Ajax

Arianna!

The thought coalesced in his head with a start. Awareness flooded back into Ajax and he fought back the urge to react. Forcing himself to remain still, he continued to breathe deeply and easily, eyes closed. This wasn’t the first time he’d awoke in a situation like this, and it had long been instilled in him that keeping people unaware that he was conscious could work to his advantage.

While he opened his ears to any sounds around him, Ajax focused on running a check on his body to see if anything was wrong. Everything felt okay, he decided several minutes later, but until he actually tried to move he wouldn’t be able to determine that for sure.

The last thing he remembered was the men storming into the room and the pinprick of their tranquilizer darts blossoming across his chest. He had no sense of time on how long he’d been out, or how far away he might have been taken from Arianna.

In the background he could heard the soft hum of a circulation system funneling air into and out of whatever type of room he happened to be in. The surface below him was cool, indicating he was on some sort of metal tray or slab. The air running over his skin was cool, without any telltale signs of heat, which likely meant there were no windows anywhere nearby either.

Something clanged nearby, the distinct sound of metal on metal. His ears separated two distinct sets of shoes scuffing the floor as they approached.

“Still out? How hard did you hit him?” a voice complained from nearby.

“Enough,” a second, distinctly deeper voice replied. “It’s only been half an hour. Ten shots should keep him down another thirty minutes I would presume.”

He wanted to snort, but he repressed the urge. An hour from ten shots? Maybe for some city shifter, perhaps. But Ajax was different. He was the Alpha of a mining crew from Genesis Valley. They were a different breed of bear than anything these men had encountered before. Ajax intended to take full advantage of that fact. They’d likely never dealt with a shifter so used to being knocked down and dusting himself off.

“Do you think it’s going to work this time?” the first voice asked, subdued.

“No clue. But they’ve already used up all the blood we took from him, which could be a good sign. Perhaps the boss was right and this subject will take it better.”

Subject? They took my blood to inject in someone? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. That had been tried a number of times over the years, generally with no results besides making the recipient extremely ill for several days, depending on dosage size. Something else was going on. And who was their test subject? He needed answers.

The conversation drifted away from anything serious. Ajax decided that he wasn’t going to get anything more from staying “unconscious.” Slowly he opened the eye farthest away from the voice. He was lying on his back in what appeared to be a steel cube. There was absolutely nothing of interest. The walls were gray and solid, no markings or openings that he could see.

Ajax opened the other eye. Now he could see the front of the cell and the front wall. To his surprise, there was no front wall.

What the hell?

He sat up.

Or tried to. But a metal bar that he hadn’t noticed before stopped his progress.

“Oh, he’s awake.” Voice number two sounded intrigued, and Ajax caught sight of a head pop into view from around the corner, followed by the rest of a body. Like he remembered from earlier, they were wearing balaclava-style masks that concealed their faces. The ones that had shot him had worn ski goggles compared to the darkened sunglasses this pair was sporting. They really were serious about hiding their identities.

Ajax opened his mouth to speak, but his dried-out throat only emitted a croak. Working his jaw to increase the flow of saliva, after a moment he felt capable of speaking actual words.

“So, what kind of trouble have I gotten myself into this time?” he asked with an exaggerated sigh.

Although he couldn’t see their faces, the look the two guards gave each other told him all he needed to know about their reaction. He wondered if either of them had strained their eyes by rolling them that badly.

“Thinks he’s a tough guy, does he?” the guard on his left said, revealing his voice to be guard number two.

“Ah, Number Two,” Ajax said with a laugh. “Good to see you.”

“What?”

“Number One, could you please tell Number Two to get over here and open this bar? I’d really like to sit up, if you don’t mind.”

“Ain’t gonna happen, pal,” Number One replied, shaking his head.

“Why not? Didn’t they tell you?”

“Tell us what?” Number One asked in exasperation.

“That I’m with you guys. That it was all for show, to get the woman to cooperate,” he said patiently. “I was planted to help capture her in a way that wouldn’t arouse any suspicion with the local law enforcement.”

“Yeah, right,” Number Two replied. “There was never going to be any trouble with the locals. What do you take us for, some kind of idiots?”

You, perhaps, Ajax thought. Not Number One, he seems to be a little sharper. I doubt he would have revealed that you’re either working for, or with, the police department.

That was good knowledge to have. It meant there would be no missing persons’ report filed for Arianna, or if there was, it would never go anywhere. So he couldn’t count on that method, though it had been a long shot anyway.

“That’s what you think,” he persisted. “There’s one guy been making some trouble lately though. The boss told me to go and make sure this happened. No mistakes,” he said seriously.

“Peter’s told you that?” Number Two asked with a laugh. “Right.”

“Shut up,” Number One growled, and his voice wasn’t directed at Ajax.

Before the pair could devolve farther into an argument the door clanked and opened, admitting another pair of masked men. Ajax promptly labeled the tall one Number Three and the shorter one Number Four as soon as they walked into sight of his cell.

“Number Three!” he shouted, looking in the man’s direction.

