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Verdict of the Fates
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Caitlyn!” The lump of stone that had become his heart leapt into Duke’s throat with ringing alarm.
“Shut your mouth, you worthless whore!” Alex jerked the pistol at her furiously. “How dare you even speak to me like that!?”
A soft gasp escaped her and she took a step backwards, closer to Duke and the meager amount of safety he presented as Alex advanced on her. She'd intended to provoke him. This was a much bigger reaction than she'd anticipated.
“You have no idea! No fucking idea how I felt having to squat just to stand in your shadow!” His vicious words spat at her through clenched teeth. His bourgeoning rage scorched over her, filling the tiny antechamber with its malevolent presence.
“You don’t know what it’s like to have your life’s work—the epitome of your creativity and intelligence— shown up and disproven by some pathetic little girl who refuses to see potential! To watch as you dusted your hands of it, like everything I did wa
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“Alex!” she breathed, starting forward when he raised a violently shaking hand towards her. His thin mouth opened in silent accusation and supplication. Then both Dex and Duke were turning her, one on each upper arm with a firm grip. They propelled her swiftly through the hidden door. “Duke, the latch,” Dex ordered as they rushed into the narrow passageway. He pointed at the door, then reached for the switch to reconnect his communication equipment. “Knight 2 and 3. Asset acquired. Allie, we could use an exit plan.” As Duke released her, Caitlyn jerked herself free of Dex’s grasp. She flung herself at the door. “No! He needs my help!” Ramming the bolt home, he pivoted and grasped her by the upper arms. “Caitlyn!” he snapped harshly, shaking her once to get her attention as the light dimmed to nothingness. “No matter what he did to stay alive before, you can’t save him now.” “You don’t know that!” she cried to the darkness.
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Caitlyn heaved forcefully as the choking fumes were piped down her throat and into her lungs, singing the sensitive passageways. She collapsed into the muck in a spasming heap. “Duke!” Squeezing onto his side, Dex dragged himself alongside the hacking, weakly thrashing woman as she clawed at her throat. Glancing back, Duke cursed. “Can you pull her?” Another rumbling explosion rocked the tunnel. This time, bits of dust and pebbles tumbled from between the stones above them. “Oh hell.” “Uh-huh. Got it.” Dex wrapped an arm around the floundering woman’s hips and braced his feet on opposite sides of the tunnel. With one arm and using the slime on the bottom to reduce the friction from their weight, he inched them both toward the exit. In the lead, Duke watched the struggling pair, debating whether he should go ahead and prepare for the jump to their escape or wait until they caught up so he could take Caitlyn from the other man. Both thoughts were immedi
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“Mr. Ellis,” the low voice droned, filling the small sitting. It belonged to a man clearly used to issuing orders that were obeyed. For a call of this magnitude, Allie had gathered their ragtag band— Jay, Duke, Caitlyn and herself—in her suite on the Italian Riviera. When it was all said and done, it had been easier getting to the awaiting boat than Caitlyn had anticipated. Of course, gravity tended to work that way. As soon as Dex had placed a portion of his weight upon it, as Duke had anticipated, the damaged and rusted grate over the collapsing drainage shaft had groaned loudly then given way, unceremoniously dumping the three of them into the open air. Immediately, Duke had deployed the parachute to slow their fall. The fire-heated sea drafts had carried them in a descending spiral, out over the frigid water of the Adriatic where they’d landed safely. Dex slipped the makeshift harness before they’d resurfaced and struck hard for the boat, bringing it along
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Turning the knob slowly, Duke eased the latch free and peered around the door into the bedroom of his suite with Caitlyn. Piercing green eyes landed instinctively on the bed, where she lay with her back to him. Her knees were curled up towards her chest, her shoulders rolled forward almost protectively. Closing the door as silently as he’d opened it, he covered the few paces to the bedside without a sound. She’d slept a lot in the last few days—healing, she’d told him. It was a sentiment reiterated by the medic with Jay’s team. But even though something about that sat wrong with him, he wasn’t going to wake her. If she was able to sleep, then her body needed the rest. All he needed was to be close to her, even if that didn’t involve touching or holding her. He’d have preferred if it involved touching and holding her. He wanted to saturate himself in her beauty, in the yielding sweetness of her warm body, to let his own stress and fear dissipate. Even if only for a little while. Al
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“Final call for boarding. Flight 175 to Philadelphia at gate B34,” a gate attendant announced over the loudspeaker as Caitlyn strolled her carry-on past, searching the signs overhead for her own gate number. “Passenger D. Carter, that’s passenger D. Carter, please. D. Carter, report to the ticketing counter at gate B37, please,” urged another voice. Despite the early hour, the airport was already bustling with activity. People chattered to one another from the nearby seating areas, or rushed by headed for other connections—some searching overhead, like her, and others with their faces buried in their phones. Turning sideways, she quickly dodged one such oblivious traveler, a tall, handsome young man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts in a particularly careless rush. “I beg your pardon,” she mumbled as he brushed past without even noticing her. Stopping, she watched his retreating figure and felt the butterflies leap in her belly. Obv
