Chapter 42
Electra
Electra steps out of the locker room, still basking in the postcoital glow. Someone bumps into her shoulder. She must really be riding high and not paying attention because she didn’t notice anyone else in the hallway. “Excuse me,” she says, turning around to see who she bumped into.
“You’re excused,” a man in an orange jumpsuit says. Another man stands behind him. They’re both vaguely familiar.
She quickly racks her brain to remember where she saw them. Then it hits her. “You both were in Z Quadrant the other day in the hall.”
“Bingo,” the one nearest says, holding up a sparkler.
Her breath catches in her throat. This can’t be happening. Right as she’s about to scream, the man behind him steps into the light. His nose is smashed from a recent break, and she remembers Res6 told the inspector he heard bone crunch when he struck one of the robbers in the face.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She backs up, glancing over her shoulder. The lobby isn’t far. Res6, who she just promised that everything would be fine, isn’t far. “You’re the ones who stole the specimens from the CHOICElover lab. We didn’t tell them anything,” she lies.
The man with the broken nose chuckles, lifting a syringe.
Her voice shakes as she pleads, “No, please. I don’t know anything.” She can’t let them get the needle near her. She darts back, opening her mouth to scream, but the man with the sparkler points in at her head. The dial is set to red—kill mode.
“All we need is your DNA sample. Scream, and you’re dead.”
She whimpers, her tremors becoming convulsions as the man eases toward her.
“That’s it, pretty girl. Much better to keep you breathing. You are much more useful to our boss alive. But . . .” he shakes the sparkler, turning it down to the orange setting. “I can make you wish you were dead.”
Her blood runs cold. Just like all those months ago when Lextr raised a needle to her, the action happens in slow motion.
She doesn’t care about pain. She has to make sure he knows she didn’t leave him again.
It would kill her if he thought that. It would kill him, and she cares way too much to let him get hurt like that again.
Maybe he’ll find her. Not maybe. He will find her.
She opens her mouth to scream right as the needle pierces her flesh. “RES6—”
Everything goes dark.