The Tiger's Mail Order Mate (Paranormal Shifter Romance) (17 page)

Anna gulped and held the light as steady as she could, while Sonja inspected Russell’s back for embedded glass and wooden splinters.

“Ah, found one,” she said as she grasped a shiny piece of glass with her fingers and pulled. Russell let out a sharp hiss of pain as the sharp object was removed from his flesh. “And another,” Sonja continued to pull out the debris from Russell’s muscular back while Anna held the light steady.

The process took the better part of the day; just to make sure not a piece was missed. “Did you make sure you got your...?” Sonja asked motioning to Russell’s buttocks.

“Yes, I stood in front of the mirror and got it all. It was difficult, but I got it all,” he replied.

“Good,” Sonja said as she dabbed the area with antiseptic that Anna had found in the bathroom. Russell winced as the astringent burned the fresh wounds. “Lucky you don’t need stitches,” she said. “The bleeding will stop on its own eventually. It’s best to let them bleed for a bit anyway to clean out whatever bacteria are in there.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to get tetanus,” Russell replied.

“Thought you’d be up to date on your shots,” Sonja teased.

“Ha ha, funny. Yes I am, even rabies,” Russell replied sarcastically as Sonja dabbed up the blood flowing from the wounds.

The blood stopped flowing after a few minutes and Russell put his shirt back on. “I’m pretty tired, I’m gonna head upstairs and get some sleep,” he said.

“I’ll be following you up in a minute,” Sonja replied. “Still no funny business. We don’t want to leave any more DNA lying around if we don’t have to,” she said.

“I understand,” Russell replied. The fact he couldn’t have sex with her kind of stung him, but he understood the reasoning.

Anna understood what they were implying. “I’ll sleep here on the couch. I don’t want to go back to my old room. I got what I came for,” she said as she nodded towards the backpack near the trap door.

“All right,” Sonja replied as Russell stood up and went upstairs. His muscles were tense and she could tell that he wasn’t taking her refusal very well, but she wasn’t going to let him guilt her into it. “Goodnight, Anna. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll finally get to testify,” she said as she walked upstairs.

“Yeah, g’nite,” Anna replied as she grabbed her backpack and flopped down on the couch. She reached down, unzipped her backpack, pulled out a book, and opened it up to read. She held the flashlight in her teeth so she could have adequate lighting. It reminded her of her years in the house, reading was the only solace she had during the years of bouncing between foster homes. The Hoffmans didn’t want her to read, so she had to hide her books between the drywall and insulation in her room. She was so glad to revisit her old friends once again.

The sun set outside as she flipped through the pages of her fantasy novel. Eventually the battery in her flashlight died and she put the book down and went to sleep.

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Anna startled as the trap door opened and one of the large silent guards climbed through. “Sonja, Russell?” she called out, “I think it’s time to get going now.”

Sonja and Russell came down the stairs, bleary-eyed and exhausted. They had been going full tilt since they left the cruise ship in Tahiti, and it was catching up to them. They picked up their bags in silence and climbed down the stairs that led into the tunnels below.

Anna followed as the silent man gestured for her. They wound their way through the gloomy tunnels until the silent guide stopped and opened up a manhole cover above.

He climbed up the ladder and looked around and motioned the trio to follow him. As they peeked out, blinking their eyes in the bright sunlight, they saw the blurry form of a black SUV waiting for them.

“I guess we’re finally going to the Security Council,” Russell said as he climbed in. Sonja followed, but as Anna tried to get in, the large, mute guard blocked her way, shaking his head and pointing at another vehicle.

“I guess you have to go somewhere else. Don’t worry; they’ll take good care of you, Anna,” Sonja said with a sad smile. “Hopefully we can see each other again.”

Anna looked sad as she walked towards the other SUV. “Yeah, hope so. See ya around,” she replied as she tried to keep up the tough facade. She got into the vehicle and shut the door trying not to let them see her cry.

Sonja closed the door to their SUV and wondered silently what would happen to Anna. The Dragon had her now, so it was just a matter of what they needed her for.

The SUV pulled away from the rendezvous point and slowly made their way through the narrow streets of Nuremberg on the way to the building where the UN Security council was meeting.

Russell and Sonja got out of the car and were ushered into a discreet side entrance by the large, mute guard who escorted them. The side hallway was dimly lit and silent as they made their way to the room in which they would wait until they were called in.

The room was furnished with a pink couch and a bare wooden coffee table with an assortment of German magazines laid out on it. In the corner there was a standard black art deco floor lamp and on the pink wall hung a painting of the French Alps.

