Reaper didn’t answer. He didn’t know if he could talk right now and make sense. He was using all his strength not to scream in pain and grab his head. The raw edge he skated on was killing him. He had to find that cool center of calm within him. He wouldn’t let his men down again because of his weakness.
“Subject T. K. Reaper, stop. Now.” Fear flashed in Dr. Winters’s flat gray eyes.
Reaper crossed the threshold into the test subject room, skin crawling from being back inside his former cage. It was exactly like he remembered.
Exactly.
Except this room was already occupied.
His short-circuiting brain focused on its surroundings and the room came into crystal-clear focus. “Caroline.”
“Subject Reaper, I command you to leave this room.”
“He’d already moved her to the new lab,” Reaper breathed out. Caroline lay unconscious and unmoving on the cot against the wall. An IV of clear fluid was going into one arm and another one of dark red blood was flowing out of the other. “You’re siphoning her blood for the serum.”
He’d heard Jack Mankel talk about her blood being the key. Known that Caroline had been kidnapped to be his Guinea pig, but he’d never imagined this sick set up.
“She’s been very well cared for,” Dr. Winters bit out with aggravation.
Reaper kept his gun leveled at the doctor, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the girl on the bed. Dr. Winters said he and his team would have to come back here to her to get their dosage if they wanted to live, but with Caroline he’d have an unending supply of the serum. He wouldn’t need Dr. Winters. He could save his team.
“Don’t judge me,” Dr. Winters backed up another step, her voice trembling. “I told you I had no choice. We all have to play a part. It’s supply and demand.”
For the first time since Reaper could remember he felt a smile stretching his lips. “You think I’m judging you? Believe me, that’s the furthest thing from my mind.”
If he could take Caroline and put her up somewhere, he’d have his own personal supply. Maybe one day he’d be able to figure out how to break the need for the monthly injections, but for now his goal was survival.
Dr. Winters’s eyes widened with realization. “You can’t.”
“Wake her up,” Reaper said without a hint of hesitation in his voice.
“But—but she’s in a medically induced coma.”
Reaper had his gun pressed into the doctor’s temple in a split second. “That means shit to me. Do it.”
His men were being held by Col. Gray in the states because the military knew his team had been altered. But they would escape soon. He’d already given the order and the location for the meet.
Dr. Winters still hadn’t moved.
“Wake her up.” Reaper drove the end of his pistol into her head again, forcing her to bend sideways.
The doctor snapped to attention and fumbled in a nearby drawer, yanking out a giant ass needle filled with clear liquid. “Adrenaline. I need to disconnect her IVs first.”
“Hurry up,” Reaper snapped. He wouldn’t have much more time before more guards became aware that their buddies were all dead. God only knew how many guards were on duty since the regime change. Plus, the general was somewhere within the lab, which made the situation even more tenuous.
Dr. Winters stumbled over to Caroline and started flipping levers and buttons on the machines connected to her. Then she withdrew the first needle, the one that was sucking out blood, and quickly wound a bandage around Caroline’s elbow. “She needs pressure on this. Don’t take it off.”
Reaper didn’t respond as Dr. Winters removed the IV from her other arm. “Now, she’s going to need food, plenty of rest and fluids. She won’t be strong at first, but I’ve been exercising her legs and arms daily, so it shouldn’t take her long to get back to strength.”
“Don’t tell me you care about her.”
“You have no idea the level of research I’ve done. I deserve a Nobel Prize. This girl is the key.”
“Of course, none of us are human beings to you.” A fact he had only realized after it was too late. At first, he had simply thought her intelligent. He’d felt lucky and honored to have been chosen for this task.
Then again, back then he’d been stupid, naïve enough to believe every line of bullshit they’d fed him. He hadn’t just taken down the ship either, he’d sunk the whole fleet with his decision to take part in Project Mayhem.
“You can look down on me all you want, but you were just as eager for this to work as I was.” Dr. Winters lifted the long needle of adrenaline, gripping it with one hand while feeling along Caroline’s rib cage with the other. “You’re not the only one who failed.”
