Dark Wrath
Authors: Celeste Anwar
DARK WRATH
Celeste Anwar
© copyright Celeste Anwar (original publication Jan. 2006)
Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright February 2016
www.celesteanwar.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places
are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any
resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
S
ubject
one has resisted all attempts at harvesting, Doctor Wagner,” Doctor Freda
Dallas said, crossing her arms beneath her breasts as she leaned against the
door jamb of Wagner’s office and carefully assumed a neutral expression.
She didn’t feel neutral about it. She was angry and frustrated as she
studied her superior.
Wagner looked up
distractedly from the file on his desk, his faded blue eyes magnified by the
thick glasses perched on his nose. It was a shame, Freda thought, that
the man was so totally unattractive besides being an exceptional
scientist. He was ordinary enough that he might have been flattered by an
attempt on her part to manipulate him by seduction except that he was too
intelligent not to be suspicious of her motives and too thick skinned to notice
anything the least bit subtle. “Have you tried milking the prostate?”
Freda
nodded. Her pose of professional indifference slipped a notch at the
reminder, a frown drawing her brows together over the bridge of her nose.
The tight expression made her head hurt. “Yes. It’s not
working. Nothing has.”
Wagner steepled
his hands beneath his chin musingly. “It amazes me the control he has
over his body, but I suspect it’s a given with what he is. He is a
magnificent specimen. He’s next to useless without viable sperm,
however.” He sat back in his chair, his features drawn into an expression
of disgust and disappointment. “We’ll have to have him destroyed.”
She’d expected as
much and the coolly issued death penalty still sent a jolt of regret through
her. Wagner was right. He
was
a magnificent specimen, too
marvelous in her considered opinion to just arbitrarily destroy him.
Besides, it went
against the grain to just give up on him.
“There’s another
possibility, Wagner, one we considered before but didn’t want to get in to
until all options had been exhausted. I hadn’t expected it to be
necessary. I know none of us expected entrapment and extraction to be so
difficult.”
She had his
attention. He looked at her expectantly, more than a little hopeful, and
she knew she had him. He wanted the specimen as much as she did, not
entirely for the same reason, but that hardly mattered.
“Well?”
“Natural
extraction of spermatozoa through sexual intercourse.” It was a
reach. She didn’t especially like what she was going to have to do to
keep him alive, but she felt Dr. Wagner was desperate enough to consider it.
He leaned forward
in his chair again trying to hide his eagerness. As she’d hoped, his eyes
gleamed with scientific avarice. “Go on.”
“As you say, he
has amazing self-control, but I believe he’s near the breaking point. If
we give him someone he’s attracted to, it could be the impetus we’ve needed all
this time.”
“You have someone
in mind, don’t you?”
Freda restrained
the malicious smile that threatened her composure. “Erin Maddox.
I’ve seen the way he looks at her when she delivers his food. He’s
attracted to her, I know.”
Wagner was silent
a long moment, lacing and unlacing his fingers as he thought it over.
Finally, he said, “She’ll never agree. She thinks they’re nothing but
animals.”
“I know, but her
contract clearly states her obligations to the project. Which is to say
she’s under our complete control. She can’t object, and there’s always
formula 9 if she does.”
Wagner digested
that with just a trace of uneasiness. “You realize this takes it to the
next level. There’ll be no turning back.”
“I assumed we’d
crossed into uncharted territory when we took live specimens.”
He didn’t
consider nearly as long this time. Clearly, he was far too excited at the
possibility of finally making a break through that he’d overcome his brief
battle with ethics. “Agreed. If this works, I think you just may
get that clearance for level five you’ve been so eager for.”
Freda allowed
herself a smile. A bump up the ladder and she hadn’t even had to screw
the old geezer to get it. Who would’ve thought? “Thank you, sir.”
Wagner smiled
suddenly, rising from his seat, possibilities whirling in his eyes. “Have
a syringe of F9 prepared for its first human subject. I suspect we’ll
need it. I’ll call her in.”
