz echoed. “What does this message do?”
“Causes your DNA to deteriorate.” Darman glanced at her then clarified, “You would all die, and it wouldn’t be pretty.”
Cruz’s sculpted features settled into an expressionless mask, but Emily knew him too well. Fury and betrayal twisted through his gaze. “DOMA was trying to annihilate us?”
“I don’t think it was DOMA,” Emily said. “We’ve wanted to pull off the puppets and reveal the puppet-master. Well, here’s our chance.”
His gaze narrowed and his hands clenched at his sides. “Why are you defending them? Karah had to have known about this.”
“Oh she knew. I have no doubt she knew. She also knew this activation wouldn’t hurt you, it would only unmask whoever had attempted to use it.”
He raked his hair with his hand, his agitation obvious. “Okay, you lost me. What are you talking about?”
“The failsafe was the primary reason my father left DOMA. The board refused to abandon the protocol, so he resigned. Before he left, he destroyed the template and every variation of the activator. He also purged the archives of any research material that pertained to the failsafe’s development.”
“If this code is already in all of us, why won’t the activator hurt us?”
“Because my father engineered a genetic response, a cure. His brother, Karah’s father, engineered the failsafe, so Father felt personally responsible to right the wrong.”
“He worked in secret after he left DOMA,” Darman added. “Rumors circulated that he was attempting to override the failsafe, but everyone believes he died before he accomplished the goal.”
“You said Karah knew,” Cruz mused. “Why would she allow the board to believe the failsafe was still in effect if she knew your father had succeeded?”
“Despite her shortcomings, Karah genuinely cares for the morphs.” Both Cruz and Darman snorted, but Emily went on as if they hadn’t made the disparaging sound. “Someone sent Father anonymous information that allowed him to progress at several pivotal junctures. He always believed it was Karah.”
“When was this cure administered and why do we know nothing about either the failsafe or the cure?”
“The cure was part of your admissions protocol, and newborn cubs are injected shortly after birth.” Darman buried his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and asked, “How do we find out where this came from?”
Emily smiled. “We keep searching until we do.”
* * * * *
Three days later Emily sat beside Cruz in the skimmer watching Tayla on the main viewscreen. Her effervescent personality made her easy to like, and Milo’s faith in her made her easy to trust.
“The human was nobody, a thug-for-hire,” Tayla began. “But the shuttle we caught speeding away from the canine camp was registered to a subsidiary of Parkwauld Pharmaceuticals. Allen Parkwauld is the owner and CEO of that global conglomerate.”
“Does his name mean anything to you?” Milo asked.
“Allen Parkwauld had popped up during several of my previous investigations, so I dug through my old files and launched a few new lines of inquiry.”
“And what did you learn?” Milo’s prompting sounded a bit impatient.
Tayla laughed, refusing to be browbeaten. “A couple of well-placed bribes got me into his computer system. I couldn’t access the information itself, but I figured out who was most likely to have been working on the activation mechanism. One weak link was all I needed, and I found it in Ava Lloyd, a disgruntled biologist who felt overworked and underappreciated. She admits to knowing what the activation mechanism is capable of doing, but contends that she was told the tests would never leave the lab.”
“Her confession is on the record?” There was no mistaking the hesitation in Milo’s tone. He wasn’t taking anything for granted.
“On the record and ready to air. I left her at the police station. They promised me an exclusive as soon as they formalize charges. They’re working through the jurisdictional nightmare right now, but this is going to be huge!”
“So, what specifically do we know?” Cruz asked. “Parkwauld was behind the attempt. That much is obvious, but why did he do it? What was he hoping to gain?”
“Allen Parkwauld has been a silent partner and DOMA board member for the past eight years,” Tayla told him. “He has strong ties to the military, and one name keeps mysteriously popping up whenever Parkwauld wins a military contract.”
“Let me guess,” Cruz drawled. “General Hidaka?”
“Give the man a prize.” Tayla smiled. “These two are thick as thieves, yet they’re pulling at the middle from opposite ends of the spectrum.”
Milo folded his hands on his desktop, trying not to look impatient, and failing. “A little less illustration and a little more detail, please.”
“Fine.” She harrumphed. “Allen has built his empire on drugs created by or derived from hybrids, while Hidaka uses full-fledged morphs for everything from covert recon to assassinations. I think what we interrupted was an attempted coup.”
“Allen tried to rid himself of morphs, thereby ridding himself of Hidaka?” Emily needed to make sure she was following Tayla’s logic.
“Exactly.”
“I guess my illustration has been faulty all along,” Emily decided. “I said there were puppets with a puppet-master. It looks more like two massive bullies yanking on a rope.”
Cruz took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “Karah might not have been a villain in all this, but she wasn’t blameless either. DOMA was meant to protect morphs, to run interference with more powerful forces.”
“You’re right.”
“Allen Parkwauld is in custody and the arrests have just begun,” Tayla said. “If the authorities clean house for her, Karah has no excuse not to get her act together.”
“And if she doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity, maybe it’s time for a new director.” Cruz looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but someone had to do it and she was Fremont Hillard’s granddaughter after all. “Keep us updated. News is a little hard to come by out here in the sticks.”
Tayla promised she’d send frequent messages then terminated the link.
No sooner had the viewscreen reverted to its default setting than the com blinked in the lower left corner. “Identify incoming caller,” Emily said to the computer.
“Karah Balentine on a priority channel. Shall I activate?”
She looked at Cruz. “How did she find my com-designation?”
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t give it to her.”
“I wasn’t accus
ing you, really. It just seems --”
“She’s trying to interrupt,” the computer informed.
