Top Gun Tiger (Protection, Inc. Book 7)

by Zoe Chant

  Ethan used his stolen ID to open the door. A quick glance showed them a small cell occupied by a single man dressed in desert camouflage, sitting on a cot. Destiny was chilled to see that he had a collar around his neck with an electronic lock and a disc of silvery metal that emitted a very faint glow.

  “Ransom!” Ethan called softly.

  The man didn’t move or even look up.

  “Come on!” Merlin urged.

  Ransom didn’t respond. With a sinking feeling, Destiny beckoned the other men inside. She used her ID to close the door behind them.

  “Careful with him,” Destiny said as Merlin started to hurry toward him. “He might be…” She didn’t have time to explain exactly how damaged Shane and Justin had been from their experiences at Apex; Merlin had never met either of them, and Ethan didn’t know Justin and had only met Shane after he’d had a year to somewhat recover.

  “Think of it like he’s just been through a really traumatizing combat experience,” she said at last. “Don’t grab him.”

  Merlin, who had been starting to do exactly that, pulled his hand back.

  Ethan knelt down in front of him. “Hey. Hey, buddy, it’s Ethan. Can you talk to me?”

  Ransom slowly looked up. Destiny hadn’t gotten a good look at him before, but now she saw that he had a lean and angular face, with auburn hair and high cheekbones. He was handsome, she supposed, or would be if not for the hollow-eyed stare that she remembered all too well from Shane and Justin.

  “You’re too late,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Merlin asked. “What did they do to you?”

  Ransom didn’t answer. His gaze drifted away from their faces, then sharpened as he seemed to track something moving across the room behind them. All three of them whipped around, snatching for their tranquilizer rifles. But nothing was there. Puzzled, Destiny turned back, and saw Ransom continuing to watch whatever invisible thing he was seeing until it apparently stopped right behind her.

  “He’s coming closer,” he said.

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Crazy as it was, she couldn’t bear to stay there, feeling like a cold hand or slimy tentacle might grab her from behind at any second. She edged aside. Ransom continued to watch the space where she had been.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked.

  He gave her about the bleakest stare she’d ever seen. “Everything. Even when I close my eyes. I’ll never see darkness again.”

  “You guys,” Merlin broke in. “He’s obviously been drugged.”

  Destiny sure hoped that was all it was. But she couldn’t help looking at Ethan, who gave her the briefest head-shake: don’t say it.

  “Yeah,” Ethan said. “That’s right. Ransom, whatever you’re feeling is temporary. It’ll go away once whatever they gave you wears off.”

  “It’s not going to ‘go away.’” There was an edge of bitter mockery in his voice. “I was already standing on the edge of a cliff. They pushed me over. I’ll never stop falling.”

  “There’s no point talking to him,” Merlin said impatiently. “He’s completely off his head. He probably won’t even remember any of this tomorrow. We’ll just have to cross our fingers he doesn’t say something weird to the first guard we meet.”

  Ransom shot Merlin an irritated look. As if annoyance had broken through his haze of despair, he said in a much more normal tone, “You’re the compulsive talker, not me.”

  “Guys,” Ethan broke in. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

  “Wait,” Destiny said. “That collar. Is it going to set off an alarm or… something… if you walk out wearing it?”

  Or explode, she thought. From the expression on Merlin’s face, she was pretty sure he was thinking the same thing.

  “Or explode?” Ransom asked, as if he didn’t particularly care. He shrugged. “No idea.”

  “I wonder why you have one and I don’t,” Merlin said.

  Examining the collar, Ethan said, “Whatever it’s for, we’ll have to get it off later. I think it’ll take special tools.”

  His expression didn’t betray anything, but Destiny knew him well enough to guess that he was thinking, And a bomb defuser, just in case.

  He helped Ransom up and led him to the door. Ransom didn’t lean on Ethan, like a drugged or wounded man would do, but walked haltingly, using him as a guide like a blind person might. In fact, if she hadn’t seen him focusing on her face earlier, she might have thought he was blind.

