Free Brandi by Donna McDonald Page B

Agent Jenkins. Our department doesn’t go after men like Ramirez. We go after animal-human hybrids who are being bred to become killers, or who are being tortured for nothing more than scientific gain. When a human with twenty times more strength than the average person is trying to kill you, you have to survive before you can ask them any questions. It’s not about cold-blooded killing, so much as it is not being the one in control of those who are.”
     
    Brandi said nothing. She met Sheldon Crane’s stare and held it. “Who’s doing the creating and breeding of what you guys keep calling hybrids ?”
     
    “Sadly, my brother… just to name one.”
     
    “I assume you’ve been told Randall Crane won’t be doing any more creating.” Brandi wasn’t surprised to see him sigh and shrug at her news.
     
    “The goal was always money with Randall. He thought getting paid for his research justified whatever he was doing. I always knew one day one of his experiments would turn on him.”
     
    Brandi nodded. “That was exactly what happened—to him and his assistant. Your brother had no remorse for what he was doing… even at the end. I have no doubt he would have killed us with as little regard as he did all those wolves. I didn’t do the deed myself but I would have if given the chance.”
     
    As he sobered, she watched Sheldon Crane nod.
     
    “I do appreciate the confirmation, Agent Jenkins. You know how bureaucracy is—all the details were indeterminate. I don’t think they wanted me to know for sure.”
     
    “That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Brandi said, shaking off her sympathy. “So now that we’re past the pleasantries of getting to know one another, are you going to tell me why I’m really here? You may have brought me to the party, but I’m not the kind of girl who jumps out of cakes.”
     
    She watched Sheldon Crane nod again.
     
    “Right. If you will take a walk with me, I think I can actually show you better than I could ever explain. I doubt you’d believe anyone’s words at this point. You seem like the kind of person who needs to experience something to fully accept it as reality.”
     
    ***
     
    Brandi followed Crane into his office. There was an elevator that took up half of one wall. They all loaded into it—her, Crane, Gareth, Fallon, and Lars. It only went down, and evidently it went much lower than they already were, which was beyond basement level deep in the building. She saw seven lower levels listed on the panel. Each level they travelled made her wolf more and more nervous.
     
    They rode to the bottom floor and walked out into a narrow hallway framing double doors simply marked BL7 Lab. Her senses sizzled as Fallon and Lars tightened up their bodies. She could tell they were nervous too. She would have loved to know why before she had to step inside. Seconds later she realized nothing could have ever prepared her for what she found there.
     
    The lab was enormous and went on farther than her eyes could see. After a sweeping glance at what was visible to her, she figured there must have been at least forty or fifty white coated scientists mulling about down there. Off the main area, full of microscopes, beakers, and mysterious vials of liquid, were an assortment of other, smaller labs. Many had people… or animals… or some mixture of the two inside them.
     
    “Quite a shop you have here, Dr. Moreau,” Brandi joked, hiding her disgust the only way she knew how. His snorting at her sarcasm made her want to punch him for being amused at what she had meant as a verbal slap. Surely the man couldn’t think any of this was a laughing matter.
     
    “Not my work, Agent Jenkins. These are rescued hybrids for the most part,” Crane explained.
     
    Brandi nodded as they walked, but she wasn’t buying the rescued part yet. She looked at Gareth and saw only sad recognition on his face as they traveled deeper into the labyrinth of experiments gone wrong. Telling herself