Page 62 of Red Rabbit
“What is this bastard up to?” I muttered, looking at the cameras in a few more rooms. There were other people in various stages of surgery or being monitored.
I heard my name coming from one of the cameras. Kaelin brought it up on a bigger screen and there was Cooper as he stared into the security camera.
“I knew I should have killed you myself,” he said conversationally. “I know you have a radio. Talk to me Wolfman.” I knew Cooper would know it was me the minute shit went down but I didn’t care. He was right, he should have verified the kill.
“Distract him so I can finish shutting down the passages.”
“What do you want, Cooper?” I said into the radio.
“Well, your timing is impeccable. I came across some interesting information today,” he said, looking smugly into the camera. “Do you know who the girl actually is?”
I looked at Kaelin. She didn’t look at me but her brow furrowed.
“Fuck,” she muttered. “He’s put some safeguards on some of these outer doors. It’s going to take me a minute.”
“What does he mean?” I asked her.
“She could be the key,” Cooper was saying. “I need her, Wolfe.”
“Kaelin—what is he talking about?” She looked at me briefly.
“My last name is Bennet,” she said. Like that would mean anything to me. At my blank stare she sighed. “I’m the CTO of Phox.”
Cooper was speaking again.
“She can help me finish what I’ve started here. As you’ve probably seen on the cameras already, the Warren is just a front. I’m developing something big here man.”
“The military tech company?” I asked and looked at her in a new light.
“That’s the one,” she said sarcastically and went back to what she was doing.
“Something that will make a better soldier—” Cooper was saying. “—make them strong both mentally and physically.”
“What the fuck?” Kaelin muttered under her breath. “He’s insane.”
“With this tech they can withstand adverse conditions, calculate distances, see heat signatures, all the bells and whistles,” Cooper continued. “They will also be able to withstand pain and psychological torture.” He paused then and I looked at his face on the screen. My stomach dropped. “Then something like what happened to us, and Trav, won’t happen to anyone else.”
And there it was. At his words the nightmares of my past flooded my thoughts.
My head hurt and when I tried to move, I found I couldn’t. I opened my eyes to see I was naked and tied to a chair. My legs were strapped to each leg and my arms were tied from wrist to elbow on the arm rests. Even my neck was secured so I couldn’t lean forward. I thrashed, trying to rock the chair.
“It’s bolted to the ground.”
I turned and saw Cooper staring at me. “I already tried.”
I looked to my other side and saw Trav. My blood ran cold. His head was still bowed on his chest, unconscious. Next to him were several other men from our unit tied in the same way.
I pulled myself from the flashback, feeling short of breath.
Kaelin looked at me out of the corner of her eye.
“What does he mean by that?” She asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were?” I asked instead.
“Graham—you didn’t want to talk, at all,” she said in exasperation and turned back to the computer. “This is why communication is so important.”
“Come on Wolfe. Give her to me. Better yet—join me. You know I can always use a man with your talents in my crew.”
