Chapter 9
9
P ari hurt. They’d poked and prodded her for hours. She was hungry, thirsty, and when they finally unstrapped her from the table and removed the gag, she thought she might throw up. Thankfully there was a tray of food and a bottle of water waiting for her in her cell. After they’d freed her from the table, three men pulled her off and dragged her into the cell and sat her down on her bed built into the wall. She was able to see the room better and noticed the toilet in one corner and the sink next to it. She hadn’t noticed them before when she first woke up.
Pari looked at the tray of food on her bed. There was a sandwich, a bag of chips and an apple. She was hungry, but her curiosity was overriding her hunger at the moment.
She went to the seamless door of her cell and noticed the one-inch holes at the top of the door along with a few in the middle. Air holes? There were also a couple of long, two-and-a-half-inch slits here and there. Big enough for the barrel of a rifle to fit through. She backed up and looked through the heavy glass wall at the other prisoner’s cell. They must have used those same slits in his door to shoot at him.
Pari stood in the middle of her cell and examined it. The glass wasn’t glass at all but more a see-through plastic. She didn’t know what it was made of, but it was several inches thick at least.
Her eyes drifted from her cell to the man still strapped to the table. He’d been trying to get to her. Why? She was nobody.
“You should eat something,” a familiar voice said.
Pari looked to her left, saw Dr. Charles standing outside her cell, and frowned. “What do you want?” She marched to the cell door. “Why am I here?”
He cocked his head. “You honestly don’t know?”
She shook her head.
“Oh dear.” He disappeared, and Pari had to plaster her face against the see-through wall of her cell to see where he went. A similar see through wall separated her cell from the tall stranger’s. But the back and opposite walls of each cell were of white concrete. She felt like a fish in a bowl, and the men and women working in the lab looked at her now and then, their eyes filled with curiosity. She hoped it was the women that had taken her clothes and put the hospital gown on her.
Pari pushed the thought aside when Dr. Charles returned with a chair and a small table. He set both down then disappeared again. When he came back, he held a fancy teapot with a matching cup and saucer.
Pari watched him sit and pour himself a cup of tea. That done he sat back, crossed his legs, and smiled at her.
“Now,” he began. “Eat your lunch and let’s have a chat, hmmm?”
Pari gaped at him, then looked at the poor unconscious man still strapped to his table with several people in white lab coats buzzing around him. “Who is he?”
The doctor took a sip of his tea then set the cup in its saucer with a delicate clink . “I was hoping you could tell me. If not, then I’m not sure I have any use for you.”
She backed away from the see-through wall. “What do you want?”
“You. For now. And him. But I must admit, I cannot for the life of me figure out what he wants with you. Outwardly you don’t look like anything special. What happened to your hair? And what young lady in their right mind colors their hair yellow? Gad, girl, you’ve more tattoos than a sailor. And that ring in your nose. Most unattractive.” Finished with his tirade he sipped his tea.
Pari’s stomach growled, and she put a hand to it.
“Best eat something, hmm?” he suggested.
As much as she hated the idea, she went to her cot and unwrapped the sandwich. It looked like it came from a deli. Maybe wherever she was didn’t have a kitchen. Did they have to go out for all their food? If so, that meant they were either still in the city or someplace with businesses nearby. She hoped they weren’t out in the middle of nowhere. That would only make it harder for her to escape. If, she could escape , that is.
“Name?” the doctor asked.
Pari looked at him as she chewed and didn’t answer. She didn’t want him to think she was a total loser. She chewed her food slowly then swallowed. “You’re the ones that were waiting for me in my apartment. You already know my name.”
He smiled. “Indeed, we do.” He looked at the man on the table. “But we don’t know his name. What is it?”
She took in the god-like specimen once again and shook her head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“Never?” the doctor chortled. “I find that hard to believe. We saw how he leapt across the street to get to you. He tossed a young man like he was a rag doll. Did you know he threw Jeffrey the length of two buildings?”
Her eyes went wide. “Jeffrey? How do you know about him?”
“Oh, we know all sorts of things, my dear. Your uncles, for example. Leo and Al, is it?”
She gulped. “Leave them alone.”
“Of course.” He leaned toward her. “So long as you give me what I want.”
Her stomach soured, and she didn’t think she could eat anymore.
The man on the table jerked, just like before, and she wondered if they’d give him another dose of sedative.
“Hmmm, most curious,” the doctor said. “I wonder…” Dr. Charles looked her up and down. “He seems to be protective of you. But why?” He reached for a clipboard he’d placed under his chair. He flipped through the pages. “Your blood work isn’t anything special. In fact, I don’t see even a trace of Muiraran blood flowing through your veins.”
Her eyebrows knit. “Muir-what?”
He looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Muir-are-ahn. And I’m beginning to think you’re not one of them.” He looked her over again and arched an eyebrow. “Finish your lunch. If I do have further need of you, I want you to keep your strength up.”
