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“She did this to you?” I ask the question once I’m certain he’s out of danger. He is going to hurt, probably for a long time, but he is going to live.
“She’s a freak,” he rasps. “There’s something wrong with her. She’s…” he takes a deep breath. “She’s a fucking monster.”
I have some experience with young ladies regarded as monsters. Mary was no picnic when Ken first met her, but she was never like this. It’s hard to rationalize the pretty little thing with the razor blade smile as being seriously dangerous, but I suppose that’s half her appeal. Places like this do well with people who seem unassuming, yet are much more lethal than they appear.
“Why is she here if she’s so dangerous? You’re training her?”
“The Head,” he curses. “She wants this girl on our side.”
“Better on our side than someone else’s, I suppose.”
“She’s a fucking freak,” he coughs. “She’s never going to be anything but a danger. The Head should have you put her down.”
“That’s not really what I do.”
“It should be,” he growls.
He’s angry and ashamed, I can see that. After all, he just got beaten up by a smallish girl. That could be a reputation killer in here if the story gets out. No matter how much of a monster she might be, she’s still a girl, and men like Tyko live their lives in the assumption that nobody smaller or weaker than them can ever take them down.
“What shape is she in, if this is what you look like?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
“Fair enough. You take this script for anti-inflammatories, and I’ll go and check on your sparring partner. I’m assuming she must have sustained some injuries in the altercation. You’re good to go. Just take it easy, and stay away from any aggressive recruits for a few days.”
“You can’t see her. She’s in the sealed section.”
At that moment, the intercom crackles into life. “Doctor Ares to sealed section. Doctor Ares, sealed section immediately.”
“Be careful,” Tyko warns as I grab my bag. “You can’t trust that girl. Not ever. She’ll kill every single one of us.”
I thank him for the warning and head into the area which is heavily guarded and highly restricted. I find the Head waiting for me just beyond the first set of doors. She does not look to be in a good mood.
“You’ve met Miss Electra,” she says, not bothering with any form of pleasantry.
“I have.”
“You and your brother managed to capture her earlier. I don’t believe you realize it, but you very possibly saved my life. That razor blade was intended for me.”
“Why?”
“Miss Electra and I have a… history,” the Head says. “I can’t go into it any deeper than that, but I was impressed with the way you and Ken handled her. She was calm. She was relatively non-aggressive.”
“We didn’t do anything special,” I say. “We just picked her up.”
The Head looks me up and down with a half smile. “I don’t think you understand the effect you have on some women, Doctor Ares.”
“Thank you, ma’am?” I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or what she means, but it sounded vaguely positive.
“You calmed her down. She hasn’t been calm a day she’s been here. If anything, she’s gotten increasingly worse.” The Head looks at me with those determined eyes. “I’m taking you off medical duty. I want you to handle Miss Electra.”
“Handle her how?”
“Train her. Settle her into life in this facility.”
“I’m not a field agent. I couldn’t train anyone to do anything more than dress wounds and…”
The Head waves her hand in a gesture of dismissal.
“You were a soldier. You know enough. Besides, she has all the tactical knowledge she is ever going to need. Your mission, Doctor Ares, is to civilize her. From this moment forward, she’s yours. You own her.”
“Uh…”
I have no idea what any of that means, but I am fairly certain I do not own anybody. Even in this facility where the normal rules of human society are suspended, we don’t own each other.
“She’s in the fourth containment row. You can let her out at your own risk, but I would suggest keeping her contained in the short term. She has a habit of trying to kill her trainers. We have three on medical leave.”
“Uhm…”
“Congratulations,” the Head smiles. “I know you’ll do an excellent job.”
It’s too late to say anything else. The Head is already walking away. I consider my options. I could refuse to take this on. I’m no prisoner here. I don’t have to do what this woman says, even if she does her best to make it sound as if I do. I could walk away right now, but what stops me aren’t the orders the Head just gave me. It’s remembering the look in Electra’s eyes when I was dealing with her. She is badly in need of proper discipline, but more than that, she craves kindness. I don’t know what happened to her to make her this way. I don’t know why she is so full of rage and fear. I don’t know how she came to be here. I’ll find all those things out in due course, I suppose. For now, I look down the rows of bars, knowing that somewhere down there is a very broken girl who desperately needs my help. I just hope it’s not too late to give it to her.
