An Unauthorized Genetic Experiment: episode two.
Author: Chippewa Livingston
Archive: Please ask
Disclaimer: I claim no affiliation or ownership of characters or material related to Dark Angel.
Chapter 16: Control
I felt a pulse under my fingertips, quick but steady. Asha's breathing was sharp and even, the slightly labored breaths of prey… not a liar. So she wasn't a suit and tie and she wasn't on our tails but that didn't leave us in the clear. The fact remained: she was snooping too close to home- a home we ran away from.
I released her. Pain and threats are great truth serums. Comfort and anesthesia are better. "So not much to do around here? You decided to break into an office building for the thrill?"
"I was doing a favor for a friend. He's kind of a conspiracy buff. You know Dr. Frankenstein, things that go bump in the night." Asha was backing away from us, wiping her palms on her pant legs. She was hiding something.
"Now that you mention it, those security guards were incompetent enough to be pod people." Jack said, getting a faint smile out of Asha.
Her expression mutated a moment later, her eyes widening with fear and understanding. "The fire…" She looked from me to Jack and back again, her hands rubbing the wrists I'd immobilized. "You're… you're…." Her eyes scanned our faces, really noticing the perfect features that had seemed wrong somehow to her brain.
I saw the familiar tensing of muscles as a target prepared for a last desperate flight. But Asha didn't run. "I know what you are." She declared boldly. "If you decide to kill me I can't do anything about it. But if you don't, there's someone who'd like to talk to you."
I laughed. It wasn't a nice sound even to me. "There are a thousand people who'd like to talk to us in a hundred countries preferably in a cage with 'sold' stamped on our foreheads."
"This is different. He helps people." Asha could see that we weren't buying it. "Just give him a chance."
"A chance to fill his wallet? Not happening." I told her
"Okay." Asha leaned against the car. "So what happens now? You disappear thay find my body in a couple of weeks."
"Only half right." I took a step closer. "They wouldn't find your body."
Panic finally reared itself in Asha and we were in total control. We could make her vanish and leave this place and no one would be the wiser. People disappeared all the time and we had been the reason more than once.
But we weren't really in control at all because scared as she was, Asha's pulse was quick her steady, her breathing sharp and even. She was telling the truth and someone out there knew our secret.
Author: Chippewa Livingston
Archive: Please ask
Disclaimer: I claim no affiliation or ownership of characters or material related to Dark Angel.
Chapter 16: Control
I felt a pulse under my fingertips, quick but steady. Asha's breathing was sharp and even, the slightly labored breaths of prey… not a liar. So she wasn't a suit and tie and she wasn't on our tails but that didn't leave us in the clear. The fact remained: she was snooping too close to home- a home we ran away from.
I released her. Pain and threats are great truth serums. Comfort and anesthesia are better. "So not much to do around here? You decided to break into an office building for the thrill?"
"I was doing a favor for a friend. He's kind of a conspiracy buff. You know Dr. Frankenstein, things that go bump in the night." Asha was backing away from us, wiping her palms on her pant legs. She was hiding something.
"Now that you mention it, those security guards were incompetent enough to be pod people." Jack said, getting a faint smile out of Asha.
Her expression mutated a moment later, her eyes widening with fear and understanding. "The fire…" She looked from me to Jack and back again, her hands rubbing the wrists I'd immobilized. "You're… you're…." Her eyes scanned our faces, really noticing the perfect features that had seemed wrong somehow to her brain.
I saw the familiar tensing of muscles as a target prepared for a last desperate flight. But Asha didn't run. "I know what you are." She declared boldly. "If you decide to kill me I can't do anything about it. But if you don't, there's someone who'd like to talk to you."
I laughed. It wasn't a nice sound even to me. "There are a thousand people who'd like to talk to us in a hundred countries preferably in a cage with 'sold' stamped on our foreheads."
"This is different. He helps people." Asha could see that we weren't buying it. "Just give him a chance."
"A chance to fill his wallet? Not happening." I told her
"Okay." Asha leaned against the car. "So what happens now? You disappear thay find my body in a couple of weeks."
"Only half right." I took a step closer. "They wouldn't find your body."
Panic finally reared itself in Asha and we were in total control. We could make her vanish and leave this place and no one would be the wiser. People disappeared all the time and we had been the reason more than once.
But we weren't really in control at all because scared as she was, Asha's pulse was quick her steady, her breathing sharp and even. She was telling the truth and someone out there knew our secret.