Sari

by Middleton, Rose

  Chapter Ten

  Sari heard a soft scrape on the floor outside her cage moments before someone hit the lights. Floodlights poured blinding light down on their cages. A few cats cried, Pitch hid his face, Mystery huddled under her blanket.

  Stunned by the brightness, Sari couldn’t fight off the big hands that dragged her out to the passage between the cages. The blanket she wore toga-style was ripped from her before they laid her flat on a cold, metal trolley and strapped her down. Fear squeezed her heart. Adrenaline raced through her veins, making her heart pound against her chest and her lungs constrict. By the time her eyes adjusted, she lay on her back, unable to move, a prisoner on wheels.

  She didn’t need to wonder where they were taking her. The writing was pretty much on the wall. Zimmerman wanted to see her, only he wanted her powerless. Just the way he liked all his victims. He probably rarely came down here, and even then only when it was dark. That way he couldn’t see his failures, couldn’t put faces to names, or humanize those he considered weak.

  But he’d want to see her in the light.

  Hunters pushed her trolley toward the end of the passage. It banged into two swinging doors, jolting her and pulling the straps hard against her wrists and ankles. The lights above her rolled by, blinding her anew with each one they passed. In the elevator, not one of them spoke. No one so much as glanced at her, the hard expressions on their faces giving her the heebie jeebies.

  Sari could only look upward. From the pull of the elevator she suspected they’d gone up a few floors, but then the doors slid open and their entourage was on the move again. They crashed through another set of swinging doors, this time one of the doors swung back and smacked into the trolley a second time, flinging her sideways. Talk about rough handling.

  The laughter of a man caught her attention. Zimmerman. She hadn’t heard that sound in three years, and she’d have died a happy hybrid if she never heard it again.

  “Welcome home, pet.”

  She flinched when he touched her ankle. God she hated feeling this vulnerable. Flat on her back. Naked. Completely at his mercy.

  The table beneath her jerked and tilted, lifting her upright into a standing position. The cold concrete on the soles her feet actually felt good. The taut straps around her wrists didn’t.

  “You’ve aged, Rex.”

  He nodded and shushed away the guard dogs with a wave of his hand. “And yet not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. How long has it been, sweet Sari?”

  “Not nearly long enough,” she growled through clenched teeth. “I wish you’d just kill me. Get it over and done with.”

  He smiled, the sadistic grin almost too much for her. “I would never. You’ve proven far too valuable to merely dispose of you.”

  She tried to shrug. “Well, it’s not like you can record some data from me or analyze my body for information. The simple truth is that everything you want to know about my time on the outside is locked in my head. And I won’t be telling you anything.”

  He gave a deep sigh and nodded. “I thought that might be the case. Are you prepared to make good on that threat? You know I have ways and means of getting what I want, and I’m not afraid to be nasty.”

  Yeah, she remembered.

  “You won’t break me.”

  “Really?” He sounded amused. “Not even if I wheel in the dead body of your lover?”

  She met his hard gaze head-on. “Not even.”

  “Well, I am surprised. I heard he put up quite a fight to protect you. How noble. Oh well,” he sighed. “Let’s move on, shall we? Sari, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

  She took a slow, deep breath, steeling herself for the worst. Footsteps behind her closed in on them, the tap-tap of them oddly familiar. Craning her neck didn’t help, she couldn’t see past the silver tray of the trolley. Forced to wait, she listened and let her sense of smell guide her. Even before the figure appeared, she knew exactly who it was. No amount of eucalyptus could hide that cologne.

  “Waylon.”

  “Aw, you ruined the surprise,” Rex whined. “Just couldn’t keep that big ol’ nose from sniffing him out, could you?”

  On cue, the big Texan appeared to her right. His smile was shaky, his eyes wary. He didn’t want to be here any more than she did. Fear filled the room. His.

  “Hello, Sari.”

