New Species 11 True (2 page)

“Did she agree?”

“I didn’t ask,” Polanitis snorted. “Give her the shot.”

Jeanie wanted to scream but the grip on her throat tightened
until she couldn’t breathe. Her boss abruptly shoved her down, his weight
coming over her back until she was crushed between him and the desk.

“What if she goes to the police?” Dr. Brask’s voice lowered.
“I thought you were going to pay her extra or something to let us test these
new batches.”

“We don’t have the budget for that bullshit. Just hike up
her skirt and jab her in the ass with the needle already. The bitch wouldn’t
dare be stupid enough to betray me.” He eased up enough for her to suck in
much-needed air. “Would you, Shiver? Tell him you know it would be the last thing
you ever did.”

“Please,” she begged, terrified of what they were about to
do to her.

“Shut up,” Polanitis ordered, squeezing her throat again. “She
is your new test subject.”

Jeanie struggled, panicked that she couldn’t breathe or get
the heavy weight off her back. Her skirt was shoved up and pain stabbed through
her left upper butt cheek as the needle found its mark. Polanitis released her
afterward and backed away.

She sucked in air and spun, shoving her skirt down. She
glanced at both men, seeing they were putting as much room between her and them
as the small office allowed. That was fine with her.

“What did you give me?” She stared at Dr. Brask. “What was
that?”

He smiled. “It should immediately take effect.”

“What should? What did you give me?” Her voice rose in
panic.

Jeanie cried out when a jolt of sharp pain stabbed from her
head to her toes, comparable to the time she’d accidently touched a damaged
cord plugged into an electrical outlet. Her knees buckled and she hit the
floor. Her stomach churned, her head began to throb as signs of an impending
migraine began, and she broke out in a sweat. It felt as though someone had
poured gasoline over her skin and lit a match. She writhed on the thin carpet,
curled into a ball, suffering a strong burning sensation over every inch of her
body.

“That’s not good.” Dr. Brask sighed. “We’ll wait until the
drug leaves her system and lower the dosage next time. That wasn’t the response
I wanted.”

“She’s all yours.” Dean Polanitis chuckled. “Bring a gurney
and we’ll transfer her to your lab for the day so you can monitor the results.”

Jeanie prayed to pass out. The sheer agony she suffered was
worse than anything she could have imagined would be possible. She forgot about
the two men in the room, lost in the pain as her skin felt as if it were
blistering and boiling from her body.

* * * * *

710 paced his cell, worried because something different had
happened. He wasn’t sure what was going on but it couldn’t be good. He’d been
fighting the guards to prevent them from permanently maiming him when
everything had just ceased. Different guards had arrived and led him toward the
outer building.

He knew what that meant since guards taunted him from time
to time with what went on at that location, assuring him it would mean the
termination of his life. The march there had abruptly ended, too, when one of
the males had flipped open and spoken into his ringing device. They’d returned
him to his cell, informing him that he’d be participating in a new drug trial
to increase intelligence.
Did they just want to frighten me? Make me think I
would die?
The mind games the humans played pissed him off.

The cell door beeped, indicating someone would enter. He
turned his head to watch the human who controlled the facility step inside his
living space. Polanitis was a monster with dead-looking eyes and a mean
disposition. The male smiled as he walked closer but came to a halt on the
other side of the line marking the safe area beyond the reach of his chains.
The male crossed his arms over his chest.

“I wanted to share something with you, 710. I notice
everything, you know. I see the way you stare at Technician Shiver. She’s a hot
little thing, isn’t she?”

710 tensed but kept his emotions hidden. The small brunette
always held his attention. Her touch was gentle every time she drew blood and
she peered at him intently with big brown eyes, as if he were a real person.
She was the only technician who had ever shown him any kindness.

Polanitis looked smug. “She makes your dick hard, doesn’t
she? We’re working on a new formula of the breeding drug to fit our current
needs. Once it’s perfected, I’m willing to send her in to you for breeding
experiments if you are a good boy.” He smiled. “You’ll get to fuck her.”

