The Cat’s Eyes

A “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” story

By Kelly Haycock and Ono

Colonel White sat behind his desk waiting. Lieutenant Green kept looking about expectantly. "Where have they got to?" he asked.

"They'll be here soon, don't worry, lieutenant," White answered calmly, while staring out the door.

A noise outside betrayed the arrival of the very men they were expecting and Green smiled, visibly relaxing.

White looked at him, "You see? There they are. Right on time as well," he said, regarding the clock on his panel.

The walkway in front of the communications console Green was manning started to move and Captains Blue and Scarlet appeared in the room.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," White said, pressing a button on his desk, rising up two stools for the officers to sit on. "Lieutenant Green was getting worried," he continued. "He thought you wouldn't make it on time!"

The pair smiled. "Lieutenant, you should know by now, we're very rarely late. I don't remember the last time actually," Blue said.

Scarlet looked round at Green. "I think the only time either of us will be late to a mission debriefing is if Cloudbase is under attack or one of us isn't here!"

"Well, there's a positive thought!" Green said, getting back to his work.

"Anyway, I trust the mission was successful?" White said, getting back to the point.

"Yes, sir. We were able to stop the Mysterons from carrying out their threat of renewing the English currency," Blue said.

Scarlet sighed. "We were almost too late. It took us so long to figure out they meant the Queen that we almost didn't arrive in time! One of her chauffeurs had been taken and was trying to drive her into the side of Buckingham Palace rather than out of the grounds and to their Gala evening."

"Well, you made it, that's one thing I can say for sure," White said, smiling at the two.

"I'm still not entirely sure what they meant, though," Green said, looking up again.

"If the Queen had been killed, the English currency would have been renewed. They would have had to change all the coins and notes to update them on the arrival of the new Monarch. That would also mean that anyone due for the throne would think twice. They wouldn't want to be a Mysteron target, now would they?" Blue said.

Green looked at him a little blankly then nodded. "Right." He continued on with his work.

"Right." Colonel White leaned in towards his loyal agents, "While you were out thwarting another Mysteron threat, Spectrum intelligence found something very interesting."

"And that is?" Scarlet asked, plainly.

"A Mysteron research lab, or what is identified as one, from our sources it is an active centre and that something out of the ordinary is going on there."

"Begging your pardon sir, but with the Mysterons, everything is out of the ordinary." Blue sniggered at his companion’s rather flat humour.

White raised an eyebrow, "Thank you for pointing that out Scarlet."

"Anyway, what's going on with this research lab?" Blue asked. He wanted to know if it involved them leaping into action once more.

"Well, we don't know, but we want to take the direct approach, other methods of being veiled out of sight have proved useless, the idea is to go in and confront them."

The two officers exchanged glances. "So, do you want us... to...?" Blue trailed off, his voice full of hope.

"Yes, Captain, I want you to go in. Scarlet, you too."

"Just us two?" Blue asked looking from Scarlet back to their Colonel.

"No, you will be rounding up Ochre, Grey and Magenta to go with you, your mission is to blow up the lab, you must destroy their work, everything they do is a plot against planet Earth...and we must defend against it, you will leave at eight tomorrow morning, dismissed."

Blue and Scarlet stood up and walked out passing Green who had a worried look on his face, he was concerned about what the Captain's might end up encountering while down there.

Scarlet caught the look Green had given them. As soon as he realised he'd been spotted; Green turned away and busied himself with adjusting labels on various buttons.

"D'you think he knows something we don't?" Scarlet asked quietly as they exited the room.

"Don't be so paranoid, Paul," Blue responded lightly. "He's probably just annoyed that he's not coming."

Scarlet looked back at the lieutenant as the doors shut. "If you say so."

Ochre and Magenta were sat in the officer's lounge with their feet up while listening to some music. Behind them, Destiny Angel, off duty from both the Interceptor and Amber room shifts, was sat by the window reading.

"I'm so-"

"Ochre, I swear, if you say you're bored once more, I'll throw you off the observation deck!" Magenta said, smiling.

Ochre grinned back. "No I was just gonna say, uh... I was gonna say..."

"Afternoon, boys," Blue said from the door.

"Captain Blue!" Ochre said, getting up and walking over, thankful for the distraction. "I didn't realise you were off duty!"

"We're not," Scarlet said, joining them. "We're looking for you, Magenta," he nodded at the pink-clad agent in the room, "and Grey."

