Circe's Recruits 3: Derrick by Marie Harte Page B

hadn’t told him. “You want me with you this time?”
    “Yes.” Elliot swallowed around the nervous lump in his throat. “I believe your abilities may be necessary during this meeting.”
    McKinley nodded and left, presumably to see to the car.

    Elliot didn’t want to take McKinley. In fact, he’d been ordered to come alone, as he always did. The new CEO of Pearson Labs liked his air of mystery. The less people who knew about him, the better. Especially if he wanted to maintain his military connections. To the United States government, Pearson Labs was still persona non grata. An unfortunate circumstance, but Elliot appreciated not having to work under Uncle Sam’s thumb any longer.
    Or at least, he had been free to work uninhibited. Without understanding how, he’d awakened one morning a year and a half ago to find that he was no longer running the labs.
    His funding had been cut, only to be replaced by a backer with a different agenda than his own. Science paled next to the potential applications of his powerful Circs.
    Assassins, mercenaries, animalistic automatons who would obey on command -- they were in short supply and high demand. Already, the CEO bragged about how much money they’d earned with a successful Circ operation in Nicaragua to recover “stolen goods.” Elliot wondered if drug money was now funding his science, but he didn’t much care either way. So long as he was able to continue his work on Project Dawn, the other obstacles in his path to true freedom could wait. He could handle inconvenience and annoyance, but he couldn’t handle failure. He simply had to know why Evan’s experiments worked and his didn’t.
    Given time, he knew he’d find the answer. He just had to give Sabrina enough time at Evan’s compound…
    “Dr. Pearl, you’re ready to go.”
    Elliot turned and almost ran into McKinley. The man moved like a cat. Fumbling with his briefcase, Elliot exited his office. He left the labs and entered the backseat of his black Lincoln Town Car, then sat back as McKinley expertly handled the wheel.
    The silence bothered him, and he tried once again to learn more about his bodyguard.
    “McKinley, why do you work for me?”
    “I believe in the project.” The man didn’t turn his head as he answered.
    For three years, ever since the initial Project Dawn had disbanded, McKinley had worked for Elliot. He’d simply shown up one day on Elliot’s doorstep and waited, saying nothing. One look convinced Elliot the man was Circ, but everything else about him remained a mystery. McKinley had no traceable fingerprints. His DNA revealed strains unlike anything Elliot had ever seen. And most of his DNA had disappeared from the lab hours after Elliot had ordered it to be collected.
    McKinley didn’t respond to threats or violence. He disabled and had once dismembered a Circ ordered to bring him down. Guns didn’t work on him. Though his skin felt and looked human, it retained the deflective density of changed Circ skin. The small parts of McKinley’s DNA that Elliot played with in his off-hours did nothing but pose more questions.

    Elliot couldn’t duplicate his abilities, no more than he could figure out why Evan’s Circs remained sane and rational while his creations continued to unravel.
    “Doctor, where are we going?” McKinley asked in a deep bass.
    Elliot sighed. “Philadelphia, the Navy Yard.” McKinley grunted, and they drove in silence for miles. “Do you want me to recapture Torrence?” he asked, surprising Elliot that he’d spoken.
    “Ah, no. Not yet.” Curious, Elliot regarded his bodyguard. “Why do you ask?”
    “Because you aren’t one to let an experiment go until it’s done.”
    “True.” Elliot preened. “My work ethic has never been questioned.”
    “No.”
    The way McKinley left that “no” hanging led Elliot to believe he had more to say.
    “But…?”
    “But nothing.”
    “You’re one of mine, aren’t you, McKinley? You’ve never admitted