  Mixed emotions paralyzed her voice box. How could he be in on this? He didn’t seem to have a bad bone in his body, nor a destructive thought. Eco-Corp reflected his desire to help make the world a better place. Cripes, how much money did he sink into Infectious Disease Control so he could eradicate all the nasty bugs making people sick? Until now, she’d never sensed an unpleasant thought in his head. Even when they discussed the distasteful business of undermining Kai’s search, she felt he was doing it for the good of the company.

  But The Facility needed money and access to top notch science. Eco-Corp was the epitome of it in Melbourne. What better place for Rex to target?

  What she didn’t get was how Eco-Corp benefited.

  “Tell me he held a gun to your head and made you agree,” she pleaded. “Tell me he kidnapped you and brought you here against your will.”

  Waylon chuckled. “Well, as a matter of fact, he did. Kidnap me, that is. As for the other request?” He hung his head and shook it slowly. “I can’t help you with that. This facility, Sari, is as much my dream as it is Rex’s. Together, we created you.”

  She frowned. “So you were the one who let him kidnap me and do this to me against my will?”

  Stepping forward, the man she’d once considered a father-figure brushed the backs of his knuckles over her cheek. Sad pride lit his smile. “Let him? I did no such thing. I instructed him to take you, Sari. You have a better life now, don’t you? No more beatings and abuse. No more drugs.”

  That’s debatable.

  “It was for your own good.”

  She flinched away from his touch. “Tell that to someone who might believe you. For my own good? What a fucking load of bullshit. You two are full of it, and I can’t wait to bring down this place and your precious Eco-Corp. Mark my words.”

  The two men glanced at each other. Rex laughed. Waylon simply turned away. “Big words coming from a tiny girl strapped to a table,” Rex teased.

  “And I’m strapped here because you know I can bring all of this crashing to the ground. You know my word is good. I said I’d escape, and I did.”

  A dark shadow crossed through Rex’s gaze. “Well, you won’t escape again. I guarantee it. Don’t bother trying, either. I’ve stepped up security.”

  Sari nearly laughed when the stench of Rex’s fear reached her nose, but she said nothing, gave no indication she detected it. That was the ace she needed. He was scared of her. Fancy that! The big man scared of the tiny girl strapped to a table.

  Still, she kept her expression neutral. Years of hiding her feelings and emotions finally came in handy.

  “Oh, you mean that Nancy-boy Stevens?” She faked a dismissive laugh. “The one who couldn’t even kill Kai himself? That’s right, Rex. He sent two of his men, two of your Hunters, to do his dirty work.” Rex’s eyes widened in surprise. Sari attempted a cheeky little gasp. “Oh, you didn’t know, did you? Oops.”

  He looked fit to kill, with his cheeks turning a nice blotchy shade of crimson and his brows knitting together to form one single line across his forehead. Why did old men have such bushy eyebrows? Sari swallowed the errant thought and focused back on the situation. Pissing Rex off wasn’t going to do her any favors. Hell, he’d never release her from these binds. At least they were soft leather and not cold chains.

  She let her gaze lift over Rex’s shoulder to glance at Waylon again. Strange as it was, she’d trusted him the most. He’d given her a job with virtually no qualifications and let her dictate what department she wanted to work in. Of course, now she knew why. What better way to keep tabs on their little kitty out in the big wide world?

&n
bsp; What she didn’t understand was why he let her work on finding The Facility. Was it just to keep her in line? To control their findings? She doubted it. His control had been nullified by her hiding the facts. The only thing he knew for certain was that she was prepared to double-cross Kai.

  I take it back. I’d rather die than undermine Kai and his research. You’ll see.

  “So I guess you have to kill me now,” she said with a sigh, playing up the ridiculous situation. It should scare her, hell, Rex should scare her, but she found it all too much. “Or are you going to torture the truth out of me first?”

  Rex crossed the distance to stand in front of her. His fingers played over her stomach, inching higher. “Torture, maim, de-claw, pick one.” He pushed his nose into her hair and breathed deeply before whispering, “You underestimate me, Sari. I have many, many ways to make you talk, to play with your mind. You, my dear, have been out of touch for a while. I doubt you’d be strong enough to handle it. And when you crack, you’ll tell me everything.”

