DISCLAIMER!!! Yes, I stole these characters from HB, even though I promised to give them back. I'm not going to!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! {gasp pant wheeze} What? They can *sue* me? Oh. Well, in that case, I guess I'll give 'em back. sigh. And here I was going to donate them to this ml. The cats--Kit, Dana & Colin--are mine, as are January & February Fiztgerald. Risk is up for grabs!

Lost in Shadows ch 6

"I don't care who they are, I want them dead."

She watched her boss as he paced along the wall that was simply one giant window that looked out over New York from the nineteenth floor, cellular phone to his ear.

"Listen, get the other Quest and the Bannon, get me my operatives back, kill the Quests and their friends."

Silence. Then, "I don't really care how you do it! Put them on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic with a broken radio for God's sake! Make it look like an accident, and make sure it's not linked to me."

Silence.

"No, you'll get the two kids first. Use the family as bait. My cats are being re-conditioned? Good. Use them to kill the kids. Trap the kids, kill the kids, whatever. Do it."

He snapped the phone shut with a flick of his wrist and turned, smiling at his secretary, violet eyes pleasant.

"Your fiance is here to see you, sir," she said briskly.

His grin widened as Alicia walked in, a delightful sway to her hips. "Alicia, dear, what did I do to deserve such a visit?"

***

"How is the re-conditioning going?" Beeker asked, wiping his hands nervously on his black pants.

"We put the three of them in three different cells, each cell a simulation of the wild. They have had very little human contact for the last few days. We thought that if we were able to get them to revert back into a more animalistic form it'd be easier to train them."

Beeker shifted his glasses up his long nose and stuffed his hands in his lab coat pockets. "How's it working?"

"The man cat, I believe they were calling him Colin, is reverting nicely. Being forced to hunt for food helped. The girl is taking a little longer to revert, but she's getting there."

Beeker waited, then when the man said nothing more he looked up at him. "Well? What about the third?"

Hunt licked his lips. "The handlers want permission to put him to sleep." For just a minute he thought that his supervisor's eyes were going to actually fall out of his head. But the small man got a hold on himself and calmed somewhat.

"No. That's out of the question. He's my greatest accomplishment! More animal then human, graceful, silent conscienceless, the perfect killer!"

"But that's just the problem! He's slaughtered two of our men, put another one in the hospital. He's getting harder to catch and control with every passing day. He's so feral we never know what he's going to do! And the men have orders--your orders--not to hurt him. They're getting killed."

Beeker thought about it for a minute, then sighed. "All right, tell them they can do what's needed to subdue him. But no killing!"

Hunt nodded and left.

***

Jonny grinned. This was the little cabin Feb had said she had in Big Bear? It was huge! One room was devoted entirely to computers, another nothing but books. One was for movies, one a gym, three different bedrooms, fully furnished (one for January, one for February and a guest room), a fire place that engulfed one wall and a kitchen--complete with a cook who got the house to herself most of the time in trade for silence about the people and things brought here.

"C'mon, lets get on-line and see if we can get some idea about where your folks and my sister might be," February said, rushing them all up the stairs.

"Do you have three terminals?" Jonny asked, his voice eager.

"Of course!"

***

Benton watched with trepidation as they untied Hadji, gun to his head, and let him eat. Once done they'd tied him back up, and moved on to Risk. She was heavily sedated, just as Race was. There wasn't going to be any help from them. Only five of them left. Benton took a deep breath. He prayed Jonny was still free.

***

He moved silently, using the shadows as cover. They thought they could hide from him, that they could get him easily. He'd show them. Just wait.

With a silent launch he leapt up, grabbing a branch with powerful arms and pulling himself up easily. Standing, he balanced on the wood, watching as the humans walked around below, searching for him. He hated humans. They were all evil.

Something tickled the back of his neck, a remembered scent . . . a girl? He shook his head. Couldn't be. He hated humans. They liked to be mean, didn't want him for anything other then to beat him up and play with his mind. They were horrible, nasty, smelly--he yelped and fell as something shot between his shoulder blades, knocking him off the tree. He twisted as he fell, landing on his hands and standing up quickly. He leapt forward, his claws slicing smoothly into a human. The human screeched and fell, then another stepped up and smashed the barrel of a rifle against the side of his head.

"Stay down, you--"

Kit hissed, then reached up for the humans neck. He'd kill him. He would. He could taste the blood already.

Someone else kicked his ribs, and he curled instinctively.

"Stay down! So help me if you even think about getting up I'll kill you!"

From the observation room above, Beeker flinched as another man brought a gun down on the kitten's head. He rubbed his temples. This wasn't a kitten any longer. This was a full blown predator. They'd almost missed him completely when they'd been hunting, and would have if they didn't have the Seekers. This cat was ready to be trained. His boss would be thrilled. Providing they didn't beat the cat to within an inch of his life trying to get him out, which looked highly probable right now. If only he were slightly less cat-ish and more human, tranquilizing him wouldn't be so tricky. Beeker had yet to figure out the right dosage.

Sighing, he turned away, upset to see blood on one of the guns that the men were using. He did hope they didn't damage his little freak too badly.

***

Three days passed before Jessie got the break they'd been looking for. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what she'd had in mind.

The e-mail alarm had gone off, and Jonny asked Jessie to check it. When she opened up the mailbox there was only one letter, saying very few words.

You want them back? Meet at Cardinal drive, midnight tonight.