710 stopped breathing, trapping the air inside his lungs. He
knew what the breeding drug did to males. It caused excruciating pain and an
overriding desire to mount a female. He’d been dosed with it once when he’d
been much younger. The nightmares continued to bother him, of the time his mind
had fractured under the pain. He didn’t know if he’d hurt anyone while under
the influence of the drug since he’d retained no memory of his actions but it
was possible he’d harmed a female.

“Technician Shiver is currently working with Dr. Brask to perfect
the formula so it doesn’t create such violent and painful side effects. I know
you’d like to mount that hot little body. We feel certain that you wouldn’t
hurt her since you’re damn near tame when she’s around.”

Rage filled 710 as he averted his gaze from Polanitis. His
stomach heaved and the food they’d recently fed him threatened to come up when
he realized she must have purposely set out to gain his attraction, hoping he
wouldn’t harm her under any circumstance. It had worked. A sense of betrayal
burned inside his chest, despite knowing it wasn’t a reasonable emotion. She
was human after all, his enemy. He should have known better than to think she’d
be different.

“It shouldn’t be too long before they find the right dosage
and I’ll personally escort her into your cell. In exchange, you’re going to
stop attacking the guards.” Dean Polanitis narrowed his gaze, his tone
revealing his anger. “Do you understand what I’m saying? I lost two good men I
trusted thanks to your last outburst. It’s not easy to find replacements. You
are going to do everything I say.”

710 met the monster’s stare, wishing his chains allowed him
to cross the room and rip out his throat. He’d wanted to kill the male before
but now it had become an absolute need. “I won’t mount that female.”

Polanitis’ expression wasn’t a pleased one anymore. “Sure
you would. Here’s the deal. You stop hurting my security teams and I’ll send
her in here to you. We’ll loosen those chains enough that you can reach her
once you have her alone. Wouldn’t you like that?”

A growl tore from 710. The breeding drug would drive him
insane and an image popped into his head of Technician Shiver as a bloody
corpse on the floor of his cell. He’d attack if she was sent to him after he
was dosed. As much as he hated what she’d done, she didn’t deserve a brutal
death. “I’ll kill her.”

“I don’t believe that.”

The smugness on the human’s face infuriated 710 enough to
bluff. “Send her in. I’m an animal who kills. I can go without eating for a
while when you punish me for her death.”

“You’d really kill her?”

“Yes. She is one of you and I would enjoy taking revenge
against all here.”

Polanitis swore viciously. “I misjudged you. You’re going to
do what I want or die. Stop attacking my men and don’t cause any more injuries
when they move you to one of the labs to perform tests in a new trial. You will
also answer every one of the questions they ask you. You’re worthless otherwise
and that means you serve no purpose. That means I get to kill you.”

It was 710’s turn to smile. “You’ll eventually do that
anyway.”

The male’s neck and face turned red. “I hate you fucking
animals. You’re going to behave like a well-trained dog. Do you understand me?
If the doctor in charge of this project asks you anything, you tell him
whatever he wants to know. You’re going to stop hurting my guys, too, or I’ll
bring one of your women in here and punish her every time you defy me. I’ll
bend her over that table in the corner so you have to watch me hurt her and
afterward I’ll call in some of the guards to take a turn. Would you care about
that?”

710 growled in anger, understanding the threat. “Don’t hurt
the female.”

The smug expression returned to Polanitis’ face. “Stop
breaking my men’s arms, or worse, damn it. We have results we need to send in
to my bosses but you’re causing me headaches. It’s a major security risk when I
have to hire unknowns to replace them and we have to pay out hush money to
their families. I’ll have to kill every damn animal in here if it looks like
one of them might get us busted. Am I making myself clear? You’ll be
responsible for the deaths of every damn one of your kind. The only reason you’re
still breathing is because you’re leverage for something I want.”

“Yes,” 710 snarled, not sure what “busted” or “leverage”
meant but he got the context of the threat.

“Then we have a deal?”

It went against everything he believed in to willingly agree
to do anything the humans demanded. He had no other options though. The threat
wasn’t an empty one. He refused to be responsible for the female being harmed. “Yes.”

