Page 71 of Red Boar's Baby

“Oh yeah, sure. I’ve heard that before!” Diana looked around for some kind of weapon. There were a lot of loose items, but not much that looked like it could be used offensively. She grabbed a laptop and wielded it one-handed at Farley like a short, wide club. “Stay away from me!”

“I really am trying to help!” Farley protested.

“ If you wanted to help, you could’ve showed up ten minutes earlier, you know, before they stuck me with some kind of experimental drug.”

“They gave it to me, too.”

Diana looked at him in shock, now taking in the pallor that made the bruises stand out so clearly. He was shivering a little, which she had simply taken for pain from his broken arm. “How recently?”

“While they were treating me after we got here. I thought it was just an injection for pain. Then the doc told me they’d decided to incorporate me into ‘the program’.” He made air quotes with his good hand.

“What happens to test subjects in ‘the program’?”

“I have no idea. I really don’t want to find out. Can we get out of here before they come back and find you loose?”

“Just a minute.” Diana scanned the room for a bag or a box. Nothing looked immediately useful, so she spread a lab coat on a table and started piling things on it: the laptop, the blood samples, scattered paperwork that had been laying on a desk.

“Do you have to do this now?” Farley protested.

“Yes. If the SCB is going to undo what’s been done to us, whatever it is, they’ll need information.” She opened a lab fridge which turned out to be full of samples. Diana grabbed a handful at random. “Did you see Costa at all? Do you know where he is? Did they inject him too?”

“I did see him, and I don’t think so.” Farley avoided her gaze. “I got the idea they want him in the arena, and didn’t want to risk taking him out of commission before the fights.”

The shifter fights—of course. That was what they had been talking about on the flight. No surprise that Costa’s airplane-baiting had drawn the attention of people who were interested in recruiting and betting on shifter gladiators. Diana supposed it was better than some of the possible alternatives.

“Okay,” she said, bundling up the lab coat around its contents. With one of her arms nearly out of commission, she couldn’t carry any more than this. “Which way to Quinn?”

“You mean the way out of here, right?”

“Youcan leave. I’m not going without?—”

There was a sudden loud buzzing that reminded Diana of an office building fire alarm. A computerized female voice announced,“There has been a security breach. Please remain calm and stay in your assigned section.”

At the same time there was a series of loud clunking sounds that Diana recognized, an instant too late, as computerized locks slamming shut. She stopped her efforts to bundle up the coat and ran to the door. Yanking on it did nothing.

Farley looked horrified. “There must have been an alarm on your cage.”

“In that case it would have gone off when you let me out, not a few minutes later. This is something else.” Something Costa-related, Diana was almost positive. She looked around. There was another door on the far side of the lab, but she guessed before she tried it that it wouldn’t open.

“These doors must have some kind of emergency override, right?” There was a keypad next to the door. Diana examined it. Keys, a card swipe, and for good measure a biometric fingerprint reader. They really covered all their bases.

“Yeah, I’ve seen people using them,” Farley said. “I don’t know how it all works. I’m just the taxi driver.” He shuddered abruptly, an all-over shiver that seemed less to do with what he was talking about and more involuntary, and sat down weakly in a lab chair.

Diana could guess why. She felt feverish and shaky herself. On the bright side, her arm was coming back online, so she could use it a little more.

Absently, she buttoned up her borrowed lab coat as high as it would go so she was in less danger of flashing the world (well, flashing Farley) every time she moved. Then she began opening cabinets, looking in every one.

“What are you after?” Farley looked even worse, shaky and pale; Diana was no longer sure he would be able to stand up. If he couldn’t, he was on his own, she thought grimly.

“I don’t know. Something to open the door. Someone might’ve left a spare key card or something.”

The buzzer had cut out after the computer announced the emergency, but it came on again for a few staccato bursts, making her jump.“There is a security breach in progress,”the voice announced.“Please remain in place or proceed to the nearest secure location.”

“Was that gunshots I just heard?” Farley asked.

Diana paused in the act of rummaging through the cabinets. Standing still, she did hear some distant crackling that might have been fireworks—or gunfire muffled by several layers of security doors.

“Costa,” she murmured, “what on earth are you doing?”

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