A chair had been placed in the center of the large room with one brighter light turned on above it. She was led there and Jericho nodded. “Have a seat.”
She sat, staring up at all three of them as they surrounded her. The mood was grim, their features were, too, and that uneasy feeling grew ten times worse inside Jeanie. She’d expected to be taken to an office or at least a real room with chairs, maybe a desk and a window. Instead she was in a dim, dank environment that left her wondering if anything lurked in the unseen corners. She hugged her waist and huddled in the seat as her gaze drifted to that darkness.
“What’s going on? What is this place? Why am I here?”
She heard a soft thump and turned her head. Two big men stepped out of the shadows to her left and drew closer. Movement from her right had her turning her head. 710’s blond hair almost glowed as he stepped into the circle of light. She couldn’t see his face but she knew it was him. A human stood next to him. Jeanie’s gaze lingered on 710 until a man in uniform stepped between them, blocking her view. He was human as well.
“New Species get upset when they hear women scream. This place has reinforced walls and sound is muted.”
“Easy, Chris.” Trey Roberts shot him a dirty look.
The implied threat slowly sank in and she swallowed, fear growing by leaps and bounds. “What?” She hoped she hadn’t heard right.
The human guy in the uniform who’d stood next to 710 approached and crouched, invading her space when his hands gripped the sides of her chair. He frowned.
“I’m Jordan.” The man was in his mid-thirties and had frosty gray eyes. “You’re lucky to be alive, Jeanie.”
She nodded. “I know.”
Her gaze darted to 710. He stood about eight feet behind the man crouching in front of her. His arms were crossed over his chest and his lowered chin kept his features concealed in the shadows. Jordan moved his head in a way that completely shielded 710 from her view.
“Eyes right here, Jeanie. Look at me.”
She did as he asked, staring into cold gray irises.
“What was on the mainframe computers at Cornas Research?”
She hesitated. “All the files on the experiments they were conducting.”
“You poured coffee into the computer.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Why?”
She licked dry lips, wishing for more water. “They installed poison gas dispensers inside every room that held New Species. I knew they’d kill them if I didn’t take out the computer. Anyone in Security could have accessed the program and activated it from their desk terminals.”
Jordan frowned. “We didn’t find any poison dispensers. Their security was lax, if anything.”
“Check the fire alarms in each of the rooms where the New Species were kept. I spoke with the guy who installed them. He thought he was really smart and no one would look there.” She swallowed. “I guess he was right if you didn’t find them. The only thing I could think of on short notice was to pour coffee on the mainframe computer and fry it. I couldn’t risk just unplugging it in case someone noticed. It had to be something they couldn’t fix in time. I thought about smashing it but it would have made too much noise. I probably could have opened the casing and removed parts if I’d had more warning but I wasn’t told the raid was going down until the night before. I couldn’t exactly clock back in at work that night or show up early for my shift. It would have raised suspicion. I only had about two minutes to take out the computer and get to the lower floors to deal with the card-reader locks. It still wasn’t enough time since I wasn’t able to disable them all.”
Jordan didn’t appear convinced. “How did you know we were coming?”
His question stumped her for a few seconds. She wondered if the agent she worked with had bent rules to warn her in the first place. It didn’t matter in the end though. She wasn’t going to lie to the NSO.
“I read the text around nine the night before, telling me to call in sick the next day. He didn’t outright say why but it was implied that Cornas would finally be raided just after the morning shift changed.”
Jordan blinked. “Who warned you?”
She frowned, concerned since he should already know that information. “Agent Terry Brice.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “You can call and verify that with him.”
“I see.” Jordan leaned in closer, staring deeply into her eyes. “Who is Agent Terry Brice?”
Jeanie gaped at him. “You don’t know the agent handling this case? I’ve been working with him since last year. He was assigned to help me close down Drackwood in New Mexico and now Cornas.” She shifted in her seat, peering around Jordan to get a look at 710. “Tell him. You were there, 710.”
Jordan rose to his feet and one of his hands gripped her chin, roughly jerking her head upward until their gazes locked. “Don’t ever directly address him. Do you understand me? I’m the one dealing with you.”
“Jordan.” Trey Roberts stepped forward. “Reel it back a little.”
“Keep out of this,” the guy spat. “I got this job because you’re too soft.”
“Fuck you.” Trey took another step closer. “I just don’t think the heavy-handed approach is necessary. I doubt Tim would either if he were here.”
“I was assigned to handle her interrogation and I’m in charge. Stop interfering.” He leaned in even closer, glaring at Jeanie. “I want answers, Ms. Shiver.”
Jordan’s hand hurt where it squeezed her jaw. “I understand. Please let go.” She reached up to grip his wrists with both hands in an attempt to free her face. The blanket she kept around her shoulders dropped to spill over the back of the chair and drape across her lap.
The one who’d threatened to make her scream grabbed her wrists, yanking her back in her seat until her spine pressed against the metal chair. She hadn’t seen or heard him come up behind her from the darkness. Pain stabbed through her wounded side at the sharp movements when her arms were held behind her. They didn’t handcuff her again but they weren’t needed with his tight grip. She twisted her head and stared at him. The uniform with NSO on it obviously meant he was another task force member.
