Page 70 of Red Boar's Baby

She saw no sign of Costa, which worried her desperately, but she reminded herself that they’d shown no signs, so far, of killing either of them. He had been alive on the plane, and if they were going to commit murder, it made the most sense to do it out in the desert, rather than here in presumed civilization.

Where are we, anyway?She had no idea which direction the plane had been flying. They could be just about anywhere in a few hours’ flight radius from the eastern Arizona area, which was a great deal of territory.

There were a few people in the room. Two of them (a man and a woman) wore lab coats, while the other two Diana recognized as two of the goons from the desert. Their dusty tactical gear and weapons looked strikingly out of place in the lab, especially next to the clean white lab coats of the scientists.

“The roadrunner is the next test subject?” the male scientist asked, and Diana squawked and pushed herself as far back in her cage as she could.

“Yes,” the woman said. There was a sharp-edged, no-nonsense air to her. “You!” she added, snapping her fingers at Goon #1. “Help Mike restrain her.”

“I think we’re done here,” said Goon #2. “I’m going to go check on the other one.”

“Yes, go, whatever.”

The scientists descended on the cage. Diana proceeded to make as much of a nuisance of herself as possible, squawking and flapping even though it meant bashing her wings on the inside of the cage. She did not like the words “test subject”at all.

Frantic fluttering did her little good. Wearing a pair of heavy gloves, the male scientist, who she assumed was Mike, deftly stuck a series of metal rods through the cage bars, somewhat clumsily aided by Goon #1. It was evident the lab had done this before. The rods didn’t do anything except confine Diana, but she found herself crowded into an even tinier section of the cage, barely able to move anything except her head.

The female scientist, who Diana decided to think of as Ms. Frankenstein, drew up a syringe from a bottle, then donned a heavy glove on her off hand similar to the ones Mike was wearing. It looked like the sort of thing someone would use to restrain a rabid raccoon.

Diana tried to yell “No!” It emerged as “Awk!”

“Stop fighting, you troublesome creature.”

Frankenstein used her gloved hand to slide open a small door in the side of the cage that Diana hadn’t even noticed, exposing Diana’s shoulder, neck, and part of her wing. While Diana tried to maneuver her head around to bite her, Frankenstein wrapped her gloved fingers firmly around Diana’s torso. Diana struggled, but she felt the sharp sting as the needle was jabbed into her shoulder and then withdrawn. Frankenstein snapped the side door shut, while Diana shook with fear and rage.

“No, leave those,” Frankenstein told Mike, who had begun to withdraw the rods pinning Diana in place. “We’ll keep her confined until we see if there’s going to be a reaction, and then we’ll need to move her to a bigger cage and feed her.”

A bigger cagedidn’t sound like good news for her chances of not being a roadrunner anytime soon, and she didn’t like the sound ofif there’s going to be a reactionany more than she’d appreciatedtest subject.Diana shivered, and gradually realized it was more than just the aftermath of adrenaline and thwarted anger making her shake. There was a cold sensation spreading out from the injection site. Her wing on that side felt strange, heavy, and numb. She also experienced an odd, sharp taste in the back of her throat.

What on earth did they give me?

She told herself firmly that the objective wasn’t to kill her. There was no point in using a shifter for testing if it was just a poison or something; any lab animal would have served as well.

But what is it going todo?

Mike was now taking some measurements, including weighing the cage, Diana and all. She hissed and occasionally tried to peck or bite him through the bars, and nearly went ballistic when he brought another needle, but this one was merely for drawing blood.

The door opened. Diana hissed louder when the person who came in turned out to be Farley. He’d cleaned up a bit, and his broken arm was in a sling, which just made the bruises on his face stand out more vividly. Diana wished she’d had a chance to give him some new ones.

“Hey, you’re both needed in Lab 2,” Farley said.

Frankenstein looked up from her laptop. “Now what? We’re in the middle of something.” Mike was labeling the blood samples.

“I don’t know. It sounded urgent. Halsted has some questions about one of the test subjects who’s developed a problem. I didn’t ask any questions.”

“Fine, whatever.” Frankenstein closed the laptop and pointed at Farley. “I need more blood samples from you when we’re done.”

“Yeah, you’ll get ‘em.”

Frankenstein and Mike left the room. Farley went swiftly to the door they’d just left through, peered out, then hurried over to Diana’s cage and started pulling out the metal rods confining her.

Diana squawked in disbelief. “Shhh!” Farley hissed at her. He felt around for a bit one-handed until he managed to spring the clamps holding the cage door shut, and for the first time in what felt like forever Diana was able to tumble out onto the lab table.

She shifted immediately. Farley stifled a yelp and turned his back.

“What are you up to now?” Diana whispered fiercely at him. She slid off the table and grabbed a discarded lab coat off the back of someone’s chair. She had to work one-handed as well; the arm that had been injected was nearly useless, and was starting to experience an odd cramping, burning sensation. “What’s your deal?”

“I hate what they’re doing here,” Farley whispered back. “I want to help.”

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