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Tucking the thin parcel under his arm to hold it, Duke pressed his thumb against the biometric security lock at the lab door, then entered his security code. When the door released, he pulled it open, then closed behind him. He stopped in the entry room, juggling Caitlyn’s package between hands to don his long, white lab coat and a pair of safety glasses. “Hey Paula.” He gave his wife’s lab worker a polite smile and nod as he passed through the wet lab between the aquarium racks teeming with zebra fish. “Hi Duke. She’s in at the microscope.” “Thanks.” On the opposite side of the room, he passed through another door into the main laboratory space, a generous work area with water-resistant flooring, provisions for tissue cultures, microscopy, cell cultures and chemical prep rooms outfitted with biological safety cabinets. Immediately, he spotted his wife. As he’d been advised, Caitlyn was seated at one of the sturdy laboratory tables before a microscope
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“Alex!” she breathed, starting forward when he raised a violently shaking hand towards her. His thin mouth opened in silent accusation and supplication. Then both Dex and Duke were turning her, one on each upper arm with a firm grip. They propelled her swiftly through the hidden door. “Duke, the latch,” Dex ordered as they rushed into the narrow passageway. He pointed at the door, then reached for the switch to reconnect his communication equipment. “Knight 2 and 3. Asset acquired. Allie, we could use an exit plan.” As Duke released her, Caitlyn jerked herself free of Dex’s grasp. She flung herself at the door. “No! He needs my help!” Ramming the bolt home, he pivoted and grasped her by the upper arms. “Caitlyn!” he snapped harshly, shaking her once to get her attention as the light dimmed to nothingness. “No matter what he did to stay alive before, you can’t save him now.” “You don’t know that!” she cried to the darkness.
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“Caitlyn!” The lump of stone that had become his heart leapt into Duke’s throat with ringing alarm. “Shut your mouth, you worthless whore!” Alex jerked the pistol at her furiously. “How dare you even speak to me like that!?” A soft gasp escaped her and she took a step backwards, closer to Duke and the meager amount of safety he presented as Alex advanced on her. She'd intended to provoke him. This was a much bigger reaction than she'd anticipated. “You have no idea! No fucking idea how I felt having to squat just to stand in your shadow!” His vicious words spat at her through clenched teeth. His bourgeoning rage scorched over her, filling the tiny antechamber with its malevolent presence. “You don’t know what it’s like to have your life’s work—the epitome of your creativity and intelligence— shown up and disproven by some pathetic little girl who refuses to see potential! To watch as you dusted your hands of it, like everything I did wa
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Except in photographs, Duke had only ever seen Alex Maddox once—the day the man’s body had been moved from the hospital morgue to the funeral home where Caitlyn had made final arrangements. Frankly, he didn’t look much better now than he had in the body bag, even if he did technically have a pulse. But he had no doubt in Caitlyn’s recognition. Whatever Alex had put himself through to create the illusion that he was dying, it clearly hadn’t been without lasting effect. Not that he’d ever been particularly robust anyway. True, he hadn’t been the stereotypical scrawny, bespectacled and pocket-protected scientist obsessing over his collection of tribble plushies. Like his med school performance, Alex Maddox had been average. Average height and weight, average build, average looks. Though Duke never would have guessed it studying the skeletal creature leveling a pistol at his weeping wife. He had been fastidious about his appearance—getting a haircut every 28 days without fail and only w
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Frozen in place and unable to turn away, Caitlyn watched the violence of the wild seizures as Tommaso thrashed on the hard stone floor. Each second that ticked away was a new horror as her potent chemical cocktail took effect. Within seconds, the man’s uncontrolled muscle spasms had pulled bones from joints or outright snapped them. His respirations turned into hiccupping gasps, shallow and forced and his skin flushed dark red from the fierce pounding of his heart.And then it was over.As a physician, she knew what the man’s final second had involved and she gagged, stumbling backwards a few steps knowing that she’d caused it. Catching herself with one slim hand on the edge of a lab table, she crashed to her knees and vomited. Like pulling the trigger of the gun aimed at Agent Richards, it had been too easy—far too easy to kill.She gave a weak sob, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Even with Duke’s words in her head, she knew that until she reached her foul captor’s ch
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“Knight 1. In position,” Jay drawled lazily through the comms, and Duke couldn’t suppress his grin. Both he and Jay were uncomfortable, but there hadn’t been time to develop a full-scale assault plan. At most, they might get twenty-four hours before Caitlyn was either killed or sold to another terrorist group. They’d already lost seven and half hours just getting to her location. They couldn’t afford to wait. A few seconds after, Dex’s acknowledgement hissed through his earpiece. “Knight 2. In position.” Ignoring the brief bursts of chatter through his comms, Duke reached for another handhold, and pulled himself up the sheer face of the cliff on the ocean-facing side of the stone fortress. A hot twinge of pain shot along his nerves from his shoulder, as the numbing medication wore off. He gritted his teeth against it, continuing his climb. Of course, they had the benefit of some of the most advanced surveillance equipment in the world, and arguably the most brilliant mind to opera
