New Species 05 Brawn (9 page)

Becca jerked awake on the cot, knew where she was and sat
up. She’d somehow fallen asleep. Two men, neither one of them Randy, unlocked
her cage door. Brawn snarled at them again and she glanced his way to see how
he clutched at the bars. He shook them hard, his biceps strained from the
effort of trying to break them but it was a wasted effort.

One of the men stepped inside and frowned. “Get up and come
with us. You will get hurt if you fight us.”

“Leave her alone. Take me,” Brawn roared. “Don’t touch the
female. I will kill you, tear you apart, if you hurt her.”

The guy in her cage ignored the threat. “Get up, Becca.
That’s your name, isn’t it? There’s no point in fighting unless you want to
feel some pain.”

She stood on shaky legs and glanced at Brawn. His eyes were
narrowed with rage as their gazes held.

“I’ll be okay. Calm down and save your energy.”

Brawn shook the bars again. “Take me. Don’t harm her.”

The jerk inside her cage finally shot him an annoyed stare.
“It’s not a big deal. The doctor wants to examine your girlfriend and give her
a little shot. Stop making that racket. I hate you large cat mixes. I forgot
how damn annoying you can be.”

The guy outside the cage snorted. “The howlers aren’t any
easier on the ears.” He glanced at the far cage with the still-sleeping male on
the cot. “I’m so damn glad that one finally crashed. My ears were bleeding, I
swear.”

The guard grabbed her arm to jerk her out of the cage and
she stumbled forward. She was afraid as the two men made her walk toward the double
doors. She dreaded whatever waited behind them.

A long hallway stretched ahead as they entered the unknown
section of the basement and stopped three doors down on the right where one had
been left wide open. The room reminded Becca of a doctor’s office when she
spotted the exam table in the center of the room, one big light attached to it,
and her head turned. A desk was in the corner, covered in papers, files and two
computers. One of the monitors showed the room with the cages. A female doctor
turned her chair away from that view to openly study her victim.

“Put her on the table and strap her down.”

“Who are you?” Becca didn’t fight as the men shoved her at
the table. “What do you want?”

“Sure thing, Doctor Elsa.” One of the men nodded.

The woman refused to answer, instead just stood and crossed
her arms over her chest. Becca memorized the gaunt face, the black hair pulled
into a tight bun and the woman’s long, thin nose. She glanced down to note the
doctor was rail thin, perhaps five foot nine in her flat shoes and wore a white
lab coat. No rings adorned her fingers, no scars or tattoos were visible. She
had no distinguishable marks besides a few wrinkles around her mouth and eyes,
which pegged her age at around fifty. She stared long enough to make sure she’d
be able to pick the bitch out of a lineup if the need arose after her rescue.

The two men suddenly adjusted their holds, lifted her off
her feet and slammed her back on the table. It was padded, no paper had been
laid down the way real doctors did for exams and the cheap, fake leather was
cracked from age. Panic struck when they began to use Velcro straps to pin her
arms down and she kicked at one of the men who grabbed an ankle, nailed him in
the arm and he glared.

“Put your feet at the end of the table.”

She locked them together bent up. No way was she going to
allow them to strap her flat and leave her totally helpless. The jerk leered at
her. He suddenly reached out and grabbed her thigh to dig his fingers into her
flesh deep enough that it really hurt. She screamed. It felt as though he was
tearing the skin from the inside of her thigh. She opened her thighs and his
hand released.

A faint roar sounded but she heard it. Brawn. He must have
heard her scream. The doctor laughed.

“He is pissed. Make her scream again and see if he reacts,
Dean.”

Dean grabbed her thigh and dug his fingers in again. This
time Becca expected it. She gasped and tensed through the horrible pain but the
asshole dug in deeper until she couldn't take the agony anymore. His hand
released her thigh when she screamed. Another faint roar sounded a second
later.

Doctor Elsa chuckled. “I never expected them to bond so
well.” Her cold gaze examined Becca. “Thank you. Now I have a way of
controlling one of them. I think he’ll do anything I want if I use you against
him.” She smiled widely at her two goons. “Look at the monitor. He’s going
nuts.”