"Dunno where he is, he's about somewhere though."

"I last saw him on the promenade deck," a French-accented voice said.

"When was that, Destiny?" Blue asked, looking over at her.

"About an hour ago."

"What about me? Aren't you looking for me?" Ochre was practically begging in his words, "I need some excitement, I'm..."

"Don't say it!" Magenta warned, gritting his teeth.

Ochre smiled, a very cheeky one at that, "...bored!"

Magenta stood up, "Right..."

Scarlet kept a straight face the whole time, not like everyone else in the room, "Alright, save your little fun and games till later, we need to find Grey."

Grey was still on the promenade deck, just as Destiny had reported. They hadn't expected to find him fast asleep with his head against the table.

Ochre and Magenta grinned and walked forward, stopping one on either side of their colleague. They crouched down, both knowing what the other was thinking simply by their mischievous grins.

"WAKEY, WAKEY GREY!" they both yelled.

Grey jumped literally from his chair, knocking it over behind him then stumbled and landed next to it.

"Okay, we meant get up," Ochre said as Grey slumped up onto his knees.

"Thanks you two, I nearly had heart failure."

They sniggered as the man got up dusting down his uniform, looking tired and dismayed they had disturbed his slumber.

"Sorry your royal laziness, but you are required on a mission," Magenta informed.

Grey yawned as he spoke, "Oh...I am."

"Yeah, Sleeping Beauty now lets report our butts down to the hanger before Scarlet stomps a mud hole and walks it dry." Ochre grabbed Grey's arm and dragged him forward; his pace limbered slightly.

Scarlet was pacing about outside the promenade deck. "Look, will you stop doing that! All we're doing is going in and laying charges!"

"That's not the point! They're deliberately taking their time!" he snapped.

"Whoa, calm down Paul!" Blue said holding up his hands; "They're mucking about! That's what they do, get used to it."

Scarlet shook his head. "I'll never get used to them." The other three officers walked out, two of them grinning, the third yawning. "Ah, finally."

"Ready to go blow up some Mysteron ass?" Blue said, grinning.

The SPJ had been loaded up with the equipment they needed and made lift off clearance at the scheduled time.

Scarlet flew, co-piloted by Blue with the other three Spectrum agents sat behind on corresponding seats.

"I hope this doesn't take long," Ochre moaned, Blue turned his head slightly and gave a smile to him.

"It's in the North of Kansas City, it won't take us long I assure you, we'll be there in no time at all."

"You shouldn't say things like that! Something bad is bound to happen now!" Ochre retorted.

"Always the optimist!" Magenta said, smirking.

"Ok, ok, you two! We'll be there soon," Blue said, looking out the window.

The plane soared swiftly away from Cloudbase and flew progressively lower until finally levelling off and making their way towards Kansas City.

The lab was built on a vast area of land, practically dried up by the heat and destroyed by the freak weather that emanated from Tornado Alley, that was no further than a couple a miles to the east.

It was a large square building, two floors of deep dark dusty confinements.

The SPJ circled over ahead, looking over the site, the place would have looked abandoned but only naive people would believe that.

"Take us within a safe distance on the west side, Scarlet," Blue said directing the landing path.

Scarlet nodded and started to make the plane descend, flying it round before finally performing a perfect landing, the plane touching down with little more than a bump.

"Right. Now we all know what to do," Scarlet said, turning in his seat to face the others in the rear of the plane.

"Yes, we know! Go in, lay charges, get out, fry Mysteron butts!" Ochre said, slightly annoyed that they were being reminded yet again.

"Ok then, let's go!" Blue said, smiling.

They leapt out the door of the plane and headed over towards the facility, keeping a watchful eye out for any Mysteron threat.

The main door to the lab was sealed up tight, but a few blows to the lock panel threw it open.

The five men walked in, guns poised, carrying packs of deadly explosive charges.

Scarlet listened to the loud sounds of hums that croaked out through the ventilation shafts.

Blue turned to his companions, holstering his gun for the time being "Okay, Magenta and Ochre are with me, we'll take the north corridor, Scarlet, you and Grey take the south."

Scarlet nodded and he turned on his heel followed by grey down into one of the long dark routes.

Blue nodded at the other two, "Come on, let’s go."

The two teams separated off, their ears picking out any noises and their eyes constantly darting about for movement.

Blue stopped suddenly. "Did you guys hear that?" he asked, looking about.

