Chapter 10

Jaxson and Tanner were waiting for them outside a tiny Catholic church located on the outskirts of Independent Hill.

“She’s inside,” Jaxson said the moment Trevor and Alina got out of the SUV.

Trevor muttered a curse. The hope that they’d catch up with Sage before she reached the town had evaporated when Tanner had called a few minutes ago to say she’d already jumped the fence and that he’d tracked her to the church.

“Please tell me she’s alone,” Trevor said.

Secretly, he didn’t think they could possibly get that lucky, but hey, this was a church, so maybe his prayers would be answered.

Tanner shook his head. “Afraid not. The good news is that there’s only one other person in there with her. I assume it’s the priest.”

Trevor glanced at Jaxson. “Did you bring them?”

“Yeah.”

Jaxson opened the back of his SUV and took a hard plastic case from the backseat. Placing it on the hood, he lifted the lid to reveal four dart guns. It was amazing how much these things looked like the paintball guns he and Alina had used the other day. All things being equal, Trevor would much rather have been back in the shoot house getting shot with green-dye rounds.

“We’re going to tranquilize her?” Alina asked, looking back and forth between Trevor and the other guys.

“None of us want to, but we might not have a choice,” Trevor told her.

He appreciated the fact that even though she’d never met Sage, Alina was clearly uneasy about the idea of shooting her with a tranquilizer dart. It made him feel a little better about bringing Alina on this rescue mission.

When she’d first confessed to spying for Dick, he’d just about lost it. But after she’d admitted Dick had made it seem like he was a traitor and a murderer, Trevor had cooled off a bit. He’d known Dick for a long time, so he knew what kind of manipulative SOB the man could be. That said, he still wasn’t ready to trust Alina completely. They had a way to go before they could get there. But his gut told him they were on the right track. That was good enough for now.

Trevor pushed those thoughts aside for the moment, needing to focus on Sage and getting her back to the complex before Dick or anyone else discovered she was gone.

“No one wants to shoot her,” Tanner was telling Alina. “But we can’t take the chance Sage might lose control in there and hurt the priest or one of us. Trust me when I tell you this. Hurting someone is the last thing Sage wants to do. It would tear her apart.”

“We’ll try and talk her down first,” Trevor promised as he slid the dart gun inside his belt at his lower back. “We only pull the weapons as a last resort, understood?”

Giving Tanner and Jaxson a nod, he and Alina headed around to the back of the church while Tanner and Jaxson took the front.

They passed a tiny house attached to the rear of the church that was most likely the priest’s residence, then made their way over to the back door of the church. Trevor hoped like hell she hadn’t gone into a rage and killed the poor man already.

“A hybrid’s eyes will turn bright red when they’re on the verge of losing it,” Trevor told Alina. “When they get like that, it’s nearly impossible to get through to them. That’s when they’re really dangerous. If you see her eyes turn red, get the hell out of the way, okay?”

Alina looked like she wanted to argue, but then shook her head. “Fine. But how about we make sure it doesn’t come to that?”

“That’s the plan,” he murmured as he pushed open the door. “But everyone knows what they say about plans.”

Giving Alina a nod, Trevor led the way down the hall, his footsteps silent on the marble floor. Thankfully, he didn’t pick up the scent of blood. Maybe it meant Sage was fully in control.

When they reached the end of the hallway, he heard soft voices coming from the main part of the church. Trevor couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like someone praying.

He stepped into the main part of the church, Alina right behind him. Sage was sitting in the front pew beside an older priest dressed in traditional black garments. Their hands were clasped in front of them as they recited a prayer together.

Sage’s head immediately came up, her eyes glowing as red as two Christmas tree lights. Trevor’s heart sank. If that wasn’t bad enough, her claws and fangs were out, too. Crap, she was in full-on hybrid mode.

Why the hell wasn’t the old priest freaking out? Unless he was blind, he had to have figured out that there was something seriously different about Sage. But the guy simply sat there, softly praying as if he were the only person in the church.

Sage shot to her feet, a growl slipping from her throat. Beside her, the priest’s prayers stumbled to a halt. He looked up, his eyes filling with alarm when he saw Trevor and Alina. He slowly shook his head, like he was trying to get them to back off.

Noise from the front of the church startled Sage, and she whipped her head around to look over her shoulder at Tanner and Jaxson as they slipped through the big double doors and fanned out to either side.

