“What about the dog?” asked the weird cat woman. Her voice even had a low kind of purr that was seriously freaky.
“He’s nearly gone anyway. Leave him.”
“No,” cat woman said. “Kill him. The less anyone knows?—”
“Whatever.” Crazy Einstein plopped down a computer case he’d slung over his shoulder, then scared the hell out of Becca by bringing out a smaller case of syringes and vials. “How much can you carry? Do we knock them out?”
Becca’s mind whirled, making deductions as fast as she was able to, given the clutching panic that was churning in her gut. All she could tell was that they were leaving and that these two were trying to figure out the best way to transport them. Which meant two things. First, Carl had found them. Second, her best hope was a delaying action and for that, she had to stay conscious.
“We won’t fight,” she said in her most cowed-woman voice. “Please don’t hurt us.”
Cat woman’s gaze cut to hers, the look hard and cold. “Unconscious.”
So much for pretending to be docile. “Where are you taking us? What’s going on?” She didn’t expect any answers, but rolling off questions kept their attention on her rather than Theo, who was gripping the bars and looking like he was about to tear them both apart limb from limb. She wanted to tell him to cool it, but frankly, what other options did they have? It’s not like she could fight worth a damn. The best she could do was distract them to give Theo time to do something.
Sadly, cat woman wasn’t that stupid. She completely ignored Becca and glared at Theo. “Settle down or I’ll put you down,” she practically hissed.
“No, no,” said Crazy Einstein as he looked between Theo and Becca. “This is most interesting. He’s trying to shift to protect her. Most interesting, indeed.”
That a boy would try to protect his mother? Any other deductions, Dr. Obvious? “Leave him alone!” she cried. “Look, you don’t have to cage us. We want to understand this stuff as much as you do.” It was a guess, but it made sense that Psychos 1 and 2 here were trying to figure out the science of shifting. “We’ll cooperate. I promise.” Where the hell was Carl?
Meanwhile, Crazy Einstein pulled out a hypodermic and filled it with something that was probably knock-out juice. “Grab her arm,” he said.
“No,” cat woman growled. “The boy first.”
Einstein snorted, his gaze cutting to the door, where two wide-eyed adolescents walked in, both carrying guns. One was a handgun, the other a dart gun. “That’s for the boy.”
Great. She’d seen the effect of those darts. Theo was about to be down for the count unless they did something now. And since Carl had been able to take a half dozen of those darts while in bear form, their only answer was to give Theo more mass.
“Shift now, Theo! Go nuts!”
She saw her son’s beautiful hazel eyes connect with hers, and then she watched them turn a burnished gold. He let out a roar that started human but grew deeper and angrier with every second. She wanted to watch the transformation. That kind of thing never got old, and she especially wanted to see what kind of bear Theo would become, but she didn’t have the luxury of time. She needed to know what else was going on.
Cat woman was baring her pointed teeth and letting out a hiss. Totally creepy. She seemed to be part animal all the time. The thugs were back on their heels, holding up their guns with shaking hands. Both of them started firing wildly, which was good for Theo specifically, but bad for everyone in the room. Bullets and darts started pinging about the small space and Crazy Einstein started screaming.
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We need him alive!”
Cat woman didn’t bother with words. She simply sliced the handgun out of the thug’s hand. At first Becca didn’t understand what she’d seen. It was all blood and screaming. But then she saw cat woman’s hand was really a paw with razor-sharp claws. She’d sliced right through the guy’s wrist while grabbing hold of the gun with the other hand-paw when it dropped. Obviously she didn’t care much for her henchmen’s health.
Fortunately, Becca didn’t have time to process it. Her opportunity had just presented itself. In his screaming, Crazy Einstein had backed up against her cage. He was ducking from the gunshots, the hypodermic still clutched in his hand. And he was not paying any attention to her.
She surged forward, reaching through the cage to grab the needle. Adrenaline made her fast. Mother protectiveness made sure she didn’t hesitate. She flipped the syringe around and slammed it as hard as she could into his thigh. He screamed and jerked away, but not before she’d pushed the plunger down. Hopefully it was enough.
Crazy Einstein stumbled away from her, and then in a bizarre twist of fate, he suddenly got a dart in his shoulder. Becca spun to see the thug, doing her best to process the tableau. Best she could guess, dart gun guy had seen his comrade drop and was trying to aim at the cat woman who was really, really pissed off.
And then the pièce de résistance. From somewhere down the hall, there came a roar. A full-bellied grizzly battle cry that had Becca grinning from ear to ear. Finally, Carl had arrived! But her joy was short lived as gunfire erupted as well. Apparently, crazy doctor had more men defending him. But then there was a second roar, which was higher in pitch than the first and equally pissed. Tonya? She could only hope.
Those roars were the final straws for Thug 2. He threw the dart gun at cat woman and took off out the door. The bitch caught the gun easily and spun around to glare at her.
“I am not going easily,” Becca said. Neither was Theo, who was a cramped, pissed-off bear in his cage, tearing at the bars. One glance told her it wouldn’t take him long to break free. Especially since none of the tranquilizer darts had ended up in him.
Cat woman didn’t answer in words, but if looks could kill, Becca would be dead on the spot. Instead, she squatted down and grabbed drooling Crazy Einstein. It was impressive how easily she slung the man over her shoulder and still had the dexterity to grab the computer bag. Damn it, they were getting away. Becca had to try to delay them.
“You won’t get away with this. We’ll find you. What the hell are you anyway?”
On a TV show, she’d say something vital. She might even pause long enough for Carl to get here. But this woman was smarter than that. Beyond that first angry glare, she didn’t give Becca a second glance. She was off and sprinting in the opposite direction and out the far door. Smart bitch, because at that moment, Theo finally broke through his cage. He burst out with a kind of gleeful rumble that turned into a yip as one of the bars tore through his shoulder.
“Slow down, Theo,” she said. “They’re gone.”