“Eyes on me,” Jordan harshly demanded. “I’m in no mood for games, Ms. Shiver. I won’t play them.”
She looked at him, confused. “I—”
“That wasn’t a question. It was me laying down the law. Perhaps you don’t understand your situation so allow me to fill you in.” He bent, glaring at her. “Your ass belongs to the NSO now. You don’t get a lawyer, or a jury of your peers, or any legal rights. You’re going to truthfully answer my damn questions or I’m going to make you do it. One way is going to be painless but the alternative won’t be if I decide you’re lying.” He crouched, gripped her seat at the sides again to balance his weight, and got close to her face until they were eye level. “I don’t give a shit if you have breasts. You’re no better than a terrorist to me.”
Jeanie knew her mouth dropped open. A terrorist? What the hell was going on? She was too stunned to form words, probably a good thing since the man making threats looked as if he wanted to hit her.
“I like New Species. I call some of them my best friends.” He leaned even closer until she could identify the odor of mint on his breath. “Every day I’m willing to die in the line of duty to protect them.” He glanced down at her chest with a sneer before holding her gaze. “I’d like nothing better than to gut all the assholes who tormented them and treated them like shit. It pisses me off and makes me see red. That means I won’t hesitate to draw some blood if you don’t stop screwing with me. What the hell was on the mainframe computer that you were protecting?” He took a breath. “Answer me.”
“I was protecting the New Species. There really are gas dispensers hidden inside the fire alarms in all the cells.” Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. “Have someone check. They’ll find them. I don’t know what kind of poison they used but tell them
to be careful.”
One of his hands lifted and he gently cupped her side. His thumb pressed against her bandage, rubbing it through the gown. “Do you know how much it will hurt if I apply pressure? It will tear the wound open. I checked your chart and they removed the staples. Do you want to need them again?”
“Fuck, Jordan,” Trey Roberts grumbled. “Reel it back, damn it.”
“I said stay out of it, Trey. You don’t have this job because you have lines you won’t cross. The information is all that matters and we don’t have time to for your good-ole-boy charm to get it out of her. Either shut the hell up or I’ll have you escorted out. You’re not my team leader today and have no authority to tell me how to handle this situation.” He glowered at Jeanie. “Nobody is going to save you.”
“Oh my god.” She was terrified when it sank in that he somehow didn’t know what she’d done for the NSO. He treated her as if she were a criminal instead of an informant. He meant the threat. “You need to find Agent Terry Brice. I contacted the NSO last year when I was assigned to the lower floors at Drackwood and saw they had New Species there. I left a message and a phone number on the tip line I saw on the NSO website about any information anyone had about missing New Species or people being sought for crimes against them. The next day I got a call back from that agent.”
She was talking fast but fear motivated her toward babbling. They needed to believe her. “He flew in that night and I met him. I shared information and smuggled out evidence to help him get a warrant so the building could be searched.”
Jordan cocked his head. “Really? Tell me more.”
He wasn’t hurting her. That had to be a sign of getting through to him. “Agent Brice told me that was how I could help the most. He said they’d know I was telling them the truth and they could get their search warrant for the New Mexico facility if I gathered evidence. I finally got enough proof that he was able to get them freed. I did that at Cornas Research too. He sent me there.”
“How did he know about Cornas?”
“He had an informant already stationed inside but she was too afraid to smuggle out anything. I don’t know her name. He said he couldn’t tell me that because she’d be in danger. He worried I might accidentally blow her cover.”
“What kind of information and evidence did you give to this agent?”
“He wanted pictures but that was impossible. They take our purses and do a pat down when we go in and out of the building. They have a no-cell-phone policy so anything that could take pictures or record images was kept at the front desk where we had no access to it during our shifts. I’d sometimes stain my clothes with New Species blood I had drawn so I could give it to him for testing.” She relaxed a little. “Sometimes it would be saliva samples from one of New Species or hair samples. I also swiped some test pills, which I smuggled out by hiding them inside my bra.”
“Hair?”
“Yes. I’d cut a lock of hair from somewhere it wouldn’t be noticed. It was difficult to do but occasionally they’d have an injured one drugged unconscious so I could get close enough to them when we were left alone. I wore my hair in a ponytail a lot. It was easy to tuck some of their hair in with mine if it closely resembled my color. The guards never checked that. They’d just run a scanner over my head.”
“So you’d sneak up on some knocked-out bastard and defile his body?”
Jeanie wasn’t sure how to answer that. It sounded awful when he put it that way. “Agent Brice said they could do DNA testing with blood and saliva. Hair samples can be used to test for drugs and chemicals. He needed those to prove New Species were there. I never hurt any of them. Ever. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Fuck,” Chris swore from behind her, his hold tightening on her wrists. “Do we even want to ask where she took it from? You sick bitch. Were you molesting them too when they couldn’t fight back?”
Jeanie twisted her head, staring up at him, aghast. “No! I took it from their heads near the base of their skulls. What is wrong with you? I said I tucked it in with my own hair. Ewww! I didn’t take pubic hair. New Species don’t even have any.”
