Tekgrrl (17 page)

I felt tears run down my face. “Stop.”

“But first they…tinker with them,” Anyoska continued, as if she had to speak the whole horrible truth. “They’re not only brutal, they’re smart. They study each female’s genetics, the gifts of her species, and they modify her to suit their needs. They seek to produce the perfect warrior. Many females do not survive the process. The ones that do…well, the Vyqang take the needed reproductive matter and grow their new children in special incubation tubes. Then they either destroy the female or send her off to the slavers.” Anyoska shuddered. “I don’t know which is worse.”

As I stared at her in horror, the sound of a door opening could be heard, and the imprisoned females all around us starting shrieking. Someone slammed a metal club against one of the cages, clearly in warning.

A pale being, almost ghostly white except with a vaguely feline look to the eyes and nose, bent in front of our cage and opened its door. He reached in with one clawed hand and grabbed Anyoska, ripping her from my grasp. I screamed and clawed after her, only to be dragged out myself and made to stand. Another creature, this one green-furred, walked down a quickly assembling line of released women, inspecting them like cattle, grabbing and pawing but with a vaguely detached, mechanical air. When he was finished, he pointed to one side of the room or the other, clearly separating them for slaving or breeding, though I couldn’t tell which.

Anyoska didn’t make a sound, her eyes dead as he checked her over and then pointed for her to be dragged off to the right.

Then it was my turn. The green-furred creature grabbed me by the hair and inspected my tear-filled eyes, then squeezed my jaw open to inspect my teeth. It pulled my shirt up to expose my barely developed breasts, squeezed one. I stiffened. Frowning, it reached between my legs to cup my genitals. I whimpered. It turned and said something in a harsh language to its companion, who replied, then turned back to me.

“What are you?” it asked in broken Kalybrian. “Not Kalybri.”

I shook my head.

“What are you?” it repeated, harsher.

“Human,” I said, voice barely above a whisper.

The alien spoke in rushed tones to its companion, and the other handed over a small mechanical device from which a blue light radiated, and the first Vyqang pointed the light at me, running it up and down my body. The device beeped, and the alien looked down at the results. With a grunt, it pointed to the right. The other alien ushered me forward, where I clung to my foster sister and wept.

The women on the left side of the room were tossed back into their cages. The women on the right side were led out into a hallway where gunmetal grey walls gave way to a series of doors. One woman was pulled from the group and taken into the first room. We all stiffened as we heard screaming, and then the alien returned alone, slamming the door behind him. It was like that at each door, my sense of dread building with each shriek of a vanished female.

At the next door, the white alien reached out and grabbed Anyoska. I held tight to her, trying to pull her back, but the alien frowned at me and brought the butt of his gun down on my hand. I screamed in pain and fear, but released her, and my sister was led into a room to disappear. No scream emerged.

I was dragged into the following room. It held nothing but a bunch of machines and a long flat steel table with all sorts of horrible-looking technology surrounding it, needles and knives and the like. I suddenly knew what we had been chosen for.

I fought for all I was worth, screaming, biting and kicking as the alien dragged me over to the table. I felt a sharp pain in my neck and then the world slid into blackness.

I couldn’t figure out where that strange humming noise was coming from.

I blinked in the blinding light coming from above. How had I even fallen asleep with such a bright light right over my eyes? And what was that obnoxious humming? I tried to move my head so I could pinpoint from what direction it emitted, but found that I couldn’t; I was being held still by something cold. Metal, perhaps. I tried to reach a hand to brush away whatever it was, but discovered my arms felt heavy, weighted down by something, almost like they had been numbed through anesthesia. I was aware my arms existed, but they weren’t responding. A quick check determined my legs were suffering a similar fate.

Panic rose up in me, made all the worse by the blinding light and the fact that I couldn’t escape it. I concentrated, that unnerving humming threatening to break my focus, and tried to move something, anything. A soft groan burned deep in my throat, and I felt pain somewhere. The more aware I became, the more my body was registering that something wasn’t right, and pain rocketed through me like lightning. I moaned and tried to writhe, to get away from the discomfort, but in my state I couldn’t get far.

