“What’s this about, son?”
“Sir, as much as I hate to say it, if anyone can help Jayla, it’s her. I just want to talk to her.” Jayla’s injury was his fault, and heneeded to fix it. If that meant being in the same room with Doctor Dietrich and not killing her, so be it.
Erik heard the general exhale. “Fine. But you’re not going in there alone. Trust me, son. It’s too tempting. She’ll nettle you, believe me. It’s what she does.”
The general could have a full platoon accompany him if that’s what it took. He had his more violent urges locked down, and they would stay locked down for Jayla.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Kong walked through the door with a file in his hand, and Erik almost smiled. Erik wasn’t the biggest or the meanest on base, but when it came to Doctor Dietrich, he had the most hatred, so the general had sent the strongest to hold him back if needed.
“Hey, man.” They clapped their hands together, and Kong pulled him in for a quick back slap, then released him. “Ready to go see the Wicked Witch?”
Kong’s lip curled slightly. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” He looked to the guard. “Get a bucket of water ready, Tin Man, in case we need to melt a bitch.”
The guard chuckled. “On it, sir.”
“If he’s Tin Man, who am I? Scarecrow?”
“Nope.” Kong grinned at him. “You’re Toto. I’m Dorothy.”
Erik huffed a laugh, glad to have Kong with him.
Outside the door to Doctor Dietrich’s cell, Erik took a moment, rolling his head on his neck. He could do this.
Kong’s hand landed on his shoulder. “You’ve got this, man.”
“For Jayla.”
“For Jayla,” Kong repeated.
The guard unlocked the door, and they both stepped inside. There she was, sitting on her bunk, reading, dressed in pale grey sweats. Her hair was grayer now, and the lines on her face were more pronounced, but she hadn’t changed much since Legratia. His creator. The closest thing he’d ever had to a mother. His torturer.
“I hope you’ve brought more books,” she said without looking up from the page she was reading. “I’ve already read this one twice.”
Erik hadn’t been outside that day she’d first arrived at Black Bay, but he’d heard the story from some of the others about how she rolled up, acting like a queen. She’d lost everything, her freedom, her wealth, her fucked up little science projects, but even after all this time in the brig, she hadn’t lost that air of superiority that clung to her.
Kong let out one of his more aggressive rumbles, and her head snapped up. Her eyes landed on Erik and held. Was that happiness he saw on her face? Did she not realize he could snap her neck in a heartbeat and walk away without a shred of remorse?
He turned his head slightly so she got the full impact of his scars. Her lips pinched. “Have you come to discuss the graft? I’ll –”
“The hybrids who can’t heal,” Erik said, cutting her off. “You tried to wake the dormant gene. Tell me about that.”
Doctor Dietrich sat up straighter, her eyes sharpening. “Something’s happened. Tell me what.”
Kong handed over the file. “Single GSW. The bullet was removed, but significant damage to the L1, L2 vertebrae.”
“Paraplegia,” Doctor Dietrich uttered as she scanned the file and nodded. “Who?”
“Does it matter? We’re all just numbers to you anyway.”
She looked at him, her eyes lingering on his scars. “No, I suppose it doesn’t.” She stood and began to pace the small area available to her.
Erik’s hands clenched into fists. Controlling his urge for vengeance was harder than he thought it would be. It would be so easy to kill her right now. Kong was strong, fast despite his size, but Erik was faster. She was a monster. He wore the proof of her atrocities on his face and tattooed on his thighs. She’d killed so many of them, tortured the survivors…
“We never managed to permanently wake the gene in those test subjects, but we had limited success with fetal-derived cells. Enough to possibly repair vertebral and local spine damage.”
“Fetal cells?” Kong asked. “Where the hell would we even get that?”
Erik could see it on Doctor Dietrich’s face. She knew something, but was hesitating. His lip curled with a snarl, and he stepped forward threateningly. “What are you holding back?”
