Luckily, most of Cassie’s rounds were uneventful, but that was not to say that they were fun or easy. They checked on the sentients first, but due to fear of listening devices or desperate sentients trying to give information to save their own skins, Hondo kept up his Hank impersonation even around them. It was hard not to give them some hope, but the mission was too delicate at the moment to chance it.
 
Playing Hank was easy. Though his face was different, his facial hair was longer and less trimmed up, and his hair color was lighter, no one seemed to notice. While the large sunglasses helped, from what he gathered, Hank was a lecherous bastard who drooled over Cassie, felt up Cassie in front of the other guards and techs to lord his assignment over them and make them jealous, and was a general dick to almost everyone. This made them avoid him mostly, and when they had to be around him, Cassie’s figure and skimpy outfit drew most of their attention, male or female.  
 
Though seeing how scared and banged up many of the sentients were was horrible, as they sat shivering in cages, stripped of their clothes and dignity, it only got worse from there. Seeing the sentients and not being able to help was hard, but harder still was seeing the changed and not being able to help, give them words of comfort, or hope of rescue. Though they were all human, most of them beyond perfect physically, seeing them made one’s blood run cold with despair. They were all depressed, without hope, and scared to death. That feeling hung thick in the room, so thick one could almost physically cut it with a knife. But that was not the worst yet, as things still went downhill from there.
 
 The ‘Ward of the Damaged’ as it was called was even worse. The place used to be prison cells, as locked iron-barred cells filled most of the room. Now, instead of criminals, the cells just locked up those who had tried to escape this horror by trying to end their lives. Many were like Vesper. Legs broken so they could not escape, bandaged wrists, and if they were lucky a paper gown to cover their bodies. Some were not even given that and some were bound to beds to they could not hurt themselves with just a sheet thrown over them. It was setup like some mental ward suicide watch area, but for dangerous criminals. Hondo had seen a few of those in his past, but this was far more horrific than any he had seen. Though there were some of the changed that were borderline crazy from the experiance, most were just broken individuals who could not find enough hope to live, whose minds just could not handle what had happened to them, or could not handle the thoughts of the fate that lie ahead.
 
The last area they visited on Cassie’s rounds were those who were going though ‘mental rehab’ as the staff called it, and there he was sure he had seen the worst of it. In reality it was mental reconditioning and programming. As much as the ‘Ward of the Damaged’ broke Hondo’s heart, this one made him equally as angry. As Cassie cared for those tied to beds, who trembled, sweated, and moaned from the pain they had endured and the poisonous drugs injected into their systems, others could be heard screaming in the background as electro shock and other forms of ‘therapy’ were applied to them to try to change their minds and personalities to fit their new owners’ specifications.  
 
Once done there they walked down a hall way, away from others, before Hondo said a word, but he was nearly exploding inside.
 
“What that #$@! was that?!” He nearly yelled.
 
Cassie looked around frantically but saw they were indeed alone.
 
“Shhh! Please, not so loud! You know what that was, and it is horrific, I know!” She exclaimed in a whisper.
 
“Horrific doesn’t begin to explain it! I read ‘bout it but this defies imagination!” He snarled
 
She hung her head, “I know.. and I’ve had to watch it helplessly, watch them be hurt and broken, endure my own torture, and know I was helpless to do nothing. … I hear their screams in my sleep and will for the rest of my life!”
 
She almost started to cry but a door opening at the far end of the hall startled her. She looked passed Hondo and then pushed him into a recessed doorway to hide.
 
“It’s your boss! .. Hank’s boss! He’ll know you aren’t Hank!” She whispered hurriedly in a scared tone.
 
“What do we do? If I take him out they will know somethin’ is wrong?!” He asked, more talking to himself at the moment.
 
She panted a bit from fear as she thought. Her eyes snapped up to meet his and she blushed a bit.
 
“You.. you have to be Hank!” She whispered in an urgent tone.
 
“What?” He asked, a puzzled look on his face.
 
“Be Hank! Uh, put your hand on my breast and the other between my legs and kiss me!” She whispered
 
He wanted to protest, but they were out of time. He put his hand between her legs and rested it on her thigh and placed the other on her breast as he leaned down and kissed her. She pulled back and gave him a bit of a scared and annoyed look.
 
“No! Grope me! Use me! Like Hank!” She whispered urgently.
 
She popped one of her breasts out of her dress so he could really grab a handful and shoved his hand up to her womanhood, as he leaned in and kissed her roughly. As the security manager approached, he shoved a finger into her vaginal opening, causing her to groan and moan at the same time.
 
