Retribution (SSU Trilogy Book 3) (The Surgical Strike Unit) (31 page)

Kaufmann tapped his foot. He had to get her cooperation by tomorrow, or he’d never be able to implement the changes to his formula before Jamieson’s deadline. His latest batch of men was scheduled to go to Kerberos in one week. The President’s demonstration was in three weeks.

Unfortunately, Kaufmann didn’t have any fresher subjects to send to Kerberos. He had a few men who, like the current subjects serving with Kerberos, had already been at Level 1 for a little over three weeks. Even under this new, accelerated regimen four weeks was the longest a subject remained at Level 1, where the mind control was strongest. In three weeks, the men would be entering Level 3 with its uncontrollable rages.

Kaufmann had managed to slow most of the physical deterioration, delaying full body breakdown until the eighth week. But the subjects’ mental deterioration was more rapid than before. They experienced increasingly violent rages as the mind control eased, lashing out at anyone within reach. Including their controllers.

No, worse than that. The subjects
targeted
their controllers.

Kaufmann pressed his palm over the stabbing pain in his lower abdomen. When the mind control was in effect, disobedience was met by excruciating headaches that disabled a man. But just last week, one of the subjects had beat his controller to death, his extraordinary strength making it impossible to contain him. When even tranquilizers hadn’t slowed him down, the guards had been forced to kill him.

If Jamieson sent the current, unstable team to the anniversary demonstration there was a strong possibility one or more of the men would break free of their handlers and go on a rampage. Then Kaufmann could kiss his career good-bye. He’d worked too many years to fail now.

Which meant he needed to force Dr. Montague today to reveal how she’d countered the mind control and rage in Rafe Andros. Kaufmann had just enough time to rework the formula, inject it into his current subjects, and send them to Jamieson in hopes the changes would make the men more stable.

Unfortunately, the scientists in charge of her torture believed Dr. Montague had reached her physical limit. If they hurt her any more, they couldn’t guarantee her mind wouldn’t snap.

So Kaufmann had to try another way.

He pressed the intercom button to the left of the cell door. “Has Cygan returned?” he demanded of his assistant.

“He’s just entered the compound, sir.”

“Good. Have him meet me in the Sector 3 interrogation room.”

T
he sound of a metal door sliding open roused Gabby from her stupor. When she’d woken up after the last torture session, she’d found herself shackled to the cold rock wall in this cell with her arms over her head and her legs slightly spread.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor, silencing the moans and cries from the other prisoners. When she heard the rattle of a key in her cell door, Gabby raised her head and squinted against the faint light coming in through the bars. Even that small motion made her senses spin. She didn’t remember when she’d last eaten. Couldn’t imagine ever wanting food, or even water, again after the poisons had turned her insides into a writhing, biting mass of agony. But she knew Kaufmann needed her clear-headed. So she suspected they’d been giving her intravenous sustenance while she was passed out.

How had Rafe found the strength to survive? How had any part of his sanity remained? She was lucky, Kaufmann didn’t want to break her mind. And he couldn’t give her the mind control drugs because interfering with her independent thinking would defeat the purpose of having her able to manipulate the formula to achieve the results he wanted. She couldn’t imagine how much worse it had been for Rafe to have his will taken away and be forced to kill his teammates. Yet he’d not only survived, he hadn’t lost his ability to laugh. To love.

Gabby clung to the memory of that last night with Rafe as she braced herself for more pain. So far her torturers had been careful not to damage her eyes or hurt her so badly she couldn’t work. Still, Gabby didn’t know how much more pain she could take before her mind broke. She swallowed thickly, hearing the echoes of her screams in her mind. Feeling the throbbing on her back, belly and thighs from where strips of skin had been torn or burned off. The thin hospital gown she wore did nothing to protect her from the chill that seeped out of the rock behind her, but at least the cold numbed the pain, making it almost bearable.

The door opened and Kaufmann stepped into the cell. He regarded her with the intensity of a man determined to crack a particularly difficult puzzle. “You have proven to be much more resistant to pain than I expected, Dr. Montague. My deadline looms near and we are no closer to a resolution.”

Gabby held her breath, knowing he would make her pay for interfering with his plans.

