#labrat

Spider scoffed. “Trust me, I won’t.”

With that, Quaritch turned on his heel and let the door close softly behind him. 

What he didn’t know, what the source of his strange niggling feeling was, was that next door General Ardmore was staring at her second-in-command Sergeant Korman in shocked silence. 

For he had no idea as he strode down the hall to the mess that the hidden microphone planted in his comms collar was transmitting every word he said. 

“What. The. Fuck.” Korman said, stunned. 

“This changes everything,” Ardmore muttered, eyes darting along the floor in time with her racing thoughts. 

“But that can’t be true - the boy can’t actually breathe here?”

“We need to confirm.” Ardmore didn’t know if what the two had discussed was true, or some sort of code, or lies between the boy and the colonel, but they had to find out. Her mind went straight into planning mode. She addressed Korman with an order. “Take him to a more secure cell while I talk to SciOps. We need to get him tested as soon as we can. And Sargeant - keep this under wraps. Especially from the First Recom Squad. We need to figure out how to deal with that little problem.” She nodded in the direction Quaritch had left. She didn’t know what to make of the Colonel’s decision not to alert SecOps, but clearly his loyalty was compromised. And that was a serious problem. 

Korman nodded solemnly, and headed out of the secure observation room to gather a security unit. 

**********

Spider hopped up onto the bench Quaritch had just vacated, thinking over everything the man had said. He couldn’t believe he’d allowed himself to break down like that in front of Quaritch. He’d never live it down. 

At least now he knew that Quaritch wasn’t going to tell the RDA about what Kiri had done to him. It was a massive relief - coming back here was risky enough despite Quaritch’s promises - and he wondered what else Quaritch would or wouldn’t do to protect him. He just needed to stick it out, sit tight until the plan was complete, and hope that nothing went wrong. 

The sound of the door opening should have been his first sign that his hopes were in vain. 

Had Quaritch forgotten something?

“Miles Socorro do not resist!” shouted one of the four men that stormed into the room, tasers raised and handcuffs brandished. 

Oh shit-

“Turn around and put your hands behind your back!”

Spider scrambled to get off the table, but was shoved face first against the wall, pressed fiercely into the metal. “What are you doing? What’s going on?!”

It was only once he’d asked the desperate question that the answer dawned on him. Quaritch had never left to speak to Wainfleet. 

“What are you doing?! Get off me!” he yelled against the hands that gripped him too tightly, cuffing his hands behind his back. 

Quaritch couldn’t have done this. He wouldn’t have…

No one bothered to answer, not as a soldier each side of him linked their arms through Spider’s, frogmarching him out of the room and down the corridor. Spider gave them all he’d got, bile rising in his throat and panic coursing through his bloodstream.

“Get OFF!” he shouted, using his full strength to bend the soldiers each side of him by the elbow and force them to let him go. He dug his bare heels into the floor and bent over, resisting their efforts with all his might. 

“Keep moving, kid!”

“Don’t make this difficult-“

“God damnit!" 

The soldier to the left of him cursed as Spider jerked on his arm and the three of them all momentarily lost their balance. Spider didn’t miss a beat and kicked out with his right leg against the soldier to his right, aiming for the groin but hitting the knee. It almost worked, Spider could feel the man’s grip loosening on his arm…

“Taser! Taser!” Someone shouted, spilling cold fear into his insides. Before he could help it, the two soldiers had released him and pushed him away from them. Spider lunged to grab hold of one of them, if he could just keep physical contact-

A burning, stinging shudder wrecked its way through Spider’s system, radiating from a point in his lower back. His jaw locked shut and he lost control of his limbs, crashing to the ground and bashing his head against the floor. Pain bloomed from the point of impact. Then it was over, and he couldn’t breathe. He’d never felt more pathetic than realising that all he could do for those few seconds was lie there, incapacitated as he struggled to find a way to get air into his lungs. 

Quaritch had done this. Quaritch had lied through his teeth as Spider cried. 

The realization hit him like another taser.

Hands were on him again, heaving him up, uncaring that his legs barely supported him or that he was still completely winded. 

“We warned you not to make this difficult, Miles,” one of the soldiers spoke from in front of him. Spider recognised him from his last rendezvous with SecOps. Sergeant Korman, he thought his name was. 

“Fffuck you…” Spider slurred, finally finding his breath. 

“Come on,” Korman said to the soldiers. “Get him to the holding cells.”

“No,” Spider grunted. He was weak all over but he’d be damned if he let that stop him. His efforts were truly feeble, because by the time they’d travelled to the RDA detention centre underground he hadn’t so much as caused the soldiers a bead of sweat. 

Spider barely saw any of it. He couldn’t fathom the truth that was staring him in the face. Quaritch had betrayed him. 

He was dragged down the long corridor that felt far too familiar, dread mingling with the horrible sense of deja vu from the last time he’d been here. Cells with large glass windows lined either side. He could have pointed at the one he was kept in last time. Right at the end, outside the last cell of the lot was General Ardmore. 

The group halted and those that weren’t holding Spider saluted her. 

“Well, well, well, Miles,” she said slowly, appraising his limp form. 

He looked up at her through heavy eyelids, and rather than deigning her with a response, he spat on the floor. 

She smirked. “Turn him around.”

The soldiers obeyed, spinning Spider so his back was to her. 

Confused, Spider braced himself. He was sure this would only mean pain. 

Instead he felt feminine hands between his locs, gently parting them as if looking for…

No. 

No, no, no…

“Get off me!” Spider yelled, his voice suddenly back to full strength, though his limbs weren’t quite as quick. The soldiers’ grip tightened, and Ardmore pulled the kuru free from where Spider had folded it away. 

“Oh my god,” she breathed. 

Spider growled, noting how Korman’s eyes widened at the sight of the tendrils encased inside. 

“Get off me, please!” Spider switched tactics, not caring if begging made him weak. The feel of her hands on it, it made him squirm, the intimacy of it making him feel dirty, unclean. It was pure instinct to protect the appendage - he’d do whatever it took to protect that part of him. 

“Let go! Don’t touch it!”

She motioned for the soldiers to turn him back around to face her. She stared at him long and hard, and Spider poured everything he had into the look he gave her, silently begging her to just let go. Eventually she dropped the kuru and let it hang down over his shoulder.