CHAPTER 15

Diana stared at her computer monitor as a wordless expression of frustration escaped her lips.

Damn, she thought, after taking a few steps away from her computer monitor as well as a moment to compose herself. This is not what I wanted to see.

She was in her private laboratory working on a small amount of the genetic material extracted from Juliet Parrish. She had just run a portion of the material through the first battery of simulations and tests, but her equipment had scarcely begun their processes when it flashed the following message:

Incompatible.

Diana returned to her station. Perhaps there is some contamination of the sample. Her fingers danced on the keypad controlling the automated equipment handling the genetic material, entering the command for the machine to decontaminate and sterilize itself again. After the machine took all of three minutes to complete its self-sterilization process, Diana took another small sample of Parrish's genetic material and ran the tests again.

And, just as quickly as it did before, the equipment reported the same result it did previously.

She walked to her desk and sat.

This feels like a failure.

I should have assigned much tighter security over Robin Maxwell when I had her months ago. Had I done so, I could have observed and overseen her entire pregnancy, and therefore controlled the outcome of that experiment.

If there was one thing that inflamed Diana's anger, that was it.

Failure.

Her anger from the previous evening's fiasco at the hospital was still fresh, and the report of Brian's failure to eradicate the local rebels – and losing most of two squads' worth of troopers – just a few hours ago swelled it even more.

But this…

No.

This is not your failure, nor anyone else's.

You knew this was the most likely result.

This is definitely not the outcome you had hoped for, but, honestly, wasn't this what you expected?

Diana rubbed her temple, then sighed. Doing so enabled her to vent most – but not all – of her frustration.

This was probably inevitable. Finding another human with the genetic compatibility I need to recreate that experiment was always going to be near-impossible.

It's a shame.

It would have been interesting to replicate it with this woman Juliet Parrish.

She stretched her neck muscles and massaged them, stiff as they were from stress and fatigue that her six hour nap did not completely eliminate.

Diana returned to her computer terminal. Instead of redoing the genetic testing and simulation routines one more time, however, she pulled up the reports on Juliet Parrish's first session in the conversion chamber.

Some of the information – Parrish's physiological responses to test stimuli, metrics measuring how strong her resistance was to the truth serum given to her – was only mildly interesting. Most humans who undergo the conversion process exhibited very similar responses. Juliet Parrish was not exceptional in this regard.

However, the existence of a hitherto undiagnosed cardiac condition was a minor concern. But Diana was far from worried.

I have converted other subjects with more significant health issues; this won't deter me from converting this woman.

Diana leaned back in her chair, then called up the reports on the interrogation phase of Parrish's first session.

She read through the report, skimming through it until she found what she was looking for.

Here it is.

The identities of her fellow rebels.

Parrish had surrendered this trove of information under the influence of Diana's newest version of truth serum. She allowed herself a small smile, pleased that her latest concoction had proven so effective. Parrish, after all, corroborated the confession beaten out of the counterfeiter Pascal and confirmed the location of the erstwhile rebel headquarters. She was therefore confident the information she was now reading was completely reliable.

Along with the names and other gathered information were visual representation of the rebels themselves, images extracted from Parrish's own mind by the conversion chamber.

Having watched hours of accumulated video footage, Diana recognized some of the faces, particularly the ones she saw at the Medical Center the night before.

Michael Donovan, of course, who was brought before her when he was captured several months ago. She pressed a finger to her lips, mildly surprised that he was not the local rebellion's leader, and that this Juliet Parrish was.

How curious, though. It seems that, given a choice, this woman Parrish would rather not be their leader.

Perhaps that is something to exploit later.

She filed that thought away, then moved on the rest of the names and computer-generated visuals.

Robert Maxwell, she thought, as she studied the computer-generated image. I recognize this one: He was Parrish's companion when they infiltrated the Medical Center.

Steven could have stopped them before they even entered the hospital. Yet another detail of his utter failure last night.

Diana continued reading the interrogation reports.

Elias Taylor, and his father Caleb.

It seems she has a strong relationship with this pair. Diana called up another name and image closely associated with the father and son duo. There was another Taylor, Benjamin, Caleb's older son who was a close friend of Parrish's. This last Taylor died several months ago, shot to death by Shock Troopers.

Perhaps I can study this part of her memories in closer detail.

She moved on to the rest of the rebels Parrish unwittingly gave up during interrogation.

Ruby Engels.

Margaret Blodgett.

Andrew Doyle, a Roman Catholic priest.

Mark McIntyre, former LAPD officer.

Sancho Gomez.

Diana wrote notes into her terminal as she continued her study of the rebel fighters. The woman had surrendered the names and images of forty seven people, a far smaller group than Diana expected. This included both her current comrades as well as ones killed in the war so far. She also discovered that Parrish wasn't especially close to most of the members of the group, preferring the company of a select few among the group.

I must explore the dynamics of her relationships with everyone in her group. There may be exploitable weaknesses there.

Diana arched her back and raised her arms, stretching out her muscles, then composed herself. She then activated her communicator.

"Captain Jake."

"Good evening, Diana. How may I be of service?"

"I am sending you some information presently." Diana entered a command into her terminal. "The data I've just transmitted to you is the identities of the known members of the local rebel cell. See to it that this information is distributed to our forces on the ground.

"Shoot to kill."

"It shall be done."

Diana turned off her communicator, then switched her monitor to view a different feed.

The still form of Juliet Parrish filled the screen. The human was on the floor of her holding cell, her side pressed against the wall. Diana couldn't tell if the human was awake or asleep with her head resting on her upraised knees, her face hidden from the cameras. Diana hadn't started the actual conversion process yet, but her preparations towards that end were well underway.

Soon, my dear, I shall get to know everything about you, and use all of that against you. It won't be too long before you become mine.