Read Online Perfect Mate by Mina Carter - Free Book Online

needing to sleep, eat or drink, she could keep this up for hours. Fitzgerald, however, would need to break at some point, if only to piss.  
    The colonel sighed, as though he’d guessed from her blank face he wasn’t getting anywhere. Hallelujah, he might actually possess some brains after all .
    “Okay, moving on. We have a situation that needs resolving. Sergeant…if you would, please.”
    One of the silent men in the room moved forward and spread a map over the table. As paranoid as a conspiracy theorist, the Project didn’t trust computer networks and Internet link-ups. No, given the sensitive nature of the project they’d gone old-fashioned. Paper files couldn’t be hacked into and spread over the Internet at the touch of a button.  
    Antonia snorted inwardly. Made sense—there was no way the government wanted the civilian population to know about experimentation on its own people.  
    “Okay, this is St. Mary’s…” Fitzgerald announced as he stabbed his finger at an area on the map.  
    She leaned over the table slightly to get a look at the area he pointed to. A small estate set near what looked like a town. One road in and out, with forest and mountains to the east. Automatically, her tactical training kicked in. As a target, it was a good one to attack. She could already see the terrain in terms of troop movements and battle areas.  
    “It’s the nuthouse we send the dogs to if they freak out. A furry funny farm.” He laughed at his own joke. Antonia wondered how far she could bury his pen in his brain if she shoved it through one of his baby-blues.
    “After all, no one gives a shit in there. Half the patients are convinced they’re the President, and the other half Santa Claus. Compared to that, any stories of werewolves will just get them labeled nutjobs.”
    She nodded but didn’t offer an opinion. As tactics went, it was sound. Use the system. It worked, until the lunatics ran the asylum.  
    “Something went wrong, though.”  
    It wasn’t a question, but a statement. She made sure to keep her tone level, neutral, so no inference about her personal feelings on the matter could be made. She didn’t look at Fitzgerald. Instead, she reached out and turned the map around to study it closer.  
    “Yeah…we think so,” the sergeant spoke up, placing a clipboard on the table next to her. She pulled it toward her. It was an activity record. All project facilities kept in constant contact with headquarters. Hourly calls were made and received so that if the shit hit the fan, HQ knew within sixty minutes.  
    “No contact for an hour and a half? What’s this here?” She pointed to a slip of paper clipped on the top.  
    “It’s a remote alarm. Belonging to Dr. Walker. As soon as it was triggered we tried to initiate contact, but we haven’t been able to raise anyone at the hospital.”
    She nodded. All her personal feelings about Fitzgerald and anyone else in the room melted away as duty took over. Antonia Fielding was first and foremost a soldier.  
    “Just Lycans on site?”
    “From us, yes.”  
    The silence after the sergeant’s sentence was telling. Antonia looked up, her expression sharp and her eyes like a hawk’s. The man shifted uncomfortably.  
    “Who else?”
    “It’s a general mental health facility as well. There’s a civilian wing as well as an open wing.”
    She blinked once, slowly, and tried to figure out whether she’d really heard what she’d just heard. Or whether the Project really was stupid enough to send unstable Lycans into a facility with an open doors policy.  
    “An open wing? As in the patients can come and go at any time? And there are LY16 infected personnel there?” she asked, giving the Lycans their proper name and trying to avoid any hint of What? Are you fucking crazy? in her tone .
    The sergeant gave her a blank face, but, unlike everyone else in the room, Antonia wasn’t limited to the human senses. The sergeant’s discomfort with the