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CHAPTER 1

Tick Tock Tick Tock The disturbing clatter whined inside Jaxon Trehed bitterly He didn’t kno long he’d been locked up in the dank little cell A week? An eternity?

Perhaps an endless dirt nap loolad It would be another endless ticktocking, except there would be no pained awareness, no crazed waiting for death to—finally? blessedly? regrettably?—come

Survived worst, he thought, trying to comfort himself

Once, he’d been shot and burned with a pyre-gun An accident during training, but his shoulder still bore the fire-seared scars Another tihed doith steel beari like acid down his throat, into his lungs When he’d ht his way free, he’d been surprised to find his skin still intact, lued to bones

Once, he’d been stabbed in the kidney A straight cut, all the way through, severing one of his favorite organs Foolishly, he’d turned his back on a suspect one second too long and adios, old friend

Sometimes that’s all that was needed One second

The words echoed in his ain, but the laughter soon turned to gagging and the gagging to coughing, the coughing to choking pain

“I’ insane,” he muttered when he calmed Not that the words were understandable “Tickity, tockity, tickity, tockity” How many more were left for him?

Couldn’t be many

Being an Alien Investigation and Reht dryly ’Cause when an agent needed help breaking his nasty breathing habit, he got help

Since Jaxon’s abduction, a group of aliens had whaled on him so many times he’d lost count They’d probably whale on hi at hih Yep Insane

The otherworlders had beaten him because he’d refused to answer their questions Even when screams had erupted inside his mind, loud and discordant,the screams, he shuddered Perhaps all the men and women he’d killed over the years had risen up, their souls fused with his as they finally made themselves known, determined to be heard at last

Now, at least, the screams were buried somewhere deep, replaced by that damn clock A small price to pay, he supposed

Unfortunately, his body’s suffering had only intensified

He’d been punched in the ue was the size of a baseball, so big he couldn’t even move it to ensure he was still the proud owner of all those pearly whites His nose was broken, yet so with the metallic aroma of dried blood and sweat His, a thousand others

His eyes were swollen, leaving only tiny slits Not that there was much to see Murky darkness failed to live up to its pro four barred walls, a plastic-lined floor to better clean any gore, and old-fashioned metal chains that continually sliced into his wrists and ankles like razors

Those chains rattled as he shifted to aMistake He winced as intense pain ripped through hiround to a tormented halt Several ribs were broken and any type ofhis lungs an i