Page 54 of A Monster’s Future

“She’s not ideal,” Dr. Noble’s voice emitted from the base of the dome, though her lips never moved. She looked me up and down like a piece of meat. “Too weak. Too short. Her face is passable, but it needs work.”

Dr. Kim and Dr. Noble discussed transferring her consciousness into my body as if I weren’t even there. If I hadn’t been handcuffed to a tree, I would’ve been tempted to punt her dome across the field like a football.

“We can make modifications before the transfer,” Dr. Kim suggested.

“Or we can find a better donor,” Dr. Noble countered.

“What about Hannah?”

Hannah let out a terrified sound. “You promised you wouldn’t.”

“Too old.” Dr. Noble dismissed the suggestion. “And she’s had children.”

“What about her daughter, then?”

Hannah dissolved into hysterics, begging and sobbing. I almost felt sorry for her—almost. She was a traitor, after all. Her pleas didn’t stop until Dr. Kim backhanded her hard enough to knock her unconscious.

“And that’s another reason I don’t want her body,” Dr. Noble said. “Too much damage.”

“You need to make a choice soon, my love,” Dr. Kim pressed. “We don’t have much time.”

“I’ll decide after we return,” Dr. Noble replied. “Let’s destroy the ore and collect our credits. That will buy us the time we need. I can’t believe these idiots failed. How did they even find out about the plan?”

I kept my mouth shut, letting them believe we had some special intelligence, or informant, or something, rather than happening on it purely by chance. Grtirr and I had simply been on our way down from our nest.

Grtirr.

My chest tightened at the thought of him. He hadn’t been moving when they dragged me away. What if he was already dead? I glanced back toward the trees, but all I saw was an endless wall of foliage. Would Chris’s team even find us now? Would they find him? I knew that if these psychopaths got me inside that shuttle, I’d vanish forever.

“It doesn’t matter how they found out. We’ve already proved that their fancy alien equipment couldn’t detect us. We can fly right in, and no one will stop us.” Dr. Kim ordered the Exotech soldier to load the shuttle up with the containers of chemicals, before sitting next to Dr. Noble on the rock to tend to a rip in his skin that hadn’t automatically healed over.

That was when I saw it: a flicker of gray-brown fur in the leaves.

Tatertot?

She was sneaking through the leaves toward our enemies like she was hunting. What the hell was she doing? Now that she was partially hidden, she was nearly invisible when she stayed still.

Then I realized she was going for Dr. Noble! But the bitch was protected inside an indestructible dome. What could Tatertot possibly do?

I forced myself to look away, not wanting to draw attention to her. My blood rushed in my ears as Tatertot disappeared behind the dome.

The Exotech soldier returned with the last container, and Dr. Kim stood. "Time to go." He strode over and uncuffed me from the tree, only to replace the metal restraints with his own iron grip. His fingers dug into my arm as he dragged me toward the shuttle.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I dug my heels in, but it was useless. I couldn’t fight him without getting myself killed or horribly injured. And no, it wasn’t cowardice. It was survival. The only thing I’d achieve by resisting was a broken bone or worse.

We were almost to the shuttle when Dr. Noble, furiously shouting, “What the fuck!” stopped us dead in our tracks. Dr. Kim whipped around, bringing me with him. Tatertot stood a few feet from Dr. Noble’s rock, and Dr. Noble had rolled to the edge of it. And there, in Tatertot’s mouth, was a bright yellow piece of wire.

“I need that!” Dr. Noble sounded panicked.

Dr. Kim released me and lunged for Tatertot. But despite the doctor’s inhuman reflexes, Tatertot was faster. She scrambled up the tree and was soon half hidden by the dense leaves.

Moments later, several large, half-formed seed pods came raining down on the pair. And it was unmistakable that whatever had thrown them had done so on purpose, especially when one hit Dr. Noble’s dome, and she rolled back quickly to avoid being pelted again.

“Get me back in the shuttle!” she shrieked.

Dr. Kim shot one last glare up the tree before scooping up the dome and storming toward the shuttle. It was now that I realized my hands were no longer cuffed to the tree. The moment they stepped inside, I made a run for it.