  “What if I don’t? Crack, that is. Then what?”

  He hummed laughter into her ear then licked her neck. An involuntary shudder passed through her. “Oh, you’ll crack. I promise.”

  Exactly how much information did he think she had? Sure, she could tell him how to start over a new life in a strange town with no ID and no money. But breaking into a job at Eco-Corp wasn’t news to him, was it? Shit, he’d probably ordered Waylon to let her join the company. Did he want her to tell him what it was like to rent an apartment? Ride a tram?

  God, she was confused.

  In the big scheme of things, she didn’t know a lot. It wasn’t like she’d stored a database of information in a locked vault somewhere, keeping all of Rex’s dirty little secrets hidden away to use as blackmail. Damn, she wished she’d thought of that. Why hadn’t she?

  Too busy being paranoid, probably.

  She racked her brain to think of more, but nothing came to mind. What she knew that he didn’t amounted to a postage stamp, a bite-sized morsel of information. Hardly worth giving her life for. But then, he didn’t know that. He seemed willing to utilize every torturous trick in the book to break her because he suspected she knew enough to destroy him and his dream. Which, in essence, she did. She just had no proof.

  Sari closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself back in Kai’s arms. Anything to dispel the heat of Rex’s body and the repulsion his touch elicited. How much was her life really worth? To Rex? To Waylon? To herself?

  Something snapped in her head. It doesn’t matter how much I know. Rex simply wants to break me for the sake of it, for the power he thinks it will give him.

  Well, she’d see about that.

  By the time Kai was sure they’d gone, night had fallen. His arms were tired from gripping the tree trunk, his legs cramped from the position he’d been too scared to move from for the day. The sun had crept across the sky, signaling the hours he’d spent holed up thirty feet above the ground. Shit, that big orange ball of fire had moved more than he had. The ants marching over his hands had exerted more courage than he had.

  Kai shuddered. He didn’t want to think about what else might have crawled over him during the day. As it was, moths battered his head in the darkness. Mosquitoes buzzed by his ears. The bites on his neck itched like crazy, but he’d refused to scratch in case he exposed his position.

  He wouldn’t put it past the Hunters to hide nearby, to stake him out and then pounce when he moved. But he hadn’t heard movement in hours, and judging by Sari’s calculations, he was well outside their patrol perimeter. Safe as houses. Maybe.

  He needed a plan but his options were limited. Following the trail to The Facility seemed impossible. Allowing the Hunters to catch him felt like a sure suicide, and besides, he needed them to think he was lost in the forest. That was if the Hunters were game enough to tell their boss they’d let him go to play a little game of hide and seek. Would they tell Zimmerman he was dead? That he’d escaped?

  Whatever they did bought him a small amount of time. The more he thought about it, the more he grew certain of one thing. He couldn’t waltz into The Facility unprepared. A plan, of any sort, was necessary. It’d help if he had some idea of what The Facility looked like. Was it above ground, with windows he could break? Or had clever engineers built it into the side of a hill to keep it hidden? Whatever the case, Kai suspected breaking in was not going to be easy.

  Deciding he at least needed his pack and his car keys, he waited until midnight to make his move. With cold fingers and stiff limbs, he practically slid out of the tree and down its trunk. He made so much noise he expected a pack of cats to jump him. At the base, he reoriented himself, checked his pocket for the can of spray, then made a run for it. Suddenly, noise didn’t matter. Speed was his friend and the faster he moved, the warmer he felt.

  He located his pack and the last can of eucalyptus spray. As he slung the pack over his shoulders, Kai silently prayed that the final can would be enough to get him into The Facility. He turned west, hating the idea of leaving Sari, but knowing he was in no shape to help her as he was.

