Page 52 of Unnatural (Men and Monsters #2)

Mark rubbed his hands together, the warmth of the fire easing the cold from his bones. He looked across at where Autumn and the man she’d introduced as simply Sam sat staring at him cautiously.

How familiar this was. Yet how apprehensive he still felt. He’d experienced a buzz of excitement driving here, knowing he was likely about to meet one of them. But he never knew how one of them was going to react. Or behave. Or…accept.

Sam. His name was Sam. And he was tall and big and muscular just like all of them were.

Only Sam’s looks had surprised him. While most of them shared the same linebacker build—at least thus far—Sam was different.

His hair was an unlikely shade of white, while his skin was tan and his eyes almost black.

His coloring was very unusual to say the least. Something had been done to him, and though curiosity drummed within, so did dread.

Mark almost didn’t want to guess at what had been used to achieve such a thing or the justification behind it.

“First, I want you to know, I’m not here to arrest you, detain you, or anything of the sort. I’m hoping for your cooperation because I’m looking for the truth, but I’m also here to offer you the help I believe you need.”

“Help us?” Autumn asked. Sam simply stared.

“Yes. I’m prepared to give you temporary housing and any protection you might need while we sort all this out.”

“Even though we didn’t come forward after the shooting?” Autumn glanced at Sam. She was obviously choosing her words carefully, though Mark sensed she was more concerned about him.

Autumn leaned infinitesimally closer to Sam.

Mark wondered if she even knew she’d done it.

And it eased his worry, because from what he knew of this girl, she was rational, and she was beloved.

It had to mean she had more than a modicum of good judgment.

And she’d obviously deemed this man worthy of her affection, if not more.

It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was a good start. And far better than he’d had with the others. Excluding Jak, of course, who had had Harper. And it’d made all the difference. Maybe it would in this case too.

The muscular man sitting next to her looked as taut as a wire. And Mark could see that if he threatened Autumn in any way—not that Mark was planning on that, quite the contrary—Sam would react swiftly and probably violently.

They were all wired differently. From each other but especially from other, more average humans. Yes, Mark knew Sam would fight if he had to. After all, he’d been trained to do so.

“I understand why you didn’t come forward.

And before I ask you to trust me, to be honest with me, I want to be honest with you.

I work for a task force dedicated to finding those who have been unwillingly and sometimes unknowingly enrolled in a program that seeks to create…

super soldiers for lack of a better description. ”

Mark saw Sam draw back slightly right before he caught himself, stilling completely. Yes, that had gotten his attention. Autumn glanced at Sam and then back to Mark. She wasn’t overly surprised either. Sam had already confided in her—at least some of it. Good.

“Unwillingly…” Autumn murmured.

“Meaning it’s done when they’re babies…or children.

The first man I found in this program is named Jak.

I’ll tell you a little more about him later.

Since Jak was rescued, the task force has located two additional groups.

There were only five survivors, all of whom…

didn’t adjust well to outside life and have subsequently been institutionalized.

” He looked back and forth between Autumn’s and Sam’s rapt expressions, thinking about those poor souls he’d just mentioned.

Didn’t adjust well. There was a whole world included in that description, but he didn’t have time to go into it now.

He could tell by the way Sam’s eyes had widened when he’d said it though that the man had some concept of what he alluded to.

Mark had left his weapon in the car so as not to pose any threat.

But Sam likely had one somewhere close by that he would use at a moment’s notice and with the skill of a trained professional if it even became remotely necessary.

But he was digesting Mark’s words, and he was obviously attached to the woman sitting next to him.

Both extremely positive signs. There had been one success story, and God, but he hoped for a second.

“How did you find them?” Autumn asked.

“I became interested in a series of crimes where each perpetrator had several of the same defining qualities as the men in these programs. To simplify, they were all large, strong men who appeared more like athletes or soldiers than the typical criminal element. Flimsy evidence at first, I realize, but the more I looked into the situations and the accused, the more I became convinced these men were who I thought they were. Eventually, they led back to the groups I mentioned.”

