Page 98 of Taken By the Convicts
“Locked out?”
Davies shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.” He pointed to the clear glass roof. “Not enough light during third shift to do any of the heavy lifting in here without knocking over the more fragile trees, I guess.”
The light was already fading as the sun lowered. Davies reached inside the door and handed her an old-style flashlight. “Zurlite powered so you won’t run out. Put it back by the door on your way out.”
“Thank you,” Melina said as she flipped the button on the flashlight and headed into Section A and made her way through to Section B, where Reece worked.
According to Manager Thorne, Section B housed the vegetable plants that supplemented their meals during the winter. With no scanner in place, she entered Section B.
Section B extended at least three times as far as Section A. Dozens of tables, organized by type of vegetable, lined both sides of the warehouse.
Vining vegetables climbed ropes hanging from the metal frame spanning the greenhouse ceiling, serving as a trellis for the vining vegetable plants. Vegetable bushes had been neatly cultivated on tables against one side of the greenhouse. Root vegetables filled the next section, with gourds and leafy vegetables on the other side.
Some cultures considered succula good for enriching the soil after harvest. She bent down to search under the tables and found plenty of bags of fertilizer, soil, rock phosphate, gypsum, limestone, potassium sulfate, and magnesium sulfate, cement blocks, and heavy-looking equipment she didn’t recognize beneath the tables, but no succula. No wonder the greenhouse manager needed someone as strong as Reece. Each of those bags had to weigh at least seventy-five pounds.
Potted trees with thin spindly branches that wove themselves together reached high to the ceiling and could be found at the end of each vegetable group. Tiny white buds less than an inch in diameter with glossy white and green leaves covered the new growth while a light pink powder, spores perhaps, decorated the old growth on the interior of the tangle of branches.
As Melina reached up to feel one of the glossy leaves, the powder fell onto the tattoo on her wrist. The glow of her tatt faded, then returned. “How odd,” she whispered. The effect on her tattoo reminded her of the verluz in the underground caverns. The scientist in her couldn’t resist. She bagged several samples of the spores, flowers, and leaves and tucked them in her pocket before continuing her search for the succula plants.
As she headed to the back, she spotted tall, spiked, pink flowers with white stamen, surrounded by shiny bright-green leaves. While the leaves were rounder than usual, the flowers were unmistakably succula and likely the source of Reece’s allergies given the pollen all over the leaves. Melina clipped and bagged a pollen-laden leaf to examine in the lab.
“What are you doing in here?” Manager Thorne’s voice boomed across the greenhouse as four light beams crossed and centered on her. With the light blinding her, she couldn’t see him, but she heard his footsteps as he approached. “This area is off-limits to you.”
“I’m taking a sample of succula pollen to analyze,” she said as he continued to blind her with the light. Finally, he lowered the beam to her hands. She pulled the bags of samples out of her coat pocket for him to see and then slipped them back in when Thorne’s focus shifted to the equipment under the tables.
“I warned you not to enter this area.”
Breathe, Melina, breathe. Be submissive. Just show him you’re doing your job.
“I have a patient with a recurring rash, and he works in here,” she said, amazed she’d stayed so calm. But she hadn’t done anything wrong really, except trespass. “I needed to find the source, so I can treat him properly.”
“Don’t talk back and don’t even think about crossing me, Dr. Archer, or you’ll regret the day you arrived on Veenith!” He motioned to one of his guards, a tall, muscular man with a square jaw. His massive hand circled the back of her neck as he steered her from Section B to A and finally out of the greenhouse.
Why the hell was Thorne so mad at her? He wanted her to do R&D on the items in the greenhouse from Section A. She’d only taken samples from Section B. She hadn’t touched any of the crops.
Both Jayce and Ivan were waiting by the med-center door when Thorne’s personal guard opened the doors and shoved her inside, pulling the door shut behind them.
Shouts outside poured through the locked doors. Three dull shots from a blaster made Melina jump even as the guard continued shoving her down the hall. Had Ivan or Jayce been shot? She pulled herself free of the guard’s reach and raced toward the door.
The guard grabbed her by her hair and practically dragged her down the hall and into an empty room. “You need to learn to listen,” he said as he backhanded her. She crashed into a tray of medical supplies. Before she could stand up, he grabbed her again. She tried angling her thumb to press the needles against his arm, but he struck her again, knocking her down. Melina curled into a ball and covered her face, but he pulled her up by her hair and slammed her against the wall, with his hand around her throat.
“I won’t go there again!” she cried as he started to cut off her air.
Dark black eyes stared at her for several minutes as he held her there. “No more warnings, Archer.” He dropped her and left.
Melina stayed on the floor, shaking for several minutes. Jayce and Ivan. . . She had to make sure they were okay. Her entire body protested as she pulled herself up.
Davies came in and winced the second he saw her. “I should have warned you to stay out of Section B.”
“I only took succula samples. I didn’t touch anything else.”
“Thorne’s got strict orders when it comes to Section B.”
“It’s a damn greenhouse,” she said as she grabbed hold of the counter to steady herself.
Davies’s face turned hard as he ignored her comment. “I’m allowing your unit mates in just this once because you’re injured.” He glanced down the hall, nodding to another guard out of her view. “I suggest you start listening to the rules around here, doc.”
Melina dabbed at her split lip and the bruise on her cheek. Pain flared along the nerves in her face. She stumbled as she reached for the medicine box and strong hands caught her.