Trevor held up his hand, motioning for them to stay where they were. Taking a deep breath, he stepped a little closer to Sage, hoping she’d turn her attention back to him. As he moved, he caught the priest’s eye, trying to get him to slip away from Sage, but the old guy seemed intent on remaining where he was. It was like he thought Sage was the one in danger.

“It’s okay, Sage,” Trevor said gently. “We’re here to help. No one’s going to hurt you. We’re all friends here.”

Sage didn’t seem to believe that. Eyes blazing, she took three quick strides in his direction, her long, sharp fangs bared in a snarl. Hybrids might not have had much in the way of control, but they definitely had some serious fangs on them. If Sage ever truly lost it and sunk those teeth into someone, it would be all over.

He hadn’t seen Sage much since he and the others had brought her back from Tajikistan, but she looked like she hadn’t slept in days. From the wetness on her cheeks, it was obvious she’d been crying, too.

Trevor’s heart went out to her, it really did, but that didn’t stop him from slowly reaching behind his back for the tranquilizer gun. With her hybrid strength and reflexes, Sage was already close enough to attack. Even if he darted her in midair, the sedative wouldn’t take effect for fifteen to thirty seconds. A hybrid could do a lot of damage in that amount of time. He could probably survive an attack like that, but if Sage turned on Alina, his partner probably wouldn’t be so lucky.

The thought of Alina getting hurt bothered him a hell of a lot more than he ever would have expected.

“Alina, start backing away slowly,” he whispered. “Things are about to go all kinds of bad.”

He’d already figured out a while ago that his partner was stubborn, so he wasn’t surprised when she hesitated. But he didn’t expect her to completely ignore him, much less step in front of him to put herself between him and Sage.

Trevor’s gut reaction was to grab her and drag her behind him, but he knew if he did, it would only freak Sage out even more.

“Alina, what the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“Sage, my name is Alina,” his partner said calmly. “You don’t know me, but I promise that I won’t let anything bad happen to you. We need to get you back home. It’s not safe for you to be out here like this.”

Sage growled, flashing her fangs again. But she made no move to pounce. In fact, he could have sworn the red glow in her eyes dimmed a little. Maybe Sage responded better to women than men? Or maybe she simply responded to Alina. He had to admit she seemed to have a way about her that put people at ease.

Alina must have taken Sage’s hesitation as a good sign, because she stepped closer and held out her hand, palm up. “Will you let me take you home, Sage?”

The gesture seemed to shock Sage as much as it did Trevor, and she took a step back. “It’s not my home,” she growled in a tone that was filled with anguish. “I don’t want to go back there.”

Trevor held his breath as Alina moved closer to Sage again. This was frigging insane.

“Where would you like to go instead, Sage?” Alina asked. “If you could go anywhere, where would it be?”

“I want to go wherever Derek is,” she wailed. “Can you take me to him?”

The look of heart-wrenching despair that crossed her face as she said Derek’s name nearly ripped Trevor’s guts out. He’d expected her to say she wanted to go back to her family in Canada, but Tanner had been right. Her instinctive need to be with the man who’d saved her in Tajikistan was stronger than the urge to go home.

Alina gave Trevor a questioning look, no doubt wondering who the hell Derek was and how they could get him here. Unfortunately, that was going to be tough. The man was still active duty Special Forces. He was lucky to see the States more than a month or so out of the year.

“He’s a soldier,” Trevor said. “He’s probably…”

He’d been about to say Derek was probably deployed, but then he caught sight of Tanner waving his hands and shaking his head. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t talk about that.

“Derek’s currently…hard to reach,” he said instead.

Tears welled up in Sage’s eyes. “Can’t I just talk to him on the phone? Please? If I could hear his voice, that would be enough.”

Alina looked at Trevor again. All he could do was shrug. How the hell could he get hold of a deployed Special Forces soldier when he wasn’t even sure where in the world the man was?

“I promise that when we get back to the complex, I’m going to find Derek and get him on the phone,” Alina told Sage firmly. “I don’t care what I have to do. You’re going to talk to him today. I swear it.”

Sage regarded Alina silently, as if trying to decide if she should believe her. Trevor tightened his grip on the tranquilizer gun behind his back. But as he watched, the last of the red glow slowly faded from Sage’s eyes, her claws and fangs retracting. Then she threw herself into Alina’s arms, tears coming hard and fast.

