“And what about the second Vestal?” the man asked. “We somehow missed her. Your plans won’t always go the way you think, Helen.”
A name was useful. It was actionable intelligence.
“It doesn’t matter,” Helen said. “We have her now. And the first has already been removed from the area. Just in case.”
CJ furrowed his brow. Another Vestal?
Whatever they were doing might require a woman to be a Vestal. That might explain the earlier unusual run. He hadn’t been as focused on the woman as Kendra, but she displayed similar capabilities.
He squeezed his hands into fists. They’d screwed up. Kendra might have been an accident, but Ouroboros had come to target a Vestal. Julius wasn’t looking for anyone but Kendra leaving. They had no chance of rescuing the other woman now.
“We won’t be able to get the second one out of here without the hybrid interfering,” the man inside the gym continued. “We should just leave.”
“Such impatience, Michael,” the woman replied with a faint chuckle. “I’ve already solved the problem.” She raised her voice. “If you don’t come in here, hybrid, we’ll kill your Vestal.”
CJ gritted his teeth. He’d not cared about being stealthy before, but at least Kendra was still alive, and as long as he was near her, he could save her.
He threw open the door and growled. “You picked the wrong Vestal to mess with.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kendra blinked several times. Her blurry vision sharpened into clarity. CJ stood at the entrance to the room, glaring at Helen and Michael. Both of them wore sunglasses.
“Don’t do anything, foolish, hybrid,” Helen said with a sneer. “Or I suppose I should say don’t do anything more foolish than you already have. It’s like you and your Vestal were trying to deliver yourself to us.”
“You people all but signed your death warrants when you took her,” CJ replied, baring his teeth.
“Oh, do calm down. Don’t be such a stereotype.”
“Why are we talking?” Michael asked. “Let me finish him off, and we can get out of here with the Vestal.”
“When opportunity presents itself,” Helen replied with a shake of her head, “you don’t go running away. We already have the Vestal. Why not have the hybrid?”
CJ smirked. “You actually think you’ve got the upper-hand here?”
“I know I have the upper-hand. What was it that she said your name was… CJ?” Helen laughed. “How pointlessly human. Disappointing. You should be trying to be less like them, not more.”
“You’re really starting to piss me off.” CJ glanced over at Kendra. “And I’ll gladly kill every last person in this room to save her.”
Kendra continued looking straight ahead, too afraid to move and give any indication she was fully conscious again. She was inside an indoor gym with a fancy, well-maintained basketball court. Uniformed men pointed stun guns at CJ, though they all had holstered pistols at their sides, too.
Everything was hazy, and her head hurt. It was like she was dreaming. She remembered running the course, but it was almost like someone else was running it in her body. Helen had told her to run the course and do her best. It was still hard to concentrate.
“There’s that pointless obsession that’s always disgusting,” Helen said, wrinkling her nose. “She’s just a woman. We could free you of your focus.”
“Like Quinen tried to by messing with our noses?”
“I can assure you Dr. Quinen cared only about himself.” Helen shrugged. “The rest of us have loftier goals.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That doesn’t make it any less true. Are we so evil?”
“You’re a secret group that experiments on people and tries to kill anyone who might find out.” CJ snorted. “Yeah, you’re pretty damned evil.”
Kendra risked moving her eyes back and forth. From what she could see in her peripheral vision, the guards were all in front of her. Everyone was watching CJ, with no one paying her any attention.
With everyone focused on CJ, it was time to make her move. Kendra reached up and felt around her collar. She found a latch and undid it, pulling the collar off her throat but not dropping it to the floor and risking making noise. The residual haziness in her head vanished, though she still had a throbbing headache.
Kendra now stared straight ahead, keeping her expression blank. As long as Helen and Michael didn’t know their strange mind control had worn off, she might be able to surprise them and help CJ.
It was just like running a course with a new obstacle. She had to trust in her body and the presented opportunity.
Helen clapped. “I appreciate you saving our specimen, CJ. She wouldn’t have been useful with severe brain damage. It was really quite touching, but I can assure you it wasn’t our intent for her to hurt herself, and we don’t intend to cause her any sort of lasting physical harm.”
“Bullshit.” CJ growled. “But forget about that. A hybrid strike team is mixed in with the crowd. You’ve got one choice. You can surrender to me, or you can see what a group of angry hybrids can do. Quinen thought he was ready for us, too. Now he’s dead.”
Michael snickered. “You think you can bluff your way into victory.” He reached up and pulled off his glasses. “I’d love to take you on, hybrid.”
“Is that your stench I smell?” CJ scoffed. “You must not have our sense of smell. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to stand yourself.”
“I’m not a glorified dog,” Michael replied with a sneer. “I don’t need to follow trails. I only need my power.”
“Quinen was bragging about being a badass too until Maximus killed him.” CJ shot a grin at Michael. “You guys must be asking yourself, ‘What the hell happened? All those special powers, and he died? What don’t we know?’”
“The doctor was… unstable. As were his modifications.” Helen shook her head. “He wasn’t careful. I wouldn’t be surprised