  The trip back to the car took forever in his mind. The track was hard to find in the moonless dark, the rocks more slippery than he remembered, their edges razor sharp. Odd shapes and shadows loomed over him and when he made it to the bottom of the gully that led straight out to the car, he heaved a sigh of relief. But he couldn’t take his mind off Sari and what they could possibly be doing to her right now. The only way he could help her was to get out, get help and get even.

  At the car, he dropped his pack on the ground and fumbled around in the top compartment for the keys. His fingers felt fat and numb and it took three tries to fish the cold keys out. He needed to use both hands to insert the key into the lock, but when he finally crawled into the driver’s seat and pulled the door closed, Kai closed his eyes and rested his head.

  His thoughts drifted first to Rebecca and then to Sari. Loss filled his heart. He’d let them both down. Promising to find them was one thing. Actually finding them? That’s what he had to do. But he needed to rest and get warm again. Feeling his way with his hands, he started the engine and turned the car’s heater on. It took a few moments before warm air wrapped him in a soothing cocoon. Fatigue tugged at the edges of his mind, urging him to sleep. Kai accepted that he was tired and run down, but he didn’t have time to sleep. He had to get back and find The Facility. Had to rescue Sari. Had to find Rebecca.

  He yawned. I just need to rest.

  His mind emptied of all thoughts as sleep sung its sweet lullaby. Finally he felt safe again. Just not safe enough to close his eyes for long or nod off to sleep.

  Kai snapped his eyes open and sat up with a shake. He leaned across the console and reached in to the glove compartment for his phone. Switching it on, he waited for the animated message to greet him and then checked for a signal.

  One bar.

  He had one bar. The signal was weak, but it was connected. Before he could hit speed dial, the phone chimed a half dozen time times to let him know he had voice messages. Kai dialed his message bank service, praying the network link would hold.

  The first two messages were from his mother, wondering where he’d been lately. Kai rolled his eyes, deleted them, and moved on to find an odd message from Sarah.

  “You are in some deep trouble, Harrison. Who the hell is this woman? I had a detective friend of mine look into the microchip. Turns out, the woman you’re with, Sari Jones, appeared in Australia three years ago. Just poof, appeared. No birth records, no immigration details, no nothing. Oh, and the microchip?”

  Sarah’s long pause made him growl under his breath.

  “Um, turns out it’s not made in Australia. He’s digging a little further into it, but my advice is ditch the girl and get your ass out of there. Look, I’m going to text you his number, so feel free to contact him. His name is—”

  The phone connection dropped out, cutting the message short. Kai
gripped the steering wheel so as not to smash the phone and sighed in frustration. She couldn’t do the one simple thing he asked, could she? No. Sarah being Sarah had to hook up with one of her old detective buddies and stick her nose into his business. He couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t. Part of him loved her for it. Another part of him knew she was now in trouble for it. Then again, Sarah used to be a cop. She could take care of herself.

  “Come on, Sari! You know better than to try and resist.”

  Rex shook his head as he stared at her limp body. Still attached to the convertible tray, her knees had buckled long ago, but she hung by her wrists. Trickles of blood oozed out of the tiny nicks he’d made in her skin. The small, blackened circles where the electrodes had been attached looked painful, but she seemed not to notice them. Apparently physical pain wasn’t strong enough to break her will.

  On one hand, it pleased him. Her strength and determination had always impressed him. Made her the right choice for the procedure and the perfect choice for this blessed new life. If only he’d found her later, after he’d refined the therapy, she’d be one of his Hunters. Regardless of which way he spun the story, her weakened immune system was a result of the early trials. He’d made her like this, it was his fault.

  On the other hand, her resistance irritated him. He’d planned on turning her into a helpless whelp by midnight, but as the clock ticked over and the sun appeared above the horizon, it seemed his plan needed more time.

  Before him, the small figure lifted its head. “Break me,” she whispered, challenging him to dig deeper. “I dare you.”

  Rex grinned. “It’ll be my pleasure, love. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

  From the back of the lab, Waylon cleared his throat. The sound surprised Rex. He thought the old man had left long ago, his stomach not up to this side of the business. “I’m sure she could do with some water, Rex.”