“So I have decided to try another method of persuasion.” He crooked a finger over his shoulder, and one of the security guards entered, dragging a kicking, twisting, gagged young boy no more than ten or eleven years old.

Oh, no.

The weight of defeat threatened to smother Gabby as the boy was brought further into the cell. The poor child was little more than skin and bones, and in desperate need of a wash. His clothes were stiff with dried mud and other unidentifiable substances. His hair was a brown rat’s nest. His eyes, wide with fright and pain, pleaded with her for help. Gabby saw the unmistakable bulge of a collarbone out of place and wanted to strangle the guard with her bare hands.

Where had Kaufmann found the boy? He didn’t allow children at the compound.

A female scientist stepped into the cell holding a syringe in her left hand. At her nod, the guard raised the boy’s arm and pushed back his sleeve.

“No!” Gabby had barely survived the poisons. They’d kill a child. She swallowed against a lump of bitterness, aware that everyone in the cell watched her with anticipation. They knew what her response would be. What any decent human being’s response would be.

“Don’t hurt him,” she said, forcing the words through vocal chords shredded from screaming.

“This boy is a trespasser,” Kaufmann told her. “We found him living like an animal in the woods. Why shouldn’t we test our poisons on him? Think of all the knowledge we can gain.”

“Leave him alone and I’ll help you.” Defeat left a sour taste in her mouth. The boy’s eyes flared briefly with hope, then settled into a watchful wariness.

Kaufmann gave a tight, satisfied smile. “You agree to share your knowledge of Dr. Nevsky’s formula, and the work you did with Rafe Andros, to help me strengthen the mind control of my subjects?”

Gabby nodded. “Yes.”

“If you fail, if any changes you make do not deliver results, the boy will be given the exact same dosages of poison that you received.”

Gabby’s stomach turned over, knowing she was truly trapped. There was no way she could allow that boy to suffer. “I understand.”

“Good.” Kaufmann waved at the guard. “Take the boy away.”

“No,” Gabby protested. “I want him with me, where I can watch over him. Because if you go back on your word and hurt him, then I won’t give you what you need.”

Kaufmann’s mouth flattened into a cruel line.

Gabby notched her chin up and met his eyes with all the determination she could muster.

“Very well,” Kaufmann said with quiet menace. “Cygan, call some of your men to escort Dr. Montague to Lab 1. You will accompany them with the boy.”

Kaufmann stepped closer to Gabby. “You will begin work now,” he said. “I want results by the end of tomorrow or first the boy, then you, will suffer far beyond what you’ve already experienced.”

He turned and stalked from the cell, followed by the female scientist.

Gabby let out the breath she’d been holding, but otherwise kept her relief from showing. One day. If she could stall that long, maybe a miracle would happen and she’d find some way to escape.

The guards freed Gabby from the chains, then handcuffed her and shoved her after Kaufmann. Unable to stop herself, she peered into the other cells as she stumbled down the corridor. The weak illumination from the walkway lights allowed her to see the men chained to the rough stone walls. They were naked. Many had oozing burns and bleeding cuts crisscrossing their bodies.

Some of the men appeared to be unconscious, or asleep. Others writhed in pain. As Gabby and her guards walked past one cell, the man lunged forward against his chains. Face contorted in rage, he snarled and snapped at the passing group.

Even though there was no way he could reach her, Gabby sidestepped. The guard to her right laughed and shoved her closer to the cell. The other guard grunted something uncomplimentary, grabbed Gabby’s arm, and pulled her toward the end of the corridor.

Keeping her eyes straight ahead, Gabby didn’t take a deep breath again until the door to the cellblock closed behind her. God. Her heart ached. No wonder Rafe had been such a vicious beast when they’d brought him in.

And she understood so much better why Rafe had insisted she see him as the strong man he’d been before his captivity, not the battered, maddened prisoner.

“If you fail me,” Kaufmann said conversationally from up ahead, “after we’ve tortured the boy, we’ll bring him into our program.”

Gabby glanced over her shoulder. The boy’s terrified gaze was fixed on Kaufmann. Gabby slowed her pace until he caught up with her. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

The boy was so scared, she wasn’t certain he believed her. “I’m Gabby,” she offered, hoping to show him she wasn’t a threat. “What’s your name?”

