True growled. “She won’t be killed by us.”

Justice calmed. “We don’t condone anyone killing females, Tim, though sometimes it can’t be avoided when they are among the crueler doctors whom we’re certain killed our kind or if we had no choice because they opened fire on us. Our female said the human saved her from a rape last month and again from a guard putting a bullet into her right before the task force rescued them. Someone disabled the locks on those cell doors by frying the circuits with a stun gun. She had one of those in her pocket when they stripped her bare in Medical and our female said the human claimed she was disabling the locks to keep them safe. None of our people died because those guards couldn’t gain access into their cells.”

True nodded. “We discovered bullet scars on some of the doors. The idiots built those rooms to keep our kind prisoner but they made them break-in proof as well. The guards would have gone in to shoot our people dead if those locks hadn’t been destroyed. Whoever disabled them saved lives.”

Tim ignored the throbbing at his temple, a sign of an oncoming monster headache. His team had made a few mistakes but they were somewhat justified. “Someone poured coffee into their mainframe computer. We pulled the woman’s prints off the coffeepot handle inside the computer room. Why did she do that if she’s so saintly? The data couldn’t be restored. It fried the damn thing. She covered Mercile’s ass when she did that. There are no records, no real proof that the testing facility belonged to them. They leased the building under a shell company and we are hitting a dead end on tracing the money that funded it. Those files were our only hope of cementing proof directly back to Mercile.”

Justice frowned. “I don’t know why she did it.” He turned and stared at the team’s medic. “What is the human’s current condition?”

“I just spoke to the older Dr. Harris. She’ll live. It was touch and go for a while but they stopped the bleeding. I heard she was given blood and New Species healing drugs. The injuries caused to her face aren’t life threatening. She’s bruised up but it’s mostly just painful.”

Justice faced Tim. “Interrogate her but do it with respect. She obviously saved some of our people. Keep that in mind. Find out why she did all of it and what she was protecting Mercile from on those computers. Offer her a deal if that’s what it takes to get more proof against those bastards for this one.”

True moved closer. “I want to be there.”

Justice studied him. “Why?”

“She worked in New Mexico last year.”

Justice appeared surprised by that news. “You knew her?”

True nodded. “She was kind.”

Justice frowned. “Were there experiments between the two of you?”

“No.” True scowled. “I’ve never mounted her if that’s what you’re asking.”

Justice seemed to accept that. “How was she kind?”

“She didn’t treat us as if we were animals. She sneaked in candy and pain medication to our injured. She seemed to care about us.”

Justice cocked his head, the frown returning. “You cared about her?”

“I never attempted to attack her when I could have but I then learned she was working with the doctors on a drug development.”

“How did you learn that?”

True hesitated. “Polanitis believed I cared about her since she’d shown kindness and tried to secure my agreement to willingly mount her, promising it would mean she’d survive. He informed me they were working on a new breeding drug.”

“Shit,” Tiger cursed. “You probably would have killed her if you had agreed.”

“You said you didn’t mount her? There’s no shame in admitting it if you did.” Justice studied him. He didn’t seem angry, more curious than anything.

“No. I told Polanitis I’d kill her if she was sent to my cell. I never mounted that female. He wanted my word to stop attacking the guards after that and to comply with the doctors in charge of testing another drug on me by answering their questions. It was something they were working on to improve intelligence or memory.” He shifted his stance, appearing uncomfortable. “I didn’t agree to his terms until he threatened to have the guards rape a Species female in front of me to get my compliance.” His voice deepened into a snarl. “I agreed to protect her from harm. I didn’t inflict injury on humans when I could have but I wasn’t meek either.”

“Why did he believe you would be able to f**k that woman while drugged and not kill her?” Tim was curious too.

True glanced at him, his cheeks a little red. “I had a fondness for her but that changed once I realized she’d probably been nice to gain my trust. I believe he thought I might fight my instincts while drugged. I never saw her again after Polanitis’ visit or I might have done some harm in retaliation of her deception.” His jaw clenched. “I wouldn’t have killed Shiver though. It was just a threat I made to keep her out of my cell. She didn’t deserve to die. She might have been kind just to trick me but she did help some of our people at Drackwood.”

Justice curled his lip in disgust. “I really hate that son of a bitch, Polanitis. I remember him from last year.”

“Polanitis offered up human females for mounting to reward Species for good behavior?” Brass growled. “I never heard about that before now.”