Sonja sat down on the couch and flipped through one of the fashion magazines. Her jeans were getting worn in the knees and butt and were almost torn through. Her white shirt was stained and dishevelled looking.

Russell’s clothes weren’t any better. His black shirt had holes in it, and his jeans were ripped at the knees and butt. He looked like he had been through hell and back. Neither one of them were fit to stand in front of all the world’s politicians and speak.

“We look like shit,” Russell said as he looked in the full length mirror that was hanging on the door.

“Yeah we do. But there isn’t anything we can really do about it. Maybe it will give us a little more sympathy. Being chased all over the world, escaping death at every turn,” Sonja said with mock suspense.

Russell laughed. “You have a point. Man the least they could have done is given us some food,” he whined.

“Yeah, but this is the UN we’re talking about, we might be in and out in short order, who knows?”

Russell flopped down on the couch and grabbed another magazine. He was restless and just wanted to get this over with. Sleeping next to Sonja last night without any kind of sex didn’t help matters any.
What was wrong with her, what was going through her head?
he thought.

Sonja sat and looked through the magazine in silence after putting the wall up between hers and Russell’s thoughts.

What if she was pregnant?  She couldn’t just move off to the middle of nowhere after that. Wow, what would the baby look like? What kind of abilities? She really didn’t want to find out, but it was probably a little too late for that now.

The door opened and an older Japanese man in a well-tailored suit motioned for them to follow him. “Hello, my name is Mister Kamui Orochi, if you would please follow me to the meeting, I would surely appreciate it.”

Sonja and Russell stood up, and the tension between them was obvious. Orochi did not want them splitting up under any circumstances, nor did the Dragon. “You will tell the truth about everything you know as you are questioned.” He said as they stopped before two large wooden doors.

“Is this where the famous Nuremberg trials took place?” Sonja asked.

“Yes, yes it is. Fitting is it not? You will not know what punishments that will be imposed on your home countries. Once this is over, you will be taken to a safe place and given amnesty. No one knows where you will be.”

“Thank you, and our apologies for not being dressed properly.”

“Don’t worry about it. It just adds credence to your story,” Orochi said as he opened the large wooden doors. “Now, you have to speak slowly so the interpreters will have time to translate for those who do not speak English.”

“All right,” Russell said as he stepped through the door.

The room was large and there were fifteen people sitting at the tables closest to the witness stand. In the judge’s seat was the current head of the Security Council.

“Please, step up to the witness stand,” he said.

A bailiff came up and placed a bible on the witness stand and swore them in. “Now let’s get started shall we?” the judge asked. “Now, I will be asking the questions, and the council will listen to the answers. I will also field all questions they may have, is that understood?”

“Yes, your honor,” Sonja and Russell answered simultaneously.

“Good. Sonja Fedorenko, you used to work for the KGB, is that correct?”

“Yes. I had twenty years of faithful service to my country,” she replied.

“It says here you are only twenty-six.”

“Da. I was taken into custody at age six after the Chernobyl disaster. So I count those formative years as being in service to the Soviet Union, and after that, the Russian Federation.”

“Understood. Ms. Fedorenko, what made you choose to leave the KGB?”

“When I went to the Crimea peninsula to assassinate the president of the nationalist forces down there, I came upon some intelligence that the Russian Federation was continuing to engage in human bio-engineering despite signing the United Nations treaty.”

“What kind of bio-engineering?” The judge inquired.

“Splicing human and animal DNA into an ovum that is carried by a human surrogate to term. These ‘splicers’ could change into their animal shapes at will. Many women and babies died while Russia perfected the technique. I was assigned to one as a handler, but we did not bond. Yuri was a good friend though, but the way splicers deal with the shape change can be aggressive for lack of a better term. He got too aggressive with me and I requested a reassignment. Anyway, Russia continued with these genetic experiments, they planned on decimating the Crimean peninsula then the rest of the Ukraine. Killing off the men, and male children, and enslaving the women to carry splicer babies to term, it is all in the SD card that has been provided.”

“Excellent. Now Russell Kahn, please tell us about yourself.”

“I am former Major Russell Kahn of the United States Navy SEALS. I had ten years of faithful service in good standing before going AWOL.”

“Why did you go AWOL?” the judge asked.

“Because I found out that Sonja was in trouble. I was tired of being controlled by the military as a freak weapon.”

“Why do you say that, Mister Kahn?”

“Because, the United States of America had also engaged in genetic engineering, at first to keep up with the Russians, and now to co-operate with them, I am the only living result of the United States experiments.”

