“They…” I leaned forward, squaring my attention on him. “Who are they?”
“Scientists. Ambassadors. Foreign officers. Project Xol is one of the darkest operations in a messy web of the black market.”
No names. But I was beginning to grasp this was larger than a couple of science geeks. Larger than Dale and his company, even.
“It’s not easy, trying to follow their progress. But I’ve seen their attempts. I’ve obtained records of their patients, the tests, experimentations. Enough that I knew to save you from it.”
I squinted at him, missing the connection he implied. Me? I was never at risk from Project Xol before the day I met Cassidy.
Dale winced. “You were one of their…recruits.”
“What do you mean?” Cassidy said, lowering her hand to grip my shoulder.
“You were intended for a new trial. I’d discovered evidence of them using prisoners and inmates to test new versions of the ‘cure.’”
Cassidy’s fingers bit into my flesh.
What could they have planned to cure me of? I didn’t have cancer. I’d been nearly beaten to death but…nothing like an illness.
“They sometimes used those sentenced for capital punishment to test the effectiveness of their research. More often than not, they failed. Another form of corporeal punishment to them, with a side bonus of seeing what worked to help tweak their cure advancements.”
“Like the fucking Holocaust? Experimenting on people?” Cassidy demanded.
Dale nodded. “Exactly. When you were as good as dead from your attack in the prison, I realized they would target you. They’d requested ‘recruits’ and you were…”
A prop. A pawn. As good as dead, they’d wanted to experiment on me. My chest couldn’t expand for a full breath. “Jesus Christ,” I uttered.
“I owed it to Jonah…” He stared at the ground for a beat, seeming to collect his thoughts. “I… He’s the son I’ve never had. I couldn’t let them do that to the one person he cared about. His only family. I’d never touched anything to do with the project after Scott was killed. It was too big. I had no power over the conglomerate that grew to head the research. But I had to get you out.”
I swallowed hard, fighting the burn in my throat at his explanation. He had saved me. For something so much bigger than a simple jail fight. Gratitude broke me down, but I held it inside. I cleared my throat, letting it hit me all over again.
“They use inmates to experiment on—” Cassidy shifted on her feet. “Then is Ryan…”
“Ryan Caine.” Dale intoned the name as though it left a sour aftertaste. “They chose him. After he killed the guard in his attack on you, he was due for death. They took him for Xol, instead and now he’s…a monster.”
“What did they do to him?” I had to know. I’d slammed a knife to his throat. He was alive, somewhere, and I needed to know how.
“It’s over my head in a large sense, but I can explain what I used to know. They are relentless in experimenting, testing new variants. Scott’s interest in the axolotl was founded on the species’ regenerative abilities. Set aside the goal of curing cancer. They focused on regeneration. Over the years, the team has created a strain of treatments that ensures just that.”
“Regeneration,” Cassidy repeated.
Dale nodded. “I can’t stomach the idea of how they carried on their studies. On inmates, honest-to-God cancer patients.” He swallowed hard. “Infants. Refuges.”
Cassidy sucked in a hard breath.
“They’ve tested regeneration to every extreme. If they sever limbs. Remove organs.” He smacked his palms to his legs, and when he continued, his tone was dark with disgust. He snarled, “They torture and see how fast they can live. See how well their bodies will regenerate.”
The skillet to Michael’s head and the gunshot wounds. The knife to Ryan’s neck.
Nothing could bring them down for good.
This had nothing to do with cancer cures.
Only immortality.
“They can’t be killed?”
Dale snorted at Cassidy’s quiet question. “That was what propelled them to try harder, to test more, and more, and more. Why governments created secret teams of these super-soldiers…”
He clenched his teeth for a breath. “They can die. Only by…extreme measures.”
“Such as—”
“Removing body parts, inflicting trauma, loss of blood, poisons, burns…” He winced. “They’ve tested everything. Because they can regenerate, they’ve extensively researched what their breaking point might be.”
