Catalyst (Dogs of War Book 4)

by J. M. Madden

  "I hope the doctor has some kind of insight,” Raine murmured.

  "I do too,” Noah said softly.

  Raine glanced way up to find him watching her, his unique golden-hazel irises clear. “What?” she asked defensively.

  He shook his head, smiling slightly. “Nothing. I just like seeing you fight for your people.”

  “They are my people, completely,” she said softly. “As wrong as it is, I’m beginning to consider some of them more than residents.”

  Noah glanced at her sharply. “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged, watching the lit number stop on two. The elevator doors slid apart and she stepped off. Noah stepped off behind her and she paused. “I mean that some of these men are as important to me as my own family. And I will take care of them as if they’re my own brothers. The guys on my floor didn’t choose to be dismembered or cut open or blinded in the pursuit of perfection, but they were. By our government. And that same government basically made sure that they couldn’t return home for any reason. Those in power made sure to alienate them and make them dependent on the same government that was abusing them. It’s horrifying and I can’t think about it for very long because it makes me cry.”

  Just the thought of all of the nights she had returned to her apartment in tears made her want to cry again. The guys on her floor were medically more stable than those on the lower floors, but they were still hurting and recovering, even months after being liberated. Raine doubted that any of them would be released in the near future, or even could be.

  And if there were more out there like this mysterious woman, the Collaborative now had a responsibility to care for them. Elizabeth, and hopefully Wulfe, would know what to do.

  Noah strode down the hallway with purpose, looking for Dr. Elizabeth Cole. When they didn’t spot her, they turned toward the administrative offices at the front of building. That was where they found her, hunched over her laptop keyboard. She was typing furiously and only glanced up when Raine cleared her throat. Elizabeth jerked a startled glance at them.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” Raine told her. “But we might have an issue.”

  Elizabeth, a tall, beautiful blonde with China blue eyes, looked more ragged than normal. “Please don’t tell me that,” she said softly. “I have so much on my plate as it is.”

  “No luck finding the assistant?” Noah asked.

  Elizabeth shook her head and waved them into chairs across from her. “No. Not a hint. She appears to have disappeared into thin air.”

  Noah knew that it could seem that way.

  “Wulfe is working on it.”

  “Do you have another assistant lined up?” Raine asked, obviously as worried as he was about Elizabeth’s appearance. The woman had done so much for the men.

  The doctor frowned. “None that are ready to go. I could bring Alicia over from corporate, but that’s hardly fair to her. She’s exactly where she needs to be, keeping me grounded on the Silverstone Collaborative public side. We’ll find someone. There’s so much classified information at our fingertips, right now, that the person has to be perfect. And it takes so long to do an in-depth background check. I have the Lost and Found guys working on it, but it will be a while. Hell, after the security breach, the CIA might assign one of their people.”

  A week ago, Elizabeth’s administrative assistant, who had been hired on specifically for processing the rescued men, had left with a copy of who all knows what in her briefcase and not been seen again. Noah had a feeling that they would never see Jodie Watkins or the information again. She hadn’t gotten access to any of the scientific information, or the processes they were going through to rehabilitate the men, but what she’d gotten had been enough to be dangerous, specifically a list of the men and the initial assessment on their abilities, or lack thereof. The thought of someone knowing what he could do and trying to exploit him for it made Noah furious. The thought of doing it to the other men that couldn’t yet defend themselves made his blood boil.

  Security, which had been tight before, had been tightened even more. The CIA, involved since the Dogs of War had liberated the men months ago, had sent a few agents to be on-site. Those employees that lived inside the building like he and Raine had to wear security watches on their wrists now. The watches acted as swipe badges to get them through locked doors. Those that worked outside the Elton Recovery Building had a much more in-depth process to get inside. The original Dogs of War, as they liked to call their team, consisted of the three men that had initially escaped, Aiden Willingham, Drake Fontana and Wulfe Terberger. They were on-site every day implementing and observing security processes. The information that they had gathered about the torture and experimentation camps as well as the men themselves needed to be kept as safe as possible. Coming from a Military background, Noah knew that if another country got their hands on the sensitive information about what the men could do, and they assumed they had, it could lead to unbelievable annihilation. The Spartan program had been created to build super soldiers, and to an extent it had worked. If there was a way that the men’s abilities could be militarized it would mean war fought in a completely different way.

