Page 30 of Black Bay Protector
“Like Grady.”
Lark looked to Paige who had spoken. “Yes.”
“Who arethey?” Jace asked. “The government?” Doctor Dietrich’s experiment had been privately funded and the government had shut her down once they’d learned what she was doing.
“It’s not an official government program, but as far as I can tell, they are funding it, yes.”
“And Grady volunteered for this?” Paige asked only to immediately shake her head. “No. He wouldn’t have.”
Lark cleared her throat. “No. He didn’t. It seems certain soldiers were earmarked for the project based on their aptitude, skill sets, and proven performance in the field.”
Paige exploded out of her seat so fast, it rolled back several feet before banging into the wall. “Are you telling me that if these soldiers got injured in the field they were sent to these… these…butchers?!”
“You might want to sit back down,” the General interjected, his voice as gentle as Jace had ever heard it.
“Tell me!”
“Mercenaries were hired and the attacks were engineered to make it look like our boys were set upon by enemy combatants,” the General informed her, sympathy shining in his eyes. “Your brother, the other soldiers that this Doctor Jerome person cherry-picked from a list, they were all targeted.”
“By us?”
The General nodded once, his face harsh.
Paige’s hand dropped to her belly, a stricken look on a face that had gone pale with shock. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Grabbing the chair, Jace wheeled it back over to her and gently helped her into it. Looking up at him with glassy eyes, she murmured, “My brother loved this county. He fought for it, bled for it, and they betrayed him.”
Turning to the table, Jace poured her a glass of water from the pitcher that was there and handed it to her, making sure she had a firm grip before he released it. She didn’t drink, instead, she hugged the glass to her chest, her eyes growing cloudy as she became lost in thought. He hated seeing her like this. She’d been so strong and had taken hit after hit, but this one had cut her deep.
His heart hurt for her while the rest of him raged on her behalf. If he could, he’d kill every goddam one of the people behind this experiment and present her with their heads. But first, he had to find them.
“What else can you tell us?” he asked Lark.
“Well, all the soldiers they’ve modified have computer processors in their heads that work in tangent with their brains. It keeps the soldiers linked with each other, able to communicate over vast distances, but they’re also linked to a highly advanced system that feeds them their orders.”
“So, if we find this system, main computer, whatever, and destroy it, they’re free?”
“Possible,” Lark said thoughtfully before twisting back around and clicking a few keys on the keyboard. “They’re programmed in such a way that they can’t deviate from orders, so it’s possible that destroying the central processor will have them stuck on whatever final order they were given, unable to function after. There’s no way to know without having one of them here to test. But…” She held up a finger. “What you told the General about her brother and how he reacted to seeing her,” she nodded her head toward Paige who was still hugging her water glass and staring off into space. “Gives me hope I’m wrong.”
“He glitched,” Jace confirmed.
Lark nodded. “If I had to guess, I’d say he questioned an order – most likely an order to terminate her – and his processor shut down, needing to reboot to bring him back in line.”
“Makes sense,” the General added thoughtfully.
“He didn’t know me,” Paige mumbled. “He looked right through me.”
Lark’s finger went back up. “I have an answer for that.” Using her mouse, she clicked on a folder. “After having problems early on with the soldiers rejecting the upgrades, they turned to memory manipulation. Basically, they wiped the soldiers’ minds so that the programming took precedence.” Lark looked pointedly at Paige. “But it didn’t work fully. Some part of him remembered you, he had to have or you’d be dead. He refused an order and the programming shut him down.”
“We need to raid that facility, destroy that central computer, and get her brother out of there.”
“Now, just hold on,” the General cautioned. “We’re not going to go off half-cocked here.”
“The General’s right,” Lark chimed in. “According to these files, the soldiersandthe main system that controls them aren’t kept at that medical facility where you found Doctor Dietrich. They’re offsite, but I haven’t been able to find the location yet.” She waved at the screen and the files displayed. “There’s no address listed anywhere I could find, but I’ll keep digging.”
“First, I need to make some calls,” the General pointed out. “Andifwe get the go-ahead, we need a solid plan in place before I send my men to face these upgrades. We need a location, schematics, an idea of what we’re up against, and an extraction plan. Look at what just one of them did to you,” the General added, motioning to Jace’s arm despite it being fully healed.
Shit. Jace wished he had some argument for that, but he didn’t. It had taken mere minutes for Paige’s brother to disable him to the point of unconsciousness. If they went up against an entire platoon there was no telling what kind of carnage could be wrought. But there was no if about it. He would, at the very least, get Paige’s brother out of there. No matter what it took. Even if he had to go in alone. He just had to figure out how…
