Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (25 page)

“Mikayla!” Katie sobbed, struggling against the ropes holding her.

“Hold on, sweetie. I’ll get you free.” Mikayla swore as she rushed into the room. She took the stiletto blade out and quickly cut Katie free.

Katie flung herself at Mikayla as soon as she was released, sobbing with relief. It took everything in Mikayla not to shove the other woman away as an extremely uncomfortable feeling raced over her skin wherever Katie touched her.

The drugs were obviously beginning to work.

“Oh thank god!” Katie cried. “I thought they had killed you or taken you with those other girls. We have to get out of here! Those men are crazy!”

“Don’t worry. Those men won’t bother us anymore. Are you hurt anywhere? Can you walk?” Mikayla eased Katie back, retrieving the other shirt and handing it to her. Katie quickly put it on, covering her naked body.

“I’m fine now. They gave me something right after they put me in here. That horrible doctor came in and just sat there and watched me after he tied me to the bed. I couldn’t move. I felt like I was on fire, Mikayla. It was awful. He told me it was some new drug called lust dust and—”

“I know. I’ve just been injected with it.”

Katie gasped but Mikayla simply stood, picked up the two guns and jerked her head toward the other items.

“Bring that stuff, will you? Be careful with that needle. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Katie carefully picked up the syringe, the keys and the cane as Mikayla led the way out of the door with the two guns trained for any possible threat. Silently, they made their way down the corridor, pausing at any opened doorway to make sure no one would jump out at them. They finally came to a doorway that led into a laboratory where Robert sat at a desk. The guards had ensured that the good doctor wouldn’t try to escape while they were otherwise occupied by literally chaining the poor man to his desk.

Katie latched onto Mikayla’s arm, pulling her to a stop as she stepped forward. “It’s okay. He’s one of the good guys.”

“But he’s with them! Let’s just go,” Katie whispered back.

Robert heard them and his head came up. He smiled as he closed the book he was reading. “You did it! You’re free! Where are the guards? You should get out while you can.”

“Don’t worry about them. They won’t be bothering anyone ever again,” Mikayla said with a finality that had both Robert and Katie going a little pale. She looked around. “Are you sure those were the only two guards here?”

Robert nodded. “Yes, the others went with David to help sell the girls.”

Mikayla took the keys from Katie, setting the guns down where she could access them quickly, but still out of reach of Robert. She used the key to unlock the chains wrapped around Robert, freeing him.

“That’s fucking sick,” Katie whispered. “Mikayla, I want to go home. How do we know we can trust this guy? He might be one of the men who used those poor girls.”

“I’m not. I swear it.”

“I don’t believe you,” Katie replied adamantly.

“He’s coming with us,” Mikayla said then took the syringe from Katie, handing it to Robert. “What is that? Is it that the lust-dust shit?”

His eyes went wide with alarm. “Yes. Did they inject you?”

Mikayla sighed. “Yeah. This is going to be an interesting next few hours.”

Robert gulped. “Umm, actually if they gave you the liquid form it’s going to be a lot longer than that.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by that?”

“The drug, if administered in liquid form lasts for approximately twenty hours of peak time and can still be active for up to two days.

“Oh, fuck…”

“We need to get you out of here.”

Hell yeah they did. If the lust dust was going to turn her into a horny rabbit ready to fuck anything that moved, she needed to get moving like five minutes ago.

“Doc, grab a couple vials of this shit so we can test it, and show us where they put our clothes.”

“I’ll take some samples of the pills too.” At their questioning look his shoulders slumped in shame. “They made the drug in two forms. Liquid and pills. The liquid is more potent and lasts longer. The pills are for easier use.”

“Fine. Grab enough of both for my people to do some testing.”

Katie panicked and grabbed Mikayla’s arm as she turned to leave. “What do you mean your people? Can’t we just call and have someone come get us?”

Mikayla sighed and tried not to snap at her friend. “Katie, every time you grab me it feels like you’re stabbing me with needles, so please, try not to.”

Katie jerked her hand away and gasped. “I’m sorry, I forgot!”

“It’s fine. Just…try. It sucks, but there is nothing to be done about it right now. Let’s just get our stuff and get the hell out of here.”

“Doc, if you don’t stop looking at me like that I’m gonna have to hurt you.”

Mikayla clenched her teeth and tried to hold back the bitter rant that wanted to spew out of her mouth as she strode through the woods at a brisk pace.

She and Katie had gotten dressed while Robert collected a bag full of samples and data from the underground facility before they made their great escape. Twenty minutes into their walk Mikayla felt like she had been dipped into a vat of acid. Her skin ached so much that even the rubbing of her clothes against her flesh was causing her to want to rip them off of herself.

Great escape, her ass…

So far this had been an epic failure on so many levels. When they had climbed the long staircase to the outside entrance to the underground bunker, they had opened the door to find that it had begun to snow again. Mikayla checked the surrounding area, only to discover that the other guards had taken the only vehicles when they had left. Stranded, they pressed forward on foot and began walking toward what they hoped was a town close-by.

Pristine white covered the forest landscape, with more falling from the sky above. The scenery would have been beautiful under different circumstances, but Mikayla was too damn cold, tired and in pain to appreciate it. Even with their coats on, the bitter winds made the walk miserable.

Robert had informed them that the guards had left the facility for a good fifteen minutes each time they had to make a call since there was no signal where the facility was located in the woods. That was when they drove. If they walked, they were gone more than twice that amount of time. The truth was they were in the middle of fucking nowhere and until they could get a signal, no help was coming.

“Can we please slow down?” Katie asked as she tried to catch her breath. “My jeans are rubbing against my skin and it’s driving me crazy.”

