Page 13 of Captive Beta
That’s bad.
Not a good sign at all.
I grab my gun, holding it loosely at my side. “There’s someone inside. The door is open. I’m going in.” If the person inside didn’t hear the first door open, my voice earlier will have given me away. So I can’t wait.
I nudge the door open with my foot, my gun ready, waiting for shots, but none come.
What I do hear is someone quickly trying to gather together their things, papers, from the sound of it. I’ve got to take my chance that it’s just the one person and that they’re too busy to shoot me right now.
There are no security cameras in here, so Timothy can’t help me. I’m on my own to figure out what’s going on.
I step inside sideways, making sure to target the person as soon as possible, hoping they don’t shoot me first.
The lab is light and easy to oversee. There are cabinets with glass doors along all walls, full of all sorts of things. The room is filled with rows of tables, some of them with machines, others are empty.
There’s a man standing at one of the tables with machines, small vials in a rack in front of him, and he’s not having much luck with collecting all his papers together. They keep fluttering to the floor at his feet.
He’s dressed like a guard, but the way he moves, the way he acts, he doesn’t seem to be one. The fit of his uniform is off, like it’s much too big for him, and he also lacks the weapons and the radio that the other guards we’ve encountered so far wear.
A quick glance around the room tells me that he’s on his own, nobody else is in here. Which is good, no witnesses.
“Stop what you’re doing.” I keep my gun trained on him. He doesn’t listen, and keeps stuffing things into his bag. “Stop. Or I’ll shoot you.” I slowly walk closer, the ‘guard’ still has his back to me.
This does seem to make him stop at least. Most people prefer not to get shot, most of the time.
“Who are you?” I drop my voice as low as it will go. I can’t force my will onto him like an Alpha can with their powers, but this is the best I can do. Making people think I’m an Alpha usually works just as well as actually being one.
“Don’t shoot, please. I’m a simple guard. I noticed someone left their things out, so I was trying to clean up.” His voice wavers, unsure.
I shoot the floor near him, close enough to scare him, not close enough to hit him. “Try that again.”
“Please. Don’t shoot! I’m just trying to clean up. Honestly.” He holds his hands up.
Some people really don’t understand that when their disguise is seen for what it is, that it’s better to follow instructions from the people with guns and not make their situation worse by pretending that everything is still fine.
We only have a few minutes to pull this whole mission off and I don’t have time to deal with guys like this.
My second shot hits the floor on his other side, closer to him than the first, making him yelp and jerk away from it. “The truth. Or the next one will be the last.”
“I’m only a guard. I promise. I have no idea what’s going on.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
I quickly close the distance between us and slam my gun to the side of his head. He drops to the floor like a bag of flour. He’ll have a bad headache when he comes to, but I don’t have time to play hundred questions with him right now.
“Timothy, let Riley and two others in. I’ve found someone who could be of use to us.”
The fact that Riley isn’t here yet means that he hasn’t unlocked the doors for them or told them what was going on, waiting for me to give him orders on what to do next.
I step over the body and take a look at the papers that are still on the table. They’re mostly chemical stuff, Timothy will know how to read those. Then I kneel down and push some of the papers in the bag around with my gun, making sure not to touch them.
My stomach clenches as they slide out of the bag.
They’re schematics for a cannister system that disperses the plant’s chemicals at a high concentration.
Oh, fuck.
Pheromone bombs.
