The Intuition - Debra Kayn Page 0,6

room. Finally, in her determination not to let him know she was awake, the quietness and keeping her eyes closed, she grew sleepy. For tonight, she was safe despite her car being undrivable and her current situation of staying with a stranger.

Chapter Three

The handler for the Alpha Bio Project handed Speeder his weekly allotment of pills in a plastic container. He slipped them into his vest pocket.

"That concludes the checkup." The handler stepped over to the table, put the papers into the briefcase, and straightened. "In two nights, a shipment of two men will arrive. We'll need four Avery Falls members here to stay the first twenty-four hours in the cave. Under no circumstances can the men be left alone. I'll have further instructions then."

None of the participants in the project knew anyone's full name. The handlers and controllers were called by the title of their position within the project. None of them knew where those in the organization went when they left Avery Falls.

The men brought to the cave were sedated before they made the trip. Upon arrival, they were put in cages resembling prison cells.

Then, the training began.

The handlers removed all their memories through drugs, manipulation, and mind games. But the participants rarely willingly progressed. Often, the activities in the cave became violent.

Until the men gave up the fight for freedom and accepted their participation.

Once they succumbed to their fate, the participants worked on getting enhanced and moving up within the program. Some progressed at a steady pace, while others took years until they reached their full potential.

They had one participant, called Fifteen, who'd lived in the cave for seven years. Every training session, painstakingly slow.

The handler dipped his chin. "I'll see you next week."

Five of the six originals stayed at attention, aware of the handler exiting the cave. Prez, Johnny, Keenan, Hank, and Speeder were still in the project. Trip, the sixth original, retired from the AB Project last year but remained a member of Avery Falls Motorcycle Club.

Every man who advanced through the project became a club member and helped AFMC run the town.

Before the Alpha Bio project moved in, Avery Falls was nothing more than a ghost town with a few straggling locals hanging on, living day to day, in the Bitterroot Mountains.

The soft purr of the handler's vehicle leaving Seether Mountain had all of them visibly relaxing. After he and the other originals went through physical and mental changes last year, they'd kept it a secret that the program had failed six members.

The rest of the members of Avery Falls Motorcycle Club had retained all their enhancements and training. It would only be a matter of time before one of them, one of them who'd come after the originals, questioned or reported them to the controller.

"Please, I beg you. Let me go." The low, raw plea came from Four.

Speeder glanced at the enclosed participant. Three weeks had passed since his arrival. The anger and fight in him had drained to begging. For hours on end, Four would go from crying to uncontrollable anger.

Fresh scabs covered Four's forehead where he'd spent time beating his head against the rock wall and trying to squeeze between the steel bars.

"You don't know what they're doing to me, man. Help me." Four stretched his arm through the bars. "I'll do anything."

Speeder turned his back on Four's pleas. He understood better than Four what he'd gone through and what he'd continue to go through within the program.

Today was easy. Yesterday was easy. Next week would be hell. At the end of the year, Four will wish he could kill himself to escape the pain.

But there would come a time when Four would stop caring about living. The Alpha Bio Project would make it possible to walk out of the cell with a numbness surrounding him.

Was there pleasure?

Was their happiness?

Was there a future after joining the MC and becoming part of the community in Avery Falls?

Nobody knew.

Only one person had retired from the project. Trip loved a woman, and his whole focus had changed.

As for Speeder, he had no idea what love felt like. If it was how he felt about his daughter, then love resembled frustration—a new emotion for him that left him feeling inadequate.

"Where's the woman from the wreck?" asked Prez.

Drawn back to the moment, he faced his president. "I left her sleeping at the house. Trina's there."

Johnny snapped the front of his leather vest. "What's your kid doing home from school?"

"She got suspended for being late too often."