A hydraulic hiss permeated the air and I heard heavy footsteps, followed by heavy male voices speaking harsh and guttural. The Vyqang. Instantly, I remembered where I was and why. They were doing something to me—specifically to my head—to make me better breeding stock.

The Vyqang moved toward my bed, the white one and the green one from earlier, this time joined by one whose skin was covered in dark, almost obsidian scales. I tried to scream but my throat caught.

The obsidian Vyqang leaned over me and spoke in Kalybrian. “Do not be afraid, little girl. It is all a bad dream.” And then there was nothing but pain and terror and cold metal biting into my flesh.

It was like I was having an out-of-body experience, dimly floating above my body but not one hundred percent certain of what they were doing to me as they took my brain and my DNA apart and put it back together. At some point, I realized that there were explosions sounding far away, that my captors seemed worried, and then suddenly there were golden-skinned aliens all around, speaking in soft Kalybrian: “Don’t worry, child. You are safe.”

But once I became aware of my body again, the only thing that greeted me was agony and mind-numbing terror—and awareness of how I had been violated. I screamed until I didn’t have any voice left, distrustful of even these quiet, reassuring golden-skinned creatures who perhaps had rescued me. Even when they brought to me a familiar-looking woman with blue eyes and dark hair so like mine, and a man with glasses and kind eyes, I still screamed and cried and lashed out at anyone that came near, seeing only monsters come to hurt me again. The woman and the man cried and begged the golden ones to do something.

“They’re going to take away the pain, Mindy,” the woman said, in a shaking voice, trying to be soothing. I screamed and bucked against the harnesses that held me down to the bed as I was wheeled through a long, white corridor to another room behind another door and—

I sat up, disoriented and sweaty like I had been fighting a battle, and looked around at the frightened eyes around me. Gradually I came back to myself, remembered where I was.

I was sitting on a red leather couch in the middle of a sea of black velvet, a bright spotlight blazing down on me. It was irritating to no end, reminding me of the bright light back on the Vyqang ship, and I lashed out with my mind, wanting it gone. I heard a soft pop overhead and the room was plunged into darkness.

“Illuminati,”
I heard a feminine voice say, and the room was lit by a ghostly green glow coming from a glowing ball held aloft by a glamorous woman. Fantazia, I remembered. A bald man stood next to her, arms covered in tattoos of ones and zeroes, and he was looking at me like he wanted to be anywhere else. Cyrus the Virus.

Lainey stood to one side of me, Kate on the other. Both of their arms were covered in long red scratches, like they had fought some sort of clawing wild beast. Looking down at my hands, I saw blood in my nails. My throat was raw from screaming.

“I remember,” I croaked.

“Where have you been?” Luke greeted us as we walked back through the door at EHJ headquarters. “Paul and Wesley have been looking everywhere for you.” He eyed the fading scratches on Lainey and Kate’s arms, and since their innate natures help with faster healing, I’d hate to see what they’d look like without powers. “What happened?”

I barely gave him a glance. I felt like I had been put through the wringer, regaining my memories by experiencing them afresh, then managing to relay them to the people who’d helped bring them back. My life had made a hardened criminal like Cyrus the Virus look sick to his stomach. Go me.

“Never mind, Luke, I’ll take care of it,” Lainey said, motioning for Kate to attend me. “Go lay down, Mindy. Try to get some sleep.”

“I don’t want to sleep,” I said in a sharp voice, shaking Kate off and causing everyone in the room to stare. I softened my tone. “If I sleep, I’ll dream, and I’d rather not dream right now.” I straightened. “I’d rather deal with whatever’s going on with Simon.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Paul popped in from around the corner. “Now that we’re all here, meet in the conference room. Right now.”

“Yes, sir,” Kate said, giving him a smart yet mocking salute. His cold blue eyes narrowed, but he motioned us inside.

I noticed Lainey walk over to embrace Wesley, who was already pacing the conference room, dressed oddly enough like his former life, Robert, in a suit and tie. Whether she needed comfort after the episode with Fantazia or had a bad feeling about what was happening with the government, I wasn’t sure; I only knew I wished I had someone to whom I could turn.