Alina wrapped her arms around the girl, squeezing her tightly and promising she’d keep Sage safe and get her back with Derek as fast as possible. The heartache pouring out of the poor girl in great racking sobs was difficult for Trevor to watch. Damn, he hated seeing a woman cry. It drove a spike right through his frigging heart. Sage was like a wounded animal who was lost and confused and in pain, not knowing why it was all happening to her. He couldn’t imagine how the girl even held it together.

One arm still around Sage, Alina guided her over to the first row of pews and sat down with her, rocking the girl back and forth and making soothing sounds in her ear as she caressed her dark hair. Trevor had to admit that trusting Alina enough to bring her with him had been one of his better ideas.

Releasing his grip on the dart gun, Trevor gestured for the priest to follow him out of the church. Tanner joined them while Jaxson stayed inside to keep an eye on Alina and Sage. Considering the man had seen everything, Trevor was going to have to do some serious damage control.

“I’ve never seen a shifter lose control like that,” the old man said once they were outside. “Is she ill?”

Trevor gaped. Beside him, Tanner looked just as surprised.

“You know about shifters?” Trevor asked cautiously.

The priest nodded. “Yes. The church has been aware of the existence of these very special people for a long time. Our histories say they were poorly treated at first, but once the clergy finally realized they’re no more evil than any of God’s other creatures, the church took on the role of protecting them and their identities.”

Trevor exchanged looks with Tanner. Okay, he hadn’t expected that. “So you’re not going to tell anyone about this?”

The priest smiled. “The girl came into my church seeking solace and peace. She was so scared that it was difficult to understand what she was saying, but I did glean from her words that churches have always represented safety and sanctuary to her. The girl’s secret is safe with me…and the church.” He regarded Trevor thoughtfully for a moment. “You never answered my question about whether or not the girl is ill.”

“No, she’s not ill,” Trevor said honestly. He couldn’t exactly lie to a priest. “Sage wasn’t born a shifter. Someone gave her a drug to turn her into one against her will. The out-of-control behavior you saw is a result of those drugs. We’re trying to help her, but she’s having a hard time of it.”

The priest’s mouth tightened. “Besides helping her, I trust you’re doing whatever is necessary to make sure the person who did this horrible thing isn’t allowed to do it again?”

Trevor nodded. “We’re trying very hard.”

The priest looked like he would have said more, but just then, Alina and Jaxson came out with Sage. The girl was practically glued to Alina’s side, and while she’d stopped crying, she still seemed emotionally and physically drained.

“We can take her back to the complex in my vehicle,” Jaxson said. “I should be able to get us through the gate without anyone paying too much attention.”

Alina hesitated, looking in Trevor’s direction. He was about to tell Jaxson that he’d take them in his vehicle and let the other man run interference at the gate, but then his frigging phone rang. He pulled it out to see who it was, intending on letting it go to voice mail. Then he saw who it was.

Holding up his finger to tell Alina to wait, he moved to the side to take the call. “What’s up, Evan? This isn’t exactly the best time to talk. I’m kind of busy.”

“Well, you’re about to get even busier,” Evan said. “Vivian just called. Thorn is heading to the DC office right now for that classified briefing. If you want to hear what he says, you need to be there in an hour.”

Shit.

Trevor glanced at his watch, trying to calculate how long it would take him to get into the middle of DC at this time in the morning. With traffic, it was going to be close. “Did you talk to IT and figure out a way to get a set of ears into the conference room?”

“Yeah, I have a way to do it. I just don’t know how we’re going to make it work,” Evan said. “You never explained how the hell we’re going to get the bug in the room with them.”

That was because he hadn’t given it one second of thought. “Like I said, let me worry about that. I’m leaving now, but it’s going to be tight. Any chance you can rig up a way to slow things down if I’m late?”

There was a long sigh on the other end of the line. “Dammit, Trevor. I’m an analyst, not a field agent. I sit around a soft, cushy cubicle all day and play with a computer. I don’t know how to rig anything.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Trevor said, trying to be as encouraging as he could. “Keep it simple, and you’ll be fine. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

He hung up and gave Tanner a nod, knowing the hybrid had heard the entire phone conversation.

“What was that about?” Alina asked.

While he’d been on the phone, she’d gotten Sage into the back of Jaxson’s SUV and somehow convinced her to stay put. Through the open back window, Trevor could see the girl looking anxiously at Alina.

