THE TITAN EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER 6 - All Aboard

Still blinded by the sack over her head, Sarah twisted her body around when the sliding door whisked closed behind them. Mildly startled, she wanted to kick herself. She should have known it was a door opening when the hydraulics hissed a moment ago. After the air hissed a second time, a rhythmic chime pinged like someone drumming a xylophone. Sarah considered the sound as it played out. The pings rose in pitch, reminding her of an elevator door at the Next Gen building, which confirmed her mounting suspicions. She had visited the corporation once with the admiral and Wolf, before Arcturus. Next Gen supplied the robots that assisted with the assembly of the space station. This site was not under the skyscraper near Times Square, but tunnels could connect both locations.

The web of interconnected accomplices grew more complex in Sarah's mind.

Guided by Wolf, Sarah's feet scuffed across the dark rubber floor. She was unsure of where her next step would take her, since the bag limited her vision beyond her immediate surroundings. If he hadn't bound her hands behind her back, she'd use her fingertips to feel for walls on each side, which would reveal whether they were traversing a long hallway or an open room. Even that limited information would help build a picture in her mind of what she was dealing with.

They walked twenty paces where another door opened to the right with a hiss, and they entered a side room. It was driving her crazy. Where was she?

Sarah exhaled and sighed. The journey with the bag over her head brought back vivid memories from over sixty years ago when a man took Jake and his close friend, Tony Cruze, away to die, and the lead assassin took her away separately aboard an ice breaker ship to be held captive. Her then future husband and his friend escaped that day, and so did Sarah eventually, but not before a madman injected her with the serum that started her down the path toward the dark road of immortality.

"There's a chair behind you," Wolf said. "You can sit."

When she failed to move, his hands wrapped around the soft bends of her arms. She flinched from the way his fingers glided over her skin, chill bumps rushing across her forearms. The back of her legs bumped the edge of the seat, and Wolf nudged her into the chair.

"It wasn't a suggestion," he said.

Beneath her feet, the floor vibrated, and she detected a slight feeling of movement. Seconds ticked by and then the sensation all but disappeared. They were on a transportation vehicle, but it surprised Sarah how smoothly it operated.

To her right, inches from her ear, something sounded like a flexible material zipping over metal. A moment later, Wolf stood behind her, running a strap between her wrists, over her bonds, tugging the strip of material tighter, fastening her to the back of the chair with a final jerk and latch.

"You didn't have to be so rough," Sarah said.

"Sorry. I just have to make sure you won't go anywhere."

Wolf ripped the sack off her head.

Out of reflex, Sarah wrenched away. She twisted and pulled to free her arms, but it was to no avail. Even worse, her wrists stung the more she struggled, a flat wire digging into her skin.

Wolf's dimpled chin greeted her with a testy grin. He sat in a chair across from her, his nose red and swollen, possibly broken, but it didn't seem to bother him much.

Sarah lurched toward him, intending to strike out at him, but her bonds held her in the chair like a dog on a chain.

"I had a hunch you'd lunge at me at some point," he said. "You can relax. You're not going anywhere."

"You seem sure of yourself."

"You know... you lost a few trust points with that act of aggression."

Sarah puckered her lips into an irritated snarl, contemplating a snarky comeback, but thought better of it. Instead, she turned her focus to the room she was in. As she took in her surroundings, the more she looked around, the more confused she became.