  The thought sent a chill down his spine.

  Elizabeth glanced between the two of them. “So, what new issue have you brought me?”

  Noah nodded his head for Raine to go ahead.

  “Well, ma’am,” Raine said, her Tennessee twang strong. “Haven has been having visions. He thinks someone is after him.”

  “Doesn’t he normally think someone is after him?” Elizabeth asked, not facetiously.

  Raine sighed. “Yes, ma’am, but this is different. He says there is a woman after him. He called her Belladonna. And I think she has been given one of the drugs as well.”

  The doctor’s gaze sharpened and she sat up in her chair. “Did he say where she was or where he’d seen her?”

  Shaking her head Raine leaned forward in her chair. “No ma’am, but this fear seems different. Like it’s an actual person stalking him or something. Or a group. Were there any females tested on in the compounds?”

  Turning to her laptop, Elizabeth began typing. Eventually she rocked back in her chair shaking her head. ”Not that I see. Fontana only found one female in the camps, a woman that had been raped by the guards. I don’t see any other female names in the information I have.”

  Noah felt bad for the woman who had been raped, and it was obvious Raine did as well. Tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them away. “He’s more agitated than I’ve seen him in a long time. I don’t feel like this is a figment of his imagination.”

  Elizabeth jotted down some notes on a Post-it pad. “Wulfe had to step out for a while but as soon as he gets back I will give him the information. Maybe Aiden can work some computer magic or something. If you come up with any more details, let me know.”

  Noah tipped his head and stood. “Will do.”

  They were almost out the door when Elizabeth called them back. “Do you feel like I need to come up and see him?”

  Raine chewed on her lip. “It might not be a bad idea. Just, if you get a minute. I know you’re busy.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “No, the men are the most important part of this building. Let me talk to Wulfe and I’ll be up in a bit.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “Yes, Raine?”

  “Were there any women treated with the drug? Maybe not prisoners?”

  Elizabeth tilted her head. “The only one I know of, Priscilla Mattingly, was killed many months ago when she tried to kill my husband.”

  Raine’s eyes flew wide. “No way!”

  “The Dogs of War killed her when she came after them.”

  It took Raine a moment to assimilate that, and Noah could almost see the tumble of thoughts in her mind. She’d been dealing with the men on her floor, but she didn’t like to think about the violence that had brought them there. Raine had probably never even considered that there were men that had killed all around he
r.

  They said their goodbyes and headed back down the hallway toward the elevator. Noah didn’t waste any time because his head was ringing with voices and moans and other pain filled sounds. He tried to remember a song loud enough to drown everything out, but he couldn’t do it. He punched a finger at the elevator button, repeatedly. When the doors closed behind them, some of the voices were muffled, though still well within his audible range. Raine rested a hand on his arm.

  “I’m sorry I dragged you out for this.”

  Noah forced to smile for her. “Don’t worry about it,” he told her honestly. “I prefer that you come get me for these kinds of things. I like Haven and I worry about him.”

  She nodded, her hand falling away. “I worry about him, too. Thanks, Noah.”

  And if it meant that it would take the worry from her eyes, he would play hero for her anytime.

  Raine went back to work. Paul was entirely capable of running the fourth floor himself but it wasn't fair to him. So, she made an effort to try to help him out with some of his duties. Most of the time they split the ten to twelve residents between the two of them, although there were a couple of residents that responded better to each of them. They tried to accommodate those residents as much as possible. It was better for everyone that way. That was why Raine normally had Haven and Paul normally had the two African residents. They flat out refused to allow a female to help them, so Paul took care of their needs.