  He doesn’t need to say a thing to give us away, Destiny thought. The first guard we meet is going to take one look at him and raise the alarm.

  Merlin, obviously thinking the same thing, said, “Maybe we should leave him here, find Pete, radio out, and collect him on the way back. I could stay with him.”

  Destiny’s tiger put in, No beast should be left locked in a cage.

  Destiny had to agree. “No. God knows what might happen to him—or you—if we do that.”

  Ethan backed her up. “We all stay together. If anyone tries to stop us, we stop them.”

  With a final dubious glance at Ransom, Merlin raised his ID and opened the door. To Destiny’s immense relief, the collar did not explode, no alarms went off, and the corridor was empty. They looked for more rooms with “Subject” labels, but found only offices, storage areas, and unmarked empty cells. The corridor ended in a heavy, reinforced door.

  “He’s here,” Ransom said.

  A tremendous roar shook the air. Something crashed into the door, denting it and cracking the wall around it.

  They all jumped backward, raising their tranquilizer rifles.

  “Merlin, get Ransom back!” Ethan shouted.

  Merlin tried to pull him away, but Ransom dug in his heels. His mouth moved, but whatever he was saying was drowned out in the roar and crash as the thing behind the door smashed through it and burst into the corridor.

  It was a bear. But not one like any Destiny had ever seen. Calling this beast a bear was like calling the daeodon a hog, or the T-Rex a lizard. It was bigger than a polar bear, bigger than a grizzly. Even in the wide, high-ceilinged corridor, its sides brushed the walls and the fur of its back touched the ceiling. Its shaggy brown fur covered everything but its dagger-like claws, its gleaming white fangs, and its black eyes. Like the daeodon, this was a beast from another, more primal era.

  “A cave bear,” Merlin said, sounding awed.

  The bear roared, and both the sound and its glittering eyes were filled with such terrifying rage that all of them instinctively flinched back. For the first time in her life, Destiny knew in her bones what it felt like to be the prey and not the predator.

  Then her training took over. She fired her tranquilizer rifle, aware that Ethan was standing right beside her. She heard the puff and hiss of their shots, and saw the darts strike home.

  The cave bear roared again and shook itself. The darts clattered to the floor. Destiny wasn’t sure if the bear’s fur was too thick for them to have penetrated or if they had but didn’t affect it, but all they seemed to have done was anger it even more. It came for them in a shambling run with the inexorable deadliness of an avalanche.

  “Tigers?” Ethan asked.

  “No room!” Destiny gasped. But her own words gave her an idea. “Quick, in here!”

  She grabbed Ethan’s arm, beckoned frantically at Merlin and Ransom, and ducked into the nearest storage room. They all piled inside. The cave bear plunged after them, but stuck at the shoulders. But it kept trying, roaring and slapping at them with its immense paws. It was a small room, and they were only a few feet away from it.

  “So much for stealth,” Merlin said glumly. “Though on the positive side, we should get reinforcements any second now.”

  Sure enough, they heard yelling and pounding footsteps outside. The cave bear withdrew from the room. There was another roar, then a few screams that cut off almost instantly. A moment later, the cave bear roared once more, and stuck its head and paws back into the doorw
ay. There was blood on its claws and muzzle.

  In the brief moment of silence between roars, a quiet voice spoke. It was Ransom. “It’s Pete.”

  “Then why’s he attacking us?” Merlin began, then cut himself off. “Wait, never mind, they probably drugged him with the same stuff they drugged you with. Hmm. That’s not so good.”

  “I’m not drugged.” Ransom’s gaze was more focused now, and he sounded a lot more coherent. “And neither is he.”

  “Oh?” Merlin stepped up confidently, though Destiny noticed he didn’t come within range of the cave bear’s paws. “Hey, Pete, you need to turn back—”

  The cave bear roared at the top of its lungs, baring its fangs and slashing wildly at Merlin.

  “Back off, Merlin, you’re just pissing him off,” Ethan said.

  “Same as always,” Merlin sighed, but retreated.

  Destiny nudged Ethan. “You try. Remember how you talked me down when I was losing control? Like that.”

