Subject Seven (29 page)

“Oh yes.” She leaned back in her seat and steepled her fingers in front of her lips. “So, when do you think you can be ready?”

Rafael smiled. “Say the word. We can be ready to move in half an hour.”

“Perfect.”

Rafael left to collect his team, six members strong and combat ready. They had the best training available, the best weapons and every advantage over their targets.

A moment later and George looked at her with a stony expression.

“Say it, George. Now is hardly the time to get quiet with your opinions.”

“It just seems, well, like it might be overkill.”

“Do you think so?” There it was, the flutter in her stomach, the nerves telling her that she was making a mistake. She crushed the feelings down into the darkness where her soul was hiding.

When she spoke again, her voice was as calm as ever. “None of those . . . things out there should be alive. I want them back here where I can have them dissected, or I want them dead.”

George rose from his seat without another word. Maybe that was for the best.

Evelyn should have been ecstatic. She was finally going to have Subject Seven delivered back to her, and if all went the way she wanted it to, his other self, her son Bobby, would be returned as well. She would have her family again and she would lock away the animal that killed her husband.

So why then did she feel the flutters of fear deep in her stomach? She had no answer for that, except that even after all this time, Subject Seven scared the hell out of her.

No one ever writes a book all alone. There are always influences. Among mine I have to acknowledge Robert Louis Stephenson, for reasons that will become obvious. Don't know who he is? Google away. I love to listen to music when I write and chief among the voices that helped me when I was writing SUBJECT SEVEN is the band DISTURBED, whose music and lyrics alike very heavily affected the end result of the book in your hands. Thanks for the help, fellas! Ben Schrank and Brianne Mulligan, both of whom have offered insights and feedback and been patient as saints with me, deserve great deals of gratitude and credit for every aspect of this book that turned out the right way. The parts that fall short are squarely on my shoulders.