She backed to her bed and sat. “Wh-what are you going to do?”
“More tests. We might even let your big friend over there regain consciousness, just to see how he interacts with you. But only if he behaves. If he keeps trying to break out, then we’ll have to keep him sedated.”
She looked at the handsome man on the table. “What is he?”
The doctor gave her a wide smile. “My prize.” He glanced at the table. “A purebred.”
“A purebred what?”
Dr. Charles eyed her. “Muiraran, of course.” He looked at the man again. “They’re an elusive race. Very hard to trap. I’ve been trying to study them for years. This is the first lucky break I’ve had. With him in my possession, I can figure out his race’s weaknesses.”
Her breathing picked up. “Wh-why do you want to know that?”
He smiled as his eyes brightened. “Because they’re a race of beings with abilities we humans can only dream of. But if my guess is right, and one of us mates with one of them, especially a purebred, we grow stronger, faster.” He put a finger to his temple and tapped it a few times. “Smarter.”
Pari almost slid off the bed. “You…you mean he’s…”
“An alien?” the doctor drawled. “Why yes, my dear. He is. And I want to find out where the rest of his people are hiding.”
She gaped at him. That was an honest to goodness alien on the table?!
Pari’s chest tightened. Oh no, not now! She shut her eyes tight. “What will you do if you find his people?”
“Look at me, girl.”
She opened her eyes. Dr. Charles had a wicked grin on his face. “I’m going to enslave them, of course. And then I’m going to breed myself an army. Mankind will benefit in unimaginable ways. I’m not about to let some alien race take over our planet. They’re here uninvited, after all. It’s only a matter of time before they get it in their heads to try something. I plan to beat them to it.”
A chill went up her spine, and then another, and her heart went out to the unconscious man on the table.
Pari looked at him a little closer as Dr. Charles casually sipped his tea. Was the man unconscious? Could he be faking it?
“So, I’ll ask you again, my dear,” the doctor said, breaking into her thoughts. “What do you know about him? Why did he attack those young men dragging you toward your apartment building?” The lustful look he sent her way was unnerving. “Though I think I know. With four young men manhandling you, their intent was clear enough.”
Pari froze. Jeffrey and his friends were intent on something that day, and she couldn’t bring herself to think about it. Talk about going from out of the frying pan and into the fire! “What are you going to do to me?”
Dr. Charles glanced at the handsome man on the table. “That depends on what the other tests we took tell me. Rest assured, we’ll take more, but if you turn out to be just a silly, stupid, human girl, then I have no more use for you.”
Her jaw trembled. “So… you’ll… kill me?”
He looked her in the eyes. “Of course.”
Her breathing turned jagged as she blinked back tears.
The man on the table jerked once, twice, and his eyes flew open.
Pari went perfectly still. She didn’t want to alert anyone to his wakeful state. Please close your eyes. If you don’t, they’ll knock you out again .
“Eat,” Dr. Charles ordered.
Oswald entered the lab, took one look at the man on the table and went to him. “Dr. Charles…”
“What is it, Oswald?” He looked that way.
Oswald was staring at the man with big eyes. “He’s up again, sir.”
“Ah, excellent. Give him ten cc’s, then we’ll put him in his cell and see if he eats.”
Pari watched as Oswald prepared a syringe, then administered it through the man’s IV. As soon as he did, the big man’s eyes closed, and his breathing evened out. They’d knocked him out again.
Pari busied herself with opening her bag of potato chips as they unstrapped the alien, transferred him onto a gurney, and wheeled him back into his cell. Once again it took five men to lift him off the gurney and onto the bed. If he was human, it wouldn’t take that many, no matter how tall he was. But if he truly was not of this world, then maybe his body mass was much different, and he weighed a lot more than a human male.
Pari absently ate a potato chip as they put a tray of food on the floor near the wall between her cell and the alien’s, then exited and locked the door behind them. She noted the locks were electronic, and there was no way for her to open her door from the inside. She was good and trapped. As was her alien neighbor.
She sat on her bed and stared at him. Pari could see him better, now that her head had cleared and her vision was no longer blurry. She continued to study him and didn’t realize her jaw had dropped until the doctor spoke.
“Magnificent, isn’t he? My beautiful prize. He’s the key to mankind’s success. I don’t care if I have to cut him to pieces to find out what I want.” He gave Pari a wicked smile. “After all, there are more of him out there.” He turned on his heel, then raised his hand and made a circular motion.
As soon as he did, everyone began to leave the lab. They even dimmed the lights. Was it quitting time?
Pari caught the sound of the camera in her cell, not to mention a few more. She looked up and saw her cell’s camera trained on her. Along with the ones in her neighbor’s cell they would capture every move they made.
She got off the bed and noted there were cameras in every corner of the lab. Every last one was pointed at the two cells.
Now more than ever she felt like a fish in a bowl, every eye trained on her and the… alien.
Pari gulped as she stared at him. Not three seconds went by, and his eyes opened.