The security manager stopped and looked at them with a look of disgust on his face.
 
“Damn it, Hank! Just because the Professor gives you a free hand with it doesn’t mean you can just take the poor thing where ever you want! ” He half yelled
 
Hondo let got of her breast long enough to flip him off, without skipping a beat otherwise.
 
“You are a #$@!ing prick, you know it. At least defile it in the locker room or something, next time. And you better be on break when you mess with her too!” The manager growled.
 
Hondo flipped him off again.
 
“Whatever. You’re the professor’s problem anyway! Just have your damn vacation request on me desk tomorrow if you still want it or you’re going to lose it as I am off for two weeks starting tomorrow night.” The manager said as he started to walk off.  
 
He did not wait for a reply, just walked off in disgust.
 
Hondo started to pull back once he was gone, but she pulled him back close, panting slightly again.
 
“No, stop!” She said breathily, “There are cameras in the hall. We come out now they will think something is wrong. And.. and I need a moment.”
 
She held onto him and laid her head on his chest as she stood there panting.
 
“You alright?” He asked softly.
 
She nodded, “Yeah… They.. they just made this body to be more sensitive in places. … If I’m touched I get easily excited… I have to wait after that or just walking can cause me to orgasm again I’m so sensitive.”
 
He frowned, “Another of their tweaks, eh?”
 
She nodded as she tried to calm her breathing.  
 
“#$@!ing bastards playin’ god.” He growled more to himself.
 
He had to admit to himself that he was torn on the idea of a woman being more sensitive to a man’s touch. It sounded good in theory, but the selfish reason behind it, and the manipulation of a living being as some customizable doll, to be made and sold like any merchandise, angered him to his core.
 
After a bit Cassie had settled down enough to fix herself up again and stow her snowy white globe back into her dress as well as she could.  
 
“I.. I think it should have been long enough to keep suspicion down.” She whispered.
 
“Has it been long enough for you?” He asked.
 
She shrugged, “Its hard to say. I’m not tingling so bad right now but I’m not fully relaxed either.”
 
“Do you need more time?” He asked as he looked down at her.
 
She looked up into his face and gave him this look of desire that surprised him a bit.
 
“I’m not sure time would matter. Just being with you stirs me. The way you touched me too, even though I know you were doing it because you had to, so they thought you were Hank, but your touch was so kind and gentle, yet so firm. So different from the cold, limp fish touch some give or the forceful, rough touch others give. I can say I’ve never been touched like that before. It gives me hope that someone could touch me and make me feel good without feeling dirty someday.” She said softly.
 
“Cassie, I hope you find that person someday, but…” He replied hesitantly.
 
She nodded, “I know. Save everyone first and then you have someone else to think about first. I know you’re not trying to lead me on, but I can’t help but wonder what your touch would be like if you actually wanted to touch me.”
 
He stared into her eyes a moment and smiled at her softly, “Maybe someday we’ll find out, but it can’t be today.”
 
She nodded again, “I understand… We’d better get to the specimen room.”
 
He nodded in reply. She turned and started down the hall again and he followed closely at her heals.  
 
To get there they had to cross the main court yard again and take a hall just a door down from where he had entered the facility the night before.  The hall they entered was dimly lit and smelled like a mortuary from the moment they entered it. If the stench of death and embalming fluids were not bad enough, a feeling of depression hung in the air and was felt by all who entered. Cassie leaned against Hondo as they walked down the hall, and he could feel her tremble.
 
“Don’t need a cold shower with this place here.” He said attempting levity to cut through the depression.
 
She nodded in agreement but the levity did not lessen the tension she felt, “If I was horny at all before, I’m not now.”
 
She stopped, pausing at the large door at the end of the hall, which contained several warning placards.  
 
She shook her head as she badged them in, “God, I hate this place.”
 
They entered the dark, cold room and she fumbled for a light switch. She soon found it and some ancient florescent lights flickered to life, adding to the creepy effect of the room. The walls were lined with shelves and several shelves stood in the center of the room. Some larger containers lined a back wall, but more of the containers were small enough to fit on bookshelves.
 
As Hondo looked around a sense of fear, anger and choking sorrow invaded him and threatened to overwhelm his emotions. This truly was the most horrific of the rooms, no doubt about it.
 
“Gadget was a mouse so we need to go to the far right. They store rodents there.” She said in a somber voice, looking down as they walked.  
 
 She stopped short and pointed where he needed to go.
 
