Leila of the Rogue [Book Four]

Status: Failed

  "Load it." I said into the mic while looking through the window to the next room where a cow was tethered a few yards from the weapon being loaded with a long serrated blade the Predators carried. "Clear the room." My hand hovered over the button in front of me, waiting for the two men to back away from the weapon.

  Pushing the button, the blade shot forward so fast that not even my eyes could follow the movement, only the spray of blood hitting the back wall. The blade had cut right through the cow and half embedded itself into the brick wall.

  "Looks like we're havin' burgers." I popped off. "Call the clean-up crew."

  "They were already on standby."

  "Perfect." I nodded and grabbed a pair of gloves before sliding them on my hands as I went into the other room. Going to the back wall, I placed my metallic fingers along a line of cement between the thick bricks. Drawing my arm back, I speared my hand between the bricks over and over again until I could just slide out the brick with the blade sticking out of it.

  Carrying the brick and blade out of the room, I went to take it to be studied and documented, but the lights overhead began to flash red.

  "Level 2 alert. Level 2 alert." The automated voice declared as the alarms blared.

  "Everyone, stay calm!" I quickly turned to the others, but they were already scrambling through the door to get to the panic rooms. "Shit!" I hissed, setting the brick down on a table before pressing a button to contact the bio lab. "Traeger! What the Hell is going on here?" Only screaming and gunfire came through the speaker, and I bolted.

  Sliding into my office, I slammed open my arsenal door and grabbed a gun and extra magazines of ammo. Running into the hallway, I darted around people while heading right for the bio lab. The closer I got, the louder the gunfire became.

  "All personnel, Code Orange. Code Orange. This is not a drill." The alarms were near-deafening, and I almost ran into Dr. Brackett.

  "Leila!" She gasped, her hands gripping tightly to a tranq gun. "It fucking woke up!"

  "Did he get his gear?"

  "What?"

  "Did the alien get his gear? From the table?"

  "Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

  "Shit." I hissed, looking up and down the now-empty hallway. "Listen to me carefully. If you want to stay alive, you will have to do everything I tell you to, do you understand?" Brackett nodded. "Good. Now, Predators have a device that makes them virtually invisible to the naked eye." I explained while walking down the hallway. "Thankfully, this guy didn't have his, and none of the display cases have one either."

  "Are you sure?"

  "They only have one cloaking device here."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because they don't. I'm the head of the weaponry department. I've made the most advancements to understanding the alien tech gathered here, and I know my shit by now. The only working cloaking device Project Stargazer ever managed to find- Well, let's just say I have it."

  "Wait, and they don't know about this?" Brackett grabbed my arm, forcing me to look at her. "Why didn't you tell them about it?"

  "Look, lady, I've been in the middle of war, I've seen the devastation from it. The government having control of this type of weaponry would cause nothing but chaos." I explained, going back to walking in the direction the bodies and blood led in.