Dean turned his head and Becca stared at the monitor too. It
was a live shot of the cages from high above, where she’d spotted those cameras.
Brawn paced and attacked the bars but they didn’t break. He roared again, spun
and began pacing furiously.

The doctor walked to a microphone system by the monitor.
“Stop it or I’ll hurt the female,” she warned. “Sit down and be quiet.”

Brawn paused, lifted his head and glared at the camera. His
rage was evident. He backed up until he reached the cot, sat hard and his hands
gripped the edges of it. He kept glaring at the camera. The Doctor moved away
from the microphone and laughed.

“I’ll be damned. I bet that cat would bark if I told him I’d
hurt her if he didn’t. This is intriguing.” She waved her hand as she faced
Becca. “You men can leave us alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Dean hesitated. “We
should stay in case you need us. Her legs aren’t strapped down.”

She shrugged and walked around the exam table, studying
Becca. “What’s your name?”

“Rebecca.”

“Well, Rebecca, I’m going to take a swab of your mouth to
test you for drugs and get a sample of your DNA. Open up and if you bite me one
of these guys will knock out your teeth. Do you understand? I’m also going to
draw blood and give you a shot. I’m trying to figure out what is different
about you that attracted him to you. Leave those feet down and don’t kick at me
either. I have no sense of humor.”

Becca didn’t fight and opened her mouth for the swab against
her cheek. She flinched when the bitch drew blood from her arm. The shot to her
hip hurt but the doctor finally backed away.

“Are you on any form of birth control? IUD? Do you have
breast implants? Take any medications? Do you have any diseases?”

She clamped her lips together.

“Do you want a full body exam?” The woman reached into her
front pocket to withdraw gloves. “I don’t have an ultrasound here to see if you
have implants but I could feel my way around. It won’t be comfortable but the
men might enjoy holding you down, tearing off your clothes—and the view.”

“Fuck you,” Becca hissed. “No. No breast implants or
anything else added. I don’t have any diseases or take drugs.” She paused. “I’m
totally healthy and I am not on any medications.”

“What about birth-control pills?” Dean stepped closer. “Or
those shots. My girlfriend takes those.”

“Are you on any form of birth control?” The doctor suddenly
grabbed Becca’s nightshirt and jerked it up to her ribs, exposing her stomach.

Becca gasped but the woman’s hands were on her skin before
she could react. She held still, afraid one of the men would hurt her since
they lunged forward, ready to grab her if she fought the doctor’s touch.

“No scars from surgeries.” The hands were cold as the woman
lowered the waistband of her underwear a few inches. “No stretch marks from
pregnancies.” She glanced up at Becca. “I take it you don’t have any children?
You haven’t answered me about the birth control.”

“No children and I’m not on anything like that either.”

* * * * *

Brawn stayed seated but fumed and worried about Becca.
Horrible images of the things being done to her filled his imagination.
Memories surfaced of what Species women had endured at the hands of Mercile
staff during the breeding tests. They’d examined the women, sometimes performed
exploratory surgeries on them and didn’t even have the decency to drug them
first to alleviate the pain.

A snarl built in the back of his throat at the idea of Becca
suffering that way. She hadn’t had years to build up tolerance to pain. She was
gentle, sweet, and he worried about her mental state. He might be able to keep
her alive if given the chance but their captors might kill her outright. He
definitely couldn’t protect her mind from the atrocities she might have to
endure.

He fingered the coin inside his pocket and worried that it
was useless since help hadn’t arrived. The second he’d placed the emergency
distress call to Homeland they should have activated the tracking device hidden
inside the metal. A team should have already shown up and attacked, or better
yet, reached them before they were secured inside the underground prison. Becca
had been certain hours had passed since they’d been taken and that meant help probably
wouldn’t come.

His eyes closed as he thought of the reasons why his coin
had failed. It had been tested before he’d left Homeland so it wasn’t defective
but the assault team could have had something to jam the signal. The walls
around him appeared to be thick concrete and they could block the signal too.

Fuck!
He jerked his eyes open as two men opened the
doors where they’d taken Becca but they weren’t escorting her. He shot to his
feet.

“Where is she?”

“Calm down, beasty boy,” one of them sighed. “Your
girlfriend is with the doctor. We’re here for him.”

