4. Four
It’s too soon.
Too fucking soon to be making this move.
My jaw is clenched so tightly I think I might crack a tooth, but we’re on the move, only minutes from Omni Biomedical, and I have to focus on that. Focus on the target and getting her out. There’s no timeline for us to follow, no meticulous plan for this extraction, but I check my watch anyways, watching the seconds tick by. The second hand creeps forward as the van rattles and the world around us speeds past.
I should have known it was a mistake to be sending the kid in. Should have known his soft heart wasn’t going to handle it from the get-go, but he’s the only one of us who could pass. The only one whose looks and demeanor wouldn’t set off alarm bells while infiltrating the facility. He alone would be able to access their computers and black out the security systems for when we were set to move. And today shouldn’t have been the day.
One day. After weeks inside, Tuck only lasted one fucking day in there as an evaluator before he called us in. He didn’t even get to observe the target or whether she could actually do what we heard she could.
We are risking everything by coming so soon.
Regardless, as soon as I got the message, we moved. Organized and methodical in our movements, the three of us strapped on every bit of gear we had and piled into the van.
We’re not unprepared. We’ve been watching the heavily secured complex for months now in preparation. I had hoped, however, that we would get some first-hand knowledge of the girl’s capabilities, to know for sure if she would be of any use to us before making our move.
Two shots in quick succession take out the gate guards, and Silas wastes no time driving through the barriers. He’s a bull through and through.
Beside me, Rayner is making the last arrangements he needs to his gear before we launch ourselves into the thick of it.
The tires screech as Silas drifts the back of the van as close to the building as physically possible, before I throw open the back doors and Ray launches his bag away.
We speed away from the wall with just enough time before the bomb goes off, detonating directly against the wall. The blast effectively turns the thick concrete walls into a breezeway, allowing us access to the heart of the compound.
Before the dust has even begun to settle, Ray and I are out of the van, sprinting harder than either of us ever have before.
We know the layout, and we know exactly where she is thanks to Tuck’s message, the third of four evaluation rooms in the complex, we just have to hope that she wasn’t against the wall when we blew a hole through it. We won’t have much time to dig a girl out of rubble before we need to move.
Ray is faster than I am, so he gets hit with the scene in front of us first. A girl, a woman really, laying in the snow, being shredded by two massive wolves. She’s screaming and fighting with everything she’s got, but she’s absolutely no match for the two of them.
He might have seen it first, but he’s frozen at the gory sight, and I don’t hesitate to act. I raise my AR-15 and dispatch the wolves quickly. They’re dead before they hit the ground, and as of right now that’s the most mercy I’m capable of granting anything.
In practiced movements, we stalk into the frigid room, watching for anyone who might be coming to protect her.
A bitter laugh escapes me at the thought.
They don’t give a shit about protecting her, all they care about is protecting their property. Property. The person who they’re currently mutilating for science with the promise of massive, world changing profit on the horizon.
So far no one has approached. So much for the world-class security they pay for. Despite the lack of visible enemies, we know not to drop our guard until we’re long gone and have shaken any tails that might have tracked us.
My boots settle into the snow beside her, and she’s deathly still. All that fight she had in her has drained away. For a second, I’m worried we’re too late. That this was the test that would finally do her in. That, or the information we received months ago was greatly exaggerated, and she isn’t nearly as hearty as was promised, and we’re about to steal a corpse.
If this had happened years ago, I would have cleaned out the place entirely. Fuck any evidence left behind, I’d leave no witnesses, no one to track our next moves. I don’t have the luxury of time to waste, though. In and out, that’s how it has to be.
A rage I didn’t think myself capable of settles into my bones, and it feels as though the ground beneath me shakes, the concrete itself knowing I’ll destroy those responsible for this.
Sure, I plan on using her, and yes I will absolutely be putting her in danger, but I’ll be damned before I treat a human being like a lab experiment. If the job wasn’t so important, if it wasn’t absolutely everything I’ve dedicated my life to, I might consider calling the whole thing off here. This woman, who couldn’t be more than twenty-five, has endured every type of torture I can think of. And I sure as hell am not a rescuer.
I’m not taking her to some wonderful life after this where she can relax, fall in love, pick up some hobbies, hell, even pop out a few kids. No. I’m taking her from one hell into another.
I reach down and lift her as gently as I can, the jostling motions bringing her body into a level of alertness that doesn’t reach her slack face. She shakes and trembles violently in my arms, and I’m grateful for the gloves and gear I’m wearing, otherwise she may be too slick for me to get a good hold on her with all the blood coating her skin.
