Chapter 11: Peace, Be Gone

Another liar.

Paige shouldn’t have been surprised to find that Jared had been untruthful about his involvement in the project, but he’d managed to blindside her. She’d chalk it up to the imprint effect – Jared had been the first pseudo-friendly face she’d seen after a very stressful transition into an unfamiliar environment.

It was only natural that she’d formed some sort of bond with him, however, unconsciously. It happened all the time. Unfortunately, those connections were fragile at best and – more often than not – led to…unfavorable outcomes.

For his part, Jared seemed to be completely unphased.

“I’m looking forward to showing you my neck of the woods,” he prattled on cheerfully as always as they entered the elevator. “The Bio ward is the biggest department in the facility, so there’s plenty of ground to cover. I work most closely to Dr. Singh in Neurobiology, but since I specialize in neurology and neurosurgery, as well as general physiology, I tend to bounce all over the place.”

“Those are some impressive stats for someone who claimed to be as green as me,” Paige replied.

Jared gave her a sheepish grin. “To be fair, no one here is quite as green as you. Can’t be helped you’re a civilian.”

“To be fair, when werewolves are involved, a bitch deserves a head’s up.”

Jared raised his hands. “Whoa, okay, that was news to me, too. I swear. I knew that we were studying some sort of biological anomaly, but I figured it was just, like, a particularly hardy species of moose or something. The higher-ups kept that info under lock and key from everyone except probably the Department Heads. Even now, I’m pretty sure that you and I are some of the only few people brought into Phase 2.”

“Because they want something from us.”

“It’d be pretty damn hard for us to do our jobs if our subject suddenly wolfed-out completely out of nowhere,” he laughed. “God, what was that even like? I wasn’t invited to the demonstration, but I saw the footage this morning.”

Paige shifted on her feet as she noted the fervent gleam that heated Jared’s expression. “What do you mean?”

“Paige, you were nearly mauled by an honest-to-God creature of the night less than twelve hours ago. You’ve got to be reeling right now.”

“Yeah, it was…I honestly don’t even know how to begin putting that experience into words.”

In truth, she was afraid to identify her feelings – wary of the path that emotion might lead her down. When she thought back on seeing Sebastian in pain, entreating her to keep a level mind right before transforming right before her eyes.

And then what came after he changed back….

Her feelings didn’t jive with what logic dictated should be a proper response to that much radical stimuli. What she felt, it was nothing short of–

“Horrifying,” Jared bit out through a clenched jaw.

“I…sure, I guess.” No. At her core, that wasn’t how she felt. But Jared’s growing tension was enough to tell her that wouldn’t be a sentiment he’d understand. “Why do you think so?”

Shadows shuddered his vision as the elevator came to a stop. Paige waited for him to continue the tour, but he stayed put, letting the elevator doors close as his thought turned inward. “I’ve been working for the US Medical Corps for going on just over ten years. I’ve seen some shit. The kind of shit that future serial killers are made of,” he muttered. “But that patient of yours, that’s on an entirely different level. I’m just glad that we intervened in time.”

“Intervened? Was there some sort of conflict that I’m not aware of?”

“Not that I know of. And things will stay that way thanks to us. The aliens are among us, Paige. I, for one, am relieved as hell that we showed up to the party first.”

“You sound so certain that they’re a threat.”

He looked at her incredulously. “How could they not be?”

“Jared, we don’t know anything about them.”

“Exactly. Friendlies don’t hide in the shadows.”

“They do if they don’t feel like being abducted and probed ‘for science.’ Who sounds like the aliens in this scenario, Jared?”

“When a nation finds an entirely new evolutionary branch camping out along its borders, you can’t fault them for wanting answers.”

“You could try, I don’t know, asking?”

Jared threw his hands up in exasperation. “What do you think we’re doing here, Paige? You specifically, that’s your literal job.”

“This isn’t a job, Jared. I’m being held hostage, and so is Subject Alpha.”

He spun on her and braced her shoulders with his hands, leveling her with an intent stare. “Listen, we can volley ethics all we want, especially now that your clearance has gone up. But there are some things you cannot say here, Paige.”

She leaned in and matched him tone for tone. “What is the Director going to do, lock me in government black site?”

Jared abruptly let her go, shaking his head morosely. “You still don’t get it. Me, Sid, everyone else who works in this facility; we get paid leave. Health and dental. A pension. Because we are faithful employees. We follow the rules. People who flaunt the rules, like you seem hellbent on doing? They don’t ever need to worry about a severance package because they aren’t going home.”

Paige swallowed. “And that’s just something that you’re okay with?”

He shrugged. “For the chance to be a part of greater than myself and serve my country while doing it? Absolutely. And you can, too.”

Bullshit. She hadn’t signed up for this – hadn’t been privy to the depth of the snake pit before wading into it, now she was expected to give complete and blind fealty or be bitten.

Paige crossed her arms over her chest. “Tell me how you do it, Jared. How do you do blind loyalty?”

“You can’t boil down civic duty, Torres.”

“Try for me. I’ve never really been one for rules. None of this ‘yes, sir, no sir’ stuff comes easily to me.”

He licked his lips and looked unsure of his next words. “Pakistan, Iraq, Syria. I spent the better part of a decade traveling as a field medic. That alone was enough to change your life – seeing soldiers blown to shit left and right, being the one to tell the survivors that their brothers and sisters at arms were gone…when I volunteered to do a tour with the Peace Corps, I thought I was in for a break.”

He took a breath and continued. “I was part of a team sent to Sierra Leone to help combat a particularly vicious malaria outbreak. We’d been warned that the village we were occupying had a history with the local diamond mongers. For a while, the military presence was enough to keep the bastards at bay. Until, one day, it wasn’t.”

“Oh…”

Jared nodded. “They took everyone under the age of fourteen and tried their damndest to butcher everyone else.

“My God,” Paige breathed.

“And those were humans who did that, Paige. If members of one species can do that to their own kind, there’s no telling what those wolves are capable of. They aren’t like us. They don’t share ties; who knows what morals and ethics look like to them.”

Paige couldn’t help but think that if the Lycan’s understanding of those fundamental principles looked anything like theirs, they probably were screwed.

“So, do you see why I follow?” Jared asked. “Why I believe in the importance of this mission?”

She schooled her features as she took him in. “I see that you believe that you’re doing what’s right.”

Paige pushed the button to open the elevator doors and gestured for the physician to continue his tour. Her trip through the Biology Ward was lighter than the walk getting there. Jared really lit up when engrossed in his element – and like he’d warned, there was almost too much to keep track of.

Like usual, she didn’t get many specifics, but by the time they ended up in his personal lab, she’d notated several areas of interest she wanted to circle back to later after light’s out.

But more than that, Paige felt like she was finally peeking behind the curtain and gaining an understanding of the milieu that fueled Project Far Side.

Jared wasn’t a bad person, but he was complicit. Which made him someone to be wary of.

“Everyone knows why I’m here, but what about you?” Paige cautioned to ask. “Why is someone so qualified left bouncing from department to department?”

He smirked and pulled out a file from a folder on a nearby workstation. It held imaging scans of a brain lit up with activity. “Right now, there’s not much for neurology to do but study brain scans. That’s one of the hassles of having a live subject. I’m biding my time until the other departments get first crack at Alpha.”

Paige’s throat dried as he smirked down at the brain scan.

“After you’ve finished collecting your data, it’s my turn to play.”