Prologue

 

 

May 2015, an underground testing facility… Somewhere just outside Area 51 in Nevada

 

Lily Frazier opened her eyes and her sight darted across the room to the men staring at her from behind the glass.

The beeping sound from the device attached to her began to sound alarms. Her brain activity was shooting into overdrive. Her palms became sweaty and she felt nausea hit her with rolling waves of abdominal pain which made her want to scream out in agony.

The two men in lab coats behind the two-way mirror assumed that she couldn’t see them. She’d never let them believe otherwise either. It was bad enough they used her for what they knew she was capable of. She had no intention of alerting them to any other gifts she had.

One of the lab techs came in the room where she sat restrained to the chair. He was nodding his head and talking into a blue tooth headpiece that the men in charge were on the other end of, as they gave instructions on how to poke and prod her for the next experiment.

She hated them.

She hated this.

Though she was looking at the stocky bald man who came in to check the electrodes which were affixed to her forehead, she was actually homing in on images of her sister.

She knew that Lena was in the room across the hall. Her body hooked up much like her own was, with horrible men performing experiments on her as well.

Every day the two of them searched for an escape from their world. But even with their special abilities, neither of them could find a way.

At least not yet.

 

 

****

 

 

Lena shook as she tried to move the object sitting before her. Her body was exhausted. She had a headache and felt like she was about to throw up.

Despite her physical ailments, the two men in charge of her cared little. They would wear her down until she had no energy and spent the rest of the evening writhing in pain. It didn’t matter to them how hard these experiments were on her physically. They were concerned only with the results they wanted her to provide.

She couldn’t count the number of days that she was sure it would be her last. Both she and her sister had been going through these experiments almost daily for as long as she could remember.

They had no life.

They had no purpose.

They merely existed.

 

 

****

 

 

Lily squirmed in her chair as the tech tried to adjust the leather straps holding down her wrists. She was exhausted and beyond miserable. But she’d be damned if she was going to make things any easier for them.

“Damn it! Would you just sit still already?”

Nate, as his name tag stated, had been a part of the team conducting experiments on her for the past five years. There were others before him. Some didn’t last very long, but Nate seemed to be in it for the long haul. No matter how difficult she made it for him, he still came back each and every time, doing nothing to help her or show any signs of humanity.

A loud explosion shook her free from her attention on Nate. An alarm sounded overhead. And the two men who stood behind the one-way mirror began panicking after they looked at a monitor.

She closed her eyes tightly. Trying to concentrate on what image they were seeing on their screen. But fatigue always weakened that part of her gift and she couldn’t see a thing.

Gunfire echoed in the distance as Nate hurried to the doorway. He had just been about to close it when the long barrel of an assault rifle pressed against his forehead and stopped him in his tracks.

As Nate walked backward slowly, the rifle remained pressed against him while a man wearing head to toe black clothing stepped inside the room.

“Identify yourself.”

He didn’t turn to look at Lily, but she knew that he was speaking to her.

“Lily Frazier.” She replied.

He kept the rifle pressed firmly against Nate’s head while he spoke into a thin device which was attached to an earpiece.

“Affirmative. I have one of the assets. Repeat, I have one of the assets.”

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“No time for introductions, ma’am.” He used the end of his rifle to push Nate further into the room. “Undo her restraints.”

Nate did as he had asked. Quickly unbuckling the leather that held down her ankles and wrists.

“Get in the corner.” The man ordered Nate.

A small puddle of yellow liquid trailed underneath the tech’s trousers as he made his way to the corner of the room.

She wanted to laugh at him but knew this wasn’t the time. She might have been thankful for being out of her restraints. Still, she had no idea who this man wielding the weapon was, or why he referred to her as an asset.

“Get up.”

“Who are you?”

“I’ll explain later. Come on.”

“No. I demand to know –.”

Frustrated, he pulled the black mask down which covered the lower part of his face. “Look, lady, as we stand here wasting time we’ve got another team member getting your sister. So, do you want to come with her? Or do you want to waste time exchanging life stories?”

“You have Lena?”

“She’s meeting us at the rendezvous point. Now come on. Stay close behind me.”

Every rational thought she’d ever had told her that following this man was a bad idea. She didn’t know him. She didn’t know if he was dangerous, or even worse than the men who’d been conducting experiments on her and Lena for years. She knew absolutely nothing.

And yet, here she was, following behind this stranger, doing exactly as he ordered her because even though she couldn’t be sure, her instincts told her that this was her only chance at a normal life.

A life that neither she or her sister thought they’d ever have.