Asia bulked and lifted the full-blood by his collar and dragged him out the room. Connall shifted and Asia backhanded his wolf sending him sliding across the floor. She waited until he returned to human before morphing into her male persona.
“Why didn’t you take steroids or whatever that was Andrei took?”
Connall stood slowly and wiped the blood from his mouth. “I did. It’s poison and over time it robs you of everything.” He shook his head. “Everything starts off bright and shiny. I believed the offer of help would be that, help for our people. But it is not. Just as humans are enslaved by drugs there are drugs to enslave our wolf. Count yourself lucky if you have not been exposed. If your Patron is able to keep it from his shores he is a better leader than any of us have ever been.”
“I have seen the drug. It does not affect everyone the same,” Asia said. Hawke sensed her discomfort speaking on that part of her life.
“They discovered much later the vaunted black wolf is immune. It took decades and hundreds of tests to come to that conclusion,” Connall said with a touch of bitterness.
“You took the serum when they first started testing?” Asia asked.
He nodded.
“How long has that been?”
“A day is too long.”
“Are you sick? You look healthy.”
Hawke half listened while running diagnostics on castle operations. Since he created most of the programs he overturned Boris commands but the perimeter wall was not in the system. He re-routed commands to get one door open so they could leave.
A warning popped up.
He cursed. Boris had indeed been busy making it impossible for them to leave the castle alive. Hawke entered another string of code to over-ride Boris’ command.
Another warning displayed.
He frowned. Boris should not be able to layer his files like this. Something was off. He entered information for the next exit. A warning sign did not pop up; three of the remaining four lights lit up and flashed leaving one light. A caricature of Lord Boris laughing flashed across the screen and then a large chess board.
Hawke sat back staring at the monitor. He hadn’t considered Boris as a challenge and had just been out maneuvered. His cockiness may get his mate killed. That was unacceptable.
“Go check on Angus, I need to focus on this.” He stood. “I am going to the lab below.” He needed to use his system to plug holes and shut this one down.
“Okay.” He heard their voices but paid no attention to their words as he left. When he entered his former lab, he glanced at Greggor and veered to his storage area. He pulled out his blade, unsheathed it and separated head and body.
Moving quickly, he found the hybrids lying in the hall and did the same. He took the lift to the main floor where Angus sat in a chair in front of Asia and Connall. He nodded at Angus, glad to see him feeling better.
“Heads?” Asia asked.
He nodded and made quick work of separating heads and bodies of the bluebirds. When he returned to the lab he had removed the threat of regeneration from all hybrids and bluebirds. He sat at the console and booted up the system. Nothing happened. He smiled at Boris’ attempt to trick him. But Hawke had all but built this operation and knew it like the back of his hand. He laced his fingers, cracked his knuckles, typed in strings of code and the cursor blinked. He continued entering data, rebuilding, and pulling information to link information. It took a little time but eventually he had a picture of what Boris had done.
“This is not good.”
“Connall said that already. What’s going on?”
“Boris is blowing this place up and decided it will be our graves. If any exit opens the last light will activate the bomb. It’s in the pillars of the castle. Some of them. My lab has separate explosives with a different trigger. I’m trying to figure that out now.” He continued running sequences and patterns to locate a flaw in Boris’ plans. Chances are Boris ran these same formulas and based on the results, plugged the holes.
He had to think. Was there anything Boris had not accessed? Or seen? All of his files were open to Boris and anyone he designated. The scan pinged. There were no holes in the plan.
His fist hit the desk. There had to be a way. He just needed to think. He could not bear allowing that arrogant bastard to win.
He walked to the door that entered the antechamber which eventually led to outside. The door did not respond to his command. His passcodes had been wiped; it would take time to reinstate them. Time they did not have. What would be a trigger? He looked around the room, nothing stood out, except Greggor on the floor. He pulled the body into one of the rooms and tossed his head in behind him.
Asia mentioned Angus came in through the vents by merging with the material. They were running out of time. “You and Angus should leave through the vents. Head toward the forest, get as far as you can. When the castle explodes, it’s going to send shockwaves for miles.”
“No.”
He closed his eyes. She couldn’t have heard him right or understood. The clock on the bomb could go off at any time. He did not know what would trigger the final link.
“I cannot fix this. He used my own diagnostics to beat me. The bomb is ticking and will go off no matter what I do. Please… please leave. I cannot have your death on my conscience.”
“So find another way to stop him. Someone said you were a genius, smart. Beat him. Win this or we both meet the Goddess.”
He slumped against the wall. “What does she think I have been doing all this time?” His wolf growled at the thought of their mate being in danger. “I know… what can I do? I don’t know what to do.”
Find another way to stop him… her words rang in his ear. He moved to the keyboard and sat. Time to visit the clouds. He searched through his unfinished work files. Many times he had ideas, and started them but did not find solutions right away. Lord Boris wanted him to toss them in archives so he and his cronies didn’t think something was safe and it was not.
He kept these in his personal cloud, something his computer chip could not access. Once he had an idea to interrupt triggers with sound waves. The research had been interesting but he had become sidetracked and put the work aside. He pulled down the file, and read.
