Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor (19 page)

He sighed and looked back to the
ceiling. “I’ve never been in charge of an expedition where the
soldiers under my command weren’t Recon Marines.”

“
Kory and Andy do their
best. Don’t be hard on them.”

“
I’m not criticizing them.
I’ve nearly gotten them both killed and today it was you and the
other doctors I endangered.”

She sat up, tugging the blanket around
her chest when his gaze dropped to her breasts. This was too
important to allow his distraction. “Andy and Kory were injured by
their own acting without forethought. And who could have guessed
that they’d have a poisonous gas hanging in their halls? And that
it would still be potent?”

“
I should have considered
it. And I should never have allowed my men to be in position to
make a mistake.”

“
Are all the Recon Marines
so arrogant?”

Mak frowned. “I’m not
arrogant.”

“
Then you’re a
god?”

“
What?” He sat up too,
folding his legs so they faced each other on the narrow cot. He
tugged the pillow around and covered his lap with it since she had
the single blanket.

“
You’re the almighty one,
protecting us mere mortals, seeing the future, omniscient to all
possible threats and dangers? All powerful?”

“
No. I never said
that.”

“
That is what your words
imply.”

“
You civilians twist
words.”

She put her hand on top of his. “Mak.
I’ve been doing some reading on psychology and I think I understand
your distress each time we search a new lab.”

“
I’m not
distressed.”

“
I know why they bother
you. You’re wondering about your humanity.”

He opened his mouth but clamped it
shut without saying anything.

She enfolded his hand in both of hers.
“Not being perfect is part of being human. Regretting injuries to
other people is being human. Worrying about those you’re
responsible for is being human. Making mistakes is being human,
Mak.”

He tugged on her hand so she fell
against his bare chest. With an impressive show of strength, he
rolled her beneath him, the blanket sliding off the side of the
bed. His hand cupped her breast. “And what we’re doing now, doctor?
Is this being human?”

She slid her leg up alongside his.
“I’m not sure. We better test it.”

****

Mak retrieved the blanket and drew it
over them. Molly sighed and snuggled closer to his side. Her
breathing evened out as sleep reclaimed her.

He lay awake, thinking about what
she’d said. She made it sound so sensible but it was more
complicated than what she learned in her psychology studies. Those
monsters and freaks they’d encountered could have been him. How
could he think himself better than them? Would one slip up in the
lab have made him and his brothers into cannibals?

The speed and fluid grace of the
monster on Julian had reminded him of his brothers. And how much of
the horror endured by those men had led to the science behind the
creation of the Recon Marines? Had some of the same scientists
worked on both programs? He felt no hostility toward the poor men
they’d encountered, not even the one who’d murdered those poor
villagers and eaten human flesh.

Molly was wrong. He had been careless.
In both instances when his men were injured, it could have been
prevented if Mak had been alone. He wouldn’t have set off the bomb
that injured Pender. And Box would never had been in reach of the
monster. From now on, Mak would do a complete reconnoitering of
their target before any of them left the ship. He would be the
first and only one through the door.

Probably Molly would have some more
psychological theories about that, but he would endure any number
of lectures as long as she remained safe. That such a woman of
superior intelligence, a woman of science and medicine, would work
to convince him of his own humanity almost made him believe it
himself.

From what he’d read of Molly, she was
the premier genius in the universe, the smartest woman anywhere.
Certainly smarter than he was. And she thought of him as human. Did
she make her judgment from a scientific viewpoint or something less
factual?

He tightened his arm around her but
not enough to wake her. A lesson he’d learned from Acacia was that
a woman could share her body with a man without loving him. Sexual
intercourse didn’t equal love. A woman could walk away from a man
and never look back. He’d learned he had little understanding of
what love felt like.

Molly surprised him constantly with
the way she understood him and interpreted his words. He felt more
at ease with her than any person other than another Recon Marine.
By studying psychological writings, she strove to understand him
even more. She treated him so naturally without any of the
awkwardness many civilians displayed in the presence of the Recon
Marines. But he must not place too much importance on her attitude.
She was a person who pursued knowledge just for the sake of
learning, wanting to know everything. Like he did.

His body yearned to join with hers
again but she needed sleep to recover from the poisoning. She was
physically strong and as courageous as any soldier. Everything
about her seemed perfect.

Mak knew he’d done more than disobey
the general’s orders. Not only hadn’t he kept a physical distance
from Molly, he’d gone far beyond that.

A new dread had been added to this
hellish mission. When it ended, Molly would have no more need of
his presence.

Chapter Eleven

Molly woke alone in Mak’s bed when the
cleaner chirped. Her neatly folded clothing sat on Mak’s desk
chair. None of his warmth lingered beside her so he must have risen
a while earlier. But what was in the cleaner?

She stood up, grimacing against
soreness in unusual areas. Unusual for her. How long since she’d
lain with a man? More than a year. Two? So long ago that she
remembered no details. A colleague probably, celebrating a
discovery or mourning a failure. And giving her none of the
satisfaction of her time with Mak. Her multiple times with Mak. Her
giggle sounded loud in the empty room.

After a quick shower she pulled on her
crisp clothing. Curious, she checked what the laundry cleaner had
just completed.

Mak’s armored clothing. He would only
have worn it if he went back into the lab facilities.
Alone.

“
Arrogant man.” She
stomped up to the bridge but found it deserted. Only Pender
occupied the lounge, glancing up from his sandwich.