The guard paused, his head tilting oddly. “What did you call me?”

Ajax filed his voice away. “Number Three. Meet One and Two,” he said happily, pointing as best he could with hands that were clamped to the table by the original two guards.

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Number Four spoke in confusion.

Ajax hid a smile. He probably would not need to recognize any of their voices, but he had them now in case he came across them without their masks on. It was highly unlikely, because he was already planning his jail break.

“Doc says he needs more, but he’s too busy with the specimen to come take it himself. So we get to take him,” Number Three gestured at Ajax, “to the Doc.”

“Lovely,” Number One muttered, pointing to Number Two. “Okay chatterbox, go remove the restraints.”

Two hesitated, but the hiss of metal rubbing against plastic as the three other guards drew some sort of baton gave him courage, and he moved into the cell with Ajax. He reached under the table near Ajax’s head and flicked a switch. At the same moment he drew his own wand.

“Cute sticks,” Ajax said, not moving as the metal restrains unlocked. “Can you cast any spells with them?”

As a reply, Number One drove his baton into Ajax’s side.

He screamed, writhing in pain, his movements pushing the restraints out of the way as he convulsed on the table.

“How’s that, smartass? You like that spell?” Number Two taunted him, then jabbed his own stick into Ajax’s gut.

He grunted and cried out in pain again.

“Enough,” Number Three said, and the others immediately pulled their batons back.

Two of the guards moved closer and hauled him to his feet, forcing him to stand up and uncurl from the ball he had been in after taking two hits of the electrically charged batons. His face was scrunched up with pain and he hissed as his back straightened, forcing his abs to unclench.

“You’re going to behave now, right?” Number Three asked menacingly.

Little men and their toys. Number Three was going to die first, he decided. Or at least, would go down first. He’d have to figure out whether they were government run or private. If they were privately run, then nobody could touch him if he killed anyone who restrained him illegally.

“Come on,” Number One said, pointing out of the cell with his baton.

Ajax shuffled from the room, still wincing and grunting in pain. The men moved him to the door to the right of his cell. As he waited for them to key it open, he looked around, noting the other two cells on either side of his, exactly the same. The rest of the room was the same drab, utilitarian gray steel that he was rapidly becoming used to.

The door hissed and clanked open, and two guards preceded him inside, while the other two followed, wands crackling as they neared his skin. They walked down the corridor at a slightly less-than-brisk pace, enough that it forced Ajax to move faster than he wanted to after taking those hits.

“I didn’t realize the government was so hot for the color gray,” he remarked as they passed another gray steel door. “You’d think they could afford to splurge on a splash of color here or there.”

“The government? What does the government have to do with this? They didn’t splurge on anything,” Number Four said arrogantly.

Ah, a private outfit then. Excellent.

They arrived at another door. It wasn’t far; they had only passed two side doors as they went. The door hissed open, and Ajax was assaulted by the brightness of the room ahead of them. The lights in the corridor and his cell had been white, not yellow, and rather bright, but they were nothing compared to the blinding brilliance of the spotlights in the room beyond. It stunned him and he didn’t move right away, prompting Number Three to jab his baton into Ajax’s back again.

He cried out and fell to one knee as the electricity raced through his muscles.

“Ajax?”

His head snapped up at the sound, eyes focusing on the room ahead of him.

“Arianna?” he rumbled, eyes searching the room.

“Ajax!”

It was her. He couldn’t see her—she was out of sight—but he’d recognize that voice anywhere. She sounded distressed.

“Shut up!” Number Three snarled as he appeared in front of Ajax, wand poised over him.

Ajax growled and rose to his feet.

Number Three stabbed him with the baton. Ajax couldn’t see his face, but he knew the man likely had a grin in place, expecting the big shifter to fall to the floor. Instead, Ajax’s lips pulled back as he bared his teeth in a snarl.

His hand shot out, wrapping around Number Three’s hand and baton all at once. When the guard tried to pull back, Ajax casually forced him to stay still. Then he pulled it closer, jabbing the baton into himself harder.

“What? That?” he asked, looking down at the stun stick. “Come on, you didn’t really fall for that little cry of pain routine, did you?”

He squeezed his hand as hard as he could, shattering the stick and the guard’s hand as he applied the full pressure of his shifter-enhanced grip.

“Idiot,” he snapped.

Then he attacked.

The stun batons weren’t pleasant, but to an enraged Ajax—who knew the woman he had gotten into this, the woman he was coming to care for—was in trouble, they were just a tickle. He had faked the earlier pain to lure them into a false sense of security.

It had worked. The others still tried to hit him with their sticks as he whirled, smashing bones with every blow. Number One got too close and Ajax reached out and casually slapped him, the force of his blow twisting the guard’s head until bone snapped. He dropped limply to the floor.

“Oh no you don’t,” the shifter growled loudly, his blood up, full battle-rage descending over him.

One of the guards was fleeing down the hallway. Ajax grabbed a fallen baton, took aim, and launched it down the hallway after him. He thought it was going to miss, but at the last second, it slammed electric end first into the guard’s tailbone. The scream that echoed up the hallway was deafening.