Asia watched Angus struggle to remain upright. He had been healing in wolf form when she and Connall entered the area. When Hawke came upstairs to decapitate the beasts, Angus morphed to his human form and remained. He had been given lethal doses of the serum. The scratch from the bluebird had been too much after the huge amounts he had been infected with earlier. La Patron had been working non-stop to keep Angus alive, given the great distance that was the most he could do.
Connall sat near Angus asking questions, most went unanswered.
Her heart bled for Hawke, but he was their only hope. Angus wouldn’t make it very far in his condition. She would never leave either of them behind, they were in this together. Turning to the Council member she saw the longing in his eyes as he watched Angus.
“Why don’t you share with Angus what you shared with me? It might help him understand why you want him to relieve you of this burden.” She knew Angus would never morph into a stranger who asked him to do so. There could be all sorts of mental traps involved. She had done a quick rifling through Connall’s mind when he took her hand. He carried a load of guilt and the stain of blood. She wanted no part of him or his memories. The blemish of those types of memories resided with her mind already.
He seemed eager to re-tell the early days when he accepted assistance from a group of men who claimed to offer assistance to full-bloods. Things had been brutal and it seemed they were dying out as a clan. He later discovered the opposite was true, as a whole full-blood’s thrived. But in the small area where he lived, he was easily deceived.
“Who approached you? In the beginning?” Angus asked.
“Lord Griffith. He claimed there were drugs that assisted in fertility and overall good health for our wolf. It worked in the be
ginning. My mate had many litters but they were frail, unhealthy and we lost most of them. Over time the opposite happened. But by then it was too late.”
“It’s never too late to do right,” Angus said, sounding stronger.
Connall smiled. “For me the last option is death. I cannot undo all that I have done and I will not shed light on others. We were all masterfully played and damaged our people. It is unforgivable and the penalty should be a thousand deaths. Unfortunately, a man only dies once.”
“What about your mate? Does she know what you are doing?” Asia asked, thinking of Hawke.
He sighed. “She suspects it but I do not think she is concerned.” He shook his head. “I will only speak of my sins, no one else’s.”
“What happened to the black pups? Why are they disappearing?”
“I told you. The Black wolf is the only shifter who can withstand the surgeries, absorb the chemicals and process the chips while remaining their duality. They do not turn into monsters. They have a level of control no other clan has.”
“So someone is selling the pups? Giving them away? What? How are they disappearing?” She asked.
He shrugged. “I never got involved with that. The Black Clan watches their pups close. To take one requires help from the inside. I have not been a trusted ally of that clan for decades.”
“You think someone on the inside is involved?” she asked glancing at Angus who sat still without looking in their direction.
“Yes. I do.”
She nodded. “What about Alpha Radoff? Could he be involved?”
Connall nodded. “Yes, he could. He and Verrick.”
Asia stood, turned and punched him in the face. His head snapped back and blood ran down his nose.
Angus grinned.
“You son of a bitch, stop lying. I smell the stench of your lies.”
Connall jumped up, snarled and shifted to attack. She bulked to hybrid, unsurprised when he did the same. Instead of coming after her he attacked Angus.
Angus ducked and shifted mid air, slamming his elbow into Connall’s back, sending him to the floor. Growling, Connall leapt at her. She backhanded him sending him spinning toward Angus who gut punched him.
“Wait, don’t kill him,” Hawke said through their link. “He’s the final trigger.”
She held her hand up to stop Angus. “What do you mean?”
“I ran a separate set of probability tests. Greggor was the first trigger. It was set in his neck piece, something he wore on the outside. Connall is the trigger, he controls the detonation. I don’t know if it’s inside him or in his clothes. I don’t see a neck piece like Greggor’s.”
No of course not, that would have been too easy. She nodded and watched the older man rise slowly. His eyes gleamed with curiosity as he faced the three of them. He waited for one of them to speak.
They remained silent.
“What? Nothing to say? No words of condemnation for what I’ve done? I betrayed my people, sold them out, I am the lowest of the low… you cannot say anything I have not heard before.” He pointed at Hawke.
“You betrayed our people but you get a pass. You get forgiveness. Yet I am evil.” He spit on the floor and stared at them. “What is wrong? You cannot figure out how to save your friends? Boris laughed when he thought of this game. That is all it is to him, a chess match, a game. He admits you are a genius but you will never win against him. You do not think outside the box. Things must have rationale explanations. Like why am I here spouting drivel when I want to gut you like a fish?”
Asia filtered out all the sounds in the room, isolating them one by one. The familiar tick of the computer chip reached her first. Connall was under Liege control. She searched closer for a detonation device. Would he hold the switch? Or had they placed the explosive inside him. She had seen and heard of the damage from suicide bombers. This time she hoped he had a switch to flip.
“I hear the computer chip but nothing else. If he has a trigger, it is not ticking or humming.”
“Good to know. But he is the trigger, we need to find out how,” Hawke said sounding confident. Asia did not know what happened in the lab to generate this level of assurance but she appreciated it.