Jordan gripped her jaw again and painfully jerked her head to face him. His fingers dug into her skin enough to make her cry out. “Shut it, Chris. How do you know that, Ms. Shiver?”
She glared at him, beyond fear. “You’re hurting me.”
“Too damn bad. Answer the question. How do you know they don’t have pubes if you weren’t molesting New Species?”
“Everyone knew that. They also have fanglike teeth and some calluses on their palms and fingertips.”
“You can see that with their clothes on.”
“I was in and out of the treatment center where they kept some of the injured New Species. I’ve tended to them and changed bedding when they were heavily drugged. I didn’t molest them or do anything sick. I wouldn’t be here if I had. They would have killed me.”
“Not if they were drugged.”
She jerked her face out of his hold but the man behind her kept her immobile in the chair from the shoulders down. “They’d have smelled me on them when they woke up if I touched them wrong. I’m not stupid.”
She tried to calm down but it really pushed her buttons, being accused of the hideous things they’d implied. “Do you know what I could do to you right now if I were a New Species and you were this close to me?” She clenched her teeth and took a calming breath. “I could bite into your mouth and tear your lips off or butt you with my forehead and break bones. I was this close to them all the time when I had to take samples. None of them hurt me because they realized I would never hurt them. I gave them my trust and they gave me theirs in return. They knew I cared.”
A vicious snarl echoed around the room, making it impossible for her to tell from which direction it came. She figured it out fast, though, when Jordan was shoved out of the way and 710 took his place. His dark-mahogany irises were clearly visible in the harsh overhead light when he crouched, staring at her. Anger lines around his mouth clued her in to his bad mood.
“You admit you worked to gain our trust to use against us?”
“Let me handle this.” Jordan gripped 710’s shoulder. “I’ll deal with her.”
710 bared his canines and growled. “Back off. She’s mine.”
Jordan released him, taking a step to the side. “Okay.”
Jeanie frowned. “I never used anything against you.”
“Why gain our trust? Why make us feel as if you cared?”
“I wanted you to know I was in your corner. I couldn’t exactly say I was there trying to get you free. There were cameras everywhere and if I ever whispered that fact to you, what if you let it slip to the guards in anger or told another New Species to give them hope? I couldn’t risk it. Our lives were at stake.”
“We need to find out what was on that mainframe,” Jordan stated. “Focus on that.”
“Shut up, Jordan,” 710 snapped. “Don’t interfere.” He leaned in closer. “Do you want to spill my blood now?” His gaze dipped to her lips and he revealed his sharp canines again. “Do you need a reminder of who has the worse bite?”
It wounded Jeanie’s feelings, seeing 710’s bitterness. “You would win.” She didn’t think he’d use his teeth on her though. He could have while he was chained at Drackwood if the urge had ever surfaced. “I don’t want your blood, 710. I never did.”
“What was the purpose of gaining our trust?”
“I told you.”
“What did Polanitis hope to gain? What kind of information were you trying to get from us? What was the angle?”
“There was none. I just wanted you to have hope and not give up in that hell. I wanted that for all of you. I was fighting for you whether you knew it or not.”
“Are there backup files of the ones you destroyed?”
“I don’t know.” She slumped in her seat, disheartened by his lack of confidence in her word. “That was way above my paygrade. I only fried the computer to keep
the New Species alive until the SWAT team arrived.” She peered into his beautiful eyes. “I’m telling you the truth. I was working with Agent Terry Brice. You need to call him and clear this up. I was working with the NSO this entire time.”
The team member still holding her wrists snorted. “Lady, stop now while you’re ahead. You’re digging a bigger hole to get buried in.”
She didn’t bother to glance at him, instead keeping her focus on 710. He rose to his feet and backed away. “Take over, Jordan. I don’t want to lose my temper and I’m about to.”
Jeanie wanted to wake from the nightmare but it wasn’t a bad dream. 710 thought the worst of her and it didn’t matter that it would be cleared up in time. Agent Brice would hear about her arrest and show up to set things right. It still hurt. The task force team member crouched down in front of her again.
“Help us link Mercile Industries to Cornas Research or you’ll be sent to Fuller. The jerks who run it will make you wish you’d cooperated with us. They aren’t much nicer to prisoners there than your coworkers treated New Species. You’ll be locked inside a six-by-five cell with bars for walls. You’ll never see daylight again or know a moment of privacy. They don’t even have windows there.”
Hot tears threatened but she refused to cry. “What is Fuller?”
“It’s a prison for criminals who commit crimes against New Species. It will make regular prison seem like a vacation in the Bahamas. You’ll never get out of there until you’re in a body bag on the way to the funeral home of your family’s choice. No court dates, no parole, and no visits from anyone.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his cold eyes. “No phone calls. No contact with the outside world. No television, radio, or internet. You’ll spend the rest of your damn life suffering as New Species suffered. Play ball with me by giving up all the information I want or you’re on the next transport there.”
“Call Agent Terry Brice. Please? He’ll tell you who I am and this will be cleared up. His number is—”
He cupped her side again, his thumb pressing against her wound enough to make her cry out. “There is no damn Agent Brice. Stop fucking with me.”