That left the lab. Mak, Andy and
Hector stared at the screen on the wall. Mak looked at her over his
shoulder, the only one who heard her enter. His dark gaze swept her
body, and his mouth quirked into his half smile.

Molly wasn’t in the mood for his
charm. “Did you go back there alone?”

His eyebrow went up and his smile
withered. “The plan was for me to enter alone and sterilize the
building.”

“
With the small portable
we carry onboard? You would have to walk end to end slowly. It
would take hours.” What if the gas had overcome him while he was in
there alone?

“
Two hours and seventeen
minutes.” Mak gestured at the screen they’d been
watching.

Molly noticed what filled the screen
and decided to finish their discussion in private. Chemical
analysis equations streamed back and forth. She wasn’t a chemist
but she understood the science of toxins. Using gas in warfare
against humans had been banned for centuries. But everyone knew the
military still had a supply of the poisons and the means to treat
those exposed to them. As a physician, she’d studied the known
weapons. But the chemical compound on the screen looked like none
she’d seen before. “What is it?”

Mak shook his head. “It’s a class six
nerve gas with a hydrogen delivery system. I’ve never heard of it
being used even against hostile wildlife.”

“
Why would they have it
here?” Andy asked.

“
It kills quickly. Their
previous experiments had taught them to beware their creations,”
Mak said.

“
Holy hell,” Hector
cursed. “You think they released it on purpose because they lost
control?”

Molly saw the conflict in Mak’s eyes
so she answered the question. “We won’t know until we get in
there.”

Mak nodded. “I opened all the doors to
let it air out. I’ll run a scan from the ship, see if it detects
any remnants of the gas in the atmosphere. Then we’ll all go
in.”

****

Mak hated this lab more than any of
the others. Perhaps because of all the bodies they had to step over
and around. Soldiers and civilians. Pender found the lab recording
vids and worked to sync it to their more modern system.

Not all the experimental soldiers had
died in the training room. Two had been in the medical lab section
where Mak’s group had encountered the poison gas. Molly collected
data from the computers around the lab while the other doctors
searched the offices. Box monitored the air quality on the portable
toxin detector. Mak had insisted they all wear gloves and
protective clothing. Even the scrapings from the bodies could be
contaminated and required careful handling.

“
I have it, sir,” Pender
called.

Mak and Molly joined him as he started
a vid rolling on one of the dusty screens.

“
It’s a movement activated
setup. I uploaded everything saved on it, but this segment is from
the last hour before it stopped.” Pender adjusted the focus and
added sound. He split the screen, half in the lab and half on the
training room. The audio came from the lab.

Muscular men wearing only skin-tight
shorts practiced hand-to-hand combat against each other in the
training area. Their bodies rippled with thick muscles as they
performed graceful feats of strength and agility. Their size
appeared nearly uniform and though thicker in muscle mass than the
Recon Marines, they could have been their cousins.

Mak forced himself to watch the lab
vid where a dozen doctors or scientists worked at computer
stations. Two soldiers sat on exam tables, two doctors working with
each one. A cart between the tables held at least a dozen syringes.
The doctors applied their contents to the soldiers, some in the
biceps, others in the thigh.

One of the female doctors spoke to one
of her fellows. “I think we should back off on the testosterone.
They have enough muscle, and we’ve seen less emotional control
during their sparing matches.”

“
We need them aggressive
and fearless,” the other doctor answered.

“
They’re already
aggressive, and there’s been three reports of defiance.”

“
They’re talking as if
those two soldiers aren’t right beside them and listening,” Molly
whispered.

Mak remembered being treated the same,
like a piece of inanimate equipment that had no feelings or
investment in what was being said about him. But on the screen he
saw the tension in the soldiers’ muscles. Their cold stares
followed the conversation back and forth between the
doctors.

“
They were professional
soldiers before this,” a male doctor snapped. “They’ll do what
they’re ordered to do when they’re told to do it. They’re nothing
more than loaded guns, and we’ll be the ones pulling the
triggers.”

The soldier moved so fast that his arm
made a blur on the stream. He ripped the throat of the doctor and
blood spurted forth in a crimson spray. The other soldier
backhanded the female doctor in a casual show of strength that
threw her across the room. On the other vid feed, the soldiers in
the training room attacked the scientists monitoring
them.

The lab erupted in chaos, the wounded
man running for the door and stumbling out of view. Mak figured him
as the dead man they’d found outside. The door between the lab and
the training room appeared to be locked, keeping the majority of
the soldiers away from the doctors in the lab. One of the civilians
working on a computer slapped on an oxygen mask and then reached
for a flashing red button.

Mak pointed it out on the screen for
Molly. “Fail safe. They were afraid of them.”

A few other civilians managed to put
on their masks but not all of them. A fine mist sprayed from the
ceiling of the training room. But the soldiers didn’t go down.
Instead fury spread through their ranks in a wave. Two of them
picked up a strength-training machine and tossed the heavy piece at
the windows. The safety glass cracked, a web that spread across its
expanse. Both sides of the screen showed different angles of the
disaster.

The two soldiers in the medical room
had turned on more of their handlers, throwing them about and
tearing off their gas masks. More of the civilians tried to reach
the door and escape, but the soldiers blocked them. Something else
crashed into the glass, creating a ragged hole. The civilians
without masks crumbled immediately as the poison seeped into the
room from the training area. Screams cut off with gagging and
coughing.