“Okay.”
“I really thought I was working for someone who represented the NSO. I had no idea he wasn’t who he claimed to be. I trusted him because he had a badge and everything he told me seemed reasonable at the time.”
He settled her hand on the bed, releasing it. “I’m going to get you paper and I want you to write down all the names of the humans you can remember at Cornas. I also need a description of the so-called agent. We are going to find him and learn if he knows the location of other Species. Did he tell you about another job he had for you? A new place? Ever mention other medical facilities where Species were being held?”
She shook her head. “Just Cornas after Drackwood was taken down.”
“I’ll be right back.” He rose to his feet and exited the room.
Jeanie missed the warmth of his touch. It didn’t take him more than a minute to return with a notebook and a pen. He passed them over. She mumbled, “Thanks,” and opened the cover to begin writing.
“I’m going to make some calls. I’ll just be in the next room. A few arrangements need to be made.”
She nodded, not looking up from the list she printed neatly to make certain it was legible to anyone he gave it to. Her mind wandered as she wrote, thinking of one action she’d taken that caused guilty feelings. She wasn’t sure if True would have a problem with what she’d done to help New Species at Cornas Research. The more she thought about it, the more she decided to tell him. He wanted her to totally come clean about anything bad she’d done. It had been unavoidable.
The sound of his voice could be heard from the living room but she couldn’t make out the words. The list was finished and a written description of Agent Brice outlined when he returned to the room. She closed the notebook and held it out with the pen.
“Here you go.”
He accepted it. “I’ll go pass this off to Flame. He’s stationed outside my door.”
“To make sure I don’t make a run for it?”
He hesitated. “The door doesn’t close all the way. No one will enter my home.”
Jeanie figured the New Species in the hallway pulled double duty and True just didn’t want to admit they believed she’d try to escape. “You know how you told me to tell you about anything I’ve done that might have been wrong?”
He’d turned away and taken a few steps before she’d spoken. He halted, his shoulders stiffened, and he slowly turned. The expression on his face wasn’t a happy one. “What did you do?”
“I’m not really proud of it but I had no choice.”
He approached. Her heart rate accelerated when he crouched down, dropping the notebook and pen on the floor to brace his hands on each side of the bed next to her hips. “Tell me.”
“I didn’t have access to the room with the mainframe computer. It was above my security clearance. I also knew I had to get a stun gun. Only security guards carried them.” She kept looking into his eyes, hating seeing the anger and suspicion there. She didn’t glance away, though, because she wanted him to know she wasn’t lying. “I barely slept the night before the raid. I learned it was going to go down after I’d already left work because they’d kept me there that day longer than normal. I got home around eight thirty, changed my clothes to go for my jog, and got the text around nine.”
“Go on.”
She bit her lip and sighed. “The guards watch the monitors so they’d spot me on the cameras in a section I wasn’t allowed to be. Protocol would have sent them running to question me for being there, preventing me from doing what I had to do. That morning when I arrived I told them I saw a suspicious white van passing slowly by and that I thought I’d seen it before. I knew they’d want to review all the outside security feeds to check it out. They couldn’t watch the hallways and look at old feeds at the same time. There were only four monitors.”
His features relaxed a little. “The lie was necessary. I understand.”
“That’s not it. I’m getting to the part you might not like.”
His mouth twisted downward but he didn’t say anything.
“They had this kid working Security. He was barely out of high school and we didn’t really have lives working there. I mean, it wasn’t as if we could complain if they kept us fourteen hours instead of a standard eight-hour shift. We all lived in fear of pissing someone off by saying no. It meant that our social life suffered and the only other people we spent time around were other employees. I told Security I was a little freaked out and this kid liked me since he sure didn’t have time to meet girls his own age. He had what I needed.” She hated the tears that filled her eyes and she blinked them back.
“You killed him to get his stun gun?”
“No!” It shocked her that he thought her capable of committing premeditated murder. It quickly dulled though when reality set in. She had killed two security guards. Part of her mind kept attempting to shield her from allowing that to sink in. “I just fooled him into thinking I liked him to get close enough to grab his stun gun and I knocked him out to steal it and his card.”
“That’s everything?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll be right back. We need to move down the hallway to another home until this one is repaired.” He glanced down her body. “You also need clothes. I don’t mind you wearing my shirts but I didn’t enjoy other males seeing your bare legs. We have a supply store and they keep clothes for the Gifts there. Not many since they enjoy shopping online but they should carry pants that might fit you.”