“Did Dick go after Seth and Cody again?” Alina prompted when he didn’t answer.

He shook his head. “No, nothing like that. I just need to be someplace.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Trevor’s first instinct was to say yes, but the word got stuck in his throat as his head spoke up and urged caution. Letting her help with Sage was one thing; bringing her to a meeting where Thorn might finally reveal something damaging was a completely different world. He hated himself for doing it, but that didn’t keep him from shaking his head.

“No. I’d rather you help Jaxson get Sage back to the complex and settled. You and she seem to have a connection, and what I’m doing isn’t a big deal. I’ll take Tanner with me and catch up with you later.”

Disappointment flashed across Alina’s face for a brief second before she nodded and climbed in the backseat of Jaxson’s vehicle with Sage.

Trevor had no doubt his partner knew he’d fed her a line of crap, and he could tell it bothered the hell out of her. It bothered the hell out of him, too, especially considering what she’d just done for Sage. But until he knew for sure that she wasn’t playing him, he couldn’t take the risk of telling her what he was doing.

As Jaxson pulled the Suburban out of the church parking lot and drove away, Alina threw Trevor an angry look. It occurred to him then that he might have burned down the already shaky bridge that had started forming between them.

* * *

Vivian met Trevor and Tanner in the lobby of the DC office. With its big reception desk and black-and-white photos of well-known landmarks like the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building on the walls, it wasn’t all that remarkable. It certainly didn’t scream covert organization.

“Thank God you’re here,” she said softly. “Thorn and the people he’s meeting with have been here for a while, and poor Evan is about to blow a gasket.”

Trevor could believe it. While Evan might be on the verge of passing out, Vivian seemed cool as a cucumber as she led them down a deserted hallway. Considering the leggy blond had never done anything other than receptionist work for the DCO, that was a little surprising. Then again, maybe she was a ninja receptionist? He could see John hiring someone like that to work the desk of the organization’s clandestine headquarters.

“Who’s in there with him?” Tanner asked.

“I don’t recognize them,” she said over her shoulder. “No one from the Committee or the DCO, that’s for sure.”

“Not even Dick?” Trevor asked.

The DCO’s new director was rarely far from Thorn when anything important was going down.

She shook her head. “No. They’re all scientist types.”

“How do you know that?” Tanner asked.

“Trust me,” Vivian said. “I know a nerd herd when I see one.”

Trevor frowned. If Vivian was right about them being scientists, this meeting could very well be about another hybrid project—or whatever Thorn had decided was the next step in hybrid evolution.

“Man, am I glad to see you guys,” Evan said when they walked into the office where the analyst was waiting for them. “I was able to delay the start of the meeting for a few minutes by popping the circuit breakers, which made all the computers in the conference room have to reboot, but I couldn’t get away with that more than once.”

“Sorry about that. Traffic was a bitch, as usual,” Trevor said. “Did you get the wire I asked for?”

Evan nodded and held out a small plastic and metal device that looked kind of like a miniature flash drive, except the USB adapter on the end of it didn’t look quite right.

“Who’d you get it from?” Trevor asked.

“Karl in IT tech support.” Evan handed it to him. “He said all you have to do is press the base in and hold it for a few seconds to turn it on. Then just get it somewhere in the room, and it will do the rest. It’ll pick up anyone talking as well as capture the video feed going into the overhead projector. And before you ask, I didn’t tell him what we needed it for, and he didn’t want to know.”

“Which conference room are they in?” Trevor asked.

Evan’s eyes widened. “You’re not going to be able to just walk in there.”

“Why not?” Trevor shrugged. “I’ll act like I walked into the wrong room, drop the device under a table, then be out of there before they even realize I slipped a bug in the room.”

Evan exchanged looks with Vivian. “It’s not that,” he said. “Thorn put two guards on the door, and one of them is Frasier.”

Trevor cursed. His plan would be infinitely more difficult with someone guarding the door, but Douglas Frasier’s presence made it damn near impossible. Frasier flat-out hated his guts. Then again, it seemed like Frasier hated everyone’s guts, but especially shifters’.