* * * *
“Ms. Maddox, come
to my office,” Doctor Wagner’s voice compelled her over the intercom, startling
her with its abruptness.
What the hell
did he want now? Coffee? Tea? For me to come in there and
kiss his ass?
She thought.
Erin Maddox
curbed the impulse to glare at the unit. He could be watching, after all,
and she’d never get off drudge duty if he knew how much she despised leaping to
his commands. There was nothing for it, though. If she wanted her
job, and she did,
and
she wanted a chance to move up from lab drudge to
something of significance, she had to do whatever he wanted her to do.
She stood and
answered the com unit, then headed out to the hall, following it down to his
office.
The facility was
deceptively quiet save for the hollow echo of her heels through the barren,
concrete corridor. She could almost believe she was the only person in
the building. There were no televisions, no murmuring conversations
between colleagues to be heard. Nothing but herself and whatever noises
she chose to make--which was almost enough to make her want to run through the
halls whooping and hollering just for the hell of it. She wouldn’t, of
course, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t tempted. There were just too many
cameras watching for her to act up.
Beyond these
empty corridors, however, was a different story. She knew the grounds
teemed with guards patrolling twenty-four hours a day, just itching for a
security breach. She’d seen them the few times she’d dared to leave the
facilities for fresh air. It felt like the prison that it was--that it
had become for her.
Thoughts of
furthering her career in the government had all but been erased from her
mind. She’d been treated as an interloper from the onset of coming here
and wasn’t allowed access to anything of importance until she could be
thoroughly trusted--which she suspected would be never at this rate. She
wasn’t a team player according to her supervisor, Doctor Freda Dallas.
And she couldn’t leave and apply for another position until the term of this
contract had expired, which left her completely at the project head’s mercy.
She blew out a
frustrated breath thinking about it, which only served to increase her
annoyance over her situation.
Erin reached
Wagner’s office and knocked, mentally composing herself for whatever ordeal he
had planned for her today. His muffled “come in” penetrated the door, and
she opened it and went inside, closing it behind her.
Freda Dallas was
sitting inside in a chair in the far corner of Wagner’s office. Their
gazes locked as she entered. Erin paused for a heartbeat--surprised to
see her in there--before she remembered herself and reluctantly crossed the
room and sat beside Freda in the only other available chair.
If Wagner made
her feel under rule, Freda made her feel positively like a slave. The
woman had had it in for her from the moment she’d arrived. She didn’t
know why. She never knew why some people just decided to hate her.
Erin returned her
cold smile, wondering what the bitch was up to now. Whatever it was, she
knew she wouldn’t like it. Freda had a smug look on her face that set
Erin’s teeth on edge.
“Are you prepared
to devote yourself fully to this project, Maddox?” Wagner asked as he settled
into his chair, clasping his hands on his desktop and giving her the
condescending look he always reserved for her.
Was she finally
going to be given the chance she’d been waiting for? It was too much to
hope for. Carefully, she answered, “Of course, sir. I’ve been ready to
assist in any way you deem appropriate.”
“Good.
Good. You may or may not know of the troubles we’ve had extracting viable
spermatozoa from the specimen we’ve collected?”
“I’ve not been
granted access to that information, sir. No.” She didn’t find the
information particularly surprising though. Freda was in charge of that
department. The woman emanated cold. She wouldn’t respond to that
chilly bitch either if she could help it.
“Yes, well,
here’s where you come in. We need your assistance in a natural
extraction.”
Erin
frowned. “What methods, precisely, have you been using if not
natural?” The process was basically the same for any male animal.
She didn’t see why it would be different in this case.
Doctor Wagner
stood and moved around his desk, sitting on the edge and entirely too close to
her space for comfort. He looked down at her. “Freda has proposed a
radical solution that we’ve not considered before. You’ll perform sexual
intercourse with subject one and then return to us for swabbing once you’ve
collected the specimen.”
Erin stared at
him in shocked disbelief, feeling a cold chill run up her spine. She
couldn’t speak for several heartbeats, and when she could work her throat, her
voice came out like a croak. “Are you serious?”