“What sorts of crimes did they commit?” Autumn asked, suspicion creeping into her tone.

Mark looked at Sam, who remained still and silent. Mark had the impression he already knew the answers to the questions Autumn was asking. He appeared neither surprised nor curious, simply stoic.

“They varied,” Mark said. “Mostly shootings. A stabbing. The other thing that made the crimes similar was that they occurred during a time that was extremely advantageous to someone who was facing a major scandal in the news cycle.”

“There’s always a major scandal in the news cycle,” Autumn noted.

“Seemingly so. But not all are willing to pay the price to change public focus.”

A flare of surprise widened Sam’s eyes before his shoulders sank as if with understanding.

He leaned back slowly against the couch cushions.

Autumn glanced at him, worrying her lip again as she focused back on Mark.

“Willing to pay…” Autumn all but whispered.

“Are you saying someone instructed the men in these programs to commit crimes in order to take the spotlight off them?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Oh,” Autumn breathed. She paused, giving Sam another worried glance, but he remained staring straight ahead. “So…you think the school shooter was…hired to do that? To…distract from whatever else was in the news?”

“Or was about to be in the news,” Mark said.

“Something that would ruin a career or many careers. It typically works. At least to turn the focus away long enough that the person or persons can come up with a lie or take the pressure off for various reasons.” To scrub a database, hide evidence.

The list went on. “Is it possible, Sam? That the man who shot those kids that day was used as a false flag operation?” He wouldn’t ask Sam about his own involvement in any program, not yet.

He’d let Sam come at this from a safer angle, if he even chose to do that.

Sam’s big shoulders rose as he took in a breath and then fell. He looked at Autumn for several long moments, and whatever decision he was making was obviously based on her. When he looked back at Mark, his expression was stark, stony. “Yes…it’s possible. I didn’t know the why.”

Mark let out a deep, slow exhale of tension.

In answering that question, Sam had just answered a few more.

Mark could see very well that Sam knew that too.

He might be a singularly focused thinker in some ways—they had to be by design.

But this man was also very obviously intelligent.

However he’d come to the decision, Sam had decided to be honest with him, to accept the help.

Likely to offer the woman sitting next to him some protection. Thank God.

Mark let out a deep breath as he went back over Sam’s words.

The men and women in the program weren’t told the why of their missions, just the how.

They’d been trained not to ask questions.

They were training you the way they train suicide bombers, he wanted to tell Sam.

With conviction and to believe that their purpose was righteous.

And he would tell Sam this when the time was right.

But information overload, especially of this magnitude, had to be doled out slowly. Carefully.

He didn’t know what Sam had already realized on his own and what he had not.

“What was the shooter’s real name?” Mark asked.

“I believe the man whose identity they used was a patsy. A man with few contacts who worked from home. He likely had an undiagnosed disorder that made him extremely averse to social interaction. That’s been a similarity in these cases too.

” The killer in each false flag operation thus far had died at the scene, but their “identity” hadn’t held up.

And eventually, after following several related leads, Mark’s task force had located the two groups he’d spoken of.

While there hadn’t been any happy endings, he took comfort in the fact that the people he’d rescued were now safe, as was society from whatever crimes they would have been sent to perpetrate.

“Wait, are you telling me the body they took from the crime scene was not the shooter?” Autumn asked, massaging her temple.

“Not necessarily, but I think his identity is false. They likely killed the real Jason Leads. Whether the body in the morgue is the actual shooter’s or was switched out is anyone’s guess.

It’s a vast enough network that I’m sure they could pull off something like that.

It’s a cartel of sorts. There are copious amounts of money involved and many levels of participation.

As far as the members themselves, they are people who believe they’re working for a greater good. There’s little they won’t do.”

Autumn blinked rapidly a few times, then looked at Sam. She opened her mouth as though about to ask a question but then shut it, looking helplessly at Mark.