“Far end should be the newest… I.. I can’t make myself go down there today… My kind.. the kind I used to be, are down there too and I just can’t…” She stopped and swallowed hard, trying not to get emotional.
 
He gave her shoulder a squeeze and nodded, “Wait here.”
 
He walked down the row of jars and worked his jaw angrily. Some were deformed but many had not gotten even that far. There were several sentient mouse bodies there and some of them could have been Gadgets cousins and one could have even been a sister from the look of her, but he was fairly sure it was not her. The date on the jar was from four months before, which confirmed it, but it did not make he feel less angry on uneasy. He sighed a bit in reliefs as none in the right date range could have been her, but there was still the possibility that they did not keep her. Cassie said they did not keep all of them, but he was fairly sure, given Gadgets rare genius, that they would have kept her if they knew who she was.
 
The sight of the bodies was horrific to say the least though. Many of the sentient were anthropomorphic looking creatures, so the jars looked like those of miniature humans, almost. All of them had been alive, and had a lives filled with dreams, hopes, loves, fears, defeats, and triumphs before this. Now they floated, bereft of life, in dust gathering jars. He had known of the sentients for only a small part of his life now, but in that short time, a few of the sentients he had made good friends with, like Gadget. Most humans did not know of them, and if they did many would see them as only animals and have no feelings about this sight. To him, though, he was witnessing not only a genocide, but what appeared to be a trophy cases of the lives tragically cut short by these mad men. He unfortunately recognized a few that he dealt with in passing, but none that he called friend. Still, he could imagine his friends among their numbers and it only made him sicker and angrier inside. Though he knew Cassie said that many died from the process, he knew many more lived, which might be worse for them than if they had died, given what lives most of them had to face. The sheer number in this room alone, and this being not the only facility, though it was the main facility, he believed, made it all the more tragic.
 
He sighed with frustration and anger as he stood there looking at the horrors before him. His stomach churned a bit from the sight and his own thoughts and emotions. This was unacceptable, and he knew had to stop this and soon. He walked quickly back to Cassie and grabbed her arm, barely slowing down enough for her to get into pace with him.
 
“I need to get out of here.” He said in a cold, flat tone as he nearly half drug her with him.  
 
Once out of the room he stopped and breathed in deep trembling breaths as he tried to control his own emotions. Cassie shut off the light and shut the door before stopping in front of him.
 
“It’s not safe here. We need to get back to the cell.” She said
 
He nodded without saying anything and followed her back to the cell he had met her in, where Hank lay still out cold in his medically induced sleep.
 
She shut the door and sighed, “We’re safe here. No cameras in this room.”
 
“That was #$@!ing horrible!” Hondo snarled as he thought about the specimen room.  
 
She bowed her head and nodded, “It’s indescribable… First time I was made to go in there I freaked out and cried for days. They beat me and beat me for it, trying to force me to stop and do my job but I couldn’t! … They.. they nearly beat me to death before I could stop… I think I only stopped because I ran out of tears though.”
 
Her voice had a deep sadness that could only come from experiencing true tragedy. Though he knew he could never fathom the depths of what she felt, he was beginning to understand it much better.  
 
“You.. you never told me what your kind was.” Hondo said, trying to change the subject a bit.
 
She crossed her arms, across her breasts, defensively and hung her head, as if the thought hurt her.
 
“It doesn’t matter.” She said quietly.
 
He frowned, “Sorry if that’s a bad subject.”
 
She shook her head, “Don’t apologize, please. It’s just.. I can’t go back and thinking about it makes me feel more of a stranger to myself, so I have trouble talking about it.”
 
He nodded but said nothing as he did not know what to say, so he stood there silently. As he looked at her he could see her fighting tears, so he walked up to her and grabbed her arm gently and reassuringly. She leaned into him and just rested against him. She wanted to cry but she knew it would serve to help no one. She would wait to cry until he got her out of there. Once out she would let it all out, but not until then.
 
After several minutes she pulled away from him and fixed herself.
 
“We need to get ready for the transport. They will have you help move him to the upper deck before you clock out. Best you can do is take Hanks truck and leave, as if you are him.”
 
She handed him a set of keys.
 
“What does he drive? Dodge, I take it from the keys.” He said.
 
“I don’t know, exactly. I was told it was a grey diesel pickup. I heard it was all jacked or something like that.” She said
 
“Jacked up, maybe?” He asked
 
“Yeah, that was it!” She exclaimed.
 