“I am curious why you lied?” Asia said.
“All of it was not a lie. Some parts are true.” Connall grinned and wiped the blood from his chin.
“Are you mated?” Hawke asked.
Connall nodded. “That part was true. We lost most of our litters.”
Angus returned to human and sat in the chair.
Connall morphed to human and Asia followed. The older man slid down the wall and sat on the ground. “Did you have to hit me so hard?” he asked holding the side of his face.
“Yeah, I did. Lying stinks like hell, makes me antsy,” she said drawing attention from Angus to herself.
“I did not lie. I exaggerated.”
Her brow rose and she crossed her arms staring at him. “Why are you here? What’s your assignment this time? Who’s watching? Who’s listening?” she asked.
He stared at her and then laughed. “I am here to make sure Hawke and Angus die. I hope your lie detectors are on so you know I am telling the truth. We needed a little time to get things lined up and that should be done by now.”
“First part is true, but they don’t have the second part in place. I ripped the cables out and they would need to be reconnected from the inside. Even if they slipped in a team, they would need to connect to communications.”
“Not if they are installing a perimeter bomb, on the outside,” she said.
“I’ve been monitoring the cameras and there has been no movement out there.”
“Which is strange, don’t you think?”
“Think outside the box…”
Hawke met her gaze and shook his head slowly. Before she could blink, he ran forward and smashed Connall into the wall, robbing him of his next breath. Then he grabbed the older man’s head and twisted causing it to rest a weird angle. Hawke tossed Connall aside to the ground. Bulking to hybrid, he picked up Angus and strode to the front door.
Asia grabbed the tranq gun and ran behind him.
It took two kicks against the steel panels before it popped open. She did not sense anyone nearby, but did not relax her guard.
“Let’s go.” Hawke took off in a blur. She raced behind them without looking back.
The first vehicle, the Black Hummer, sat empty but she did not trust it and ran past the car. Next they saw the black land rover. All four tires were flat, they continued running to put as much distance between them and the castle as possible.
They had run several miles from the castle when it blew. Asia stumbled forward and stopped to watch the collapse of centuries of abuse. Like a drunk refusing to fall, it took time for the towers and peaks of the castle to join the base of the building on the ground. She imagined the graceful demolition of the landmark could be seen for miles around.
“We need to go, I want to find a place so Angus can rest and regain his strength,” Hawke said.
She nodded and glanced at him. He stared into the distance at the building and then met her gaze. “That’s the past; let’s walk through our present into our future. First thing, we need food and rest.”
“Yes.” She took off behind him at a slower pace but every now and then she turned to look at the fallen castle.
Chapter 38
Hawke ran until they reached the main road and set Angus down. The man had morphed to his base form at some point during their escape and now stood on all fours as a wolf to complete his healing.
“Head back to town, stay at the hotel for the night?” Hawke asked Asia.
“Sounds like a plan. There is a short cut through the forest.”
“Good, we are too far from Chacal and I don’t know how far Angus can run in his condition.” He glanced at the wolf and then back at her.
“Okay.” Asia took off running. Hawke adjusted his speed to match Angus and jogged behind h
er. Thirty minutes later they stopped. Angus shifted and sat on an overturned log breathing heavily.
“Are you okay?” Asia asked concerned.
Angus nodded. “Yeah. What the hell is in that fucking serum? It knocked me on my ass.” His words were spaced apart like he had a difficult time breathing.
Hawke’s face warmed. “A complex chemical compound created specifically for that purpose, to knock a wolf on his ass.”
Angus growled but the sound lacked menace. “Silas will love you. Patten and Matt will probably sit at your feet for hours. No doubt you will be a hit in the lab back home.”
Hawke looked at his mate and then back at Angus. “I thought you were staying here for a while.”
She shrugged and stiffened.
“Shit,” Angus said as Hawke pushed him to the side and stepped in front.
Ulric, Angus’ former Alpha stepped into the clearing along with two other full bloods. Asia moved to Hawke’s side prepared to fight and Angus stepped to his other side.
Ulric held up his hands. “No fighting. There has been enough of that. I came to talk. To discuss important issues.”
“What issues?” Hawke asked crossing his arms. He remembered Ulric from somewhere, but could not place him. Maybe he should ask Asia to check his memories again.
“Pups from my pack are missing.” He looked at Angus. “When you first mentioned the inconsistency to me years ago, I dismissed your concerns. I thought the questions regarding missing pups was your way of undermining my leadership.”
“No, I was not,” Angus protested. “The pack accepted you as Alpha and that settled the matter. I never tried to harm you or the pack.”
Ulric nodded and stepped closer to Angus. Hawke moved to intercept. Angus took a step forward, as well.
“I know that now,” Ulric said after glancing at Hawke. “But things were different then and the pack had a lot of challenges to overcome.”
“Something has happened? What?” Angus asked sounding more alert than Hawke had heard him before.
Ulric released a long stream. “My pups were taken.”
Shock raced through Hawke. “From where?”
Sword of Inquest (La Patron's Sword Book 1) Page 22