Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor (29 page)

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Mak gritted his teeth as the spasms in
his muscles caused his injured ribs to shift beneath the tightening
of his stomach muscles. One of the nerve pulses had hit him before
when the Recon Marines had captured a crew of former army men who’d
stolen a vessel to use in piracy. He hadn’t been injured going into
that action as he was now. When he could breathe through the pain
again he took in his surroundings.

Back in the large training room where
the scent of violent death lingered. So he had killed some of the
traitors when he escaped. Chains held him this time, shackles on
his left wrist. The chain snaked around a metal bar worked into the
wall.

How many hours had he been
unconscious? Hours? A day?

Voices drifted through the door, Shear
and a man. One of the giants or a regular guard. Did Shear speak to
her creations except to give orders? The regular guards looked like
men with military backgrounds though if they’d trained the giants
they hadn’t done a very good job. Despite the giants’ size and
strength, they fought with the competence of green
recruits.

“
Bring her,” Shear growled
from just outside the door.

Mak’s heart took a hard stroke. Shear
could only mean one female. His last sight of Molly had been her
running after he fell on his face. He’d hoped they’d overlook her
when they found his body. Perhaps they’d run bio scans after
all.

Four giants walked into the room
followed by two guards supporting Molly between them. She appeared
awake but weak. Her mouth curved when she saw him but if she meant
to smile it looked more a like a grimace. Dr. Shear followed behind
her with two more giants.

The giants took up station, two on
each side of Mak. He sat back against the wall, unsure yet if he
could stand. It hurt his ribs to lean but so did breathing. Shear
stopped in front of Mak and crouched down so she was at his eye
level. The giants with Shear moved back to flank the guards holding
Molly upright.

Mak ignored Shear as he tried to
capture Molly’s gaze. For just a second she met his stare but then
her eyes glazed over again. Pretending. He hoped she didn’t think
he was doing the same. He really couldn’t stand yet.

“
You’re really something,
Mak,” Shear said. “Recon Marines live up to their reputation, don’t
they? Six of my men are dead and five more are in the infirmary.
We’re unsure if they’ll all make full recoveries.”

Mak finally looked at her. Though
intelligence gleamed in her eyes, they lacked the natural warmth
expected in a doctor. Compared to Molly’s bright curiosity, Shear’s
piercing cold stare reminded him of the lens of an AI device.
Talking to her would keep her attention off of Molly. “That’s
because you made a mistake in their design.”

She narrowed her eyes. “They’re
stronger than you, more durable and they obey orders.”

“
They are big and
strong.”

“
I could order one of them
to pull Molly’s arm off and he would. Without
hesitation.’

“
Unchain me and I can do
the same to you. Without anyone giving me an order.”

Her lips curved into a cruel smile. “I
don’t think you would. Recon Marines lack the necessary will do
what sometimes needs to be done.”

“
The Recon Marines have
their humanity so they would never torture or kill an unarmed
woman.”

“
Humanity?” Shear laughed.
“How did the marines come to believe that hoax? And with the help
of Molly’s father that fiction was sold to the world. My men are
human. They all started as real soldiers unlike you. Your kind came
from the experimentation of amateurs. How many embryos died or were
destroyed until they settled on you?”

“
I don’t know.” Mak had
wondered the same thing himself but he would never share that with
her. “Do you think it was more than all the men you killed or
destroyed with your project?”

“
I know exactly how many
it was, lieutenant. I knew their names and have the agreements they
signed to give us leave to build them into better
soldiers.”

“
How many would have
agreed if they’d known what you intended for them?’

“
Sacrifices were made.”
Shear shrugged. “We knew we wouldn’t get it right on the first
attempt. That’s why we always had our next lab up and running
before we finished at the one before. Except this is our last. This
time we got it perfect.”

Mak wished he’d learned how to laugh
in ridicule. Probably would have hurt his ribs too much anyway.
“Perfect? Your men were defeated by one Recon Marine.”

“
Yet here you are. Chained
up and at my mercy. Along with your lover.”

“
One Recon Marine with
inferior weapons and greatly outnumbered defeated your bigger and
stronger men.”

Shear’s cold eyes heated with an
emotion Mak recognized. Hatred. Recon Marines saw that in their
enemies many times. “My men lack experience in battle.”

“
You said they were
soldiers before you improved them. They’re older than I am. They
should have had enough experience and training.” Mak gestured with
his free hand around the large, well-equipped training room. A stab
of pain lanced from his upper arm across his shoulder and down his
ribs. Every shot he’d taken had hit him on the right side. He
wished they’d shackled his injured arm to the wall instead of his
good one.

“
You converse well for
what you are, Mak. Did you learn some of that from pillow
talk?”

He didn’t want her focusing on Molly.
“The Recon Marines were genetically designed and trained to be
soldiers. What you’ve done, Dr. Shear, isn’t the same thing at all.
You’ve created killers, not soldiers. Maybe you don’t understand
what it takes to be a good soldier. I’m not surprised if the
military men you were working with where all like Admiral
Lester.”

She sneered. “Damn, Lester. If he
hadn’t insisted on taking Nemon, our best product, with him as a
bodyguard, we wouldn’t have been discovered. Now your foray into
our business means we’ll have to relocate again until our men are
fully trained.” She looked over her shoulder at Molly. “I’m sure
the general will sweep this galaxy for answers when his daughter
disappears, but we’ll be long gone by then.”

“
Are you walking to
another lair?”

“
To bad your clever plan
to disable our ships relied on those play soldiers of yours getting
away. If the minefield didn’t get them, my guard ships
did.”