In addition to being Thorn’s head of security, Frasier also ran certain special projects for the former senator. Which was a nice way of saying the man killed people his boss wanted dead. Trevor didn’t know a lot about the guy, but he knew Frasier had worked for the DCO years ago and that he’d been paired up with the first shifter the organization had ever discovered—Adam. Trevor wasn’t sure what happened between the two of them, but considering what Adam had said about his partner shooting him in the back, Trevor had a pretty good idea. Whatever it was, it forced Adam to go off the grid while Frasier had landed a cushy job working for Thorn. The man was never going to let him get within ten feet of the conference room his boss was in.

Trevor glanced at Tanner. The hybrid had even less chance of getting past Frasier than he did. That left only one option.

He stared at Evan, trying to come up with something to say to convince the analyst he had it in him to bluff his way past Frasier and the other guard and figure out how to slip the device into the room.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Evan asked suspiciously. Then his eyes widened as it dawned on him. “No way! I can’t go in there. Frasier would know I’m lying. He’d shoot me.”

Shit. Evan looked like he was about to start hyperventilating at the mere thought of going in the conference room. Trevor opened his mouth to point out it was highly unlikely Frasier would kill him, but Vivian cut him off.

“I’ll do it.”

Well, damn. He hadn’t even considered suggesting she do it. Which was rather sexist, he realized. “You sure about this?”

“Will this help catch the people who killed John and Olivia?” she asked.

Trevor nodded.

“Then I’ll do it. Olivia was my friend long before I started working here. She even got me the job interview. As for John, he was the best boss I’ve ever worked for and an even better person. If putting a bug in that room will get me a little revenge, I’m in. I want those bastards to pay for what they’ve done.”

“How are you going to get it in there?” Trevor asked as he handed the device to her.

“Carefully” was all she said, then she left the room.

Evan let out a breath. “What do we do if they catch her?”

“We go rescue her,” Trevor said.

Evan seemed a little nervous at that idea but nodded. “I’ll get the computer set up. That way, we’ll know what’s happening in there.”

Taking a laptop out of his backpack, Evan placed it on the table, then slipped something that looked like some kind of wireless mouse adapter into one of the computer’s USB ports and began poking keys.

“You want to pick up the pace a little?” Trevor said. “At this rate, Frasier could knock Vivian out and drag her out to the trunk of his car before you get any sound on that thing.”

“Hold on.” Evan’s fingers flew over the keys. “I’m praying she remembered to push the adapter to turn it on, or this will all be a waste of time.”

A few moments later, muffled noise came out of the computer’s speakers along with the sound of something heavy thudding together.

Evan threw Trevor a nervous look. “What the hell was that?”

Trevor held up his hand for silence, trying to figure out what the hell they were listening to.

“I thought everyone would like some coffee and Danish,” Vivian said over the speaker. “Nothing like a little caffeine and sugar to get you through a morning meeting.”

“Thank you, Vivian.”

Thorn’s deceptively sweet voice made Trevor’s teeth ache.

“Of course, Mr. Thorn. If you need anything else, just let me know.”

“Damn, she’s smooth,” Tanner said as Vivian left the room. “John should have put her in the field.”

Trevor chuckled. “No kidding. Maybe he intended to. John was always ten steps ahead of everyone else when it came to knowing who’d be a good field agent.”

“He was good when it came to seeing other people’s futures,” Evan said softly. “I wish he had spent a little more time worrying about his own. Then maybe he would’ve foreseen somebody planting that bomb.”

The mood in the small office immediately changed as the humor that had been there a moment ago disappeared. They stared at the blank screen of the laptop, listening to the men in the conference room drink their coffee and talk about whether they preferred cheese or apple Danish.

“I’m surprised you didn’t bring Alina with you,” Evan said. “Zarina told me she helped get Sage back, so I figured she was a newly accepted member of our little rebel alliance.”

“She wanted to stay behind to take care of Sage,” Trevor said, the lie sliding wet and slimy off his tongue. Great, now he was lying to Evan like he’d lied to Alina. At this rate, he was going to end up no better than Thorn and his a-hole friends.

“But everything is good with her, right?” Evan probed. “She’s on our side, isn’t she?”

Trevor didn’t know how to answer that. His head was still advising him to proceed with caution, while his instincts shouted at him to trust her. That disconnect had him tied up in knots, not sure what to do. Why the hell did this have to be so difficult?

He shrugged. “I’m leaning that way, but in truth, I’m not sure.”

Evan frowned in confusion, while Tanner gave him a look that said he thought Trevor was full of crap. He knew the feeling. He was confused, too, and pretty sure he was full of shit.

