Page 46 of Homecoming

“I hope you don’t mind coming in here,” he said, motioning her through the door. “I haven’t talked to anyone about this for a long time, and we need some privacy.”

Owen lived in a kind of mini-suite. It had a little couch seating area, with a big, dusty TV on the wall, obviously unused. There was a comfortable armchair over by the window, with a stack of books near the leg. What did he like to read? The walls were bare, though, and it barely looked lived in.

Grace crossed to the window. It looked down over the water tumbling down the mountain. “Oh. What a beautiful spot,” she said, voice soft.

Owen seemed… restless. Anxious. Grace returned to the couch and sank down, just waiting. Curiosity ate at her, but he was obviously on edge. He could take his time.

Owen didn’t even knowwhere to start. He’d been with people who knew his history for the past three years, and in that time, he hadn’t told anyone about what had happened to him in the jungles of Brazil.

“I didn’t like school,” he said, sinking down into the corner of the couch, facing Grace. “I was more of a hands-on kind of guy. So, when I got out of high-school, I felt like the Army was a better decision for me than college. I loved it. At some point, I tested into the special forces, and some time after that, I transferred into the psychological operations unit of the Army.I’ve always been detail oriented, and managing people comes naturally to me. Psyops gave me tools to use against our enemy. It was a perfect fit for my skill set.”

He drew in a deep breath, thinking about that time in his life. He’d had no idea how incredible his life had been at that point, and how quickly he would lose his humanity.

“A few of us were approached by a group that was doing government-sanctioned testing to create super-soldiers. There was a big bonus to participate, and they offered us a chance to do psychological warfare in a completely different way. There’s a plant in the Amazon jungle called ayahuasca. Shamans have been using it for generations to open the mind and receive premonitions and visions of the future.”

“Like peyote for the indigenous peoples.”

Owen nodded. “Exactly. Supposed to open the pathways of the brain to make anything possible. Anyway, this doctor had refined the serum and modified it, and he got enough backing from the government to test on American soldiers, as well as soldiers from other countries. Not just any soldiers, but the best of the best. SEALs, Green Berets, South African Special Forces, German Kommando Spezialkräfte, Polish GROM, British Special Boat Service. They built it up to be prestigious to be in the Spartan program, and the other countries were falling all over themselves to throw their men into the program.”

He glanced out the window. Snow had started to fall in thick, chunky flakes. Grace might be stuck up here whether or not she wanted to be.

“What happened?” she asked softly.

He cleared his raspy throat. It was hard talking this much. “I didn’t think anything would happen. It seemed so far-fetched. But eventually, it did. There were some initial successes stateside, but the treatments were dangerous. People died. To avoid the FDA, Dr. Shu did his testing in countries he couldbuy off. Brazil, Guyana, Mexico, to name a few. When the men protested their treatment, they were drugged and placed in cages they’d prepared ahead of time for us. Then they did whatever they wanted.”

Without even looking at her, he could feel Grace’s shock and horror. Feeling emotions wasn’t his strongest ability, but with her, it was very easy, and he knew she wanted to reach out. He wasn’t ready for that, yet.

Pushing up out of the couch, he started pacing the length of the room. “The drug didn’t react to every soldier the same way, though. Some men developed mental abilities, and some developed physical abilities. It seemed like if you had a natural inclination, it built on that to some extent. And then other men, it didn’t do anything other than drive them insane. Those men were ‘graduated’ out of the program and we never saw them again.”

Owen paused at the window, trying to remind himself to be clinical about what happened. It was a long time ago, and it didn’t need to affect him any more.

Even though he lived with the effects every single day.

“So it worked,” she asked faintly.

“Oh, yes, it definitely worked.”

He glanced at Grace for the first time. Her beautiful face was tight with tension, and her arms were crossed over her middle, like she was cold, but she seemed to be holding it together well. Crossing to the mini-fridge, he grabbed a bottle of water, snapped the cap and drank half of it down, cooling his throat. There was no easy way to tell her the next bit.

“Dr. Shu could test the physical abilities, but he didn’t know how to test for the mental abilities. Sometimes he would ‘motivate’ us with pain for a reaction to see what we could do. If we objected or fought back, he thought we needed more pain. Or his people did. Shu was off his rocker, crazy. But he’dgained enough results to get backers and followers to satisfy the government. There were several modifications to the serum, though, and they didn’t all work the same. None seemed to work as well as the first initial serum. Aiden and Fontana got it. I got it. Several of us up here on the mountain got it.” He paused at the window again, reminding himself where he was. Grounding himself.

“They didn’t have ways to measure the mental abilities, so they focused more on the physical. They would inject us with illnesses to see if we recovered, and broke our bones to time our healing ability. My legs have been broken several times. My back was broken twice.”

Owen felt the swirl of anger and horror from the couch, but he couldn’t look at her yet.

“Aiden and a few other guys managed to manipulate some of the guards and escape. It was a while before they were able to send help, though. I, personally, was in a cage for almost two years.”

Grace gasped behind him, and he felt her launch off the couch and head toward him. She stopped beside him, just a hair away, and caught his gaze. “Are you fucking serious?”

Owen grinned slightly. In all the time he’d interacted with her, he’d never known her to cuss. “I am serious. Shu was killed by a jungle snake, but there were enough people to take over his work after he died. They didn’t have the same insight he did, though, and the testing turned into torture and starvation camps. Crash said something to you about food. When there was no oversight, our captors would funnel the money away into their own pockets, only feeding us enough to keep us alive. Food is important to us, because we’ve been without. Some of us for a very long time.”

“And the government was okay with this?”

Owen shrugged slightly. “The government had written us off, pretty much. By that time, the program was backed by a private company, the Silverstone Collaborative. The owner banked on selling the serum across the world to create super soldiers for anyone who could afford them. Like I said, though, the serums weren’t all the same, and the quality went down, especially after Shu died.”

“You were in a cage for two years,” she repeated, her voice incredulous. Her pretty golden eyes were glossy, like she wanted to cry.

“Yes. I went in after Aiden and the others had escaped. Didn’t know anything about them at the time. Drake Fontana eventually rescued us, and Jordyn flew us out of the jungle. We were taken to Virginia, where we were rehabilitated.”

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