Breed

Chapter Thirty-one

Demi grunted as she shifted Mayumi's weight. She was a tiny thing, but she weighed more than she looked. In fact, she weighed more than a couple of her should have.

"So what was with all that face-stroking stuff?" Mikaela asked Tucker.

"Jealous?" Tucker asked.

"I'd like to know, too," Demi said.

"I've been working with the Dean. He's been teaching me how to do more than just hear a person's thoughts, but to be able to sense the mechanisms of their thoughts. And there's something really screwed up about the way this girl thinks."

"I could have told you that," Iago said.

"Is that you're way of saying she's your type?" Tucker asked. Iago stuck his tongue out at him. "Careful, it'll freeze that way." Panic filled Iago's eyes as ice crystallized on his tongue, and he tried to yell through a mouth that was frozen shut. "I still have trouble believing that doesn't hurt," Tucker said.

Iago sucked his tongue back into his mouth, breaking the thin layer of ice away. "Kind of like a brain freeze, but I wouldn't say it hurts," he replied.

"But I'm not just talking about divergent thought patterns, or abnormal psychology. There's something in her head that shouldn't be there. I can't be sure, but I think it was spiking her adrenaline, making her more aggressive, even feral."

"And you tried to shut it down," Mikaela said.

"I did. But that didn't work. Or maybe it did, but there was a lag before we saw the effects."

"But that's why you said it wasn't over."

"It isn't. She took enough of a beating that I was able to convince her to rest. But I don't know how long she'll stay out."

"The thing making her crazy. Is it biological?"

"You think maybe somebody did this to her?" Tucker asked.

"I think somebody taught her to fight. If she's an attack dog, maybe that's her leash." Mikaela took out her phone and dialed. It rang, but no one was answering. "Shit, Mahmoud, pick up," she said. She hung up, and tapped out a message.

"I think I might know somebody. Pete introduced me. But we'll have to take her to a building with a ground-floor lab." Tucker took out his phone and started texting. "I'll have them meet us there."

"Them?"

"If there is a piece of machinery in her skull, Ryan can help with the tech; but for the brain parts we're still likely to need Pete."

"And Cris, who's pretty likely to be in tow," Demi said.

"In here," Tucker said, opening a door into Onslow.

Most of the building was lit only by emergency lighting.

"I wouldn't have thought the buildings were opened this late," Demi said.

"They aren't," Tucker said.

"The locks are electronic," a computerized voice said from down the hall. "I asked them politely to open, and they did."

The source of the voice rolled out of the shadows and into the light immediately under an emergency fixture. He was short, though it was difficult to tell how short, because his limbs were shriveled, and nearly tucked up underneath his torso. He was sitting in a motorized wheelchair, a bulky one the length of probably four people standing in a line.