Ships? Mak had hoped for only one. If
Pender and Box hadn’t escaped then no help would come. At least not
until the general sent someone to check on their tardiness. And by
then the ships Shear had out on patrol would have arrived and these
traitors would be gone. And Molly would be dead. “Don’t sell my men
short. You’re not exactly a good judge of soldier
quality.”

Molly snorted, though it sounded like
a laugh, and called Shear’s attention to her. Standing and taking a
step back from Mak, Shear swung her arm and backhanded
Molly.

Mak sprang to his feet. The shackle on
his wrist jerked tight and sent a shock through his entire battered
rib cage. The giants reacted slower than him, reaching for him as
he hit the end of his chain. They grasped his arms and threw him
back against the wall. The impact knocked his breath from his lungs
and ribs that had only been bruised or cracked gave way. Darkness
edged his vision for a brief moment. Somehow he kept his feet and
locked his knees to keep himself upright.

A trickle of blood ran from Molly’s
lower lips but she glared at Shear with defiance. “You’ll never
escape my father.”

“
I’ve been escaping him
for years. I hid right under his nose as his daughter’s trusted and
esteemed colleague. Everyone thinks you’re so clever but you’re
only one genius among many.”

“
At least I’m a sane
genius.” Molly gestured with her head at the big men. “Only a mad
woman would think of such horrible crimes against
people.”

“
I think I could’ve
changed your view if we had more time. But we have some packing to
do. At least your father’s creature showed us something lacking in
my beauties’ training. It’s so difficult teaching them how to fight
when everyone is inferior to them. Today was just a beginning. Mak
makes perfect prey for our war games.”

“
More like today? I’m
ready.” Though Mak’s ribs hurt with the effort to talk. A few more
days like today in the woods, if it was the same day, and all her
men would be gone.

“
I’m sure you think you’ll
have the chance to kill more of my men.” Shear nodded at one of her
men.

The man pulled out a set of metal
cuffs. He snapped one around Molly’s wrist and then the men holding
her dragged her close to Mak. Two of the giants held Mak’s arm
while they forced the other bracelet around his wrist. A metal rope
linked the cuffs. The guards backed off after testing the
locks.

Molly moved close to Mak and jostled
against his ribs. “What are you about, Helen?”

“
Mak displayed an
impressive success against my men in the forest. It’s only fair
that I handicap him in some way.” Shear smiled. “But I’m not cruel.
I’ll let the two of you rest for a few hours before we resume this
training. We’ll get in one more hunt before we go off world. I
expect our transport in less than twenty-four hours.”

Twenty-four hours. If Pender and Box
had escaped they needed to return within a day. And Mak had to keep
Molly alive until then.

Chapter Eighteen

Molly helped Mak take off his shirt,
sliding it down his left arm to hang between them on the chain. The
good thing about the chain linking them was they had to be in the
same cell. Not even her experience as a physician stifled her gasp
when she saw the damage to his body.

Dark bruises covered most of his ribs
on his right side. Nothing could cause that much subdermal bleeding
without breaking some bones.

“
Turn around,” she ordered
him.

Mak complied. His back looked nearly
as bad. One particularly dark bruise, a deep crimson red, colored
his right scapula. Another that looked swollen ran around the
deltoid ball of muscles around his upper right arm.

“
At least you had the
sense to get your worst injuries all on the same side,” she
snapped, hiding her dismay with anger. The small cell had one
narrow cot and bathing facilities. She’d already washed the blood
from her face in the little sink and they’d both drank handfuls of
water. “Come over to the bed.”

Mak resisted when she tried to lead
him the few steps to the cot. “You know they’re watching us and
listening? We really shouldn’t….”

She would have hit him if she could
have found a spot where he wasn’t already bruised. “That’s not why
I want you to….”

He raised his eyebrow.

She slapped him on his left forearm.
Lightly. He followed her to the cot. Between them they tore the
thin sheets into wide strips. Molly fashioned bandages to brace his
ribs though Mak stopped her from making them as tight as they
should be.

“
I have to be able to
move.”

She nodded and tied off the bandages.
It took their coordinated efforts to slide his shirt back up his
arm and over his head. “Those nonlethal bullets did a lot of
damage.”

“
They can be lethal if
used by someone who understands weapons and knows kill
spots.”

“
Well, then I’ll glad they
don’t understand them as well as you do.” Molly sat on the stripped
cot. “Let’s rest while we can.”

The effects of the nerve disrupter
lingered in her muscles with an aching fatigue. She wondered how
Mak remained on his feet after the stun and all his other
injuries.

He sat beside her and eased back to
lean against the wall. His lips tightened in the only sign of his
discomfort. But he took her right hand and pulled her against his
left side. Though his body didn’t relax he closed his
eyes.

“
I’m sorry,” she
whispered. How sensitive were the listening devices?

“
What for?” he whispered
back.

“
For being here so they
could use me as your ball and chain.”

He lifted their joined wrists.
“There’s only a chain. What is this ball you talk about?” He wasn’t
teasing her with his raised eyebrow.

“
It’s an old saying. It
means I’m hindering you by being here.”

“
Without your help I
couldn’t have defeated them in the forest.”

She wasn’t sure of that. “They would
never have caught you if you hadn’t tried to lead them away from
me.”

“
Yes they would have. They
would have used the advanced heat detectors they used to find us
under the trees.”

Could Mak possibly be lying to appease
her guilt? She didn’t think he was capable of that but if he was,
she loved him for it. She wanted to ask him if he believed help
would come but she didn’t want those listening to hear. “What do
you think they plan to do to us?”

“
Hunt us for
practice.”