Faith walked slowly across the CIA’s extensive grounds. She’d just seen Hope and Charlie off at the terminal building next to the airstrip. They’d looked deliriously happy, and Faith was grateful Charlie’s near miss with death hadn’t left lasting problems. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, wishing she’d brought gloves. For once it wasn’t raining, but it was almost dark, and the wind had a bite to it.

Milton Reins, head of the CIA, had been there to wish Hope and Charlie well too. He’d also been chockful of instructions about the Gulfstream business class jet until Charlie reminded his boss he was qualified to fly it.

Not quite ready to return to her apartment building and all the new women who’d been assigned housing there, Faith wandered aimlessly. Glory, Honor, Charity, and Hope—women who were like sisters to her—had hooked up with men they loved dearly. It seemed like an impossible fantasy come true.

A few months back, they’d lived at a compound in Washington State, sharing a dormitory with seven more genetically modified women just like them. Glory’s bravery freed the five of them who’d been willing to trust her, and Faith blessed the CIA every single day for taking a chance on them as agents.

More women had joined their ranks during a raid they’d just completed in Maine. Twenty to be precise. It made her heart glad the women had been able to lay their reservations aside and take a chance on a new life. One where they’d be treated like human beings rather than slaves.

She really should hustle back to the apartment building and see if any of them wanted to go to dinner. Faith remembered her first days on the sprawling CIA campus. How lost and overwhelmed she’d felt. It had helped that Glory was already there. The least she could do was pass on the goodwill to the new gals.

“Faith. Hold up.”

She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of Frank’s voice, but kept walking. Frank was genetically modified too, but he’d been one of the Nameless Ones, men who’d made the women’s lives holy hell in the compounds. He was also a genetic researcher. Her friend Charity had fallen in love with Tony, the scientist Frank defected with, but Faith didn’t harbor fond feelings for any of the genetically modified men.

During the seven years the CIA had hunted those like her, they’d labeled them freaks. The tag stuck, and she still thought of men like Frank as freaks, but not necessarily her or the women.

How’s that for hypocrisy? She smothered a snorting laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Frank caught up with her.

Faith shrugged. “I was thinking about how the CIA calls us freaks, and I’m good when it means you. Less good when it means me.”

“Doesn’t matter what they call us,” Frank countered. “They took us in. Gave us homes and work. They didn’t have to. How’d Charlie look? I’d meant to check him over one last time before he left, but didn’t get there in time.”

“Like the old Charlie. None the worse for wear. Dr. Thomas was there. I’m pretty sure he had some of the same concerns you do, but Milton told him to go back to his infirmary.”

Frank hooted laughter. “Bet that didn’t go over very well.”

“No. It didn’t. The doc stayed until Charlie and Hope headed out onto the tarmac.” Faith narrowed her eyes. “You’ve gotten to know him pretty well, huh?”

“Who?”

“The doctor.”

“In a manner of speaking, yeah. After Tony and I pulled a rabbit out of a black hole and saved Charlie, the guy decided we weren’t just a bunch of uninformed quacks pretending we knew something about physiology.”

“You’re mixing your metaphors.”

“So?” Frank angled his unusual amber eyes with their vertical slit pupils her way. Like all the genetically modified men, he was tall and broad-shouldered with a rangy build. Unevenly cut jet-black hair hung to his shoulders.

“So, nothing. Just pointing it out. Um, did you want something? I really should get back to the apartment building. We have all those new women, and—”

“Yeah I did,” he interrupted in true Nameless One fashion.

Faith shook off irritation. “Whatever it is, hurry up.”

He tucked a hand beneath her elbow in a distressingly familiar gesture. “How about joining me in the cafeteria for dinner? Tony and I got done early tonight, and he’s spending the evening with Charity.”

Faith jerked away from his touch. “The new women are my first responsibility,” she said stiffly, wishing Frank would take the hint and leave. If he were human, he might’ve, but subtlety and picking up on social cues weren’t part of how any of them had been programmed.

“Bring ’em along.” He grinned rakishly. “You may not like me, but one of them might.”

