Once we had returned to the control tower, we spent the next few hours planning our infiltration into the breeding facility. We would go in under the cover of potential buyers introduced by Scott as such, remaining on site while we try to gather information, and wait until we got a signal that the body of Amélie's rescue team arrived. Given they were all departing from various locations within the Americas, they would all arrive at different times ranging from a few minutes after our infiltration, to several days later. Scott had been the only one near the region at the time we arrived at the airport, and the next closest teams of rescuers were coming from New Jersey and New York State, respectively.

That was a lot of time to wait, under stress of potential capture, in a known enemy location...

Without Eveline.

The last time we were apart for any significant amount of time was after our break-up at Mary's Harbour, and yes, I call it a break-up. We have so strongly and irrevocably bonded with one another, and this has allowed us both to see what had been developing between us all along, a process that included Eveline undergoing imprinting since Dortmund, right up to finally completing the process in Dani's home. The last time, I was angry at her for what she had set in motion, not knowing at the time how she felt, what she was really afraid of, or the fact that she had desperately tried to correct her mistake before it got as far as it had. The last time, I wanted to get away from her to silence the pain and heartache it had caused me.

This time was completely different. This would be the first time the two of us were apart while being closer than ever to each other, in accord with each other, while connected through some strange emotional bond that I couldn't comprehend even being possible. We would be apart for an unknown number of days, but this time, we didn't want to be.

In some ways, it was going to be worse, but it was necessary to accomplish this mission.

As Caitlynne, Scott and I approached the small town of New Salem, the sun was rising into the sky. We had spent one night at the airport grounds, since planning had taken so long, and it would have been odd to arrive at the facility in the middle of the night.

Scott took us to the fire station building, where we saw six guards milling about, and two people emerge from within, seemingly off on some errand. Then they noticed our approach, and changed direction.

"Who are you?" One of them demanded, a man who had dusty-brown hair and a look of perpetual confusion. Like everyone else in this world, his body seemed to be in good shape, though he barely came up to my shoulder height. "This town is supposed to be abandoned."

His companion, a tall woman with a sharp, angular face and an incredibly thin and curveless frame, jabbed him in the ribs. She had a shaved head and a look of a serial killer with an intense gaze that bode ill for anyone who might offend her.

"Well, if this town is suppose' ta be abandon," Scott replied in a frosty tone, his accent suddenly broadening to a ridiculous extreme of Bostonian. "What are you doin' here?"

"We don't answer questions," the woman hissed in a heavy Southern drawl.

"Then it looks like we're at some kinda' impasse," Scott retorted, stopping and folding his arms. We all followed suit. "Your boss gonna be kinda' pissed though, he kept waitin' for our arrival. Can't say that'd go down too well for you!"

The woman gave Scott a frosty glare, then her eyes literally flashed green for a moment, before she folded her arms. A moment later, they flashed green once more, and she looked over at Caitlynne and I. "These your buyers?" She barked.

"What?" Scott shrugged his shoulders. "You don't like the look a' em?"

"It was a question, that's all," the woman sneered. "No need to keep up the hostility, Mister Quirke."

It was a monumental task to keep the surprise off of my face at that remark. I assumed that Scott would use a pseudonym for his interactions with the breeding facility staff, but the one he had selected was so pedestrian. Still, I hoped I'd managed it, as Scott replied to the woman.

"Look, lady," he sniffed. "Our time is valuable, you get me?" He waved in our direction. "We got other places ta be, so if you're not interested any more, just say so, huh?"

As Scott continued talking, the woman's eyes flashed green once again.

Did you notice the green flash of the woman's irises? I asked my nanocloud.

Affirmative. I have insufficient data to determine possible explanations at this time.

You think she has an onboard data network transceiver that she's using to confer with her colleagues? And what would we need to develop something similar?

It is a possibility, but I cannot gauge the likelihood of your assertion.

The possibility to develop a technology accomplishing such a purpose exists.

It requires either an external transmitter in close contact with the nanocloud, or the acquisition or development of a dedicated module for networking outside the nanocloud, in addition to the development of a substrate that will serve as a transceiver.

