Sari

by Middleton, Rose

  He nodded. “I’m sure of that too, my wily partner. But why show mercy?”

  Footsteps grew closer before a hand rested lightly on his shoulder. “So you can prolong the torture, my friend. Why don’t you take a break and let me try my hand. I’m sure you could do with a rest.”

  Rex set his hands on his hips and sighed. He was tired and coffee might stimulate his brain a little. It might be interesting to see what results Waylon could produce. “I’ll go and see if the professor has been brought in yet. Perhaps if I dump his lifeless body at your feet, you might start to cooperate.”

  He stepped closer to Sari and lifted her face up to his. Though she was exhausted, the light in her eyes was clear and sharp. The little vixen was biding her time, waiting for the right moment. He should squash her hope, but it’d be more fun to let it build and grow so he could really step on it later on. Rex grinned.

  “Try not to scream too loud, little one.”

  He laughed as he left the lab and returned to the armory, his anticipation of the moment when Sari gave in to him increasing by the minute. That girl was born to please, and the first fifteen years of her life only highlighted her calling. If he hadn’t plucked her out the care of those animals the Auckland authorities placed her in, he doubted she’d be alive today. Either her uncle would have finally killed her or she would have taken her own life.

  He was her savior, and she couldn’t deny it. Sooner or later, she’d accept the truth and embrace the freedom he offered. Timing the offer of his deal was crucial. She needed to be right at the edge, hovering over the brink. When she was balanced on that fine line between life and death, he’d present the solution. Her salvation. She wouldn’t be able to resist. He couldn’t wait.

  Coming back to the present, he sighed when he saw only two of the holding cells occupied. Why hadn’t the professor yet joined Tom and the mimic? He made sure to do a sweep of the cells, during which Tom simply glared at him. The woman, on the other hand, met him at the door of her cell, an expectant expression in her eyes.

  “Are you comfortable, Sarah?” he mocked. No point being a good host when she likely suspected he’d kill her anyway.

  “I’m just fine, for someone who’s been kidnapped and locked in a cage. I’m really curious though, what is it you intend to do with me?”

  Rex leaned in a little closer. For someone who acted so tough, she really was frightened, wasn’t she? The short, sharp breaths. The rapid pulse fluttering in the hollow at the base of her neck. Yes, he was going to enjoy this.

  “Well now, Ms. Sarah. We have a couple of options. I could just put a bullet in your head right now, but that wouldn’t be a lot of fun. Not for me, anyway.” She scowled at his black humor. “I could torture you first. That’d be fun, right?”

  “You have no idea who I am, do you?”

  Rex shrugged. What did it matter who she was? She’d just end up another missing person who may, or may not, turn up dead in an alley. “Nope. And I don’t care either.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him in defiance. In a snap, the fear had gone, replaced by something else. A determination to beat him? Did she really think she had a chance?

  “Are you going to tell me? Or are we playing twenty questions now?”

  She shrugged. “So if you’re not going to shoot me or torture me, what are you going to do?”

  Quite the curious little bee, wasn’t she? Had she never heard that curiosity could kill? The silly humor in his head gave him an idea. She certainly had the strength of character, and he’d been told she put up quite a fight against the Hunters. The potential before him was tempered only by the risk. Not long after Sari and her ragtag of followers, he’d decided against using subjects who retaliated and fought. He wanted cooperation, obedience, loyalty. Sarah couldn’t give him either of those things.

  Perhaps she would after some convincing persuasion.

  “Don’t do it.”

  Tom’s voice startled him, making Rex focus on the rebellious hybrid. “Don’t do what, exactly?”

  Lying on his bed, Tom shook his head. “You were thinking about turning her. If you don’t want to make any more trouble, then I suggest you don’t.”

  Rex couldn’t wait to hear Tom’s explanation. “Give me a good reason.”

  Tom’s gaze flitted toward the woman and then back again. “She’s a cop.”

