Savage Drift

^{CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO} JOSIE

Something is wrong.

I can’t move my arms or legs.

And it’s very bright.

It’s very bright and I don’t know where I am and I can’t move my limbs.

My heart is flooded with panic and everything amps up.

White ceiling, dotted with LED cans. Walls are pale green. No windows.

My arms and legs are buckled in leather cuffs, tied down on a bed. There’s an IV going into my right arm. The insertion point is taped neatly—a square of semitransparent white tape against my cocoa skin. My knuckles are bandaged up.

There is also a bandage on my left hand. I can’t remember why.

I hear voices arguing outside my room. They are what woke me up.

“I am telling you, Savic, this girl is the key.”

I am clean.

This hits me.

Someone has washed me.

I could cry for relief and for shame.

“You cannot, you will not perform tests on an underage minor without legal consent!” Heavy accent. Maybe Russian?

My head feels light. I can’t feel with my hands, but I think they have cut off my hair.

My mouth is dry, dry, dry.

“Hey!” I croak.

They don’t hear me.

“How the hell do you think I’m going to find her parents, Savic? This girl has what we need, don’t you see? Look, I’ll get her to sign the consent form. It’ll stand up. It’ll be fine.”

“We need you on the VACCINE, Cutlass, not this super-soldier bull crap!”

“Tell that to the Pentagon, because I’m under direct orders—”

“HEY!” I manage.

The doorknob turns.

A short Asian nurse with thinning hair hurries in. She’s wearing medical scrubs decorated with cartoon drawings on them, the Traindawgs.

“Sunshine!” she says with a smile. “You’re awake!”

Two doctors in white coats step in.

One of them is brown-haired. Late forties? He has rugged good looks—movie star kind of looks. Or maybe it’s that he reminds me of a movie star. But I can’t think which one.

The other is older. Must be the Russian. He’s tall and silver-haired with a paunch and a kind of grim dignity. He leans on a cane.

“Where am I?” I manage.

The handsome doctor comes and stands over me. He looks anxiously into my eyes.

“You are at USAMRIID,” the older doctor says. “We are a government medical research facility. I am Dr. Savic and this is Dr. Cutlass. You have been exposed to the warfare compounds. Do you remember that?”

I nod.

Then suddenly I remember—Mario dying and the drift and NIKO.

I try to talk, but my throat is too dry.

I make a strangled sound.

The nurse brings a plastic cup of water with a straw in it up to my face.

“Here you go, sweetheart. Drink up.”

Somehow, she has a thick Southern accent. Sounds like a Georgia peach. Looks Chinese.

The water fills my mouth. It’s sweet, clean water.

“Niko found me,” I manage. “You have to take me back.”

The doctors look at me for a minute, then back at each other. They begin to speak again, disregarding what I’ve said.

“There is a level of integration in her blood that is unparalleled,” handsome Dr. Cutlass says.

He has a minitab in his front pocket and he takes it out, pulling up something to show the other doctor.

“Your ethics are on a very slippery slope, James. You know I feel this way,” says the Russian.

Huh. They have completely written me off. They think I’m crazy.

“You are required to get a full release form on this girl,” the Russian says. “There are rumors of people being tested against their will and those rumors have reached the president.”

He says “rumors” like an accusation.

“Hey!” I say. They’re ignoring me. “Look, my friend Niko came for me. I shouldn’t be here! I should be back there! You have to take me back—he came all that way for me!”

Dr. Cutlass nods to the nurse.

She smiles at me kindly as she does something to my IV involving a syringe.

“It’s okay, hun,” she tells me. “You’re safe now.”

And a heavy warmth seeps up from the mattress, dragging me down into a deep, heavenly sleep.

“I’ll be here when you wake up, sugar,” the nurse says and she looks, for a moment, like an angel, with the ceiling lights her halo.