On the slab lay a body so burned it was past recognition. Rain knew instantly it was Sutter.
“Oh, god, Sut. I’m so sorry.” A tear trickled down Rain’s face and she swiped at it angrily. Now was not the time to fall apart. She had to get Sutter’s body and get the hell out of there. She’d made him a promise and she intended to keep it.
Rain quickly searched the cupboards for the body bags the Marines used to transport their dead. Crap. There wasn’t anything. And she was certain there wasn’t anything in the lab, either.
Other than searching the base top-to-bottom for a body bag, her only other option was to hit one of the sleeping quarters and steal a sheet. Since she didn’t have time for a search, the sheet would have to do.
She slid the drawer holding Sutter’s body back into the wall. Then she snapped off the lights and carefully opened the door to the lab.
She peered out the window into the hall. All clear, as far as she could tell, so she slipped into the hall and came face to face with the world’s biggest Marine. Rain swallowed. Hard.
“You see, boys. I told you there was someone in my lab.”
The scratchy voice came from behind her. Rain whirled around. Standing there with a smirk on his ugly, wrinkled face was what she could only assume was the scientist who belonged to the lab.
He wore a coat kind of thing that had once been white but was now a dingy gray liberally sprinkled with stains. His teeth when he smiled were a yellowish color, his breath foul, and his eyes behind thick glasses looked like bug’s eyes. There were two more Marines behind him.
“Who are you?” she snarled.
“Oh, no, my dear. I think the question should be who are you? And what were you doing in my lab?”
Rain clenched her jaw. Nothing. She would tell them nothing. No matter what they did.
The scientist sighed. “Very well. Search her.”
The big, beefy Marine she’d first run into grabbed her from behind and held her still while one of the others ran his hands all over her. Mostly in places his hands didn’t need to go.
Rain just gritted her teeth and swore silent vengeance as his hands moved roughly over her breasts. When he started rubbing them up against her crotch, she felt justified in giving him a swift kick in the shins. He grinned at her, as though she amused him.
The Marine turned and shook his head at the scientist. She’d brought nothing with her just for this reason.
“Well, I don’t suppose you’re going to cooperate and tell us why you came here? To steal food, perhaps? Guns? You know they don’t work on the dragons.” The scientist leered at her, flashing his yellow teeth. “Maybe you just wanted to get some, eh?”
Rain wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by “get some”, but she was pretty sure she didn’t want it. Especially not from him. She remained silent. Better to live to fight another day, as Padre Pedro often said.
“It doesn’t matter,” the man continued, shoving his hands in the pockets of his coat. “The important thing is you are here now, and you will be a perfect subject for the next phase of my experiment. Or at least, I hope you will.”
Rain swallowed hard. She didn’t like the tone of his voice and she really didn’t like the talk of experiments. Apparently drunk Dave Dugan had been right after all.
“What are you going to do to me?” she finally managed.
“Ah, she speaks! Nothing too invasive, my dear.” He glanced at the hulking Marines. “And don’t worry. I won’t let them have you. I need you undamaged for my experiments. Of course if you prove unsatisfactory ... ” He shrugged.
Rain didn’t need him to finish. She knew exactly what would happen to her once the scientist got what he wanted.
Chapter 8
RAIN PACED FROM ONE side of her cell to the other. It took all of six steps.
Damn. How could she have been so stupid? Getting caught like that. And by a mad scientist with yellow teeth, too. Seriously, she’d have kicked herself in her own ass if she could have reached it.
She wasn’t about to become the lunatic’s lab rat. She was even less inclined to play whore for the Marines. She had to escape from the base as soon as possible.
Her mind raced. The only definite way out was through the locker room. She didn’t have time to find another way unless she absolutely had to.
She heard the scrape of the lock and the door swung open. It was the same Marine who’d groped her earlier. Without a word, Big n’ Beefy motioned her to follow him.
“What? Don’t you speak?”
He growled.
Well, that answered that. She meekly followed him out into the hall where she was met by the other two Marines who’d been with Big n’ Beefy outside the lab.
She suddenly recalled a book Padre Pedro used to read to her when she was small. Something about Thing One and Thing Two. She barely held back a smile. No sense pissing off Big n’ Beefy or The Things. They could pummel her into the ground before she had a chance to blink.
They led her up and down a series of halls each painted an identical dull gray color. It soon became obvious they were trying to confuse her with all the similarity. Except they’d passed through the same set of halls three times. One of the many identical doors had a scrape near the window revealing an undercoat of faded red. Rain struggled to keep a straight face. There was a reason she was a Tracker. She had an unerring sense of direction and an almost photographic memory.
The Marines finally stopped in front of a door and Big n’ Beefy took her inside while Thing One and Thing Two took
