“And why would you do this? Money?”
He was testing her, baiting her to see if she was telling the truth. Melissa knew he’d never believe her if she claimed to be driven by greed. She had never cared about that, and everyone knew it. She had to be as honest as possible; the general wasn’t stupid. She lifted her chin and stared him directly in the eyes when she answered, “Although I despise the fact that you are doing this purely out of greed, without a care for these men’s lives, I’ll do the work to protect my subjects. I know I have no say over where they go when they leave my lab, but I want to know that they will live when they do.”
The general studied her for a moment, cupping his chin with his finger and thumb. Melissa fought the urge to squirm under his intense scrutiny. If he didn’t buy her bluff about the timeline, all of her plans to free the people trapped in Project Mayhem would be for nothing. The general would find another researcher, someone who didn’t care about human life, and ultimately that would lead to the destruction of Caroline and everyone else involved.
Finally, the general grunted and dropped his arms. “I’ve never understood you brainy types, all about the data and your precious subjects. I’ll give you three weeks. Three weeks to create a fully enhanced assassin capable of existing on its own. After that, they’re going out, ready or not.”
It was longer than she could’ve hoped for. Sucking in a breath and keeping her face as expressionless as possible, Melissa nodded in response. “As much as I hate to say it, it will make you more money in the end. When word gets out that your soldiers are everything we promised they’d be, every government in this entire world will be knocking on your door.”
She could practically see the wheels of greed turning in his mind. If there was one thing that drove this man, it was money. Greed was a weakness—any addiction to anything could be manipulated for control.
“So, I’m to believe you’re doing this purely out of your altruistic need to take care of your subjects?”
There was that thread of doubt again. She’d miscalculated him. A man like the general couldn’t comprehend the fact that anyone else would work for a purpose not completely motivated by self-interest. “Mainly, yes.” She shrugged. “I also want my name moved up to lead researcher on Project Mayhem.”
General Rainier’s entire demeanor shifted and his lips curled into a cruel smile. “The truth at last.”
“If I’m going to put in all the work and fix Dr. Winters’s mistakes, my name deserves to be at the top.”
He strolled forward, his movements casual, although edged with a predatory grace he could never hide. “I can give you that. You see, Dr. Averton, I understand people, and on their most basic level, people are driven by one of two things—the thirst for power or revenge. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is lying. You’d do well to remember that.”
She wanted to take a giant step back, so that she didn’t have to breathe in his overbearing cologne. Everything about this man turned her stomach, but she couldn’t back down yet. It would be a mistake. “I’ll take that advice under consideration. Now, we need to get her out of this filthy hut before she catches some sort of infection. There’s no telling what type of wounds she suffered. I can see the bruising on her exposed skin. That, and the fact that Reaper left her tied to the cot means there’s no telling what he’s done to her. We both know he’s not stable.”
“And I still don’t know why I let you convince me to allow him to leave.”
“Because I planted a tracker on him, and this was our first chance to observe one of the original subjects in the field, moving free of restriction. Plus, he’s desperate, and desperation drives a man to do things he wouldn’t normally do. What better way for us to see the extent of his abilities than when he has the added drive of saving his team.”
She’d planted the trackers in the original team in Project Mayhem in the beginning, and she’d never disabled them. General Rainier planned to use Reaper to deliver his team and recapture them before they could disseminate any information about their illegal project and possibly put an end to his cash grab. But she had no intention of allowing the general to access their location, even if she had to destroy every computer in the lab herself.
“You know, you surprise me. I thought Dr. Winters was uncaring, but you truly are a cold-hearted bitch.”
Melissa kept her fake smile plastered in place, praying her teeth didn’t break from clenching so hard. “It has nothing to do with being a bitch, general. Reaper’s team is my baseline to measure all the other subjects’ results against. I’d call it a necessity.” Melissa reached into her pocket, shifting her hips casually, as if she weren’t even now clutching the remote to Reaper’s tracking device. “I need those men to validate my results. And I need you to bring them back safely in order for me to accomplish my goal.”
Rainier’s sadistic smile stayed in place when he answered, “That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about, Dr. Averton. I want those men back as badly as you do.”
“Alive and in good health?”
The general didn’t even hesitate when he lied straight through his teeth. “Of course.”
Melissa triggered the alarm on the tracking unit and pulled her hand from her pocket. She’d just activated the tiny electrodes within the device, which would send a nearly debilitating shock to the area around the neck—the implant location for the device. She had to rely on her most basic instinct that Reaper was a good and decent soldier. At least, he had been before Project Mayhem.
His psychological profile clearly indicated a traumatic youth and adolescence, which would make it nearly impossible for him to bond with anyone, but he must have realized that Caroline’s life was in jeopardy while she was under the power of General Rainier.
A good soldier would sacrifice himself to save the innocent, and Reaper had signed up himself and his team based on that basic principle. They had been willing to go into completely unknown territory for the betterment of the United States and the safety of its people. No matter how much they’d been altered by the tortuous experiment, Reaper’s basic nature was good, whether he realized it or not.
Dr. Melissa Averton just had to pray he’d come to that realization in time.
