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  “The name’s Billy Casey, with Corp Hudson, of course,” he said as he examined her. “Welcome back from dreamland. I guess I should let the good doctor know you’re awake now. She’s itching to find out what makes you tick.”

  Nia gasped.

  “The real funny thing? All this is thanks to a guy who’s probably just as worth looking into as you are. Yeah, that’s right. I know Alvarez has something in him, just like you. How else could a newbie like him manage to capture one of our hardest targets with next to no effort?”

  Casey walked around, his gaze transfixed on Nia as if he wanted to ensure he saw every inch of her body from every angle. The hospital gown did little to hide Nia’s body. She knew it, and she knew this man knew it too.

  “I don’t have concrete proof, but after what I’ve seen, I’m confident in my theory. And as soon as I’m done here, I’m going to take it to my boss.”

  Nia frowned. “So what? Put a bullet in his head for all I care. What that got to do with you being in here with me?”

  Billy licked his lips. “Yeah, about that…”

  He leaned against the table and slid his hand underneath Nia’s gown, grasping her inner thigh. She tried to squirm, but she could barely summon the strength to tighten her muscles.

  “Having trouble? You’re sedated, little girl,” Billy laughed. “You’re doped up on muscle relaxants…you won’t be snapping the cuffs this time. You’re not going anywhere.”

  Nia’s face tightened.

  “See, the thing is, the doctor’s got it bad for you,” Casey went on. “She wants to tear you apart. Gut you like a fish, prick you like a dartboard and drain you like a piece of fruit. When she’s done with you…man, it’s not going to be pretty. Not like you are now.”

  He suddenly pounced on the table on all fours like an animal, kneeling between Nia’s legs.

  “It would be a damn shame to waste the chance, you know what I mean? A girl like you is clearly used to this sort of thing anyway. So before Dr. Chelsea has her way with you… I’m going to have mine.”

  Nia tried to raise her voice, but her lungs were as weak as her muscles. She could only whimper.

  “Don’t waste your energy, you’re going to need it,” Billy said, taking hold of the bottom of her gown.

  Billy pulled the gown up and tore it off, exposing her breasts. Goosebumps appeared on her skin.

  Nia began to tremble in horror. She was in a sealed room in an unknown building that could have been anywhere in the world, and completely at the mercy of a lecherous soldier.

  She felt nauseous. A cold, sick sensation flooded the pit of her stomach.

  But she did all she could to keep her fear inside; keep it from showing on her face. She knew the moment her fright was evident in her eyes, it was all over. He’d have completely conquered her. He’d win.

  Nia commanded her muscles to thrash about, but her body barely quivered. She was helpless.

  Casey laughed.

  Nia shut her eyes. Tears leaked through her tight eyelids. She could only think of all the things she’d experienced up to this point.

  She thought about how easily she’d bested her opponents on the battlefield, dodging bullets, defeating soldiers with her guns and martial arts, taking out armed troopers in mobile assault vehicles. She envisioned how she overcame biologically engineered living weapons with only her skills and her confidence.

  And she thought about when she’d lay under a man, as nude as the day she was born, only one night ago…how easily she’d stopped that man from forcing himself on her with just the strength in her body.

  How ironic, she thought, that she would wind up like this. In the end, she was just another textbook weak and helpless woman, dominated by a man who hungered for her body and would take it by force.

  As Billy Casey took it upon himself to stroke his rough palms across her breasts and abdomen, slowly making his way toward her panties, Nia knew she was kidding herself.

  It was all over. She was conquered.

  He did win.

  Billy reached down, unbuckled his belt and exposed himself. He flashed teeth and took hold of the waistband of her panties, pulling the fabric from her, exposing her.

  Then Nia’s eyes shot open. She heard a whooshing sound—the sliding door.

  Billy stopped moving. He winced as four fingers pressed into his shoulder like talons from behind.

  “Get off of her.”

  Billy suddenly soared backward, crashing in the hall outside the room!

  Nia whimpered and sobbed, looking around.

