Page 17 of Tracking the Alpha (Project Therianthrope #1)

Chapter Eleven

Tanis did her best to find out more about the facility, only to get stymied. When her meeting with the major ended, and she exited the room, she had nowhere to go other than outside. The doors she could see remained closed, and she didn’t dare try to open any lest someone catch her.

The electronic watching eyes on the perimeter of the compound also posed a problem, not just in her mission to find out more but in contacting Barrett.

She couldn’t exactly call, email, or write him a letter, which didn’t leave her many options.

Would it look suspicious if she went for a walk in the woods?

Probably, since she’d told the major she planned to freshen up and firm up her plans for capturing the wolf.

She couldn’t exactly hold up a sign or shout.

Flashing a mirror to deliver a Morse code message would have probably been the solution in a movie, but she didn’t know the alphabet and had to wonder if Barrett would either.

Then again, what would she say? About a dozen people counted.

That was it. She had nothing to tell, no wondrous revelation, no sudden inspiration on how to extricate them—and those that might be prisoner—from the situation.

So why the determination to make contact?

Because she felt uneasy being alone inside enemy walls?

Because she wanted to see him? Because, despite all her brave words, she didn’t want to do this alone.

While eating her box lunch in the courtyard—a meal delivered by one of the soldier’s she’d seen before—a woman, in a white coat with square features and red-framed glasses perched on the tip of her nose, came looking for her, making the number of people she’d seen an even twelve.

“You must be Tanis Rivard. I’m Dr. Lindt. Major Stevens says you encountered the escaped project?”

Tanis swallowed the bite of her apple before replying. “I did.”

“If you’ll come with me, I’ve been asked to debrief you about your experience.”

“I already spoke to the major.”

“You got the basics. I’d like to speak to you more in-depth.”

“There’s not really much to tell,” Tanis replied.

“That’s for me to decide. Follow me, please.”

Without a real choice in the matter, Tanis ended up back in the main building sitting across from Dr. Lindt, who asked question after question and didn’t seem to care if Tanis could actually answer.

Who found who? Did the wolf track you, or did you stumble across it? How tall did it stand? What color was its fur? Eyes?

All things she should have already known, or so Tanis thought. Did it attack? Obviously not or she’d have injury. Describe its den . What techniques did you use to hunt it?

“You say the wolf didn’t touch you at all?” Dr. Lindt glanced up from her tablet, glasses perched so low they appeared ready to fall off.

“No. We never came in contact,” Tanis repeated for the umpteenth time, really hoping the woman couldn’t detect the lie.

“Not even a droplet of saliva? A brush of its fur?”

The query brought a crease to Tanis’ brow. “No, but I have to ask why you’d even care. The wolf I saw didn’t appear to be carrying any disease. No frothing of the mouth or signs of mange.”

“Just standard questions for people who come into contact with test subjects.”

“Does it carry something contagious?” Tanis boldly asked, suddenly wondering if perhaps the werewolf thing could be transmitted.

“Of course not. And even if it were, it would take a bite at the very least to infect, but you weren’t bitten.” The gaze lasered in on Tanis as if she could get her to admit something that didn’t happen by sheer force of will.

“No bites. No licks. No nothing. Was there anything else you wanted to know?”

“I think that’s enough for now. You’re free to go.”

“Thanks.” Tanis rose and was headed for the door when Dr. Lindt added, “The major says you’re planning to bait using livestock.”

“A hungry wolf won’t be able to resist fresh meat.”

“Did the major tell you that they’ve already tried that tactic, only to have it fail?”

Tanis paused with her hand on the knob before glancing at the doctor. “No, he didn’t mention that. How did it fail?”

“The wolf took out those watching and left the tethered lamb.”

“I see. I’m surprised you’re telling me this.”

“I’d like for you to succeed, hence the warning so you don’t become its next meal. After all, if you die, we’ll be not only without the subject back where it belongs but also searching for a new hunter to capture it.”

“I don’t plan to fail.” The truth of sorts since Tanis didn’t clarify what winning looked like.

As she exited a room simply labelled with a number three, she caught herself eyeing the elevator at the end of the hall.

Like the main door, it required a scan of a face to operate.