Faith stopped walking and stared at him. “What the hell, Frank? Any woman in a storm?”

“Now who’s mixing metaphors?” He looked down his nose at her.

Faith felt her face heat. “I’ll be in the dining hall in half an hour or so. If you want to sit with us, that’s fine—so long as none of the women object. They’re much fresher from a compound than me, so they may well run screaming from the room if you get too close.”

Frank closed a hand around one wrist, effectively trapping her. “Get real, Faith. I wasn’t in your compound, but it wasn’t as if we flogged the women. You make it sound as if we were the devil incarnate.”

“To us, you were. You rationed everything from food to blankets to when we had to show up to have our eggs harvested.” She angled her head to one side. “The men in my compound ate what they wanted. They weren’t half-starved like us. I bet they had more than one blanket. And they had private rooms; they weren’t stuffed twelve to a dorm like we were—”

“You can stop now.” Frank held up his other hand. “I’m sorry. I felt bad I didn’t do more at the time, and I still do, but you living in the past and hanging onto hostility and bitterness isn’t wise.”

“Why not?” she demanded. “What’s the phrase? He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.”

“George Santayana said that, but you’re living in a different world now. The odds are better than seventy percent the CIA will effectively quell the rebellion sometime in the next six months. V4 has proven unstable. God only knows how many freaks were made with that configuration, but they’ll implode, which will further thin their ranks.”

“Fascinating,” she muttered, “but I need to get moving.”

Frank released her wrist. “I’d like to get to know you better, Faith, but I won’t be heavy-handed about it. Give it some thought, and let me know.”

She took a step backward. “What about wanting to give the women a thrill by having dinner with them?”

“Eh, I just said that to see if you’d react. Be jealous or something.” He actually looked mildly uncomfortable when he twisted his mouth into a frown. “You weren’t, and I’m crushed, but I’ll get over it.”

Without waiting for a response from her, he spun and took off at a quick lope.

Faith ran hard the other way, heading for her apartment building. Her thoughts were a roiling mess. Charity may have managed to square hooking up with a nameless one, but Faith didn’t have it in her to overlook their years of horrific treatment. The women may not have been beaten, but they’d endured every other type of abuse.

Except sexual.

Intimacy was forbidden in the compounds. The reason Glory had run away was because a Nameless One tried to rape her. She’d used her kinetics to kill him, been scared half to death, and gone out a window in the thick of winter with only a worn pair of tennis shoes and a threadbare sweater. It was hard enough in Washington, but by the time she’d hitchhiked halfway across the country to Minnesota, the cold had almost killed her.

Frank was a hunk of a man. All the Nameless Ones were, but Faith couldn’t see herself letting her guard down long enough to allow him inside her hopes and dreams, let alone sleeping with him. The thought of physical intimacy with someone like him made her vaguely ill.

She reached her building and tipped her chin so the retinal scanner could trip the lock and let her in. She was capable of employing kinetics to spring any lock, but so long as she was here, she’d do things the CIA way. After she nodded to the security guard patrolling the lobby, she pulled open a stairwell door and headed for the third floor.

Faith employed telepathy as she hastened up the stairs to see which women might be interested in joining her for dinner in the cafeteria. By the time she got to her floor, seven of the new recruits waited for her, milling about in the hallway. Faith recognized three of them since they were part of a group assigned specifically to her for weapons and martial arts practice.

A thought struck Faith. “I never asked, and we mostly communicate via telepathy when we train, but did you ever swap out your identification numbers from the compounds for names?”

A woman from Faith’s group squared her shoulders. Like all the genetically modified women, she had long, thick dark hair and clear green eyes. The women had sleekly muscled bodies, and were both tall and strong. “Some of us did,” she replied.

Faith smiled grimly. “That was one of the concessions we insisted on in my compound. We got sick of numbers, so we named ourselves and refused to respond when Nameless Ones called us by our numbers. Tell you what. Before we’re done eating tonight, at least the seven of you will have picked names.”

“Sounds like a plan,” another of the women said.