This requires Cybernetics Manager, in turn requiring Level 3 Nanocloud Hardware unit capability. There are approximately 278 Hours remaining for the Level 3 upgrade to complete.

Shit. More than 11 days before I could even make any hardware changes.

Well, the original plan was still in effect, so I dismissed it from consideration for now.

Another flash took place the same moment, and the woman frowned. "Right," she exhaled testily, waving us forward. "Someone will come and meet you in the reception area just inside that building. Don't go anywhere else until you got an escort, and get ready for an extended stay while we sort all of this out."

With that, she opened the door to the fire building, waved us inside, and then closed the door firmly behind us, locking us in.

I had my nanocloud send out a ping to the baton in my backpack, to check it could be reached. While I had the wrist-watch short-range transmitter fastened to my ankle (something that had required me to fashion a larger strap for it), I could use my nanocloud, through said device, to access communications devices outside.

The plan had been to infiltrate the building, hopefully get them to take us down to the breeding facility's cub accommodations, try to gather intelligence, and then hope that one of our team outside had managed to plant a relay transmitter near enough for my baton communicator to reach it, so we could send out what we had.

The plan seemed complicated by the presence of people who had nanoclouds already capable of communicating through means that were not immediately obvious. While I knew Laurent had access to this ability, I had no idea what the limitations were, or what that might mean for us in terms of trying to stay outside the notice of these breeders.

After several minutes, a rumble coursed through my feet, and began to reach my ears. It sounded an awful lot like an elevator mechanism, and it grew louder over the course of the next two minutes, until a floor grate I had paid no attention to was pushed open as a cage lift appeared, occupied by two strong, well-armed meatheads, and a third man who looked nondescript, like a junior FBI agent might look in the movies.

I don't know, I had no idea what these guys were meant to look like.

All three of them stepped off of the lift and approached our group, the nondescript man approaching closest before speaking. "Mister Quirke," he nodded to Scott. "Good to see you once again, though you seem to have brought guests. Who are these people?"

"The buyer I spoke of during our previous conversations," Scott told the man, gesturing to Caitlynne's tall, Amazonian form. "This is Genavié. She's set up something in Nova Scotia-"

"Stop," Caitlynne interrupted Scott. "I don't discuss private business with strangers."

"Dude, relax," Scott went for a placating if frustrated tone, as he turned to Caitlynne, who now had her hands crossed, giving him a frosty glare. "I'm not giving any details-"

"I don't discuss any private business with strangers," she hissed, glaring at him.

Scott stood back and held up his hands.

"You two should get a room and work it out," the nondescript gentleman told them both, then gestured to me. "Now who's this?"

"Name's David Sewell," Scott began, and like we rehearsed before, I cut in immediately.

"Shut the fuck up," I hissed. "I also don't give out anything to people I don't know."

The FBI looking man looked at me, eyes narrowing. "Your accent suggests you're an Englishman. What's your story?"

I shrugged. "Been here a long time. Even if that were a crime, I don't see it as any of your business. Do you comprehend?" I imbued all the condescension that my parents would have used on wait staff in restaurants as I could into my tone. It was about the only thing they ever taught me that was proving useful here.

"You certainly got the fucked up 'better-than-you' attitude," the man sneered at me.

"And I suggest you leave it at that," I sneered right back. "I'm here to assist and advise these two here, and don't bother asking for details. I'm saying nothing."

The sneering glare the man gave intensified for a moment, until his expression resumed a disdainful, disinterested resting state. "Whatever. It's not my job to tell you how to live your lives, just make sure you're on the level. With that being said, any of you carrying weapons?"

"We're not idiots," I sneered. "So yes, we are. Don't bother trying to take them from us."

In anticipation of what I suspected would be coming next, I instructed my nanocloud to simultaneously lock itself down while looking for ways to launch an intrusion action into anyone who tried to touch me in any way.

Nanocloud secure. Standing by for code injection.

"Someone who likes to play hardball, huh?"