He held her gaze,
his face blank, impassive as ever. “Perfectly. I know it sounds
radical, but this is no ordinary situation, you’ll agree, and unfortunately it
looks like we’ve run out of other options. Are you agreeable?”
The shock hadn’t
really worn off, but it didn’t have to. Her gut reaction to his
suggestion was enough to send a surge of outrage through her. “
No
.
No, I am
not
agreeable! They’re … he’s an animal! I can’t
believe you would even suggest such a thing!”
Freda rolled her
eyes. “Please. Do we have to put up with these hysterics?”
Her attention
caught by the snide comment, Erin’s head whipped toward the woman she’d begun
to think of as her nemesis. She glared at Freda, forcing herself to calm
down, realizing, as badly as she would’ve hated to admit it that Freda was
right in a sense. She wasn’t behaving rationally and certainly not with
professional, scientific detachment. She’d reacted emotionally.
They were just asking her, after all. It wasn’t like she was being forced
to agree with them. They were rational doctors, not mad scientists.
“I’m not hysterical.” She turned to look at Wagner again, still seething
at the outrageous suggestion and now irritated, as well, that they were trying
to make it seem as if
she
was being unreasonable. “I just don’t
see why you need me. He’s Freda’s little pet. Why doesn’t she do
it?”
“Because he tries
to kill me every chance he gets and he practically comes all over himself when
you enter the room,” Freda answered sarcastically.
“You are
disgusting.” Erin got to her feet, preparing to leave, for good this
time. These people
were
nuts. “I’m a scientist, not a …
Geisha girl. I don’t have to put up with this, and I won’t.
Consider this my resignation.”
“I’m afraid you
don’t have a choice, Erin,” Wagner said, studying his hands.
The calm way he
made the statement made it difficult to absorb given what it alluded to.
It took several moments to sink into her that he seemed to think that all he
had to do was tell her she had to and she would just cave in. Well,
cleaning up after them was one thing. Spreading her legs for that … thing
they had chained in one of the holding cells was another matter entirely.
Even if she was insane enough to consider the order reasonable, what guarantee
would she have that he wouldn’t try to rip her throat out? As the bitch
had pointed out, he was dangerous. “What? You’re crazy.
You’re both crazy,” Erin said, recognizing the hysteria seeping into her voice
as it grew louder.
“I’m prepared to
do whatever it takes for Nemesis to succeed,” Wagner said quietly, standing and
seizing both of her wrists in an iron grip before she could think to try and
evade him.
He was strong.
Stronger than she’d supposed an old man would be, but then, he outweighed her
by a good fifty pounds. Adrenaline kicked into overdrive, making her
blood pound frantically as she tried to pull away.
With all her
attention focused on him, she didn’t notice Freda come up beside her until
she’d pulled Erin’s hair back and jammed a needle in her neck, plunging the
depressor and sending some drug flooding through her veins.
Erin screamed,
jerking away when they released her. Almost immediately, the room began
swimming before her eyes.
“What did you do
to me?” she said with a gasp, clutching her neck, waving her other hand around
to find support or balance, anything to keep her from falling over before she
could get to the door. If she could reach it, she could escape.
“Formula 9,”
Freda said tauntingly behind her. “You’ll find it makes the process much
more pleasurable. By the time it kicks in fully, you won’t care what’s
between your legs. Of course, we haven’t tested it on humans yet.”
“Doctor Dallas,
please. Let’s try to remain professional here,” Wagner said, sounding far
away.
Formula 9.
The words echoed in her mind, bringing horrific images with it. Oh
god! She was totally at their mercy. There was no one here who
would help her. She felt sick to her stomach. Bile burned the back
of her throat as the room wavered. The overhead lights blinked like a
strobe and then winked out entirely.
* * * *
The mechanism
holding the chains stretched tight churned in the ceiling above, unreeling
until the soles of Jesse Stone’s feet touched the ice cold concrete
floor. Relief flooded him, but it was short lived. The churning
continued, the chain lengthened until his arms dropped limply to his sides for
the first time in days.