Polanitis stomped to the door. “Good.”

710 said nothing. The door locked and he walked to his mat
on the floor. He sat and closed his eyes. Pain hit. Technician Shiver had found
a soft spot in his heart but no longer. He had cared for the female, yet she
didn’t deserve anything but his disgust and contempt.

South Dakota, the following year

Cornas Research facility

Jeanie had been given orders to call in sick to work but
hadn’t done it. She jogged to another door, peered up at the small video
monitor to see what was on the other side of the thick metal and used the stun
gun on the electronic lock. The clicking sound it made was louder than she’d
like as volts of electricity hit the reading device. The smell of frying wires
was faint and almost instant. She turned off the stun gun and waited a few
seconds to make sure the lights on the lock remained off. It didn’t power back
up.

She glanced at her watch, seeing there was only five minutes
left. Time was running out. She hurried down the hallway and fried another
sensor reader. She was terrified about being caught but she didn’t give a damn
what they did to her. She had to protect the men and women locked inside those
rooms.

Her stun gun shorted out the readers to prevent Security
from entering the cells. She’d already disabled the building’s main computer.
Another employee might punch in codes to send gas throughout the cells but the
command wouldn’t make it to the main computer. It was offline for good, thanks
to a pot of hot coffee she’d poured inside the tower housing it. Sparks had
shot out of it, there were some loud popping noises, and she’d feared it might
catch fire. It had shut down and refused to power on again when she’d tried,
just to make sure it wasn’t a temporary breakdown. The thing was toast.

An alarm blared from speakers located near the elevator. Red
emergency lights flashed as the scream of it rose in pitch.
Damn.
She
glanced at her watch. The attack had started two minutes early and she still
had one more floor to go. She zapped another sensor reader, spun and darted
back to the elevator to call it to her floor. Her hand shook as she swiped her
employee badge to gain access and shoved the stun gun deep inside her lab coat
pocket.

Two security guards were already inside the lift when it
opened. They looked pissed off and worse—desperate. She stepped inside the
confined space with them.

“We’re going down,” one of them stated. “What are you doing?
You know protocol. You’re supposed to hit the emergency exits, head to the
tunnels.”

She shook her head. “I have to destroy blood samples in a
storage room first. Dr. Meckler was extremely clear about making sure it was my
duty to do that if those alarms ever went off. What is going on?”

“We’re being breached,” the second one grunted. “I hate
fucking cops. Get it done fast while we kill the experiments. The backup system
failed so we have to shoot them one by one. Hit those hidden stairs afterward.
Don’t get caught. You know it’s a death sentence.”

She nodded but inwardly cursed. The elevator dinged open on
the bottom floor. One of the guards hit the button to keep them open, a feature
they used often to move drugged test subjects on gurneys. He glanced at the
other man.

“It will warn us if someone calls the damn thing to another
floor. I plan to use the hidden stairwell and be gone before the cops find us.”

The second man glanced at the fake wall near the end of the
hall. All the employees knew where the emergency exits were. The stairwells
would lead to an old, unused sewer system that dumped out somewhere far from
the building.

She turned. “Let me help. Give me a gun. The ones down here
are the most dangerous and they’ve seen most employees’ faces. They could
identify all of us.”

One of the guards hesitated.

“There are fifteen of them down here. The door keypads are
all slow to open,” Jeanie lied. “Come on. How long will it take for the cops to
override the elevator keycard locks? We can’t let these test subjects live. Do
you want your face splashed across the evening news until all your family and
friends know you worked here? We’ll be screwed seven ways to Sunday with every
police enforcement agency hunting for us too. There’s no point in escaping if
we’re going to get caught in the long run.”

The guard on her left passed over one of his handguns. “Take
head shots.”

“I know the drill.” Her stomach still turned, remembering
the lecture from the person who’d trained her on the most effective way to
murder an innocent human being, as if they were moths or other creatures that were
mere annoyances. “Use two shots to make sure they die.”

