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her plans.
    She could get away from her station to use the lav, but only when the gun wasn’t needed. That meant incoming ships had to be more than half an hour away. If everything went according to plan, by this time tomorrow, she’d be preparing to run or die.
    The next few hours dragged. The plan roiled through her mind while she worked and she went over every detail, repeatedly. She could hardly wait to be with her mates that night so they could go over the plan together. She was relieved there’d been no need for the gun today. No more murders to eat at her soul and plague her nightmares.
    Her relief arrived and she quickly left her station, the guards falling in on each side of her. Instead of escorting her to her cell, they ordered the elevator to level twenty. “You missed my level.” Her heart had already sunk to the soles of her feet. The interrogation rooms were on level twenty.
    “We were ordered to bring you for orientation.”
    “That’s not until an hour from now.”
    “Not today.”
    She didn’t dare ask more questions but her heartbeat matched the firing of the guns she used almost daily. No bath. No food. Surely they hadn’t rescheduled the removal of her enhancements? It wasn’t in her makeup to be afraid, but she couldn’t stop the butterflies in her stomach. Their plan to escape would be blown to hell.
    Heavy-hearted, her stomach in knots, she took her place in the interrogation chair.
    “Prisoner one-zero-one-eight-eight, place your arms on the arm rests and your feet firmly on the footrest.”
    Why, she thought, but didn’t dare voice it. She did as she was told. Within a second, security braces appeared from both sides of the armrests clamping around her wrists and forearms. The same happened to her ankles.
    “Lean your head against the headrest.”
    A tight band around her forehead secured her head. She was utterly helpless. A robo-arm appeared from the ceiling with a large hypo in its mechanical claw. The thick needle pierced the skin in her neck. The liquid entered her main artery. From the corner of her eye, she noticed it was a different color liquid than what they usually injected her with. It was normally milky and the truth serum yellow, and they always used an injection gun. This time it was bright red, almost like blood and it hurt like blazes. She arched against the pain, stiffened. So that’s why they’d secured her so heavily. Had she not been attached to the chair, she’d have jumped off.
    Drowsiness overcame her, the pain becoming a dull ache. She fought like mad to keep her eyes open, to stay awake. Whatever they’d injected her with overpowered her enhancements and she couldn’t allow it. Her body felt like a huge block of metal weighed her down.
    Through a haze, she saw three people near her. They were dressed in white suits, medical gear. Even her thoughts were sluggish as she tried to make sense out of it all. She wasn’t due to have her enhancements removed and that was done surgically in the medical center, not in the interrogation room. And since they were removing her enhancements the day after tomorrow, why bother interrogating her? After the enhancements were gone, she wouldn’t pose a danger to them anymore. Well, except for what she knew, of course. They couldn’t remove that unless they brainwashed her. So what was this? Fear shot through her like lightning. Were they going to extract her memories? Brainwash her?
    Vaguely, she noticed the restraints unlock and slide back in their hiding place. She tried to lift her arms, but they felt like lead. Her body was frozen. Suddenly, she knew she’d been injected with some kind of paralyzing agent. But why?
    One of the figures took off her boots, followed by her suit. She was naked and helpless to do anything about it.
    “Prisoner one-zero-one-eight-eight, sit perfectly still while we perform a complete body scan in preparation for your removal surgery tomorrow.”
    Tomorrow? Tomorrow? No! Her vision