“Tell us about Hope and Charlie.” Another pressed forward and clasped her hands together. “It seems like such a fairytale romance. Everything went well? They’re off on a honeymoon?”

“Well, they’re not exactly married, so honeymoon isn’t the correct word,” Faith replied. “But I watched their plane take off, and they did look happy.”

A collective ahhhhh surged through the group, and seven pairs of green eyes shone with delight for one of their kind who’d found happiness.

Faith could relate, and it made her both sad and angry. Up until she’d fled the compound, the thought of falling in love was just a fantasy. Something that happened in movies she watched on the Internet, but nothing that would ever happen to her. Frank’s invitation—and his obvious interest—nagged at the back of her mind.

No. I’d rather be dead than hook up with a Nameless One. Charity may have, but I’m not her.

“Dinner?” Faith urged to quell her churning thoughts and trotted back down the stairway. If they got there after eight, the steam tables would be closed. Snacks were always available, but they weren’t as satisfying as a hot meal.

The women trailed after her, chatting among themselves. They sounded carefree, another emotion that had eluded them in the compounds where they’d had to watch their backs every single minute.

“What do you think about goddess warrior names?” One of the women joined Faith.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Faith offered. “A name is important. It symbolizes who you are. Humans don’t get to pick their own names, but some of the research I’ve read indicates that people grow into their given names—for good or for ill.”

“So I should pick a name where I have an affinity for the woman, right?”

“Sounds good to me,” Faith replied. “In our compound, we picked simple names that had meaning for us. We figured if we selected anything too complicated, we’d never get the men to quit hollering out our numbers when they wanted something.”

Another woman closed on Faith’s other side. “Was it easy?” she asked.

“The transition?” Faith glanced her way.

“Yeah. How long did it take them to give up and use names?”

Faith buried a snort. “Some got on the bandwagon in six months. Took others a year. And they cut our rations and assigned us extra duties to force us to give up on having names. We held firm, though. It was our first victory, and we wrangled every last bit of pleasure we could out of it.”

“The men don’t have names.” Someone spoke up.

“Yeah, they do. They just never used them around us. One guy slipped up. It was what gave us the impetus to demand names for ourselves.” Faith slapped her palm on the reader plate outside the cafeteria and pushed the door open.

“Get your food,” she instructed, “and we’ll push some tables together. In fact, I’ll do that while you’re in line, so the table will be ready.”

Amid repeated thank yous, Faith strode to the back of the large room. All the tables seated four, so she pushed three together. That done, she stopped by the drink table for a cup of coffee and left it in front of her place before crossing to the steam tables lined up at the far end. The cafeteria had zero ambience, but it served good food under the harsh glare of banks of fluorescent panels.

By the time she slid into her seat, the other women were already eating.

One set her fork down and smiled self-consciously. “This—” she waved a hand around the table at the overflowing plates “—feels like more of a miracle than anything else. We never, never had enough food.”

Faith remembered all too well. “At least that part of our lives is over—I hope,” she murmured and began to eat.

Other women from the Maine compound filtered in, and Faith pushed more tables in line with theirs.

“What happens with practice tomorrow?” one of the women who’d been on Hope’s team asked.

“Well, out of the five of you assigned to Hope, two will come with me, and three with Charity for the week Hope is gone.”

Faith did a quick nose count. Three of the women from Hope’s group were there. “You two—” she pointed “—will be with me and my five. And you—” she pointed again “—will join Charity.”

“Which one is she?” the woman asked.

The woman sitting next to her leaned close. “The one who hooked up with a Nameless One.”

“Ohhh.” A knowing look creased the first woman’s face. “I know who she is.”

Faith licked dry lips. She should keep quiet, but a need to speak up for her friend won out. “Charity is amazing. You’re lucky to have her for an instructor. She’s one of the V3s with an unstable genome, but she got past it by being one strong bitch of a woman.”

“But a Nameless One…” The woman who’d asked the question looked at her plate.

“Charity had a hell of a hard time swallowing that,” Faith said. “But Tony saved her when her genome hit a downward spiral, and he adores her.”

