“Has he started up another hybrid research project?” Landon asked.
Ivy hoped not. She’d had her fill of going toe-to-toe with out-of-control hybrids. It also didn’t help that after getting to know Minka Pajari, the hybrid rescued in Tajikistan, Ivy couldn’t help but see the man-made shifters in a completely different light.
“We don’t know.” Thorn shrugged. “I don’t have much more than a location and these pictures to go on. I suppose it’s possible Mahsood has simply left that part of his life behind and returned to a normal medical practice.”
“But you don’t think so?” Landon prompted.
“Let’s just say I’m not willing to take the risk,” Thorn said. “All I can tell you for sure is that Mahsood is working at a private psychiatric facility in Maine near a place called Old Town. We’ve looked for the usual indications of hybrid research—missing people, unexplained bodies showing up, unusual purchases of high-tech scientific and medical equipment—but nothing like that seems to be occurring in the area. I want the two of you up there to find out for sure.”
As far as Ivy was concerned, she and Landon couldn’t leave soon enough. A private psychiatric facility in an out of the way place like Old Town, Maine, sounded like the perfect location to conduct hybrid research. People who lived in that part of the country usually weren’t the type to stick their noses into other people’s business.
The thing that worried her the most was that they were getting this information on Mahsood from Thorn and not John. If Mahsood was out there trying to create more hybrids, why hadn’t the director of the DCO known about it? Was John so focused on taking down Thorn that he’d started missing the other bad crap going on in the world?
“So what’s our mission if we find out Mahsood is actually taking another run at creating hybrids?” Landon asked. “Do you want everything gone, including Mahsood?”
Thorn shook his head. “No. I only want you to figure out how far along he’s gotten and who’s backing him, then I want you to pull back without alerting him to your presence. If you can get your hands on anything related to the exact nature of his research, like tissue and blood samples, do it. But only if you can make it happen without tipping him off. This is strictly an observe-and-report mission. Do I make myself clear?”
She and Landon nodded.
“And if he’s progressed to the point where he’s produced a functional hybrid?” Landon asked. “Does that change anything?”
Thorn regarded them coolly. “If Mahsood has created a functional hybrid and not another psychotic killing machine, I want you to bring it to me—alive. Do whatever you have to do to bring me that hybrid.”
The glint in Thorn’s eyes made Ivy shiver, and she prayed they didn’t find any hybrids in Maine. Fortunately, John had been able to keep Thorn away from the other hybrids the DCO had taken under its wing, like Tanner Howland, Minka Pajari, and that poor anonymous girl they’d rescued in Tajikistan. Ivy shuddered to think what Thorn would do with a hybrid if he got his hands on one.
Chapter 3
Dreya jerked awake, lifting her head from her arms on the table and looking around in confusion. Where the hell was she? Oh yeah, that’s right. She was still in federal custody. Although she was fairly certain neither the FBI nor the DHS typically held their prisoners in a classy conference room like this.
She pushed her long hair from her face and glanced at her watch, surprised to see that it was nearly ten o’clock in the morning. She did the math in her head, trying to figure out how long had she been there—which was harder than it should have been thanks to how tired she was. Crap, she’d slept for three hours.
She still didn’t know why she’d been brought here or what was going on, and that freaked her out worse than getting arrested. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. Getting arrested was definitely near the top of her list of bad experiences, especially considering that this time, they’d caught her with the goods.
She pushed away the rolling chair and stood, stretching and working out the kinks that came with sleeping in a chair. Wandering over to the door, she opened it and took a quick peek. The two guys in black military uniforms were still stationed right outside, exactly where they’d been before she’d fallen asleep.
She closed the door and leaned against it. The uniforms had no markings on them, so she still had no idea where she was. She was pretty sure it wasn’t FBI or DHS offices though. As far she could tell, this one was attached to the Environmental Protection Agency. At least that was what the sign at the entrance to the underground garage they entered earlier had said. Somehow, she couldn’t imagine the EPA hiring security guards who looked as intimidating at the men outside the door.
Dreya went back to pacing the room as she tried to wrap her mind around everything that had happened in the past several hours.
First, she’d been arrested. She still couldn’t believe Braden Hayes had caught her. Then again, if anyone was ever going to catch her, it would be him. Braden was the one cop who seemed to see the facade she’d carefully erected around her real life. He’d brought her in for questioning almost a dozen times over the past three years, all for burglaries she’d actually committed even though she’d never left a speck of evidence. It was as if he somehow knew her style so well that he could spot which jobs were hers purely by her MO. But that was crazy. A cop would have to spend hours poring over someone’s whole life and career to be able to ID a burglar by subtle signs like that.
Fortunately, Braden had never gone much beyond the questioning stage, but that wasn’t due to lack of trying on his part. She’d sat in too many MPD interrogation rooms while Braden argued with the ADA in the room on the other side of the one-way mirror, trying to convince them to at least book her and make her sweat a little. Of course, Braden had no way of knowing Dreya could hear everything that was being said, but she doubted he would have changed anything. The man was stubborn to a fault.
Rory had asked her on more than one occasion why she didn’t hire a lawyer and file a harassment suit against Braden. The truth was she hated defense lawyers as much as prosecutors. And in some strange way, she appreciated the fact that Braden kept coming after her. It validated her talent in a bizarre way. Besides, for a cop, Braden was cute. She could put up with a little police harassment from a guy like him. If nothing else, she’d always enjoyed their verbal sparring matches in the interrogation rooms.
At least that was what she’d thought until he’d actually snapped the cuffs on. Then her whole outlook on the situation had changed drastically. Suddenly, the game wasn’t nearly as fun.
The situation had started to get seriously real as she sat alone in the interrogation room with Braden discussing the evidence he had against her. He didn’t gloat, talk down to her, or tell her she was being stupid when she attempted to flirt her way out of the situation. He’d simply laid out how bleak things looked for her.
Having the Jeff Koons piece in her possession was bad. Unless she could get the owner to support her version of events—which was unlikely—she was probably looking at a couple of years right off the bat. More terrifying than that was the video Braden had of her doing things that no normal person should be able to do. So far, only he and his partner had seen the video, but when other people did, her life was screwed.
While she knew she was a complete freak, she didn’t broadcast it. The only other person in the world who’d ever glimpsed her circus sideshow attributes was Rory, and she doubted many people like him existed. People would watch the DVD and realize there was something insanely different about her. Then the poking and prodding would start, and it wouldn’t stop until they had her stuffed away in a lab somewhere with tubes and wires coming out of every part of her body. Unless they just went straight for the dissection route.
Dreya shuddered.
The thought that Thorn might see the video hadn’t even occurred to her until Braden had brought the man up. If there was one thing she feared more than being experimented on, it was Thorn figuring out that she’d been the one who’d stolen his property. She was sure that whatever he’d do to her would be even worse than what a bunch of doctors in lab coats could conjure up.
Then just when she couldn’t imagine things getting any worse, the feds had shown up. Not only the FBI, but the Department of Homeland Security, too. Dreya barely knew what the hell the DHS did within the government, but she couldn’t imagine what she’d ever done to get on their bad side. The fact that Thorn knew people in federal law enforcement came to mind, though, and scared the hell out of her. She appreciated the way Braden had tried to stick up for her. It would have been really sweet if it weren’t for the fact that he’d gotten all possessive simply so he could put her in prison instead of the federal odd couple.