Gunfire erupts around us as Ray and I jump back into the armored van, greeted by Tucker’s pale, terrified face. He had to watch the whole ordeal, and I can’t blame him for being shaken, but he needs to pull his shit together. I place the newest member of our team on the floor of the van, moving to give Tuck enough space to do whatever field dressing he can do with the limited supplies we were able to grab from the drop house.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Ray shouts from his seat, quickly discarding his helmet. “Is she going to be alright?”
He’s moving too quickly, too panicked. This isn’t the kind of behavior I’m used to from him, his normal arrogant and collected self having vanished as soon as we were back in the van.
Ray looks at me, desperate for answers. The kid probably thinks that he’s the one that did this, that his explosives somehow had a greater impact on her safety than the rabid animals shredding into her, pulling and thrashing like she was a damned rope toy. He’s a good guy, him and Tuck. Both sit firmly on the moral side of our operation. Killing when necessary, but absolutely devastated at the thought that they could be the cause of harm to an innocent bystander. A weakness, no doubt, but not one I’m willing to let them part with. Their souls can still be saved.
“Tucker,” my voice pulls him out of whatever thought pattern he’s fallen into. “Do what you need to do.”
He gives me a single, quick nod before he launches into motion, directing myself and Ray to apply pressure and hold her still. We could bark at him, telling him we know the basics of field dressing as well as anyone else, but we let him lead. This is his area, and he is the one who knows better than us what this girl needs to survive.
Everyone is tense as Tuck stitches up what little he can of her ruined arm and leg. The trembling of her body is masked only slightly by the rough ride in the back of the van.
She’s nearly naked, wearing only her nondescript underwear and sports bra, both covered in the macabre tie-dye of her own blood. Her skin, the skin that’s intact, at least, is sallow, all too pale for the green undertone of it. She hasn’t seen the sun in over a decade, and it shows. Faint pink lines cover the pale expanse of her skin, not angry enough to be scars, necessarily, but it looks like fresh, delicate skin still healing from previous injuries.
Does she even scar?
A quick scan of her still shaking body tells me that there’s not a single scar to be found. God, how many times has she been through this? How many times has she been shredded apart only for her body to wipe away all evidence of it?
By the time we arrive at the property, I’m more and more convinced of the girl’s abilities. Anyone else would have already died from the blood loss alone, not to mention the shock of the whole ordeal, but she”s still breathing.
Silas slips out of the driver’s seat and comes around to the side door where we’ve slid her closer to the edge. He carefully slips his arms underneath her and lifts her as if she weighs nothing, all the while ignoring Tucker’s constant instruction on how to support her, to be gentle with the stitches, to keep her from being jostled too much as he makes his way into the safe house. He doesn’t need to listen to know, but Tucker must need to say it to feel like he’s helping.
After she’s been carried up the stairs and laid into bed, I kick them out, instructing Tucker to leave the med bag behind.
“Silas.” I call him back into the room before he can start down the stairs. “Give me one of your shirts.”
He doesn’t so much as nod his agreement before turning and walking to his room, returning seconds later with a clean white shirt that’s more than big enough for her. He lingers in the doorway for a second, staring at her, his usual unshaken facial expression still in place but his eyes refusing to leave the shredded parts of her.
“Go.”
That snaps him out of it. He clears his throat and turns away, closing the door behind him. I pull the surgical scissors out of the med bag and set to work, gently cutting her undergarments away from her, before slipping the shirt over her body and carefully pulling her arms through the holes. I don’t take any longer than I need to, don’t let my eyes linger anywhere they shouldn’t. I’ve stolen her and I’m going to use her, but she’s not here for me. I’m not a good guy, but I’m also not a monster.
I discard the bloodied pieces of fabric and slip out of the room, leaving her body to do what it needs to do to repair her shredded skin.
Tucker has volunteered his room to be her recovery space since he’s going to be the one checking up on her and making sure that her healing is progressing like it should be. We’re all going to take shifts watching her throughout the day and night, making sure that she doesn’t have some sort of miraculous recovery only to sprint into the woods, never to be seen again.
On the third day of her uninterrupted sleeping, I’m getting antsy. I can only walk around the property and reread her stolen files so many times.
“How long is this going to take?” I snap during another bout of prolonged silence.
Tucker jumps, reassuring me that everything is fine, she will be okay, and according to the records, she tends to recover from ‘death events’ involving this level of blood loss in four days. All in all, we’re on track to have her up and moving in what could be a matter of hours.
I’m sick of this waiting, sick of going through these placeholder motions. We’re not moving forward, I’m not moving forward, and that’s what keeps me up at night. That”s what’s making me feel like I’m ready to crawl out of my own skin.
I scratch at the too long stubble on my cheek, no longer a five o’clock shadow and now in the uncomfortable in-between stage of beard growth.
I’ve got to get myself together.
I send Silas out to get the last of the supplies we might need for when she finally comes to and has God knows what reaction to this whole thing.
All we can do now is wait.
Perfect.