  “For your information, I was a detective. Get your facts straight.” She stood, hands on hips. Rex’s hopes for her sank. He couldn’t turn a cop into a jaguar, that’d make for a deadly combination. “He’s right though, and I still have lots of my police buddies as friends. I go missing, and they’re gonna start looking.”

  Rex nodded and waved a hand. “Oh well, yes, I suppose so.” He turned, tired of this conversation. “That is, if that can ever find you.”

  Ignoring her protests, he walked back through the armory to the small desk and phone. Receiver in hand, he dialed Stevens’ room. The groggy reception stirred anger in Rex’s belly.

  “I thought I explained that you were on guard duty in the armory, Stevens?”

  “I… Sir…”

  “Quit your yammering and get up here. You’re going to explain to me why my professor hasn’t arrived yet.”

  Much to Sari’s surprise, Waylon released the binds securing her to the table and carried her to a gurney. The thin mattress beneath her felt like heaven and the sheet he draped over her like a thick, woolen blanket. She shivered in the dim light as he filled a plastic cup with water and brought it to her lips.

  “There you go.”

  Sari swallowed too quickly and sputtered, choking on the water. Waylon patted her shoulder and murmured for her to slow down.

  “Why?” she rasped, her throat sore.

  He smiled. “I can’t have you choke.”

  Sari shook her head. “No. Why be kind? Is this good-cop-bad-cop?”

  “No matter what you think, missy, I’m not him.”

  She frowned, not meaning to, but dehydration did funny things to her self-control. Waylon was playing the good cop, wasn’t he? Rex was bad, Waylon was good. Or so he wanted her to believe.

  “I don’t understand why you would risk Eco-Corp.”

  He searched behind him and found a chair. Pulling it closer, he sat and rested. A big sigh deflated his chest, and she couldn’t get over how rumpled his suit was. The man was almost always immaculately dressed. Maybe Rex really had kidnapped him from the office. Still, it could all be a ploy to twist her perception of reality, which wasn’t too hard to do with her weak like this.

  Sari drank more water.

  “It’s not that simple, Sari. For a long time, I believed that our purpose of creating hybrids had greater meaning. It wasn’t just about slicing and dicing DNA samples or playing an almighty creator. For me, it was more fundamental than that. You see, Sari, my first daughter died from a rare genetic condition. She was six months old, and there was nothing anyone could do to help. I vowed then, forty years ago, to find a cure.

  “I started working towards a career in science. Studied genetics and microbiology for years. I have more degrees than I care to count. You didn’t know that, did you?” He smiled. “You look surprised.”

  “I am. I don’t understand how you could go from wanting to help to…well, a place like this. How did you meet Rex?”

  Waylon crossed one thigh over the other. “We’ve been friends since childhood. He was there when my baby girl passed on. He’s always been my support, even when he spent those years chasing wild game in Africa. That was where he got the idea, can you believe? Thirty-five years ago, he cracks a joke about using animal DNA to supplement our own and now look at us. The bottom line is, Sari, all creatures great and small share similar DNA.”

  Sari tucked the sheet around her body tighter. “Why jaguars and leopards? Why not chimpanzees? Genetically speaking, we’re closer to them, aren’t we?”

  He pointed at her. “Good point, and we did, for a while. But
there is only a two percent difference between us and chimpanzees. There wasn’t enough difference to see ways of patching up genetic disorders.”

  Sari scratched her head. Maybe she’d never understand his logic. After all, he was one of two men who’d dream of, and succeeded in, combining feline and human DNA. There was a method to their madness she doubted many people would get. “But why cats?”

  “When I was knowledgeable enough to understand what had happened to my daughter, I knew that a cure would have to be radical. It was her immune system, you see?”

  She sat up, completely bewildered by the connections he’d made in order to facilitate this entire operation. “No, I don’t see. I’m sorry for what happened to your daughter, Waylon. I really am. In some obscure way, I could possibly accept you combining the immune system genes from one species with ours, but you’ve gone several steps beyond that. You have created an entirely new species. One that belongs neither in the human world, nor the feline world. Now you really are playing God.”