"Someone who isn't fucking moronic enough to hand over the only means he has of dealing with anyone who might stab him the fuck in the back," I growled. "So fuck off."

For a moment, the man glared, then tilted his head to one side, and the meathead next to him strode forward, grabbing me by the throat, squeezing tightly enough that he would have started choking me had I not had nanocloud reinforcement of my muscles and bones. As it was, I had a part to play, so I started making choking noises, clawing at his hands with reduced strength, while looking wide eyed at the man. At the same time, my nanocloud got to work.

Contact made. Injecting nanocloud to foreign host.

Injecting 100,000 units to establish control buffer.

Foreign nanocloud has engaged.

Providing reinforcements in response.

Because this was a foreign nanocloud whose units were not appreciably different from my own, I would not have made much progress with any assault of his physiological systems in this way, but I only needed long enough for the code injection to do its work.

Examining data broadcast of foreign nanocloud units.

Protocol established.

Report pending on security hardening.

Injecting intrusion code into foreign nanocloud.

Standby...

Success.

Retrieving data from host synaptic nodes.

Transferring...

The meathead seemed to buy the dying choking act I was putting on, as he grinned at me. "Not so ballsy now, are ya?"

"Alright, I think he got the point," the nondescript man interjected, and the meathead let me go.

Alert: Contact lost. Data connection interrupted.

I dropped to the floor like a stone, falling to my knees, coughing as though I was trying to get air into my lungs. My nanocloud reported slight bruising in the areas where I had been grabbed, but I was otherwise fine. I also received a notification which I would read later, while we were alone, because the nondescript man was speaking once more.

"I won't ask again. Hand over your weapons," he growled. "Now."

Deliberately, I made a show of both struggling to get to my feet and putting up a token resistance, before taking out my two combat blades from their holsters and dropping them to my feet, the hardened steel clanging against the concrete on the ground.

"You know I meant all of them," the nondescript man glared at me.

It was always a long shot, I realised, as I unclipped my backpack, taking out the combat knife I had deliberately put inside it specifically for this eventuality, dropping it to the floor as well. If they picked up the combat knife in my backpack, they had to have at least a minimum of metal detection, and the knife was hopefully a distraction from the radiocommunication baton that was inside, sitting inert, without any power whatsoever. They wouldn't know what it was without me to be there to activate it.

"Play me one more time, and I'll just have these guys slit your throat and leave you out to the wolves to feast off of," the man glared harder still. "I said everything. Now."

With a deliberately petulant sigh, I reached down and unfastened the tiny holstered blade at my ankle. I'd never trained how to throw one of these blades, so it would have been useless to me, anyway. Once it was loose, I tore it off and tossed it away, before rising to stand once again.

"Good," the man sneered before turning to the others. "And you two know I didn't just mean him, so let's go." He waited as the others divested themselves of backpacks before tossing their own weapons away, though they didn't have the number of blades I did. Again, this was by design. "Whether you get them back or not depends on whether you try to fuck us over while staying with us." He then turned to Scott, then to Caitlynne. "Let's get inside to discuss your requirements, shall we?"

The lift took us down. My nanocloud confirmed by monitoring the speed of the lift and the sensory awareness it obtained through my body, that we had descended ten metres below the ground, at which point the lift opened, and we emerged into a corridor that reeked of disinfectant, the paint on the walls, while clean, was starting to fade and show the wear and tear of daily usage. This place must have been operating for a considerable amount of time.

We were led to a room at the end of the corridor, and as we walked, my nanocloud catalogued everything that was happening around me that my hearing was picking up. Several of the rooms were occupied, some of the occupants in some of the rooms never spoke a single word as we passed, but their footsteps were heavy. Guards or heavy-footed workers of some sort? A few of the rooms had occupants, but their footsteps were light, suggesting they were either young, bare-footed, or both. On a few occasions, I heard the gentle whimper of a child drowning in misery, and my heart gave a painful thump.

Conversations taking place in some of the rooms ranged from potentially useful intel, to downright disgusting attempts to groom one of the cubs we all had to know were kept here.

