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She stayed up near the very top of the tank, just beneath the water line, attached to the wall, and made herself as small and as flat as possible There was always the possibility that she could die on a mission That was part of theadrenaline rush It was always about pitting her skills against an eneh, if she made a mistake, that was on her But thisPeter Whitney had deliberately injected her with a killer virus in order to ensure that she returned to hi a painful death to prove his point

He owned thee and experimented on Some died That didn't matter to him None of them mattered to hiybacking on the research he'd conducted on the girls Children with no childhood No loving parents She hadn't understood what that meant until she'd been out in the world and realized the majority of people didn't live as she did

All of the girls had discussed trying to break free before Whitney added theive hi the only life they'd ever knoas terrifying But this Leaving her to die in a foreign country because she was late through no fault of her own She had the infor her with a killer virus before she went on her et that infor to lose one of them in order to scare the others into compliance

So her She nearly jerked off the wall, blinking in protest against the bright lights shining into the tank Her sanctuary was no longer that The environone froly intense brilliant light illu the water nearly to the botto the floor and she shuddered in reaction

A second hook entered the water with an ominous splash as the first was pulled back up The next few hly searched with hooks along the botto there, he would have been torn to pieces

She relaxed a bit as they pulled the hooks back up to the top They would leave soon and she could make the climb out of the tank and across the roof Already she could tell she eaker, but she knew she could still cliet to the van where Whitney's supersoldiers waited to ad it to alethal

The hook plunged back into the water, startling her She nearly detached froed up the side of the tank while the second hook entered the water This wasbad She had nowhere to go If she moved fast to avoid the hook, she would be spotted If she didn't, the hook could tear her apart Either way, she was dead

The sound, nified underwater, was horrendous to her ears She wanted to cover the as the point of the hook dug into the side of the tank She watched it come closer and closer as it crawled up from the botto es in the wall

She tried to tiainst her body and signal to thepresent other than wall She pushed off gently and slid between the two chains, trying to swim slowly so that movement wouldn't catch eyes She stroked her ar the wall as best she could below the hooks If she could just attach herself on the path already taken, she'd have a good chance of riding this latest threat out

The advantage of going deeper was that the light didn't penetrate all the way to the bottoed into the water and sank Once she was deep enough, the soldiers above her wouldn't be able to see even if she didher

She'd an their upward scraping along the wall Once again she stayed very still, the sound grating on her nerves, her heart pounding as the huge hooks got closer and closer This ti scraped by either hook The dive took her lower into the tank She didn't see how they could possibly think anyone could stay underwater that long, and by now they certainly would have discovered a scuba tank

The soldiers were thorough, plunging the hooks deep and dragging the so much as a few inches of space Bellisia realized they had to have perfected thisit often Thatwas paranoid No doubt thesearched just as thoroughly

There, in the water, listening to the sound of the chains scraping up the walls, she conte and Whitney Both had far too much money Whitney seemed to need to take his research further and further out of the realovern aith it At least his h twisted, was to produce better soldiers for his country

Cheng wasn't affiliated with his government as far as she could tell He worked closely with them, but he wasn't a patriot He was out for himself He seemed to want more money and power than he already had She'd researched him carefully, and few on the planet had h for him Yet he had no family No one to share his life with He didn't work for the sake of knowledge He existed only to make money

Bellisia are of her heart laboring harder and the pressure on her lungs becoulp of air and she should have quite a bit of time left before she had to rise, but it felt as if she'd been underwater a little too long, even for her Of course Whitney would find soatively impact her ability in the water He didn't want her to use that means as an escape route

She had no choice but to begin her ascent She tried to stay to the side of the tank that they'd already dredged It was terrifying to be in the water as the large, heavy hooks slaain It was inevitable that she would be hit, given the many strikes the soldiersoff the wall to allow her body to rise slowly, naturally The hook hit the bottoht across her back She folded herself in half to h to jar her, even with the way the water slowed the big hook down

Bellisia felt the burn as the point ripped her skin open It was a shalloound, but it stung like hell and instantly there was blood in the water She had to concentrate to close those cells to keep froh blood that the soldiers would notice Under her skin she had a network of finely controlledthe look and feel of her body's surface skin Now, she used the blood into the water, at least until the spotlights were turned off

It sees burning and herAll the while the horrible splash and scraping of the hooks continued Twice she had extre her body, hitting her thigh, ripping her open It wasthis time, as she eaker and needed to break the surface before her muscles went into full cramps

She was relieved when the hooks were dragged froan to climb down the ladders back to the roof Instantly she kicked the reulps of air She clung to the side for several long ainst the hile she tried to breathe away the inferno inside her She couldn't keep doing this for Whitney She wouldn't survive HeShe knew she wasn't alone in wanting to es

cape because they all talked about it, late at night when one or two could disrupt the ca equipment and they were alone in the dorms

She had tried planning an escape with her best friend, Zara, but before they could attempt to carry out their plans, Zara was sent on an undercover mission and Bellisia was sent to ascertain whether or not Violet was betraying Whitney Whitney had set Violet up as senator, taking over when her husband had been killed Whitney didn't trust Violet, so he'd gone so far as to "pair" her with him That meant she would always be physically attracted to Whitney That attraction evidently didn't stop Violet froainst the man who had experimented on her

Bellisia began her slow climb out of the water tank She would have to dry off before she couldIf she didn't, one of the soldiers e Frohts, the platfor her body to change to the color of the dingy planks

She didn't dare sleep, not when soldiers still guarded the roof, but they see every place that could possibly hide a body over and over She realized the soldiers were as afraid of Cheng as she and the other women in her unit were afraid of Whitney Life was cheap to both men, at least other people's lives

She began her slon the side of the tank once she felt she wouldn't leave behind a trail Her body was hot now, so hot she felt as if her skin would crack open HerThat didn't bode well for crossing the roof, but at least it was very dark now that the spotlights had been turned off If she shook when a guard was close, hopefully the darkness would conceal her

It took her just under forty minutes in the dark, with her body on fire and herpainfully, to cliiven her was vicious, her fever high, her insides searing her For so ony, as if he'd developed the strain specifically for her--and he probably had That only strengthened her resolve to escape

She rested for a s and plan out her next step She needed the antidote i herself back in Whitney's hands She had no other choice Bellisia made her way across the lawn to the street where the van aiting for her It was parked one block down to be inconspicuous, one block ahich put it right next to the river

She was staggering by the time she reached the vehicle, and Gerald, one of the supersoldiers sent to watch over her, leapt out to catch her up and get her back into the van He placed her on a gurney and immediately spoke into his cell to tell Whitney she was back She closed her eyes and turned her face away, as if losing consciousness

"I need the information she has," Peter Whitney said "Get it from her before you administer the antidote Take her to the plane immediately Your destination will be Italy"