Thankfully, the door opened, and Vivian stuck her head in, saving him from fielding any more questions about Alina.

“We good?” Vivian asked.

Trevor motioned at the laptop. “We have audio, but it remains to be seen if we’re going to grab any video from the projector. Regardless, you did good.”

Before she could say anything, the screen on Evan’s laptop flickered to life.

“We’ve got video,” the analyst announced excitedly.

Vivian nodded. “I need to go out and man the desk in case anyone else walks in late for the meeting. Hope you get what you need.”

“Me, too,” Trevor said. “Thanks again.”

As she closed the door behind her, an image of some kind of chart appeared on the laptop screen. The timeline along the bottom stretched back at least four years, while the rest of the slide was filled with a bewildering array of stars, numbers, and various horizontal lines. It didn’t look like some kind of diabolical scheme concocted by Thorn to take over the world—or whatever the hell he was up to. In fact, it looked like something involving a weapons development schedule.

Trevor cursed. This was probably going to end up being a huge waste of time. He’d screwed the partnership he’d been building with Alina for nothing.

A man’s voice came through the speaker. Even with the guy explaining the chart, Trevor was still lost. All the scientific terms might as well have been Greek as far as he was concerned.

“The program has grown in leaps and bounds since the minor setback we experienced at the end of May when our test subject was unable to sustain a full transition,” another man said.

The picture on the screen changed to a man lying twisted and motionless on an exam table.

Trevor did a double take. Shit, that was Aaron Moore. He’d been an agent at the DCO right up until the moment he’d volunteered to take the hybrid serum Thorn’s doctors whipped up in their test tubes and died in horrible, screaming pain as a result.

Now the chart made a whole hell of a lot more sense. It outlined how long they’d been working on the hybrid serum.

“We still don’t know why Agent Moore responded so poorly to the serum,” the man continued. “While it was a reduced dosage, Agent Harmon displayed absolutely zero side effects when given the same treatment. In fact, it appears the serum failed completely in Harmon’s case. I admit, having a test subject die from such a small tweak in the formulation continues to confound our failure review team.”

Trevor ground his jaw at the total disregard for human life apparent in the man’s voice as he talked about Moore’s death. Former Special Forces lieutenant turned DCO agent Jayson Harmon should have died, too. What Thorn’s doctors didn’t know was that Zarina had injected Jayson with her own experimental drug minutes before they’d administered the hybrid serum. Only her drug hadn’t been meant to turn him into a snarling beast with a mouth full of fangs. It’d been meant to counteract the serum.

Unfortunately, Zarina didn’t have a chance to inject the same drug into Moore, since no one had a clue the guy was going to do something as stupid as volunteer for the protocol before anyone had even figured out if it worked on Jayson.

“As a consequence of the failure with Agent Moore, the team made the decision to go back and restart the project with raw hybrid material gathered by operatives in Tajikistan,” the man explained.

Trevor bit back a growl. That confirmed something he’d been worried about ever since the mission to Tajikistan back in March. The entire purpose of it had been to wipe out the last remnants of the hybrid research program, but two members of the raid—Moore and another dirty agent—had obviously taken samples from the facility before destroying the place.

“Starting from square one worked to our advantage, because we now have a successful formulation,” the man said.

“You’re telling me the serum finally works?” Thorn said. “You’ve created completely functional—and stable—hybrids that possess the same abilities as the naturally existing shifters?”

“That’s exactly what we’ve done,” the doctor said, pride evident in his smug voice. “In fact, it’s possible we’ve made a few improvements over the original, as I think this video clip from our research facility on the farm will demonstrate.”

Trevor glanced at Tanner and Evan to see them standing there with the same shocked expressions on their faces. He was damn stunned himself.

“He’s exaggerating, right?” Tanner asked. “There’s no way he could create hybrids that good.”

Trevor could understand Tanner’s reluctance to believe what he was hearing. Every hybrid variant created up to this point, in Washington State, Costa Rica, Tajikistan, or Maine, had all been stricken with some level of aggression, rage, or control issues. Unfortunately, that included Tanner and Sage. If Thorn’s people had overcome that, this was a complete game changer. It meant Thorn no longer had to pretend to be interested in keeping natural shifters around. He could wipe out every one of them on the planet if he wanted to.

