“Me, too,” Trevor said. “Thanks again.”
As she closed the door behind her, an image of some kind of chart appeared on the laptop screen. The timeline along the bottom stretched back at least four years, while the rest of the slide was filled with a bewildering array of stars, numbers, and various horizontal lines. It didn’t look like some kind of diabolical scheme concocted by Thorn to take over the world—or whatever the hell he was up to. In fact, it looked like something involving a weapons development schedule.
Trevor cursed. This was probably going to end up being a huge waste of time. He’d screwed the partnership he’d been building with Alina for nothing.
A man’s voice came through the speaker. Even with the guy explaining the chart, Trevor was still lost. All the scientific terms might as well have been Greek as far as he was concerned.
“The program has grown in leaps and bounds since the minor setback we experienced at the end of May when our test subject was unable to sustain a full transition,” another man said.
The picture on the screen changed to a man lying twisted and motionless on an exam table.
Trevor did a double take. Shit, that was Aaron Moore. He’d been an agent at the DCO right up until the moment he’d volunteered to take the hybrid serum Thorn’s doctors whipped up in their test tubes and died in horrible, screaming pain as a result.
Now the chart made a whole hell of a lot more sense. It outlined how long they’d been working on the hybrid serum.
“We still don’t know why Agent Moore responded so poorly to the serum,” the man continued. “While it was a reduced dosage, Agent Harmon displayed absolutely zero side effects when given the same treatment. In fact, it appears the serum failed completely in Harmon’s case. I admit, having a test subject die from such a small tweak in the formulation continues to confound our failure review team.”
Trevor ground his jaw at the total disregard for human life apparent in the man’s voice as he talked about Moore’s death. Former Special Forces lieutenant turned DCO agent Jayson Harmon should have died, too. What Thorn’s doctors didn’t know was that Zarina had injected Jayson with her own experimental drug minutes before they’d administered the hybrid serum. Only her drug hadn’t been meant to turn him into a snarling beast with a mouth full of fangs. It’d been meant to counteract the serum.
Unfortunately, Zarina didn’t have a chance to inject the same drug into Moore, since no one had a clue the guy was going to do something as stupid as volunteer for the protocol before anyone had even figured out if it worked on Jayson.
“As a consequence of the failure with Agent Moore, the team made the decision to go back and restart the project with raw hybrid material gathered by operatives in Tajikistan,” the man explained.
Trevor bit back a growl. That confirmed something he’d been worried about ever since the mission to Tajikistan back in March. The entire purpose of it had been to wipe out the last remnants of the hybrid research program, but two members of the raid—Moore and another dirty agent—had obviously taken samples from the facility before destroying the place.
“Starting from square one worked to our advantage, because we now have a successful formulation,” the man said.
“You’re telling me the serum finally works?” Thorn said. “You’ve created completely functional—and stable—hybrids that possess the same abilities as the naturally existing shifters?”
“That’s exactly what we’ve done,” the doctor said, pride evident in his smug voice. “In fact, it’s possible we’ve made a few improvements over the original, as I think this video clip from our research facility on the farm will demonstrate.”
Trevor glanced at Tanner and Evan to see them standing there with the same shocked expressions on their faces. He was damn stunned himself.
“He’s exaggerating, right?” Tanner asked. “There’s no way he could create hybrids that good.”
Trevor could understand Tanner’s reluctance to believe what he was hearing. Every hybrid variant created up to this point, in Washington State, Costa Rica, Tajikistan, or Maine, had all been stricken with some level of aggression, rage, or control issues. Unfortunately, that included Tanner and Sage. If Thorn’s people had overcome that, this was a complete game changer. It meant Thorn no longer had to pretend to be interested in keeping natural shifters around. He could wipe out every one of them on the planet if he wanted to.
On the computer screen, a video replaced the slide presentation. At first, all they could see was what appeared to be an obstacle course, but as the doctor continued to narrate, four large men dressed in military camo appeared on the screen. As the camera followed their progress through the course, it was obvious they weren’t normal humans—or normal shifters.
They snarled as they moved, exposing more razor-sharp teeth longer than any shifter possessed. They looked like frigging sharks. They ran fast, too, making jumps and leaps that few but the most agile shifter could pull off. And when they extended their perfectly matching long, curved claws so they could scale a vertical wooden wall thirty feet high, Trevor knew Thorn’s doctors hadn’t exaggerated.
They’d made hybrids that somehow combined the strength and power of a bear shifter like Declan with the agility and claws of a feline shifter like Ivy, all in a fully controlled package.
Trevor waited for one of the men to say where this testing was being done, but other than a couple more references to a “farm,” no one said anything useful.
“And the test subjects are all taken from among my most elite paramilitary units?” Thorn asked. “They’re loyal to me?”
“Yes, Mr. Thorn,” the doctor said quickly. “The minute we had the new formula worked out, we started our recruitment effort with volunteers who’d spent at least ten years working on your various black-ops teams. Additionally, our psychology assessment process placed the highest emphasis on those who demonstrated loyalty specifically to you. These men represent exactly what you’re looking for. They’re highly trained, fast, strong, dangerous, fearless, and completely loyal to one person and one person only—you.”
That seemed to please the hell out of Thorn. He continued to pepper the doctors with questions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the hybrids and when there’d be enough of them to proceed to phase two of the project. The doctor seemed to think these new super soldiers had no weaknesses and suggested that phase two could be ready as soon as Thorn gave the word.
“You have it,” Thorn said. “Accelerate the timeline, and proceed the moment you think the team is ready.”
“What the hell does phase two mean?” Evan whispered.
“No idea,” Trevor said. “But I’m guessing this is the move we’ve all been waiting for.”
After the meeting was over, Evan transferred a copy of the briefing onto a flash drive and handed it to Trevor.
