Then I focused on the movements of the staff as they headed in and out of rooms around the hall. It looked like a lot of them were heading under that black veil.
I nudged Kyan, nodding to it and he sighed like he already knew we’d have to go that way.
“You might want another shot, baby,” he murmured, but I shook my head, tugging him along as Niall followed. I didn’t want my mind clouded with too much alcohol tonight. We had to focus so we could find a way to destroy this place and the vile people who attended it.
We moved through the crowd who were dancing to rave music and I noticed there were plenty of half naked or even totally naked men and women among them, their eyes glazed like they were high as hell. None of them had masks on and I guessed that they were the poor souls who had been put up for sale in this fucking place.
The masked men and women moved amongst them, pawing at them whenever the desire took them or tugging them out of the room through a door with a sign on it saying it led to the private boudoirs.
Kyan kept me close as we moved through them and I couldn’t help but stare as I caught sight of one of the masked men having his cock sucked right in the middle of the fucking room. As my eyes nearly bugged out of my head and I silently thanked my mask for hiding my facial expressions, he pulled out, coming all over the girl’s face before punching her hard enough to knock her back on her ass.
The dancers scattered as she fell sprawling to the floor in her leather underwear and I ducked down to help pull her to her feet as the asshole in question moved away like it meant nothing at all to him. My gaze snagged on the golden number 84 on his chest and I gritted my teeth as I committed that to memory, hoping to find a way to pay him back for that move somehow.
More than a few of the masked freaks were looking my way as I helped the beaten hooker to her feet and Kyan tugged my arm roughly, forcing me to release her before I drew too much attention.
“You have to think bigger if you wanna help them, baby,” he murmured in my ear. “When we take this place down they’ll all be freed. Now slap that guy’s ass so that everyone here stops looking at you with so much suspicion.”
I was about to ask what guy when he gave me a shove towards a dancer in a leather thong with a ball gag in his mouth. I wanted to protest, but Kyan had a point and I could feel the eyes of the sadistic club members following me, so I reluctantly reached out and slapped the guy’s bare ass cheek hard enough to leave a handprint.
He barely even flinched, clearly more than used to being treated like that and it made me feel all kinds of dirty.
“Good girl,” Kyan purred, tugging me on as the attention fell off of me and Niall laughed obnoxiously.
We walked through the veil and the first thing I heard were the screams. Doors led off on either side of the corridor which was tinted by red lights. Beyond them, terrible things were happening, things I didn’t want to imagine let alone witness. But as we made it to the end of the corridor and walked down a dark stairway, my gut told me I was going to have to see things I didn’t want to. Things I might never forget.
At the base of the stone stairway was a corridor bordered by mesh wire walls that ran up to a caged ceiling, beyond which was a high, circular walkway where onlookers were gazing in. Strobe lights flashed intermittently beyond the wire either side of me and I caught sight of passages leading away from here. Kyan quickened his pace as a scream rang out somewhere from within the maze’s depths and my spine prickled.
“Viewing point this way!” a man called by a golden door up ahead, ushering us forward.
“We’re happy down here,” Niall told him, waving him off.
Something collided with the metal wire to my left and I wheeled around in fright.
“Hey!” a half naked girl hissed, trying to force her hand through the wire to reach me. “Are you carrying weapons? Give me something to help!”
She had dark hair and a pretty face, a thousand untold horrors swirling in her brown eyes. She couldn’t have been much older than me and a yank in my chest drew me toward her. If it had been me in there, I’d have desperately wanted someone to help me. So how could I just stand here and do nothing?
I reached for her fingers which were threaded through the wire, trying to figure out what I could do, how I could get her out. “I’m sorry, I don’t-”
Kyan tugged me away and the attendant by the door strode forward, taking a baton from his hip and whacking it against the wire, making her back away in fright. A shadow moved behind her and a huge man came at her, lunging for her and she twisted away fast, racing off into the maze. He took chase and I stared on as my hands began to shake. This place is hell.
A radio crackled behind me and I swallowed thickly as I looked to the worker as a voice came through it.
“More drinks needed on the mezzanine, office twelve,” the voice said and the guy bowed to us before striding away down the hall at a swift pace. I shared a look with the others and we took off after him while I tried to drown out the screams carrying from the maze.
“Head to that office,” Saint commanded like we weren’t already heading there anyway.
“Thanks Captain Obvious,” Kyan muttered and I glanced back over my shoulder, my mind still snagged on that horrible caged maze.
“What is that place?” I breathed to Kyan.
“It’s a death game,” he growled and the edge to his voice told me that it was the very one he’d been in himself. The thought made my throat burn and rage twist violently through my gut.
“How did you survive this hell?” I rasped and he looked down at me with a dark kind of pain in his eyes.
“I had to, baby,” he whispered. “So we could return here one day and destroy every last one of them.”
"I s anyone else getting Mission Impossible vibes here?" Blake asked excitedly as the three of us sat at the dining table around my laptop, listening to the feed from Kyan and Tatum's earpieces.