They, too, stopped and listened. "I can't hear anything," Magenta said. "You must be hearing things, Blue."

Captain Blue frowned. "I was sure I heard something," he said, quietly. "Oh well." He shrugged it off and they continued on further down the corridor.

Scarlet and Grey had arrived at an inter-section, which turned off on about two other different routes.

On the side panel against an opposing wall was a main power box, beeping away nearly silently in its full perfect running order.

Scarlet opened up his case of explosives and motioned Grey to help him fix one up to the terminal, they thought it might be a possible point of power to the whole building and would be a pinnacle point of destruction.

"One laid," Scarlet noted and then took a turn down a left corridor which lead to a small room filled with boxed up equipment, a mixture of medical and basic science.

Grey joined him, having been left to close up the tightly packed bag of charges, and looked about. "What d'you think they do in here?"

"I don't know," Scarlet replied. "But I don't like it."

They stepped further into the room and looked about. There was a great deal of equipment in there, but mostly it was in storage.

Blue, Ochre and Magenta had got much further into the building, having found nothing of any interest to their mission.

"How much further are we gonna go in?" Magenta asked.

"As far as we have to," Ochre replied.

"Just come on, the sooner we lay all our charges, the sooner we're out of here," Blue said, shuddering. "This place gives me the creeps," he added quietly to himself.

"Here we are," Magenta said as they came up to a small room filled with glowing machines, it was the generator room, the whole power source to the lab.

The three began to unpack their charges hooking some up to the panels and heading through another door into a twin room with smaller controls in, doing the same thing.

Blue then heard a creaking noise, he turned his head looking around, past his fellow Spectrum Captain's the door way and each accessible corner of the room; things were getting uneasy.

“Blue, I swear you're getting paranoid," Ochre said, noticing how his hand had edged towards his pistol.

"I'm not paranoid," he said, quietly, his blue eyes scanning the room. "There's something here. We're not alone."

The air was thick; they whipped their guns out and scanned the room for any presence.

Then for a moment Blue could feel the air turn cold, the hairs on his neck standing to attention, instinctively he looked up, then wishing he hadn't as they were pounced on from above.

Three strong Mysterons had jumped from the rafters above them. Magenta and Ochre had had enough time to fire shots at their oncoming assailants but Blue wasn't so lucky. His attacker had kicked his weapon from his hand. Blue saw it skid across the floor but was quick to move out the way of a blow coming in his direction. The Mysteron yelled out as he punched the wall instead of his intended target Magenta and Ochre had both received blows from their attackers but they found that they were just being held back rather than being killed.

The lead Mysteron grabbed Blue and swung him against one of the metal panels, the sound of his body smashing against it rippled in angry waves through the whole room; the blonde man fell down, dazed, unable to get back to his feet.

Magenta and Ochre were down and out; their attackers had put them out for a while, then turned back to their leader.

"Disarm those charges, take those two outside." He turned back to Blue who he kicked in the back of his head, rendering him unconscious, "Take this one to Black, we have plans for him."

Scarlet and Grey had made their way to a few rooms, planting their explosives as they went.

Grey was at that moment fixing a charge to a console when Scarlet nearly collapsed, a wave of nausea sweeping him.

Grey looked at him, but before he had a chance to speak, he heard footsteps coming their way.

They ducked down behind some boxes as two people rounded the corner dragging two familiar figures.

"That's Magenta and Ochre!" Grey said, starting to get up. Scarlet put a hand on his sleeve and pulled him back down.

"Wait!"

They remained crouched behind the boxes, Scarlet swaying slightly as the group approached.

The Mysterons passed and Scarlet felt his head return to what passed as normal.

"They had Ochre and Magenta, Scarlet! Where's Blue?" Grey said, getting up and looking about desperately.

"Easy, Grey," Scarlet said, getting up too. "We'll find him."

Blue began to wake from his unwanted slumber; the entire back portion of his head throbbed wildly with a discomforting tingle.

The base of his back was stinging, and various other areas on his body was warped over with pain.

When he finally had some sense back again, he realised he couldn't move his arms and legs, they were tied down onto a table, one like in an operating theatre.

He lifted his head to look around and down at the predicament he was in, hoping he could quickly think of a way out.

"There is no way you can escape." A figure came from a shadowy corner.

"I know that voice," he said to himself, then peered over at the person, clenching his fists hard, the knuckles turning a sharp white.

