“Wait, Doctor Lovato!” the soldier said running after her.
Kate took the stairs two at a time with the guard following. She didn’t stop until she got to the hospital. Combat medics ran down the hall with soldiers on stretchers. Voices called out orders and requests for help.
Ruckley and Timothy were the first familiar faces she saw. They were helping another soldier whose wrist was covered in bandages. A fourth soldier Kate didn’t recognize was with them.
Timothy caught her eyes as he helped his teammate into a chair where medics began examining his wounds.
“Beckham’s all right,” Timothy called to her. “Horn, too. They’re just behind us.”
Kate didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she saw Beckham, Horn, and Rico enter a few seconds later with a prisoner. An entire phalanx of soldiers surrounded them, and she quickly saw why.
The prisoner wasn’t a collaborator—it was a Chimera.
Beckham limped away from the group when he saw Kate. He was covered in grime, smelling of sweat and blood, but she didn’t care. They met in a long embrace.
Horn joined them, wiping his face with the back of his big hand.
“How bad is it?” Kate asked.
“Six of ours dead, and three injured,” Beckham said.
“How?” Kate asked.
“They set a trap,” Beckham said, shaking his head.
“I don’t understand,” Kate said. “We haven’t intercepted any messages that they were planning an attack on Houston.”
“That’s why we brought him here.”
Kate watched as the soldiers led the creature into a room and shut the door.
“Rico, call Jacobs and tell him we’ve got the prisoner secure,” Beckham said. “I want to have a talk with the bastard while we wait to see what Jacobs wants to do with him.”
“I was hoping you’d let me be part of this ‘talk’,” Rico said, eyes narrowed.
“Me, too,” Horn said. His barreled chest expanded as he took in a deep breath. “A talk he won’t forget.”
“Go tell Jacobs we’ve got him first,” Beckham said.
Rico left, and Beckham started toward the room where they had the beast secured.
“Wait,” Kate said. “I want to watch.”
“It’s not safe, Kate,” Horn said.
“I need to know more about these creatures,” Kate said. “Besides, there’s just one of him and plenty of us.”
Beckham and Horn exchanged a glance.
“Fine,” Beckham said.
They went into the room where three soldiers had bound the beast to a chair.
The Chimera glared at them with his golden eyes, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. His muscles tensed across his scarred body. Flat slitted nostrils flared with each breath. The sour lemon scent of a Variant drifted off his sweaty flesh.
Kate had to remind herself that this twisted body contained the brain of an intelligent being.
“We’re going to ask you a few questions, and you’re going to answer,” Beckham said. “Nod if you understand.”
Surprisingly, the beast did just that.
“What in the hell were you doing outside Houston?” Beckham asked.
The Chimera said nothing, pressing his thin wormy lips tightly closed.
“Hey, asshole, do you not understand English now?” Horn said.
He reached into his vest and pulled out brass knuckles that he slipped over his fist.
“Know what these are?” Horn asked. “I pulled ’em off a collaborator. They’ll make your ugly face even uglier.”
“Why were you outside Houston?” Beckham entreated.
The Chimera said nothing.
Beckham nodded at Horn, and the big man let loose a haymaker of a punch that would have laid any normal man flat on his back. It connected with a sickening crunch that made Kate flinch, and she had to look away momentarily.
When she faced the Chimera again, she saw him staring defiantly back up at Horn and Beckham. Blood gushed from the split above his eye.
He hissed at them. “Why would I tell you anything?”
“Depends on how much pain you can endure,” Horn said, shaking out his fist. “Because that was just a warning shot.”
Beckham tried another question. “How many other groups are out there?”
Again, the Chimera didn’t answer, and again Horn whacked the creature in the face.
Kate cringed at the crack.
The interrogation continued, but no matter how they tried to convince the half-man, half-monster to talk, he said nothing. The guards in the room watched with their rifles cradled.
A knock on the door sounded, breaking Kate from her trance watching the beast, and she opened it. Commander Jacobs and Rico stepped inside with another four men.
“I’ll take it from here,” Jacobs said. He nodded at his men.
The soldiers started untying the ropes on the Chimera and placed heavy steel shackles over his limbs to prevent their prisoner from running. They prodded the Chimera to stand and forced him to shuffle toward the lobby door.
Kate wasn’t sure what the commander planned to do with the Chimera, but she doubted he would have any better luck.
“Wait a second, sir,” Kate said. “I have another way we can get some information from him.”
Jacobs ordered his men taking the Chimera outside to pause. “What’s that, Doctor Lovato?”
“He might not be willing to talk, but that won’t stop any analyses I can run on his tissue.”
The Chimera glared at her with golden, inquisitive eyes.
She decided to step into the hall to tell Jacobs her plan.
“Sedate him and let me take a few biopsies,” Kate continued. “I can analyze his blood and other tissues to figure out how beasts like this came into existence.”
Jacobs looked back at the door, then shrugged. “Make this quick.”
Kate retreated to the lab that Jacobs had set up for them on the second floor of the hospital and returned with a handful of plastic vials and needles. The creature was already out from the sedatives when she returned, but she still approached his scarred body cautiously.
“Be ready for anything,” Beckham said to the soldiers standing guard.
Six of the men surrounded the metal table, checking the straps around the creature’s legs and arms.
Beckham and Horn flanked Kate as she slowly walked up to him with her biopsy needles. She had a mask on now, but she could still smell the awful scent. After she prepared the first needle, Horn cut off