  A man circled the table, unlatching the cuffs that bound Nia’s wrists and ankles.

  “I’ll get you out of here,” he said.

  “…Jesús?”

  Casey scrambled to his feet and fixed his pants. “I knew it. You’re breaking her out now, huh? I knew you were a traitor!”

  Alvarez bolted toward Casey in a blur. His forearm met Casey’s skull with incredible force, slamming Casey’s head into the wall behind him. Casey slumped to the ground and passed out.

  “You piece of filth…” Alvarez grumbled. He raised his custom Desert Eagle with onyx plates on the grip, aimed at Casey’s head, and pulled back the hammer.

  Then Alvarez wheeled around to the sound of a body slapping against the tile floor in the room behind him. He saw Nia Black, collapsed on the floor. She tried to drag herself to her feet, but her body was still weak.

  Alvarez put away his gun. He rushed to Nia’s aid, taking her by the shoulders and helping her to her feet.

  “It won’t be long before they find out what’s going on here.”

  Nia soon felt strength returning to her body. She quickly wrapped her arms around her bare breasts. “What…what did you do to me?”

  “I am sorry,” Jesús muttered. “I will explain later, I promise you. Can you walk?”

  Nia slowly nodded. Alvarez left her to lean against the examination table and opened the locker in the corner of the room, where he found her clothes. He tossed them to Nia and turned his back.

  “There are no cameras inside of the medical examination rooms, but plenty of cameras in the hallways. No doubt, someone has already seen what has happened here. We have to get out, now.”

  “No…” Nia uttered, quickly dressing up in her white leather body suit. “No! I’m not going anywhere with you! You’re the reason I’m here in the first place! If I had the strength, I’d—!”

  “Nia, listen to me!” Jesús screamed.

  She flinched. It was the first time he’d ever addressed her by her first name.

  “I need you to trust me. This is not how it was supposed to happen! I will explain everything later, when we get out of here!”

  Nia stood silent.

  “Trust me or not, what I’ve done here, now, proves I’m no friend of Corp Hudson, doesn’t it? We are in the depths of the facility where Hercules was created…the place where it all began. We’re not far from the city. There aren’t any guards inside, but there are all over the perimeter of the island. We need to get moving now, before they flood the place. When Dr. Romedrux learns of this, she’s sure to sound the alarm. We have to get moving. I’ve examined the layout of this place; I can lead you out.”

  “Romedrux?” Nia gasped. “Just like…”

  “Chelsea Romedrux, the scientist in charge of this facility. What she wants, she tends to get. And she wants you dead. Apparently something about you killing her father?”

  Nia shook her head. “Fine. Let’s go. Give me my guns.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t have them,” Jesús muttered. “Had I brought them along, they would have been confiscated by the Security Soldiers. When you were captured, I managed to conceal your weapons. I locked them in my car before I boarded the ferry that transported you over here. We get to my car, you get your guns.”

  Nia sighed. “Okay, whatever. But after we’re done here, it’s going to be you and me.”

  Alvarez nodded and rushed off. Nia started after him,
but she stopped in her tracks when she spotted the comatose Billy Casey on the floor.

  Her heart pounded in her chest. Blood rushed to every corner of her body. Every nerve stood on end. Her muscles tensed up and bulged. She visualized every moment he had his fingers on her body, each instance like acid in her veins.

  Suddenly, it was as if the muscle relaxants were never coursing through her body. She’d never felt so strong…not since the night she fought Armstrong.

  Alvarez skidded to a halt and turned to face her.

  “Miss Black!” Jesús roared. “There’s no time!”

  Nia blinked rapidly, coming to her senses. But her anger wasn’t gone.

  She screamed and slammed her foot into the already-unconscious Casey’s chest, her overwhelming strength sending his body flying down the corridor!

  He crashed into the wall at the end, his body stuck in the hole made by his own back.

  Alvarez ran off. Nia turned and followed.

  Twenty-Three

  Chelsea Romedrux’s team had won their fifth game of online Spades in a row. She sighed and looked at the clock display in the lower right of her monitor.

