LJ pulled the scarf around her neck tighter. It had become colder since she left Spant earlier tonight.
She reread the note again.
Once you have retrieved the bio-agent, press the red button on the pad.
She remembered doing exactly that. Another instruction had appeared almost immediately.
Meet me at this address. Rooftop. Thirty minutes. Do not make me wait.
LJ swallowed. She wanted this night over. Wanted to hand over the box and go home knowing her father would be safe. She looked up at the stars and let out a slow breath.
Ah’ve been here ten minutes. And Ah hate being cold.
Where is he?
“Ms. Reno,” a voice said from behind her. “So glad you could make it.”
She turned and saw the same man from before, that stupid grin on his face. He wore the same suit, the exact same shades.
Who wears sunglasses at night? That ain’t right, she thought.
“Hand it over,” he said, holding out his hand.
She noticed it was pale. “Now.”
LJ reached into her coat pocket and retrieved the box, hating how much control he had over her. But if handing it over kept her father safe, she complied.
She stared him in the eyes as she dropped the box into his hand.
He closed his hand over the box and stuffed it into his jacket.
“Well now, that was easy. Were there any complications? Did anyone see you?”
“Nothin’ I couldn’t handle,” she muttered. “Y’all got tha box as promised. Leave mah dad be.”
He pulled another pad from his jacket. A click, and her father appeared on the screen, asleep in his bed.
The man pulled out a cellphone, slowly raising it to his face. He smiled.
“Kill him.”
LJ’s eyes went wide. A female nursing assistant stepped in front of the camera, waved, and walked toward Lila Jean’s father’s bed. The woman held a pillow behind her back and raised it up to her chest.
“Don’t!” LJ shouted. “Ah’m sorry. Please don’t kill mah daddy. Please,” she pleaded as tears ran down her face.
The man’s expression never changed.
“Message received.” He placed the cellphone back into his pants pocket.
The woman fluffed the pillow and placed it under her father’s head before walking away.
The screen went black. The man’s face went still.
“Let’s get one thing straight. You do not make the orders,” he pointed a finger dead at her. “You follow them. Understood?”
Lila Jean nodded, too shaken to speak.
“Good. Now go back home and get warm. I know how you southerners can’t take a little cold.”
She stood there, watching him walk away. Her mind raced with ways to get herself out of this situation.
“Don’t worry, spring is only a few weeks away,” he looked over his shoulder at her. “Talk to you soon.”
When the man’s footsteps faded, the strength went out of her legs.
***
The sun had barely made it over the horizon when Bella Sparks stepped out of her apartment building to jog with her dog. Carrow was already awake. Commuters, patrol cars, and Carrow’s finest moved through the morning rush.
She waited at an intersection on a light, checking her smart bracelet while her dog relieved himself on a fire hydrant.
Someone called her name from a passing car. It was Elias Krowe, her sergeant. He was being driven to the precinct. Sgt. Krowe was never late for a shift.
The car pulled over at the corner. Krowe stepped out and leaned against the door as Bella jogged up.
“Shouldn’t you be in bed enjoying your day off, Sparks?”
Her dog barked at him. He barked back, and the dog cowered behind her.
“Sergeant. Storm was just saying good morning, sir. You scared him.”
“He needs meat on him if he’s going to guard my best officer.”
Shocked, Bella looked at him. “Sir?”
“Don’t look so surprised, Sparks,” he said, watching a flock of birds fly by. “Of all of my men, an officer who’s been under command less than ten months, is one of a few men I can trust.”
He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “You did well last night. I mean that. Enjoy your time off. You’ve earned it. I will see you in a few days.”
He turned to open the car door.
“Sir. Any leads on last night?”
He looked up at her from the window. “A few. Looks like Spant, an unknown masked woman, and something else entirely were all after that shipment. I will fill you in two days when you return to duty.”
“Yes sir.” She looked down at her dog. “What’s the serge talking about, Storm? You’re a Pomeranian. You are not meant to protect me.”
Storm tilted his head and barked, as if agreeing with Bella.
***
Bella jogged two more blocks, then stopped at a street vendor. She poured half a bottle of water into a cup for Storm and drank the rest herself.
She didn’t take her normal route back. Instead, she made a slight detour down an alley where Spant stood waiting.
He tossed her an apple and Storm a doggie treat.
“Officer.”
“Thanks,” she murmured, taking a bite of the apple. “How are the new wheels?”
He looked at her. “I plead the fifth,” his laugh lines growing heavier. “Thanks.”
She swallowed another bite. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Bella knelt, pulling a folded slip of paper from the pouch on Storm’s collar. She handed it to Spant.
“I got a hit off the sample you left last night.”
“So soon?” he asked, taking the paper.
Spant scanned the page. “Two tours overseas. Injured in the line of duty. Honorably discharged.”
“Then denied his benefits. Lost everything. No one’s heard from him in years before last night.”
Bella hoisted Storm onto her hip. “Sad.”
“The way the system works.”
“Or the failure of it.” She studied him. “Spant—what is going on? That DNA was spliced. Arachnid. Insect.” She shook her head. “This is wrong. Why would someone do that to him?”
