Free The Chimera Project (Chimera Protocol Book 1) by Jolie Mason

here."
    She ran a hand over her bobbed black hair. "I need to be here. It's better if I work the problem."
    Eisley let her gaze slide over to the cyborg. "Sweet, I think you being here may be part of the problem right now."
    Livvy and John laced gazes across the room. Tension lit up the room like a spotlight, until the cyborg, jaw locked in place and scowl growing darker, tossed his chair at the wall to splinter it into pieces.
    Eisley cleared her throat. "I really think you both need a break from all this."
    Livvy nodded assent, and slid off her stool. "Thompson, come on. I'm in the way here." She picked up a bag from the floor to throw it over her shoulder. "And holster that sidearm, soldier. Metalhead is trying to make a point. He's not getting out."
    When she was gone, Eisley watched the man slowly slump onto his cot in sad defeat. He was the one of this group she feared she was least capable of helping. Eisley approached the cell.
    "She's not going to go away, you know," she said.
    He ran his head back and forth against the wall. "I know." He sounded so sad about it. Eisley thought she could feel her heart chip a little herself.
    "I suppose you're dealing with a lot of guilt from the attack yesterday."
    The look he cut her with big, soulful eyes was supposed to be sarcastic, but ended up on the lonely side of that spectrum. She continued, "I get that it could have gone very badly. You could have killed her."
    "Gee, Doc. You are the queen of pep talks. Don't let anyone tell you different."
    "I know. My people skills are sub par. It’s why I’m a researcher, but my point is this. The people who are really responsible are dead now or too far away to strike at. Anything you do now is theirs to pay for, not yours, and they will pay one day.
    But, that girl out there, your Livvy... She's the kind of thing that doesn't happen to anyone very often. Maybe, you need to remember that punishing yourself is punishing her, too."
    "I'm protecting her! She can't be anywhere near me." Rushing to his feet, he paced again once down the cell and then back again. He grew agitated enough to throw the cot this time. Screaming and cursing, and trying to hurt himself; He hammered at the cell's energy barrier wanting to just run, begging for her to kill him, until Eisley couldn’t take anymore.
    Eisley triggered a sedation aerosol on the wall panel beside the door. She watched carefully for signs of physical distress as he slowly slumped to the floor unconscious.
    Samuel and Tanner barreled through the lab at speed. She turned. "You were on the monitors?"
    He shook his head. "Star commed me."
    Samuel seemed rattled beyond words, his cheeks flushed with fear and the quick pace down the hall, but he showed no signs of losing control of himself and hadn’t for days now.
    "I'm fine. John is not. We have to help him."
    "We will," he assured her.
    When the sedation had dissipated, they dropped the barrier, and Tanner and Samuel moved him to a cell with a fixed cot that wouldn't be so easy to destroy. She didn't want to fully restrain him. It would only make him lose his mind faster.
    Samuel walked up beside her and pulled her to his side. "We'll solve this."
    "What if we don't?"
    He grabbed her chin and held it. "Then, we don't, but he'll know you never stopped trying. That counts, Eisley."
    Eisley hooked the hand holding her chin with her right hand and softly smiled. It did count.
    "In fact," he said. "We have a choice to make as a group. Star's working on ways to intercept comm chatter through the central network, and she thinks she's found a dark facility. We don't know what they do, and they might know who we are if we take it.
    Tanner reentered the lab through the main doors. "Everyone's ready," he said.
    Samuel grabbed her hand and laced their fingers. He pulled her with him to the briefing room where everyone was gathered very informally. Some even out of uniform for a change.
    "Welcome, CD," he said loudly, taking his place at the podium.