Page 7 of Black Bay Protector
Doctor Anne Dietrich pushed through the doors of the Research and Development labs. She’d been awoken from a sound sleep not long ago and had hustled here, but no one looking at her would know that. Her black skirt suit was immaculate, and exquisitely tailored to fit her petite frame. The vividly white blouse underneath was crisply pressed. Her salt and pepper hair was in its usual bun at her nape without a strand out of place and her make-up was minimalistic but artfully applied.
Her low-heeled black pumps clicked across the tile, marking her approach, and a stainless-steel travel mug of Starbucks’ Breakfast Blend was gripped in her hand.
She was also thoroughly annoyed, but since resting bitch face was her default setting, no one would guess that by looking at her either.
Security was on hand, as were a few of the overnight technicians. What surprised her was that Doctor Craig Jerome had beaten her here – not that she’d ever give him the satisfaction of seeing proof of that surprise on her face – he was not the get-up-and-get-‘em sort despite him being the supposed genius mind behind their current program. Cyborgs. What a joke. This was not her dream, yet here she was.
The deal had kept her out of a federal prison at least.
She’d been so close! The fact that she’d been almost to the finish line, had practically been able to taste the victory of what she’d created only to have that dream snuffed out by greed, was a bitter pill to swallow. One of the shareholders that supported her research had gotten impatient, hadn’t wanted to wait the few more years for her subjects to fully mature, and in a colossally stupid move, had reached out to some of his global contacts and informed them of what they’d been working on. Among his list were people in China and North Korea of all places!Moron. The US government had gotten wind of the communication and in less than twenty-four hours her facility had been raided, her and her people had been arrested, and her experiments stolen from her. If it weren’t for her own contacts in some very high places, she’d be rotting in a cell somewhere – just like the greedy bastard who’d gotten them into this mess.
Instead, the government had cut her a deal and put her to work on some of their pet projects. She’d been bounced around for a while, the government keeping a close eye on her before they’d finally transferred her here to work with Doctor Blow Hard on his Frankenstein project.
Why did no one understand her vision? Why did no one see? She was going to eliminate the worry, stress, and grief of sending soldiers off to war. This didn’t do that. This program, as it currently stood, didn’t alleviateanyof that. All they were doing was making better killers, but these killers still had families to miss them and mourn them. Or, at least they did before…
“What happened?” she asked as she joined the group that was clustered around the computer monitors.
One of the techs swiveled around in his chair. “We had an intruder Doctor Dietrich. This guy didn’t trip any of the alarms and managed to avoid all of our security cameras and patrols. The only reason we discovered him was because of that new security protocol you insisted on being placed on sensitive files. We got the alert that a bunch of them were being copied.”
She shot a speaking, and rather smug look, at Doctor Jerome who had called her paranoid when she’d insisted on the extra electronic security before turning her attention back to the technician.
“You were able to capture the intruder?”
“No ma’am. The team pursued and we had feedback that they had him, but when they didn’t report back and failed to respond to hails, we accessed their body cam footage.” The tech swallowed hard, looking a bit queasy. “They’re dead. The guy killed them.”
“Show me.” Anne took a sip of her coffee as the tech cued up the video. The shakiness of the footage was annoying but she watched as the guards broke down the door to an apartment. There was a woman there, her hands raised above her head.
“Interesting,” Doctor Jerome drawled, and she glanced at him quickly in confusion. What was so interesting to him she had no idea, but the next moment was certainly interesting to her. A thrill of what could only be called joy raced through her as she caught sight of the male that had just saved the woman from being shot before he attacked the guards. Despite the years that had passed and the added maturity of his features, she would know that face anywhere. Subject 5402J4C3. Genetically modified with DNA from Panthera onca – among a host of other species to a lesser degree – he moved through those armed security guards like a hot knife through butter. Just like she’d always known he would. He was beautiful, extraordinary, and hers.
“Tell me you got a tracker on him,” she demanded, nearly breathless with excitement. To have one of her specimens back…
“Did he take the woman with him?”
Anne looked askance at Doctor Jerome who’d asked that nonsensical question. “Why do you care?”
“She’s an employee of this facility,” was his response. Anne nearly snorted. Like he gave two shits about some random employee. But there was something in his eyes. Hmmm…
“One of the guards on the first team confirmed they did, ma’am.” The tech cleared his throat, his eyes moving from Doctor Jerome back to her. “Plant a tracker,” he added for clarification. “Just before we lost contact.” His eyes swung back to Jerome. “And team two confirmed the woman was in the van with him when he got away.”
Some rapid-fire clicking on the keyboard and the tech brought a map on the screen with a flashing red dot that was currently moving. “There he is.”
“Activate the Commander,” Doctor Jerome ordered. “I think this would be an excellent field test.”
The Commander, Anne mentally sneered. She hated that Craig insisted on naming his experiments even if it was by their rank. Names made it personal. Names made the specimen aperson. Made them someone to mourn, someone to miss if they were lost.
“I want a full team deployed,” Anne countered. “This is too important.”
Doctor Jerome raised a brow. “This guy is one of your old experiments?”
When she nodded sharply in confirmation, he added, “I believe you said they would take the place of ten regular soldiers in the field. Well,mycreations will take the place of twenty.” Looking away from her, he repeated his order. “Send the Commander. Solo mission but for a driver.” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Let’s see what he does.”
“Capture only,” Anne stressed before turning a glare on the arrogant ass she’d been forced to work with. “You better hope you’re right. If we lose my specimen through your arrogance I will make your life a living hell.”
It was not an empty threat.
Chapter Four
Paigeattemptedtostiflea yawn only to be hit by another immediately after. The emotional roller coaster of the night was catching up to her. The fear, the adrenaline drain, added to her lack of sleep left her so exhausted she was queasy with it. She was also battered and bruised. Things she hadn’t noticed because she’d been too busy running for her life were now making themselves known. Her thigh still hurt from where she’d been hit, the heels of her hands were abraded by the carpet from when Jace had tackled her to the floor, saving her from being shot, her feet and knees stung from the shards of glass and would need to be cleaned as soon as possible, and her shoulder ached from when she’d been thrown into the van – again being saved from a bullet.
