Protector Panther (Protection, Inc 3)

It can’t be, Shane thought.

But there was that face he knew as well as his own. Justin’s face, with its sharp cheekbones, strong chin, and mouth that used to always be grinning or quivering with poorly-suppressed amusement, waiting for a prank to be sprung. The same body, tall and strong, though he held himself differently now. Justin used to be relaxed and unhurried, even in combat. Now he had an edgy predator’s wariness that made the air around him vibrate with danger.

The hair was wrong. It should be copper as a new penny, and instead it was black. The eyes were wrong. They should be a startlingly bright green, and instead they were dark as mirrors in an empty room. Justin’s skin should be tanned, but it was pale as if it had been a long time since he’d spent time in the sun.

But Shane could never mistake his friend, even if he’d changed much more than that.

He opened his mouth to say, “But you’re dead.”

Before he could speak, the penny dropped and he tried to change it to, “They told me you were dead.”

Both sentences caught in his throat and choked him.

“You never came back for me.” It was Justin’s voice, but with a chill that Shane had never heard before, in all the ten years they’d served together in combat. “‘Never leave a fallen comrade.’ I knew you’d come for me. But you didn’t. I finally had to admit to myself that you weren’t going to.”

Catalina’s baffled tones rose up clear into the silence. “Who are you? I thought you were one of Apex’s guys. Shane’s buddies all died... I thought,” she added doubtfully.

Shane finally managed to speak. He meant to explain everything— he knew what had to have happened— but all that came out was the name that had been stuck on the tip of his tongue ever since the door had opened. “Red?”

“Justin?” Catalina exclaimed.

Justin nodded, but Shane couldn’t read those dark eyes. He’d always known what Justin was thinking. It was like talking to a stranger with the face of a friend.

“Your hair,” Shane said, only realizing the absurdity of the words as they left his lips.

But Justin responded as if it was the most natural question in the world. “I dye it. My natural color is too eye-catching. It makes people notice me. Remember me. The sort of missions Apex sends me on, I should blend into a crowd.”

“And your eyes,” Shane began, then caught himself. “Of course. Contacts.”

Justin shook his head. “They’re real. It was a side effect of ultimate predator.”

“I thought you were dead.” Now that Shane could speak again, the words burst out like a flash flood. “I saw you die! I felt it. You stopped breathing. You didn’t have a pulse. I was giving you CPR, but the doctors wanted to take over. They tried to pull me off you. I wouldn’t let go. A guard hit me across the face, and I still wouldn’t. They had to tranquilize me. When I woke up, they told me you were dead. I...”

Shane shook his head, feeling foolish. “It never occurred to me to doubt it. Everyone else had died. I assumed the process killed everyone.”

Some flicker of expression crossed Justin’s half-familiar face, but Shane couldn’t tell what it was.

“You know Shane,” Catalina put in. “Justin, think about it. You know him. You’ve known him for much longer than I have. Is he the sort of person who would ever leave anybody behind?”

“No,” Justin said, as if automatically. “No. But you didn’t come back. And I knew you had the choice to stay away. Blackburn bit you, but you escaped before they could put you through the ultimate predator process. At least... That’s what they told me.”

Shane was starting to be able to read his expressions. Some echo of the man he used to know stirred, breaking through the chill. A spark of anger rose in those strange eyes.

“Those assholes!” Justin exclaimed. That was more like him. “They lied to both of us. They told you I died so you wouldn’t look for me. And they told me you’d abandoned me so I wouldn’t look for you.”

Shane nodded. A cold fury was rising in him as well, pushing aside the shock. “They must have kept us in different bases so we wouldn’t run into each other accidentally. Then they re-captured me, and my mate here got caught with me. They were probably going to move us to a different base, to keep me away from you, but she and I escaped first. They must have been pretty desperate to send you after me.”

Justin didn’t smile, but his forehead creased with faint amusement. “They were. Their best search teams got nowhere. They told me you’d broken into the base, grabbed their new recruit, and taken off.”

“Never,” swore Shane. “I wouldn’t leave a wounded comrade. I wouldn’t leave a wounded stranger. I wouldn’t leave Catalina. I wouldn’t have left you. And I won’t leave you now.”

“I know.” Justin sounded like he was being choked. “I think I always knew, deep down. My leopard believed in you! But I wouldn’t listen.”

“Join us. I’m going to try to download the data for ultimate predator, so Catalina can live away from here. Then we’ll destroy it, so it can never be used again.” Shane indicated a bank of computers.

“Oh, you don’t need the data,” Justin said. “Catalina went through 2.0. Dr. Elihu lied about why it’s different. It’s just as likely to kill you as 1.0. The improvement is that if you survive, it adapts to you. She doesn’t need any treatments. He was going to do fake ones so she’d think she needs to stay here to survive.”

The relief Shane felt at this nearly made him dizzy. He looked to Catalina for her reaction, but she looked no more than ordinarily pleased. His brave mate had already known she’d have the strength and will to survive, no matter what.