It was all I could do to keep my face neutral, and not reveal the intense hatred that coursed through me at the handlers in this place.

Eventually, we were escorted into an ante-room, where we could talk business with the people running this place, and I kept silent while the others spoke. This gave me time to look over the data my nanocloud had collected in the last minutes since arriving in New Salem.

Mapping data parsed from stream.

Internal layout available.

1 new function discovered.

The internal layout that my nanocloud parsed had given me an almost complete layout of the common areas of the facility, including where they kept the cubs, where the cubs would be brought to meet any potential buyers, where they would be taken for torture or to be executed if they were deemed unsuitable, and where the bodies were disposed of. There was also information about some genetics labs, incubation pods, early-years nursing zones and medical exam rooms, presumably all for bringing hybrids into existence in the first place. Some of the doors led off into zones that the particular meathead who had siezed me by the throat had never visited, including a doorway marked staff quarters, and a set of offices that were sited at the end of the genetics labs, away from living cubs.

Whoever managed and ran this place, likely didn't want to be near the fruits of their efforts. It meant I would have to somehow get to those areas if I wanted the information stored there.

Still, what we did get was enough to determine a layout that our people could use to breach this place and get the cubs out. Right now, I just had to sit on it while we waited for an opportunity to discuss the plan privately and make our next moves.

I checked out the new function that had been provided to me.

Heat Exchanger Provides capability related to heat transfer either in or out of host body when interacting with surrounding environment. Power requirements for this functionality are significant. Requires Level 3 nanocloud, heat-conducting materials in nanocloud units and in host extremities for direct manipulation, and nanocloud electrical storage capacity. Baseline Allows heat transfer to regulate warmth and cooling more effectively within the host. Capable of drawing heat from any external source within convection or direct-contact range of host. Level 2 or higher nanocloud AI can also perform the same task for any direct-contact living organism whether that organism has a nanocloud or not.

It was a useful function, and one that would come in handy on the trail, but seemed to have little utility while we were in here, and I had no access to it until I could implement the Cybernetics Manager and upgrade my epidermal layers to allow this kind of heat transfer. I shelved the idea for now, and I would come back to it later.

Several minutes passed while the others discussed our business here, but I was astonished when I was asked by the others if I wanted to go on a tour of the facility. I didn't, but I knew it was a good idea for surveillance purposes.

"Sure, where do we start?" I gave a shrug.

So it was, that we were taken to tour the residential areas of this lab, shown around the sleeping quarters of the cubs, and then had some of them paraded in front of us like cattle. It was all I could do not to sneer at the captors, and as I listened to their tactics with these youngsters, I found myself growing angrier by the minute.

The first cub who was brought in was a sullen-looking tiger-cub who reminded me of a young Eveline, a physically-immature little child whose musculature was still developing and growing, with a short head of white hair, a slightly-elongated snout that had less human and more tiger about it, light brown cat-like eyes and tiger-like ears mounted atop the head. Like Eveline, this one had retractable claws in the fingers, and probably the toes as well. Unlike Eveline, this cub was male. I had no baseline for guessing his age, but I doubted he could be any older than ten years, given Eveline's experiences and how few cubs were ever maintained for longer than that. He also had the steely look of someone who refused to bow to anyone, and while I marvelled at his strength of character, I felt saddened that he would likely be targeted for abuse, possibly even execution, if we weren't here to get them all out.

Once he had been presented like a fucking prize bull to us, he was escorted out, and another was brought in. I saw this cub, and my heart nearly shattered.

This one was a lion cub, a full head of golden hair, extending all the way down to her back, a regal affect about her, like a lion, and a full furry golden coat. She was so much like Amber from Eveline's time, I couldn't help but feel an affinity for her.

The disdainful look we all got from her told me that she was very close either to being disposed of, or was likely to be punished for being independent. I'd wondered why they continued to try to make lion hybrids like this one, if those lion hybrids were so incapable of being "domesticated" for their customers, and yet here she was...