  They stared at each other for long moments, but nothing in his eyes made any sense to her. He truly believed he was doing something good, and she doubted anything she said would change his mind. He accepted that there would be obstacles along the way. Like the Failures. He assumed there were steps, that they wouldn’t find his magical cure instantaneously, but there were sacrifices he was willing to make in order to serve the greater good.

  The greater good? Sari wanted to smash his face against a wall somewhere. His sacrifices weren’t of his own life. How could he possibly understand the destruction he caused in other people’s lives? Innocent lives.

  Pity filled her heart. Waylon Landau had dedicated his life to finding something that wasn’t there. Instead, he’d found something much, much worse. The power of creation. Both he and Rex were intoxicated by its strength. Sure they might have had good and noble intentions in the beginning, though Sari doubted that the nasty Rex had ever been a kind man. Unfortunately, they’d both grown greedy, their newfound power doing more harm than good.

  Why couldn’t they see that?

  “Waylon, you can put an end to this. There are innocent people who’ve been hurt by your manipulations.”

  “Like you?”

  “Yes!”

  He frowned, unconvinced, his head tilted to the side. “Sari, you were a runaway when we found you. Terrified of everyone, trusting no one. Addicted to morphine and resorting to stealing so you could feed the addiction. People liked to take advantage of you.”

  Like she needed the reminder. “And you were just another one of those people, Waylon. Don’t you understand? You stripped away all of my choices. If I’d agreed to the change, it’d all be a different story. But I couldn’t stop what Rex did to me, and now I’m something that most people will never accept. I don’t even know if I can have kids.”

  “Oh.” He stood with a smile and came to sit on the edge of her bed. “There’s nothing to fear. There was no change to your ovaries or eggs. They’re still human, and any child you have in the future will be completely human, unless you wanted something else?”

  She scrambled off the side of the bed, taking the sheet with her to hide her nakedness from him. Relief mingled with repulsion, and she found enough saliva to make some words.

  “You think I’d want to bring a hybrid into this world?”

  She wished he’d stop smiling like that, like she was a five year old throwing a tantrum and would come around soon enough. It was unnerving.

  “I know you like being a cat.” He nodded. “That’s why you shifted most nights and prowled the city. You may gripe all you like about the horrors of my and Rex’s work, but in the end, you love what you’ve become.”

  Sari stumbled, his words like knives in her heart. Was he right? Did her protests mean nothing because she really did like being a hybrid?

  The door at the far end of the lab swung open to reveal a grinning Rex. Obviously he’d received good news. Which meant Kai was dead.

  “Of course,” Rex said, sauntering closer. “If you hate the hybrid, I could always take it back and make you human again.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Kane here. It’s four in the morning. This had better be good.”

  Kai scratched his forehead. Just how did he say this without sounding like a complete nutcase? He stared out the window at the darkness and tried not to think about the two women he’d lost. Yeah, like that was going to happen. “Detective Kane, my friend Sarah Makepeace gave me your number. She said you were looking into a certain microchip for me.”

  There was a rustle in the background. “Harrison?” He sounded more awake now. “I have been trying to get a hold of you. Where the hell have you been? Sarah’s missing.”

  He squeezed the steering wheel, his hand aching in protest. Damn it. He’d feared for Sarah ever since he couldn’t get a hold of her. Not at home, not answering her mobile, and not at work. Hadn’t been at work for a night or two now. Even her boss was worried, which made Kai fret. Sarah never missed work. Workaholics generally didn’t.

  “I feared that was the case.”

  “Harrison, you need to tell me everything you know. That microchip isn’t good news. It keeps leading me to a US-based research company that closed ten years ago amid accusations of…well…” The detective’s voice trailed off.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t have the right words either,” Kai agreed. “And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you everything right now. It’s a long and strange story, Detective. All I know is that my friend, Sari, is in trouble. If I’m right, then the people who have her also have Sarah.”