“We don’t have time for that shit or enough spare clips.
Just don’t miss what you aim at.”

The guards moved in front of her. One of them pulled his
keycard out and buzzed it through the sensor reader. The door beeped and the
man reached for the door handle. He intended to kill all the test subjects. He
lifted his gun to shoot the helpless woman chained against the far wall.

Bile rose in Jeanie’s throat as she raised her weapon. Not
firing wasn’t an option. He was going to murder someone she considered a
friend. He never even glanced back at her. She gripped the metal with both
hands to steady her aim and pulled the trigger. She cried out in horror as
blood and gore splattered the doorframe. Killing someone was ten times worse
than anything she’d ever imagined. Distress almost paralyzed her but movement
in the corner of her vision drew her attention. The second guard spun around,
his gaze dropping to his fallen coworker.

He paled, his eyes opening wide as he jerked his chin up.
Pure rage twisted his features as they stared at each other. He uttered a word
she couldn’t understand in her emotionally overwhelmed state. He raised his
arm. He was going to shoot her.

She aimed the gun but her hands shook worse than before and
she missed his head when she fired but the bullet struck his shoulder. He fell
back with a shout of pain and landed on his ass. The wall he slammed into kept
him sitting upright though. The look on his face promised death as he lifted
his bleeding arm to shoot at her again. She fired twice. One bullet tore into
his throat and the other one appeared to hit his heart.

The deafening sounds ceased but Jeanie’s ears rang. The
alarms were still going off. Blood spilled down the man’s chest, his eyes
remained open, but he didn’t blink. His focus wasn’t on her anymore despite the
eerie stare. She knew without needing to check for a pulse that he no longer
had one.

She swayed on her feet, not sure if she was going to puke or
faint. Both seemed options as the reality of what she’d done hit home. Numbness
settled into her mind.
Probably shock
, she rationalized. She lowered her
arms but managed to keep hold of the gun despite the urge to toss it away.

Pure agony shot through her midsection at the movement. She
looked down. Her white coat had turned red just above her hip and it spread
lower as she watched. It took a few seconds for it to sink in that she’d been
shot. The guard had managed to hit her in the side before she’d killed him. She
released the gun with one hand and flattened her palm over the wound. The pain
grew worse but she needed to apply pressure.

Spots danced before her eyes and she leaned to the side. Her
shoulder hit the wall, keeping her upright. She blinked a few times but it didn’t
change the view of her blood dripping on the tile floor near her feet. The
sirens blaring from the speakers reminded her that more guards could arrive at
any time. The company employed dozens of them on the day shift.

The elevator doors behind her closed. She turned. It meant
someone had called for it from another floor. It could be help but it would
probably be more security guards coming to kill the test subjects. It would
take the police time to hack into the security systems since she’d been unable
to steal another employee’s badge to slip to her contact. The theft would have
been immediately noticed and the codes changed, making it useless.

She forced herself to move despite the racking pain. She
reached the first body. The dead guard kept the door to the room open. She
reached down and grabbed him. He wasn’t a large man but his deadweight was
difficult to drag. She managed to pull him far enough that he no longer blocked
the doorway.

Her gaze focused on the woman chained to the wall. She
appeared shocked as her dark gaze locked on Jeanie.

“It’s okay, 433.” Jeanie groaned, gripping her side.

“You killed them,” she whispered.

Jeanie nodded. “Help is coming. I have to lock your door
again and disable the sensor to make sure our security people can’t kill you
before the police are able to get down here. Don’t be afraid of the strangers
when they come. They are going to set you free.”

She pulled the door closed and it beeped when the lock
reengaged. Jeanie yanked her stun gun out of her pocket and zapped the sensor
reader that could unlock it again. The smell of burning wires and the lights on
it going out assured her it was fried. She had to step over the guard’s body to
reach the next cell. The room spun as dizziness hit her. She turned her head,
staring up at the elevator display, seeing that the lift was on the way back
down.