“Breaking point…” I imagined it all in my mind’s eye. How they would’ve come to pushing the limit of regeneration to stay alive… Frankenstein-style of gory “tests.” Bile rose in my throat.
“Holy fuck,” Cassidy whispered. “How… How can they do that to people?”
Silence hung in a crushing force. I struggled to keep the horrific images at bay. I took Cassidy’s hand and caught her furious gaze.
No shell shock. This had to be the biggest shock of anyone’s life, learning of mad scientists killing for the fountain of youth. Not just seeking the fountain of youth but diabolically fine-tuning it as well. I was relieved she wasn’t suffocating under the traumatic news. Instead, she looked ready to kill.
“What do they want?” She clenched her jaw, staring down the rich businessman who’d no doubt seen these nightmares for years. “Why now? Rosa sent me to get data. Why do they need it now?”
Dale stood, glancing at his watch. “I don’t want to find out. Which is why you need to disappear with it. There has to be something more valuable, something even bigger they’re trying to accomplish, and something from Scott’s original research likely has the key.”
Bigger than making mutated super-humans who were lethal and nearly impossible to kill?
“Just destroy it.”
I frowned at the plea in Dale’s simple suggestion.
“Destroy it all. Whatever it was that you went for in that library. You can’t let them get it.”
We’d done the opposite. We’d made a copy and now Zero had it.
“What are they going to do next?” Cassidy asked. “What are they planning?”
She always had to see ahead. That was a logical mindset for life in general, but I worried we might not want to know. How much darker and inhumane could a team of mad scientists get?
Hard knocks rapped on the door. “Time’s up,” someone ordered.
Dale picked up his briefcase. “I trust you to keep the rest of the world safe.”
“Oh. Sure. No problem.” I hated the sarcasm I couldn’t keep in. Save the world, Luke. Like it was asking for a simple favor.
He smirked at me and then immediately sobered. “I beg you. Destroy that data. All of it. I’ve been trying to find others who might have files from the original research. Dr. Hendrick Allen—”
Cassidy flinched, glancing at the door as more knocks came. “Hendrick? We’re looking for him too.”
Setting the briefcase on the chair, Dale then rushed to snap it open. He extracted a slim, flexible plastic mask. Twin circles covered the lower cheek area—like any standard dust mask available for DIY repairs. Only, this one wasn’t bulky, but still reminiscent of gas masks. With a quick blur, he pulled the item over his head. The mouthpiece dangled from a thin white cord.
He handed another mask to me and then to Cassidy.
“I’ve had men trying to find him. Those heading Xol are looking for him, too, I’m sure of it. He has to have something they need.” Dale removed a handheld canister from his pants’ pocket.
I pointed to the canister in his hand. “How’d you get that in here?”
Dale smirked and snorted half-heartedly. “They didn’t even bother to check me out since those two drunks in the other cells were still causing a ruckus. You’re lucky you were caught by an incompetent Podunk force.”
Knocks boomed on the door. The doorknob rattled.
“What’s
this?” I asked, pulling the mask over my head.
Cassidy frowned, watching me put it on and following my lead.
Dale faced the door, not even startling at the yells beyond it and the booms beating the portal. “A way out.”
Chapter Nine
Cassidy
“How?” I asked.
A way out of this meeting room at a police station? I was all onboard with that plan. But all we had was a skimpy plastic mask to protect us from the pissed-off force of armed cops waiting for us on the other side. I needed more answers first.
Dale might be an ally in this mess. The sincerity of his angry scowls in the angst his very words bled as he’d regaled us with a brief history of Project Xol were too raw to be faked.
I might trust him—if Luke did, I would—but I refused to go into an escape blindly.
He held up the propped-open briefcase. Cash lined the space where the masks had been. Lots of cash. “Use this money to see yourselves to safety. If you need more, we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.” With a distinct click, he slapped it shut. He handed it to me and I took it. “I have an unmarked car parked a couple of blocks away. You can take it. We’ll head there now.”
