“And the woman?” Kane asked. “Can we afford to piss her off any further than we have already?”
Callan’s lips twisted thoughtfully at the question. “We need to convince her to let Ely take those samples, but after she stole that blood from Merc, Ms. Rodriquez isn’t going to allow Ely within touching distance of her.” He stroked the side of his jaw in contemplation. “And I swear, that video looked more like a Breed in mating heat than one experiencing feral displacement.”
“He stood between her and us until he stomped out of the house,” Kane pointed out. “He was protective and angry. And I can’t blame him for the anger.”
“He lost control after the episode in the lab.” Callan’s voice was tight now, hard. “And that isn’t acceptable. He’s a Breed. We were bred to have control over that part of ourselves and he’s lost it. That I can’t tolerate. Have Lawe find him and get him back to Sanctuary. Let’s see if we can’t talk to him and convince him to resume the tests.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Kane had a feeling he wouldn’t.
Callan shook his head wearily. “Hell, I don’t even want to consider that option, Kane, and neither do you.”
CHAPTER 7
Ely handed the vials to Charles Fayden, her lab assistant, with a vague smile at his murmured offer to replace them for her. He was one of the few Breeds allowed to assist in the mating tests, and he was showing quite an aptitude for them.
She inserted a sample of the last vial of blood she had taken from Mercury into the test vial, sealed it and placed it into the machine Vanderale had helped her to acquire.
She waited impatiently while the individual hormones were separated, then extracted the sample and placed it in the computer analyzer. The answers that came up didn’t bring her any comfort.
She covered her face with her hands for long moments before staring at the results once again. The feral hormone was definitely mixed into the strains of adrenaline now. It hadn’t been in the first three vials, but that fourth one, taken as anger had surged in his eyes, showed it.
Those eyes had terrified her. The warm honey color had hardened to molten gold, and within the gold, the lightest flicker of blue pinpoints had fired within it. She had never seen anything so frightening in a Breed during all the years she had been testing them. Far longer than the years they had been free.
But it had done no more than confirm her suspicions that Mercury was once again going feral. The scientists at the lab he had been created in had recorded the same phenomenon.
She saved the results, attached them to the encryption program and sent them along to Jonas. She wasn’t arguing with him further. If he didn’t respond quickly, then she was going to Callan. Forget the chain of command he was always reminding her of, Callan was her pride leader, not Jonas. No matter how Jonas may or may not lust for the position.
She set her pass code on the computer, stored the samples and rubbed at the back of her neck wearily.
“Everything okay, Dr. Morrey?” Charles stepped up beside her, staring down at her from his soft hazel green eyes.
“Everything’s fine, Charles.” She smiled back at him rather distantly as she rose from her stool. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded before returning to the tests she had him working on. Matching for potential Breed mates was an exacting and time-consuming job. She was pleased to have found an assistant she trusted with it.
The tests on Mercury were another matter.
She sat down at her desk and carefully noted the information in her journal. She was going to have to find a way to convince Mercury to continue the tests. She needed this information, because there was always the chance it could happen again. No one knew the number of Breeds who had developed feral fever before the rescues. And she hoped no one ever found out.
Jonas stared at the report, his eyes narrowing at the findings Ely had sent to him, before he pressed the intercom button into his secretary’s office. Or rather his redheaded robot’s office, he thought with a silent grunt. For a new mother, the woman was decidedly un-maternal at work.
“Rachel, I need the heli-jet prepped for a return to Sanctuary. Inform Jackal we’ll be heading out again.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Wyatt.”
He grimaced at her cool, competent voice. He missed his last secretary, Kia, but she’d left in a storm of tears for some damned reason more than three months before. He still hadn’t figured out why she was so upset with him. But at least she’d had a personality. The piece of cardboard manning the desk now was as dry as dust.
“Mr. Wyatt, you had a meeting with Ms. Warden in an hour. Should I reschedule that?”
“God yes,” he muttered. The last meeting he had with Warden he’d sworn Breed genetics were rubbing off on her as she demanded answers for the disappearance of a Council scientist. Her eyes were shot with anger and her cute little face had tightened in almost dislike. For some reason, she didn’t seem to believe that he had no idea where the former scientist, Jeffery Amburg, was located.
Not that he hadn’t been lying; he knew very well where the scientist was currently being held. He just had no intention of telling her.
“Mr. Jackal is here now, sir,” she told him. “The jet will be awaiting your arrival on the roof, destination Sanctuary. Do you require anything else?”
Yeah, a secretary with a sense of humor would be a nice start. Where the hell had Merinus Tyler found this droid?
But at the moment a cardboard secretary was the least of his concerns. He lifted his briefcase to his desk, loaded into it the files and reports he needed, then disconnected his PDA from the computer. He had everything now.
Shutting down his office took only minutes, and then he was striding to the door, opening it as Jackal came to his feet, his expression as stoic as always. But there was a hint of amusement in his gaze this time.
Jonas gave his secretary a hard look. She stared back at him, as placid as always. He was going to have to inform her how much he wouldn’t appreciate it if she was entertaining his enforcers when she refused to entertain him.
The damned woman.
“Looks like we’re heading home for the weekend, Jackal,” he announced, putting his secretary’s lack of loyalty out of his mind. He would deal with her later.
“Have a nice weekend, Mr. Wyatt,” she called out as he left the office.
He didn’t bother to return the farewell.
“Is there a problem?” Jackal asked as they moved through the empty hallways of the Justice building. Saturday evening wasn’t exactly peak hours.
Jonas grimaced, the potential for disaster so far outweighed “a problem” that it was laughable.
“Mercury,” he informed the other man, his voice quiet as they stepped into the elevator and Jonas hit the button for the roof.
Jackal snorted. “That little paper pusher of Vanderale’s?”
Paper pusher, his ass. Ms. Rodriquez was looking for something; Jonas just hadn’t figure out what yet.
“That’s my suspicion.” And Jonas hoped his suspicion was right. His own investigation into Mercury’s lab years had brought him to the conclusion that the feral fever had been nothing more than rage.
At one time, Mercury had been very close to the animal that his genetics had been altered with. His sense of smell had been off the charts, his ability to run long distances had broken records. Sight, hearing, night vision, scent and taste-he had been exceptional.
Until he’d begun showing shows of feral displacement. Pacing his cage. Growling in irritation, refusing to perform his missions within their proper parameters. And the unknown hormone attached to the adrenaline that flooded his body at those times. Feral fever or displacement the scientists had called it. Jonas preferred to think of it as the call of the wild. All the signs Mercury had exhibited in the labs had been those of an animal going insane in the search for freedom.