Code name grizzly infini.., p.1
Code Name: Grizzly (Infinitum Series Book 3), page 1
Copyright © 2022 by Laura Mowery
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher or author. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
ASIN B09LHBGC8H
Cover Model: Nick Pulos
Cover Photography: Furious Fotog/Golden Czermak
Cover Design: Cover Couture www.bookcovercouture.com
To my Grandma Margaret, who passed before she could read this book and wasn't a fan of curse words, but supported me anyway. I love and miss you.
Contents
A Note from the Author
1. Sylvie
2. Sylvie
3. Sylvie
4. John
5. Sylvie
6. John
7. Sylvie
8. John
9. Sylvie
10. John
11. Sylvie
12. Sylvie
13. John
14. Sylvie
15. Sylvie
16. John
17. Sylvie
18. John
19. Sylvie
20. John
21. John
22. Sylvie
23. John
24. Sylvie
25. John
26. Sylvie
27. John
28. John
29. Sylvie
30. John
31. John
32. Sylvie
33. John
34. John
35. Sylvie
36. John
37. Sylvie
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also By Laura Mowery
About Author
A Note from the Author
Thank you for purchasing Code Name: Grizzly. If you're starting here, you can enjoy this book on its own. However, the first half coincides with the timelines for the first two books and references are made to these characters and previous events.
This book contains dark themes. There is a complete list of content warnings on my website: www.lauramowery.com. I take mental health seriously. Please check the list if you find darker elements triggering.
Chapter 1
Sylvie
2014
In my world, super soldiers live amongst us. They go about their day like the rest of humanity, oblivious of the extraordinary abilities lurking in their DNA. Well, except for the unlucky few who are painfully aware. There are no coincidences in this world. Everything is connected and Infinitum is the brutal, ever present link.
Recruitment days are the worst. I keep my head down and ignore the men waiting in line at the Insidatrex building. They lure unsuspecting men in with the promise of athletic enhancements. These men unknowingly sell their souls for a lie, and by the time they figure it out, it will be too late. Insidatrex is Infinitum masquerading as a pharmaceutical company. It’s another link. Another reason to hate the same people responsible for the death of my parents and my brother’s kidnapping.
I would try to save these men, but we’re playing the long game. Infinitum’s reach is far and wide. Snipping off a leaf will do little to stop them.
My current mission is to rescue my brother, and I’m close. I’ve been undercover at this horror show for almost ten months, earning their trust so they’ll give me access to the patients they keep hidden.
Keeping my head down, I take quick steps so I’m not tempted to do something stupid, like blow my cover to save them all. Clay needs me. Once he’s safe, we can continue the mission to end Infinitum once and for all.
“Hey, sweetie, there’s a line here,” someone calls out, but I ignore him. I don’t know why Infinitum didn’t build a separate employee entrance for the staff. Probably some perversion of testing loyalty. I wouldn’t put it past them.
“Hey! Are you deaf?” the same man calls, and I hunch my shoulders as running footsteps approach. A large hand lands on my arm and I’m yanked to a stop. He spins me to face him, his nostrils flaring, but someone nearby puts a hand on his chest and gets in his face, forcing him to let go of my arm.
“There a problem here?” my rescuer says. He exudes a calm that only experience can earn. He must be military or a cop.
“She’s cutting the line,” the guy says, taking another step back.
My rescuer turns to me. “Are you here for the trial?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I’m an employee. Just running late.”
He glares at the jerk, who deflates and rubs his hands together. “Sorry, ma’am. My mistake. Have a nice day,” he says, making a hasty retreat under the intense scrutiny of my rescuer. Once the jerk disappears around the corner, my rescuer faces me.
“Sorry about him. As you can see, we’re surrounded by excess testosterone and fragile egos.”
I can’t help but laugh as he extends his hand. “I’m Mason Parks.”
“Vanessa Miller. Thanks for the assist.” He smiles and puts his hands on his hips. I notice his wedding ring and my heart sinks. If Infinitum gets their claws in him, his wife will be at risk.
“Are you a cop, Mason?”
He chuckles. “Is it that obvious?”
I shrug. “Lucky guess. What does a guy like you need enhancements for?”
His grin widens. “I appreciate the compliment, but the dad bod is rearing its ugly head and I can use all the help I can get.”
“You have kids?” I’m a glutton for punishment.
He nods, pulling out his phone and showing me a picture of an adorable little boy being attacked with kisses by a gorgeous brunette. “My son, Will. And my wife, Grace.”
I smile at the photo and resist the urge to tell him to get out while he still can. “They’re beautiful.”
He smiles at the photo for a moment before pocketing his phone. “Listen, Mason…” I begin, but I’m cut off by Raven, my boss and mentor, speaking in my ear through the hidden earpiece.
“Don’t. They’re watching.”
