Free New Species 11 True by Laurann Dohner

are gas
dispensers hidden inside the fire alarms in all the cells.” Tears filled her
eyes but she blinked them back. “Have someone check. They’ll find them. I don’t
know what kind of poison they used but tell them to be careful.”
    One of his hands lifted and he gently cupped her side. His
thumb pressed against her bandage, rubbing it through the gown. “Do you know
how much it will hurt if I apply pressure? It will tear the wound open. I
checked your chart and they removed the staples. Do you want to need them
again?”
    “Fuck, Jordan,” Trey Roberts grumbled. “Reel it back, damn
it.”
    “I said stay out of it, Trey. You don’t have this job
because you have lines you won’t cross. The information is all that matters and
we don’t have time to for your good-ole-boy charm to get it out of her. Either
shut the hell up or I’ll have you escorted out. You’re not my team leader today
and have no authority to tell me how to handle this situation.” He glowered at
Jeanie. “Nobody is going to save you.”
    “Oh my god.” She was terrified when it sank in that he
somehow didn’t know what she’d done for the NSO. He treated her as if she were
a criminal instead of an informant. He meant the threat. “You need to find
Agent Terry Brice. I contacted the NSO last year when I was assigned to the
lower floors at Drackwood and saw they had New Species there. I left a message
and a phone number on the tip line I saw on the NSO website about any
information anyone had about missing New Species or people being sought for
crimes against them. The next day I got a call back from that agent.”
    She was talking fast but fear motivated her toward babbling.
They needed to believe her. “He flew in that night and I met him. I shared
information and smuggled out evidence to help him get a warrant so the building
could be searched.”
    Jordan cocked his head. “Really? Tell me more.”
    He wasn’t hurting her. That had to be a sign of getting
through to him. “Agent Brice told me that was how I could help the most. He
said they’d know I was telling them the truth and they could get their search
warrant for the New Mexico facility if I gathered evidence. I finally got
enough proof that he was able to get them freed. I did that at Cornas Research
too. He sent me there.”
    “How did he know about Cornas?”
    “He had an informant already stationed inside but she was
too afraid to smuggle out anything. I don’t know her name. He said he couldn’t
tell me that because she’d be in danger. He worried I might accidentally blow
her cover.”
    “What kind of information and evidence did you give to this
agent?”
    “He wanted pictures but that was impossible. They take our
purses and do a pat down when we go in and out of the building. They have a
no-cell-phone policy so anything that could take pictures or record images was
kept at the front desk where we had no access to it during our shifts. I’d
sometimes stain my clothes with New Species blood I had drawn so I could give
it to him for testing.” She relaxed a little. “Sometimes it would be saliva
samples from one of New Species or hair samples. I also swiped some test pills,
which I smuggled out by hiding them inside my bra.”
    “Hair?”
    “Yes. I’d cut a lock of hair from somewhere it wouldn’t be
noticed. It was difficult to do but occasionally they’d have an injured one
drugged unconscious so I could get close enough to them when we were left
alone. I wore my hair in a ponytail a lot. It was easy to tuck some of their
hair in with mine if it closely resembled my color. The guards never checked
that. They’d just run a scanner over my head.”
    “So you’d sneak up on some knocked-out bastard and defile
his body?”
    Jeanie wasn’t sure how to answer that. It sounded awful when
he put it that way. “Agent Brice said they could do DNA testing with blood and
saliva. Hair samples can be used to test for drugs and chemicals. He needed
those to