  Raine stocked Paul’s medical cart and changed some linens for him. Normally, midnight shift would do this but Paul was working over for one of the midnight shift nurses. Her kid was sick or something. Raine had just seen her name on the call off sheet. Paul, a single guy who also lived upstairs, didn't have a life outside of the Elton Recovery Building, so he didn't mind working over. Rain had done it several times herself.

  Paul shook his head at her when he realized what she’d done, but gave her a one-armed hug anyway. “You didn't have to do all that,” he told her firmly.

  Rain shrugged. "Haven takes a lot of my time and you usually end up covering for me. I just wanted you to know I appreciate it."

  Paul gave her a look. “Whatever we need to do for these guys, you know?”

  “Yeah,” she sighed.

  These guys had been given such a crappy hand in life. It was up to someone to make it right. Dr. Elizabeth Cole, as owner of the Silverstone Collaborative, the company that had tested upon them, was bending over backwards to fix everything her former husband had wrought. It was hard, though. The woman never seemed to leave the building anymore, and Raine hoped that Wulfe was taking care of her. And she hoped her son Blake was getting the attention he needed.

  There was a line that they had to walk, though. Yes, she wanted to baby the men and take care of them, but at the same time the medical staff had to be the caring disciplinarians. If they weren’t prodded, some of the men wouldn’t eat or bathe. Many of them were relearning how to live and function. It was why they had a full-time occupational therapist on the floor at all times.

  Once she built Paul a head start on his tasks, she began going through her own responsibilities. She always started on one end of the hallway, but this time she went to the opposite end and knocked on Haven’s door. Once the men could prove that they didn’t need twenty-four hour care, they could graduate to a full apartment on the next floor up, but Haven had balked about moving away from what he was used to. Haven’s space had a bedroom, bathroom and living area, though he was usually parked on the floor against the wall at the end of his bed. At least today he wore clothes. For some reason the man didn’t seem to like to wear them. One of the other men had mentioned that they hadn’t worn clothes for a long time, like years, for some of the men. Living in the jungle she supposed they probably didn’t really need them for warmth but surely the bugs had gotten after them. Raine shuddered at the thought of being in the middle of the jungle in her birthday suit and being eaten by creepy crawlies.

  When she peered around the door, Haven was in his normal spot and appeared to be asleep, so she left him alone. The sedative appeared to still be in effect. She could check on him again in a couple hours. Or when Dr. Cole came up to talk to him.

  She headed down the hallway to her next resident. Nathan Hale had been a Recon Marine when he’d volunteered for the Marathon program. Raine had learned a lot from him about the program, more even than from Dr. Cole. Nathan had been up in the rec room when Haven had worked his Christmas miracle. A couple of days later, after the furor had died down, Nathan had told her that a vision of his former high school sweetheart had appeared to him. He’d been worried that the fact he’d seen her meant the woman had died but that wasn’t the case. Haven had said that he’d manifested only those that the residents had been thinking of at the time.

  Since then, Nathan’s demeanor had changed. He was more mobile. The space he’d been given had been memorized down to the square inch. Raine knew he could sketch it out from memory. He too had balked at moving away from the floor, though. This was the space he was used to and he wanted to stay.

  “Hey, Nathan. How are you doing today?”

  Nathan turned toward the sound of her voice. He sat at a desk one the far side of the room in front of the plate glass window, his fingers on a braille book in front of him. Rain had watched his development the past few months and was constantly amazed at how well Nathan navigated the floor in his own living space. Somehow, he always knew who was walking into the room to talk to him. A couple of times Raine had even felt like he had glanced at her, but surely, she'd been mistaken. Nathan had been examined many times and his vision would not be returning.

