“She passed out, sir. I carried her.”
“Be careful, candidate. She could awaken and touch your skin. Skin-to-skin contact must be avoided. She will manipulate you if you’re not careful. Keep perfect timing on the tranquilizers. She’s too powerful when she has all her senses about her. Remember what happened in Flagstaff.”
“I remember, sir.”
“Bring her back to Kentucky. Two first-class tickets are waiting for you at the Naples Airport. You have the passports I provided, correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Memorize this: United flight 1731 departing at 4:51 local time. Gate 12. The tickets are under Gideon Niche and Naya Arkdone.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Call again once you’ve boarded the aircraft.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Replace the disguise; let the Monarch hide.”
Click
Gideon blinked, pinching the bridge of his nose and adjusted his position in the driver’s seat. Glancing behind him, he saw the girl still sleeping. She hadn’t moved since the last time he saw her. He knew he should inject her with the tranquilizer, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it when she was already incapacitated.
He sighed deeply, eyes wide with a task he felt compelled to do. He had to get the girl to Naples. They had to catch a flight. He felt something heavy tugging on his shirt pocket. He reached inside and pulled out a slim black cell phone. He had no memory of getting a phone, but things like this happened to him all the time. Without a second thought, he slipped the phone back into the same pocket and started searching the road signs for the next highway that would take him to the airport.
Chapter 38 Jaimie
Dr. Williams smiled widely at the flight attendant who just introduced herself as Jaimie. She was new to his flight crew, but he liked her immediately. Of course, it was the color of her eyes that captured his interest. They had rings of bright green around the hazel irises.
She turned away from his leering smile a little unnerved but determined to do a good job. She was saving for the trip of a lifetime—a few of her girlfriends were pooling their funds to take a vacation in the Bahamas together. She was so close to the white sandy beaches, she could nearly smell the coconut oil.
Or was that actual coconut oil she smelled on the wealthy doctor who’d hired her?
With an inward shrug, she turned to retrieve his requested coffee from the small galley at the far end of the aisle.
Williams watched the way her long blonde hair draped down her petite back and wondered what it would be like to feel the silky tresses caress his new skin.
Just then, a vibration forced him from his thoughts.
His manservant, Stanley looked up from the magazine he had been thumbing through to watch his Director look at the caller ID to see who it was before narrowing his eyes and touching the screen.
“She’s gone,” Chaunders gasped, still trying to stop the bleeding at his fleshy throat where he could still feel the blade she wedged there only minutes before.
“What the hell do you mean, ‘she’s gone’?” Williams spat into his phone.
“I don’t know what happened.” Sweat trickled freely down Chaunders’ back, pooling in the small of his gelatinous backside.
Williams was up, out of his seat on his private jet and pacing the aisle, shaking with fury. “Start at the beginning,” he enunciated. Spittle in the form of white foam began to form at the corners of his mouth.
“She came into my room. Somehow she woke up and came into my room and held a knife at my throat asking where she was and demanding I tell her everything.”
“Did you?”
“I didn’t get a chance to! I always sleep with that emergency button near me. I pushed it and two metahumans came rushing in.”
“She bested two metahumans in her state? She must have been barely able to walk after the months of—”
“No sir. One of the soldiers turned on the other. He used a taser gun on him then another on me. I just came to and called you. Both he and the girl are gone.”
“Which metahuman was it?”
“Gideon, sir. Gideon Niche.”
Williams winced, visibly shaking in his fresh skin. The flight attendant briefly looked up from her task and instinctively wanted to hide from the man whose black eyes darted frantically as though looking for something or someone to kill.
“He was the last of my super soldiers. My perficio rez. The strongest, the survivor—” From Williams’ lip, a stringy line of spittle flapped as he spoke, making his face look far more salivating-pit-bull than human.
“Find them and kill Gideon and retrieve my daughter. If they escape, I will see that you’re conscious through the hours of torture I will exact upon your abhorrent body. Do I make myself clear?”
“Ye-yes, sir.” Warmth spread beneath his backside as he felt himself wet the bed.