2022 AMBY AWARD WINNER - Cassandra prepares to face her true nature as something other than human while avoiding relentless hunters bent on her capture...
Bruce Webb took a moment to survey the shambles inside the breached bunker. The confined area reeked of spent gunpowder, blood, and bodily fluids. He glanced at the mutilated corpse of one of his operatives, Leo Grant.
He had liked the gung-ho youngster who called to mind an earlier version of himself, twenty years ago when he had been with the Navy Seals. Notifying family members of a death under his command was nothing new to Webb, but it had been a long time since he needed to perform the unpleasant task. The older he got, the more it bothered him to be the bearer of grim news.
Dan Holt, Webb's second in command, shot an unperturbed glance at Grant's corpse. "I don't normally pass the buck, but I lay blame for this disaster squarely on Grant. He wasn't ready to be on point."
Webb maintained a cool façade, but inwardly he derided himself. He should've led the raid instead of coordinating from the command-and-control van, a mistake he would not repeat. His crew were young and fit, but he had the most tactical experience.
"The anticipation got to him," Claudia Mayhew, the sole female on the crew uttered.
All of them were keeping cool heads at the sight of their disfigured teammate. Webb had to give them credit for their professionalism under duress.
Claudia removed her black balaclava and shook free her long dreadlocks. "He took wild shots at the female when mission parameters clearly stated we were to take the targets alive, and he should've stuck his boot in the base of the door instead of reaching his arm around." She bent to get a closer look at the dead man's arm. "The bite radius is too large to be from a young human girl."
"Yeah, well, this thing over here is decidedly not human," Erasmus Scott, their hulking, native Seminole team member said. He was bent over studying the dead female along with the sixth member of their team, Tomas Nicolaides.
Webb sighed. "What do you think Nico? Can we discover anything useful from the corpse, something other than what we already know?"
"Maybe. We'll know more when we get her corpse back to the lab." The thick-accented Greek glanced at the hatch in the floor. "We need to find the girl. Doctor Armando is especially interested in her since she's pre-pubescent. The only other specimen he's had the chance to study was an adult."
Doctor Armando owned Verdanx Pharmaceuticals, a small, private company. Three years ago, the doctor contracted with Tipstaff Security, the paramilitary organization Webb worked for. After his career with the Navy Seals, Webb joined up with the mercenary group that, more often than not, accepted lucrative contracts from unseemly clients who operated outside of legal and ethical norms.
At the time, his crew had been shown the living creature imprisoned in the Verdanx facility at Live Oak Key southwest of Gainesville. The female seemed physically normal to Webb, but her demeanor was one of incredible sadness. Captivity robbed the woman of her will to live. Webb ended up feeling sorry for her over the inhumane experiments Armando had been performing.
His crew had been contracted to seek out and capture more of these special women to advance Armando's further research into the potential miracle cures their blood and organs could provide to humankind. It had all sounded so noble, but the torture of any creature be it animal or something that so closely resembled human began to fill him with doubt. The things Armando had subjected that woman to were wrong.
They received their first big break when a girl, Cassandra Drakos, had been given a routine nasal swab test in the nurse's office at the beginning of the school year. Due to the recent pandemic, students received unannounced, mandatory testing without parental notification or consent.
Verdanx Pharma was one of the test processing facilities for the state of Florida. Doctor Armando programmed his system to flag any tests matching a certain DNA profile.
They received a hit that led them to the beachfront home along Florida's Gulf coast.
Webb directed his crew on the mop up. "Nico, Razzy, get the two corpses into body bags and load them into the van. Danno, you and Claudia do a sweep around the outside of the house and especially along the surf." He eyed the hatch. "I'm going down there to make sure the little girl isn't hiding or hasn't drowned in the tunnel. It's dark and there's no nearby neighbors and our rifles are suppressed, but the commotion might have drawn attention. Alert me if any local law enforcement rolls up. I want us to be out of here by daybreak."
The crew dispersed.
Webb loosened the wheel to the hatch and turned his head in disgust at the ripe, fishy odor emanating from below.
Shining his flashlight beam into the hole, Webb grabbed hold of the ladder rungs slippery with slime and descended. It took a moment for him to remember the girl's name. When he did, he called out, "Cassandra, I'm here to rescue you. If you're down here, give a shout."
Silence, except for the tide sloshing in and out.
When he reached the bottom rung, he cursed. He'd have to get into the fetid water. He wondered how deep it was. Only one way to find out. Lowering himself, he found he was able to stand. The incoming waves splashed around his chest.
The girl wasn't here. At least she wasn't here and alive. She could be drowned or washed out into the gulf. "Damn it." He climbed out of the hole and tried to ignore his unpleasant soaked and stinking clothing.
The woman who owned the house, Mya Drakos, had proven to be resourceful building such an elaborate bunker with an escape hatch. He wondered if her young daughter was as imaginative.
Danno burst into the room. "Boss, Claudia and I found something." He held out what appeared to be a set of girl's pajamas and a shoulder pack. Both were soaked.
"It has to be hers," Claudia said. "The tunnel from here likely leads into the Gulf. My guess is the girl swam out with the pack and changed into a bathing suit. I gotta hand it to these women. They were prepared."
Webb's mood perked up. "She's alive. Show me where you found these things."
A few minutes later he stood on a rock jetty. The beam from his light proved useless against the vast, murky Gulf of Mexico. "Search the shoreline a mile in each direction and the adjacent streets. She had to leave the water somewhere."
"We won't find her in the dark if she's hiding," Danno said.
"Then we'll come back at dawn. We'll bring more men from Tipstaff and canvass the entire area all the way to Tarpon Springs if we must. Talk to everyone who works along the water and all the early-morning walkers and joggers. I'll also try to con the police into issuing an Amber Alert."
He paused and peered out into the black water.
"She's here somewhere, and we will find her."
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Question: The hunters are determined. Do you think Cassie and her Aunt Marnie will be able to keep ahead of them?
Top Photo Credit: Becky E - http://www.flickr.com/photos/17639367@N00/1018552684 via Photopin.com - Creativecommons.org license