It had taken them two hours of trying to find "Cardinal drive" in California, then another hour to figure out which Cardinal drive. They'd narrowed it down to one probability and one that might be it. Jonny drove to the first, outfitted with a tiny transmitter in his ear. Jessie drove to the second, same thing. February waited in between, on a small motorcycle.

Jessie found them. In a residential area, right next to an apartment building. Three rather large men.

One of them looked around, then crossed the street. He eyed her, looked around again. "Where's the boy?"

Jonny held his breath on the other end of the line, listening to the conversation.

"He's not here. You didn't specify whether or not I should bring him." Jessie stared straight ahead, not getting out of the car.

The man looked back at his cohorts, upset. One of them shrugged. "Take her."

Jessie started to lurch out the other side of the car, but then a hand clamped over her nose and mouth, pushing a rag over her face. Her body relaxed slowly as she fought the chloroform, but she passed out and the man pulled her out the door, then put her in his own car.

"Will she be okay?" Jonny whispered to February over the link.

"Yeah, we've got a tracker on her. Now we just follow the signal."

Jonny took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Well then, let's go." He started his car, looked both ways and pulled out on to the street.

***

In the week the others had been searching, Hadji had started to get better. Benton thought it might've been food poisoning--of a slight nature.

Race and Risk hadn't been given anymore drugs, and they were both clear headed--and felt really bad about attacking everyone.

The cats hadn't been seen.

North had come down from his skyscraper in New York to be sure everything went smoothly, and to yell at Beeker in person. One good thing had come of this headache though. They'd erased the cat's memories, and they were bloodthirsty little critters.

Kit had been the best, ripping apart every human he'd seen. They'd finally had to put a headband on him and program it to produce searing pain every time he attacked one of North's men. Colin was good too, and Dana wasn't half bad, although not as silent or deadly as Kit. North loved Kit.

He'd renamed them all, finding the names they had chosen for themselves--Colin, Kit and Dana--entirely too human. He called the girl Cheetah, the boy Cougar and dear little bloodthirsty-let-me-kill-them-all Kit was Tiger, the biggest and strongest of cats. Granted, Cougar looked like he had more muscle, but Tiger was the stronger of the two by far.

The three had recently been put together, and were walking cautiously around, sniffing faces and tussling. They didn't remember each other, had only an animalistic sense of family.

North grinned and turned to his desk, punching a button. "Have the other Quests been found yet?"

"Yes, sir. The girl--Jessica Bannon--is being brought in. We're still looking for the other two."

North grumbled, but knowing he couldn't do much about it, turned the intercom off with orders for him to be alerted the instant the girl was here. Brushing his almost black hair out of his eyes, he turned back to the window that looked down on the cats. His cats.

***

Jessie groaned, feeling as if there was cotton in her mouth. She opened her eyes slowly, squinting against the bright light. Her thoughts traveled sluggishly to her ear, where she could hear the slightest buzz from her tiny commlink, stuck just behind her lobe. Apparently it was small enough not to be detected.

She blinked a few times, clearing her vision, and realized someone was talking to her.

"Jess, sweetheart, wake up ponchita." Race looked down at his daughter, grateful to see her eyes flutter open.

"Dad?"

Race smiled. "Yeah. We're all here. Well, everyone but the cats." He frowned.

"Are these the people that were doing the experiments? That everyone thought were government santcioned?"*

Race nodded. "We think so. There's no way to be sure . . . " He shrugged again.

"Where are Jonny and February?" Hadji asked, struggling closer.

Jessie grinned. "Probably inside already!"

Jonny, listening on the other end of the link, grinned. "Not quite. Almost. We're trying to scramble this stupid security system enough to get in. It looks like it might take a while, though." He frowned and looked at February, kneeled over his laptop. "Of course, if you would let me do it . . ."

She sighed in exasperation and sat up, tossing a lock of white hair back over her shoulder. "Fine. You think you're so much better at this, go right ahead."

Jonny smiled smugly. "Thanks, I will." He turned and leaned over the keyboard, looking at it closely. "Seems to me if I just hit this button here . . ."

The doors opened as four men with large guns walked out, and February grabbed Jonny's shoulder, pulling him into the shadows.

Before the door could close and lock behind the men, Jonny lurched to his feet, picking Feb up and jerking her through the door. Once inside he turned and smiled, his eyes teasing. "I knew I could get that door open!"

She slapped his shoulder. "That had nothing to do with you and you know it!" she hissed.

Jonny just laughed and ducked into a doorway. Now that they were inside, nothing was interfering with the tracking mechanisms, and Jessie was easy to trace. Within minutes--after dodging storm trooper wannabes and doctors Jeckel and Hyde--they'd made it to the containment center. A few kicks, some fast thinking, and the three guards were down for the count.

February paused at the door, looking at Jonny. "You get the feeling we're walking right into a trap?"

He took a deep breath and nodded.

"So what do we do about it?"

Jonny licked his lips and put his palm on the door knob. "Spring it."

JJJJJJJQQQQQ

*Very beginning of this fic.

Okay, got another guy for your prayers, people! My grandfather is in the beginning stages of heart failure, and will have to go in for open heart surgery soon. Please keep him in your thoughts! My uncle with cancer continues to do better, he'll be flying out here to go to Mexico for more treatment soon. Keep your fingers crossed! I may be going into surgery soon (yipe!) to fix my shoulder--which has been hurting & in a sling on and off since April, so wish me luck! (Hopefully, my shoulder problem will resolve before I have to do surgery!)

Did you know . . . A pack of silent wolves could attack a cougar, and the cougar would attack right back. A barking terrier could attack a cougar, and the cougar would run up a tree.

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