  There was a brief silence, a deathly silence, as if Kane had stopped breathing altogether. “You make it sound like they might have been kidnapped.”

  Kai sucked in a long, slow breath. How much to tell? “Detective, this isn’t a normal case. There are forces at work that I’m not sure how to explain.”

  “You mean like a science company that shut down due to allegations that they were conducting unethical and immoral experiments.”

  His mouth twisted at the carefully chosen words. “Yeah. Like that.”

  “So where are you? I’ll bring back up.”

  Yes, you do that. “I can’t wait for you to arrive. Time is running out.”

  “Unwise, Harrison, unwise.”

  “Yeah, maybe, but I have to go in now.”

  “You need to wait for me Harrison. Don’t do anything rash.”

  Um…

  “Wait for me,” Kane repeated, his voice firm. “I will be there in a few hours.”

  Kai gave Detective Kane the directions, but stopped short of promising to wait. He couldn’t wait much longer. As it was, he hadn’t meant to sleep for so long, but now that he felt rested, he refused to sit around and wait for the cavalry to arrive.

  Kai hung up and climbed out of the driver’s side into the cold night. In the back of the four wheel drive, he rummaged for anything that might help him break into The Facility. A small toolbox held a crowbar, screwdrivers of various sizes, pliers, and some wire. He frowned at the wire then thought better about trying to figure out where it came from. Just be grateful it’s here.

  He rounded the car to the passenger seat and scrounged in his pack for anything useful. He doubted he’d need the tent or sleeping bag, not if his plan revolved around breaking into The Facility, finding Rebecca, saving Sari and then getting the hell out of dodge. He had no intentions of staying around for the scenic tour. Whatever he took had to be transportable in pockets because he’d need his hands for climbing up the rock wall at the end of the valley. He grabbed a flashlight and stuffed it into a pocket.

  Loaded with tools, he spread the map out on the hood of the car and switched on the small lantern. Where the hell was The Facility? He scoured the contours and landmarks, looking for a place that might hold a secret research building. Something that would be well hidden and need excellent ventilation, if Sari’s escape details had anything to do with it. The m
ore he thought about it, the more he became certain that The Facility was underground. A subterranean structure would need the kind of ventilation system Sari had described, and with that in mind, he located an area on the map that appeared rather empty.

  It showed no landmarks whatsoever. It was just colored green to indicate wild vegetation, no contour lines, no elevation markings. As he stared at the spot on the map, he noticed that there were no other places represented the same way. Every other part of the forest showed landmarks like walking tracks or four wheel drive access routes or dangerous rocky outcrops.

  It had to be the place. Kai would stake his life on it. From the glove compartment, he grabbed the small pad of paper and a pen. He scribbled down the coordinates, ripped the paper off the pad, and tucked it under the windscreen wiper. Kane would probably arrest him but he had to find him alive first.

  He switched off the lamp, trying not to acknowledge that it wasn’t really his life on the line, then folded the map to put in another pocket. Returning the lamp to the car, he felt the first drizzle of rain and cursed. Not now! He grabbed the slip of paper with directions for Kane and set it on the dashboard. Hopefully the detective would see it.

  Kai glanced at the last remaining can of the eucalyptus spray. He’d have to use it sparingly if it was to last. If he put it on now, the rain would only wash it off. He pocketed the can and locked the car. There was no more time to waste.

  He took off at a run, the sensation that time was running out filling him with cold dread. Down through the wet valley he ran before climbing up the wall at the end. The rocks were wetter than last time, and he slipped a couple of times, but fear had numbed him to personal danger. His mind focused solely on saving the two women who meant the most to him as he powered through the dense forest. He’d moved through the area enough to have a mental picture now, and it guided him along the river and beyond the cave where they’d found Mara and Tom.