Chapter 19
The late afternoon sun filtered down, making the leftover snow sparkle and shimmer. The trees were tipped with white and the gate guard’s breath frosted the air. Jackson barely felt the cold; not that he didn't usually feel warm, it was just with the taste of Chloe still on his lips, he didn't even need a coat.
He had slept a beautiful, dreamless sleep for the rest of the morning. When he had woken up, Quent was gone, but Chloe was sitting at the small table working on her laptop with three books open beside her. She hadn't heard him as he slid out of bed and behind her, feeling her jump when he put his hands on her shoulders.
"Researching your brother's condition?" he asked. She laughed.
"No. Homework." She grinned up at him and his heart soared. Even in the horrible motel lighting, her hair shone and her eyes sparkled. He was still afraid he was going to hurt her, but it was impossible to feel anything but happiness when he was this close to her. He would worry about the wolf later.
"I'll let you study, then." Jackson paused for a moment, and then kissed her head. The simple token of affection felt strange and wonderful. He had never been really been emotionally close enough to a woman to want to be affectionate.
"Okay. I'll see you tonight? Maybe we could do dinner or something?" she asked. He smiled at her.
"You got it. I'll bring something back with me."
Jackson smiled at the memory. He handed his ID to the gate guard and headed off to his office, feeling more hopeful for the future than he had in months. He didn't even hassle the poor private standing guard at his building this time. He whistled softly to himself as he sauntered to his office. Stepping inside, he sniffed the air, making sure no one had been in to tamper with his things. Just because he was happier than he'd been in a long time didn't mean that his old habits were going to disappear.
Everything was exactly as he left it and he let himself relax for a moment. The old chair creaked as he sat down and opened up the locked drawer and got out his laptop. The fact that there were fake orders for the young sergeant concerned him. It was a lot of trouble to go to in order to make someone disappear.
Jackson worked on his laptop for a little over an hour, digging into the fake orders and searching for the men who had attacked Chloe. The more he dug, the less he liked what he was seeing. It was as if Blake Madison had fallen off the face of the earth and the Army was doing its best to keep him there. Other than the orders he had found the night before, Jackson couldn't pull up a single trace of him after his disappearance date.
As far as the men who had attacked them, they were still in the hospital. They were ex-military. Dishonorable discharge after the debacle with Colonel Bronn in the Middle East. It made Jackson nervous that Bronn might be involved, but at least the men wouldn't be coming after Chloe again until they got out of the hospital.
Jackson glanced at the small clock on the lower right hand of his screen. It was almost the end of the lunch hour, and he had been in his office long enough; it would make perfect sense to anyone watching him for him to take a break. He closed his laptop and carefully locked it away. He grabbed his field jacket and went to take a walk around the compound.
The sun was shining brightly, making the snow sparkle like billions of tiny diamonds. The world was crystalline and white. His feet crunched against the hardened snow as he tread a well-worn path toward the science building. Ice gilded the pine needles surrounding the building and giant icicles hung from the roof like jagged knives. The air burned his nose with the cold.
He flashed his ID to the guard on the science building, knowing his rank would gain him entrance. The heat inside was almost a shock to his system after the cold sunshine. Florescent light-bulbs buzzed overhead as he worked his way down the white hallway until it split. A bathroom was straight in front of him with the hallway to the Medical area on his left, and an unmarked doorway with a key-card access pad to his right.
Jackson frowned slightly, unsure of what to do next. Without a key-card, he would never gain access. He could hear someone washing their hands in the bathroom and he came up with an idea. He opened the door and ran directly into a man wearing a white lab coat. Since Jackson had been expecting him, Jackson was able to discreetly swipe the man's key card. With an apology, the man continued out as Jackson hurried into a stall.
He heard the man go to the doorway and curse. Then the dial of buttons.
"Hey, Brad... yeah, I left my card on my desk again. Will you come let me in?" The man's phone beeped as the call ended and then a moment later the door buzzed. Jackson waited until he heard it close solidly behind the scientist before exiting the stall.
Jackson walked confidently to the door, sliding the scientist's stolen badge through the reader as though it were his own. The door clicked open and he stepped inside. There was another long hallway, but the first door to the right was definitely a locker room. He stepped inside. Three rows of ugly tan lockers filled the room. Spare lab coats of various sizes hung along a rack on the wall. Jackson carefully put one on, hoping to blend in with the rest of the scientists.
He looked around the small locker room, until he saw an office door with a cork board beside it. He checked out the bulletin board of information; there were various pictures of new staff and a giant calendar with holidays and birthdays written in neat handwriting. The room was empty, so he carefully pressed down on the office door handle. It pushed inward to a dark, nondescript little office. The only thing in the room that was useful was two spare lab key-cards on lanyards by the door. Jackson put them in his pocket. He had a feeling they would could in useful later.
