Minka jerked awake as two of the black-clad men stepped onto the loading ramp of the plane. Angelo held up his hand, indicating for the men to stop where they were. They halted but lifted the barrels of their M4s slightly. Angelo ignored them, focusing on Minka instead. While she was eyeing the men warily, she hadn't shifted, but Angelo got the sensation that she was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from going berserk depending on what the security guards did next.
"It's okay," he whispered.
Wrapping one arm around her shoulder and slipping the other under her knees, he got to his feet. Minka relaxed against his chest, but her eyes remained alert and focused on the men the whole time. Angelo had no doubt the fangs and claws would make an appearance if anyone made a hostile movement. Angelo didn't recognize any of the men, but he knew their type-hardcore security drones who looked like they didn't take a crap without referring to a manual first. If Minka did anything out of line, every one of these Cybermen would happily shoot her dead.
Angelo walked to the end of the cargo bay and down the ramp. One of the men stepped in front of him, forcing him to come to a stop. Tall, with dark hair and eyes that seemed like they didn't miss a thing, he gave Minka an appraising look, then locked gazes with Angelo.
"Does she need to be sedated?"
Angelo shook his head. "No. She's fine as long as no one threatens her."
The man regarded Minka for a few moments, then sized up Angelo again. Finally, he must have come to some conclusion because he nodded his head curtly and pointed at the second Suburban in line.
Four of the guards got into the lead vehicle, while another four took the back one. That left two guards-including Eagle Eye-with him and Minka. There was a heavy steel cage separating the front and backseats, so it wasn't like the two in the front seat were any braver than the rest. They'd probably just lost at rock, paper, scissors.
Angelo was relieved when Minka allowed him to put her in the seat beside him. He really didn't want to drive through DC traffic with her in his lap. Unfortunately, getting a seat belt on her turned out to be a waste of time. Three seconds after he'd clicked hers into place, the claws came out and she shredded it. Then she wiggled over, sliced through his belt as well and grabbed hold of his arm. She snuggled close, her claws retracting.
He chuckled. "Not into safety restraints, huh?"
Minka ignored him, her eyes huge as they headed out to the highway and she saw DC spread out before her. As the driver sped up and merged onto 295, Angelo really wished he had that seat belt back. He'd rather jump out of a plane with a beach umbrella for a parachute than be on the roads around the nation's capital. The people here drove like they were insane. The driver of the Suburban was a perfect example.
The vehicle headed south on 295, then onto 95 south. The DCO's training and medical complex was about an hour outside the city, near Quantico, so he guessed that's where they were heading. No surprise there-it wasn't like they'd want to have a hybrid brought to their main offices in the middle of town.
Angelo was just trying to look over the driver's shoulder to see how fast they were going when Minka's soft voice yanked his attention back to her.
"What?" he said.
She turned away from the window to regard him with big, cinnamon-brown eyes. "Are there always so many cars on the road here?"
He blinked. "You speak English?"
"Yes," she said simply.
There was a slight accent to the word, maybe Russian or Eastern European mixed in with Tajik. Something told him there had to be an interesting story there, but that would have to wait until later.
He glanced out the side window to see a small two-door Mini go zipping by even though their convoy of SUVs had to be doing over eighty. "Yeah, I guess," he said in answer to Minka's question. "Washington, DC, is a big city with millions of people. The roads are packed from before dawn until well after nightfall."
Minka stared at him for so long he wondered if maybe he'd thrown too many words at her at once. Just because she could say a few words in English, that didn't mean she was fluent. He ran into the same problem with Tajik and Farsi-talk to someone for a few seconds, and they'd start rattling off whole sentences like you were a native.
But Minka only nodded like she understood everything he'd said. "I've never seen so many cars. And they all drive so fast. Everyone here must be very good drivers." When he chuckled, she gave him a confused look. "Did I say something wrong?"
Angelo was stunned to see she actually looked embarrassed. What did she have to be embarrassed about? She spoke English far better than he did Tajik.
"No, you didn't say anything wrong," he said quickly. "It was just that I was thinking people around here drive like they're crazy. Way too fast."
Minka nodded, accepting his answer. Then, without a word, she crawled into his lap so she could get a better look around. She did it so unabashedly that Angelo couldn't stop himself from grinning as he put a protective arm around her.
She pointed at a big building with a large number of cars parked around it. "What is that place-a mosque?"
He glanced out the window and realized they were passing the big Hoffman Center. "That's a movie theater. The number twenty-two means there are twenty-two screens."
Her eyes widened. "Twenty-two movies playing at the same time?"
He nodded as she went back to gazing out the window again. After that, the drive turned into a game of twenty questions, except it was more like a hundred. He never realized how many things he took for granted until Minka continued to ask him what they all were. Parks, malls, golf courses, carpool lanes, IKEA-the list of things that caught her attention seemed endless, and he couldn't help but smile at the awe in her eyes after each new discovery.
Even the two expressionless gargoyles in the front seat cracked a smile at some of the things she asked, especially when Minka pointed at a man on the side of the road surrounded by cops and K-9s and asked if they were helping him with car trouble.
Thanks to all the questions Minka asked, the hour-long trip to the DCO complex zipped by in a flash. She fell silent as they weaved through the gates and she caught sight of the armed guards standing there. She climbed off Angelo's lap but stayed close to him, the tension returning to her body.
After they got through the gate, she relaxed a little, but he could tell she was still on edge. When they stopped behind one of the main buildings, the eagle-eyed guard opened the back door for them. The moment he and Minka stepped out, the security force surrounded them. Two took point to lead the way, but most closed in behind them. Angelo couldn't decide if they were being treated like visiting dignitaries or criminals.
At first, he was a little worried Minka might be too scared to walk on her own because she was definitely tense as hell. He was all ready to carry her if he had to, but she only pulled the uniform shirt he'd given her more tightly to her chest, then latched on to his arm with her free one and gave him a nod.
They moved through several long hallways with lots of turns and offices. There were a few open doors, and even some windows here and there that looked into cubicle-filled spaces. If it wasn't for the armed security guards, Angelo might have been lulled into thinking this was just a normal, everyday Fortune 500 company. Then again, he was walking beside a woman who could turn into a snarling she-cat when things went bad. He sure as hell wasn't walking around Microsoft.
The guards led them into a large, open room that looked like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a medical facility or a science lab. There were three men dressed in white lab coats, a half-dozen beds, lots of equipment that looked like it belonged in a hospital, and the distinctive smell of antiseptic cleaners. There were also lots of microscopes, centrifuges, and other things that were probably completely normal in a lab like this, but given the DCO's history with hybrids, Angelo couldn't help thinking it looked a little like Frankenstein's lab.
Minka stiffened the moment they walked into the room, and Angelo slowly slipped his arm down and encircled her waist. He wasn't surprised to discover she didn't think much of the lab-like room.
Angelo looked around for Landon and Ivy and was disappointed to see neither of them were anywhere to be found. Before he could ask where they were, a squirrelly looking jackass in an expensive suit walked in the room. The man took one look at Angelo and Minka and glared at the lead guard.