“Put her through.”
The viewscreen flickered and Karah’s image came into focus. She was perched on the corner of a desk. “You’ve always been so suspicious. I just wanted to say thank you. Things worked out even better than I’d hoped.” She looked at Cruz and smiled. “I see you decided to keep her. That’s probably a good thing. You both need someone and no one else will have you.” She laughed.
“You knew it would be Emily when you sent me after the prototype?” His tone was tense, almost brittle.
“She knew it would be me or Tayla. And she hates us both.” She waited until Karah met her gaze. “Are you disappointed that he didn’t kill me?”
“He deserves to be happy, even if the rest of us don’t. If you make him happy, I’ll have to learn to deal.”
They’d all come so far. Reliving the past would accomplish nothing. It was time to establish a better future. Emily looked at Cruz and let the familiar warmth wash over her. When she returned her gaze to Karah, she felt nothing at all. “So what becomes of DOMA?”
“I pull my head out of the sand and get back to basics, running interference for hybrids and morphs.” She sounded remarkably sincere.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Cruz predicted. “With or without your support, those walls are coming down.”
“I’ll do everything I can to support you and your people,” she told him.
“And I’ll hold you to that pledge.”
She looked at him for a moment in silence then turned her head and smiled at Emily. “Be good to each other.”
Before Emily could reply, the link deactivated.
“She’s a strange one,” Cruz muttered.
Emily couldn’t argue. “Always has been.”
She set the skimmer down beside Cruz’s cabin. The sleek vehicle looked out of place in the rustic setting, but she enjoyed the contrast. Cruz waited until she secured the vehicle, a habit he hadn’t been able to break her of in the three days she’d spent inside the walls.
“Parkwauld will turn on Hidaka,” Cruz predicted. “If he goes down, he’ll take the general with him. You can count on it.”
“So where does that leave us?” She’d meant morphs and hybrids, but the question took on a personal edge as he looked into her eyes.
“Once we drive off the guards and tear down the walls, I think many will simply live off the land.” He paused and his expression took on a ruthlessness she’d never seen before. “Others will need to learn new skills. We’ll need to prepare for a world run by humans. We’ll protect what’s ours by better understanding our enemy. Never again will we be victims.”
She wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself against his chest. How could she begrudge him a little bitterness? He’d earned that and a whole lot more. “Not all humans are evil.” She felt compelled to point out. “Tayla is human and she’s championing our cause.”
“I never said they were. I said we needed to understand what we’re doing if we’re going to do business with them.”
Easing away from his chest, she looked into his eyes. “Is that what you meant by understanding the enemy?”
“Business is very adversarial from what I’ve seen.” He tucked her hand into the bend of his arm and led her into the cabin.
“What sort of business are you interested in pursuing?”
“If Parkwauld Pharmaceuticals was built on the backs of hybrids, I think it’s time the empire gave back to the community that spawned it.”
“And I know half a dozen lawyers who would be more than happy to make sure they do.”
He paused just inside the door and cupped the side of her face. “We don’t have to live ‘out here in the sticks.’ I want you to be happy. I can live anywhere. We can go back to your apartment, or --”
“You’d hate it in the city. There’s no way I’m doing that to you.” She turned her head and kissed his palm, then looped her arms around his neck and smiled into his eyes. “You need wide open spaces and fresh mountain air. A night on the town will be nice once in a while, but everything I need is right here.”
Battle Born, Book 1: Ashley comes home after a long day and finds a spaceman searching her apartment. Before she can call for help, or run like hell, the intruder stabs her and leaves her for dead.
Desperate for freedom, Bandar, a battle born soldier, travels to Earth. His mission: find Daniel Kane, brilliant geneticist. It’s believed that Daniel can unleash the magic locked inside the battle born. Bandar’s search leads to Daniel’s daughter, Ashley, just in time to save her life. Bandar is so captivated by the fragile human that his need to protect and possess her threatens his mission.
Ashley awakens miraculously healed and filled with questions. Bandar is gorgeous and heroic, but she doesn’t believe a word he says. This isn’t the first time she’s run across aliens and now she knows it won’t be the last. She agrees to help him unravel the secrets surrounding her father’s work. Ashley has always believed her father was murdered and now she has a chance to learn the truth. But it’s hard to trust Bandar when the brush of his fingers makes her entire body tingle. Their volatile attraction could fulfill her wildest fantasies or open the door for planetary invasion.
About the Author
Anything-but-Ordinary is Cyndi's creed and her writing reflects her dedication to the concept. She writes in a variety of genres, but seems happiest in outer space. Her books frequently appear on Best Seller lists, and Taken by Storm was named Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Romance of the year by Romance Reviews Today.
She lives in Colorado with her high school sweetheart turned husband of many years. With a pampered cat curled on the corner of her desk, she dreams of fascinating words and larger than life adventures -- and wouldn't have it any other way!
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Other Titles by
Cyndi Friberg
Beyond Ontariese:
Taken by Storm
Operation Hydra
City of Tears
Mystic Flame
Fire Pearl
Consort
Shadow Assassins:
Royal Obsession
Mystic Militia
Alpha Hunter
Fallen Star
Unique Ink
Rebel Heat
Battle Born:
Crusader
Forsaken
Zealot
Defender
Harbinger
Undaunted
Rebel Angels:
Rage and Redemption
Echoes and Embers
Splendor and Darkness
Non-series:
Tears of the Dragon
Tainted Hearts
Scorchers:
Alpha Colony:
Untamed Hunger
United Passion
Unwanted Desire
Uninhibited Fire
Uninhibited Fire Page 10
