Page 6 of Monstrous Rampage
HOLLY
My face was probably green to match the roiling tumbleweeds in my stomach. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead, and my ears roared. For a moment, I really thought I might pass out.
Evidently, they did too.
“Subject’s heart rate is nearly one hundred and sixty beats,” the robotic female said. “CO2 levels indicate hyperventilation.”
“Deep breaths, Miss Price,” Snyder said. “You’re safe. In fact, you’re our most prized specimen on board this ship.”
Specimen. Ship. Those words pinged in my head along with breeding program. Something wasn’t adding up but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Not yet. I needed more information.Keep him talking.
“When we first talked about the abductions, you didn’t know why Natalie was upset. Was that all an act?”
“Very good, Miss Price. That was not an act. I was honestly surprised to learn that DSC had begun experimenting with human subjects, especially given the termination orders.” Just like we were back at university, he paced slowly back and forth, his hands crossed in the small of his back. Dr. Snyder, lecturemode activated. “Then I realized I had a brilliant opportunity to do exactly the same thing as them, only better. They were experimenting with human females to be sure they wanted to exterminate the planet. Whereas I already know what we need to be successful.”
“You do?” I whispered softly, not sure I wanted the truth.
He whirled back around to face me but kept his arms behind his back. “A thorough examination was completed as soon as you joined us, Miss Price. What do you think we found?”
I could play coy and dumb—but I didn’t think he’d buy it. “Mrion contamination.”
“Miss Price to the head of the class.” He gave me a benevolent smile and clapped slowly. “The secret for which Draco Sirius Command would destroy an entire planet and its eight billion human cockroaches to conceal. Though the real question ishowwere you contaminated?”
“They were everywhere. The air was thick with them after the other squad killed the space whales.”
“Indeed. But not everyone present in that little fiasco was contaminated. In fact, no one else was, at least those we were able to study outside of squad Z288C. Isn’t that odd? Don’t you find that just a tiny bit suspicious?”
He’d died before we walked out to the beach and saw the KORE creature emerge from the ocean and drag the dead whale carcass back into the water. So how could he know the details? The only other person not part of Natalie’s squad other than me who’d been present was the general. “General Waverley returned to his submarine. I saw Rizan take him out over the bay myself.”
Snyder gave me a sardonic nod. “Indeed he did. But the general mysteriously disappeared from the submarine before it docked. I couldn’t have him provide an update to DSC on whytheir carefully orchestrated attack might have failed, now, could I?”
The override. Right before he grabbed Natalie, he’d said, “Maximus” and dismissed the other agent. After telling it to wipe all logs and evidence.
This ship wasn’t part of DSC at all. It might have been at one time, but everything I’d learned from the squad confirmed this wasn’t part of their standard operating procedures. They’d never risk infecting an expensive, advanced dynos with rebel Sirian cells. Even from a seemingly worthless human.
“Which means Miss Whit is able tocontrolmrion contamination.” The silver glint where his eyes should be burned with an odd light. If he were human, I’d say it was obsession. “I guarantee DSC would wipe out your entire solar system to ensure complete annihilation of all Myrm contamination, as well as to destroy such knowledge.” He stepped closer to the transparent wall of my cell. Silver light flared across an invisible energy field. “How did she do it, Miss Price? How can she control them?”
“I don’t know.”
His head tipped in a slight nod. “I thought that might be your initial response.”
Initial.Which meant he intended to use some kind of retributive force to extract information from me.
He chuckled, so like the friendly, charming professor I’d known for years. It was hard to remember he wasn’t real. An illusion, a holographic representation, a clone. I wasn’t sure what he was exactly. Only that the human I’d known was gone.
How often had he been in Snyder’s human body and interacted with me?
When he’d put his arm around me or touched the small of my back? When he’d insisted I accompany him to the hotel—while leaving Natalie behind to do all the grunt work of the dig?Surely he didn’t have any kind of physical attraction for me. He’d just referred to the entire human race as cockroaches. But I’d certainly rather fuck him than be tortured.
He stepped over to the side and pressed something in the wall. I braced for pain. Punishment. Something horrible. But all that happened was a low hum of energy disappeared. I hadn’t even noticed it until it was gone.
“Come, Miss Price. I have much to show you.”
I didn’t move from the bed. Options raced through my mind rapid fire. Maybe he wanted me to attempt to escape—so he could show me all the ways he could hurt me. Where would I escape to anyway? If this was a ship, I had to assume we were in space somewhere. I knew next to nothing about fictional space travel, let alone the real science involved. Besides, any Earth technology was like kindergarten to DSC.
I knew ancient plants, for fuck’s sake. Not light year mumbo-jumbo bullshit.
He held his hand out, extending his arm through where the invisible wall had been. “If I wanted to harm you, I would have already done so. Quite easily in all honesty. As I said, Miss Price, you’re currently our most precious cargo. I would rather engage your mind and show you what we’re trying to accomplish than hurt you into cooperation.”