"If the task was impossible, I wouldn't have allowed them to go there," I muttered, glad the microphone was currently off so that the others wouldn't be distracted by this nonsense as they worked to find something of use to us.
"He means like in the movies," Monroe supplied from my left as if the multimillion dollar franchise had escaped my attention and I had no idea about modern culture.
"I am aware of the movies," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose as I fought to contain my frustration. "I just think that comparing the two of them sneaking around in some old manor house full of psychopaths to Tom Cruise dangling from the side of a skyscraper is an unrealistic parallel to draw."
"The tech guy is always grumpy," Blake stage whispered behind my back and Monroe chuckled in appreciation.
"Well if I'm the tech guy then you must be the rookie agent who is too dumb to be allowed on the mission. And if we're really following the script then I will expect you to throw yourself into danger like a moron and get yourself killed shortly,” I replied.
"Pfft, I'm not the rookie," Blake protested. "I'm more like James Bond, out on another mission, waiting to be called in for the crossover movie of dreams."
I scoffed, shaking my head at him. "If you're going to start talking about merging fantasy worlds and the entirely unrealistic suggestion that a British MI6 agent would suddenly join forces with a team of-"
"Okay so if he's the rookie, then who am I?" Monroe asked, effectively saving them all from the tirade I was taking off on and I ground my teeth as I tried to decide whether or not I should just kick the two of them out so that I could concentrate.
I cast a cursory look at him sitting there in his sweatpants and wifebeater with his fucking coach whistle hanging around his neck and smirked as I figured it out.
"You're the old timer," I said. "Just one day away from retirement and imparting all of your hard earned knowledge and experience on anyone who will listen. Safe to say, you're doomed to die too. So it's probably for the best that neither of you were deemed necessary for this mission."
"
Either that or the three of us are about to fall prey to a strategically placed bomb and the heroes are going to have to go rogue to get themselves out of there," Blake suggested.
A loud knock sounded at the door and we all looked around at it, freezing in our positions like we thought that might actually be an assassin come to kill us all. So help them if it was though.
"You're up, rookie, just try not to die while answering the door," I taunted and Blake cursed me as he shoved out of his seat and headed over to see who the fuck thought it was a good idea to interrupt us. I'd be sure to make their life hell tomorrow to remind them that they were not allowed to come to my fucking house under any circumstances.
"We've found an office," Tatum's hushed voice came through the speakers on my laptop and I cut a look towards the door as Blake hesitated by it before enabling the microphone so I could reply to her.
"Was it locked?" I asked because nothing of value was going to be left sitting in an open room.
"Yeah, but not well enough to count. There's something up with it though, there were a few old dudes who just came out of here, all of them smoking as they congratulated themselves on the deals they’d been making, but the room doesn't really smell of cigars," Kyan put in.
"Riveting," I muttered. "Keep looking, we have an uninvited guest who we need to deal with."
"On it. Over and out," Kyan replied and Tatum sniggered.
"You're not out, it's a live feed," I snarled for what must have been the hundredth time since he'd put that fucking earpiece in and Monroe laughed like his joke was funny. It was not.
I gave Blake a nod and he swung the door open to find Mila and Danny standing there, peering into my private space like they were looking to get their eyes gouged out.
"Oh, hey," Mila began. "Tatum left her English assignment in the library and I haven't been able to get hold of her. It's due tomorrow and it’s not finished so I thought-
"I'll give it to her," Blake said, snatching the page from her hand and moving to close the door.
"Is she here? A few of us are heading down to the common house if you guys wanted to join?" Mila asked quickly while Danny looked inclined to tug her away.
"We do not," I put in and Blake rolled his eyes at me. Apparently Tatum’s little friend and her plus one had decided to forgive us for the whole misunderstanding where she almost got a face full of piss which was a pretty smart move on their parts, but it unfortunately left me having to suffer through their company regularly once again. But not here. Never here, goddammit. I was going to have to make sure Tatum reminded them of the rules before they started to think of themselves as a part of our group or something equally abhorrent.
"Tate and Kyan are in his room, you can probably hear the bed slamming into the wall if you listen for it," Blake deadpanned. "So she can't come out to play right now. If she's got any energy left and wants to head down there later, you'll see us there."
"Okay, catch you later then." Mila stepped back and Danny drew her away as Blake closed the door.
"I will never understand the desire to show up unannounced at someone's house to find out if they're free," I muttered irritably, giving my attention back to the whispered discussion Kyan and Tatum where having while they hunted the office they'd found. “Blake, get me my vodka and a glass, will you? I need a stiff drink.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Blake agreed too easily and I caught the edge of a smirk on Monroe’s lips which had my suspicions rising.
Blake appeared with my bottle of vodka and a tumbler, placing them down beside my laptop like a well trained little puppy. It only took me a cursory glance to realise that there was at least three millimetres too much liquid in the bottle and I blew out a breath of frustration as I felt the two of them tensing up beside me in anticipation of some childish prank they’d set up. Honestly, it was like living with pre-schoolers half the fucking time around here.