“What happens then? Won’t they wonder when he doesn’t come in tomorrow?” He asked.
 
She nodded and answered hesitantly, “They will, but since it wasn’t here, maybe they won’t panic so bad.”
 
Her lack of conviction in that statement worried him a bit, but there was little he could do about it now.
 
Soon the transport guards came and he was to escort them out. As they exited she grabbed his arm and looked up at him.
 
“Please come back for us.” She whispered
 
He nodded, “I will.”
 
He followed them out and walked with them to a white panel van fixed up to look like a basic delivery truck on the outside. Inside, though it was lined with bullet proofing, a gun rack, various sophisticated electronics, and human restraining devices. They laid the litter on the floor, in the walk way, and locked Hank’s ankles and one wrist into restraints to be on the safe side.
 
“Tell the prof he will be in Africa within 24 hours.” The one guard said.  
 
Hondo grunted and nodded, giving the guard an irritated look. The guard just nodded back and hopped into the truck. As soon as it was gone Hondo sighed a sigh of relief and walked back towards the underground entrance, where he had seen a timeclock as he came out.  
 
He walked over to the time clock and swiped his badge. The option came up on the screen to clock out or choose another option. He pressed the clock out and it gave him a ‘submitted’ reply. He was about to turn away when a voice called out behind him that made his blood run cold. It was a grating, whiny voice, and he was sure he was found out.
 
“So, the nut is finally gone? That’s a relief.” Professor Nimnul said.
 
He half turned, trying not to face him directly, but trying not to appear as if he was ignoring him either.
 
He nodded and half mumbled, “Yeah. He’s gone. #$@!ing nut job.”
 
Nimnul looked out at the distance and nodded, seeming not to notice anything unusual yet.
 
“Good! The last thing this operation needs is more nuts causing us trouble! I’ve got the board down on me as is and they say the boss is about to blow a gasket! … Speaking of the boss, you hear from your uncle recently?” Nimnul asked hesitantly.
 
“Uncle?” Hondo asked
 
“Yes, your uncle? Uncle Klordane? You know him, the reason you have the job you have??” Nimnul asked in an annoyed tone.
 
It clicked with Hondo then, why Hank had the job he did. Aldrin Klordane was his uncle! He had heard from Gadget about him, it was the case that brought the rangers together, but last he knew he was pulling three consecutive life sentences. Was he running this from jail, then?
 
Hondo coughed lightly and nodded, “*cough*, OH, yeah. Uncle Al. Been a couple weeks but plan to talk to him soon.”
 
He tried to keep his voice low, gruff, and a bit gravelly. He had heard Hank only speak one sentence but he was not sure it was enough to get even close to how he talked.
 
“Something wrong with your voice?” Nimnul asked.
 
“No. Nothin’s wrong with it! You implin’ somethin’?!” He asked in a pissed off tone.
 
“No, no! I didn’t mean anything by it! Just wanted to make sure you were well! Got to watch out for my old friends Nephew!” He said in over exuberant tone.
 
“That’s what I thought.” Hondo replied in a flat, annoyed tone.
 
“Remember to give your uncle my love and tell him how good I’m doing for him! And if you need anything, remember to come to me!” Nimnul said exuberantly again.
 
Hondo merely nodded and walked off towards the parking lot. After he turned away, he heard Nimnul mumbling something about wishing Hank would crawl off and die somewhere, which made him just smile to himself. It made him worry, though too. If Hank was missing, would Klordane panic and shut everything down? And how was he running things from prison?? And who else was involved???
 
Hondo pondered on all this as he walked. He looked around a moment, but it did not take long to find the truck in question. A late 90’s four-door grey diesel truck, jacked up, with stacks, a rebel flag with a skull in it on the back window, and naked girl silhouettes plastered everywhere, sat in the middle of the parking lot, which was all covered in a camo net awning to make it look from above like nothing was there. He walked up to the truck and walked around it once. It had a grill guard with a winch, large off-road tires, and home-made running boards on it. The inside had been redone, custom, which could not have been cheap, and a bunch of hunting gear filled the back seat. It was all over done in a flamboyant redneck/white-trash/hill-billie with money style, but if toned down, it could be a decent truck.  As he climbed in he noticed the floorboard was filled with empty energy drink and cheap light beer cans. The truck smelled like beer sweat, animal blood, and rotting gas station food. The nudie dash calendar had several dates highlighted with the words ‘Hunting Trip’ written beside them. That was eleven days away.
 