On the computer screen, a video replaced the slide presentation. At first, all they could see was what appeared to be an obstacle course, but as the doctor continued to narrate, four large men dressed in military camo appeared on the screen. As the camera followed their progress through the course, it was obvious they weren’t normal humans—or normal shifters.

They snarled as they moved, exposing more razor-sharp teeth longer than any shifter possessed. They looked like frigging sharks. They ran fast, too, making jumps and leaps that few but the most agile shifter could pull off. And when they extended their perfectly matching long, curved claws so they could scale a vertical wooden wall thirty feet high, Trevor knew Thorn’s doctors hadn’t exaggerated.

They’d made hybrids that somehow combined the strength and power of a bear shifter like Declan with the agility and claws of a feline shifter like Ivy, all in a fully controlled package.

Trevor waited for one of the men to say where this testing was being done, but other than a couple more references to a “farm,” no one said anything useful.

“And the test subjects are all taken from among my most elite paramilitary units?” Thorn asked. “They’re loyal to me?”

“Yes, Mr. Thorn,” the doctor said quickly. “The minute we had the new formula worked out, we started our recruitment effort with volunteers who’d spent at least ten years working on your various black-ops teams. Additionally, our psychology assessment process placed the highest emphasis on those who demonstrated loyalty specifically to you. These men represent exactly what you’re looking for. They’re highly trained, fast, strong, dangerous, fearless, and completely loyal to one person and one person only—you.”

That seemed to please the hell out of Thorn. He continued to pepper the doctors with questions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the hybrids and when there’d be enough of them to proceed to phase two of the project. The doctor seemed to think these new super soldiers had no weaknesses and suggested that phase two could be ready as soon as Thorn gave the word.

“You have it,” Thorn said. “Accelerate the timeline, and proceed the moment you think the team is ready.”

“What the hell does phase two mean?” Evan whispered.

“No idea,” Trevor said. “But I’m guessing this is the move we’ve all been waiting for.”

After the meeting was over, Evan transferred a copy of the briefing onto a flash drive and handed it to Trevor.

“Get back to the complex, and start scouring the video for anything we might have missed—where the farm is, who these doctors are, who these new hybrids are, and what the hell phase two of Thorn’s plan is,” Trevor told him. “Everything and anything you can find.”

Evan nodded. “Will do.”

“What are you going to do?” Tanner asked after the analyst left.

“Get this information to Adam,” Trevor said.

Tanner nodded. “You want me to come with you?”

“No. We can’t risk someone seeing us together. Besides, I have something more important I need you to do.”

“What’s that?”

“Take another run at Dick’s office,” Trevor said. “Now that we know what we’re looking for, maybe you can find something that will tell us where the hell Thorn is cranking out these hybrids and what he plans on doing with them.”

Tanner groaned. “Why don’t I go talk to Adam while you sneak into Dick’s office? I’m a former Army Ranger. I’m no good at all this snooping and spy work.”

Trevor shook his head. “No way. To get into his office, I’d have to sneak past that guard dog secretary of his. She hates my guts. You, on the other hand, she seems to like. Which confuses the hell out of me. I always figured she didn’t like me because I’m a shifter, but that prejudice doesn’t seem to apply to you.”

“She probably doesn’t like you because you’re always such a smart-ass around her,” Tanner muttered. “Besides, it’s Saturday. Phyllis won’t even be there.”

“Phyllis is always there,” Trevor said. “The woman probably has a hideaway bed under her desk.”

Tanner frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve been snooping around Dick’s home and office for weeks with nothing to show for it. Hell, considering the fact that he wasn’t invited to this meeting, it’s possible he may not even know what Thorn is doing.”

Trevor found that hard to believe. Dick and Thorn had been working hand-in-hand since the inception of the DCO. The idea that he wouldn’t know about something this big seemed impossible. Then again, if there was one person on the planet better at manipulation than Dick, it was Thorn.

“Dick knows something,” Trevor insisted. “Root through his office looking for reference to a farm. If Evan can come up with the names of those doctors we listened to or a facial recognition ID on those hybrids, look for them, too. Based on what we just heard, Thorn’s plan is going down in less than a week. If we’re going to stop him, we need to have intel now.”

Tanner let out a breath. “I’ll try, but I’m not promising anything. I suck when it comes to searching through computer files.”

“Then figure out another way to get the information we need,” Trevor said. “Before it’s too late to do anything with it.”