“I like it a lot,” she replied.
She started toward the main door, intending to try her strength on the bolt, but Shane shook his head.
“Let’s try something more discreet.” He beckoned her into the bathroom, where he indicated the steel towel rack. “Try this.”
Catalina laid her hands on it. As she applied steady pressure, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. She looked the same as she ever had: black hair, brown eyes, brown skin, big breasts, plump arms. But the solid steel rod bent under her hands.
Her palms were sweating with effort. They slipped. Catalina instinctively grabbed harder, and the towel rack tore out of the wall.
Shane was standing right behind her, bracing her before she could fall. He caught her gaze in the mirror, his expression intent and thoughtful. She knew that look: his wheels were turning.
“Dr. Elihu really screwed up when he gave me powers,” she said, grinning. Having a super-power was every bit as exciting as she’d ever dreamed it would be. “This room can’t hold us any longer. If we combine our strength, you and me together could rip the door right out of the wall.”
Shane didn’t smile back. “We could. But escaping isn’t so simple now.”
“Because of the treatment I need?” Catalina recounted her conversation with Dr. Elihu, concluding, “But he’d say anything to make me stay. What I know for sure is that you can survive without the treatment. If you can, there’s a good chance I can too.”
Shane was silent, but his eyes were the blue of a frozen lake, as bleak as they’d been when he’d knelt by her bed and stopped telling her to fight, the moment when he’d whispered that he loved her. Only then had she been truly convinced that all hope was lost and she was going to die.
But she hadn’t.
She cupped his face in her hands. “Hey. It’ll be all right. You saved me, remember? You can save me again. Take me to Dr. Bedford— she kept you alive. It won’t be fun, but I’ll make it. I’m tough.”
“I know you are.” Shane’s muscles moved under her palms as he swallowed. “If you’re sure you want to risk it, I’ll break you out of here.”
“Do it. I don’t want them to make me do what they made you do,” Catalina said. She thought, but didn’t add, And I don’t want you to stay here to protect me.
“You’re right.” He nodded, resolve hardening his features. “They won’t do that to you. They won’t do it to anyone again, if I— if we— can help it.”
“So how do we stop them?”
Catalina wasn’t surprised when he spoke immediately and with confidence. Of course he had a plan. Shane always had a plan.
“I don’t think Dr. Elihu shares his research,” Shane said. “He seems like the type who’d keep it to himself. If we destroy his lab and all the files in it, we should be able to shut down ultimate predator for good. So all we need to do is break out of this room in the middle of the night— if you’re taken to the lab tomorrow, Dr. Elihu will notice that you’ve gotten your powers— get to his lab without getting tranquilized, trash it before anyone can stop us, and run like hell.”
“All we need to do,” Catalina echoed teasingly. “You sure there isn’t anything else?”
She could see that Shane got the joke, but he didn’t smile. “There is. I’ll try to download the data and take it with us before we destroy everything, in case we can recreate the treatment outside of Apex. But I’m not sure if that’ll
be possible. It’s not just that the equipment might only exist in Apex. I’m not a hacker, and it could take hours to break into the system.”
“As opposed to minutes to just break the system?”
He nodded. “I won’t know till we get there. But I’ll try.”
“Don’t try too long. I’d rather risk dying outside than being trapped here forever.”
“So would I.”
He took her in his arms. They made love again, tender and fierce, losing themselves in sensation and touch and ecstasy, whiling away the hours of the night.
***
They didn’t sleep, but lay in each other’s arms, waiting until Catalina’s watch said 3:00 AM.
“My favorite time of day,” she whispered to Shane. “Night. Day.”
“Mine too,” he whispered back. “It’s the best time to hunt.”