“Your turn,” Ajax said as he spun to see Number Three still on his feet, holding the mangled remains of his hand in front of him as he shook.

A flat palm lashed out, breaking the man’s nose with ease and sending bone fragments straight back into his brain. Ajax figured that was enough, but to make sure he picked the man up and hurled him twenty feet in the air into the room in front of him. The guard hit the wall head-first with more than enough force to kill him upon impact.

Ajax looked around, noting that Number Four was still on his feet. Gliding forward, Ajax closed the distance before the man could blink. He snatched the baton from the man’s hand and then hit him hard in the stomach right away with his other hand. As soon as the guard’s mouth opened to gasp for air, Ajax stabbed the baton forward, forcing it into the man’s throat. Electricity shot into his system consistently. Ajax held it there until he began to smell burning. He dropped the man to the floor as blood began to gush from his throat.

“Arianna?” He growled loudly, stepping into the room as his voice filled the space.

“Over here!” she shouted.

He spun to the right, going rigid at the sight in front of him.

Arianna was strapped to a bed with all sorts of electrodes and leads connected to her. Standing beside her, with something held to her throat, was a man in a white coat. His hands were gloved and he had a surgical mask over his mouth, though the rest of his face was exposed.

His eyes were wide with terror and as Ajax watched, his hands shook.

“Doc,” he said calmly. “You do not want to be here right now. Put it down, and step away.”

“Ajax they put something into me!” Arianna shouted. Her voice was no longer panicked, he noted. It was, if anything, angry. Understandable, he knew, but it was rather unusual in situations like this.

“Just move away, doctor,” Ajax said, trying to play the voice of calmness.

His eyes were focused forward, but his ears were listening behind him, waiting for the sound of alarms or more booted feet.

“You promise you won’t kill me?” The doctor’s voice was nervous and shaky.

“I promise. Just move away from the woman.”

His eyes darted back and forth between Ajax and Arianna several times before he nodded uneasily and removed the surgical knife from her neck.

“Is anything going to go wrong if I remove all of this from her?” Ajax said as he took a step closer to Arianna’s side.

“What? No,” the doctor said. “But you mustn’t do that.”

“Why not?” Ajax asked dangerously.

“My experiments!”

“Will she be harmed if they are removed?” Ajax repeated.

“No, no, of course not, but—”

The doctor’s voice ended in a scream as the baton Ajax had been holding behind his back hit him in the stomach, sending him to the floor in a heap as he instinctively curled up. The only issue with that was it meant he curled around the baton. Mercifully the doctor either passed out, or his heart gave up as he lapsed into silence after a few seconds.

“Hey,” he said in a completely different voice as he reached Arianna’s side.

“Hi,” came the soft reply, and then, “what took you so long?”

He snorted. “It’s your fault. Should have told me we were playing hide and seek.”

Arianna laughed.

They spent a few quick moments removing the IV lines and other equipment that had been affixed to various parts of her body.

“Get me out of here,” she said as she struggled to remove the last lead. There were still thick leather straps holding her in place.

With a gleeful growl he ripped them straight from the upright table they had laid her upon. Arianna stumbled into his arms with a solidness that caught him off guard.

“Everything okay?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she said, not sounding particularly sure of herself at first.

Ajax raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Ari said again, her voice stronger, more confident this time. “Yeah, I think I am.”

She stood up on her own, taking a few tentative steps to get her balance.

“Easy,” he murmured, staying close by.

“I got this,” she told him confidently after a moment, pushing him firmly back.

Ajax stared down at his chest where she had touched him. Something was…different.

They didn’t have time to diagnose things though; they had to go. Now. Grabbing Arianna’s hand, they dashed back down the hallway. The doctor had had a swipe card on him, and it served to open up door after door as they fled into the complex. Neither of them knew where they were going. They were just hoping for blind luck. They encountered several guards, but none of them were able to draw guns or batons before Ajax was upon them.

“Ajax!” Arianna shouted, sliding to a halt and pulling hard on his arm as they flew past another passage.

He looked down at the fingers wrapped around his bicep.

“Yes?” he asked, shaking off the feeling that something was amiss once again.

“Look!” she said, dragging him back to the crossway of corridors.

There, part way down was a standard red Exit sign. The pair dashed toward it.

“Okay, this is likely to set off a fire alarm, so we’re going to have to run, and run fast once we’re outside.”

Arianna nodded.

“Oh hell,” he swore, pulling her close and mashing his lips against hers briefly before pushing through the door.

Alarms did begin to sound, but it didn’t matter.

“Holy shit,” he said softly.

They weren’t in the middle of some compound. Ajax had figured they would have to find a vehicle and drive off somewhere to finally escape, or something even more complex. Much to his surprise though, the door opened up onto the sidewalk in the middle of the city.

“Come on!” he shouted, tugging Arianna after him. Together the pair bobbed and weaved, disappearing into the city crowds as best they could. It was made more difficult by the white gown she was wearing, and the fact that he was well over six and a half feet tall. But they managed.