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He asks for status updates from the SWAT members that took the stairs closest to the northwest end, and instructs them to clear every room as they make their way to the main labs.
Through my earpiece, Tony cusses. “We’ve got trouble. There are armed guards outside of the room Six is in, as well as outside a few other rooms and the main laboratories.”
“Are they ready if they meet any hostile parties down there?” I cut my eyes at Tova, hating that I have to talk in codes like this when the knowledge that Tony has could save lives.
“They’re ready,” the agent assures me.
My palms are sweating enough that I have to wipe them on my pants. I’ve had to remove my jacket because of the oppressive heat down here, and I’m wishing I’d taken my button-down shirt off too, and just had my undershirt under my tactical vest like the other guys did, but I was stubborn.
We hear yelling over the agents’ earpieces, but none of us are privy to what’s happening as Agent Tova starts to rattle off more orders. “Team three, secure the area. We have hostiles on the basement level. Team four, we have hostiles on the basement level. I repeat, we have hostiles on the basement level. Be ready to engage. Team four, you are a go.”
From the outside, we watch three more SWAT trucks empty, approximately thirty more armed specialists splitting up and running to various entrances
“Team four, officers Smith and Wright, priority to the offices at the northwest end. All others, as you were.”
“That should be more than enough officers to subdue the guards, but I don’t know what their end game is here,” Tony mutters through my earpiece. “Shit, I just lost the footage.”
Suddenly, the surveillance footage that Officer Rainey is watching cuts out. The screen fuzzes over, but then cuts back on to a new camera angle. This time the feed is of a familiar face. The same middle-aged man, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a bad comb-over, that was photographed shaking hands with my father outside the Raleigh office, is staring back at us. When he speaks, his Southern accent is so thick, he sounds like a cartoon villain.
“I would like to talk to Mr. Bennet Adley,” he says.
Agent Tova answers him first. “It’s just you and me right now, Dr. Johnson. We have your entire lab surrounded, and your armed guards are overpowered. The best thing you can do right now is to surrender yourself and call off any hostiles before we are obligated to use force.”
“I know young Mr. Adley is there, because I have a certain asset in my possession.” To prove his point, Johnson holds up a very pale looking Six, a scalpel to her throat.
There’s a scuffle outside that I don’t have it in me to pay attention to. My heart both drops and lodges itself in my throat simultaneously as I look at the woman I love, once again at the mercy of an evil man. This will not stand.
Pushing my way in front of the screen, I yell, so he can hear me. “I’m here! I’m here. Don’t hurt her.” Officer Rainey sets me up with a mic and a webcam so Johnson can see me.
“Ah, here he is, the heir to the Adley Empire. Like father, like son, here to fuck me over. Do you know how many years of work and research your father ruined with his innate ability to go overboard on his little rogue missions?”
“I’m not my father, and if you must know, I plan to dismantle everything he touched.” I hope he hears the implied threat in that statement.
“Your father had a talent for squirming out of troubling predicaments until your little friends got to him.” He has my attention with that last bit. “Oh yes, I know all about what happened in Raleigh. And I have proof, not only of the damage your little friends did, but also the absolute phenomenon of your surviving such an unlucky circumstance. Wouldn’t it be interesting what the government could do with that information?”
I definitely heard the implied threat in that statement.
“Get to your point, Johnson.”
The older man tsks, his fleshy neck vibrating as he shakes his head. “Such an impertinent little brat. I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re probably used to getting everything you want, aren’t you, Bennet?”
“What is it you want?”
“I want to walk out of this building with the means to disappear and live lavishly in an undisclosed location of my choosing. So I’m offering you a deal.”
Behind me, one of the agents that was outside with the other guys, Agent Jess I believe, comes running up to the door. “Agent Tova, the other three went rogue. They knocked Rami unconscious, stole her badge and gun, and ran for the building.”
Tova levels me with a look, as if I had anything to do with it. Returning his attention to the agent, he tells him in a hushed tone, “There are a hundred agents in or surrounding that building. I don’t think they’ll get far. Hopefully, they won’t get themselves shot.”
I turn my attention back to the screen. “What kind of deal?”
“Buy my company from me. You can afford any price I put on it. And then, for the price of my freedom, I’ll sell you my daughter.”
Excuse me?
I could choke with how tightly my throat has closed up. “Your what?”
“Why else would I name the project ‘Progeny?’ She and her sisters were all my sire. I used my own DNA to make them.”
