Epilogue
23000 light years away, in the 245th Zerkor-Quadrant
“Sir,” the white-clad man with the metal-rimmed glasses turns respectfully to the highly decorated officer.
“What is it now?” the officer asks. He is trying to communicate with his wife, who is whining his ear off about problem kids once again. “I am sorry. I will call you back later. It looks like we have an urgent problem.” The picture of the woman pales as her husband cuts the connection.
“Doctor Ruthiel,” he says in a slow tone, without trying to hide his contempt for the haggard figure. “Speak. But make it fast. If I don’t call my wife back in under ten minutes, she will send the secret service after me.”
“Sir,” the doctor repeats. His gray eyes are flashing with excitement. The officer gets uneasy, because he knows that the doctor seldom shows any emotion. The damn sadist has come up with a new experiment, the thought shoots through his head. And I will have to help him stock up on resources. That means that he will have to kidnap men, women and children from some Godforsaken planet again, so Ruthiel can satisfy his curiosity. He was getting too old for such things, and the fact that he had, contrary to the doctor, kids of his own, had turned him into a big softie. Lately, the screams coming from the science wing were giving him more and more nightmares.
“Surely you will remember our experiment of 25 years ago, when we allowed some of the genetically enhanced subjects to escape?”
The officer nods and rubs his chin. He himself had led the, as he saw it then and still did now, pointless operation himself.
“It looks like what he had hoped for has finally happened. One of the men has paired with a human woman and has sired a child.”
“Yes, and?” he asks impatiently. “This isn’t the first time there has been an offspring there. What is so special about this one?”
“The woman is carrying twins,” the doctor responds and sits down, unbidden, in the chair in front of his desk. "The second child has a different father.” He raises his hand when the officer tries to interrupt. “The woman doesn’t know that she is pregnant,” he continues. “But the warning signal that we embedded in the father who escaped back then – it has sent a message. The fathers belong to different species. And they have started to interact with each other.”
“So?” It was like pulling teeth with this idiot. He thought he caught a flash of contempt on Doctor Ruthiel’s face, but he could have been wrong.
“They are exchanging genetic information,” the doctor clarifies. “This means, in the simplest of terms, that they are taking the things from each other that make them strong. If that works, then we are closer than ever to our goal of creating a super species.
“And I suppose you want to have the woman in your possession?” he asks. It was only a rhetorical question. He knows exactly what is ahead of him now. Another trip to somewhere in the province, in order to kidnap the woman, so Ruthiel could examine her. “Where can we find her?”
Ruthiel looks at him. “That is the problem,” he says. “It is as if she has disappeared altogether. Nobody knows where she is. We will have to search for her and the children.
The officer furrows his brow. “How about the warning signal? We can locate it, right?”
“Unfortunately, no,” the doctor answers. “The signal has gone silent. However, I am absolutely certain that the woman and children are fine. We will have to use old-fashioned detective work to find the three of them. I suggest we start our search where they were last seen.”
The older man looks at him. Ruthiel has good connections in high places, but slowly but surely, the doctor is becoming too obsessed with improving the human race.
His hand hesitates over the interface, unable to decide on a course. The doctor senses his indecision, and his hand slips inconspicuously into the pocket of his coat. There, his fingers find the syringe that could quickly put the officer out of commission for a long time, should he resist the doctor’s demands.
Somewhere, far away in space, Cassie kisses her Khazaar.
On Betania, Mangali tends to her Zeyliv, who has not been the same since her attack.
The officer makes his decision.
THE END
P.S.: Dear Readers,
Do you want to know how the story continues?
The story of Cassie and Khazaar seems to have a happy ending at first. But can you count on them not falling into the hands of the ruthless scientist, whom you met in the epilogue? If you want to know what happens to the two of them, then you won’t want to miss book two of the Betania Breed series titled “The Prey” (). Don’t worry, the second volume isn’t a boring rehashing of the first book, with the same characters and the same problems. In the new volume, you will meet the daughter of the man who desperately wants to get his hands on Cassie and her children, and you will get to know a cyborg, too. Both have been sent to hunt Cassie Burnett down. You can learn all about what happens to them in the second volume of the Betania Breed series, and see for yourself how Cassie and Khazaar are doing. You will find a sneak peek on the next page. In the universe, there are creatures of whom we don’t dare to even dream about …
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Yours,
Jenny Foster