Page 44 of Turn the Tide
“The fuck y’all doin’ out here?” Von snapped. Jesus, when he talked like that, Eric remembered exactly why they called him the Reaper.
“N-n-n-nothing.”
“Don’t bullshit me, asshole. I want numbers, locations, and the exact nature of this mission, or—”
“Or what?” The guy tried to bluff.
Without hesitation, Von’s hand went low andsqueezed. Jesus Christ, the guy might never recover. Eric’s balls climbed up inside him in sympathy, and he stepped back when the asshole fell to the floor, heaving.
Von turned to the group. “While our friend here recovers, who’s ready to talk?” He took a threatening step forward.
“I will!” one of the prisoners yelled. “I’ll tell you what I know!”
Ans bent and hauled the man up to standing. He was a fucking cowboy, in snakeskin boots and a bolo tie. A ten-gallon hat glowed like a radioactive-green cow patty a few feet away.
“Who are you?” Von took up the questioning again, keeping the rest of their team an unknown, intimidating in its mystery.
“Dr. Abram Carter. I’m a petroleum geologist. Had nothin’ to do with yesterday’s hanky-panky.”
Hanky-panky?Eric shifted forward while the man droned on, not knowing exactly what he planned to do, besides cut the asshole’s nuts off. For being a part of this shitstorm and minimizing what they’d done to Zoe.
Von stopped Eric with a hand signal.Shit.
He stepped back, breathing hard. He’d never been this involved in a mission before, never felt the need to kill like it waspersonal.
“Now, what’s a geologist doin’ out here?”
The man hesitated and looked around before focusing back at Von. He swallowed, tried to talk, cleared his throat, and went again. “Research.”
“Researching what?” Somehow, Von managed to convey impatience without changing his actual tone. When the guy didn’t immediately respond, he stepped closer to the man. “You’re useless to me if you can’t give me more than that. In fact, I’ll—”
“Wait! Wait wait wait!” The geologist’s voice was high, frantic.Here we go. “We hoped to find something. In the well. Under it.”
Eric waited, breath held. “Something?”
“Look, I’m a geologist, not a—” The man cut himself off and turned to look at one of the dark, silent forms on the floor. “I’m just here to make sure they hit the right stratum.”
“What about the other scientist?” Zoe interrupted. “What’s she here for?”
On the floor, the woman stiffened.
After a long pause, the man spoke hurriedly. “Emily’s a geologist, like me. Look, we don’t know anything. They’ve kept us both in the dark about—”
Von moved, putting his bulk almost intimately close to the man. “Talk. Now.”
After a few audible breaths, he complied. “Shit. Okay. It’s a big deal. Major scientific breakthrough.” He shook as he spoke and looked blindly around. “Medical. They say.”
“Who hired you?”
“Fuck, man. I’ll lose my job if I—”
“I’ll squeeze your fucking balls till they pop,” Von whispered in the man’s ear, but every word was audible in the absolute silence. And there wasn’t a man in the room who didn’t feel it.
“Chronos.Chronos Corp.’s bankrolling this whole thing.” He swallowed, then talked as if nothing could get him to stop. “They’ve sent out a fleet of researchers. Hired more ex-military contractors than I’ve ever seen in one place outside of the, well, the military. Told us to stop everything else. This is it. The next big thing.”
“And you’ve found it? Whatever they’re looking for?” Zoe broke in, her voice cutting through the dark. “Here?”
“No.” The man shook his head, begging. “I swear to God, man. They’ve got teams across the world looking for this…thing. We’re leaving today, and then we’re—” He swallowed, looking sick to his stomach. “Shit. You’ve got to let us off this rig.”
