Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Duncan snorted. “How good can she be? She had the same training we did, and she’s a female. She has no business being a soldier.”
Terry was silent as he continued to clean up the wound from the owl’s talons. Duncan swore over and over. Finally, Terry sighed. “I agree with Gerald, Duncan. That woman may be small, but she’s got skills none of us have. She wiped out Leon and his friends, and that was after they bashed her in the head. It’s more than possible she killed the team bringing her up the mountain.”
The second man treating the sniffer turned to look at Terry. “How? You heard what they said on the radio. She was probably going to die from her wounds.” He sank back on his heels, turning his attention to the sniffer once more. “You’re not going to make it, bud.” He pulled out a small revolver, pressed it to the sniffer’s temple and pulled the trigger.
The act should have been shocking to Diego, but he was half expecting it. He was somewhat surprised that they didn’t do the same thing to Duncan. He was going to slow them down.
“We don’t have time for this crap,” the soldier who had pulled the trigger snapped. “The helicopter isn’t going to wait for us.” He stood up. “We’ve got to run that bitch down and end her fast. That’s the only solution to this. She’s responsible for how many dead?”
Gerald stood, backing away from the sniffer’s body. “Damn, Pete, you could’ve warned me.” He flashed a scowl at his fellow soldier. “And yeah, I agree with you all that the bitch has to die. We need to find her fast and get rid of her. I’m just going to point out that you’d better not underestimate her.”
“I don’t think she’s all that,” Duncan snarled. “Damn, this hurts.”
“You tried to get with her once,” Pete said. “I remember she turned you down flat.”
Terry and Gerald helped Duncan to stand. He shoved them away. “Yeah, the little bitch thinks she’s so much better than everyone else. I say she isn’t.”
“Then where’s Harold and his men? All they had to do was haul her ass up the mountain to the rendezvous site,” Terry said. “She was wounded. We know that much.” He gestured around him. “This was their last known location. She isn’t here and neither are they. You want to explain that?”
“It wasn’t her,” Duncan muttered mutinously.
Terry indicated the sniffer’s body. “He said there was a bloodbath here, but the trail ended. How? If there was a bloodbath and Harold and his men were still alive, they’d be making their way to us. They’ve disappeared. That should tell you something.”
“So you believe one wounded woman killed them all and disposed of their bodies?” Duncan demanded. He sounded heated, angry and even confrontational.
Diego wasn’t surprised by the aggression in the men. Each of them had been enhanced with predatory genetics in order to make them faster and stronger. He didn’t understand how those running the laboratory, which had been in existence since the Vietnam War, continued to make the same mistakes Whitney was making. Whitney enhanced psychically, something these soldiers didn’t appear to have had done to them, but the animal genetics alone were enough to raise their aggression levels off the charts.
Diego knew from his talks with Luther that those recruiting soldiers to the enhancement program were proud of the fact that they didn’t conduct the kinds of experiments Whitney did, yet they had to see that a good number of their soldiers were spiraling out of control, just as Whitney’s often did. Psychiatric tests were imperative. By now they had to know that, yet they continued to make the same mistakes.
He believed that the soldiers volunteered in good faith. They had no idea what those altered genetics were going to do to them. He hadn’t known, and the predatory aggression was difficult to keep under control. He was surrounded by men who had a strict code. Many of the soldiers from the lab Leila came from seemed to be sent out alone or put with others who, as they became more aggressive, egged one another on.
Diego had many enhancements—some he’d developed into razor-sharp weapons and others he was good at, just not expert. What he was particularly good at was his affinity with the local wildlife. He sent out a call to those nearby. A male fox, two bobcats, a raccoon family, as well as several skunks in the vicinity.
The Appalachian Mountains had a certain reputation. Not just a reputation—they were, quite frankly, eerie. Diego’s call was haunting and seemed to reverberate through the trees. He sent it several times, with a long silence in between so the soldiers couldn’t fail to notice the sudden lack of droning insects.
He looked toward the sky and sent out a call for the turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks. Then he sent another call for beetles and bottle flies to join the feast. His next haunting call was to all scavengers in the area. When the last notes ended, echoing through the deeper forest, fog began to drift out of the trees into the clearing. The fog was low to the ground and resembled fingers extending toward the four remaining soldiers.