Mikayla slowed her stride even though she knew she was running out of time. Like Katie, her clothes were making it uncomfortable to walk. As they continued to hike through the snow, Mikayla asked Robert to explain how the lust-dust drug had adapted from concept to creation. This did two things. It gave her the background of what was currently running through her bloodstream. It also had the added benefit of keeping her mind busy so she didn’t strip naked and throw herself in the snow. Saying she was uncomfortable was like saying hell had balmy weather. She could feel her pussy dripping, soaking her jeans with the proof that the drug was kicking into what Robert called the second phase.

“The drug in the first phase hurts as it spreads throughout your system. In the second phase, the pain will fade to pleasure,” Robert explained as they walked. “The sensory pleasure will become acute if not…satisfied. If release is not achieved then it will move onto the third phase and become painful again.”

“So, what you’re saying is the cure for this shit is sex? Fucking fantastic.”

Robert blushed despite the cold chill in the air. “Yes, I guess you could say that. It stops the phases and gives the user a reprieve from the symptoms, but the cycle will begin again as soon as the endorphins in the body have leveled off back to normal.”

“Every second was a nightmare when they shot me full of that crap. I couldn’t move and that asshole doctor just sat there watching me and taking notes as I screamed and cursed at him. I still don’t feel right,” Katie added as she held one of the cell phones out in front of herself, trying to get a signal.

“The phases will cycle over and over again until it leaves the system,” Robert explained. “You will feel the effects for up to two days depending on the dose. It lasts longer if you have taken the drug more than once like you did. I’m sorry they did this to you.”

“Can you counteract this drug? Make an antidote or something?” Mikayla asked, fighting back of shudder of need.

Robert was quiet for a moment then nodded. “I think so. I would need a proper lab so I can study the formula and work up some probabilities.”

“We have access to the best labs available. My people are going to want to debrief you anyways. If they’ve started selling this shit already, making an antidote is going to be priority.”

“That’s ok. I’m happy to do anything to help undo the damage that David and his group have done. But you mean I won’t be going to jail? I figured that since it was my work that started all of this I would be partly to blame.”

“You tried something in theory. You had nothing to do with the sale of the drug or the kidnapping of those girls. But still, we can’t allow you to go home anytime soon. Sorry. And you can stop watching me like you’re waiting for me to go crazy or jump you or something. I’m not going to ask you to have sex with me,” Mikayla added.

Robert sputtered for a moment. “I wasn’t…I’m not even attracted to you like that. I mean, you are an attractive woman, but I don’t…I’m gay,” he finally blurted out.

Mikayla snorted out a laugh. “I’m just messing with you, Doc. But you staring at me like you’re waiting for me to go crazy is getting on my nerves, so cut it out.”

“I’m staring at you because you seem so…calm. Based on previous test subjects, you
should be
going crazy at this point. Anyone else would be on the floor unable to move at this point.”

“I am going crazy, trust me. But I’ve had training on how to resist drugs as well as torture.”

Shit. Why am I telling him this?

Katie and Robert simply gawked at her. “They teach you that in the Army?”

Mikayla answered before thinking again. “They do, a little. But IAD does advanced training.” S
hit, shit, shit!

“IAD?” Katie asked, confused.

Robert gasped. “Oh my god! You’re an agent with IAD? I’ve heard all about your agency! No wonder you were so confident taking care of those guards. Some of the things I’ve been working on, including cryo-fix, are special government-funded projects. They wanted to give it to IAD agents, but some high-ranking officials said they were too valuable to risk that and testing was set to begin with the regular military first to make sure it was safe before you agents used it in the field.”

Mikayla’s eyes narrowed as she studied the doctor.

Robert cleared his throat. “Something I should warn you about. The lust dust has a side effect of acting like a truth serum. Your brain is so focused on the pleasure center that you can’t formulate the cognitive skill to lie.”

“Great,” Mikayla muttered. “So I’m a sex addict with no filter. Awesome.”

Katie gasped as she held up the phone. “I got a bar!” She waved the phone in the air and grinned. “I got two bars! We have a signal!”

Katie quickly handed the phone to Mikayla. She took it and dialed in Slade’s number. He answered on the second ring.

“Slade.”

Relief flooded through her at the sound of his voice. “Slade, it’s me. Please tell me you’re back in Serenity.”

“Lynx! Fuck! Yeah, I’m here at the cabin with Gage and Nick. Are you okay? What the fuck happened? Where are you?”

Katie began to sob silently as she stood next to her. Mikayla wanted to break down herself at the sound of Gage’s name. As she thought of him, a wave of lust raced through her so potent it almost caused her to double over. “Good, then you’re close. I need extract ASAP. Can you track this signal?”

“Tracking now. Give me a sitrep.”

“We were kidnapped and I’m not okay. I’ve been drugged. You need to get here like five minutes ago and tranq my ass before I lose it completely.”

Slade let out a vicious curse. “We’re on the move. I have a helo standby and ready to fly. We were just headed out to meet Rock and Adrian in Denver to search for you. I’m patching Rock in now.”

She could hear the sounds of people shouting in the background and the sound of Slade’s breathing changed as he began to bark out orders on the run. She stood completely still, afraid the signal would drop if she moved an inch.

“You really don’t know how to stay out of trouble, do you, Lynx?” Rock’s teasing voice had a laughing sob bubbling up before she could stop it. It was getting more difficult to focus as the drug wreaked havoc on her system, but she bore down and tried to concentrate and finish her report.

“Guess not. Got kidnapped in Denver and taken to an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere. Katie is with me and so is one of the missing scientists, Dr. Robert Ellis. I killed two guards and got us out. The thefts were connected to the missing girls. Guys, it’s bad. David Henley and his crew sold the girls and created a pretty nasty drug they’re calling lust dust that turns the user into mindless sex slaves.”