"You left her?"Zephyr asked, glaring at Ajax. "What were you thinking?"

"That she would know what to do. Ididn't think they'd actually catchher!" Ajax argued. "She's the one who made me take the info soshe could free the citizens. I had no idea she didn't have a realplan for how to get out."

Zephyr drummed her fingers against the desk. "This is my fault. Ishouldn't have let her go. I should have convinced her not to."

Ajax shook his head. "She's the one who decided to go, that isn'ton you. Don't blame yourself."

"I'm her best friend! I shouldhave known she wasn't ready."

"Wasn't ready? This is Wren we'retalking about, Zephyr. If anyone can handle this, she can. Besides,I'm her brother. I left her behind, and that's my fault. The rest ofit was her choice, sodon't blame yourself. Right now, what we need to work on is how toget her out before they kill her... or worse."

Zephyr nodded and straightened in her chair. "Where's Shadow? Ithink he can help with this one."

"He's with Psychic. She came backthis afternoon," Ajax replied.

"Good. That's one less thing toworry about, at least. Maybe tell both of them to meet me here. Stickaround. We could use your insight."

***

She was still fighting. It had been fifteen minutes since he put thisnew subject under, and still she refused to give into the human'snatural instincts. She should have been crying in her sleep by now,scared to death. This reaction was new. Out of all his subjects, onlyone other had reacted in such a strange way. But still, that youngman had broken, and so would she.

The Interrogator watched herstruggle, sensing her desperation, her needto be free. He smiled. How disappointed she would be toknow that her pathetic life will likely end in this very room.

She was stubborn. Possibly the moststubborn subject he'd gotten. He had seen that in her eyes when theyfirst brought her. There was fear there, but it was hidden behind athick wall of determination. Still, no matter how hard or thick thewall, he would break through. The serum he'd given her was just thefirst step.

It put her into a medically inducedcoma, but for some reason, it also seemed to stimulate the brain'sfight or flight response, and he enjoyed watching how the peoplebrought to him for questioning reacted to it. Most gave in quickly,going from fight to flight within minutes.

But she was different than most. Shefought longer- refused to give in. That type of resistance usuallymeant that they would be harder to get information from, but with hisnew methods, he didn't think he would have much of a problem. Hesmiled as she tensed again, but his grin faded as her hand reachedfor the strap release. He frowned as her fingers brushed it, and thenfell back. Is she breaking the serum's grip on her mind?

She stretched her fingers and reached again, her hand bent at anawkward angle. She got a hold on it and fumbled with the release. Shealmost had it when he brought his hand down on hers and forced itback to the table.

***

A scream of frustration bubbled up inside of Amanda, but shecontained it, wiggling her fingers free of the tight grasp and goingfor the release again. The hand grabbed hers again and wrenched itback painfully, so she used it to distract whoever was with her andtried the same thing on the other side. The muscles in her handburned as she forced it up against the release. Finally, she feltsomething give.

She smiled and heard a muttered curse. Pulling her other hand free,she let out a punch in the direction she thought the person was inand felt it connect. An annoyed yell, definitely in a guy's voice,was her reply and she quickly released her other strap.

Despite her ability to move freely, she still couldn't speak or see.Irritation swirled inside of her and she tried to open her eyesagain. I can move the rest of my body, so why can't I open myeyes? A sound came from behind her, and she moved back, her bodyshifting out of the way on instinct. A hand grabbed her shoulder. Shepulled away, slipping out of the person's grip and setting her feeton the floor.

Something hit her head from behind, and her knees buckled. The peopleattacking her took advantage of the moment and pinned her arms to hersides. She struggled weakly against their hold as they picked her upagain and strapped her to the table again.

A needle pierced her skin, sending something cold and icy racingthrough her veins. Her vision came back, blurry, but there. Lightflickered above her, and she turned her head to see three menstanding behind a guy in a black suit. The man in the black suit seta syringe onto a silver tray and approached her. He loomed over her,a sinister smile on his face.

 "You're an interesting one," he told her. "I'll enjoy watchingyou break."

~~~

A/N: Something that I forgot to mention is that a lot of the characters from this book are tributes to some character that I never wrote books for (and a few that I did). If you've read my other books or some of my author's games entries, you might have spotted one or two, but if you haven't, I'd love to hear your guesses as to who might be a cross-over. xD