Captain Black moved fully out of the shadows to be stood next to Captain Blue, a former colleague before that fateful expedition to Mars.

"You, Captain Blue, are our prisoner. You will not escape. We have been waiting for you to come."

"Waiting for me?" Blue repeated quietly, frowning.

Black ignored the confusion Blue was showing and turned to some controls.

Blue started fidgeting to try and loosen his restraints, but was unsuccessful.

"If I were you, Captain Blue," Black said without looking up, "I'd make myself comfortable, you're going to be here for quite a while." He flicked a few switches and pulled some levers then turned back round. "We knew if we made it obvious to you that we were here you'd come running."

"What are you talking about?" Blue snapped.

"You, my foolish friend, have walked into a trap.”

"WHAT!" Blue struggled even more than before, "What do you want from me?"

"A little co-operation, if not, this little test of ours is going to be rather messy."

"Test? What are you up to?"

"You have been chosen to test out our little project, which we call X2L9."

"What's that?"

"Something we have created from animal matter, it's an interesting experiment; we want to see the results."

"I don't understand what you’re talking about, but whatever it is, I know I'm not going to do as you say."

"You will do..." He smiled, a very evil gesture over his power as some men and women dressed in lab coats emerged, focused on Blue.

When Ochre came to, he found himself lying in a dusty heap on the floor outside the facility. Magenta was beside him, but still unconscious.

He leaned over and shoved him. "Magenta!" His companion stirred, raising a hand to his head. "Magenta, wake up!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake, please don't shout!" Magenta said, slowly sitting up.

"Blue's still in there! They took him!" Ochre said, getting up.

"What?" Magenta looked about then realised it was just the two of them. Just the two that is, until they saw two figures emerging from the entrance and running in their direction.

"Captain Magenta!" a voice called out.

"Captain Ochre?" the other yelled.

The dusty pair exchanged glances. "Captain Scarlet! Captain Grey!" Ochre shouted.

They ran over to meet them. "They've got Captain Blue!" Magenta said angrily. "Those sons of bitches have still got him!"

"All right, easy, Magenta," Scarlet said. "We'll get him back in one piece."

Inside the main lab, Blue had been drugged to make him calm down, his reactions to everything had slowed down, and his mind slurred and everything he thought about drifted over and over.

The scientists had removed his clothes dumping them out the way, while they hooked up wires to some monitors stationed in the room, connected up to all the main areas of his body.

Then they heard an alarm go off, a female scientist turned to Black absently, "They have passed perimeter one."

"Lock down the emergency system," he said, she complied, pressing a button on a power console.

By doing this, thick metal barriers fell in place of the normal flimsy doors, blocking off all ways the Spectrum agents could get to their friend.

Black looked back at her, "Good, they are out of the way for now, what specimen has been chosen for our animal endowment?"

"Specimen X5, sir," she replied, nodding to another person near her. He nodded and pulled a small, sedated cat from a cage nearby and showed it to their superior.

"This creature will do fine! And will make for some interesting changes to our friend here," he said, referring to the unconscious Spectrum agent. He ran a hand down the back of the creature. "Yes, this specimen will do fine. You may begin.”

She picked up the cat and placed it on a near by tray, taking a needle and taking some of its blood, measuring it up then taking the bottom tube off and adding it to the X2L9 formula that had been stored in a cooling tank.

She added it to another needle case and injected the serum into Blue's arm, he whined in pain letting out a barely audible cry.

She turned to her fellow scientists who were graphing up the cat’s DNA pattern, its structure of cells and many other important systems.

Once all the aspects were taken, a machine was directed over Blue, emitting the copied patterns of the cat’s over him, being integrated into his body.

Scarlet kicked the metal barrier that now stood in the place of the door they'd previously used to gain entry.

"Now how are we gonna get in?" Grey said, looking about.

"There's gotta be some way!" Ochre said.

"I suggest we contact Colonel White. He may have some suggestions," Scarlet said, his mike swinging down.

The others nodded in agreement, "This Captain Scarlet, to Colonel White."

"Go ahead, Scarlet," the deep voice responded.

"Blue has been taken by the Mysterons, we don't know what they are planning but they have blocked off our path, there are no routes, all ways have been sealed with thick steel."

"There maybe some cutting gear in the SPJ, use it the best you can, it may take a while but there are no other alternatives."

"SIG, sir." Scarlet's voice trailed, thinking he could be already too late to save his friend.