I slowly pushed my laptop forward until it was sitting in the middle of the table where it would be safe, keeping most of my attention on the sounds of Kyan and Tatum searching the office as I took the top from the bottle of vodka.
Blake sniggered to himself as I began to fill my glass and I made sure to pour enough to fill it to the top. Unsurprisingly, the tart scent of my favourite alcohol was severely lacking.
I contained my own smirk as I picked up the full glass in one hand and the open bottle in the other, then in one fell swoop, I upended them in both of their laps.
Blake swore as he leapt to his feet and Monroe fell out of his chair in an attempt to escape me while I snorted a laugh in triumph.
“Very funny, asshole,” Blake growled while I smirked at him, shoving the glass and bottle away while Monroe muttered curses.
“Try harder next time,” I told them as I pulled my laptop close again. “As if I would be fooled by such a sloppy attempt.”
Monroe tried to wipe the water from his crotch while Blake jogged away for fresh pants and the sweet taste of victory coated my tongue.
“We’ll get you next time,” Monroe promised as he righted his chair and dropped into it again, seeming amused by my antics for once.
“If you say so.”
"This bookcase has scratches on the floor in front of it," Tatum said in a low voice and Kyan's heavy footsteps made me believe he was crossing the room to join her. My attention instantly snapped back to them and I gritted my teeth in frustration.
"I thought you were supposed to be sneaking?" I hissed, enabling the microphone again as Blake took his seat on my right once more. "Why are you stomping about like an elephant in stilettos?"
"Are you worried about me, Saint, baby?" Kyan mocked and I had to grit my teeth against answering. He knew damn well that I was concerned for the two of them and sitting here helplessly listening in on what they were doing was fucking painful.
"Don't force it Kyan, there must be something to release it," Tatum muttered and I could practically picture him trying to rip the hidden door off of the damn wall.
It took them another few minutes of scrambling about before she announced that they'd found their way in and I was seriously starting to consider medication to stop my heart from thundering in my ears the way it was.
I didn’t like this at all. It was too far out of my control. But it was also the only lead we had.
"Okay, we're in a big office with a desk and a bunch of fancy chairs. It stinks of cigars so I'm guessing this is where the old assholes were hanging out," Kyan said.
"That description leaves much to be desired," I muttered, wishing I could have gotten a camera onto them too, but it was too risky. An earpiece I could hide from detectors, but a camera would have been too high of a risk.
"There are cabinets and a computer," Tatum added a little more helpfully. "But I don't even know where to begin."
"Start with the desk," I suggested. "The Hades Virus is the biggest issue globally right now. If they were in there discussing things of importance then there's a good chance that came up, especially if they are working on it in any way."
"Be careful, princess," Monroe added and I shook my head at the pointless addition to the conversation.
"Okay...so there's a laptop here," she said slowly and I could just picture her sitting down before it and opening it up. "Password protected," she added, sounding disappointed.
"Forget it," I instructed. "No one who goes to this much trouble to hide their business dealings is going to have a predictable password. See if there's anything else in the drawers."
I could hear the sounds of her rummaging about and then the rustling of paper. "This looks like stock market stuff," she said.
"Are any particular companies mentioned?" I asked. Stocks and shares were one of my many talents and my fingers twitched with the desire to actually see what she was looking at, but a brief overview of the company names would give me some insight.
"Dresdon Hydraulics, Kingdom Construction, Beuford Corp," she read out and I quickly typed out each company she listed on th
e document I was using to make notes about their observations. " Serenity Pharmaceuticals-"
"That one," I interrupted her. "My father has been buying up shares in that company recently. Far more than the profit margins would suggest make it a worthy investment."
"You just know all of your father's stock portfolio by heart?" Monroe asked sceptically.
"I keep a close eye on the man most likely to uproot my life, yes," I replied. "And I take note when he makes purchases that seem to make no financial sense. He's been purchasing shares in that company for months even when there were other investment opportunities that would have seen a better return. I assumed he had some insider information on the company which he was waiting to cash out on but the fact that it’s a pharmaceutical company rings some alarm bells given our current situation."
"Okay, let me see if I can find any more about Serenity Pharmaceuticals," Tatum said and the sounds of her searching returned to me.
My mind was racing as I waited for them to find something else of use and I quickly pulled up my own stock portfolio, followed by my father's, followed by the company website for Serenity Pharmaceuticals.
Blake leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath feathering on my neck but I didn't even bother to snap at him over it as I quickly started skimming through the information they had on their site.
They were a big company, but not one of the biggest. Obviously they were in the midst of trialling vaccinations for the Hades Virus like every other Pharmaceutical company in the world. All of them taking part in a race to be the first to provide it and cash out on the billions they'd get from worldwide governments for it if they succeeded. Their site was full of overreaching promises of a vaccine within a few months but nothing to say they were really any closer than anyone else to success.
I pulled up a list of the people running the company and added them to my list of assholes to check up on and then Kyan interrupted my hunt.
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