I close my eyes and take a calming breath. When I open them, Mason is watching with pinched eyebrows.
“Never mind. I better get going. Thanks again. Good luck in there.”
He relaxes and nods. “Maybe I’ll see you around?”
I wave without answering and hightail it into the building. I walk past the gym that takes up the entire first floor and pull out my keycard for the employee entrance. Infinitum has eyes and ears everywhere, so I can’t respond to Raven, but he knows me well enough that I don’t have to.
“Stay the course. It will be worth it in the end. I promise,” he says.
I sigh in response, tuck my purse into my locker, and shrug into my lab coat. He’s right, but it doesn’t make it any easier to condemn a good man like Mason. Closing my locker, I head to the reception desk on the second floor to check in. I grin inwardly when I see Grant is first on my rotation today. They transferred two of the three men under my care to another facility for testing yesterday. Which means they aren’t super soldiers. Infinitum is hunting for the children, now adults, of the patients from the trials they performed in the eighties. Raven and his colleague Margo, along with tech mogul James Reilly, were involved, unknowingly taking part in one of the most unethical human trials in existence. If the world knew, there’d be outrage.
They thought they were trying to cure cancer. But that was only Infinitum’s cover to create super soldiers. It wasn’t until the late nineties that Infinitum’s true intentions were discovered, and that the serum affected the patient’s children instead of the patients themselves. By the early 2000s, Margo, James, and Raven had destroyed almost everything. Both Margo and James paid the ultimate price. They killed Margo a few years ago, and James met his demise just last year. Raven is the only one who remains to carry on our mission to stop the people he helped decades ago.
Not even Raven knows how many super soldiers, or agents as we call them, exist. But they aren’t easy to find. The failsafe put in place by Margo requires agents to be activated for their abilities to work. Nobody knows if she did it on purpose or not. We can only track them down through birth records, which are shockingly easy to forge, making our search that much more difficult. Grant is one of those agents. Infinitum is holding him here until they can determine his abilities.
I’ve tried to explain away my growing feelings for Grant as simple proximity and lack of options, but it’s no use. I’ve fallen hard for him, as stupid and dangerous as it is. He can find joy and optimism in almost any situation, including his own. We built trust as we opened our minds to each other. And that trust grew into love. Last month, he made love to me in my dream state. The logical side of my brain could never explain how it’s possible, but once I ignored the static electric energy of his touch and focused on the breathtaking emotions pouring out of him, I didn’t need an explanation.
Grant grins as he looks up from his table and sees me enter the small anteroom through the glass wall. He stands and places his hands on the screen next to his couch. It glows green, and the door in the glass wall slides open.
If Grant m
He settles on the couch while I collect the equipment for his daily exam from the basket on the wall. As I take his blood pressure and check his reflexes, I try to remain clinical. I frown at the healing bruise on his arm.
My lips press together, and I focus on my tasks. They torture him to force more of his abilities out. Their methods are nothing short of brutal. Luckily, I’ve never been part of that phase. No, they reserve that grim honor for the abominations they call doctors in this hellhole.
A few moments of silence pass while I finish checking him over, noting the bruises on his chart. My pen almost tears through the paper as I write. They must have tortured him this morning, otherwise they would have healed overnight.
My mind drifts to my brother. They captured Clay three years ago. I can only imagine the torture he’s endured at the hands of Infinitum. But, I have to play nice with these monsters so I don’t blow my cover.
Like Grant, Clay is a super soldier, only their abilities are different. We still don’t know what my brother is capable of, but he’s in the lower levels of this building, which means his talents are violent. Grant’s are more subtle. Like all the others, he is stronger and faster than the average human. He’s able to manipulate the light spectrum and create beautiful objects out of thin air. He’s also a telepath, but only I’m privy to that secret. Since they activated him over a year ago, he has kept it hidden. A skill like that would force him away from me. I may never see him again if they find out.
I discovered his telepathy by accident not long after I started working with him. He had a bloody nose and as I was helping to clean him up, his blood somehow entered my system and his voice was in my head, surprising us both. The effect is only temporary, so he asked me to keep a secret stash of his blood so he could speak to me whenever I wanted.
Over time, as we learned to trust each other, I told him everything. He knows about Raven and my brother, and why he’s being held captive. He’s getting me through this nightmare mission. Grant has never said he loves me out loud. Love in a place like this means death for me, and endless torture for him. But late at night, when we’re in my dreams that aren’t dreams, we can be ourselves.
“How are you feeling today?” I ask. We’re under constant surveillance, so I have to maintain my professionalism at all times, even though I ache to feel his touch.
He sits on the couch and leans back, his gaze burning a hole through me, making me blush. “Like a million bucks after this insanely hot dream I had last night,” he says.