Fortunately, my headaches had weakened as soon as the blocks came down. But my returned memories left me feeling like I was spiritually drained.

“Can we order coffee or something?” I asked as we took our seats around the large conference table.

Paul shot me a dark look. “We’re in the middle of the biggest crisis of our lives and you want a coffee break?”

“Leave her alone, Paul,” Lainey said. “She’s been through a lot today.”

“Well,
we’ve
been through a hell of a lot more,” he said.

“I seriously doubt that,” I snapped, not bothering to adjust my tone.

Paul narrowed his eyes and frowned. “All right, let’s sit down and discuss what Wesley and I went through with Simon and his cronies in Washington. After all, it concerns all of you.”

Wesley cut in. “Simon has raised concerns that Lainey and I have endangered people with the Dragon’s vendetta against us.”

“But we stopped the Dragon,” Lainey said, looking plaintive. “We did that. Simon knows. He was there.”

“Mindy almost died in that fight,” Luke put in. “Simon almost died.”

Lainey looked like she had been punched in the stomach. “Of course, the Dragon was after me because of that stupid prophecy. Because of Emily.” She shook her head. “They’re right, I did endanger people.”

“Don’t blame yourself, love,” Wesley said, reaching across the table to take her hand. “You have no control over what some psychopath does to try to kick-start the apocalypse. You can only stop whatever he tries, which we did.”

“Which we pointed out,” Paul put in. “If it hadn’t been the Dragon and this prophecy, it would have been some loser with a chemical bomb. There’s always someone wanting to blast the whole population to kingdom come. We always stop them. And this is the thanks we get.”

“They questioned our fitness as parents,” Wesley remarked to Lainey, his voice full of quiet rage, “having Emily in this environment.”

Lainey’s face drained of color. “What?”

“It’s just Simon being a jerk because he’s always hated you,” Toby said to Wesley. “Because you didn’t give him the attention and praise he thought he deserved.”

“It’s not just about Wesley,” Paul put in. “Simon’s also saying that Mindy is a problem. Having a psychopathic villain set on revenge and trying to end the world is one thing, but, well…Mindy not only put a villain in the hospital last month but turned around and caused injuries in over ten innocent bystanders the other day.”

I felt my face burn, and I kept my head down and gazed straight ahead. Like I was ever going to forget how much of this was my fault.

Lainey spoke up. “It’s not like Mindy meant for that to happen.”

“I’m not saying she did,” Paul replied. “I’m saying that Simon has called for us to terminate her employment immediately.”

That statement ripped my gaze up to him. “W-what?” I managed, a cold pit in my stomach. If I didn’t have my job or my friends, what did I have but estranged parents who couldn’t look at me without regret and horror?

“What did you tell them?” Kate asked.

Paul frowned. “I told them—or more specifically, Simon—to go to hell.”

“He told Simon and all of Washington that you were an asset to this team,” Wesley said quietly. “He staked his career and reputation on you being able to pull yourself together.”

I stared in shock at Paul. “You did that?”

Paul shrugged. “You
are
an asset to this team, and these new powers aren’t going to change that. Besides, we make the decisions about who to hire and fire on this team, ourselves, not them. We aren’t owned by the United States or any other government. We’ve done work for them over the years, but we’re an independent agency and will remain so.”

“And that’s when Simon announced he is forming his own hero team,” Wesley spoke up, running a hand through his hair.

“So? What does that mean for us?” Selena asked. She had been sitting quietly next to Luke, her hand in his the whole meeting, I’d noted with a twinge of jealousy.

“We don’t know yet,” Paul admitted.

“Probably nothing good,” Wesley said. “Simon’s looking for any excuse to stick it to us.”

“Anything that Simon Leasure leads is going to crash and burn,” Kate predicted.

Paul looked at Toby. “Forrest defended us at every turn. Simon practically made it sound like we were becoming villains, and Forrest kept citing how many times we’ve helped the country.”

“See, I actually am a good judge of character,” Toby muttered, perhaps reminding himself.

“So, what are we going to do?” Luke asked Wesley. I noticed the shift of focus in the room as everyone turned to look at the Reincarnist. He was, by common consensus, our leader. Not Paul. That decision was made.