  “Screw it, I’m tired of waiting,” Chelsea muttered to herself. She looked across her office at a terminal with several monitors that displayed the images from the cameras placed throughout the facility.

  She turned toward the monitor connected to the camera outside of the room holding Nia Black, the camera scanning the corridor outside of Room 23-A from above.

  Chelsea Romedrux swallowed.

  She watched Jesús Alvarez walk toward the room at a hurried pace. He jabbed a keypad on the wall and the door slid open, illumination from inside the room cutting a square pattern of light in the dim hallway. Alvarez stormed in, leaving the view of the camera.

  Then another man soared backwards out of room 23-A, crashing into the wall outside as if he were pushed or thrown—Billy Casey.

  As Casey scrambled to his feet, Chelsea could have sworn she caught a glimpse of his penis. But he quickly straightened his pants and stood up, and he yelled. Unfortunately, the cameras only relayed video, not audio.

  Alvarez appeared on camera again, dashing through room 23-A’s entryway, but he moved so fast, he looked like a smudge on the screen with motion blur all over him—until he stopped in a jolt and smashed his elbow into Billy Casey’s skull. Billy crumbled back down on the floor and stopped moving. Then Alvarez pulled out his gun and pointed it at Casey’s head.

  Chelsea trembled with fright. Was she about to see a murder?

  Then Alvarez withdrew his gun and went back into the room. Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief.

  She stared in horror when a moment passed and Alvarez emerged from the room once more…with a fully conscious, and fully dressed, Nia Black following closely behind.

  Then Chelsea flinched when she saw Nia kick the already-unconscious Billy Casey so hard, the man flew out of the camera’s line of sight. The camera view quivered and flickered with static as if the entire area shook. Nia ran in the other direction, following Alvarez, and disappeared from view.

  The show was over.

  Chelsea remembered that there was roughly a ten-second lag between what the cameras displayed and what was actually happening in real-time.

  Her heart pumped faster as she shot to her feet and raced out of her office.

  For a time, only the sound of snapping twigs and rustling bushes filled the air around Jesús Alvarez and Nia Black as they raced through the jungle-like environs surrounding Chelsea’s facility, slapping aside branches and sidestepping around trees. Then the moan of a siren echoed from the building several yards behind them.

  “Took longer than I thought,” Nia muttered.

  “Or perhaps we’re just fast,” Jesús stated. “Either way, the Security Soldiers will be on the move now.”

  “How far do we have to go anyway?” Nia gasped. “Why isn’t there a road or something? These plants are making me itchy!”

  “There is a road,” Jesús retorted. “But it would be too obvious. We’d be sitting ducks out there in the open. I figured you’d have figured that out for yourself.”

  “Ain’t no reason to be scared of them!” Nia roared. “How many times do I have to beat—”

  “How many times have you defeated soldiers without your precious guns?” Jesús interrupted her. “The less conflict we get into here, the better. There will be plenty of time for battle.”

  “I don’t need no damn guns…” Nia mumbled petulantly.

  “Very well,” Jesús said as he and Nia reached a clearing in the trees. “Tell that to them.”

  Six men in gold and chrome armor raced seemingly from out of nowhere and stopped before the two escapees. Their breastplates looked thick and sturdy, their gauntlets and boots an inch thicker than their forearms and shins, their helmets covering their entire faces except for their mouths and chins, and an ‘H’ logo was embossed upon each one.

  “Corp Hudson Security Soldiers,” Jesús muttered. “Hudson deploys them to protect his most important assets…things, or even people too valuable to entrust to the main security detail.”

  “Why? What’s so special about them? They ain’t nobody!” Nia snapped, dashing forward with plans to send one sailing to the ground with her knee. She jumped higher than a girl of her stature should have been able to jump, put more force behind the blow than a girl of her size should have—

  An armored palm slammed into Nia’s chest mid-flight like a battering ram! The air shot out of her lungs and she flew backward, crashed-landing on the ground, rolling in dirt and weeds.

