“He’s—you said it yourself; he’s valuable,” Austin added in a calmer tone. “We should go to the med bay. It will pay you more attention if Connor isn’t here.”
Austin squeezed the fabric of Connor’s shirt while he waited for an answer.
“Fine, let’s do that.” Cessair turned on his heels. “Ben, why don’t you—actually, no, you stay here. You two—you bring him away.” He gestured somewhere behind Connor.
A few seconds later, hands were at Connor’s arms, hauling him to his feet. Connor’s knees buckled, but Austin swooped in, setting his arm around Connor’s back and guiding his arm around his shoulders. “Take his other side,” Austin instructed. The man who did was too tall to be the guard with the dogs. The other one. Connor’s thoughts were too sluggish to recall his name.
Connor wanted to object as he was brought away from the tank, from Adonis. He heard the panic behind him, Adonis thumping against the glass as he fought to get out. The spike of pain that stabbed through the back of his skull with each slight jostle kept Connor docile. If he opened his mouth, the only thing to come out would be vomit.
Austin brought him inside, navigating the winding hallways until they entered a small room with cots lining one wall and equipment lining the other.
Connor groaned as they set him on the bed.
“Be careful with him,” Austin snapped, his voice as painful to Connor’s head as the moving was.
“I am trying to be,” the man replied. “It isn’t going to do much good given his condition.”
Austin sat on the bed next to Connor, brushing back the hair on his temple. He had part of his bottom lip between his teeth, tight enough to both mark the skin and draw blood. He was paler than Connor had ever seen, fear in his expression. “I’m going to get you to a hospital soon, okay?” he reassured Connor.
“Watch it, Austin,” the man said. He came to Austin’s side of the bed, and Connor stared at the second guard. Name—what was his damn name?
Austin looked over his shoulder to the guard. “Do you have the boat ready?” he asked.
The guard nodded.
Austin turned to Connor. “I have a way out, okay? We just have to wait until Rick goes on break. A few more hours, and we’ll get out of here.”
Connor stared at Austin. It took a lot of effort, everything in him, to shake his head. If he left with Austin, if they snuck off to escape—then this ship with Adonis on it? He got the feeling he’d never find it again. That no matter who he called in to get to it, Adonis would end up stuck in that cage forever.
“No?” Austin looked at him in disbelief. “I know he’s your dad, but shit, Connor. Look at what he did to you! He doesn’t care about you—you were only ever an experiment to him.”
Connor put that aside. With great difficulty, he got himself sitting upright. The world spun, and only Austin reaching out to support him held him steady. “I’m not leaving without Adonis,” he rasped.
Austin shook his head in confusion. “Adonis? Wait, the merman?”
The tall guard stood by the exit, watching them while he kept an ear to the door.
“Yes,” Connor said. “The merman.”
“There’s not a chance in hell we can get him out, too,” Austin said. “He’s locked down tight, and even if wearevaluable research subjects, we’re nothing compared to him. They half killed you to get him for Christ’s sake. Try to get him out and they’ll put a bullet in your head.”
“There’s four of them, three of us.”
“Don’t be stupid, Connor. You’re on death’s door, and I’m half the size of them. Not to mention you’re forgetting that asshole’s dogs. It’s more like one against six.” Austin replied sharply. “I’m not risking any of us.”
Connor studied Austin and then the taller guard. He was getting Adonis out, no matter what. “What would we need to break the tank?”
“We can’t.”
“Hypothetically, Austin.”
“It’s not happening!” Austin jumped up from the bed and shot Connor a furious look. “We’re barely going to survive this, never mind trying to bring that thing with us.”
Connor thought about it. He tried to figure out a solution, but nothing presented itself to him as an easy fix. He needed to clear his head. He needed to be able to move, to coordinate. “Are there any painkillers in that cabinet?” He nodded to the glass-lined shelving unit with small bottles stacked up high.
Austin crossed the room to it. He hardly looked at the bottles before grabbing one out. He returned to Connor and shook out four pills into his hand.
“Will these knock me out?”