Inside the laboratory, the Mysterons’ test subject was still unconscious. Scientists were milling around, monitoring his condition and readjusting wires and such.

Black was prowling round the outer edge of the room watching with interest. "What sort of effects do you anticipate our serum will have on him?" he asked the female scientist.

"Many sir, the effects will change many things of the human structure." She was reading some scan dictations on her clipboard, "He will be a much evolved human form, still looking as he does but being able to show of new traits."

"Like?"

"He'll be faster, more agile, flexible, stronger and his senses will be much more powerful, of course his mind will integrate the cat traits into his human ones, his thoughts and feeling will proximate on desires and other animal instinct...also he will be able to transform..."

"Transform? What do you mean?"

She looked nervously at him. "Transform. As in take on the form of a cat."

"I see," he said, looking over at their captive.

Blue groaned and moved his head. "He's coming round," the scientist said, putting down her clipboard and going over to him.

He opened his eyes and looked about, feeling very disorientated and still very much under the influence of the drugs. "Where am I?" he said slowly then saw who his company was. "You! Let me go! What have you done to me?"

Black said nothing, but smiled evilly.

Blue was in a state of frenzy, at first feeling all the fears and hate run through him before a sudden jolt of new emotions and senses ravaged his brain, he screamed out in pain.

Black smiled even more, the plan was going smoothly so far, but this wasn't going to be his day.

Blue began pulling at his restraints that had seemed to have become weaker to him than before, he tore away the ones on his arms, making the whole group back away in shock.

"What the...?" Black watched Blue get free and give the most inhuman roar that anyone had ever heard; he scared even himself.

He held his head, he didn't know what was happening to him, but his first thought was to lay one into Black.

Magenta and Ochre were hard at work cutting through the thick steel dividing that separated them from their colleague while Grey and Scarlet were planning how they'd get Blue out.

"Scarlet! We're nearly through!" Magenta yelled. Scarlet turned to them.

"Good work, Magenta," he said. "Wait a minute." He looked up, seeing something. "What's that coming towards us?"

The others looked up. "My God! It's Blue!" Ochre said.

The lab Blue had previously been held in was now torn up, like it had been made up of thinnest of paper.

The scientists lay in heaps across the floor, all had faced an encounter with the much-enhanced man/cat, Black smiled through a bloodied face, "What strength...the power was beautiful...all the work lies here!"

His smile faltered when he realised the computers had been smashed up, half the experimental work gone, he growled.

Blue was tired and half way down the corridor fell to his knees, he panted heavily, feeling he was going to pass out.

"We're through!" Magenta yelled, scrambling to his feet.

The others followed him through the gap they'd made and ran over to where Blue now lay.

"Adam!" Scarlet yelled, dropping to his knees and skidding to a halt next to him.

Blue looked up at him. "Paul?"

"It's ok, Adam. We're gonna get you out of here, don't worry."

"I feel so strange..." He coughed a few times. Scarlet looked at his arm, it was bruised with a small pinprick in the centre of the mark.

"He's been injected with something," Scarlet said. "That must be why he feels and looks so unwell. When I find out what they did to him, I'll-"

"Whoa, Scarlet! We can't do anything till we get him back to Cloudbase, he needs to see Dr Fawn right away!" Magenta said.

Scarlet let Blue lean against him while he helped him to his feet, there was a sudden rumbling under foot and a computerised voice spoke out, "Warning, power surge in the main frame, pressure level 2 decimals above normal. Explosion imminent."

"We've got to get out of here, quick!" Ochre nearly shouted.

"Way ahead of you!" Magenta said, running off the start up the plane.

Scarlet, with Blue by his side, made his way as swiftly as was possible for them to the SPJ with Ochre and Grey running ahead of them when suddenly a mighty explosion erupted behind them, knocking them over.

"Get a move on!" Scarlet yelled to the others who were ahead of him. "Come on, Adam, we're nearly there!"

Then Blue did something that surprised Scarlet. He suddenly seemed to sense how close the danger was to them and was instantly alert. It was as though someone had flicked a switch in him. His eyes snapped wide open and his ears pricked up. Before Scarlet realised what was going on, Blue had grabbed him and flung him over his shoulder and was tearing towards the Spectrum jet at an unbelievably fast rate.

Once safely inside, Grey slammed the door shut and Magenta affected a take off.

Blue looked about, a tired but embarrassed look on his face.