I smirk and settle into the armchair across from him. My role here at Insidatrex is to play both nurse and psychiatrist. They wouldn’t be able to get away with this unethical practice if they were a legitimate organization. My coworkers aren’t model practitioners, but the money they shove at us keeps our mouths shut. Or in my case, the need to destroy them from the inside out.
“More lustful imaginations?”
His mischievous grin sends a bolt of heat to my core, and I squeeze my thighs together. His eyes drop to the movement before he licks his lips.
“You could say that.” He drags his gaze across my body.
My pulse quickens and I adjust in my seat, grabbing a pen from my lab coat pocket. “They’re perfectly normal.”
He sighs at my clinical tone, but says nothing. None of this is normal. “Is there anything we can bring to you that would provide comfort?”
He smirks and shakes his head no, but I don’t need a telepathic bond to know what he’s thinking as his gaze travels over me again. We exchange sad smiles, and I stand and move closer to him. He extends his arm so I can wrap the blood pressure monitor around it. My fingers graze his bicep and his muscle twitches.
We move through our routine in silence. When I draw his blood, I take an extra vial for myself, something I do once a week. At the last second, I smear some on my glove and bring it past my mouth, swiping my tongue over the blood. It’s a bold move, and not the ideal method, but I need him. The blood bond lasts longer when I can inject it, so I only bought us a minute or two.
His eyes widen in surprise for a second before he schools his features. “What’s wrong?” I hear his voice as if he spoke out loud, but his mouth never moves.
“They’re taking me to see Clay after this. They gave me clearance last night.”
His sympathetic gaze calms my nervous energy. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. You’ll get through this, Sylvie.”
Without thinking, he reaches up and cups my face. His tender look turns to a grimace as the cuff on his wrist zaps a warning shot.
“You know the rules,” I admonish. They’re not allowed to touch us, which is a constant torture for us both.
“Worth it,” he says before dropping his hand. “I love you,” he says in my head. My heart soars at the unexpected words as he holds my gaze.
“I love you, too. And I promise I’ll get you out of here.”
He smiles and shows me a vision of us kissing, forcing me to blink the tears back.
“I need to tell you–” he begins, but cuts off as the blood link loses its connection. He lets out a sigh of frustration.
I return the equipment to the wall and pull off my gloves. I hand him his daily vitamin, which we both know is a mild sedative they force him to take. When it’s time to escape this prison, I’ll ween him off of it.
He takes the pill without comment and opens his mouth for me to prove he swallowed. I nod and he moves over to the screens on the wall, placing his palms on them. “One of these days, I’m going to kiss you and it’s going to rock your world,” he whispers.
I smile at his flirtation, but a pang of sadness tugs at my heart. We’ve never had our first real kiss. “I’m sure it will,” I respond and he smirks as I take off the metal cuff. If the world were fair, we would share a goodbye kiss. He winks and I grin before heading out of the room. The door shuts behind me and he sprints to the window.
He lets out a dreamy sigh, and I head out the door with a smile on my face. It’s a miracle I can do that in this hellhole. I lock the door behind me and my smile fades as footsteps approach.
“Ah, there you are, Nurse Miller. I’m here to take you down to D Level,” Mr. Chen greets me with a friendly smile.
I fall into step with him. Agents are tall and muscular. Grant sits several inches over my five foot ten. So it’s jarring whenever Mr. Chen is around. He’s a small man whose head comes to about my shoulder. Unassuming and frail, he’s been nothing but kind to me. But he’s a part of this brainwashed cult like the rest of them. It’s easy to forget that these people are only manipulated fools.
“Big day for you, huh? I’ve never seen anyone get promoted so fast,” he says. I can thank Raven for that. He used every piece of technology available to make sure my forged credentials checked out. He gave me a fake name and backstory about growing up on a farm in Virginia. There’s no way they can link me to Clay.
“I’m just thrilled for the opportunity,” I say by rote, and he nods in approval.
“You’ll go far with us.” My stomach drops at the implication. To go far here means a lifetime of servitude. Hard pass.
He keeps up the small talk as we approach the elevator, then pulls out his key card and swipes it on the scanner. He removes his glasses and puts his chin on the rest for the retinal scanner. I watch what he’s doing, knowing Raven can see what I do through the special contacts I wear.
“We’ll get your access credentials set up first,” he says as the elevator opens.
We step inside and he punches the letter D. It takes far longer than it’s supposed to. “How far down are we?” I ask.
He smirks. “Nobody knows for sure, but I think we’re at least ten stories deep.” My eyes widen and he grins. “Cool, huh?”
I offer a fake chuckle but cringe inside. Yea, it’s super cool that you keep these men so far away from everyone they love.
The door opens, and it’s like I just stepped into the lobby of a law firm. Elegant sconces cover the lights. Wood and glass accents decorate the reception desk. A woman dressed in business attire greets us. “Welcome, Nurse Miller. Here is your new key card. I’ll take your old one.”