“W-William,” he stammered.

“Remember, Dr. Montague,” Kaufmann called back to her. “If you fail me, I will turn you over to my subjects. Who knows what they’ll do to you before you die.”

Gabby suppressed a shudder, not wanting her terror to make William more afraid.

No matter what happened, she had to keep the boy safe. If that meant going along with Kaufmann, she’d give him what he wanted.

For now.

Chapter 26

“I
don’t have a photographic memory!” Gabby snapped at Kaufmann three hours later. The stimulant from the energy drink they’d forced her to down had long since faded, leaving her dizzy with pain and fatigue.

Kaufmann only added to her anxiety by checking in with her every hour. “I’m doing the best I can. It took me weeks to figure out how to counteract what you’d done to Rafe, and that was with Nevsky’s data to work with,” she told him. “I didn’t memorize his notes, and even if I had, you’ve changed your formula since you used it on Rafe.”

Kaufmann’s eyes narrowed. Gabby knew she was pushing her luck by talking that way, but dammit, his expectations were unreasonable. Even if she’d been on board with his goal she would need more time than he’d given her and access to her research back at the SSU.

Why he thought it possible to coerce her into producing the results he needed was beyond her. She was beginning to think the man was slightly crazy. The changes she’d noticed in this version of his formula didn’t make sense. It contained fewer components that opened the mind to exterior control, yet he claimed that better mind control was his primary goal.

She glanced to the other side of the room where William was chained like a wild animal. The boy had confessed that he’d run away over a week ago during a family camping trip in the nearby state forest. He’d quickly gotten lost and had been trying to find his way home when Kaufmann’s men caught him. A little while ago the poor thing had dozed off, but he’d jerked awake when Kaufmann entered and now huddled fearfully in the corner.

“If you can’t remember the formulas you need,” Kaufmann said, “then I’ll bring in the hypno—”

An alarm blared and the two-way radio carried by the guard at the door squawked. The man engaged the speaker and listened to what was being said, his expression growing grimmer by the second. When he was done, he turned to Kaufmann. “Sir, there’s been a breach of security.”

Gabby’s heart soared. Rafe!

“Details,” Kaufmann demanded.

“One of the exterior guards was found dead, and the security system has been disabled.” The guard drew his gun and aimed it at Gabby.

Kaufmann dragged a spare lab coat off the rack by the door, laid it on the floor, then swept Gabby’s notes into the center. “Tie it up in a bundle,” he ordered.

She opened her mouth to refuse, but then Kaufmann shifted, letting her see the gun he had aimed at William. Meeting the boy’s terrified brown eyes with a nod of encouragement, Gabby slipped the capped syringe in her hand into her coat pocket, then knelt down. She took her time tying the coat into a manageable pack.

Kaufmann probably had an escape route, but if Gabby had anything to say about it, she and William would make their own escape. And she was going to take these notes with her.

“Time to go,” Kaufmann said.

“Corridor is clear,” the guard announced.

“Good.” Kaufmann motioned Gabby to her feet.

She shook her head and reached out toward William. “Unchain him.”

Kaufmann grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the door. “We don’t need him. Move.”

“No!” She wasn’t leaving this defenseless child to huddle terrified and alone until rescuers arrived. She planted her feet and Kaufmann ran into her.

“Fool,” he hissed. “Do you think I’ll delay our escape because you want the boy with us?” Kaufmann’s gun hand moved too quickly for Gabby to stop him. He fired toward the corner.

William’s body went stiff as the shot entered his chest. The guard put a second bullet in the boy’s head and William slumped forward. Gabby screamed and turned on Kaufmann, hand raised to strike.

Kaufmann shoved the hot barrel of his gun under her chin and Gabby froze. The pain of her skin burning had the odd effect of calming her down. William was dead. She couldn’t help him. Her job was to get out of here alive.

Her arm fell to her side. Kaufmann stared into her eyes. What she saw there terrified her. Mad resolve. Cold calculation. No remorse for having taken a child’s life.

“Cuff her,” Kaufmann ordered.

The security guard tightened a pair of flexicuffs around her wrists.