Page 61 of Under Pressure

Kendra parted her lips, her brain running at a thousand miles per minute. She analyzed the data on the screen. This is the missing piece of the puzzle.

“They are using the virus to edit genes,” she muttered to herself in disbelief. “I didn’t think we were there yet.”

Warren spun to her. “This makes sense to you?”

She stood, nearly trembling, analyzing the RNA sequence. She hadn’t stepped foot in the Harvard lab, but Lily had told her about what they’d accomplished there. They’d figured out how to edit genes, triggering the edits via lab-made viruses, ingested by pill.

“The doxycycline… I didn’t think it was possible.” She shook her head in complete disbelief. “It wasn’t just for malaria. It was to trigger the edits.”

Warren nodded at her, continuing to explain to the group, “A few of my men were approached under false pretenses, pretending this experimentation was approved and good to go. These scientists are desperate for test dummies—in the form of living, breathing operators. They want you.”

All the guys at the table grew quiet, and the air became heavy.

A guy sitting across from Kendra looked around in disbelief and questioned, “Is the Navy behind these tests?”

“Not a fucking chance,” Warren replied, firm. “The Navy has no idea that this…this is what they are doing behind their back.”

“Who are they?” Another fierce SEAL chimed in, spinning a bullet in his scarred fingers.

Warren put his hands down on the table, looking down at the guy then at his men.

“The scientists. Research and Development Group. But don’t bother looking them up because you won’t find anything. They are ghosts. They work in secret, to create and sell products to the military. Their latest product is trying to edit us, trying to build the best of the best.”

“How did you get this?” The same SEAL nodded to the signed report on screen, detailing the tests.

“Delta,” Warren replied. “He’s put himself at great risk to stop this insanity.”

Kendra remained still, trying to absorb it all. Her fears rose, proving that she’d been right all along. The victims’ blood had all had traces of this, but she’d never have believed that this was what it was. It was too outlandish. But she had to believe it because she’d seen it with her own eyes. She’d seen those enhanced abilities just as described—potent and dangerous—in one man.

“Can you help?” Warren turned to her.

“What do you want from me?”

“An antidote. A reversal.”

She stood firm and stared Warren down before looking at the kilodalton protein structure again. Genetic editing. She doubted even Lily or the Harvard lab knew how to reverse it.

“What did they do to him?”

“You’ll have to ask him.” He let out a low breath, averting his gaze.

With a curt nod, he rapped his knuckles on the table, indicating the meeting was concluded. He huddled over the table, flipping through papers and answering questions one-on-one. As the others stood from the table, pushing back their chairs, Kendra turned on her heel and moved out. She needed to process. She needed space.

Walking down the hall, back toward the entrance, she kept looking over her shoulder. She was absolutely incensed that Delta had never told her the truth—a truth that big. They’d clearly changed him in ways she’d never imagined. If this all held true for him, it meant that he’d literally edited his genome, his very being. The vision of his menacing frame, aggressive and powerful—and the scars on his body, the mask he wore at night—flushed into her mind. He had been changed, permanently. And now he couldn’t control it.

As every man in the hall slowly drifted away, she was left alone with her fury. The hall grew quiet, and the setting sun cast a startling tone to the already-worrying atmosphere. Her heels clicked as she fell a few steps backward, sucking in air. Kendra took a deep breath, her mind spinning. She had to get out of there.

Stepping out of the front entrance, the last rays of the setting sun fell on her, the only light left in the facility. The high walls surrounding the compound cast long, dark shadows everywhere else. Not far away, her car was slowly becoming consumed by a darkness that unnerved her. That same eerie feeling she’d felt coming in was with her as she started moving to her car. She needed to get the hell out.

Her heels once again dug into the packed dirt as she moved to find her car, questioning everything she’d just learned. A familiar wave of anger hit her harder this time, and she bit her lip, feeling tears springing. It was all too much. Finally, as she found herself in the shadows beside her car, she looked back one final time at the building.

What the fucking hell am I going to do?

Then, she saw it—

Or him, to be specific.

Delta’s unmistakable muscular form exited the side of the building, slipping off in the opposite direction—toward the motor pool, well in the shadows. He strode across the motor pool toward a desert-sand-colored HMMWV—or Humvee—parked off to the side.

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