“Can we have some proof?” the judge asked.

“If you don’t mind, I need to disrobe first,” Russell said.

“Permission granted.” The judge seemed skeptical but went with it.

Russell took off his ratty clothes and handed them to Sonja. He concentrated and the whole room gasped in horror and disgust as he changed into a tiger before their very eyes.

The sight of his bones changing places under his skin, the fur growing in the same pattern of stripes that adorned his dark skin and his bulk grew larger was revolting. After a minute and a half, there stood before the United Nations Security Council, a large, orange and black striped Bengal tiger where Russell used to be.

Everybody in the room except Sonja was wide-eyed in shock and awe. People theorized that the melding of human and animal genomes could be done, but all tests have failed, except this one, and apparently a few others.

The judge coughed nervously. “Very well, Mister Kahn, if you could please change back so we can continue on with the proceedings, that would be very much appreciated.”

Sonja reached down and pushed the button to administer the adrenal suppressants that allowed Russell to change back into human form. “That is why the need handlers,” Sonja explained. These people have their adrenaline suppressed in order to maintain their humanity. The adrenaline suppressing medication transforms the adrenaline into testosterone. There are only male splicers for this reason.”

“Well that answers that question,” the judge said as Russell returned to his normal form in an equally horrifying display as his prior one. Russell pulled on his clothes in silence. He really hoped Sonja would sleep with him tonight. Changing without sexual release isn’t the way to win him over.

“Russell, tell us about your early life if you can,” the judge asked.

“Well, I barely remember my mother. She was dark skinned and Indian like me. Well I’m American, but she was from India proper. I remember living on the streets somewhere hot and very smelly. Almost like we lived next to an open sewer.” Russell straightened his shirt. “I found out later my mother was a dalit. One of the untouchable class, so the American government was able to kidnap her without anyone knowing or caring. No one cares about the dalit in India,” Russell said. “They got her pregnant with me, and she managed to carry me to term and not die during the labouring process. She couldn’t bear for them to experiment on me, so she fled. She had no money for a plane ticket home, but somehow she managed to get one. Sonja told me they usually take the babies from the mothers to prevent bonding. So they can be better at killing,” Russell said with a sardonic smirk. “Well, I managed to develop empathy and I’m still very good at killing.”

The judge cleared his throat nervously. “It says here you were in the Crimea at the same time as Sonja.”

“We never met until I contacted her via the internet through a mail order bride website.”

“Sonja, did you complete your objective in the Crimea?”

“No, I did not. When I got on scene, the man was already dead. Mauled by some beast. I noticed his computer was open and I downloaded all the files I could. He was about to send them to wiki leaks. I decided to hang on to them and blow this thing open legitimately.”

“Good choice,” the judge said. “Sonja, approximately how many women and children would you estimate died during these experiments, both Russian and American?”

“Well, I would have to say at least five hundred if not more between nineteen eighty-three and now.”

“That is a considerable amount.” The judge leafed through some papers. “Now, Mister Kahn. What kind of experiments did they perform on you while you were in US military custody?”

“Just the basic physical fitness stuff. They took blood samples, EEGs, EKGs, and the like. Nothing super brutal. If they did do any kind of surgical exploration, I had proper anesthesia.”

“That’s good. Do you know about the women though?”

“I doubt they had any kind of pain relief or anything of the sort when they were giving birth. I do remember my mother screaming out in her sleep. ‘If you’re going to cut me, please knock me out first, please just...’ then she bolted awake and held me tight while she sobbed,” Russell’s jaw clenched at the memory.

The judge questioned them at length about varying details in what they knew about the experiments. The other members of the Security Council also had many more questions that needed to be answered and the couple stayed in the meeting room until late in the evening. Mister Orochi escorted them back to the green room after the intense questioning was over.

“You made many enemies today with your testimony,” he said in his deep baritone voice.

“We made them when we decided to speak out,” Sonja replied.

“Yes, I know. But let’s just say The Dragon and the Orochi group will be keeping a good eye on you in the future. You are now considered untouchable to the other groups.”

“And that means?” Russell asked. The term untouchable meant something completely different to him.

“They cannot try to kill you anymore. You’ve given your story; the butterflies have been unleashed now we see what storms they will stir up,” Mister Orochi replied. “You may follow me. The SUV is waiting outside to take you to the airport. You’re free now.”

“Where will we go?” Sonja asked.

“Well, wherever you wish. Just say the word to the pilot and you’ll be taken to wherever you want to go, just remember it’s where you will be staying for the rest of your lives.”