“Don’t you get it, Doc? We’re surrounded.” The thug’s nostrils flared. “These mutts will kill us. We need the bitch as a hostage.”
The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve valued your loyalty, though not your mind. I will handle the hybrids. You just make sure the girl remains unharmed.”
“Don’t worry, Selena,” Maximus said. “I’ll save you.”
She smiled warmly. “I know you will.”
The hybrids spread out, everyone keeping their guns at the ready. They were all good shots, but even if they hit the thug in the head, he might still pull the trigger and kill Selena. The lack of fear on Quinen’s face disconcerted Maximus. An old man with little combat training couldn’t take on a well-trained human, let alone a hybrid. He’d openly stated he didn’t want Selena hurt, so she obviously wasn’t intended as his shield.
Maximus’s heart thundered. A constant growl came out. He needed to save Selena, and if he needed to tear Quinen and his lackey apart to do it, he would.
“Surrender, Quinen,” Maximus said, his voice low and full of deadly promise. “We’re not going to kill you. You’re going to fix what you did, and then you can spend some time in prison after that.”
The doctor laughed. “Fix what I did? Why would I do that? If anything, I need to finish what I started. Your partial link to the Vestals is obviously responsible for you not living up to your true potential, but with time and full access to both you and a Vestal, I can accomplish what was intended.”
“You think this is a negotiation?” Maximus shouted. “You have one choice, Quinen. You surrender, or you die. If the woman so much as bleeds, you die.”
“I’m tired of this shit,” the thug said. He shoved Selena forward and bolted toward a side door. CJ started off him but stopped at Maximus’s raised palm.
“Let him go. He’s nothing.” Maximus turned toward Quinen with a lip-curling sneer. “Now it’s just you and four hybrids. Not a great day to be you.”
Selena blinked and ran toward the hybrids. She moved behind Maximus before flipping off Quinen. “Told you, asshole.”
The doctor folded his arms and furrowed his brow. He looked more annoyed than concerned. There was nothing like fear in his face at all. Outside, the gunfire frequency decreased.
“Ouroboros has all the relevant data,” Quinen said. “And the equipment can be replaced. I think even you hybrids aren’t as necessary anymore. I really only need the woman.” He made a come-here gesture with his palm. “Give me her and leave. I won’t destroy you only because of some misplaced affection for what were once my greatest creations, but don’t try my patience.”
Cornelius barked out a laugh. “You’re one old human. We don’t even need our guns to win.”
“You should ask yourself, hybrid, why I’m so confident when I have no one else here.”
“It’s not confidence,” Maximus said. “It’s arrogance.”
Tiberius and CJ nodded their agreement with their leader’s statement. They took careful steps forward, slowly moving to encircle Quinen, but no one took their guns off him. Maximus felt the same as the rest. There was something else here, something beyond arrogance. He hoped for a bluff, but his instincts told him otherwise.
“You aren’t in charge anymore,” he said. “We’re in charge.”
Quinen folded his hands behind his back with amused tight smile. A purple glow bathed his eyes.
“What the hell?” Maximus shouted.
The other three hybrids jumped back but didn’t fire. They exchanged quick looks before refocusing on Quinen. Glowing amber eyes marked hybrids. Glowing red eyes could mark Glycons. From what Titus had told Maximus, green and blue were other possibilities depending on the type of hybrid, but no one had ever seen purple.
“What are you?” Selena asked, her voice full of wonder. “Who are you?”
The purple glow spread all over Quinen’s body. He lifted his gnarled hands. “Not a reverential supplicant of the past. I am the future.”
Maximus scoffed. “You’re some asshole who started experimenting on himself because you ran out of hybrids to mess with.”
“That’s it, though, isn’t it?” Quinen wiggled his fingers. “What’s the point of making creatures more powerful than myself? The goal of the Group and the Corps were the same, power, but they were foolish and let sentiment and fear misguide them. I’ve not made the same mistake. Ouroboros hasn’t made the same mistake. We were careful where the Group was sloppy. We might be far younger than them, but we’ve learned from their mistakes.”
Maximus pointed his rifle at Quinen’s leg. “Don’t think I won’t hurt you if necessary.”
“Hurt me?” Quinen shook his leg. “You can’t hurt me, failure. I’m already so far past your kind. I will admit some of these advances were the result of serendipity, but the others were the result of my partners being careful and preparing. More importantly, I know a fundamental truth the Group should have accepted.”
“And what’s that?”
“The potential is in everyone.” Purple lines of energy flowed and danced over Quinen’s body. His eyes were ablaze, the bright light obscuring much of his face. “The hybrids were an unnecessary detour, a mistake that distracted us for far too long.”
“Just shut him up already, Maximus,” Cornelius shouted. “This guy’s getting on my nerves.”
Maximus narrowed his eyes. Selena was behind him, and it was four hybrids versus one glowing old man. It was intimidation, nothing more. If Quinen was half as tough as he claimed, he would have put the hybrids down from the start. Being able to make a light show wasn’t the same thing as being powerful.
“Enough.” Maximus scoffed and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He reached into a pouch to grab out a pair of zip ties. “Put your hands behind your back.”
Quinen thrust out his arm. A wave of purple energy blasted from it and struck the hybrids. It was like being hit by a truck. Maximus and the others flew back and crashed hard into crates, cracking them. Selena dived out
