Page 22 of Rivers and Roads

She held my gaze. “I believe in you.”

Biting my lip, I wanted to say something to show her my gratitude, but I wasn’t sure I had the words. After a beat, she broke eye-contact and waved at the door, and I took it for the dismissal it was. The walk back to my little office felt endless, but soon enough, I was behind a closed door, staring at the phone, waiting.

Chapter

Ten

ZANE

Something felt…strange. Different. I was still in the dark, still chained to the ground, still covered in blood and filth. I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know where I was, or where I had come from, but I knew things were happening. Things that terrified the humans around me.

Something had changed.

The voice—the human that I would kill—he was afraid. There was tension in his voice when he spoke, and he didn’t touch me again.

“We can’t fucking move it. Not like this. I asked you to take care of it!”

“Sir, there’s only so much I can do. We may have to consider putting him down…”

“I can’t risk the progress we’ve made with it. You’re the one who fucked up, not me.”

There was a crack, deafening, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. I smelled blood, and I wanted it. I wanted to feel human flesh between my teeth. I struggled against my chains, and I heard his footsteps scrambling backward.

“What the fuck is it doing?”

A new voice spoke. “I don’t know, sir.”

“Well, do something about this. I have to meet with the press in three days, and I can’t be fucking worried about this thing breaking loose and killing everyone on this goddamn compound!”

The chains had no give, but there was hope in me now. I didn’t understand why, but his fear fed me. I wanted more of it.

I wanted to make him scream.

Chapter

Eleven

ORION

The ringing phone sounded like a gunshot, and I jolted in my chair when it filled the room, then immediately went quiet. My breath caught in my chest as I waited for the second one. My palms were sweating, but I was gripping the thumb drive, poised and ready to plug it in and grab everything I needed.

It would download to that, and start an automatic download on the burner phone Nadya had given me. One push of a button the moment I was away from ComTech, and it would be sent to bases all across the world. It would hit Wolf hands—both the resistance and the corrupt.

The information would go public, and regardless of what the government wanted to do, they wouldn’t be able to deny it. There was no hope for cover-up.

They could retreat, or they could wage war, and all of us were ready to fight.

The second ring came through, and the moment it stopped, I began. My fingers flew over the keyboard faster than I thought possible. My eyes raced over the code, not understanding a single line, but I knew what I was looking for. The files were almost endless, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get all of them in time, but I had to try.

I watched the progress bar, my knee shaking, sweat dripping down my back. I had one hand on the desk phone ready to dial Nadya if something happened, my body poised to bolt if it came down to it.

The progress bar shot forward, then stuttered to a halt, then crept inches…then nothing.

It was likely going to drive me insane if I kept watching.

The knock at the door sent me reeling back, and I managed to get the phone to my ear and Nadya’s number punched in by the time it opened. I tried my best to smile at the human who had been in earlier, and his eyes narrowed on me.

“Are you making personal calls?” he demanded.

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