They edged toward the cage with the pacing male who refused
to calm or speak. Panic gripped Brawn as he lunged for the cage wall. “Take me
instead. I’ll breed with the human. Don’t allow him to touch her. He’d end up
killing her.”

Both men paused and glanced at each other. The one who spoke
finally stared at Brawn. “919 isn’t going to mount your girlfriend. He’s got
one of his own.”

His male companion chuckled loudly. “She’s a real sucker
too.”

The joke Brawn didn’t understand made both men laugh.

“Where is Becca? Why did she scream? What have you done to
her? Tell the human in charge I have the authority to pay a ransom for our
return to Homeland. All of us, including Becca.”

They stopped laughing and the dark-haired one bit his lip.
“How much money are you talking about?”

The redhead slapped his companion’s arm. “Shut up,” he
hissed. “That isn’t even funny.” His gaze lifted to the camera. “She’ll hear
you, might take it serious and you’ll end up with a bullet in your brain, numb
nuts.” His voice rose. “Real funny, Greg. Don’t play with the fucker. I know
you’re bored but false hope is the last thing he needs right now. Let’s do our
job.”

The dark-haired guy lowered his voice. “She’s busy and I
doubt she’s watching those cameras right now. We could at least hear him out.”

“Randy will kill us both. They can’t pick up whispers on the
audio but I’m telling you now not to talk to him about that shit. We’re all in
this way too deep and the only way he’ll ever leave here alive is on a cargo
plane bound for some hellish third-world laboratory where they make us look
like amateurs.”

“Name your price,” Brawn hissed softly. “I could gain access
to millions.”

The redhead glared. “Shut the fuck up. We’re all screwed.”

“He might mean it. They got money,” his friend whispered
again. “I don’t trust any of them, Mike. You’re the only friend I have left.
They don’t give a shit about us.”

Mike spun on Greg and grabbed his shirt. He spoke low but
Brawn’s hearing picked up the words easily.

“Do you want to get us both killed? We’re wanted by the
police, they are going to stick a needle in our damn arm or lock us up for life
if we get caught and the only way out of this mess is to do what Doc Elsa says.
She’s the brains, she’s making us money and she has the connections to get us
the fuck out of here. We’re going to live in Russia with new identities, find
us some sweet brides and drink vodka, damn it.”

“Money we don’t see. They control everything, Mike. We’re as
fucked as those animals are but we aren’t locked in cages. For all we know,
they could put a bullet in our brains when we’re not useful anymore or just
take off without us.”

“They wouldn’t dare. We know too much to leave behind and
Randy isn’t going to kill one of his men unless he thinks he can’t trust
someone. I worked with him far longer than you have. He might be a prick but
he’s a stand-up guy for his crew. He’s all about loyalty. You fuck that up and
you will be dead.”

“Shit.” The dark-haired guy shoved his fingers through his
close-cropped curls. “Okay. I’m just sick of this shit. I just want to get to
Russia and start my life over.”

“Me too and we’re so damn close. We just need to capture a
primate. You heard Doc Elsa. They want a complete set, they’ll pay enough for
them and we’ll finally get out of this shithole.”

“Right.” The guy nodded. “I used to clean floors, damn it.
How the hell did this happen?”

“We worked for the wrong damn place,” Mike muttered. “Let’s
worry about getting this bastard to the other room without him killing us and
take it one day at a time. We’ll get to Russia and hell, we’ll buy us a few of
those hot brides we see on the internet all the time.”

“Yeah.” Greg reached behind him and pulled out a Taser gun
from his waist. “Let’s get him.”

Brawn didn’t speak as he watched the two humans approach the
cage. He’d heard enough to know they were too afraid to be lured by the promise
of money. They wanted to capture a primate Species and he worried about the
officers mixed with that DNA who traveled between Homeland and Reservation. He
watched with rage as they shot the drugged male, hit him with enough volts
between the two guns to make him lose consciousness and entered 919’s cell.
They lifted the limp male and carried him away.

They said they weren’t taking the male to mount Becca. They
could have lied but he doubted it. Humans were cruel, enjoyed inflicting
emotional pain and they would have taunted him with the knowledge if it were
true. A growl tore from his throat as he began to pace the confines of the
cage.
Where is she?
What are they doing to her? Why hasn’t the task
force located us?