She moved faster, feeling sick, as though she would pass
out. She realized that she’d never succeed in taking out all the readers before
the elevator opened again. It could be the police but she wasn’t willing to
risk the lives of the men and women trapped inside those rooms if it wasn’t.
She glanced down at all the blood staining her coat and pants. It would be a
miracle if she didn’t collapse before she reached the next cell.

“Shit.” Desperation drove her to think of a solution. Her
gaze drifted from the elevator display to the metal electrical boxes on the
wall next to it. Both had locks on them to prevent anyone from tampering with
the breakers inside but the covers weren’t bulletproof. At least she hoped not.

Her legs gave out and she slid to the floor next to the body
of the second guard she’d killed. Another gun still rested inside one of the
two shoulder holsters he sported. The guards always carried a few weapons. She
released the one she’d used, not sure if it even had any bullets left. The stun
gun slipped from her fingers into her pocket and she tugged at his gun. It slid
from the holster and she forced her legs to move, getting to her knees.

Her vision blurred and lightheadedness struck. She swallowed
hard and used both hands to lift the heavy weight of the handgun to take aim.
The sound was loud as she kept firing but bullets tore through the metal and
the lights flickered. She paused, holding her breath, until total darkness
surrounded her. The emergency lights clicked on, dimly illuminating the
hallway, but one glance at the nearest cell with an undamaged reader showed it
was inactive.

“Thank god,” she breathed, realizing the doors would remain
locked during a power failure. She hadn’t been sure if the safeguards on the
doors were a part of the emergency backup system or not until then.

She crouched until she sat on her heels, keeping upright.
She lowered the gun to her lap as she stared at the elevator that wasn’t
affected by the localized power loss. It would open at any second and she’d
face whoever was on the way down. The guards would kill her once they realized
what she’d done. The cops would arrest her until they figured out who she was.
She prayed for the latter.

The elevator doors opened and bright lights blinded her.

“Drop the gun,” a man yelled.

She couldn’t see their faces but didn’t have the strength to
fight anyway. The gun slipped from her fingers. The lights came closer and pain
exploded into the side of her face. The force sent her flying backward. She hit
the floor hard and a moan tore from her lips.

Someone gripped her roughly by her arm and rolled her onto
her stomach. Her cheek was pressed painfully against the floor as someone
grabbed a fistful of her hair and her arms were jerked behind her back by
someone else. The agony from the bullet wound made her scream. A boot planted
hard on her ass, grinding her hips against the floor.

“Secure that bitch,” a stranger demanded.

Pain lanced through her. Whoever had her hair fisted in his
hand was crushing her face against the unforgiving tile. The boot on her ass
held her down so forcefully that she wondered if her hipbones would break from
the pressure. The handcuffs being placed on her wrists were tightened to an
excruciating point. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She would have screamed
again but the pain became too intense. She had a hard time even breathing.

“Someone shot out the electrical box on this floor,” a man
stated.

“The dumb bitch probably thought she’d kill the power to the
elevator. Let’s get these doors open. I have a feeling we have live ones, guys.
Let’s rescue them. We need to move fast. We don’t want this place to end up
like what happened at that testing facility in Michigan last year. It could be
wired to explode.”

Jeanie focused on one word.
Rescue.
They weren’t
guards who worked at the facility. The men holding her down were cops. The fact
that they hadn’t shot her already was secondary proof of their identity. She
managed to suck in more air, breathing a sigh of relief.
They won’t kill me.

Loud pops sounded. Some smoke filled the area but it wasn’t
suffocating, more of a slight taste in her mouth and an acrid smell. She just
lay there, hoping for respite. Her eyes closed—keeping them open seemed
impossible. The boot on her ass shifted a little but it didn’t ease up on the
weight holding her down.

“We’re here to save you,” a soothing male voice stated. “We
work for people just like you who have been freed from these testing
facilities. We’re going to take you out of here to your own kind.”

“Hello,” a deeper voice said. His tone was quieter but it
carried. “I’m like you. See? We’ve come to rescue you. You are free now. These
humans with us are good ones who work with our kind. We’ll take you to a safe
place. We need to get you out of here. No one is ever going to chain you up
again.”