“I suppose it’s possible,” a woman on Faith’s team muttered, “but it kind of makes my skin crawl.”

Murmured assent rose from several women.

“Names.” Faith changed the subject. “You all need to pick names—unless you already have them.” She stabbed her fork into china and realized her plate was empty. The abrupt motion told her how difficult the conversation about Tony and Charity was for her to hear, let alone be part of.

It brought Frank’s earlier invitation front and center again too.

She pushed to her feet. “I’m going to call it a night. You can remain here as long as you want. Work on those names. No one will kick you out of the cafeteria. For those of you on my team, we’ll meet at zero eight hundred sharp in the underground arena. Unless we receive other orders between now and then. If that happens, I’ll alert you myself.”

Faith loped toward a door and snapped her coat off a hook, sliding into it as she walked out the door. She kept her head down, mostly so she wouldn’t have to think about anything, and plowed right into Dr. Thomas.

Faith halted abruptly. “I— I’m sorry,” she muttered. “Wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s all right, Faith.” The doctor smiled pleasantly. His dark hair, which had been shorn close to his head when she’d first met him, was growing longer. He had green eyes, but a darker shade than hers. Tall and thin, he’d been a field surgeon in the Middle East. He was the one who’d pitched nine kinds of fits about Frank and Tony treating Charlie, but to his credit, he’d backpedaled fast.

Hard to argue with success, and the doctor hadn’t tried.

He was still gazing at her. It made her uncomfortable, so she studied him to give herself something to do. She was used to collecting data with her computer-esque brain. He’d tossed a fur-lined coat over scrubs and was probably intent on dinner.

“So long as I ran into you—rather literally it turns out—I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” He quirked an inquisitive brow her way.

Faith thinned her mouth into an aggravated line. What was it about men and asking her things tonight? “I’m waiting.” She ditched her discomfort and latched her gaze onto his before she remembered humans didn’t appreciate that level of directness.

“You have some good skills. I’ve seen you patch the women up when they get hurt in the arena. Did you do any work in the labs in your compound?”

“Not the labs, but I did do some medical support work, why?” Before he could answer, she hurried on. “I really enjoy field work, uh, sir. Not sure I’d want to be stuck in someplace like the infirmary all day. Not that it isn’t nice and all—” Faith realized she was blithering and cut off her flow of words. She’d take whatever tasks the CIA assigned. To do anything else would be the height of ingratitude.

“Stop by the infirmary tomorrow,” he said. “Say around noon. That shouldn’t interrupt your morning training schedule. I’ve been extremely impressed with Frank and Tony’s knowledge base, and I have an idea I’d like to float past you.”

“I’m not a Nameless One,” she mumbled.

“Oh yes, that is what you women call them, isn’t it.” He smiled again. “See you tomorrow, Faith. I’m looking forward to our chat.”

Reginald Thomas touched his palm to the scanner and disappeared inside, leaving Faith staring after him.

She forced her gaze away from watching him through the glass door and turned toward her apartment building. Efforts to keep her mind blank failed. Where Frank’s invitation had creeped her out, the doctor’s fascinated her. Was he interested in her as something other than some kind of guinea pig? A hybrid type of medical personnel who could think outside of standardized training?

Her heart gave a funny little flutter, and her statement about preferring fieldwork hit the skids. She’d give up weapons practice, telepathy skills enhancement, and martial arts workshops in a hot minute if it meant she got to spend her days next to Dr. Thomas.

“Oh, put a lid on it,” Faith muttered and walked into her building.

“What was that, miss?” the security guard asked.

“Nothing. Just talking to myself. Good evening, Greg.”

“And a good evening to you as well, Miss Faith.”

She took the stairs three at a time and ran down the hall to her apartment, letting herself in. Faith paced in circles for a long five minutes before engaging her kinetics. She’d be in big trouble if she were caught, but she was determined to hack into the CIA’s personnel database and find out everything she could about Reginald Thomas.

I’ll stop the minute I find a wife, she promised herself, but wondered if she’d be disciplined enough to quit there.