  Ethan gave her a doubtful glance. “I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. I’m not so sure about Pete. He wouldn’t do it on purpose, but…”

  “Then don’t cuddle him,” Destiny advised.

  Keeping his posture relaxed and his hands open at his sides, Ethan said, “The battle’s over, Pete. Come back now. Come on, buddy, you can do it. You’re a Marine, so be a Marine. Stand up on two legs and talk to me…”

  The cave bear was suddenly gone. A dark-haired man in camouflage stood in the doorway, then staggered and leaned against it.

  “Good to see you back with us.” Ethan stepped forward and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  Pete jerked away as if Ethan had touched him with a lit cigarette. Then, brown eyes wide, he looked around the room. His gaze settled on Destiny. “Who’s she?”

  “Destiny. My—” Ethan paused, obviously not wanting to repeat the “She doesn’t sound Australian” exchange, and settled on, “She’s private security. I’ll explain later. Did you see a radio anywhere? Any sort of communications?”

  Pete shook his head. “No, but I saw another prisoner. He was in the infirmary, handcuffed to a bed.”

  “Oh, good!” Ethan exclaimed. When everyone gave him a funny look, he said, “I think I saw him being brought here. I’d meant to rescue him anyway. There was a woman, too.”

  Pete shrugged. “I didn’t see any female prisoners. Just him.”

  “Let’s run for it,” Destiny said. “Once Apex figures out that the cave bear isn’t on the loose any more, they’ll swarm this place.”

  “This way,” Pete said.

  They followed him at a run, Merlin guiding Ransom. Alarms were going off all over the building. A guard poked his head and rifle barrel out of a room, but Destiny nailed him with a tranquilizer dart to the gun hand before he could get off his shot.

  “Good one,” said Ethan.

  “Next one’s yours, slowpoke,” Destiny replied.

  He grinned at her. Despite the danger, she felt exhilarated rather than afraid. Danger was her home turf. It was literally her job. But facing it with Ethan at her side gave her a completely new sense of fulfillment.

  Pete snatched up the unconscious guard’s tranquilizer rifle, then kept running. He stopped at an entrance with deep claw marks in it and the wall and the floor around it. The door had been ripped off its hinges. “Here.”

  “What hit this place?” Merlin asked.

  “I did,” said Pete shortly. “I came through as a cave bear. The doctors and nurses and guards abandoned the prisoner and ran.” He frowned. “I hope I didn’t hurt him.”

  “Don’t you remember?” Destiny asked.

  Pete shook his head. “Just bits and pieces.”

  They went into the infirmary, Pete staying just inside the room to guard the open doorway. The infirmary had been completely trashed, with beds overturned and pill bottles rolling all over the floor.

  It was empty except for the prisoner, who was sitting up in bed. He was African-American, handsome and burly, with silvering hair and a short beard covering his strong jaw. Destiny could see the edge of a bandage where his hospital shirt had been pulled low over his chest. He wore the same collar Ransom had, and was handcuffed to the bed. But despite all that, not to mention having just been trapped with a rampaging cave bear, he didn’t look frightened or helpless. Instead, he was patiently using the needle of the IV he’d apparently just pulled out of his arm to try to pick the lock of the handcuffs.

  When they came in, he spoke, it was in the tone of a man used to command. “I’m Roland Walker, United States Army. Are you the rescue team?”

  “Unofficially,” Ethan said. “Most of us were captured too. But yes, we’re here to get you out of here.”

  “You know how to pick a lock with a needle?” Merlin asked, sounding impressed.

  Roland shook his head. “I have no idea how to pick a lock with anything. But the bed’s bolted to the floor and I can’t reach anything else, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

  “I can pick locks,” Merlin volunteered. “But I need a piece of wire or a paperclip or something like that.”

  “Of course you can,” Pete muttered from the door.

  Destiny and Ethan started opening cupboards and drawers, helping Merlin search.

  “Here.” Ransom walked straight to a drawer, opened it, and held out a paperclip.