And wasn't Eveline a fiercely independent, strong-minded example of the failure of these breeding facilities to try and control their kind of people?

The others that came through were all a blur, ranging from foxes to squirrels, with a few canines brought in for us. Once that was done, we were escorted back to the ante-room we were shown, and sat down to discuss our options. At this point, I wanted to know more about the tiger and lion cubs who had been brought out for us.

"Can we discuss buying one of either the lion or tiger cubs we were shown earlier?" I asked Caitlynne, who frowned at me. "I think I'd be interested in one of them, they looked... Adequate."

I shivered at my words, feeling violated by the pretense I was engaging in.

"How about it?" Caitlynne turned to the nondescript man who had brought us here. "Can we discuss giving those two a more detailed examination?"

"Well, at this point," the nondescript man told her. "I think our handlers should get involved in this discussion, and we can have them take over at this point. Excuse me, Ms Genavié?" He then left the room for a moment, and Caitlynne rounded on me.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" She asked in a hoarse whisper.

"We're being recorded," I told her in a quiet whisper. "I don't want to tell them what I intend to do with one of those two."

Anyone listening to that statement could take it to mean any number of things. Thinking the worst about me as a person would possibly lead the listener to think I wanted to speculate on things I could do to one or both of those cubs, whereas someone who knew me well would likely speculate that I was looking at a way to talk to those poor kids to see if I could find a way to make our mission easier. I deliberately left it vague for that reason alone.

Caitlynne nodded, but spoke aloud. "I'm not buying something for your personal use," she sneered, looking away. I touched her elbow gently, at which point she hissed at me and withdrew it. Hopefully, she got the message I'd sent her. "Seriously, just talk to me first before you make any selection."

I nodded to her once.

A few minutes later, I was escorted by a handler in casual clothing to a holding area that looked like a kids' play area. It also had the same traffic light signal system that I'd seen in Eveline's memories. It gave me enough time to formulate a message I'd hoped to be able to pass along to whichever cub was escorted into the facility, and I took a few moments during our walk here, to decide what I needed to say to make our point, to put the cubs on notice, and to get them to be ready, while keeping it to themselves. Passing messages like this was a relatively common function for many of us in the outside world, though not universal mainly because it was also mostly superfluous. In places like this, I imagined the cubs never even knew this was possible to do with their nanoclouds.

The message, transposed into memory engrams by my nanocloud, nonetheless resembled instructions to seek out other cubs, transfer the message to them, and wait for my signal. It also gave subtle cues on what to do to avoid detection by their handlers.

Hopefully, it would be enough, because by now, the tiger cub had been brought in for me to examine. He came in to the room, propelled by a gentle shove.

"Sit down, Eighty-One," the handler told him.

He did, and he glanced at me warily. I could scarcely blame him.

"So here, we have a specimen which has potential to grow up strong and fast. We've been breeding them carefully to ensure that canine-derived imprinting is quick and guaranteed," the handler told me, as the young cub glanced at him with clear hatred in his eyes. "There are still some tweaks to be made, so this one may not be the best example, but if-"

"That's fine," I interrupted the handler, before turning my attention to the cub. "So, they call you Eighty-One?"

"I'm not Eighty-One," he almost hissed at me, looking frostily in my direction.

So much like Eveline, it hurt to think these cubs would be punished for the crime of standing up for themselves, and I could see the frown on the handler's face, as he spoke.

"Now, we've talked about this, Eighty-One," the handler began. I had to sit back and watch as the handler sidled up to the young boy. "You're to be nice to the people who come to visit you. What were you taught about this?"

The young cub glanced in the handler's direction, then looked off toward the wall.

"What were you-" The handler started again, but I decided to intervene. There was only so far I was willing to go in keeping up a charade, and letting these people browbeat their charges excessively was borderline.

I remembered that I still had a part to play here, so I didn't push too hard. "Let me," I told the handler, and before either he or the cub could stop me, I touched the cub on the shoulder, initiating the burst transfer of data and hoping that the young tiger processed and understood it without giving anything away to his handler. "You don't mind if I talk to you, do you?" I asked in a gentle tone that might have been used by anyone looking to disarm the youngster for any number of reasons.