After sitting for a bit and looking things over, he fired up the truck and let it sit and idle for a moment as he thought. Heading home now would not get them the information they needed. An idea started to form in his mind and he chewed on it as he shoved the transmission into first gear, eased out on the clutch, and crawled out of the parking lot.  He knew the first thing he had to do was find Monty and Meredith. He hoped at least one of them were still by the Bronco, but he knew there was no guarantee of that. He drove off towards town, before circling back around to the dirt road that came up behind the facility property.  
 
Once on the dirt road again, he stopped short of the area the Bronco was parked at and walked in, carefully on foot. Once there he found the Bronco, untouched, but did not see Monty, Meredith, or Meredith’s plane anywhere around. He swore to himself as he took off the sunglasses and beret and threw them on the Bronco’s seat. About then he heard a questioning voice.
 
“Hondo?” A familiar voice said.  
 
He looked around at first before he saw Monty on a tree branch about three feet from his head.
 
“Monty? What the #$@! you doin’ there?” He asked
 
“Core-blimey, it is you! I didn’t recognize ya at first, an’ without the ‘at it was still ‘ard!” Monty exclaimed.
 
“Yeah, I ran into some issues an’ sorta lost it.” Hondo replied sheepishly.
 
“Lost it? What ‘appened, skippah?” Monty asked in a worried tone.
 
Hondo shrugged, “Got careless, I reckon. Decided to go try to find the locked-up sentient an’ I triggered a booby trap, got gassed, an’ captured.”
 
“At least ya escaped, mate!” Monty replied
 
Hondo shook his head, “Didn’t escape, really. Had some help from a pretty, but troubled lady who’s a prisoner there.”
 
Monty raised an eyebrow, “Ya don’t say? Come on, skippah, out with it! I know there’s more to it then that!”
 
Hondo sighed and shook his head, “Not sure you want to hear everythin’… it’s bad in there, Monty, really bad… With help I knocked out a guard and have been pretendin’ to be him. I’m guardin’ that gal. She was a sentient doctor. Now she’s a medical helper and sex slave for the doctors and the professor who’s leadin’ them.”
 
Monty cussed, “Strewth an’ bullocks!! Ya gotta be #$@!in’ yankin’ me damned leg!”
 
Hondo shook his head, “No, an’ it gets worse.”
 
“How can it get worse?” Monty asked hesitantly.
 
“What I saw was.. beyond horrible. The changed there, they are all like Vesper was when I found her if not worse. The sentients are just kept in a filthy cage with nothin’, no clothes no food, little water. It’s an actual hamster cage with some wood shavin’s in it.” Hondo replied
 
“An’ ya didn’t save them?!” Monty asked angrily.
 
“The gal that helped me, Cassie, she said they are talkin’ of killin’ them all, changed or not if I interfere again. She said somethin’ like that an’ all the changed would have been murdered on the spot.” Hondo replied grimly.
 
Monty sighed and shook his head, “Stewth.”
 
“The specimen room I had to go in was…” He paused as he shook his head angrily.
 
“What, skippah?” Monty asked warily.
 
“Cassie said they drain a lot of blood out of the sentient so they can fill their veins with serum to make the change faster. It also triples the mortality rate.” Hondo said angrily.
 
Monty swallowed angrily and clenched his fists, “So the specimen room is..??”
 
“If you are guess it’s worse than you can imagine. Racks of jars with bodies of the sentient that didn’t live. A huge room full an’ I’m told they don’t keep them all!” Hondo replied sharply.
 
“How many?!?” Monty asked through clenched teeth.
 
Hondo sighed, “Way more than we thought… It gets worse, though.”
 
“How can it get worse, mate?!?!? You’re sayin’ the bloody genocide of my kind is happenin’ an’ it gets worse?!?!” Monty roared.
 
Hondo looked at him with a cold looked that almost made Monty’s heart stop.
 
“I don’t know who in the government is behind it, but a couple of your old enemies are at the forefront.” He said slowly and coldly.
 
“Who?” Monty asked
 
“I don’t even know how it’s possible, but..” Hondo started to say before Monty interrupted him.
 
“Damn it, Mate, who?!” He asked in an exasperated tone.
 
“Norton Nimnul and Aldrin Klordane.” Hondo said flatly.
 
“What?!? That’s impossible! Nimnul was in an insane asylum last I heard, an’ Klordane is doin’ life sentences!!” Monty exclaimed
 
“I don’t know how, but they are behind this! Furthermore, they know of the sentients now for sure and they are takin’ them out, all of them!” Hondo growled.