“I’d like an answer to that question myself, Bella. Thanks.”
He nodded sharply, crouched, and launched forward. A foot on a brick sent him up the wall, grabbing the fire escape ladder. Metal clinked softly as he pulled himself onto the grating with a grunt.
He needed answers and knew exactly where to go.
She was about to say “Don’t mention it,” but he was already gone.
***
Spant didn’t tell Bella the complete truth. He didn’t know the ‘why’ exactly. But he knew the ‘who’.
Pharma.
Link saw the marker on Swarn’s heart in the scan. They created him.
At that exact moment, Blake Cole, founder and CEO of Orbis Biopharma (Pharma for short), seated in his office, was in the middle of a heated discussion.
“I want answers!” he demanded, his fist pounding the desk. “Not excuses!”
Three people in suits were the subject of his wrath. The lone female of the group, Angela Rogers, stood next to a wall screen. Her pointer tapped the screen. An image of Swarn attacking a guard appeared. She inhaled.
“Before we lost contact with the convoy, we received an image of this.”
“Go on, Angela. What am I looking at?!”
“Sir,” she cleared her throat. A split screen image of Swarn and a scan of Swarn faded into view. “The creature is Patient 0 of Project Spant.”
She zoomed in on Swarn’s heart. She hesitated before saying, “What you see here is his serial number stamped onto his heart. This is Pharma’s marker. Our marker, sir.”
Blake rose from his seat, leaning in. “Swarn was a success? How?”
One of the men spoke up.
“Apparently when the process was first initiated, Montgomery’s body first rejected it. Which caused the original scientists to think he was a failure.”
Jason Lanfry, the first man, pulled at his shirt collar. He looked away quickly from Blake.
“They discarded him.” Blake snapped.
No one dared to correct him.
“Swarn has been alive all of this time, sir,” the last man, John Tova, stated. “He has been living under the radar.”
“Really, John?” Blake snapped. “Tell me something I don’t know. Why was Swarn there?”
No one answered.
“What was he after? Do we have a list of what is missing from the shipment?”
Angela took a step forward. “Yes, sir.” She handed him a document. “This is a list of what was stolen. We also have an idea of what Swarn was after.”
Blake stared at the paper. He read off the list of items.
“An experimental cyber bike. Files on Swarn. Experimental tech.”
His pulse spiked when he read the words “the refined bio-agent and process.”
“Swarn was after a cure,” John muttered.
“Why was this shipment not escorted?” He pinned them all with a deadly stare. “Why was it being shipped by land? We have our own aircraft!”
No one could give him an answer. At least one they weren’t afraid to say out loud.
***
The trio may have been hesitant to say anything to their hostile boss; meanwhile, Lila Jean was also feeling hesitation of her own.
She woke up only moments ago, still reeling from watching someone nearly kill her father. Her head ached all night long. She wrapped her pillow around her head, not wanting to leave her bed. Lila Jean eventually forced herself from under the covers and into the bathroom.
Not expecting any company, she tossed on an oversized shirt. She needed a cup of coffee. She went through the motions, unaware she had an uninvited guest. Coffee K-cup, water, brew. She waited for the sound, like it might pull her back into her body.
When it finished, she mumbled,
“Had to go buy more coffee. Bastard threw away my last bag.”
The aroma filled the area. “It does smell better than that other stuff, though.”
She reached for her sugar bowl.
“I take two teaspoons of sugar with mine, LJ,” a voice said out of nowhere.
She stopped for a moment. She pretended she needed a spoon and grabbed a butter knife from the sink. Lila Jean didn’t take the time to aim. She threw the small knife in the direction the voice came from.
Spant leaned back as the knife sailed by him.
“Sugah, you are trespassin’,” she growled over her cup of coffee.
“I told you I’d tell you what I was thinking about the next time I saw you.”
She froze. The cup slipped from her hand and crashed onto the counter.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me, LJ.”
Lila Jean folded her arms, her bandaged hand on top.
Spant looked at it.
“I see you bandaged your hand. How’s the ankle?”
She narrowed her eyes. He knew. And she knew that he knew that she knew. She grabbed a dish rag and wiped off the mess.
“Why are you here?”
“Why did you lie?”
“Y’all seem to know more than y’all’re letting on,” she placed the broken cup pieces in the trash. “Why don’t you come straight out with it?”
He stepped closer. “Alright. You said you were going straight. You’d stopped stealing.”
“Ah did. Ah… ah mean ah have.”
Spant watched her as she tried to spin a believable lie in her head.She drew a blank. She blamed him for the mess—and for putting her father’s life in danger. Something inside her snapped. Lila Jean lunged at him, shadows carrying her. A blade-shaped shadow formed in her hands. She slashed at his head.
Spant was quick. She missed him.
She hissed as her shadows pivoted. “Your fault!”
Her shadows tried to grab him. He dodged every attempt.
“I don’t want to fight you, LJ.”
She paused.
A shadow wrapped around his ankle, pulling his leg from under him. His abdomen burned as he hit the floor hard. The shadows placed her on the carpet with ease. She staggered, slowly walking up to him. A shadow punched him in the stomach.
