PROLOGUE
D005 stood in the white, sterile-looking room; her feet spread hip width apart. The Colt she held in her right hand hung loosely at her side. Her expression said she was bored. At least that is the way she would look to an outsider. But she wasn’t. She was never relaxed. Right now every muscle in her body was at the ready.
There was just one window in the room, off to her left side. It displayed an outdoor scene of wild grasses dotted with dandelions, towering oak trees marked the edge of a forest in the distance and a stunning cloudless sky rose up above that. It looked perfectly real, but she knew that it wasn’t. It was really a two-way mirror. They were there on the other side, watching her. Always watching her. Testing her. Everything was always a test. A test that could not be failed. Fail and you disappear. She didn’t want to disappear – although she did wonder sometimes if it might be better than the life she and the others had.
A man, or maybe a woman, sat on a metal chair in the middle of the room with his (or her) arms tied around the back of the chair. There was a black hood over his (or her) head. D005 wasn’t sure what, but something did not seem right here. Something was wrong. Commander stepped forward from where he was standing at her side and yanked the hood off the person. A man then. She could see the terror in his eyes. A gag in his mouth silenced him. The man’s eyes darted around the room before they landed on her. On her gun. His eyes widened and shot up to meet hers. His eyes. They pleaded with her. Looking into his eyes something squeezed tight in her chest. Some feeling she had never felt before in all her years. She tore her gaze away from the man, not knowing what to make of that feeling. She looked to Commander for her orders instead. His narrowed hard steel gray eyes stared back at her, assessing her. Everything was always a test.
“Kill him.” Came the simple two word order.
D005’s gaze focused back on the trembling man in the chair. Raising her arm she leveled the gun, bringing up her left hand to join its mate on the butt of the gun. Looking down the barrel of the gun she found herself staring into the man’s eyes again. Hesitating. She never hesitates.
“Shoot him!” Commander barked out.
This is not right she thought. She isn’t supposed to think. She knows that. She is just supposed to do. Just supposed to follow orders. She never failed. Never came close to failing. But somehow she knew. She knew she would fail today.
“Shoot him!”
Blinking, D005 lowered her gun and turned toward Commander. “No.” She said firmly.
“What did you say?”
She didn’t think she had ever heard anyone tell him no before. Certainly none of them ever had. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I said no.” She repeated. She wasn’t completely sure why she couldn’t, but for some reason, after looking into the man’s eyes she just could not bring herself to kill him.
Commander strode over to her, bending slightly to push his face in front of hers. “D005 you are to follow your orders and your orders are to kill this man. Now obey your orders.” He snarled.
“I said no.” She repeated once more, saying each word carefully and slowly.
Before she knew what was happening Commander drew his own Colt from the holster at his hip and fired a round into the man without taking his eyes off her. D005 nearly flinched. Nearly. But she didn’t. She did not even turn to look at the man again; instead she kept her gaze trained on Commander. “Halloway! Chapman! Get in here!” Commander hollered, his eyes still piercing her. The two hulking guards in their grey uniforms slunk into the room.