Luke nodded, frowning again at the door as more commands were shouted for us to exit.
“How—”
Dale cut off my question by reaching into his pocket and then holding up two more canisters. Palm-sized, circular plates of slate-colored metal. A tab protruded at the top like a button. Daysun’s logo was stuck toward the bottom.
“We’ve recently developed a unique form of…something like mustard gas.” He shrugged. “Daysun has a specific branch that acts as an independent consultant for the military. Non-Xol military,” he rushed to add.
Non-Xol— I flinched. Was our government employing top-secret teams of these mutants like Michael?
“It spreads easily and behaves as a temporary yet immediate anesthetic. I’ll release one in here. By the time, we open the door, the people closest to us will drop.” He pulled his mask to his face and raised his brow. “On three?”
Luke raised his to his face and I hurriedly fitted mine. With the briefcase wedged under my armpit, I freaked, securing the strings tighter. I must have whimpered a noise out loud and not just in my head because Luke spun to me and helped me secure the facepiece tighter.
“On three, then,” Dale said, moving toward the door. “Just follow me.” He flicked the tab at the top of the disc and nothing happened.
“It’s invisible to the naked eye,” he added.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. We couldn’t even see if it was working? What if he’s lying? Delivering us to the Xol team? I needed something. Anything to prove we weren’t about to open that door and get shot to shit.
Luke grabbed my hand and the faint tremble in his grip only amped up my panic.
“One.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. I needed evidence. Something. This was too blind of faith.
“Two.”
I bounced in my step, ready to just go.
Dale yanked the door open and stepped back. He blocked us from the officers at the door. Before Luke and I could stumble to our asses, we caught our footing.
I winced, bracing for the hits.
Nothing. I felt more than heard a thud to the ground. One by one, the men seemed to freeze. Their mouths gaped and their eyes rolled back. Like flies, they hit the floor.
Oh. My. God.
It worked. Like a scary miracle, it sure as hell worked. Freakishly fast, too.
I blinked, stunned at our break. Luke coughed a sound, likely impressed as I was.
“You didn’t say three.”
Dale deadpanned at me. “Come on.”
He looked both ways before stepping into the hall.
“Our bag,” I reminded Luke. Most of everything in it was replaceable. The burner phones—our only links to Zero—were not. We still needed them for the short-term.
“The check-in is to the left at the end of the hall,” Dale said, rushing in a trot ahead of us. He’d tabbed open another circle of the noxious gas when we’d exited the meeting room. Men lay slumped in heaps of bodies, so kindly asleep for us to flee. We stepped over them, the obstacles minimal to slowing us down. Luke hung on to my side and I gripped my arm around his waist, aiding him along.
“Here.” Dale ducked into an open doorway to what appeared to be an office. “Look in there.” As Luke leaned to the wall, I went inside. While I passed him by, Dale activated another disc and tossed it into the hallway we had faced ahead.
How many of those does he have? I couldn’t help but glance at the cop slumped in slumber in his chair. And how long do they last?
In a flurry, I pulled things from cubbies below a counter. Thank God they didn’t lock it all up yet. There. In the corner was the familiar black canvas. I yanked it out of the space and strapped it to my back. It took me seconds to run back to Luke’s side. Dale nodded once and headed on.
“Wait.”
We stopped at Luke’s shout. He pulled at the backpack, jostling me a bit. The zipper sounded and he resumed position with me. Gun in hand now.
“Okay,” he said, his deep voice muffled somewhat by the mask.
Dale led us on. “The exit to—” He skidded to a stop, bracing his arm out to hold us back.
At the end of the hallway stood a woman. Dressed in a tailored, sky-blue pantsuit, she waited for us. Blonde hair collected in a stylish messy bun on her head. The glittering scorn in her eyes was nothing but a threat.
No mask covered her slender face.
How could she breathe…
No. If this was another Xol-altered human… I tightened my fingers around Luke’s side. This wasn’t a faceoff I looked forward to. The three of us couldn’t regenerate squat for a defense.
