A Different Kind of Animal

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Big Ben stuck a Band-Aid over the deepest of the punctures in his neck from where Leo had grabbed his throat, scowling at his reflection in the mirror above the employees’ bathroom sink. Why was he so easy to overcome, like the kid had said?

“Getting too old for this,” Ben muttered, angrily turning the faucets and causing water to spray onto his shirtfront as it bounced off his hands. He cursed, turning the pressure down and scooping up a handful to splash on his face and through his short dark hair.

Feeling only slightly better, Big Ben continued to stare at his reflection, noting the old scars on his face that had once served as a fuel to his anger. Now they seemed insignificant, compared to all his new ones.

All he’d wanted was revenge. A challenge. A chance at the greatest hunting trip of all time: a genetically modified freak with super-senses. Ben had thought that he’d be able to outsmart Leo by putting the kid out of his element. He’d wanted to make Leo piss his pants with fear, and get a chance to beat on the kid without the boss there to hold him back. And, maybe, earn the boss’s decision to just kill the kid after proving that Leo was too much trouble to keep.

That’s what Ben had really wanted: to show the boss how risky it was keeping an illegal project under wraps. To make him realize how worthless Leo was—how useless. After all, you couldn’t use a super-soldier when you weren’t supposed to have built one in the first place. What was the boss going to do? Just let Leo grow old and die inside the basement of GenLabs without ever having seen the outside world? Or was the old guy planning on revealing Leo at some point to the military gods, so to speak?

Sighing in frustration, Ben turned to leave, right as the door opened and Dr. Roberts came in. The younger man’s eyes widened in surprise, which quickly turned to fear. He acted like he wanted to turn right around and leave when Big Ben said, “Come in and lock the door.”

Roberts hesitated, still looking as if he’d like to run in the other direction. Then, thinking better of it, he shut the door. But he didn’t lock it. Good enough.

“Have you heard anything?” Big Ben asked, using his best tough-man’s voice.

The doctor shook his head, then stopped, then nodded.

“What?” Ben demanded.

“I want—I want to turn in my notice. Get a new job. Get out of this place.” Roberts looked around, his eyes full of anxiety as he stared at everything except Big Ben’s eyes. “I was about to, but General Jameson came into the computer lab and cornered me. He said I couldn’t leave until he’d talked to me and—and—”

When the doctor stared around wildly, his mouth moving wordlessly, Big Ben prompted him to finish with an impatient gesture of his hand.

Dr. Roberts cleared his throat. “He said that there were only three people whom Leonardo has never met, and that they were the prime suspects right now. I’m one of them. The other guys are just the security guards. And from the way he was looking at me, I think I’m the prime suspect.” The younger man’s voice rose as he continued frantically, “You shouldn’t have made me do it. I’m the obvious suspect! I’m the newest member of the team, and he’s going to get me to confess eventually.”

“Is that so? Why don’t you just waltz right up to the boss right now and let ’im know it was me?” Ben asked, eyes narrowed into threatening slits.

Dr. Roberts cowered back for a moment, but then he squared his shoulders and jutted his chin out defiantly. “Maybe I will. In fact, I’ll go do that right now.”