  Alvarez reached down and pulled Nia up by the arm.

  Each Security Soldier took a single step forward.

  “Corp Hudson analyzes soldiers from all walks of military service, determining which ones are best suited for his personal protectors, and asks them to volunteer for the procedure,” Jesús explained. “Microchips are implanted into their brains that compel them to disregard all stray thought that might be a detriment to their duty…thoughts of fear, for example, or thoughts that the small, attractive woman attacking them looks unassuming and unthreatening. In other words, all they care about is following their orders.”

  “I’ve had just about enough of all y’all calling me little,” Nia grumbled. “And how the hell can Hudson get away with that?”

  “Because he’s Hudson,” Alvarez said. “No one dares cross him. He’s got far too many politicians and media outlets in his pocket for anyone to try to expose him.”

  “Craziness…” Nia shook her head and tightened her fists.

  “We need to get through them to get to the ferry dock. Ready?” Jesús said.

  Nia nodded.

  Billy Casey slowly opened his eyes, feeling the shooting pain in his abdomen and in his head. He found his back making an impressive crater in the drywall at the end of the corridor as he tried to recollect what happened.

  As he looked ahead and tried to focus his vision, he spotted the figure of a curvy, lab-coated blonde woman bouncing toward him and coming to a crouch. The clack of her high heels echoed in his head like a tap dancer on stage, and her high-pitched voice faded in and out as if her voice reverberated from within a deep cavern.

  Finally, he was able to make sense of what she was saying.

  “…you all right? Come on, wake up! You’re not badly hurt, are you?” said Chelsea Romedrux.

  Billy dragged himself out of the wall and swept dust and residue from his uniform. As he did, he coughed, and blood forced its way out of his mouth.

  “My goodness…” Chelsea stammered. “You’re bleeding internally…”

  “I’m fine,” Casey grunted. “Where are they?”

  “Like, out. Duh! They have to be heading for the dock. You’ve got to get her back here. I don’t care what you do with Alvarez.”

  “To hell with that. She’s too much trouble. This is a waste of fucking time. Just kill her…”

  Chelsea took hold o
f Billy’s shoulders and pushed him against the wall, staring into his eyes with fierce determination.

  “Look. I’m sorry if you got your little ego bruised, but we have orders. That girl is Target Omega. That means she is the final element in our boss’ big plans. ‘Waste of time’? Like, don’t you get it? She is our time. She’s totally the whole reason we have jobs. She also happens to be the bitch that killed my daddy. So, like, get off of your ass, and go get her.”

  “Fuck you!” Casey grunted, slapping her hands away. “I take orders from Vincent Marks. You put me in touch with him and—”

  “Like, you take orders from Maxwell Hudson too, right?” Chelsea interrupted him.

  Billy froze and silenced immediately.

  “You might have fallen asleep during this part of the orientation so I’ll give you a little reminder. Research and Development is, like, the biggest, most highly funded arm of Corp Hudson. And why wouldn’t it be? We make the weapons, we make the armor; we make you. R&D is the voice of Hudson when Hudson’s not around, and since that bitch killed my daddy, I’m the voice of R&D. One word from me and you can either be the next security chief…or the guy who cleans the boots for the grunts, Mr. Billy.”

  Billy Casey grimaced and clenched his fists. “Yeah, or I could make it so that not one word will ever come out of your cute little pie hole again.”

  “Um, hel-lo?” Chelsea bellowed. “You were assigned here to protect me, I-I-R-C. And check it out, real-time video all over the place. So, how exactly would you explain how I got whacked on your watch, after Nia Black and her little co-conspirator got away? I bet Vincent and Mr. H would love to hear that story.”

  Billy fell silent.

  “Look, I’m going to level with you,” Chelsea said. “I think you’re really cute. A little reckless, but you’ve got it going on, you know? So I would love it if you and I could be buddies in this little endeavor. I need somebody I can trust to help me do the heavy lifting. Like I said, I can put a good word in with the boss to get you moving on up. And, I come bearing gifts! Have a look.”