Closing the office door quietly behind him, he stepped back out into the empty locker room and then out into the hallway. He walked past a lab with beakers full of various colored liquids, and then another with a giant spectroscopy machine. Luckily, the labs seemed to be deserted for the lunch hour and he was able to explore without detection.
A low humming, something human ears wouldn't be able to detect, caught his attention. He followed the sound, finally ending in a darkened room with several computers and a large two way mirror. He was on the non-mirror side and could see out into a lab.
The humming was louder on the other side of the glass, and he stepped up to peer through it. Three large cylinders full of water bubbled in a row in the center of the room. Wires and tubes ran out and into a computer next to each tank. Jackson blinked twice. There were men in those tanks.
Each man floated in a stream of bubbles, a mask over their mouths and eyes shut. Tubes of various sizes pressed into arms and legs. Jackson felt his stomach turn at the sight. One of them had a wolf tattoo on his shoulder; his brown hair waved gently in the water. Jackson felt sick. He knew that that was Blake Madison.
"Is everything ready for tonight?" Colonel Bronn asked, walking into the laboratory. A small, nervous looking scientist followed him. "I want them ready for the full moon tomorrow."
Jackson panicked for a moment before realizing he was behind the glass. Still, he went to the side of the room where he wouldn't be immediately seen.
"Yes, but, sir, I really must protest again. This isn't safe for the subjects." The scientist dry-washed his hands. Jackson could practically smell the fear and nervousness from the observation room. "They're basically full Weres on steroids at this point, but subjecting them to another round of the serum... I just don't think it's going to be safe."
The Colonel rounded on the smaller man. "Did I ask for your opinion, doctor? No." Colonel Bronn stood in front of Chloe's brother's cylinder, peering up into the water at the floating man. "I need these men to be more than just Weres. These boys are going to win us the War on Terror. One night in the 'stan and these boys will have everyone riding a camel begging for them not to come back."
The scientist frowned and brushed a lock of light brown hair out of his face. He was small and thin with a long nose and nervous eyes. "Colonel, this isn't what I signed up for. The whole point of my experiments was to help increase the Were population, not to create monsters."
Colonel Bronn turned slowly and stared down the scientist. It was only seconds before the man in the lab coat was sweating and looked like he was ready to roll on the floor to get away.
"Dr. Hulsey, I don't really care." Bronn said. The doctor was visibly shaking. Bronn looked back to the tank, his face hidden from Jackson. "These boys are soldiers. They are weapons. Weapons you created. This is the future of warfare."
Dr. Hulsey whimpered slightly and Bronn's attention returned to him. The colonel stepped up to the smaller man, Bronn's large finger directly under Hulsey's thin nose. Dr. Hulsey gulped audibly.
"You best take care, Dr. Hulsey." Colonel Bronn smiled coldly. "I'm the one who makes sure you get your funding and that no one questions where you got your cross-species DNA from. You best make sure it stays that way. You know what I do to people who cross me."
Dr. Hulsey looked ready to wet himself with fear. "Please don't send the Squad at me..."
Colonel Bronn patted him gently on the shoulder. "Now, get back to work. These boys are going to get me my general's star."
The scientist whimpered again as Colonel Bronn removed his hand and looked back up at the giant test tube. Dr. Hulsey scampered to one of the computers controlling the cylinders and began pressing buttons and reading the screens. "I'll have them ready for you, sir."
"Good." Colonel Bronn turned and walked from the room without another word to the shaking scientist. As soon as he had left the room, the poor scientist leaned against one of the machines as though he had lost all the strength in his legs.
"I'm so sorry. I tried, but..." Dr. Hulsey whispered, talking to the unconscious man in the nearest cylinder. "You'll be all right, though..."
Jackson had seen enough. He had found Chloe's brother and two other soldiers that needed rescuing. His instinctive dislike of Colonel Bronn had been correct. The man was only motivated by power. Jackson could see the allure of this project for him. A squad of super soldiers under Bronn's control would advance him up the ranks and give him status and power. It was a frightening thought.
Jackson waited until the scientist was busy and had his back to the mirror before exiting the small observation room and heading back down the hallway to the changing area. He neatly rehung his lab coat and found a locker with a matching name to the stolen key-card. He dropped it casually on the floor by the locker, hoping the man would return and simply think he had dropped it changing.
He listened at the locker room door for a moment to make sure no one was coming before slipping out and hurrying out to the first locked door. Once out, he walked casually back outside. The entire encounter had lasted less than fifteen minutes, but it was making Jackson's head spin. The genetic testing on soldiers had him concerned, but what really bothered him about the whole discovery was that he was going to have to tell Chloe. He could only imagine the danger she was going to put herself in to save her brother and that terrified him more than anything.
Chapter 20
Chloe stared at Jackson, her ears hearing the words but her brain struggling to comprehend. The man had found her brother and something bad was going to happen to him if she didn't rescue him that night.