  After seeing what she had though, on this floor at least, she didn't doubt that Nathan would find a way to work around what has been done him. All of the men on the floor were adapting in their own way. Raine didn't actually have much to do here, other than check on him and give him some companionship. The two of them played trivial pursuit almost every afternoon.

  Today though, Nathan seemed agitated. It wasn’t anything she could directly pinpoint, just a restlessness to him.

  “Are you all right?" she asked, moving to the chair by the window she preferred. Nathan retrieved the board game from the shelf above the desk where he was sitting. Then he turned the chair and handed her the game.

  Raine took the lid off the box and began shuffling cards, watching him rub his palms down his thighs. Nathan wore sweatpants and a T-shirt today, as he did everyday, but there was a tightness around his eyes that she hadn't seen for a long time.

  "I'm fine," he said eventually. "Just….”

  He shook his head, then finger combed his longish hair. “I'm not sure what it is," he said. “Something on the floor is bothering me, but I can't tell what it is. This feeling has been bothering me for two days now."

  Raine frowned. "Why the heck didn't you tell me?"

  Nathan shrugged his broad shoulders. "Because I can't pinpoint anything," he growled. "It's just a feeling. I think it might have something to do with Haven, but I'm not positive. It's someone in that direction,” he said, using his hand motion toward the east side of building.

  Considering there were only two rooms other than Haven’s in that direction, and one resident was almost comatose, Haven was a good bet. “Have you walked the halls at all to see if you can narrow it down?”

  Nathan dropped his head, as if avoiding her gaze even though he couldn’t see it. “I haven’t been out of the room for a while.”

  Raine sighed. Nathan was almost completely recovered from his ordeal in the Guyana compound, but this small area had become his comfort space. Nathan had an expanded apartment, with a separate bedroom and living area. He also had a small kitchen space, although he didn't really cook. The building staff took care of all that for him, delivering meals and snacks regularly.

  Raine thought that he might have it little too cushy. Nathan was settling into being taken care of, and she wanted him to be more independent. Dr. Cole had made i
t very clear that there was no end date for their departure. The men that had been experimented on in the camps would have a home, if you could call the Elton Building that, for long as they needed it. Raine knew though that the Dogs of War, Aiden, Fontana and Wulfe, expected some of the men to join them in discovering who had betrayed them in the government. Raine wasn’t a military type so she wasn’t sure what that entailed, but she could understand why they would want the residents’ help. It was only fair.

  “Okay,” Raine told him firmly. “We’re going on a hike. I want you to tell me what you feel.”

  Nathan made a face, but he stood. “I knew if I said anything you would make me do this.”

  Raine laughed. “You know me so well.”

  Nathan already had his tennis shoes on. He moved across the room and batted his hand around in a corner, looking for the red tipped cane he’d been supplied. Raine gave him a minute to search before directing him to a spot near the table, where the cane rested. Nathan clenched his jaw and his cheeks flushed, and she castigated herself for not directing him sooner.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he told her. “I should have remembered where I’d put the damn thing.”

  Raine stared at him. There was no way he could see her, but he was reading her guilt. “You’re changing, Nathan.”

  He sighed as he stopped in front of her. “Yeah, I know. I thought I was imagining things, but they’re getting clearer as the weeks pass. You’re easy to read, but Dr. Elizabeth stopped in one day and I realized I was as agitated as her emotions were. Once I realized that I calmed myself.”

  “This isn’t something you’ve been able to do before,” she murmured.

  Nathan shook his dark head. “Nope. Just in the past few weeks.”

  Raine frowned. The men were no longer given any derivatives of the ayahuasca serum. Dr. Elizabeth made sure of that. The problem was, they knew so little about what part of the serum actually triggered the mind and body to change. The Dogs of War Team had recovered notes as well as samples of the original Spartan program serum and they were trying to break it down to reverse engineer the process. Dr. Shu, the doctor who had created the serum, was dead, and trying to understand the way his chaotic, genius mind had worked was difficult.