Athena’s Ashes (Star Thief Chronicles #2)(54)
Author: Jamie Grey

“By turning me into a robot. Not exactly what I’d call helping.” Renna glared at the woman. “I don’t care what you do to me, but let Viktis go. He has nothing to do with this.”

Samil turned her gaze to the Ileth. “I haven’t been able to experiment much on aliens yet. Larson, take him to one of the holding cells. I’ll look at him after I’m done with Renna.”

Larson grabbed Viktis’s arm. The alien tried to struggle, but Larson clapped an exovise around Viktis’s wrists before he could move and shoved him to the floor. “Alien scum.”

Viktis landed on his hands and knees, wincing as his skin scraped the hard cement. Larson kicked him in the stomach with a thud.

“No!” Renna cried. “Leave him alone.”

But Larson smiled at her as he kicked out again with his heavy boot. Viktis collapsed, curling into a fetal position, but he didn’t make a sound.

“Major, take him away and do that where the test subjects won’t see,” Samil said, wrinkling her nose. “I’ll be in my private labs. You won’t resist if you know what’s good for your friend,” she added to Renna.

The fight went out of her. Viktis was here in this mess because of her. She’d do whatever was necessary to ensure he made it out alive. If that meant cooperating with Samil for now, then so be it.

The doctor led her to a large office at the back of the warehouse and held the door open for Renna. A large mahogany desk with two soft chairs in front of it took up one side of the space, while the other side was dominated by a wall full of lab equipment and holomonitors.

“Is this where you destroy lives?” Renna asked sweetly.

“This is where I save them.” Samil sank gracefully into the chair behind her desk. “Do have a seat.”

Standing would only look petulant at this point, so Renna sat down and crossed her legs. “You call experimenting on people saving them?”

“You’ve seen these people. They’d be dead or dying without me.”

“But at least they wouldn’t be monsters.”

Samil shook her head sadly. “Now we get to the truth of it. To you, these enhanced people are monsters, things to be destroyed. Is that how you feel about yourself, too? Is that why you came alone? So that I could end all this pain for you?”

“I’m hardly alone,” Renna said.

“The alien doesn’t count. You’ve left your MYTH friends to come chasing after me.” A knowing smile curved Samil’s lips. “Or wasn’t that your choice?”

Renna curled her hands into fists in her lap. “You planted that false information. You turned them against me.”

“And it was so easy. I know you already know how it feels to be all alone, but now you’ve had something even more important ripped away from you. Love. Trust. A life.” Samil leaned back in her chair. “And who did this to you? MYTH. They are a cancer that needs to be purged.”

Renna shook her head. “You’re completely insane. You’re the one who did this, not MYTH.”

“No, I just gave them the information. They decided to believe it. To betray you.” Samil’s expression turned businesslike. “It’s nothing personal. I just needed you to understand why I’m doing this. To understand that I’m truly not as bad as you think. That MYTH has its own problems.”

“You’ve killed thousands of people and experimented on thousands more, but you’re not evil?” Renna shook her head. “Could have fooled me. Just because some organization hurt your feelings, it’s their fault that you’ve turned into an evil bitch?”

“Oh, I don’t blame MYTH.” Samil leaned forward to rest her elbows on the desk. “I actually am grateful to them for making me stronger, for showing me what real ruthlessness is. When they greenlighted the experiments on Banos Prime after the explosion, they showed me what was possible, even amidst all that death. I couldn’t save my fiancée, but I can save so many more now.”

Renna shook her head. “Then what is it you want exactly if it’s not revenge on MYTH for killing your fiancée?”

“This has nothing to do with revenge anymore. Perhaps it did once, but I have a bigger goal now.” Samil’s face took on the glow of a true fanatic. “MYTH has resources beyond your imagining, but beneath their shiny exterior, they’ve become corrupted. They experiment on children. They’ve destroyed whole colonies at a senator’s whim. MYTH no longer serves the galaxy. They serve themselves. And I plan to change that.”

Samil got to her feet, pacing behind her desk. “MYTH is only concerned with how to make more money, how to amass power, how to rule instead of how to serve. I want to create an organization that will become something people can believe in.” She nodded to the door. “Those people out there are only the beginning. The poor, the hungry, the crippled. They all want a better life. They want something more. And I plan to give it to them.”

“As long as they become your slaves, you mean.”

“I don’t want slaves, Renna. I want willing soldiers, and there are plenty of people who want what only I can give them.”

“And what is that?”

“I can give them a future.” Samil’s smile was so bright she could have lit the room. “And that’s all because of you. Your DNA will fix them, make them stronger. It will help the surgery and the implants and the technology to improve their lives. It will help them connect with each other. You should be proud.”

“Proud that someone experimented on me against my will?”

“Sacrifices have to be made,” Samil said with a shrug. “I’m sorry you’re in this situation, but I thought you, if anyone, would understand. With your history.”

Renna’s heart kicked with unease, but she remained silent.

“Don’t you see how similar we are?” Samil continued. “We both loved someone who betrayed us. We worked for an organization that doesn’t care what happens to us, as long as it remains in power. Our skills can save so many people.”

“Correction. Your skills, my DNA. There’s a bit of a difference there.”

Samil rolled her eyes. “If you must be literal. I have a great deal of respect for what you’ve accomplished and how far you’ve come from that tenement back on Earth. I know how hard it is to rise above something like that.”

“You don’t know a damn thing,” Renna spat.