She saw no sign of stairs, and imagined if any existed, they were likely behind a locked door or also secured like all the other important entry points.

If only there existed a way to disable the electrical security measures, the most obvious being, of course, shutting off the power, say by taking out the pole and hydro line bringing it in. However, a place like this most likely had backup generators that would kick in.

As Tanis exited the main building—her people-count at twelve since her meeting with Dr. Lindt—she ran into Wet-behind-the-ears carrying a ladder and a cloth.

“Hey again. You saving a cat from a tree?” she joked.

“Camera lens cleaning. A bird shit on one, and now I get the fun of cleaning it.” He grimaced.

“Yuck.”

“Very gross,” he agreed. “And I gotta go do it ASAP since Jasper is shutting off the power to the cams in like two minutes.”

“Why shutting it off?”

The young soldier half turned to reply as he headed for the gate. “So I don’t get electrocuted. Last week, Harry got zapped when he was up there cleaning one off after a raccoon got to it. Chewed through a wire and zap .” As the soldier laughed, he added, “Harry was jittery for hours after.”

“Do the cameras get damaged often?” she asked, keeping pace with him as he exited the gate.

“The outside ones seem to piss off the wildlife for some reason. It’s why we keep a box of spares so we can swap them out.”

Interesting and it gave her an idea. It would take until dark before she could implement it, though, so she spent the rest of that afternoon gathering items to fashion a slingshot.

Rocks were easy to find. Getting on the barracks roof?

Not so simple. The upper loft, which would have given the easiest access, had soldiers playing cards.

Outside the barracks, she took a moment to look around for any cameras, but to her surprise, nothing pointed at the converted barn or main building.

Guess they weren’t worried about the soldiers inside.

Tanis hugged the structure as she circled it, looking for the drain spout coming down from the gutters.

It didn’t look strong enough to hold her weight.

Annoying. Nothing around offered the height she needed to catch the lip to the roof either.

For her plan to work, she needed height and line of sight.

As she went to re-enter the barracks, the three soldiers who’d been upstairs exited, still buttoning their jackets.

“Where you off to? Another training exercise?” she asked.

“Major is holding a briefing,” said the only female of the three.

“At night?”

“He calls the shots,” the grumbled reply as the trio headed for the main building.

The sentry remained in his spot, though. Didn’t matter. Tanis would never get a better chance.

She hightailed it up to the loft and exited from the window on the rear of the building where the sentry couldn’t see.

She’d thought it odd they had only the one guard posted to the front, but as she climbed onto the roof and took a good look at the rear of the fenced property, her eyes widened.

A bright spotlight illuminated the area and showed a high wall topped in barbed wire and an empty platform.

On the inside of the barrier, a wide but shallow trench filled with metal spikes and what appeared to be broken glass.

Anything coming over the wall from that direction would be sorely injured.

Brilliant but savage. Also a major clue because the fact they’d used traps instead of a sentry seemed to indicate the general might not have access to as many people as feared.

On light feet, Tanis crouched low and made her way across the roofline ridge to the front of the barracks.

Did Barrett linger nearby? She sure as heck hoped so since she did this for him.

She had a uniform bundled in a weatherproof sack ready to be tossed at the tree line.

She’d have to be fast though. Race outside while the sentry was distracted and the cameras offline, get close enough to the woods to fling her package, and race back, hopefully without being spotted. If anyone saw? Her ass was grass.

You’d better appreciate what I’m trying to do. Her gaze went to the forest past the gate, a dark blob that could have hidden an army—or a watching wolfman.

She shook her head. She’d not come up here to stare at shadows.

Tanis pulled out her slingshot, armed it with a stone, lined up her shot, and let it rip.

The cameras had been placed high off the ground, on poles that rose above and slightly away from the walls.

Easy target for someone like her who’d been slinging from a young age.

The stone soared and hit its target with a plink . She crouched low and waited. Had she hit it hard enough? If yes, and she’d broken it, how long before it got noticed? Would anyone bother to fix it at night?

The answer came shortly thereafter. A soldier trotted from the main building carrying a ladder. Tanis didn’t stick around to watch, though. She ducked back into the barracks and headed down to the main level, seeing as how she’d learned everything she needed.