At the same time, my nanocloud had amended my message to him to essentially tell the cub play along. Don't react negatively. Help is on the way for all of you, but we still need a few days. Keep resisting, but don't make it obvious, or your handler will become suspicious.

Whether or not this was going to work effectively was entirely a guess on my part, given that the only two people I had ever known capable of transferring memory engrams to others was Johanneke back in Eindhoven, and Dani in her home with Rosalie, and only Dani was a master with the process. While it seemed to work with Caitlynne earlier, we didn't have a chance to discuss the information I'd sent her, given we were under constant surveillance. Thankfully, it seemed to work, because the boy's expression, while still wary, was somewhat less hostile.

"Touching the subjects is not permitted," the handler ground out, and I wanted to rip his throat out for the hypocrisy. "Until you have signed the ownership papers, they remain our property. Keep your hands to yourself unless otherwise directed."

I glanced back toward the boy, who stood stock still in the middle of the room, frowning at both of us.

"Fine," I sighed. "I need to discuss this with my colleagues, anyway."

"Right," the handler said flatly. "You want to see the lion cub, still?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

A few minutes later, the tiger cub was removed and taken back to his cell, and the lion cub was escorted in to replace him. Her regal bearing was obvious for all to see.

"So here, we have another specimen which has potential to grow up strong and fast. She might be better suited to a combat role than a pleasure one, but once again, we will guarantee the swift imprinting of her personality once you have completed the transaction," he turned to her. "Go ahead, seventy-eight."

She looked at him with what might seem like royal disdain, before her gaze slid back to look at me. "You're not like the other that came here yesterday," she said quietly. "He stank. You don't, and I don't know why."

I know why, I thought with sadness and anger.

Her expression narrowed, but she said nothing, her claws suddenly extending.

With quick thought, I put both hands up and instructed my nanocloud to prep the next burst transmission, as she launched herself in the air and at me, colliding with me and wrapping both hands around my throat, about to tear it out with her claws.

The burst transmission completed in the same instant those claws pierced my skin, and my heart was pounding at how close she had come to killing me in that instant, her expression fierce, but her claws withdrew in an instant, and she scrambled back from me, huddling in the corner of the room, her expression fearful.

I could see the hints of remorse in her expression, and a curious understanding behind her eyes. Something told me she understood my intent better than my message conveyed, and while she was shaking in the corner, clearly fearful of the consequences of her actions against me, she held herself together as best she could.

"Sorry about this, Mr Sewell," the handler told me, his expression murderous as he glared at the lion cub. "Our specimens are not meant to behave like this. I'll have her disposed of-"

"That won't be necessary," I interrupted him. "You said she was intended more to be a combat model, right?"

The handler frowned at me, then back at the cub. "Yes," he admitted.

"Then I'd say she just proved how effective she is at launching into an attack. I've never seen anyone move so fast in my life!"

I was laying it on a little thick here. Eveline was faster, but she was also an adult, trained, and had years of combat experience in the wild, but this young cub had the potential to be utterly lethal. Anyone who took her on as a combat specialist would indeed have a deadly weapon in their employ.

But I wasn't here to turn her into a living weapon for my own use, and if the handler really knew my intentions, I'd probably be as dead as this cub would have been had I not intervened.

"There was no threat, and no instruction was given to attack a target," the handler began. "This one's clearly defective-"

"I beg to differ," I interrupted the handler once again. "I actually tested her, by engaging her threat responses to my presence." I looked back to her, urging her to play along and reveal nothing about what I had transmitted to her during our brief altercation. "This is why I was brought along to this meeting. I know something about how to analyse a threat or potential in others, and I know how to trigger it."

This was a complete lie, of course, but the handler fell for it anyway.

"Fine," he sighed. "Fine. You want to spend time evaluating this one further?"

"I do," I told him. "Can you get us set up with a training and practice room for a few days?"