Athena’s Ashes (Star Thief Chronicles #2)(23)
Author: Jamie Grey

He chuckled and shook his head. “I admire your fight, thief, but you’re trapped. There’s nothing you can do.”

“Where are the MYTH soldiers?” she demanded. “Where’s Dr. Samil?”

“Right where Pallas left them.” A smug smile split his face. “I can’t believe you fell for it. I didn’t think you were that stupid.”

“Did you even consider we might have walked willingly into the trap?” she asked.

The door beside him opened, and Larson glanced back, then saluted crisply. “So glad you could join us.”

Renna’s gaze snapped to the figure standing beside him, and her arm lowered on its own account.

FOURTEEN

The very doctor Renna had trusted with her life stepped further into the warehouse, a soft smile on her face. “I’m glad to see I wasn’t wrong about you, Renna. Being here in person will make it so much easier to verify your death.”

“Dr. Samil?” Renna’s words were barely a whisper.

“Looks like the drugs haven’t worked quite yet, but that’s all right. I’m excited to study you as the change happens.” Samil’s expression was calm and friendly, like this was just another med visit.

Renna’s right arm burned where she’d landed on it, her head felt like it was stuffed with shrapnel, and confusion twisted her insides so tight she thought she’d burst. “I don’t understand, Doctor. What are you doing here? Why are you working with these people?”

“I’m not working with these people, dear. They work for me.”

Major Larson saluted. “And it’s a pleasure, ma’am.”

Samil smiled at him. “You’ve done well, Major. Now please wait at the ship. Renna and I have a few things to discuss.”

Larson glared at Renna, but eventually nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Call me if anything changes.” He marched away through a side door, back ram-rod straight.

But Renna barely noticed as the blood rushed to her head and she put out a hand to steady herself against the desk. “What are you saying?”

Samil shook her head regretfully. “I suppose I should forgive you for not understanding. Those drugs I gave you actually sped up the process instead of slowing it down. I’m sure your brain feels like mush right now.”

“You lying bitch,” Renna hissed.

“I did what I had to do, dove. You should understand that.”

Fear was an iron band around Renna’s lungs as she tried to suck in a breath. She’d never even seen this coming. It wasn’t possible.

Dr. Samil was Pallas?

“Why don’t you make this easy on both of us, Renna?”

“You should know by now, the last thing I am is easy.” Renna tried to rotate her injured shoulder and winced as a flash of pain shot down her arm. “How about another way out of here?” she muttered to her implant. But of course there was no surge of knowledge, no indication the damn thing was even on.

“Poor choice of words. Look, Renna, I don’t want to hurt you. I need your special physiology to finish my experiments. Let’s talk this through. We have a few more minutes before the MYTH bombers arrive on planet.”

“And then we’ll all be dead,” Renna snapped. “I can live with that.” She pulled the chair out from the desk and sank into it. This was a f**king nightmare. The woman she’d thought was trying to save her had been behind Myka’s kidnapping, the hybrid army, even the experiments Navang had conducted on Renna. But why?

“What do you want, Doctor? Or should I call you Pallas? Why are you doing this?”

Samil brushed back her hair and glanced down at her watch. “I’m not sure we have time to do this now, and I don’t know that it really matters.”

“It matters to me. If you’re going to turn me into a monster, don’t I at least deserve to know why?”

The doctor sighed. “Very well. I joined MYTH ten years ago. I was young, just twenty-three, and terribly naive. When I got my first assignment, I was proud to be part of this organization, proud to help protect the galaxy. But after a few years, MYTH became too powerful, too corrupted, and they started using their own troops as experiments.”

Samil’s face darkened. “When they destroyed the thing most important to me, I knew it was time to stop them. And you are the key to revolutionizing this organization once and for all.”

Renna’s arm had begun to shake as she tried to hold her gun level with Samil’s chest. “If you think I’m going to help you, you’re sorely mistaken. MYTH knows about you, and we know how to stop you.”

Samil chuckled and shook her head, her blonde hair grazing her shoulders. She looked so kind, so innocent. How could she be the one behind all of this?

“Have you forgotten that ticking time bomb in your head?” Samil asked. “Besides, I’ve been working on this plan for almost five years. It’s flawless. When I’m done, MYTH will be destroyed, and the galaxy will be changed forever.” Her words rang with conviction.

Great. Another fanatic.

“Look, doc, I respect you,” Renna said, holding her hand out. “I even thought we were friends. Instead of going all vigilante on MYTH, why not just tell a reporter and have them do a smear story? You know how well that works on the politicians. Imagine the blow up with a government operation. They’d be shut down in seconds.”

Samil shook her head, her pink sweater at odds with the ice in her voice. “I don’t want them shut down. I want to use them. But they must be cleansed first. And you’re part of that, dove.”

“Hate to disappoint, but I have other plans.”

“Not for much longer.” Samil pulled a small gun from her vest pocket and fired it at Renna before she could even blink.

Renna gaped at the feathered needle sticking from her arm. “What the hell did you do?” Her fingers trembled as she ripped it away. For the first time since they’d arrived on this planet, the possibility she might fail hit her. Pallas would win, and they’d all die. Or worse.

The gun was suddenly too heavy to hold, and she let it sink to the top of the desk. She’d wasted way too much time talking to this woman. She should have just shot first, but she’d wanted to understand Pallas’s motives. She’d needed to know why the woman was doing this. Renna gripped the edge of the desk as the room started to spin. Look where that had gotten her.

“I need you alive, Renna. Your body is mutating Navang’s experiments in ways even Myka’s didn’t. You will be the lynchpin of my army.”