“I really thought I was working for someone who represented the NSO. I had no idea he wasn’t who he claimed to be. I trusted him because he had a badge and everything he told me seemed reasonable at the time.”
He settled her hand on the bed, releasing it. “I’m going to get you paper and I want you to write down all the names of the humans you can remember at Cornas. I also need a description of the so-called agent. We are going to find him and learn if he knows the location of other Species. Did he tell you about another job he had for you? A new place? Ever mention other medical facilities where Species were being held?”
She shook her head. “Just Cornas after Drackwood was taken down.”
“I’ll be right back.” He rose to his feet and exited the room.
Jeanie missed the warmth of his touch. It didn’t take him more than a minute to return with a notebook and a pen. He passed them over. She mumbled, “Thanks,” and opened the cover to begin writing.
“I’m going to make some calls. I’ll just be in the next room. A few arrangements need to be made.”
She nodded, not looking up from the list she printed neatly to make certain it was legible to anyone he gave it to. Her mind wandered as she wrote, thinking of one action she’d taken that caused guilty feelings. She wasn’t sure if True would have a problem with what she’d done to help New Species at Cornas Research. The more she thought about it, the more she decided to tell him. He wanted her to totally come clean about anything bad she’d done. It had been unavoidable.
The sound of his voice could be heard from the living room but she couldn’t make out the words. The list was finished and a written description of Agent Brice outlined when he returned to the room. She closed the notebook and held it out with the pen.
“Here you go.”
He accepted it. “I’ll go pass this off to Flame. He’s stationed outside my door.”
“To make sure I don’t make a run for it?”
He hesitated. “The door doesn’t close all the way. No one will enter my home.”
Jeanie figured the New Species in the hallway pulled double duty and True just didn’t want to admit they believed she’d try to escape. “You know how you told me to tell you about anything I’ve done that might have been wrong?”
He’d turned away and taken a few steps before she’d spoken. He halted, his shoulders stiffened, and he slowly turned. The expression on his face wasn’t a happy one. “What did you do?”
“I’m not really proud of it but I had no choice.”
He approached. Her heart rate accelerated when he crouched down, dropping the notebook and pen on the floor to brace his hands on each side of the bed next to her hips. “Tell me.”
“I didn’t have access to the room with the mainframe computer. It was above my security clearance. I also knew I had to get a stun gun. Only security guards carried them.” She kept looking into his eyes, hating seeing the anger and suspicion there. She didn’t glance away, though, because she wanted him to know she wasn’t lying. “I barely slept the night before the raid. I learned it was going to go down after I’d already left work because they’d kept me there that day longer than normal. I got home around eight thirty, changed my clothes to go for my jog, and got the text around nine.”
“Go on.”
She bit her lip and sighed. “The guards watch the monitors so they’d spot me on the cameras in a section I wasn’t allowed to be. Protocol would have sent them running to question me for being there, preventing me from doing what I had to do. That morning when I arrived I told them I saw a suspicious white van passing slowly by and that I thought I’d seen it before. I knew they’d want to review all the outside security feeds to check it out. They couldn’t watch the hallways and look at old feeds at the same time. There were only four monitors.”
His features relaxed a little. “The lie was necessary. I understand.”
“That’s not it. I’m getting to the part you might not like.”
His mouth twisted downward but he didn’t say anything.
“They had this kid working Security. He was barely out of high school and we didn’t really have lives working there. I mean, it wasn’t as if we could complain if they kept us fourteen hours instead of a standard eight-hour shift. We all lived in fear of pissing someone off by saying no. It meant that our social life suffered and the only other people we spent time around were other employees. I told Security I was a little freaked out and this kid liked me since he sure didn’t have time to meet girls his own age. He had what I needed.” She hated the tears that filled her eyes and she blinked them back.
“You killed him to get his stun gun?”
“No!” It shocked her that he thought her capable of committing premeditated murder. It quickly dulled though when reality set in. She had killed two security guards. Part of her mind kept attempting to shield her from allowing that to sink in. “I just fooled him into thinking I liked him to get close enough to grab his stun gun and I knocked him out to steal it and his card.”
“That’s everything?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll be right back. We need to move down the hallway to another home until this one is repaired.” He glanced down her body. “You also need clothes. I don’t mind you wearing my shirts but I didn’t enjoy other males seeing your bare legs. We have a supply store and they keep clothes for the Gifts there. Not many since they enjoy shopping online but they should carry pants that might fit you.”
