Defending Hippotigris, Smith, T.L. [best ebook reader under 100 .txt] 📗

He knew who I was and from the smirk on his face, something I didn’t. Something I was forgetting? “I guess it was luck we were coming back to reactivate you.” He lifted his hand where I could see a hypodermic gun. It stung as he hit my neck.

There it was again. Whoosh. He walked over to Remy and held the hypogun between them, speaking low. I couldn’t hear but Remy’s eyes looked lethal, but he nodded and the man put the hypogun away. It was the last thing I saw.

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I stretched, then remembered being drugged. I also realized I could move my arms. I could move everything. Nothing was attached to my head. I felt around, just to be sure. Untethered, I twisted my legs over the edge of the bed and got to my feet.

I was a little wobbly, but got my bearings by the time I reached the door. Locked. I thumped on the door. “Okay, whoever’s out there, I’m awake.” I thumped harder. “Hello… you brought me here, not the other way around.”

“Col. Kazan, have a seat.” A calm voice spoke from the speaker by the door. “Someone will be right in to answer your questions.”

“Batista. Not even close to a major yet, let alone colonel.” I stalked away from the door. There had to be some kind of mistake, the ranks, and the names.

I didn’t sit down, but paced. Who do they think I am? Why would they abduct me from a hospital? I stopped mid-step. My head didn’t hurt anymore. Apparently they got something right, but I had to be sure.

“Zebra.” Nothing. “Zebra, Zebra, Zebra.” I suppressed laughing at what my wardens probably thought.

By my third circle around the room, the man from the hospital walked in. He smirked, just like he had before. “How do you feel, Col. Kazan?”

“Better, but Kazan is my maiden name, and I’m not a colonel.” I held my place across the room from him. “Why’d you bring me here? Where are Remy and Lizzy? You better not have hurt them.” Threatening sounded odd coming from my mouth, but I meant it.

He sighed, as if annoyed, taking a few more steps in my direction. I circled away from him. “Col. Kazan. I command you bring out your primary.”

“You command me? My primary? Seriously?” I started to laugh, but a wave of dizziness hit me. Images flooded into my thoughts, strange images, strange places, and I was there. No, it wasn’t me. I staggered backwards into the edge of a table. I clutched it, holding tight. It is me, no it’s not…  Oh…yeah!

“Col. Shara Kazan. I command you bring out your primary.”

“I got it! Hang on…”  I clung to the table as all the images were replaced by one. In my head a coin flipped over and over, one side Shara Batista, the other Shara Kazan. It landed on Kazan and fingers gripped it tight.

With a long exhale I stood up. “Col. Schaeffer. What the hell is going on?” All the memories of the last week were available to me. Batista was my public life, and Kazan my secret life. “Remy and Lizzy? You sucked them into this? Are you insane?”

“We couldn’t wait any longer. I’m fairly sure you didn’t want them cracking your skull open. As for your companions, they wouldn’t let you go without a ruckus.” Schaeffer opened the door, stepping out of the way. “They’ll be taken care of until this is done.”

“When what is done, exactly?” I grabbed a robe off the foot of the bed. “Do you have my gear? Can’t work in a hospital gown.”

Schaeffer followed me out of the room. “In your quarters. Once you’re settled we’ll do a briefing. About 1700 hrs.”

“What was wrong with me, the headaches and memory loss?”

“The conditioning didn’t stick. A conflict sprang up between instructions to forget the mission and your long-term memory. Hospital records note it was stories of Zebra that triggered it.” He let out his breath with his usual level of annoyance. “Apparently one overlapped the other, so when we blocked your TDY memories, we blocked that damned dog too.”

He gave me a snide look. “Another day or two and you’ve have broken through, unless they start cutting.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.” Flashes of Batista’s memories hit me, the dog, running away and half a dozen other memories while he was part of my life. This time they didn’t come with seizures.

No headaches either. I let out a breath I wasn’t aware I’d been holding. “Were you still at Perry? You said something about coming back for me.”

“Restocking, but yes, we’re reactivating you. We’re getting odd behavior on LR-442. The natives aren’t happy you left.”

I glanced up at Schaeffer. Normally friends, we hadn’t agreed on this one subject. “You’ve changed your mind?”

Schaeffer remained stolid.  “My opinion is still open. You need to return to Hippotigris.”

“I just got back. Three month TDYs, that’s the deal. I can’t be away from Remy…”  In my head the coin spun again. I was her again, no I wasn’t. The coin landed back on Kazan. “God damn it!” I grabbed at the wall for support. “Zebra, zebr…” My head hurt. “There’s still something wrong.”

Schaeffer stepped in front of me, his hand gently wrapped around my arm. “The doctor says there’s no serious damage done, but you might still trigger on those memories, depending on which of you is up front. We tried to switch her off, but apparently you’re no longer a candidate for conditioning. That means you need to fully integrate.”

He could see my confusion. “Until you’re stabilized, you’ll probably swing between your two alters.”

“That’s just great!”

“It could be worse.” His concern hinted of emotion under the staid demeanor. “No telling what they might have done to you, given another hour or two.”

I shivered with the thought. They’d shoved wires into my brain, shocking me out of the seizures. “Wait, no conditioning? How’s that going to affect my assignment?”

“Don’t know yet.” Schaeffer’s