“Is it about you wanting to take them down with your own hands?” Selena asked, pulling away from him.
“That’s part of it.” Maximus’s gaze slid to the others before returning to her. “The Corps made us their tools and treated us like we were property. Not all of us survived their experiments and tests, so yes, if you’re asking if some of this is about revenge, then I won’t deny that, but there’s a more fundamental concern.”
“And what’s that?”
“Ask yourself one question, Selena.” Maximus chuckled. “Ask yourself why you’re here in the first place.”
Selena face contorted in irritation and confusion. Maximus couldn’t help but find it cute. He waited as she worked through the process.
“I was here to investigate the site to get the permit crap settled,” Selena said softly. She gasped. “It was handled before, but they suddenly pulled our permits with a new bullshit excuse.”
Maximus nodded slowly. “We have info there’s been money flowing around recently. Bribes, probably.”
“And if they can bribe one part of the government, they might be able to bribe others, including someone connected with the police.” Selena groaned. “But it’s got to be harder to bribe a cop than some random clerk, right?”
“It doesn’t have to be a cop or a soldier.” Maximus raised an eyebrow. “It just has to be anyone who works with them. Are you willing to bet your life on that not being true? I’m not nor am I willing bet the lives of my men. We came to Hawaii to track down the Corps, and it looks like we found them. We’ll handle it, and we’ll be gone before anyone else even knows what happened.”
* * *
After Tiberius contacted the rest of the hybrids, a tense silence settled over the forest group, Selena too frightened to talk and the hybrids wanting to keep an ear and eye out for any ambushes. The quiet minutes gave way to a quick pace, but not so quick Selena had trouble keeping up as the forest thinned and the rough outline of their vehicles grew in the distance.
Faint buzzing sounded from above. Maximus gritted his teeth and lifted his head. Drones. He narrowed his eyes. The design was familiar, and the small machines were descending into the forest, not emerging from it. He glanced over at Tiberius, who nodded back. They were hybrid drones.
Cornelius cleared his throat and jogged forward until he was beside Maximus. He nodded toward Selena. “Do you have some sort of plan to deal with her?”
“Deal with me?” Selena shouted before Maximus could respond. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’m not with the Phoenix Corps. Look, if they’re the ones who messed with the permits then they screwed me, too. Not to mention two of their guys tried to kill me not all that long ago. I’m not going to lose any sleep over you delivering a little payback.”
Cornelius sneered. “We have no reason to trust you. Just because you’re not with the Corps or the Horatius Group doesn’t mean you won’t sell us out. Maybe you decide you can make some money running to the media to sell your harrowing story of what it was like to be around the hybrids. Maybe you try to ask around until someone from the Corps shows up, and you sell us out then.”
CJ scratched his eyelid. “If it were that easy to find the Corps, it wouldn’t have taken us this long to finish them off.”
He offered a merry smile in response to Cornelius’s cold, angry stare.
“This is crap.” Selena rolled her eyes. “All I’ve been trying to do from the beginning is my job.” She threw her hands in the air. “I scouted a location and helped get the permits only to get them yanked out from under me. Maximus is the one who talked to me, not the other way around. I never planned for him to come along, so it’s not like this is all part of some secret plot. I’m not psychic. I can’t see the future.”
Maximus sighed. “If I hadn’t come along, you’d be dead now.”
“I… I know. Thank you.” Selena grimaced. Her shoulders slumped. “But I don’t like Captain Smiley over there talking like he’s going to stuff me in a cell somewhere until this is all over.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Cornelius muttered.
“Try it asshole,” she huffed.
“Captain Smiley?” CJ snickered.
“Enough,” Maximus growled, making Cornelius stiffen and Selena smirk. “No one’s doing anything to her. I trust her.”
“It’s not exactly like sunset is in an hour,” Cornelius said. “Even if she’s the world’s most loyal human, she might say the wrong thing to someone, and the next thing we know, the Corps decide to take out our little hideout with a missile.”
Selena closed her eyes and moaned. “What if I promise to go to my hotel room and hide in bed until tomorrow?”
“There are a lot of lives on the line.”
CJ offered her an apologetic look. “No offense, but I’m with Cornelius. You seem nice, Selena, but we’re not here on vacation. All it’d take is one wrong word in the hall, and the next thing you know the news is blathering about it, and the Corps is on the move in town.”
Maximus’s hand clenched into a fist. Selena was a victim here and his brother hybrids were treating her like a worse threat than the two Phoenix Corps guards he’d just killed. She didn’t deserve it. He was the one who made the mistake of not forcing her away from the start.
“I’ll handle her,” he announced.
Everyone stared at him. Selena folded her arms and glared at him defiantly, her trembling and paleness from earlier a distant memory.
“And how?” she began, her head cocked, “are you going to handle me?”
“Easy.” Maximus shrugged. “We’re not launching the raid until later tonight. All I need to do is keep