“Jolene?” Dale asked. He lowered his arm. “What’s going on?”
“Hey there, boss.” Her tone was anything but respectful. Her cocky movement, jutting her hip out, showed how little she was intimidated at his rebuking tone. She was too calm. Too…unreal, standing there like a Fembot with too much confidence.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
“Who is this?” Luke demanded.
“My assistant from my Columbus office—”
Jolene grinned, showing too-perfect teeth. A deranged smile that chilled me.
“And a five-year breast cancer survivor.” Her eyes narrowed at Dale as she twirled a gun in her finger.
Luke stiffened.
Cancer survivor? Because she’d been “cured” by Project Xol’s efforts?
“Jolene, what have you done?” Dale stepped back, bumping into us.
“I saved myself.” She raised the gun at us. “And I’ll be damned if you stand in the way of who I really work for.”
Luke shoved Dale toward me. He raised his gun and fired three shots. Darkness popped up in blobby circles, soaking her buttoned jacket.
I held my breath, staring so hard my eyes hurt.
Jolene cocked her head to the side. Then she glanced at her chest. And faced us again. “Ouchie,” she said, pouting like we were toddlers.
Oh. Shit.
Fembot? No, she was a fucking cyborg. Regenerative or not, she was shot. In the gut. And she didn’t even care.
Oh. Shit.
Dale swore softly, pushing us to backtrack. “Go. Get out of here.” He pushed keys toward me. “Go.”
“I think not,” Jolene snapped. She lifted her gun and fired.
Dale grunted, hunching over as we retreated down the hall.
“Dale!” Luke raised his gun and fired again at Jolene.
She laughed as another bullet hit her in the stomach.
“Go,” Dale said as he fell toward Luke, knocking him to the ground.
I kept my grip on the briefcase and keys and staggered as I tried to turn tail and run.
He fisted the front of my shirt. “Find him.”
Hendrick? We were going to.
“Fi
nd a way to end this.”
A deep cough sounded next to me.
Luke’s mask had slid from his face in the fumble of catching Dale. Lying partly beneath the shot billionaire, my man blinked hard.
“Luke!” I lunged over Dale between us and shoved his face mask back on.
No. No. No. He couldn’t pass out. Not now. Not like this.
His eyes closed as he took a deep breath through the mask. A groan sounded from him and I shifted Dale off of him, removing the weight of the man from his wounded leg.
Clacks of heels snapped on the floor and I tore my frantic gaze from Luke falling asleep.
Jolene strolled toward me as though she had all the time in the world. She’d lowered her hand with the gun, tucking it into the front of her waistband. From her jacket pocket, she pulled out a syringe. Cocking a half-smile at me, she laughed. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Then why not kill me, bitch?
She wanted to keep me alive for whatever her team planned.
“Go. To. Hell.”
At least she was aiming a needle of a sedative at me this time, not a firearm.
Her laugh scraped at my nerves. “Been there and back,” she snarled as she approached.
I pushed to my feet as she bared her teeth at me. Crouching, I was ready to pounce. No way was I sitting here and making this easy for her.
I glanced to my side. Dale winced. Luke slept. “Luke!” He didn’t move.
You’re on your own, Cass.
I steeled my gaze, fisting my hands as Jolene quickened to a sprint.
Like a ninja wielding a knife, she gripped the syringe in her hand. She lunged at me, and all I could follow was the flash of the metal hurtling my way.
To be continued in…STOLEN
Acknowledgments
For editing, I thank C.J. Pinard at www.cjpinard.com. For the cover design and photography, I thank Kellie Dennis at Book Cover By Design at www.bookcoverbydesign.co.uk. For proofreading, I thank PSW.
For all the never-ending encouragement, suggestions, and cheerleading, I thank my great team of betas: Allyson, Crystal, and Dawn. I treasure your input and am so glad to have you in my corner!
Find: Project Xol Page 9