“You caused all of this,” she said, watching him rise to his feet.
As she thought she was distracting him, another shadow grabbed the lonely chair in the living room. He didn’t show it, but Spant heard the chair lift. Rage in her eyes as she stared at him.
Spant didn’t move, only braced himself.
“I didn’t make you choose to steal last night,” he looked at her. “You did that yourself. Your word means nothing to you.”
His words cut her deeply. She waved her arm, and the shadow struck, swinging the chair.
She opened her mouth to explain but stopped. She frowned.
“How dare you?”
The chair broke apart as it made contact with his back.
Spant didn’t flinch. He looked down at the broken chair and then back at her.
“Is that the best you have, LJ?”
She lunged at him, swinging.
“Stop calling me that!”
He swatted away her right jab. She threw another punch. He slapped that one away.
Spant’s height had her at a disadvantage, but anger fueled her more than sensible thinking. They continued their dance. She lashed out, and he deflected. He palmed her fist from one last punch she threw. She craned her neck.
“Ah hate you.”
“Obviously,” he said, looking down at his hands.
Spant lowered her hand. He stepped back after letting go of her hand.
“I didn’t come here to fight with you, LJ. I don’t want to fight you.”
She inhaled, fingers curling as shadows crept around them. Her eyes flicked to the broken chair—the only furniture she owned besides her bed and a secondhand dresser. No television. Sighing, she limped back to the kitchen and loaded another K-cup.
He watched as she made herself another cup of coffee.
“Ah don’t have it,” she said finally. She took a sip.
Spant stood silently in the living room. He waited for her to elaborate. She didn’t. He crossed his arms.
“Go on.”
She placed the cup on the countertop.
“Nothing else to tell, hero,” she said, glancing at him.
He shifted his stance. “Really?” he said.
“Why were you there? What did you take?” he asked, stalking toward her. “What did you do with whatever it was that you took?”
She tightened her grip before taking another sip.
Spant took the cup from her. “Pick one of those questions and start answering.”
Lila Jean glanced at her cup, still in his hand.
“Ah don’t have to tell you anything. All of this is your fault anyway.”
“Fine. Start there. Why is this my fault?”
“Y’all’re the reason I was sent ta prison. Y’all’re the reason I fell behind on payments to mah dad’s retirement home account.”
A shadow snatched her cup back from him.
“Y’all’re the reason they’ve got me ovah a barrel. Because of you, I have ta do as they say, or they will kill mah dad,” she blurted out.
He watched her walk away from him.
“Slow down,” he said. “It’s hard to understand you when you’re this upset.”
“Ah am not emotional.” She spat and took another sip of coffee. “Ah just need ta calm mah nerves, ‘sall.”
Once she was finished with her coffee, she went into the kitchen. She pulled out the pad from a drawer. She tossed it at him. Spant caught it. It was a live feed of her father. He was walking around the nursing home with someone—the same woman who was going to suffocate him hours earlier—strolling with him around the property.
“The man in the nice clothes is mah dad,” she began. “The woman with him is his watcher. She will kill him when ordered to. If ah don’t do as they ask.”
Spant noticed how her words became easier to understand the more she calmed down.
“They forced you to steal something last night, didn’t they? Using your father as leverage.”
She clapped her hands. “Give the man a prize. He guessed on his first try.”
She rolled her eyes and walked into her bedroom. Lila Jean went to her dresser and pulled out the middle drawer. Taped underneath it was a large folder. She snatched it off and shoved it into his chest.
He realized where she disappeared to when he was fighting Swarn.
He looked at her. “Who are the files on?”
“I know you can read.”
She proceeded to get dressed while he looked through the folder.
“You still haven’t told me what they made you steal, LJ.”
“Turn to the last page, hero,” she scoffed as a shadow grabbed the page in question and held it to his face.
Spant took the file from the shadow and read it.
“You stole Pharma’s refined bio-agent process and a test agent.”
She pulled her pants up over her hips. “Sure did, darling.”
“What are they going to do with it?”
“Ah forgot to ask,” she said sarcastically.
“Did you read any of this?”
Lila Jean laced up her sneakers. “No,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Ah figured someone would maybe want them and would be willin' to pay a hefty price for them.”
“LJ,” he said, “These files are going to get you killed. You don’t know what you stole.”
The folder contained data on Swarn, Project Spant, Spant himself, and other failed test subjects. He tucked it into his jacket before one of her shadows could snatch it.
“Y’all can’t do that. Ah need those. It may be the only way Ah can get out of this mess.”
“I can’t let you keep them, LJ. I now know why Swarn attacked that shipment last night.”
He looked at her. “And who he’s going after next.”
“You,” he said with certainty.
“Me?” The word hit her like a jolt of lightning. “Ah only stole a box.”
“No,” he shook his head. “You did more than that. You stole Swarn’s one chance at reversing the process. To be human again.”
Lila Jean stood frozen, shock on her face, as he finished his thought.
“He’s going to come after you for one of two things. To retrieve the process you no longer have—or to kill you for taking it. For getting in his way.”
She cursed under her breath.
"That thing’s already found me… hasn’t he?"