  “Thanks.” Merlin took it and got to work on the handcuff lock.

  As he did so, Ethan quickly introduced everyone, then asked Roland how he’d ended up in the base.

  “I was in the US, driving on a country road,” Roland said. “I was on leave, but I’d gotten a call to come back to the base. In retrospect, it had to have been a setup. A tree was down across the road, but it had been cut, not fallen naturally. I realized that it was an ambush. I went into reverse and stepped on the gas, and just then I saw a car coming off a dirt road. I would’ve T-boned it and maybe killed the driver. So I swerved, went off the road, and rolled my car.

  “The woman who’d been driving came out to help me. I was in bad shape. I think she saved my life. She took my hand and told me she wouldn’t leave me. Then these men came up. They had tranquilizer rifles. I knew they must’ve set the ambush, and I told her to run. But she didn’t. She stayed. The last thing I saw was her grabbing a tree branch from the ground and threatening them with it. A branch against guns!”

  For the first time, his confident tone wavered. “The next thing I remember, I was here. And she was gone. Nobody would tell me what they’d done to her.”

  “Do you remember what she was wearing?” Ethan asked.

  “Blue jeans and a white shirt,” Roland said instantly. “She was a tall, slim black woman, about my age. Did you see her?”

  “I think so,” Ethan said. “I couldn’t see that much detail, but the clothes match, and she was as tall as some of the men. I saw a man carried off a plane in a stretcher—I assume that was you. The woman fought some of the guards, and then they dragged her inside.”

  Roland eagerly leaned forward. “Have you seen her since?”

  They all shook their heads.

  “If she’s a prisoner here, we’ll find her,” Destiny said. “We found you and Pete—well, Pete kind of found us. You too, actually.”

  Roland looked at Pete with a complete lack of recognition, then shook his head. “Sorry. I must’ve been asleep or unconscious.”

  When Pete said nothing, Merlin chimed in, “He was the bear.”

  Roland looked politely disbelieving. “The grizzly bear? I assumed they were doing animal experiments, and one escaped.”

  “Didn’t they put you through Ultimate Predator yet?” Destiny asked.

  “That bull—” Roland began, then, to her amusement, changed it to, “That absurd bit of psy ops? Yes, they did. I suppose it’s to test whether prisoners can be brainwashed into believing something as ridiculous as a procedure that gives them powers and turns them into some kind of were-animal.”

  “It’s not ps
y ops,” Destiny replied. “It’s real.”

  His forehead creased with incredulity. “They actually think it works?”

  “No, I mean it really does work.” Frustrated at his visible disbelief, she tried again. “Why do you think they’d go to all the trouble of kidnapping people and building a secret base if it didn’t?”

  “The military has been known to pour a lot of money and effort into things that don’t work,” Roland said drily. “Invisible aircraft. Mind-control. Clairvoyance. In the 60s there was a project that employed hundreds of people and ran for years, consisting of a bunch of guys out in the desert trying to kill goats by staring at them and breaking their noses trying to walk through walls.”

  “I can’t demo right now,” Merlin said, indicating the handcuff lock. “And Pete shouldn’t. Ransom, do you even have a shift form?”

  Ransom didn’t reply. He was off in his own world again, watching something far away.

  “So somebody’s going to have to strip,” Merlin concluded.

  Roland’s eyebrows raised nearly high enough to lift the ceiling. Ethan and Destiny looked at each other, then Ethan started to pull off his shirt.

  “Incoming!” Ransom pointed toward the door Pete was guarding.

  “I don’t…” Pete began, then stiffened. Softly, he said, “Yeah, I hear footsteps. Very quiet. They’re trying to sneak up on us.”

  Ethan and Destiny stepped up to the door with their rifles ready; they couldn’t risk becoming tigers and getting taken down with a dart.

  Pete glanced at them. “The darts don’t affect me. I could go after them as a bear.”

  “No!” exclaimed everyone but Roland, who practically had What gang of lunatics have I fallen in with hovering over his head.

  “I could attack them as a raptor, then come back and finish with the handcuffs,” Merlin volunteered.