Scarlet was shocked as Blue put him down, he stared at him with wide and astonished eyes, and Blue’s face went completely red.

"Don't look at me like that Paul and hand me a blanket."

He nodded, retrieving one from the first aid cupboard, handing it to the blonde American who sat down with it around him tight.

Scarlet sat down next to Captain Grey but was unable to remove his gaze from Blue, uneasy as he felt.

"Paul, please! I asked you once! Stop looking at me like I'm some sort of freak!"

"How did you do that?" Scarlet asked.

"Do what?" Blue replied.

"I knew you were fast but that was just ridiculous! And there's no way that you'd be able to pick me up under normal circumstances. I'm not exactly light."

Blue looked back at him. "What?"

"Adam, what did they do to you in there?"

"Look, I don't know, really I don't!" There was fear in the eyes of Captain Blue, much more than Scarlet had ever seen before, "I feel so strange and I can't explain it...oh god!"

He covered his face, like he was trying to hide it from his friends, who were concerned for him deeply.

Back on Cloudbase, Blue had been taken straight to the Sickbay with all four of his companions in tow.

"Will you all just get out of the way and let me attend to him?" Dr Fawn yelled as he tripped over Captain Grey for a third time. "I will let you know of any developments, ok?" He looked at each of them in turn until they nodded. "Alright. Now. Get. Out."

Colonel White stood looking out the window near his revolving desk. "Sir? Are you alright?" Green asked timidly.

White turned. "I'm sorry?"

"You've been staring out of that window since the team arrived back."

"I've been thinking about the Mysterons. First they take over Black, then create replicas of Brown and Scarlet and now they've done something to Blue."

Green remained silent, not knowing what to say, leaving White to return his gaze to the clouds outside.

Green leaned his elbows onto his desk when a pale brown light began flashing on the Colonel's desk.

White walked over to it, nearly breaking the button as he answered. "Any news Fawn?"

"I think you'd better come take a look at this, sir," came the Australian man's reply

They did so; going to see Blue who was lying under a scanner, the good doctor checking the results.

"Colonel, there is no physical damage, and mostly on the inside I couldn't detect anything until I took my scans onto the molecular level and I found some strange patterns."

"Strange Patterns? How so?"

"They are inhuman."

"Inhuman? What do you mean, 'inhuman'?" White asked, tilting his head as Scarlet walked back in.

"I mean that he has been somehow altered. His DNA pattern now includes that of a feline."

"What does this mean?"

"We don't know yet. It will mean changes in his behaviour and abilities."

"Like being able to run faster, being more alert and being stronger," Scarlet mused quietly to himself.

"What was that Captain?" White asked, looking at him.

"When Blue got out of the facility and it exploded, it was as though some sort of animal instinct took over in him. He was able to pick me up and run faster than I've ever seen anyone run before."

"My god..." the Colonel said under his breath, then he cleared his throat, "Keep me up to date on your tests."

"Yes, sir," Fawn said watching the Colonel leave, only Scarlet and Fawn standing next to the shocked Captain Blue.

"It's impossible, what the heck...? How can I have feline DNA in my body?"

Before Fawn could answer there was a small voice calling through the door, "Adam."

Symphony Angel stood looking worriedly at Blue who leant up, "Karen?"

"I'll leave you alone for a minute. But don't strain yourself or anything," Fawn said.

"Oh, come on, Fawn! It's not like I'm ill!"

Fawn shook his head. "We don't know that yet." He turned to his companion. "Come on, Scarlet."

"Coming." Scarlet looked at his colleague. "See you later, Adam. And don't worry. We'll find something out."

Blue nodded as Scarlet passed Symphony Angel.

She sat down beside his bed as Scarlet and Fawn left.

"Oh, Adam! I was so worried!"

"It's ok, Karen. I'm here and I'm fine."

"But what's all this about feline DNA? I don't understand. How is this possible?"

"I don't know. I wish I did." He closed his eyes and looked down, drawing in a deep breath before turning back to Symphony.

She could see that whatever he was trying to say was hard for him, so leaned forward and put a gentle hand on his bare arm. "Adam? What is it?"

He looked into her eyes. "I'm scared," he said quietly. "I'm scared that whatever those Mysteron bastards did to me might..." His voice trailed off as he lowered his gaze again.

She cupped his cheek and he leaned into it, turning back to her, looking into those eyes she had, the gentle brown that was so soft and understanding.

"Might?" She caressed his cheek.