Page 63 of Anders
After what felt like an eternity of crawling through the cramped space, she felt rather than saw a change in the air—a freshness that suggested proximity to the outside world.
The passage widened slightly, ending in a grate that opened onto what appeared to be a loading dock.
She paused at the grate, gazing out through the slats.
A scent drifted past her nose—pine and ozone, like the air before a storm.It triggered another memory, this one so vivid she almost gasped.
A man in a white coat leaning over her, the smell of pine aftershave mixing with antiseptic.Subject is responding well to the latest formula,he said into a recorder.Memory suppression is holding at ninety-seven percent efficacy.Trigger phrases continue to provoke desired documentation behaviors.
Another voice, female:And the others?
Group C is ready for field placement.We’ve selected target communities based on strategic value.The Sunburst Pack will be our first test case—they’ve been fractured by internal politics for years.Perfect conditions for intelligence gathering without detection.
And if the assets are detected?
A cold smile.The kill switch is in place, along with the neural uplink.We lose the asset, but the program remains secure.It’s under the Epsilon Protocol.
The Epsilon Protocol.She’d seen the words before.
Not just a plan to deal with theassets.A kill switch—connected to the device embedded in her nervous system.
It was all she could do to keep from vomiting at the thought.
Once again peering through the slats, Etta assessed the situation outside the tunnel.Two guards patrolled the area, though their attention seemed focused outward rather than on the maintenance access.Beyond them, she could see a perimeter fence, and beyond that, the dark outline of pine trees against the night sky.
Freedom was so close she could taste it.
Etta waited, timing the guards’ patrol pattern.When they had moved to opposite ends of the loading dock, she quietly removed the grate and slipped through, staying low and using the shadows for cover.
The cool night air hit her skin, washing away the sterile smell of the facility.
Her wolf stirred in response, sensing the proximity of the natural world, pushing for the final transformation that would give her the speed and stealth she needed to escape completely.
But the device at her neck pulsed in warning, sending a sharp stab of pain through her skull.A full shift might not be possible yet—not with the neural interface still active.
She would have to rely on her partially shifted form and her wits.
Etta calculated the distance to the fence, analyzing possible approaches.The loading dock connected to a service road that led to a gate in the perimeter fence.That gate would be guarded, monitored.
Too risky.
But the fence itself… Her enhanced vision picked out the security measures.Electrified wires at the top, probably motion sensors along its length.Formidable for humans, perhaps, but not necessarily insurmountable for someone with her abilities.
If she could just reach it without being seen.
She slipped from shadow to shadow, using every bit of stealth training she had absorbed during her time as an unwitting spy.
The perimeter fence loomed before her, twelve feet of chain link topped with razor wire.Beyond it, the dark mass of forest offered the promise of concealment, of freedom.
The device at her neck pulsed again, stronger this time, as if sensing her proximity to escape.Pain lanced down her spine, momentarily buckling her knees.
No, she thought fiercely.You don’t control me anymore.
Drawing on reserves of strength she hadn’t known she possessed, Etta pushed through the pain, her muscles bunching as she prepared to make her final dash to the fence.
A shout from behind her shattered the moment.There!By the east fence!
Floodlights blazed to life, illuminating the area in harsh white light.Etta squinted against the sudden brightness, her enhanced vision momentarily overwhelmed.
